by Zhuang Bifan
"Were you referring to this place?" Lin Li asked while staring at the view in front of him peculiarly, only to see an ancient gate that had a magical barrier in the middle, on which there seemed to be water ripples. Lin Li thought that Zoquila would take him to a place where all the books of the Darkness Shrine were kept. However, the place in front of him didn't look like a library at all.
"Master Felic, please rest assured. You are the most distinguished guest of the Darkness Shrine, and although this is a forbidden place for other believers of Darkness, you are definitely qualified to enter this place. All of us, including Sendros, come here to get some enlightenment about the Darkness Laws. Please come with me," Zoquila said as he walked towards the gate.
Lin Li thought, He probably wouldn't hurt me, I don't seem to have any feud with this Necromancer, and I was invited to the Darkness Shrine by Sendros. Since Sendros and the rest come here to be enlightened about the Laws of Darkness, it should be the same as a Darkness canon. After Zoquila entered through the gate, Lin Li stroked his chin and paced back and forth in front of the gate before finally deciding to go in and take a look.
Lin Li had the debris of the stars Gloomy Dark which contained the purest Darkness nomological power. However, just like a mage apprentice who had an advanced magic book, Lin Li had needed a long and arduous process to find some clues and information from the book even though he could figure out some things. Moreover, his knowledge was still limited and incomplete. Hence, mage apprentices had to build and strengthen their foundation in magic by reading some basic books about magic in order to study advanced magic books better. What Lin Li needed the most now was basic knowledge about the Laws of Darkness so that he could better understand the Laws while gaining a better understanding of Gloomy Dark. That was also why he studied theurgy at the Brilliance Shrine.
However, Lin Li began to regret it as soon as he stepped through the gate. The high priest Zoquila who had entered first had long disappeared, and Lin Li looked around to realize that it was a completely different world. There was soft and dense grass beneath his feet, but the grass was black. There were wild flowers blooming in the grass, but they were also black, just like the dense forest in the distance where the trees were black. The sky was black, and so was the entire world. If it weren't for his understanding of the Laws of Darkness, Lin Li wouldn't be able to see anything at this moment.
Damn it, what kind of a damned place is this? What is that disgraceful Zoquila trying to do!? Lin Li cursed. However, he had no choice but to walk forward, because the door behind him was long gone as well.
When he first entered, Lin Li still felt that he had a chance of getting off scot free, but after he walked for a while and stopped in his tracks, he knew that he had definitely been duped, for he "saw" around him countless all-black magical beasts, which would look like vivid sketches against a white background.
Shadow Creatures, this is the damned Shadow Realm! Lin Li finally thought of a place that was the most disgusting version of the Endless World and a parallel of the world of Anril in legends. It was the Shadow Realm. Just like the World of the Undead, the Shadow Realm was dependent on Anril, but it was also relatively independent and composed of relatively individual World Laws at the same time.
By using the Tide of Death, a Necromancer would be opening a door to the world of the Undead, and the Undead creatures would swarm out in armies while feeding off of the aura of life in Anril. Otherwise, the decaying bones in Anril alone would never form terrifying combat power.
The difference between the Shadow Realm and the world of the Undead was that the Shadow Creatures couldn't leave the Shadow Realm, even though they were much stronger than the Undead creatures—even the most common Shadow magical beast was at least level-10. However, a single ray of light would be lethal to Shadow Creatures.
After the Shadow Creatures appeared around Lin Li, the first thing Lin Li thought of was the Holy Light Magic. However, he got a great shock after giving it a try. The entire Shadow Realm seemed to have a force that would prevent all light from appearing. In the Shadow Realm, it was impossible for Lin Li to even release a small fireball, let alone use Holy Light Magic. It could be said that any magic related to light was forbidden by the powerful World Laws there.
Magic was not the only aspect restricted. Lin Li took out the Helios' Scepter in a bid to cast a bunch of stones, because he thought that stones had nothing to do with light. However, when he induced mana into Helios' Scepter, he discovered that the Helios' Scepter had also lost its function. It seemed that the introduction of man would make the gemstone on Helios' Scepter glow and emit light. Hence, that behavior was also prohibited by the World Laws.
