My Longevity Simulation Chapter 1098: Surge of the Dark Tide

Observing the strange condition of the You Clan members in front of him, Li Fan stayed calm. He disregarded their intense fright and compelled them to finish the initiation vow before the statue of the Faceless True Immortal.

It was only once they had settled down completely that Li Fan asked about the cause of their dread.

The You Clan chief shook as he replied. After quite some time, he finally conveyed: “We’ve never been lucky enough to behold the True Immortal statue until now. Yet the instant we gazed upon it, our kin felt an overwhelming terror instinctively.”

“We dwell in endless night throughout the year, and our forms have grown accustomed to that peculiar setting. We can tolerate regular daylight for a brief period, but before the True Immortal statue...”

“It’s akin to a blazing light piercing total obscurity, a thousandfold more intense than the sun overhead, emerging out of nowhere.”

The You Clan chief’s explanation stuttered along, yet Li Fan grasped what he meant.

Much like how ordinary folks would tremble in horror at the brink of a chasm, the You Clan folk experienced sheer panic when confronting the Faceless True Immortal statue, as though staring down an imminent peril.

However, the True Immortal’s web remained shapeless and elusive. Even Li Fan, serving as the Faceless True Immortal’s representative in the Xuanhuang Realm, might fail to sense it without other signs.

On the other hand, each individual in this You Clan assembly, including the infants among them, without fail, perceived the True Immortal’s might.

“It appears this ties closely to the darkness power they command.”

Following that, Li Fan heard from the You Clan chief their perspective on the darkness.

The You Clan folk had started out as ordinary humans too.

Based on the old tales handed down in their group, back in antiquity, their realm featured azure heavens, fluffy clouds, and radiant sunshine.

Then one fateful day, once the sun dipped below the horizon, it failed to return.

Folks pleaded in hopelessness amid the gloom, but no salvation arrived.

Most of them disappeared eternally into the void.

The survivors, every one of them, had been chosen by the darkness power without exception.

As the darkness power corroded and reshaped them, their physiques altered over time.

They turned into headless abominations, their senses squeezed onto their torsos.

In reality, the You Clan didn’t grasp the core of the dark power. They merely revered it as their only hope for survival, a fearsome deity of ruin that doomed the everyday realm, sending forth supplications and entreaties.

And this dark power, as though it grasped their pleas, would genuinely answer and aid them.

The You Clan folk didn’t think they controlled the dark power; instead, it stemmed from the benevolence of the mighty God of Darkness.

...

The account from the You Clan chief clashed with the briefing from Dharma-Transmitter Zhou.

The You Clan clearly hailed from the Dark Realm itself, but Dharma-Transmitter Zhou described them as just a unique band that had tapped into and harnessed the Dark Realm’s energy.

On such a small point, Dharma-Transmitter Zhou had no motive to mislead him.

“Evidently, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance’s uncovering of the Dark Realm wasn’t as straightforward as she made it sound.”

A sharp chill gleamed in Li Fan’s gaze.

Afterward, he contemplated how this darkness power took shape.

“Through prayer, followed by waiting for a reply?”

“That explains why the ceremony to unlock the path to the Dark Realm includes chants and movements.”

Li Fan’s eyes shifted thoughtfully.

He was quite familiar with forces that reacted to a cultivator’s inner impulses, bearing that kind of trait.

The golden Source Power Essence: the leftover might cast off by True Immortals while seeking the Dao’s origin. It went by the name of the Flower of the Dao.

“Given that they resonate with one another, a link must exist between the pair.”

As per the You Clan chief’s description, while the darkness power only solidifies in their native land, it permeates the whole Xuanhuang Realm everywhere. It just lacks a defined shape, rendering it hard for common folk to notice. Still, via unique rituals of supplication and summoning, barriers across minor realms can be bridged to draw its strength.

With Li Fan watching closely, the You Clan chief displayed a pious look and murmured ancient chants softly.

He directed an assault at a savage creature up ahead that looked like a mix of lion and tiger.

This lion-tiger creature represented a fresh variety bred lately by the empire: its body was tough as iron. Even a maximum blow from a typical Foundation Establishment cultivator could barely scratch it.

But a profoundly strange sight occurred.

Without any prior sign, the formerly proud lion-tiger creature abruptly crumpled, its legs buckling as it hit the earth.

Terror filled its eyes; it flailed futilely to stand.

Yet under its form, it seemed an unseen bog lay in wait. Innumerable grasps appeared to yank at it ceaselessly from the sludge.

Under Li Fan’s watchful stare, the lion-tiger creature got gradually consumed by the darkness.

Not a single bone was left behind.

Throughout the process, Li Fan never actually “perceived” the darkness’s form.

But the lion-tiger creature had truly dissolved right in his sight.

Li Fan scrutinized the spot where the darkness had struck: no remnant energy could be found.

“It arrives and departs tracelessly, utterly unpredictable.” Li Fan rubbed his chin, sinking into contemplation.

At the same time, the You Clan group shut their eyes once more in unified reverence, beseeching.

“Evidently, only they can provoke a reaction from the darkness via this kind of prayer. Regular people, regardless of how precisely they copy the actions, fail to call forth the dark power.”

“That tracks. Only after entering our Federation of All Worlds, pledging before the True Immortal Image, and weaving into the True Immortal webs can their pleas reach me. Likely, the darkness power harbors a similar hidden mesh.”

Li Fan mused quietly: “Thus, the crux is figuring out how to connect to this mesh without getting obliterated by the darkness.”

In the Dark Realm, the odd condition of Mo Rubin’s remains lingered vividly in his thoughts. Just touching it physically had caused that result. It was tough to fathom what fate awaited if one’s flesh and spirit plunged fully into the darkness—and somehow endured.

Then, Li Fan instructed his loyal deathsworn followers to try replicating the link with the darkness, which verified his theory.

They faded away silently, devoured by the darkness: neither life nor death left a mark.

Furthermore, calling on the darkness power multiple times in quick succession appeared to spark faint shifts.

As ruler of the Spiritwood Realm, Li Fan vaguely detected the whole domain darkening for a split second.

After checking with the You Clan chief, Li Fan realized this wasn’t his imagination.

Instead, the darkness was indeed starting to drift toward this location.

Li Fan promptly stopped the trials temporarily.

Through extended talks with assorted You Clan members, Li Fan at last obtained a broad sense of the darkness power’s status within the Xuanhuang Realm.

It resembled a vast sea of shadow amassed on the “reverse” face of the Xuanhuang.

Although anchored by some enigmatic spatial bind, the darkness’s natural tendency to spread led it to leak now and then through any potential “gaps,” infiltrating the Xuanhuang and even the assorted minor realms.

The seepage would eventually flow back to the Dark Realm.

This pattern looped endlessly, creating what resembled “ebbs and flows.”