C2106 The Evil Creature in the Darkness
On the fringes of the Dark Realm, the ice spirit possessing Ji Ningshuang was wielding the Stardust Blade, tracing luminous streams of the River of Swords through the air. These streams harnessed the energy from the cold fog, solidifying into a new crystalline wall.
Ji Ningshuang's wrists, as pale as jade, were guided by this force, her skin slowly cracking under the strain. Yet, due to the intense cold, not a drop of blood escaped. The blood, frozen by the ice energy, transformed into Ice Shards within the crook of her arm, emitting a hauntingly beautiful and resplendent light.
The damage began with Ji Ningshuang's wrists and arms, then spread to her slender, alabaster neck, and finally to her serene and ethereal face. Her visage bore the delicate fractures of a finely crafted porcelain vase that had been chipped.
But this was merely the external damage. Within Ji Ningshuang's corporeal body, her meridians were also fracturing. Even the strength of Sunsilver, which seemed to temper her bones, could not bear the immense ice force. After the ice will took hold, her body sustained various degrees of injury.
She was not an eleventh-level supreme being. Yet, to halt the encroaching darkness, the ice force had to exert itself to the fullest.
Atop the Dragon Slaying Stage, Yu Yuan's countenance was grave as he watched the actions of the spirit within Ji Ningshuang, his gaze growing more intense with determination. "You must remain calm; it has to do this," he was counseled.
Beside Yu Yuan, the Secular Bird Queen spoke in soothing tones, her elegant brows knit with concern. "If the Dark Realm remains unsealed, the malevolence from the darkness could breach our defenses at any moment."
She paused, then Chen Qinghuang added with a note of anxiety, "The remaining safe havens within the Origin Realm's Astral Domain are dwindling."
Yu Yuan's frown deepened.
Below the Dragon Slaying Stage, Taishi and Cao Jiaze appeared as two silhouettes, separated by a shimmering curtain of white. They, too, urged Yu Yuan not to intervene at this critical juncture.
Having unlocked the full mysteries of the extreme cold and augmented by the Primal Blood, Ji Ningshuang was bound by duty to harness these powers.
Ji Ningshuang's possession by the ice spirit was a power both sides had long since agreed upon.
Yu Yuan inhaled the icy air deeply, steadying his nerves as he watched Ji Ningshuang intently, attuned to the subtle shifts in her body, ready to intervene at a moment's notice.
The endless ice energy rapidly crystallized.
As the crystals joined the River of Swords, they transformed it into a series of shimmering ice walls that continued to voraciously absorb more ice energy.
Should any dark forces or foreign entities collide with the crystalline wall, it would instinctively draw upon the ice energy of the Dark Realm to fortify itself.
The wall had the ability to concentrate ice energy from elsewhere, effectively withstanding the onslaught of the opposing force.
Even with the Primal Blood Continent's arrival in the Dark Realm, and the presence of the extreme cold, the combined efforts of Tan Xiaotian and the Tree of Life could not shatter this fortress of ice.
Soon, only a small, unrepaired crack remained.
At that moment, Yu Yuan, at the eleventh level of his Solar Spirit, felt a sudden surge from the Dragon Slaying Stage.
He gazed into the boundless darkness with astonishment.
He could see nothing.
Nor could he sense his real body or the Demonic Vessel that was possessed on the other side.
Yet, he detected an alien presence.
It was like a colossal mass brimming with countless Life Seeds, all completely alien and unprecedented in his experience.
These Life Seeds, as wild and tumultuous as the essence of the Abyss, were imbued with an inherent malice, bent on slaughter, destruction, and annihilation.
This entity, as if rising from the deepest shadows, concealed a vital energy more dreadful than Primal Blood itself.
It was a grotesque distortion!
The Life Seeds within this mass dwarfed those of the Origin Realm, the Abyss, and the Wasteland by magnitudes.
They were locked in an eternal struggle, as if they had been warring for eons, with no end in sight.
This eleventh-level Solar Spirit, initially refined from the Primal Blood of this realm, now sensed a fearsome, twisted power within the aberration while in the Dark Realm.
This was a distortion not of the soul, but of a corporeal force, a terror unfamiliar even to the Primal Soul of the Abyss.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Chen Qinghuang's heart raced. She had just been attempting to persuade Yu Yuan, yet she was clueless about the unfolding events.
Nevertheless, she found herself drawn to the darkness!
She yearned to approach the enigmatic flesh and blood, to integrate with it, to become one with it.
The Secular Bird Queen, having broken free from the entity that had devoured the Everlands' Primal Soul, felt an uncontrollable urge to move toward the thing that emerged from the dark abyss.
Simultaneously!
The little spinosaurus, the Abyssal Leviathan, Loong Jie, the Starpierced, the Titan Turtle, Zhong Chichen, Ann Ziqing, and Taixu.
These powerful corporeal beings, having advanced to the tenth level through the power of Primal Blood, found themselves involuntarily gazing toward the lingering small breach.
They saw nothing, yet they sensed an alien presence beckoning them, drawing them closer, compelling them to merge with it.
It was as if everyone had lost their minds.
