Originally, the time in the Great Ruins was different from that in High-Emperor Heaven. The gods and demons of High-Emperor Heaven were terrible at calculating time; their sun's rising and setting didn't follow the twelve-hour cycle, so day and night there were never punctual.
After Quinn Shepherd smashed the sun, the Imperial Preceptor of the Everpeace Empire rebuilt it, using the twelve-hour cycle of Everpeace as the standard.
The Imperial Preceptor was a bit obsessive, striving for perfection. The moment the new sun rose was exactly the moment of Everpeace's sunrise; the moment it set was precisely when darkness fell over the Great Ruins, not a second off.
In other words, it's night in the Great Ruins right now.
There are only two ways to walk in the darkness of the Great Ruins; otherwise, death is certain—either by curse or by being devoured by the monsters lurking in the dark.
The first way is to possess the strength of a god.
The second way is to be born in the Netherworld, like Quinn Shepherd.
The first method is for the strong to use their divine or demonic power to force back the darkness, keeping it at bay. The second is for those with a special origin, like Quinn Shepherd, who can enter the darkness without being harmed by its curses or the monsters within.
With the first method, those strong enough to enter the darkness of the Great Ruins can't see High-Emperor Heaven, and those in High-Emperor Heaven can't see them.
With the second method, it's as if you're walking in High-Emperor Heaven itself. People there can see a shadowy figure like black sand—Quinn Shepherd met Sang Hua this way.
However, with the latter method, while you can see people in High-Emperor Heaven, you can't communicate with them or transmit any useful information.
Now, Quinn Shepherd saw another person who could also walk into the darkness of the Great Ruins, and he couldn't help but feel shocked.
"Lord Hades and Tu Bo both said I was the first胎生—womb-born—living being ever born in the Netherworld. Could someone else have been born there after me? Why didn't Tu Bo mention this?"
He was puzzled, studying the shadow in the darkness. The shadow was also studying him, seeming to be deep in thought.
The two of them started to move, slowly circling each other, trying to glean something from the other's behavior.
Quinn Shepherd stopped, and the shadow stopped too, turning to say something to someone beside him—but Quinn couldn't make out the words.
"There must be someone beside him!"
Quinn Shepherd’s heart skipped a beat. "But that person isn't walking in the darkness—they're pushing the darkness away, so I can't see them."
Suddenly, the shadow turned, leaped away, and vanished.
Quinn Shepherd didn’t chase after him. The other person was probably still in the Great Ruins, and if he wanted to hide, there were countless ways—he could simply slip into any ruin and disappear from sight.