Chapter 1098: The Surging Tides of Gloom
Li Fan remained impassive as he observed the strange agitation among the You Clan members. He disregarded the sheer terror etched on their faces, compelling them to complete their initiation oath before the statue of the Faceless Immortal.
Only after they had finally calmed down did Li Fan inquire about the cause of their profound fear.
The leader of the You Clan, his body still trembling, took a long moment before he could explain. "The True Immortal's statue... we have never had the fortune of seeing it before. But the instant we laid eyes on it, our people were overcome by an instinctual, boundless terror."
"We have lived in the gloom for generations; our bodies have adapted to that unique environment. We can endure normal sunlight for a time, but before this statue..."
"It was like being in absolute darkness when a light source, hundreds, thousands of times brighter than the sun, suddenly blazed into existence."
The leader's words came out in fits and starts, but Li Fan understood his meaning.
Just as a mortal would feel fear when peering into an abyss, the You Clan felt an extreme terror born from a sense of fatal threat when they looked upon the Faceless Immortal statue.
Yet the True Immortal's net was formless and intangible. Even Li Fan himself, were he not the Faceless Immortal's agent in the Xuanhuang Realm, would likely have been unable to perceive its existence.
In stark contrast, every single member of the You Clan, down to the most recently born child, had felt the True Immortal's power without exception.
Li Fan proceeded to learn about the You Clan's understanding of the Gloom from their leader.
The You Clan, it turned out, were originally human.
According to the ancient legends passed down through their people, their world in a bygone era had known blue skies, white clouds, and brilliant sunshine.
But one day, the sun set and simply never rose again.
The people begged in the darkness, lost in despair, but no miracle came.
The vast majority of them vanished forever into that eternal night.
Those who survived, without exception, were all favored by the power of the Gloom.
Under the corrupting, transformative influence of this power, their bodies slowly began to change.
They became the horrifying figures they were today—headless, with their facial features crowded onto their chests.
In truth, the You Clan had no understanding of the Gloom's fundamental nature. They simply treated it as their only lifeline, worshipping and praying to it as a terrifying, malevolent god that had brought doom to the normal world.
And the power of the Gloom, as if it could understand their words, would actually respond, allowing them to wield it.
The You Clan did not believe they had mastered this power; rather, they saw it as a gift from their great god of the Gloom.
...
The You Clan leader's account, however, differed from what Dharma Transmitter Zhou had told him.
The You Clan were clearly natives of the Gloomy Realm, yet Dharma Transmitter Zhou had claimed they were merely a unique race that had discovered and learned to utilize its power.
On such a minor point, there was no reason for Dharma Transmitter Zhou to deceive him.
"It seems the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's discovery of the Gloomy Realm wasn't as simple as he made it out to be."
A cold glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
He then began to ponder the manifestation of this gloomy power.
"Pray, and then wait for a response?"
"No wonder the passage to the Gloomy Realm is opened through a ritual of song and dance."
Li Fan's eyes flickered with insight.
He was no stranger to a power with the quality of responding to a cultivator's inner stirrings.
The golden Source Power Essence—the residual energy left behind by True Immortals in their pursuit of the Dao Root—was one such power, a manifestation known as the Dao Flower.
"Since they can sense one another, there might be a connection between them."
According to the You Clan leader, while the power of the Gloom only manifested concretely in their homeland, it was in fact omnipresent throughout the entire Xuanhuang Realm. It was simply not concentrated, making it imperceptible to ordinary people. However, through special methods of prayer and invocation, they could call upon its power across the barriers separating small worlds.
Under Li Fan's watch, the You Clan leader assumed a pious expression and began to murmur an incantation.
He launched an attack on a ferocious, lion-tiger-like beast before them.
This creature was a new breed recently cultivated by the Empire, its flesh as hard as steel. A full-force blow from an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would scarcely leave a mark.
But then, an incredibly bizarre scene unfolded.
Without any warning, the once-majestic lion-tiger beast suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground.
Its eyes were filled with terror as it struggled helplessly to rise.
Yet it was as if an invisible mire lay beneath it, a mire from which countless hands were constantly pulling it down.
Before Li Fan's very eyes, the lion-tiger beast was slowly swallowed by the Gloom.
Not a single bone was left behind.
From beginning to end, Li Fan never once "saw" the Gloom itself.
And yet, the beast had undeniably vanished right before him.
Li Fan carefully inspected the ground where the Gloom had descended. There was no residual trace of power whatsoever.
"It comes and goes without a trace, impossible to guard against," Li Fan muttered, stroking his chin as he fell deep into thought.
The group of You Clan members, meanwhile, once again closed their eyes in collective, pious prayer.
"It seems only they can elicit a response from the Gloom through this prayer. Ordinary humans, no matter how perfectly they mimic the ritual, cannot invoke its power."
"That's easy enough to understand. Only those who join our Federation of All Worlds, swear the oath before the True Immortal's statue, and join the True Immortal's net can have their prayers sensed by me. The power of the Gloom must operate through a similar invisible net."
Li Fan mused inwardly, "So, the crucial point is how to join this net without being devoured by the Gloom."
The grotesque state of Mo Rubin's corpse in the Gloomy Realm remained vivid in his memory. Mere physical contact had led to such a fate. It was difficult to imagine anyone surviving after immersing both body and soul into the Gloom.
The subsequent experiments, in which Li Fan ordered his death-sworn soldiers to attempt communication with the Gloom, only served to confirm his suspicions.
Silently, they were swallowed by the Gloom. No living person was seen, and no corpse was found.
Moreover, frequently invoking the power of the Gloom in such a short period seemed to have triggered certain subtle changes.
As the master of the Spirit Wood Realm, Li Fan faintly sensed the entire world darken for a fleeting moment.
After confirming with the You Clan leader, Li Fan knew it was not his imagination.
The Gloom was indeed showing a tendency to flow toward this location.
Li Fan decisively halted the experiments for the time being.
After a long period of questioning various members of the You Clan, Li Fan finally managed to piece together a general picture of the Gloom's current state in the Xuanhuang Realm.
It was like an ocean of gloom, gathered on the "reverse side" of the Xuanhuang.
Although it was fixed in place by some unknown, mysterious force, the inherently pervasive nature of the Gloom caused it to sometimes seep through any possible "crevice" to invade the Xuanhuang Realm and its various smaller worlds.
It would invade, and then ultimately return to the Gloomy Realm.
This endless cycle formed something akin to "tides."
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