Chapter 1118 Shards of the World
It took about thirty minutes to go through the waterfall. Judging by the wyrm's speed, the waterfall was about tens of thousands of kilometers wide.
Everything about the Dark Realm was so vast and immense that it was frightening.
Finally, there was a faint glow in front of them.
A pale white ray of light shot toward them.
The roar of the Primordial Chaos Waterfall had disappeared.
"We're out," said the old butler. He sounded as though he had just survived a life-threatening ordeal.
The wyrm gave out a long howl and landed on the ground.
It shook its body slightly, and flesh grew above its skeletal structure rapidly. In the blink of an eye, it had transformed into a winged and brightly colored white tiger that looked incredibly majestic. It was filled with spiritual qi and it had completely concealed all traces of the dark aura it had displayed earlier on.
Ye Qingyu nodded and stroked its head gently in approval.
After consecutively devouring the powers of a few extremely powerful beings, the wyrm already became spiritual. In fact, it was full of spiritual qi and it did not have to be told what to do. It could read the thoughts of the people around it and knew what to do, just like an unknowing child that had finally turned into an adult. It appeared more tame now, or rather, one could say that it was more "human" like.
The wyrm gave out a long howl as a reply to Ye Qingyu.
Finally, they had arrived at the real major area of the Dark Realm.
Ye Qingyu looked around them.
The core of the Dark Realm did not look like what Ye Qingyu had imagined it to be. It was not enveloped in darkness, but instead, it was even brighter than the outskirts of the domain. A pale white light hovered in the air that did not look natural. It shone down upon the domain, and everything Ye Qingyu and company saw looked white, tranquil, and cold, causing them to look deathly.
It was different from the border districts on the outskirts of the domain. All they could see were vast stretches of wasteland, crumbled walls, palaces, grass huts, destroyed mountain ranges, cracked-up land, dried-up rivers, burned-down forests, and of course, white bones strewn everywhere...
"So, the so-called Dark Realm is actually a completely wasted world?" Ye Qingyu understood a little about the domain now.
It was a forsaken and broken dimension.
A completely barren world.
Everything they laid their eyes on was either damaged or scorched earth. What was more intriguing was the fact that damaged palaces and grass huts were buildings that should not appear beside each other, but here they were a few hundred meters away from each other, as if beggars used to live beside the royal palace. It did not make any sense at all.
Ye Qingyu even spotted a very strange metal product. It was constructed with normal steel, but he did not know what it was used for. It was covered in rust, shaped very weirdly, and buried halfway into the ground...
Furthermore, there was another strange material that looked like glazed ceramic but it was not entirely so. It was completely untouched by rust but extremely brittle. It reflected off different colors and shapes, and he had not seen anything like it in the Vast Thousand Domains...
Ye Qingyu continued advancing with the wyrm and the old butler. Soon after, they encountered a huge piece of the strange material from before. It was red in color and incomplete, as if it was a shard of something huge.
"My lord, these things are commonly seen forms of waste material in the Dark Realm. They're too fragile to be constructed into weapons, and they cannot withstand heat or cold. They do not have any use for martial arts experts, but the native Dark Ones are very good at using them. They use fire to bake and soften them into a mud-like substance that can be kneaded into various types of other items..." the old butler said. He immediately began to explain after noticing Ye Qingyu's perturbed expression. "The Dark Ones call this material plastic. It's a strange name."
"Plastic?" Ye Qingyu remarked, feeling curious.
It was the first time he had heard of the name.
"Yes, most of those lowly aliens cannot practice formation magic or martial arts. To survive, they behave like burrowing rats and dig everywhere and eat anything, giving them a unique power unrelated to formations or martial arts. It is said that the Dark Ones found many things in various ruins and dumps that do not belong to this world. After further experimentation, they managed to create many strange items with various uses, such as this plastic. Even though it's fragile, it's very light and can be used to store water; liquid will not seep through it..." said the old butler in a somewhat haphazard fashion.
Evidently, he did not know much about the Dark Ones.
"Things that do not belong to this world?" Ye Qingyu was perturbed.
The old butler chuckled and explained as if the information he was about to say was treasure. "My lord, there's something you do not know. It is rumored that the Dark Realm was not born of natural causes. Instead, countless number of years ago, a few Supreme Emperors came together to form the world, and the original material used to form the Dark Realm was from worlds from other dimensions that had already been destroyed... The shards of those worlds drifted in the infinite wilderness of time and space, as if they had been exiled by the Eternal. All life had been extinguished from them, and the Supreme Beings of the Vast Thousand Domains took part of them with their great magical abilities and formed them into the Dark Realm before merging it into the Vast Thousand Domains as a buffer zone to block off intrusions by foreign invaders. As such, we can find many strange objects in the Dark Realm that cannot be explained by any knowledge system of the Vast Thousand Domains, even though they exist. It is said that they are objects left behind in the pieces of those destroyed worlds, and they belong to them."
