Not only that, but the boy who had been selling 【Mental Invigoration Potion】 in the tail-end class yesterday was now walking toward them.
He was actually carrying another crate of magic potions, but they weren't yesterday's 【Mental Invigoration Potion】; it was a new variety.
The wooden sign in his hand clearly stated the potion's effect:
"【Mental Concentration Potion】, allows you to have more focused attention and enhances learning efficiency. 6 coins per bottle!"
Last night, he had noticed that many students suffered from a lack of focus after staying up late for too long. Thus, he had flipped through books, found this magic potion, and ran to the apothecary to buy it, preparing to sell it tonight.
However, he hadn't expected this situation to occur during the day.
But considering the noisy environment on the playground, he figured there would certainly be more students finding it difficult to enter a study state, so he brought this crate of magic potions down as well.
Clearly, his superlative business sense allowed him not only to make a fortune this time but also to significantly increase his reputation.
The surrounding people were already surprised to see this group of people studying in such a noisy environment, but they never expected there would be someone selling potions to improve learning efficiency.
"Are these people crazy?"
"The Temple is here to catch secret cultists! And they're still studying? Still practicing?"
"Why is someone selling magic potions?! Aren't magic potions for combat? Why are magic potions being used for daily study now?"
They looked at the members of the late-night study group as if they were monsters.
At this moment, someone spoke up and asked:
"But... seeing how hard they're working, don't you feel moved at all?"
"Moved by what?"
"Just... if I don't study or practice along with them, I feel a huge sense of guilt..."
"Now that you mention it, that's true..."
Since the entire school was currently on the playground, many people who had never heard of the late-night study group saw these study fanatics for the first time.
Time trickled by, and the screening process proceeded methodically. In the blink of an eye, an hour had passed.
Some people began to hesitantly find a clean spot to sit down, pulling out the textbooks or notes they carried with them to start reviewing.
Others tried to enter a meditative state like Jiang Lin. Although the effect was minimal, they worked hard to calm their spirits and comfort themselves, so as not to feel too much guilt in their hearts.
As some took the lead in imitating them, more and more people joined the study group.
Jiang Lin's brow was furrowed. He looked inward at the small bowl in his body; having reached level 4, he was only one final step away.
However, just then, the system issued a quest. Seeing the contents of the quest, Jiang Lin was instantly scared enough to jump up.
【Temporary Quest】
【The evil god · Chronowalker · Aionnus has locked onto you. It has possessed the minion closest to you and will launch an assassination against you in thirty seconds. As a demon lord who has committed countless evils, you know you should assess the situation and temporarily avoid his sharp edge.】
【Requirement: Survive the assassination】
【Survival Reward: Upgrade a designated skill to perfect level】
【Counter-kill Reward: Extract a portion of the evil god · Chronowalker · Aionnus's innate talents and perform adaptive fusion】
Looking at the blood-red text provided by the system, a chill spread down his spine and throughout his entire body.
For a moment, Jiang Lin's mind was flooded with thoughts.
He didn't understand why this evil god named Aionnus would lock onto him and launch an assassination.
Could it be that the matter of him reporting the secret cultists had leaked?
That didn't make sense. Even if it had leaked, a single secret cultist wouldn't be enough to make an evil god personally target him!
He was only a level 3 paladin; the opponent had no reason to target him.
He scanned the surrounding students, observing the expressions on their faces.
Every one of them was seriously studying or practicing; everything was incredibly normal.
Who could be possessed by the evil god?
Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
The system had said he needed to assess the situation and avoid the brunt of the attack, so the opponent was definitely not someone he could handle right now.
Although the crisis hadn't erupted yet, this was undoubtedly the most dangerous moment since Jiang Lin had come to this world—the closest he had ever been to death.
Thinking rapidly of a countermeasure, Jiang Lin forced himself to calm down while staring intently at the quest prompt.
He saw the 30-second character flickering.
30 seconds...
29 seconds...
28 seconds...
This thirty-second countdown was like a death knell tolling for his soul, stretching Jiang Lin's nerves to their limit.
Should he shout out to attract more people's attention or muddy the situation?
But doing so might alert the enemy, causing the secret cultist who would have been exposed to go back into hiding, leaving him in constant danger of being assassinated at any moment.
"Little Black!"
