Quinn Shepherd pulled his head back and looked around. If he hadn't broken the rules of the Great Ruins and been forced by the exotic beasts in the ruins, he never would have rashly plunged into the darkness.
He had never imagined that he'd have a day where he'd step into the darkness himself. It felt completely different from relying on a statue or a box for protection.
He felt as if he had merged into the darkness, perfectly at home, blending seamlessly—he was part of the darkness itself.
In his eyes, darkness was no longer just simple absence of light; instead, it resembled mist, hazy and indistinct.
"This isn't true darkness—it's a peculiar kind of substance."
Quinn was astonished. He'd always been deeply curious about the darkness of the Great Ruins, but his cultivation realm was never high enough to enter it. Even if he had the strength to venture in, he likely couldn't uncover its secrets—after all, gods like Village Chief and Bruno simply forced the darkness away, never letting it get close.
If you only repel the darkness, it's hard to discover its true nature.
But Quinn had merged into the darkness, making it far easier for him to uncover what it really was.
Village Chief once speculated that the darkness of the Great Ruins wasn't true darkness, but another world overlapping with the Great Ruins. He called it the Dark Realm.
Later, Village Chief discovered that there wasn't just one Dark Realm in the Great Ruins, but several.
He also called Nether City a Dark Realm.
But as Quinn learned more about Nether City, he uncovered another secret: while Nether City could indeed be called a Dark Realm, it was just a corner of one. The world Nether City belonged to was the Netherworld, Youdu.
Youdu is one of the Dark Realms within the Great Ruins.
Both Youdu and Nether City are constantly shifting, never fully covering the Great Ruins. The one that does blanket the Great Ruins completely must be another Dark Realm.
Now, as Quinn stepped into the darkness, he discovered another truth about the Great Ruins’ night: the darkness was a strange and marvelous substance.
"When I entered another world through the Great Ruins Fault-Cliff, I found that day and night there were reversed compared to the Great Ruins. That led me to a bold theory."
Quinn’s eyes flashed as he recalled what he’d seen and guessed in the golden desert.
That world was the Supreme Sovereign Era’s Great Ruins, a vast golden desert where he’d fled from Bruno. The desert also had day and night, but they were exactly opposite to those in the Great Ruins.
So Quinn theorized that the darkness poured in from the Supreme Sovereign Era’s Great Ruins. At sunset, it flowed through the fractures from the ancient Great Ruins into the Pioneer-Era Great Ruins, turning the ancient desert into day and his own era into night. At sunrise, the darkness flowed back through the fissures.
The two Great Ruins formed an hourglass, with darkness as the sand flowing between them.
That was his theory.
But back then, he was being hunted by Bruno, and only Bangongcuo was nearby, so he kept the theory to himself.
Now, immersed in the darkness, he found it behaved like some peculiar substance, confirming his theory.
"If we could seal up the Fault-Cliff’s north-south fractures, could we trap the darkness in the ancient Great Ruins, so the Pioneer-Era Great Ruins would never be invaded by darkness again?"
Quinn blinked, thinking the idea sounded plausible, but whether it would work was anyone’s guess.
Besides, the Fault-Cliff was so long, with so many fissures, and not just one world involved—how could you possibly block them all?
"Blocking them isn’t the best solution. The real answer is to understand the true nature of the darkness and resolve the kind that can devour other lives."
Quinn closely observed the dark substance. It was like mist—visible yet insubstantial. He could see the black particles within, and although they had form, they weren’t solid and could pass straight through his skin.
"A strange substance!"
Quinn was amazed. He drew on a thread of yuanqi and used it to fix some of the dark substance in midair. When he passed his palm through the suspended darkness, there was no resistance—he couldn’t even feel he’d touched anything.
"What exactly is this substance? What are its properties?"
Quinn was deep in thought when Bruno’s anxious voice echoed from the ruins: "Cult Master, are you still alive?"
The voice sounded distant, as if muffled by thick walls. Quinn shouted back, "Don’t worry, I’m alive. I’ll feed you in the morning."
"Oh."
Bruno replied, defending himself, "I’m not worried about breakfast—I’m worried about your safety. Since you’re fine, I’ll go to sleep. Just come back after you’re done playing; we’ve got a journey ahead and I’ll need feeding tomorrow."
Quinn studied the darkness for a while but couldn’t figure out what it was. Just then, he saw a demon lurking in the shadows.
He heard whispering all around—countless demons hiding in the darkness, lurking in the shadows of rocks and woods, quietly watching him. Occasionally, there was a rustle as the shadowy demons darted from one shadow to another, moving so fast that even with his divine eye, Quinn could barely track them.
Suddenly, he glimpsed a figure that seemed both real and illusory moving in the darkness.
These figures existed between reality and illusion, flitting by. They weren’t demons—they were people!
They were human figures!
"How could there be people in the darkness?"
Quinn’s heart skipped a beat and he hurried after them. Aside from himself, only those with godlike power could walk in the darkness—like the Village Chief, Bruno, or objects that emitted divine light, such as Bruno’s box, forged from the divine bones and hide of a Taotie.
Whenever they entered the darkness, they would emit divine light, pushing the darkness away.
But the figures in the darkness didn’t repel it. Like Quinn, they melded with the darkness itself. Stranger still, it was as though they were made of darkness!
