By the next morning, the darkness retreated at breakneck speed. From east to west, every shadow surged toward the escarpment at the source of the Yong River, vanishing all at once into the cliff.
Quinn Shepherd immediately flew forward. With more than two hundred zhang left to the cliff, he searched from south to north, combing the way.
Buzz—
He activated the formation in his eyes, and instantly two beams of light swept across the cliff face, not a single crack escaping his gaze.
Quinn checked the glowing points on his map as he searched, heading north, then doubling back south, and after a while scanned everything again.
The cliff wall was tall and uneven, the terrain complex. Searching it took a lot of effort, but it was still the simplest and most effective way.
Crystal Blaze and the others kept tunneling through High-Emperor Heaven, trying to break open a passage. Because of her immense power, Crystal Blaze was invited by Lynn Ling; she melted rocks in the tunnel, while Lynn Ling shaped the magma into lava giants, speeding up the excavation.
Crystal Blaze had always sailed the Solar Ark, never once used her powers to clear a path. This sort of thing was entirely new to her.
Lynn Ling used to cut a road with formations—fast, but it burned through her strength, and she’d have to stop to rest before long. With Crystal Blaze’s help, she only needed to turn the melted stone into lava giants and let them walk out of the cave themselves, making things far quicker than before.
More importantly, Crystal Blaze was a true goddess; her flames not only melted the rock but also reinforced the tunnel.
"At this rate, it’ll only take a few days to break through High-Emperor Heaven."
Lynn Ling was both startled and delighted. She thought, "But if I try to snatch her sweetheart for a marriage, she’ll flip out, and I’d never win that fight. Shame, really—when her lover rode up on a white horse and let me lean on his back to jump out of the painting, I truly wished I could marry him. In the West, you’d never find a man so outstanding..."
"Found it!" Quinn’s eyes lit up—he’d finally spotted a crack that hadn’t glowed last night.
He’d searched several times before finding this fissure. It didn’t glow, nestled between two cracks, perfectly hidden by a chunk of rock wedged between them.
"Crystal’s not here, and Bruno’s asleep. Should I call them to come check it out together?"
Quinn hesitated, then decided against it. Crystal Blaze could repel the darkness, but only by using her own divine light to push it away. Bruno didn’t have the power to resist the dark at all—he’d need Crystal’s protection.
Only Quinn could merge with the darkness.
So, bringing them along didn’t really matter.
"Bruno, when Crystal comes out, tell her to wait for me here."
Quinn called out loudly, then flew to the stone in front of the fissure. The rock looked like a stone gate, but most of it was embedded in the cliff itself. From a distance, you’d never spot the entrance—especially with other cracks on either side.
He examined the stone gate closely. There were no markings, no runes, not even a handle.
"Divine Eye, Seventh Heaven!"
Divine light swirled at Quinn’s brow as he scanned the entrance, searching for any unique imprint inside. But to his disappointment, it seemed to be just an ordinary stone gate, showing no signs of refinement.
Finding nothing unusual, he moved to the fissure behind the gate. Deep inside, it was pitch black—nothing out of the ordinary to be seen.
He walked inside. The crack stretched on and on, and cracks branched off the cliff walls on either side, each one filled with utter darkness.
Divine light shone from his eyes, illuminating the fissures—yet whenever the light met the dark, it was swallowed whole, unable to reveal what lay within.
He reached out, touching the darkness. A faint, sand-like rustling sounded by his ear.
"These cracks are the scars left by other heavens buried here!"
A chill ran through him. Right now, the Great Ruins was in daylight—which meant the other heavens buried here were in darkness.
"The source of the darkness is just beyond this fissure, the origin point of each era’s blackness. I want to see for myself what’s been causing the Great Ruins’ nightly invasion..."
Steeling himself, he pressed forward, vanishing into the shadows.
Quinn kept moving, trekking for a long distance. Over an hour passed, and still the fissure had no end. After so long, he grew anxious and puzzled—if it were any other crack, stepping inside would take him to another heaven, but this one seemed endless.
"I’ll walk for another half hour. If I still can’t find the end, I’ll turn back."
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he suddenly saw a light ahead. His heart stirred, and he hurried forward. From afar, he spotted someone slumped against the cliff wall, holding a lantern that shone with divine light.
Quinn stopped and peered ahead, activating Divine Eye, Seventh Heaven again. Using his Langxiao Divine Eye, he scanned the area for danger. Finding none, he approached the figure.
It was a god, long dead, slumped against the wall. His eye sockets were empty, his expression dazed.
Quinn studied the clothes and patterns, thinking, "He’s a god from the Pioneer Era!"
The lantern still burned, its light shining on the god—who appeared strangely transparent.
