Chương 441: Tales of Blood (VI)

[--Congratulations, Host. One of your Disciples underwent Enlightenment and carved a path further toward their Dao] [...] [Xi Zhao has forged further ahead in the path of Indominable Dao. His Sword Heart has started emerging] [...] [Rewards] [Reward 1: 1, 000CP] [Reward 2: A hint helpful toward Host's current circumstances] [...] [A hint: the strongest entity currently within the Hidden Realm is a Shadow Remnant of an ancient Deity. If Host can find it and subdue it, rewards would be immense] Right.

The window popped up soon after we entered the tent, as though it waited for me to be a bit more comfortable. While I appreciated the points, I wasn't so keen on trying to find something that was stronger than Long Tao, truth be told. I did shelve it in the back of my mind for 'in case of wanting to do something stupid, break this' reason. We packed the tent and once again began trekking the damn desert. Though the physical heat wasn't affecting me much, the mental aspect was beginning to wear us all down.

Seeing the exact same scenery infinitely, while light continues to blare directly into your eyes... it's not exactly conducive to a healthy mentality. As such, our breaks became more frequent, and our pace kind of plummeted. For a couple of days, I actually considered taking out the damn chariot and just beelining northward, but held back as I didn't even know whether I could, and especially didn't know whether I should.

Luckily, about five or so days into our stay in this realm, we saw the light at the end of a tunnel--or, in this case, shade at the end of the light. The desert, rather abruptly and quite unrealistically, bled into a strange jungle of decaying trees with glistening fruits hanging from their branches. The trunks had strange, dark-blue sheen to them, and there was a persistent odor of somewhat aged plums that permeated the air.

"They are called glowbulbs," Liao Xinya said as Xi Zhao reached for one.

"If you touch them, they'll explode in your hand and cover you with glowing powder, which glow-serpents can use to track you down until you die."

"..." he winced and paused, glaring at her for a moment.

"Where are we?" I asked her.

"The place is called Luminous Night," she said.

"Because despite it being relatively bright due to the glowbulbs, it's a perpetual night." I didn't quite get what she meant as we hadn't fully stepped inside, but as soon as we did... it made sense. From the outside, it didn't seem as though canopy was particularly thick--certainly not thick enough to block out that scorching behemoth above us--but about twenty yards or so inward past the edge, darkness surged.

The way the place was lit up reminded me a lot of early 3D games, where 'light' had specific source and specific reach. Glowbulbs were like those sources where areas directly around them were decently visible, but then immediately fell into darkness past a certain 'range'. It was quite uncomfortable to look at as it wasn't how my brain expected light to behave. Not in reality, at least. There was no bleeding, no spilling, just a hard cut from visible into not so much.

"Supposedly, those who originally established this place had means of harvesting glowbulbs," Xinya explained further as we began navigating the place--and by we, I mean her navigating it while Xi Zhao and I followed closely behind.

"And, in turn, had means of rearing glow-serpents. It is said that the oldest glow-serpent had actually transformed into a dragon and soared across the skies, scattering the glowbulb powder everywhere and marking the world as its territory." This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I do love hearing random legends about a new place we visit, and trying to figure out how much of it is true. For this one?

I wouldn't be surprised if most of it is, to be honest. Well, outside the random dragon. Though I've heard dragons mentioned quite a few times, I've yet to encounter one directly, sadly. Hey.... what are the chances that the aforementioned 'deity' is that very dragon that once soared these skies? Suddenly, both impulses--to go and to stay as far away as possible--skyrocketed. A chance to see a dragon? Priceless. No, wait--price might be my life.

"Hm?" I paused as I got a tingling sensation in my gut. By now, I'd realized that it was my brain--now passively adjusting to Qi and such--picking up on something that stood out. I instinctively sent out my Divine Sense and discovered that we were not alone in this place.

"Do you know them?" Liao Xinya asked as she also tensed up.

"Why would I know them? Shouldn't I ask you that?"

"I ask because I don't know them," she growled back, lowering her voice.

"They've spotted us just as we've spotted them. And seeing that they broke off into flanking ranks, they'll probably approach with the central group to either figure out who we are, or to distract us so the others can attack us from stealth."

"Well," I said.

"If it looks like they'll attack, just attack first."

"You do have some true pearls hidden in your head, huh?" wow, that was about as sarcastic as a tone could get, I imagine. I smiled sheepishly just before a set of lights broke through the darkness in front of us, revealing four figures wearing near-identical robes. They belonged to the same sect, but I couldn't recognize them--either the people or the sigil. My second instinct was to immediately activate Creator's Eyes on the man leading them.

[Creator's Eyes used] [Target: Feng Fang] [Age: 493] [Talent: peak-Sky] [Cultivation Realm: Peak Void Transformation Realm] [Cultivation Method: Lurking Shadow, Silent Vow (peak-Heaven)] [Cultivation Arts: Silent Puncture (low-Sky), Void Steps (mid-Sky)...] [...] [Traits] [Enshadowed (Legendary) -- submitted to the Shadow Lord] [Enslaved (Legendary) -- enslaved both in mind and body; entity wholly stripped of individual will, chained deep within the recess of his mind] [Peering Eyes (Epic) -- project visibility field across the shared mind-space] [Corruption (???) -- a body so deeply corrupted that Dao has started rejecting it; it will become wholly mortal and decay quite soon] [...] [Assessing suitability...] [Numerous anomalies detected] [Crux: target is part of the hivemind structure. It has no will of its own beyond intended presentation; any action taken against them will immediately be registered with every other subject, as well as the Shadow Lord] [...] [Recommendation: though the target isn't truly well beyond saving, requirements for it are virtually impossible for Host's current circumstances. It is recommended that the host liberate the soul and allow it to enter Nirvana] [--emergency quest generated] [Traces of the Shadow Lord (???)] [Context: Palpably ethereal entity that had spread out its influence in every direction is known by many names, though most refer to it as 'Shadow Lord' due to the simple reason that it had stayed in the shadows since its first appearance. What little is known of it is of no use in finding it--they practice a cultivation method that is akin to a parasite hive, in that its lesser variants that are spread throughout the Heavens corrupt practitioners, creating new spawns for the hivemind. No one has ever learned their identity, though some have suspected that they are in some way connected to Emperor Shadow. They had suddenly gone dormant and distant around 10, 000 years ago, leaving almost no traces of themselves behind--until now] [Quest: Figure out the purpose of the puppets in front of you] [Reward 1: A hint on Shadow Lord's identity] [Reward 2: A replica of their original cultivation method]