C2128 They Parted Ways!
Gazing at the shattered pitch-black surface, he was lost in thought about the downfall of the divine nation within. It was an inopportune moment for him to be so deeply entranced.
"Fear. So this is what fear feels like. I had never experienced it before, never understood this emotion, but now I finally grasp it."
Involuntarily, his mind wandered back to the last time he faced a similar situation. It was Yu Yuan, the Lord of the Abyss, he had confronted before. Yet, during that encounter, he felt no fear. This time, however, the sensation was unmistakably clear.
Whoosh!
As he watched the dark magic, deeply concealed within this world, being torn asunder beneath the Soul Altar that had emerged from Yu Yuan's sea of consciousness, he neglected to intercept the Wellspring of Creation. His sole desire was to preserve himself.
The increasingly fractured pitch-black mirror swiftly withdrew to the Genesis Continent, and the chariot plummeted into the darkness below. The Lord of the Abyss, inhabiting Tan Xiaotian, also tumbled into the vast chasm, returning to the Genesis Continent. He opted to evade the impending threat.
The moment he evaded, all the enigmatic powers belonging to him, hidden within the World of Darkness, vanished. No one was left to prevent Yu Yuan, with the Wellspring of Creation in tow, from departing.
Yu Yuan, standing beneath the Soul Altar, looked up in astonishment. In that instant, he realized that the Darkland could no longer obscure his perception nor obstruct his view. He immediately sensed a connection with the darkness of the seventh level of the Abyss and all the lands above.
The Abyss was no longer comprised of one hundred and twenty-seven continents; now, only one hundred and nine remained. Summoned by Mother Earth, the continents that had fled the Abyss were shattered by the supreme human beings and the Sky Fiend, inadvertently aiding the Demon God Saca.
This dramatic transformation within the Abyss left the remaining Abyss tribes in a state of constant anxiety. From his position below, he could sense a wave of panic, helplessness, and anxiety permeating every level of the Abyss, affecting all the realms where the Abyss tribes dwelled.
The Evil Gods departed one by one, while the cultivators of the Gods returned from the Origin Realm, making frequent excursions into the Abyss. The warriors who once ruled the Abyss were filled with trepidation. As the cultivators of the Gods, returning from extraterrestrial realms, gathered Abyss energy to bolster their strength, the native tribes had no choice but to comply.
Yet, in their hearts, there was a profound resentment towards these Gods who had returned from another world.
Yet they dared not rebel, nor did they dare to express it.
They were harboring growing resentment.
Yu Yuan sensed the thoughts and emotions of the powerful beings from the various races within the seven layers of the Abyss. He suddenly caught sight of the Primal Soul that had usurped his body, the Undead Sovereign, and what it was currently engaged in.
Before him knelt Kaiya and Han Qi.
The two mightiest experts in the dark arts of the Primal Vitality's Mind Magic were meek and submissive, drawing the dense, eerie power of the ghosts from his body, their auras climbing incrementally.
"From every Path of Undead, draw forth the power of the ghosts, severing the cycle of life and death for the extraterrestrial Otherkin!"
Yu Yuan's face was somber.
He suddenly understood that the current actions would lead to a drastic decline in births within the Origin Realm.
The Shura, Starborn, Dawnbringers, enchantress, Silverscale Tribe, Wingkind, and other once-luminous intelligent life forms would see their populations plummet due to these actions.
The strength of the Primal Blood and the power of the Wraithlands' Primal Vitality would both be compromised by these maneuvers.
He was strategically using his available resources and the peculiar body he had commandeered to quell the resistance of the Primal Blood and Primal Vitality in the Origin Realm, effectively suppressing the realm's two great Primal Animas from the outset.
As the warriors of the Otherkin perished, the second generation of intelligent life spawned from the Primal Blood faced extinction, weakening the Primal Blood.
The souls from the Path of Undead were being siphoned by him, and the Primal Vitality of the Wraithlands would also suffer as a result.
He was acutely aware of his actions and their remarkable efficacy.
He voraciously consumed the souls and ghosts from across the heavens, his presence now formidable.
He had indeed discovered how to adeptly harness the body of the Undead Sovereign, understanding how to maximize the power within this vessel after possession.
Once he amassed even greater strength and integrated the deceased ghosts into his body, delving deeper into the abyss, his combat prowess would become unfathomable.
Should even the mighty Demon God Bertain fall to him and enter this dark dominion, the implications would be profound.
Reflecting on this, Yu Yuan's mood darkened further.
He realized that he needed to shift the battlefield!
