Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 1440 – Arriving in the World of Darkness

Soaring Sky looked at Rice Paper and saw her looking elsewhere. It seemed like she did not see the leader’s expression. He relaxed slightly and coughed, “Leader, you don’t have to worry. Mister Ninth is very good and he is well-prepared. Nothing will go wrong.”

The leader refocused on the scene in front of him and immediately nodded, “Yes, I was overly concerned.” He looked calm once more and his smile reappeared. However, he was still worried. After all, that was the World of Darkness and Qin Yu was trying to kill the almighty Darkness Ruler!

Rice Paper smiled and bowed, “Leader, Senior Soaring Sky, now that most of the things regarding the Transcendent Sword Sect have been settled, I have to go back and report to Master. I will be leaving now.”

She bid farewell to both of them before turning to leave. There was a slight contempt on her face as she thought this leader was not very good. No wonder even after so many years, he was still a Half-Saint and could not break through.

So what if it was the Darkness Ruler? Even if he was a real Ruler, Mister Ninth would still be able to deal with him!

Since Mister Ninth had taken action, the Darkness Ruler would not have long to live…that’s right. Rice Paper had full confidence in Qin Yu. Even Qin Yu did not know that he had such a loyal and diehard believer!

On the other hand, the smile on the Leader’s face had disappeared and was looking serious as he pulled on Soaring Sky. He was discussing how the whole sect could shift to avoid trouble. On Qin Yu’s side, he had entered the black vortex and was stably being transported. He had successfully reached the World of Darkness.

The World of Darkness truly matched its name. If he stretched his hand out, he would not be able to see his fingers. Everything was pitch black as if it was eternally night. Thankfully, the Path of Darkness was within Qin Yu’s abilities and he did not feel too out of place.

As wind blew across the flat wilderness, small grains of sand got blown up. They hit his body and fell back to the floor. There was a soft ‘whizz’ in the air. This was something extremely normal. As a wild flat land without any vegetation cover, sand and dust would naturally get blown up by the wind.

But Qin Yu frowned as he reached forward to grab the grains of sand that hit his body and were about to fall. He rubbed it between his fingers and a strange look appeared on his face. It was as if he found something in these small grains.

“The World of Darkness…is really different…” Sighing slightly, Qin Yu released the grains of sand and let them fall to the ground. He stepped forwards and moved in the direction where the wind blew against his back.

The wind came from behind him and blew his robe, causing it to flap in the wind. He had an easy aura as if he was a deity that was travelling with the wind. Along with his current appearance and his Great Dao, there was an aura surrounding his body and he looked impressive.

It was a pity that in this pitch black world, there was not even a ghost shadow, much less any audience to appreciate Qin Yu’s current appearance.

The reason why there was no further need for him to work out directions and could already rush along was because the sand had given him the answer.

As he journeyed, only the sound of the wind was constant along with the sand that was continuously blown up. Some of the sand would only fly a short distance before falling, whereas some would fly far along with the wind and into the darkness. It was pushed forwards constantly by the neverending wind, flying deep into the darkness.

As Qin Yu made his way forward, he would occasionally get a shower of sand on top of his head. He had no choice but to create a ball of darkness aura to block them out. If not, he would turn into a sand figure before he reached his destination.

Realistically speaking, he was about to enter into a huge fight and wasting even a little bit of energy was stupid.

However, the grains of sand here were abnormal. If Qin Yu were to be covered by the sand, he would really turn into a sand figurine that would break with a single hit.

He kept moving forwards. A lot of time passed; the vastness of this flat plain was astounding. But Qin Yu did not intend to fly to move faster.

There was another point. Ever since he entered till now, he had yet to meet a single person.

The World of Darkness was not a faraway land. It was actually the fort in front of the West Desolate. Strictly speaking, there should be a number of strong cultivators. Since the Darkness Ruler retreated, with his status, he should be able to gather a number of cultivators. Even if they were not able to stop Qin Yu, at least they would be able to form some sort of defence to slow him down and deplete his energy in order to increase his chance of survival.