Lin Li had no choice but to put away the Helios' Scepter and throw some rocks with his b.a.r.e hands, after which countless huge black stones suddenly smashed into the surrounding beasts. However, although the spell was cast successfully, the damage done to those Shadow Creatures was extremely limited. One reason was the incredible agility of the Shadow Creatures, while the other was that the Shadow Creatures were highly resistant to magic and physical attacks alike. If they were struck by boulders, they would still be able to get up after rolling around unless they were hit in the head.
Lin Li's attack obviously angered the surrounding magical beasts. Although they had long wanted to rip Lin Li, the outsider, apart, his provocation made them furious. They didn't roar, and instead pounced on Lin Li silently from all sides like trained assassins.
Lin Li could not distinguish between the different types of Shadow Creatures, and only knew that there were different forms like wolves, lions, and tigers, and most of them could not be identified by their appearance. Moreover, he did not care to distinguish them, because he couldn't launch his Elemental Shield anyway. Hence, he had no other choice but to evade the attacks using his own body. It was extremely dangerous.
In fact, there were also defensive spells for Earth magic. If one were to simply use Stone Armor which had poor defensive power, he would cause himself to become the target of those Shadow Creatures. Fortunately, Lin Li had read through some books about Dark Magic when he headed back after the fight with Gergila. He immediately thought of the Dark Shadow Armor used in Dark Magic.
"Damn it, do you really think I can't do anything about you? Try this then!" Lin Li used the Dark Shadow Armor to temporarily resist the attacks of the Shadow Creatures. With the end of a chant for a spell, he pushed his hands forward forcefully, and caused a black ice ball to fly towards the beasts. Ice seemed to be shiny and glistening, but there was no light in this world of darkness to be reflected off of the ice ball. Hence, it was not prohibited by the World Laws.
The black ice ball flew towards the herd of magical beasts while spinning and continuously releasing ice cones. The ice ball was a Legendary-level magic spell. Regardless of how defensive the shadow magical beasts were, they were just like fragile paper in front of Legendary magic spells. As the ice cones were launched, they collapsed in the blink of an eye. The ending explosion of the ice ball caused a vacuum zone to appear instantly amongst the beasts.
The 10-odd ice balls finally repelled the Shadow Creatures, but Lin Li wasn't relieved, because those Shadow magical beasts were obviously the lowest-level creatures of the Shadow Realm, and there were probably more powerful creatures, such as the Shadow Wyrm in legends.
The worst things tended to always happen. Lin Li's worries soon became reality as the shadow magical beasts that had been wandering in the distance seemed to have gotten a fright and fled. There was then a massive oppression in the air, and Lin Li "looked" into the sky, only to see three Shadow Creatures in the form of wyrm—just as he expected. They were all flying towards him, approaching from afar.
Shadow Wyrms were said to be the descendants of the survivors amongst the Ancient Wyrms which had fled to the Shadow Realm in the late prehistoric times and the Shadow Creatures. Lin Li had no idea how strong the strongest Shadow Wyrm was, but it was still a descendant of the Wyrms,
after all, and wouldn't be weaker than the wyrms of Anril. He could only be thankful for the fact that none of the three Shadow Wyrms were at the Sanctuary-realm, and should have just reached level-20.
In the blink of an eye, the three Shadow Wyrms had already flown above Lin Li's head, and as soon as they arrived, they began blowing black flames—their dragon breath—at Lin Li. However, they weren't exactly black flames, because the black flames of Shadow Wyrms were not meant for burning the souls of their enemies, but for turning them into shadows. In other words, once Lin Li was sprayed with their dragon breath, he wouldn't have to think about leaving, because he could only stay in the Shadow Realm forever in the form of a shadow. Even if he were to make it out, he would die instantly.
Lin Like didn't want to stay in this dark place forever. Hence, he tried to dodge the black flames by using his Power of Flight to fly straight into the air, after which he shot an ice ball at the three Shadow Wyrms. However, they were clearly even more magic resistant because of their form. The Legendary-level ice ball wasn't lethal to them, even though it did cause some damage.