Jiang Lin shouted anxiously.
"Do you sense the aura of an evil god nearby?"
Hearing this, although Little Black was confused, it still alertly investigated.
"Holy crap, don't say it—there really is one! And it's exceptionally thick!! Even my own followers didn't have such a dense evil god aura!"
Little Black was surprised, muttering to itself:
"Has an evil god personally taken the field? Why would it possess such a weak follower?"
"Where is it? Who is it? It's urgent!!"
Jiang Lin quickly sent an anxious mental transmission to Little Black.
"That student over there in the blue jacket... Holy crap, what are you doing?"
As soon as Jiang Lin locked onto which student was possessed by the evil god, he instantly released a bolt of strengthening magic condensed to its limit.
【Low-level Strengthening · Jetting Aura】!
Simultaneously, while running, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
"That person is a secret cultist! He's going to start slaughtering innocent students!!"
After Jiang Lin looked over following Little Black's direction, he found that the student happened to be looking at him as well.
The way the other person looked at him was like looking at long-prepared prey, as if he could pounce and tear him to pieces at any moment.
And the moment their eyes met, the system countdown began to jump frantically.
20 seconds...
19 seconds...
3 seconds...
2 seconds...
It's definitely him!!
Jiang Lin's memories flipped frantically, and he almost instantly locked onto the person's identity.
An elite class student, Matthew—he seemed to be the rank 4 student who said he wanted to challenge him before!
It was actually him!!
Jiang Lin reviewed all his memories of the person in an instant and found that he didn't seem to have any grudge against him.
So why would the other party want to harm him?
At the same time, with Jiang Lin's shout, it was like a stone thrown into a calm pool. After a brief period of shock and thought, the surrounding students finally erupted into a massive commotion.
But then, a shout emerged from an unknown location:
"Everyone, take this chance to attack him! Don't give him a chance to act!! He's going to kill people!!!"
Having been exposed by Jiang Lin, Matthew, who was possessed by the evil god, no longer hid. His eyes turned completely black, black mist rose from his body, and he began to float slowly into the air.
Simultaneously, the aura on his body climbed steadily, breaking through rank 0 almost instantly and reaching rank 1.
But it didn't end there. As more black mist appeared, he broke through rank 1 almost instantly and reached the peak of rank 2.
After reaching the peak of rank 2, the level stopped growing, seemingly due to the limitations of Matthew's body.
But this was no ordinary peak of rank 2; it was a peak of rank 2 taken over by an evil god who had lived for untold years. The combat power it could unleash would allow it to hold its own even against an average rank 4 powerhouse.
"Holy crap, kid, why did you provoke it?"
While Jiang Lin was shouting for everyone to gang up on the opponent, he was running toward the most crowded areas.
In times like this, whoever ran slowly was the front line.
Although the opponent was coming for him, as long as Jiang Lin transferred the conflict to all the students, they would help him fight the opponent out of self-preservation instinct.
Moreover, by hiding in the crowd, the opponent's attacks would hit other students first.
As the saying goes, better you than me. Jiang Lin had not reached the spiritual realm of self-sacrifice, so he naturally chose to place the crowd in front of himself.
"He's coming for me; I'm just striking first."
Jiang Lin didn't have time to explain further. While running, he turned back and fired another 【Low-level Strengthening · Jetting Aura】 at the opponent.
Unfortunately, although the superlative peak level 【Low-level Strengthening】 was fast, the opponent's experience was incredibly rich. With just a side-step, he dodged many of the skills surging toward him.
These students didn't realize that the secret cultist before them was no longer the classmate Matthew they knew, but a powerful entity possessed by an evil god.
So, indeed, many of them believed Jiang Lin's words and unleashed their best skills at Matthew.
Seeing the commotion in the crowd, the Temple quickly took action.
The silver badge knights originally stationed among the students quickly gathered and approached the airborne Matthew while dispersing the crowded masses.
The priests in the distance quickly arranged for the students to evacuate, leaving the battlefield in the center of the playground to their colleagues.
Matthew, who had adjusted his state to its peak, locked his gaze on the fleeing Jiang Lin. He ignored the other students, gliding over their heads and heading straight for Jiang Lin.
In just a few breaths, the distance between him and Jiang Lin was closed to the limit.
