Chapter 1095: The Gloom Devours the Law King
“From now on, we are one entity.”
“Should anyone spot the three who fell behind attempting to rejoin us, report it at once. We will then execute them as one.”
“Remember: trust no one who returns from the gloom, even if they were once your closest companion.”
As they advanced in tight formation, the cultivators of the Immortal Alliance reiterated the grim directive.
Meanwhile, through his conversation with Dharma Transmitter Zhou, Li Fan learned the origins of this Desolate Gloom.
Because of the Immortal Ruins, the Xuanhuang Realm is perpetually under the influence of an immense gravitational pull.
Logically, if left unchecked, everything within the Xuanhuang Realm would eventually be drawn into the Immortal Ruins.
That was what the cultivators of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had always believed.
But the discovery of the Desolate Gloom shattered that perception.
While still a part of the Xuanhuang Realm, this place operated under its own unique laws.
Beyond the previously mentioned suppression of divine sense and sound, lost cultivators would have their minds seized by unknown entities within the gloom, transforming them into entirely different beings.
And the victim would remain completely unaware of the change.
“This... sounds a lot like Mo Rubin’s method of possession,” Li Fan mused.
“Indeed. But it’s only a superficial similarity. It proves nothing.”
Dharma Transmitter Zhou seemed to deliberately sidestep the topic, continuing, “Ever since this place was discovered, it has been of the utmost importance to the Alliance. Given that the gloom defies the Immortal Ruins, we hoped that by studying it, we might find a way to escape its pull. However, until now, this knowledge was restricted to only a few core Dharma Transmitters.”
“That Law King of the Xuantian Sect once possessed the bodies of Transmitter Chen and the others, which is how he learned of this place.”
“The You Clan don’t live within the Desolate Gloom itself, but they were the first to discover how to access it and harness its power. We only uncovered this secret while campaigning against their small world and clashing with them in battle.”
“The power of the gloom? Is it something completely different from immortal spiritual energy?” Li Fan asked, pondering the implications.
“Not entirely. Our observations over the years have shown that the power of the gloom shares certain characteristics with immortal spiritual energy. But...” Dharma Transmitter Zhou paused, as if searching for the right analogy.
“Immortal spiritual energy and the power of the gloom... they are like a person and their shadow.”
“Originally, the two should have been inseparable, perfectly intertwined. But the presence of the Immortal Ruins has forcefully stripped the gloom’s power away, separating it from the whole.”
Hearing this, Li Fan began to understand.
It was like a centrifuge separating the different components of a liquid.
Because of its inherent tendency to repel the Immortal Ruins, as the Xuanhuang Realm was gradually pulled in, all the gloom’s power converged in the opposite direction.
“The pull of the Immortal Ruins is caused by the [Hunger] character.”
“So what exactly is this power of the gloom, that it can resist the force of a True Immortal’s script?”
Li Fan felt a surge of doubt.
“We’ve previously conducted a full exploration of the entire Desolate Gloom. That’s why we were able to detect the anomaly the moment Mo Rubin snuck in.”
“If you pay close attention, you should be able to perceive it as well,” Dharma Transmitter Zhou prompted.
“Oh?”
At his words, Li Fan frowned and extended his senses into the surrounding gloom.
After a long moment...
“Are you referring to that rhythmic pulse, like ripples on water?” Li Fan asked.
“Precisely. We detected Mo Rubin’s aura at the source of that pulse. However...”
Dharma Transmitter Zhou’s tone grew uncertain. “He’s been here for over ten days, yet his position hasn’t changed in the slightest. It’s as if he’s been grievously wounded and has lost consciousness.”
“Could it be a trap?” Li Fan couldn't help but ask.
“Impossible,” Dharma Transmitter Zhou declared, his tone firm.
“Even if it is a trap... with so many of us here, we have nothing to fear from a single ancient-path Longevity cultivator.”
Seeing Dharma Transmitter Zhou’s confidence, Li Fan didn't press the matter.
With no one speaking, a dreadful silence once again descended upon them.
“Stay alert. We’re almost there.”
An unknown amount of time passed before Dharma Transmitter Zhou’s warning came.
Having locked onto the source of the pulse from a distance, the Immortal Alliance cultivators followed his instructions and formed a wide encirclement.
They closed in, trapping the hidden Mo Rubin at the center.
Ready to swarm him at a single command.
At the same time, Li Fan was receiving constant alerts from his Yazi array.
“It really is Mo Rubin?”
Li Fan couldn’t help his surprise.
“Strange...”
Though a sense of unease lingered in his heart, Li Fan didn’t make any rash moves.
He simply followed the movements of the Alliance cultivators, gradually tightening the hunting circle.
Everyone held their breath in anticipation, but Mo Rubin showed no reaction whatsoever.
It was as if he was completely oblivious to the enemies closing in around him.
This continued right up until the Immortal Alliance cultivators stood directly before him.
...
“Stand down.”
“He appears to be dead.”
Dharma Transmitter Zhou’s voice came through, tinged with disbelief.
“Hmm?”
A sudden chill washed over Li Fan.
He followed the line of Alliance cultivators with his senses, moving all the way to the center of the formation.
The moment his divine sense made contact with Mo Rubin’s body, he perceived his current state in detail.
Mo Rubin’s face was gone.
In its place was only a swirling mass of gloom, constantly coalescing and dispersing where his head should be.
The scene was indescribably bizarre, but what truly horrified Li Fan was the state of Mo Rubin’s body.
One half remained a human torso.
But the other half seemed to have been completely consumed by the surrounding gloom.
It flickered constantly, shifting between a state of pure gloom and solid flesh.
Probing by one of the Alliance’s black-robed death-sworn confirmed that the gloom consuming half of Mo Rubin’s body was no illusion.
His physical form was truly vanishing and reappearing in a constant state of flux.
When the gloom manifested, reaching into it was like touching nothing but empty space.
But a moment later, when that half of his body reappeared...
...the gloom that had been there vanished abruptly.
And the hand the death-sworn had extended into it vanished as well.
The gloom seemed to be contagious; the black-robed death-sworn couldn’t even utter a sound...
...as he was engulfed by the gloom that surged up from his own hand.
Fortunately, Dharma Transmitter Zhou acted decisively, severing his connection to the man and ordering him to be killed on the spot.
This swift action prevented the gloom from spreading through the rest of the Alliance cultivators.
“Fellow Daoist, what are your thoughts?” Dharma Transmitter Zhou asked, his tone heavy.
Li Fan remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking. “The gloom on Mo Rubin’s corpse seems different from the gloom in this desolate place.”
“The one on the body is contagious, while the gloom in the environment is not.”
“Until we understand what’s really going on here, it’s best we avoid touching it.”
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