Since he couldn't use the Helios' Scepter, and his usage of magic was also limited, even his eyes would've become completely useless had he not had some understanding of the Laws of Darkness. Fortunately, there were only three level-20 Shadow Wyrms. Although Lin Li couldn't kill them, he would still be able to neutralize the danger they posed.
While dealing with the three Shadow Wyrms, Lin Li thought about how he could leave the horrendous place as soon as possible. Obviously, there was a World Law that would prohibit all light, but compared to the perfect rules of Anril, the Laws here seemed to be of the level of Magical Domains, just that this Magical Domain was much stronger. At the thought of this, Lin Li felt that the Shadow Realm seemed to be somewhat similar to the Seven-Realm Spiral. Otherwise, the Shadow Creatures definitely wouldn't be that weak.
In order to leave this world, Lin Li could choose to either go through the gate again or seize control of the Laws of this world. However, the gate was out of bounds, and seizing control of the Laws didn't seem that feasible, either. Lin Li naturally had some control over the Laws of Darkness since he could create the Light and Darkness Domain. However, at this moment, he clearly felt that the Laws of this world were far beyond his control. Only a Sanctuary Master would be able to create the Seven-Realm Spiral. Since the Shadow Realm was similar to the Seven-Realm Spiral, it had to have Sanctuary-level Laws.
Chapter 784 - Brainless
If he could exert the power of the debris of the stars, Nothingness, he could probably try to break through the space, but unfortunately, he was still far from that level. At the thought of the debris of the stars, Lin Li's eyes suddenly lit up. Indeed, he couldn't control the World Laws of this realm, but Gloomy Dark symbolized the purest form of Laws of Darkness, and should be able to override the Laws of this world. Although he owned Gloomy Dark, and only had limited control over it, he could just put Gloomy Dark away after the Laws of Gloomy Dark replaced the Laws of this world. Without nomological power, there would be no way for this world to continue existing, and he would then be able to leave.
At the thought of this, Lin Li did not dare to hesitate at all, and simply took out the debris of the stars Gloomy Dark. When Gloomy Dark appeared in this world, Lin Li had yet to use his mental strength to activate it when it had already emanated a massive amount of power, which was far beyond the power that it had when Lin Li used it.
With the eruption of Gloomy Dark, the entire Shadow Realm seemed to stagnate for a while, and the three Shadow Wyrms froze in the air all of a sudden. As the power of Gloomy Dark increased bit by bit, the three wyrms actually began to quiver and fall onto the ground one by one. They put their wings away and leaned forward as if they were worshiping Gloomy Dark.
When the power of the eruption of Gloomy Dark reached its peak, the three Shadow Wyrms began to crumble and collapse as pure Dark Force poured out of their bodies and surged into Gloomy Dark. Lin Li could also clearly feel that even the Shadow magical beasts that had already fled far, far away had also become pure Dark Force that was surging towards Gloomy Dark in his hands.
Lin Li didn't know how much Dark Force Gloomy Dark had consumed, but he closed his eyes and used the opportunity to release all of his mental strength while Gloomy Dark was suppressing the World Laws of this realm. He carefully tried to experience the Laws of Darkness in detail.
In fact, this was not the first time Lin Li had ever done that. In the Seven-Realm Spiral, Lin Li had also used this method to gain a lot of insight into various nomological powers. Hence, he didn't take up much time this time, and managed to make all of the experience deeply etched in his mind rather quickly. He also managed to summon back Gloomy Dark, which had completely replaced the World Laws.
As Gloomy Dark was placed in the Ring of Endless Storm, Lin Li immediately felt a force of repulsion suddenly descend on his body, and he abruptly felt that he didn't belong to this world. Before he could even react, he suddenly felt dizzy. Next, he realized that he was already standing in the Darkness Shrine with the ancient gate behind him, as if he had really just passed through the gate.
Lin Li also saw Zoquila, who had brought him there, standing at the gate together with the four other high priests. Since he was in a good mood because of the new insights into the Laws of Darkness that he had obtained inside, he decided not to hold it against them for sending him into the Shadow Realm.
However, just as Lin Li walked over to Zoquila and the rest, and was about to say something, Zoquila spoke to Lin Li in a tone of surprise, but the words he said made the joy on Lin Li's face vanish immediately.
