The Black Prison World had no light.
But today, the prisoners had risen in revolt, setting up the Hell Equation outside Black Prison Castle to draw magma from deep underground. The wizards had raised countless sky lanterns, scattering light across the ground.
Together, beneath the heavy veil of night, the two sides held up a faint glow.
In the Wizarding World or the Dreamlands, that little light would have been unremarkable, easily lost beneath the brilliant stars overhead.
But in Black Prison,
that light became the only beacon in the darkness, clearly marking the direction Zheng Qing and the others needed to go.
At that moment, the group stood on a small patch of level ground atop the mountains along one side of the river valley.
Behind them, the effect of The Moon Rises Brightly had yet to fade. Its silvery glow spilled over the plain at the mouth of the valley, where the teaching assistants faced off against the short Black Goat. One or two sharp cracks rang out from time to time, along with the wails and roars of the enormous mass still held in its bonds.
Ahead lay boundless darkness, frightening to behold. Zheng Qing could hardly describe how he felt when he first saw it. Above, below, and in every direction, there was nothing but black. The thin wash of moonlight behind him was both a lifeline and a shackle, making it hard to leave that sliver of light and step into the darkness ahead.
It felt as though one step would send him plunging into bottomless water or sinking into thick mud that could swallow anything. The oppressive feeling was suffocating.
Fortunately, at the far end of that darkness, a tiny point of light trembled and gave off a hint of color, though it seemed