Quinn, suspicious, plucked up his courage and pinched the god’s skin. Suddenly, the god deflated like a punctured wineskin, collapsing into a heap of clothes and human skin.
Quinn’s hair stood on end; he staggered back, horrified.
After a moment, the heap of clothes began to rustle, and the god’s skin slowly inflated as if filled with air. Soon, the god was once again sitting against the cliff wall.
"His flesh is gone, his spirit too—every divine treasury and celestial palace emptied out..."
Quinn, nerves steeled, stepped up and examined the body closely. He couldn’t tell what had devoured the god, leaving only a skin behind. He muttered, "Learn from those who came before—knowing how this god died might help me. But it’s strange: he’s missing all his flesh, so why did he inflate again? Is there something under the skin?"
[Irrelevant system message skipped]
He hesitated, then drew the Worryless Sword and tried to cut open the god’s skin. Something squirmed beneath it, resisting the blade—he couldn’t pierce it.
Quinn frowned, then took out the Book of Life and Death and shone it on the god. Just as a name appeared, the skin abruptly opened its mouth and let out a shrill scream. Black smoke poured from its eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and the body instantly deflated!
The black smoke merged into the darkness and vanished.
Quinn was shocked, his heart pounding—this was far stranger than anything he’d seen even in Nether City.
After a moment, his heartbeat returned to normal. He picked up the lantern and walked forward. After only a few steps, he saw a massive stone stele looming ahead, blocking the path.
He raised the lantern, its quiet light spilling over the stele. The characters carved into the stone were a script he’d never seen before.
Quinn was fluent in many languages—god-speech, demon-speech, Youdu script, dragon-tongue, Buddha-Realm Sanskrit. Not only could he read them, but he’d studied the Daos hidden in each.
But the writing on the stele was entirely new.
"What language is this?"
He thought for a moment, then removed the Golden Willow Leaf from his brow and whispered, "Brother, Heaven Duke, Crimson Emperor—do you recognize these characters?"
In his third eye, another pupil appeared, glancing at the script.
"No idea."
Fenix Greenwood’s voice sounded: "Little brother, let me out—I won’t eat you."
Another pupil squeezed in, shoving Fenix aside—probably Heaven Duke’s avatar, who hadn’t escaped last time they passed through Profound Capital.
"The inscription says: Umbral World."
Heaven Duke’s voice came faintly: "The Umbral World lies beneath Profound Capital. Though my light can illuminate countless heavens, there are places even I cannot reach—namely, beneath my own feet. That’s the Umbral World. Odd, why would a boundary stele for the Umbral World appear here? It shouldn’t be possible."
Quinn frowned. "Shouldn’t it be Youdu beneath Heaven Duke’s feet?"
"Youdu is where the dead go. The Umbral World is a dim, obscure place—it’s not the same."
Heaven Duke’s avatar was about to continue when Fenix Greenwood’s angry voice rang out: "Shut up, old thief! If you explain everything so clearly, how am I supposed to trick him into letting me out so I can eat him?"
Inside Quinn’s third eye, the sound of old men brawling echoed. After a moment, Crimson Emperor’s voice piped up: "I didn’t say anything—why are you hitting me? Kid, don’t think I’m scared of you! I was the true Celestial Emperor of the Chiming Era..."
"Quinn, your brother tore us apart trying to escape and eat you—hurry up and stick the Willow Leaf back on!"
"Don’t listen to them, little brother. We’re family, we should help each other—I won’t eat you... Shut up, old man! Drag him over so I can eat him and I’ll let you all out!"
Quinn hurriedly pressed the Willow Leaf back on, and his Demon Eye finally quieted down.
"Umbral World? Is the dark matter really from here?"
Quinn calculated for a moment, then stepped back to the god’s skin, shining the lantern on it. Sure enough, as he expected, the skin slowly inflated again.
He put down the lantern and took out the Book of Life and Death, shining it once more. Instantly, the skin opened its mouth with a piercing scream, black smoke billowing from every orifice as the body shriveled up!
Quinn pondered in silence.
"Could this black smoke be the dark matter itself?"
He reached out and grabbed a handful of darkness. For others it was intangible, but to him it felt like sand—so faint it was barely there.
"Is the Umbral World made entirely of this dark matter? Why has it seeped into the Great Ruins and every era’s Heavenly Court?"
Steeling himself, he stowed the Book and picked up the lantern—but after a moment’s thought, he put the lantern away in his taotie pouch.
If the Umbral World really was made of this dark matter, carrying a lantern inside would be like lighting one in an outhouse—just asking for trouble.
He stepped around the Umbral World Stele, and everything turned gray and hazy. He entered a bizarre, shadowy realm saturated with that strange dark hue.
[Irrelevant system message skipped]