"Master Felic, you actually made it out unharmed. Seems like you are indeed the incarnation of the God of Darkness," Zoquila exclaimed in surprise. Although the four high priests had their faces obscured, it seemed that their joy was noticeable too.
Those words were what made Lin Li's face grow sullen; it was obvious what he meant. Zoquila had led him to the Shadow Realm, but he clearly hadn't done it simply for the sake of letting Lin Li gain some insight into the Laws of Darkness. Instead, he had been trying to test something to verify Lin Li's identity. Lin Li was not interested in the incarnation of the God of Darkness, and he only knew that if he hadn't had Gloomy Dark, he would have definitely died in the Shadow Realm.
"I'm sorry, High Priest Zoquila, but I'm not an incarnation of anyone. Sorry to disappoint you," Lin Li said before turning around to leave without taking another look at them.
Staring at Lin Li while he left, Zoquila and the rest could not help but look at each other in dismay. In their opinion, the incarnation of the God of Darkness was an extremely honorable identity, yet Lin Li looked extremely unhappy and full of resentment after hearing the news. However, after confirming Lin Li's identity, the five high priests were too overjoyed to consider other issues.
However, when the five high priests walked out together happily, and even wanted to report to Sendros and break the good news to him, they saw Sendros walking towards them, and a cold chill was sent down each of their spines, dampening their spirits and killing their joy.
"High Priest Sendros, you are back. We happen to have good news for you," Zoquila hurriedly said to Sendros.
"Good news? Do you guys still take me seriously? What did I tell you before!? Can you people use your brains before deciding to do anything!? Yes, Zoquila, Gergila, and Nostalo, you three are already brainless, but what about the other two? Are you guys idiots too!?" Sendros hollered in exasperation, wishing he could turn the five of them into Undead creatures of the lowest level.
Sendros initially went to the Eternal Darkness Altar today, but before he could even observe anything there, he began to sense something amiss going on in the Darkness Shrine. When he felt the changes in the Shadow Realm, he immediately thought of what might've happened, and so hurried back from the Eternal Darkness Altar.
However, something had clearly already happened. If it had been some
one else and not Lin Li, Sendros probably wouldn't have been that infuriated, but knowing Lin Li's personality well, he knew that they were in huge trouble.
"High Priest, we can already confirm the identity of Master Felic. Isn't this a good thing?" Zoquila asked while trying to suppress his fear.
"Good thing? We have to make him stay to help us. Are you guys trying to send the Darkness Shrine into a dead end by doing what you've just done!?" Sendros berated in fury.
"Him becoming the incarnation of the God of Darkness would be a very beneficial thing for him and for the Tower of Dusk. How could he refuse it?" The five high priests couldn't figure it out at all, because the matter was definitely worth rejoicing for anyone. They couldn't think of a reason for Lin Li to turn it down.
"What if he isn't? Were you planning to let him die inside? If someone else took your life as a stake for a gamble, what would you think of them? Would you still be willing to help that person?" Seeing that the rest were about to speak again after he berated them, Sendros waved his hands to stop them. "Cut the crap. Go and apologize to him now. Let's hope it's not too late. Otherwise, you shall think about the consequences you have to bear!"
The five high priests did not oppose apologizing. After all, they felt that Lin Li was the incarnation of the God of Darkness; hence, there was nothing to feel indignant about. However, they didn't think that this matter would make Lin Li react so intensely, because the identity of the incarnation of the God of Darkness was supreme in the Darkness Shrine, and even Sendros, who had always been helming the Darkness Shrine, would be slightly inferior to him.
Under the lead of Sendros, the group hurried to the place where Lin Li was putting up in. When they saw that Lin Li was still in the room, they felt slightly relieved. However, they immediately panicked again with looks of dismay after hearing Lin Li's first words.
"Master Sendros, you're back. Well, I've been here at the Darkness Shrine as a guest for some time. I'd like to bid you goodbye. Thank you for the hospitality you've shown me in the past few days," Lin Li said politely without any anger on his face on seeing Sendros and the rest of them enter.