Suddenly, he noticed that the Wellspring of Creation, previously taken by the Solar Spirit, had unwittingly reached the icy barrier of the Frostlands.
Without a moment's delay, his real body teleported to the Solar Spirit via the Dragon Slaying Stage, taking the Wellspring of Creation with him as he soared toward the Frostlands.
The ice barrier, aided by the Primal Blood on the other side, willingly opened a portal for him.
He passed through with ease.
...
In the wake of Yu Yuan's departure from the Darkland.
Having inhabited Tan Xiaotian's body, he retracted his consciousness and spiritual wisdom, shrinking onto the damaged black surface of the stage within the Genesis Continent.
Time passed.
Demon Lord Tan Xiaotian, along with the cracked black mirror, re-emerged from the vast pit.
"I don't want to go through this again!"
Tan Xiaotian's spiritual wisdom revived, reclaiming dominion over his body, as he gazed at the levitating black mirror.
Within the mirror lay a shattered world and a tuft of fluttering dark consciousness.
This was the spiritual essence of the Dark Anima that had left Tan Xiaotian's body and entered the dark crystal.
In the fragmented world of the mirror, he mourned the broken realm while cautiously perceiving the external world.
He silently observed the changes in the World of Darkness following the disappearance of Yu Yuan and the Soul Altar.
Whoosh!
A rich, dark radiance emanated from the edge of the Genesis Continent.
He summoned his divine power, drawing peculiar energies from the seven worlds above and the desolate Abyss of Truth below, transforming them into the dark power he knew so well to mend the world's defects and gaps.
He crafted new dark magic, patching and repairing, to forestall Yu Yuan's potential return.
Eventually, his spiritual essence found the time to address Tan Xiaotian from within the fractured mirror, "Without descending upon you, I cannot defeat Yu Yuan."
"Even with your will controlling my body, we failed to overcome him."
A mix of coldness, disappointment, and defeat etched Tan Xiaotian's striking features.
The ultimate force of the Dark Way of Heaven had descended upon him, yet it still fell short against Yu Yuan in the Darkland.
If even a deity could not prevail, what chance did he have?
He had dedicated his entire life to delving into the Abyss in search of the ultimate Way of Heaven, ultimately ascending to the status of Dark Overlord.
Yet, could he truly never surpass Yu Yuan?
He gazed at his hands, at the meridians beneath his skin, now seemingly dyed black by the infusion of dark power.
Visions of the Dark Anima possessing him, his battles with Yu Yuan, and his dialogues with the Primal Soul of the Abyss replayed incessantly in his mind.
His slender eyebrows suddenly quivered.
To his astonishment, he discovered that many of the dark soul marks on his primordial spirit, which had solidified into a pitch-black palace, seemed to have been erased.
A searing pain shot through his primordial spirit.
Upon intense reflection, he understood that the clash between the Dark Anima and Yu Yuan, along with the intense radiance from the Soul Altar, had shrouded both his body and soul in a powerful energy.
Tan Xiaotian's gaze shimmered with realization, and he whispered to himself, "It was Yu Yuan!"
Before the darkness dissipated, Yu Yuan had summoned the seven-tiered Soul Altar, unleashing a formidable power that appeared to transcend the cosmos, a Primal Anima birthed from the cosmic order itself!
The peculiar force emanating from the Soul Altar was aimed at the Dark Anima, at the very essence of the World of Darkness.
Yet in the depths of Tan Xiaotian's consciousness, the deep-seated marks of corruption from the Abyss's Primal Soul seemed to have been significantly purged.
Tan Xiaotian silently processed this revelation, his mind awash with memories.
At the foot of the towering mountain, the Primal Soul of the Abyss had taken over Cao Jiaze's body and consumed the Primal Soul of the Everlands. So close to the source, his own soul had been warped by the invasive presence.
Subsequently, he followed the entity back to the Ashlands, entered the Heart of the Everlands as instructed, and even locked eyes with the mighty Demon God Bertain.
Then, through the Heart of the Everlands, he arrived at the Genesis Continent, where once again the Dark Anima took hold of him.
Memories cascaded through his mind, each scene vividly replaying.
The Demon Lord's spiritual wisdom grew sharper, his sense of self and his past convictions crystallizing with clarity.
Gradually, his gaze upon the shattered mirror took on an icy detachment, devoid of the former closeness and... reverence.
"The freedom that Yu Yuan seeks is the same freedom I long for."
His expression grew colder still. Seizing the opportunity before the Demon Lord's return, he bowed toward the shattered mirror and said, "Thank you for bestowing upon me the full understanding of dark magic. From this moment, we go our separate ways."
With those words, he set off toward the Frostlands.