Yu Yuan's heart shook violently, aware that whatever had emerged from the darkness was unspeakably fearsome.
He couldn't help but worry whether his real body, which had sunk into the darkness, had the capacity to confront this entity or the power to extricate itself.
Those who had been brought into the Dark Realm, along with the giant beast, had reached a level of flesh and blood power that caught the attention of the dark entity, seemingly falling under its influence.
Apart from him, at the eleventh level, who could resist the lure of that thing, not even the Secular Bird Queen was immune.
"Seal it quickly!"
Yu Yuan could no longer afford to be distracted and urgently commanded Ji Ningshuang, who was inhabited by the ice spirit.
Turning around, he gazed at the Primal Blood Continent, now converged with Zhong Chichen and others at the heart of the Dark Realm.
With a mental inquiry, he asked, "What lurks in the darkness? What is this thing that has suddenly bewitched them?"
The Primal Blood remained silent.
After a moment, it responded, "A colossal mass of blood and flesh, corrupted and warped. Within it resides... the essence of my own kind."
Yu Yuan was taken aback.
His counterparts were naturally of Primal Blood!
Yet, in Yu Yuan's recollection, and as understood by all the Evil Gods of the Abyss, including the elements of flora, thunder, and the Light Spirit, there was never any mention of Primal Blood existing in the Abyss.
"There should be no living creatures like me in the Abyss. Perhaps there once was, but it might have perished or been devoured by someone," Primal Blood responded once more.
Yu Yuan acutely sensed that Primal Blood had only just discovered a mass of distorted blood and flesh, prompting the thought that a similar being had once emerged in the Abyss.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Ji Ningshuang, now a vessel for the ice spirit, swung her sword wildly, unleashing more of the River of Swords. Her crystalline body accrued numerous fine lacerations.
The ice spirit was as desperate as Primal Blood, no longer heeding the promise to Yu Yuan, beyond all concern.
Even if Ji Ningshuang could not withstand the power of its arrival and perished in the Dark Realm, it was determined to seal the breach swiftly, preventing the spread of darkness.
The emergence of this potent force, capable of influencing flesh and blood, sent shivers through both the ice spirit and Primal Blood.
"Don't go there!"
"Remember, you must not go there!"
"If you dare, I will exert all my might to reclaim the power I've granted you and retrieve the life sequence I've given you!"
Primal Blood, having perceived Yu Yuan's intent to probe the darkness, vehemently dissuaded him. "We don't know what that twisted mass is. I sense a threat. To both you and me, it's a formidable entity. We need time to understand it."
Since his real body had been engulfed by darkness and was unable to communicate with the Solar Spirit or stabilize the Solar Spirit's thoughts through the Soul Altar, his Solar Spirit was trapped by Primal Blood.
At this moment in the Dark Realm, Primal Blood truly possessed the power to revoke his abilities.
"You are the only one lucid, the only one unaffected. Right now, your task is to ensure everyone remains exactly where they are!" Primal Blood continued to communicate.
"Alright!"
A writhing mass of flesh and blood filled the vast pool, emerging from the profound darkness.
It had risen from an unseen darkness below, summoned by the Primal Soul of this realm.
"Wellspring of Creation!"
Yu Yuan exclaimed the name of the flesh and blood pool the moment he laid eyes on the aberration.
After uttering "Wellspring of Creation," Yu Yuan was suddenly taken aback.
However, simply because he had voiced those words, the Genesis Continent—vaster than the Everlands and Tyria, once home to the Evil Temple and claimed by the Primal Soul and darkness—quivered at the sound.
Clang!
Space-time trembled, and chunks of the solid void fractured from the stirrings of the Genesis Continent.
The Soul Altar, which had been released from Yu Yuan's sea of consciousness yet restrained by his power, had been immobile, unable to return. But the tremor from the Genesis Continent shattered its bindings, freeing it to return to Yu Yuan's sea of consciousness.
Yu Yuan's mind reeled.
This was his first foray into the World of Darkness. He had lingered outside the Evil Temple, deterred by Bertain, and ultimately chose to depart from this world.
Gazing down upon the Genesis Continent from above, he felt a profound sense of longing and reluctance to leave.
Now, it was the tremor from the Genesis Continent that had broken the sealed space-time, allowing the Soul Altar to make its return.
Whoosh!
The instant the Soul Altar entered his sea of consciousness, he immediately realized that the Wellspring of Creation he had named was inherently unified with the Genesis Continent.
Yet, upon closer reflection, he discovered an absence of related memories.
He had clearly spoken the name "Wellspring of Creation" and understood its unity with the Genesis Continent, but his memory was a blank slate.
The Tree of Life, along with the Thunder Spirit residing within it, had already begun to frantically evade as the Wellspring of Creation surfaced.
To the Tree of Life, which eclipsed the heavens, the squirming flesh within the Wellspring of Creation appeared as something impure and foreboding.
The two Primal Animas were overcome with immense fear, wanting nothing to do with the taint, not even daring to steal a glance.
Yu Yuan, utilizing the Secrets of Life inherent in Primal Blood, had forged a Heaven's Dais resembling a blood crystal, which now quietly manifested between his eyebrows.
It had become his third eye.