But there was nothing. It was so silent it was out of the ordinary. Qin Yu frowned slightly, but soon after, he was calm again. As mentioned before, now that things had turned to this, he had no choice other than to thoroughly destroy the Darkness Ruler.

So even if things were strange, Qin Yu could only continue…moreover, Eye of Eternal Night was in front. If Qin Yu did not go, he would be selling out Eye of Eternal Night.

Just because he could not ‘see’ his fingertips when he stretched out his hands, it did not mean that he could not ‘see’ anything. On the contrary, because he had the Path of Darkness abilities, he was able to sense everything around him.

So when that ring-like mountain appeared on the plain, Qin Yu was able to detect it immediately. Soon, he was also able to see the clean palace that was held within the ring.

The grains of sand that fell from the air accumulated in the ring-like mountain and became part of it. Not a single grain touched the palace. It was like there was an invisible shield blocking out the sand.

Letting out a breath, Qin Yu’s face remained tense. This was his target. So if the Darkness Ruler wanted to do something, this was his last chance.

Was he really not going to do anything? Or was he unable to do anything because he was getting chased by Eye of Eternal Night?

But the truth was both these options did not seem good to Qin Yu. After all, his opponent was the Darkness Ruler and he was the strongest person in this world who was even comparable to a Ruler of the Vast Brightness World.

He let out a breath in order to calm himself. Of course, he would need to breathe in again. This was not nonsense, this leads to the next part of the story. Because just when Qin Yu was about to breathe, a coldness appeared and spread outwards like a wave.

The cold aura seemed to originate from an ancient ice cave. Yet it also seemed to come from Nine Nether and was able to freeze flesh and extend to one's soul. Qin Yu could hear a vague ringing in his ears; it was a clear and murderous sound.

The vague sense became clearer and Qin Yu groaned as his heart started to pound. Soon, ‘crack crack’, the ice that had formed over his body cracked and fell to the ground.

His eyes turned sinister and a murderous intent surged from him.

Deep in his heart, he was filled with anger. However, just a moment ago, he was in a state of alarm. Who would have guessed that in a single breath, he would change like this.

Just now, if the East Sea Sword had not acted and cut off the murderous intent that surged at him, it would have sealed Qin Yu’s soul in ice. He was being targeted by a scheme and would have turned into an ice statue. Or maybe he would not have died but the ending would have been equally terrible!

The Darkness Ruler’s tactics were truly sharp and horrifying. When he did not want to do anything, he really did not. But once he did, he was out for your life!

And this was merely the beginning. Because as soon as Qin Yu got out from the coldness, the ground in front of him started to crack.

It was not splitting open nor collapsing inwards. Instead it was splitting from the inside out. Soon, numerous figures appeared from the hole.

‘Numerous’ was not an exaggeration, there were really a lot of them and looking across, there was no end.

This was also not accurate, because these things that came out of the ground were corpses – they were all extremely pale and their eyes bloodshot. A black fog surrounded them like a black flame.

They were puppets created by the power of darkness. They were killing machines without conscience.

Whether they were powerful depended on their makers as well as the puppets’ own cultivation.

With how powerful the Darkness Ruler was, one could only imagine the power of his darkness puppets.

Although many of these puppets had tyrannical auras, there were more that did not.

At least from Qin Yu’s point of view, they were just ‘cannon fodder’. A huge number of them rushing out would also slow him down and reduce his power by a little.

Woo…these words seemed so familiar…

Qin Yu frowned as a disgusted and cold look flashed through his eyes. He realized why he did not see anyone for his entire journey here. If he was not wrong, all these people in front of him were them.

To try and live, this Darkness Ruler was brutal. Although it was understandable that people would do anything to try and live…to Qin Yu, this was a bit overboard.

At least, this was beyond what was acceptable for Qin Yu. Hence the murderous intent in his eyes intensified.

Boom –

With a roar, the darkness puppets rushed over. Their speed and auras were shocking.

Qin Yu’s brows raised slightly as a serious look crossed his eyes. These puppets used to be Saints!