Quinn followed one of the figures, and it seemed just as curious about him. It stopped, as if waiting for him to approach.
Quinn caught up, eyeing the shadowy figure with curiosity. The figure turned its head to look at him, two long braids hanging down.
It was a girl. Though he could only make out her outline, it was clear she was quite young.
She reached out her hand, as if wanting to touch Quinn. He did the same, and when their palms met, they passed right through each other—there was no contact at all.
The shadowy girl seemed surprised and said something, but all Quinn heard was a whisper—he couldn’t make out her words at all.
"How strange!"
Quinn was baffled and scratched his head. "Can you hear what I’m saying?" he asked.
The girl probably couldn’t understand him either—their voices were distorted by some strange force. Suddenly, she crouched down, her braids hanging, and began to write something on the ground.
Quinn looked down but saw only twisted black light swirling on the ground—no words were visible.
He wrote a line on the ground as well, but the shadowy girl shook her head, unable to make out what he’d written.
A sudden idea struck Quinn—he used a Daoist spell, drawing his sword to perform the "Sword Walks the Mountains and Rivers" technique. But the girl still shook her head, unable to see what he was doing.
Quinn was completely stumped.
Suddenly, the shadowy girl ran ahead, then stopped and beckoned to him.
Quinn chased after her. They ran and stopped several times, until finally the girl halted and Quinn collided with her—passing right through her body. He quickly stopped, nearly tumbling into a bottomless chasm ahead.
The girl tried to grab his hand but couldn’t. Fortunately, Quinn steadied himself just in time and didn’t fall into the abyss.
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The girl pointed ahead, and Quinn was stunned. Below the cliff lay a cluster of magnificent dark cities, their towering, exotic architecture unlike anything he’d ever seen in the Great Ruins.
"Strange—there shouldn’t be any such cities in the Great Ruins. Could it be that a Dark Realm has flooded in and covered the Great Ruins...?"
Quinn frowned. If the dark substance could flow between the Pioneer-Era and Supreme Sovereign Era Great Ruins, then sealing it in the ancient ruins would trap the Dark Realm there as well, wouldn’t it?
Could plugging the Fault-Cliff’s fissures really seal off an entire world?
"The darkness of the Great Ruins is even more complicated than I imagined. I doubt it can be sealed off..."
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the shadowy girl suddenly leapt from the cliff, gliding effortlessly down toward the city below as if walking on air.
Quinn followed, soaring after her. Soon, they reached the city, and Quinn saw bustling crowds—though to his eyes, everyone was just a mass of shadows.
If the shadows were replaced by real people, this would be a thriving metropolis.
He also saw towering gods and demons in the darkness, standing atop the city’s high buildings, vigilantly watching the surroundings.
Quinn was stunned; something felt off.
He’d seen a scene like this before.
When he traveled back forty thousand years to Bailong City, the gods and demons there kept watch like this—but they were guarding against the darkness outside the city!
So what were these dark city dwellers guarding against?
The shadowy girl led him through the city. Every shadowy figure turned to stare at them—Quinn’s presence must have seemed just as strange to them.
They passed through streets and stopped before a grand mansion. Suddenly, a colossal figure rose from the mansion, spreading four arms to protect it, as if Quinn’s arrival had triggered the god’s defense against an invading demon.
The shadowy girl leapt onto the god’s palm, then onto his shoulder, speaking to him.
The god turned to look at Quinn and spoke, but all Quinn heard was whispering—he couldn’t understand a word.
After a moment, the god lowered his palm, signaling Quinn to stand on it. Quinn hesitated, but when he stepped onto the palm, he felt nothing and nearly passed through—only by activating his powers could he float above it.
The god was surprised, poking Quinn with a finger, but the finger passed right through him.
The dark god scratched his head, baffled by the situation.
"This is so bizarre!"
Quinn was shocked: "Even an all-powerful god or demon can’t touch me!"
Suddenly, chaos erupted in the city. The god set the shadowy girl down and soared toward the city gates.
Quinn hurried after the girl. From high above, they saw the space outside the city begin to ripple—black portals appeared, and grotesque demon gods crawled out, leading hordes of demons to attack the magnificent cities.
A fierce battle broke out.
Soon, the city was overrun—countless monsters surged in, fighting through the streets and alleys.
Quinn and the shadowy girl dodged and weaved through the chaos. The city was in total turmoil—divine powers and spirit weapons clashed everywhere, buildings and palaces collapsed all around.
The night felt endless. Suddenly, the sound of a rooster crowing rang out, startling Quinn. The darkness surged, the city began to shift, and the demon gods and monsters frantically retreated, vanishing into the portals.
The surging darkness jostled Quinn, and as he tried to grab the shadowy girl, she and the city dissolved into black mist, swept away with the darkness and gone.
A ray of sunlight shone down, illuminating his surroundings. Quinn looked around—he was in a mountain range where no city could possibly exist.
"Cult Master! Cult Master!"
Bruno’s voice rang out. Quinn followed the sound and returned to the ruins where they’d camped the night before. Bruno greeted him, carrying a washbasin, wagging his tail and smiling apologetically: "Cult Master, it’s time for breakfast. You’re already late..."
Quinn glanced around—the events of last night felt like a dream.
"This Great Ruins is so strange. Did I really enter another world last night?"
——This chapter is nearly 4,000 words long. After surviving the ordeal, the author humbly asks for your support!