Ye Qingyu was a little clearer now.
That said, he could feel that he was becoming increasingly shocked. The methods used by the Supreme Martial Emperors of the past were truly incredible. They had reached past the flow of space and time to cut off pieces of other worlds to form a new one, before merging it into the Vast Thousand Domains. An idea flashed in his mind, and he guessed that the reason why the ancient Martial Emperors did so was not simply to create a buffer zone for the Vast Thousand Domains.
Ye Qingyu thought about it as they continued walking. Gradually, he seemed to have come up with some hypotheses.
These pieces of destroyed worlds should have retained traces of those worlds, along with some discarded items and their secrets. Take this so-called "plastic" for example. It could not be found in the Vast Thousand Domains, and the ancient Supreme Martial Emperors could very possibly have formed the Dark Realm because they hoped that their descendants could get a glimpse of the civilization and might of these destroyed worlds through such traces.
After all, a breakthrough could only be achieved by learning from other people.
It was a pity that their descendants had not really done so, judging by how the old butler had described the division of power in the Dark Realm.
Their mastery of formation magic and martial arts were so powerful that they seemed to be gods or demons. They compacted the objects left behind by shards of those shattered worlds, but their descendants ended up loving the cultivation of martial arts and used them to resolve everything, while despising the power contained within the bits and pieces of discarded items from those worlds that were already destroyed.
Except for the Dark Ones. They had little to no social bearing and were unable to learn formation magic or martial arts techniques, and they had to really try to decipher the secrets of those worlds to survive. In the process, they mastered a power unrelated to formation magic or martial arts.
As he thought about this, Ye Qingyu decided that he would like to pay a visit to these so-called Dark Ones.
However, the most pressing matter at hand was still to visit the place where Mr. Ren Puyang was attacked and to find out the truth about certain matters.
"Let's go."
"We're headed to Luoshen Ridge," Ye Qingyu said.
Luoshen Ridge was the place in the Dark Realm where Ren Puyang and Lin Yutang were attacked. Ye Qingyu had already slayed all of Ren Puyang's murderers who were in the Vast Thousand Domains, but the real masterminds were, in fact, influential figures who were hiding in the Dark Realm. He wanted to meet the master of Luoshen Ridge on his first visit there; he was also one of the murderers. Ye Qingyu had obtained all of this information after the wyrm had absorbed all of the Great Ancient Dragon Emperor's memories.
The old butler knew the reason behind Ye Qingyu's visit to the ridge and was so afraid that he could feel trepidation in his heart. He hesitated many times before finally plucking up the courage to speak. "My lord, Zhang Longcheng, the master of Luoshen Ridge, is one of the nobles conferred with a title by the Guardians. He holds special privileges in the Dark Realm. Are you really going to charge directly into his territory?"
"What do you think?" asked Ye Qingyu casually.
The old butler trembled and nearly died of shock. Still, there was no way for him to escape, he could only resume honestly guiding Ye Qingyu along.
Half a day later—
Luoshen Ridge could be spotted in the distance.
It was a collapsed part of a mountain range, and there were no complete peaks along the entire ridge. Most of them had been cut in half, as if deities had battled here long ago and caused destruction to the entire mountain range.
After all, everything in the Dark Realm looked like this.
"Huh?" Ye Qingyu exclaimed as a strange look appeared on his face.
This was because he had noticed a strange, hot aura that pervaded the air of this mountain range in decline. It was not natural spiritual qi of the fire element, but an energy that seemed closer to that of fiery poison. It was faint and could not form any threat to ordinary beings, but it was still not advisable to remain in this place for long.
Ye Qingyu released his divine sense.
He found the battlefield where Ren Puyang was killed after a brief observation.
After a short while, he appeared on the battlefield.
It could not be considered a secluded and quiet cliff or valley. It was more like a huge jar that was concave, and it covered a few hundred square kilometers. It was barren and black rocks could be seen everywhere. They looked strange, as if they were made of molten lava that had crystallized. What was worth noting was that he could sense the weird fiery poison even more clearly within the valley. It was at least a few dozen times more intense than that of other ordinary mountain ranges.
Such fiery poison power had never appeared in the Vast Thousand Domains.
Ye Qingyu stood exactly at the center of the valley and thought in silence. Soon after, wave after wave of strange energy emanated from his body and splattered in the void like an invisible dye. Continuous ripples stirred in the void. Then something changed, and one holographic image after another appeared without warning.
"Emperor Detection Technique!"
The old butler's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of a needle's tip upon seeing this.
Ye Qingyu is using the Emperor Detection Technique?
He... has already become an Emperor?
It was only now that the old butler knew the true extent of Ye Qingyu's power.
He was using the Emperor Detection Technique to re-enact the scene of Ren Puyang's death. They seemed to have been transported back in time and could see everything that had happened yesterday.