That’s right. Not just Half-Saints still struggling in the Sea of Bitterness but True Saints that had reached the shore and successfully gathered their Great Dao.

Although he had already witnessed how strong the Darkness Ruler was, Qin Yu found it hard to believe that he could turn True Saints into darkness puppets.

After all, to Qin Yu, it seemed it would be difficult even for Rulers to do this and prevent True Saints from committing suicide.

Since he could not understand, he ignored it for the time being. He had to act first. Qin Yu stepped forward and touched the air. As soon as his finger fell, a light appeared. It was like the sun rays reflecting across the ocean and lighting up the surroundings.

The light was like arrows shooting down and piercing the eyes of the darkness puppets. A few weaker puppets let out miserable cries after getting shot. It was as if their insides exploded and black smoke emerged from them. Very soon, their bodies disintegrated and formed piles of ashes on the ground.

They were killed on the spot!

The True Saint-level darkness puppets were right in front as they charged towards him and took a huge blow from the light arrows. Groaning, the surface of their bodies started to burn. But soon, light could be seen within the flames and it created radiant armor around them.

Qin Yu was shocked. This was outside of his expectations; his impression of the Darkness Ruler’s abilities and power increased even more.

Ignoring how vicious he was, when it came to the Light and Dark Body, this Darkness Ruler had reached the peak. He might even be stronger than a Ruler. Qin Yu was not comparable.

Because these darkness puppets in front of him were True Saints who had taken the Path of Light.

Using the Light Ruler’s materials to create darkness puppets, he had to merge two different energies together. Just this was enough to make anyone admire him.

Moreover, these darkness puppets were not just that, their Light and Dark Bodies were pushing in opposite directions and causing them to be stronger.

With his plan to use light falling short, Qin Yu frowned and put it to one side. His fingers clenched into a fist and he punched out.

Boom –

With a loud sound, it was like he hit a thick wall and the vibration was spreading outwards.

This vibration did not seem strong but it actually possessed a startling restrictive power. It was like a thick swamp, slowly drowning the prey that it caught.

The True Saint darkness puppets growled and an explosive power burst from within them, covering their light armor. At this moment, black veins appeared over the armor.

The light and dark power was activated. The restrictive power in the air was forcefully broken. However, Qin Yu remained calm.

Puppets were still just puppets meant to die. Even if they were True Saint darkness puppets and possessed incredible powers, they did not know how to attack or retreat and it was not difficult to deal with them.

For example, the one that was breaking up in front of Qin Yu. Although it was able to break through Qin Yu’s defence, this was a forceful and explosive method. And would cause a severe backlash on its own body as well.

Hence, there was a faint sound and soon cracks could be seen on the surface of the darkness puppet.

And these cracks were what Qin Yu needed. No matter how strong and sturdy one was, as soon as cracks appeared, there was a chance to destroy it from the inside out.

He lifted his hand and touched the air. However, this time, the ray that appeared from Qin Yu’s fingertip was made of black and white intertwined. It was fascinating.

When his finger landed, the armor of the True Saint darkness puppets across from him started to crack. There was a flaw in their Light and Dark Bodies and they could no longer flow naturally.

This was Qin Yu’s chance.

He would be able to thoroughly destroy the True Saint darkness puppets in front of him. He just had to disrupt the balance in their bodies and trigger an internal ‘explosion’.

The True Saint darkness puppet that rushed towards him suddenly seemed to stumble and a low explosion could be heard from his chest as if a bomb had exploded.

Crack –

Crack –

More cracks appeared starting from his chest and spread outwards, covering the entire top part of his armor. This strong True Saint darkness puppet lost its defence and was now extremely weak.

Qin Yu could do the same thing again and make it even weaker.

However, there was no time left. He did not allow the darkness puppet to get near him. This was because Qin Yu was afraid that the Darkness Ruler would order the puppet to self-combust.

They were True Saint darkness puppets, moreover, they were a combination of Light and Dark. If they exploded next to him, Qin Yu would not be able to retreat in time.

He had to act…Qin Yu growled and flew outwards, throwing out a punch!