Looking at the flying Matthew, Jiang Lin felt like things were going very poorly.
He casually cast several strengthening spells glowing with golden light, and a holy and brilliant light-attribute longsword appeared in his hand.
High-tier skill 【Light Blade】!
At the same time, a dazzling light flashed on the hilt of the 【Light Blade】.
The phantoms of seven stars flashed by, instantly condensing into an extremely bright lone star. Simultaneously, its power rose along with the magic essence Jiang Lin frantically injected.
High-tier skill 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】!
A razor-sharp sword qi was unleashed by Jiang Lin. Under the complementary effects of the two high-tier skills, this sword qi was almost the strongest attack Jiang Lin could currently use!
The sword qi sliced through the air. This time, because the distance between the two was very close, the evil god-possessed Matthew no longer had room to dodge and collided head-on with Jiang Lin's sword qi.
However, billows of black mist rose in front of him. A scalp-numbing sizzling sound rang out, and Jiang Lin's most powerful attack was easily blocked by him.
But what surprised this evil god slightly was that the other golden rays Jiang Lin had fired at it actually ignored its shield and dove directly into its body.
These seemed to be buff skills, so they ignored its shield and took effect directly on it. But why would this kid use buff skills on him?
Just as it was full of questions, its expression suddenly changed.
Because it felt its abdomen turning upside down.
The follower it was currently possessing was a trash mage who hadn't even reached rank 1; his physical constitution was quite weak.
The only reason he could reach the peak of rank 2 now was entirely due to the one-time power it had extracted from the ritual to pull this kid up to this level.
So if it didn't use its own power to block the attack, these attacks would affect the body of the kid it was possessing!
It had miscalculated!!
At the same time, it glared viciously at Jiang Lin, as if it wanted to swallow him alive.
It had never seen such a degenerate way of using skills before!
This kid was even more wicked than itself, an evil god!!
However, just as Matthew's abdomen was turning upside down and about to be released like a flood, strange runes appeared.
These runes did not belong to any system Jiang Lin knew, and the following operation also completely deviated from Jiang Lin's understanding.
In the next moment, everything around it seemed to rewind. The two 【Low-level Strengthening · Jetting Aura】 that had entered its body flew back out, following their previous trajectories, and stopped after traveling a distance in the air.
Is this... time being reversed?
Jiang Lin was shocked by the scene before him, and even Little Black on his shoulder was clearly stunned.
It sent a mental transmission to Jiang Lin:
"Its evil god talent should be related to controlling time! Where did you provoke this guy?"
Jiang Lin wanted to cry but had no tears upon hearing this:
"Holy crap, how should I know? I, Jiang Lin, do things openly and have performed countless good deeds. How could I provoke an enemy of this level for no reason?"
Although time had reversed, it was limited to a small area and a short duration. After those two golden lights left Matthew's body, they returned to their original state and rushed toward Matthew again.
But this time the opponent was prepared, and those two golden lights were completely neutralized.
But fortunately, with the delay from Jiang Lin's 【Low-level Strengthening】, the Temple had enough time to react.
A large number of students fled in all directions under the direction of the Temple staff. An area centered on Jiang Lin and Matthew had been cleared, and a member of the Paladin Order wearing a gold badge appeared in front of Jiang Lin.
This person was an elite member of the Paladin Order!
The gold badge on his chest indicated his identity.
His name was Salas, a paladin, rank 4. In this operation, he was the one in command of the overall situation.
He stood in front of Jiang Lin, protecting the student behind him, while looking solemnly at the secret cultist before him.
Black mist rose from this person, and his aura was powerful and eerie. It seemed his eyes were entirely focused on the paladin of the same class behind him.
Did these two have a grudge?
Although this secret cultist's level was only at the peak of rank 2, he felt like he had thorns in his back when facing him.
This person was very strong!
Salas made a judgment in his heart.
At the same time, seeing that his subordinates and colleagues had already moved the surrounding students a certain distance away, giving him space to fight, he did not hesitate and chose to summon his mount.
He tapped his foot lightly, and an array emitting a holy light appeared.
Space seemed to be torn open like a gate forged of light. Accompanied by a clear and melodic neigh, a wondrous creature stepped out of the light gate.
This was a mount that only a paladin could contract—a Holy Light Unicorn!
Rate on N.U.
