Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
As Tang Jie stepped into the cave, he was buffeted by a cold and sinister wind.
The ground beneath his feet was ice-cold.
Looking around, he saw that this was a cold and dark passage that led into an unfathomable darkness.
But the walls of the passage gleamed with lines of light.
Formation lines!
Tang Jie narrowed his eyes.
As expected, it was a large formation, though he still didn't know what type it was. From the scene before, he could ascertain that there were five places like this, spread across the Verdant Cloud Domain. Could this be a formation that covered more than half the domain?
Tang Jie was stunned by this, but this didn't stop him from ordering a fiend general to lead the way deeper into the depths.
The passage was very long and spiraled downward. On the way, Tang Jie saw flashing formation lines everywhere, the complexity causing him to sigh in wonder. The most incredible thing was that the demon cave was still working after all these years. From this, he could deduce that the one who had laid down this formation was some peerless Titan, but he still didn't know why they had done it. However, as he was exploring, he started to get some ideas.
Those fiend kings and generals realized the same as him, clicking their tongues in praise and speculating as to which Titan of High Antiquity had left this formation behind.
Some of them even began to imagine treasures they might find at the heart of the formation.
As they were walking along, a dark figure suddenly shot toward them.
The fiend general leading the way was fast with his hands, sending out a blast of wind that struck the dark figure, which shrieked and dissipated in the wind.
The fiend general carefully examined the remains and smiled. "It was just a shadow spirit."
Everyone sighed in relief.
Places thick with Yin energy would generate existences called shadow spirits. Shadow spirits had no mind and acted purely on instinct, so there was nothing to be afraid of. This kind of monster had the easiest time coming into existence.
This was how the Shadow Domain had come to be. That place had originally been a domain of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm with high concentrations of Yin energy, and there were countless shadow creatures within it.
But other than the Shadow Domain, shadow spirits could also be born in other places of Yin energy.
This passage was thick with Yin energy, so it wasn't strange for shadow spirits to be born here. Thus, everyone didn't mind and continued forward.
But the more they advanced, the more shadow spirits appeared, the occasional one or two turning into large groups.
"How are there so many shadow spirits? Does this passage lead to the Shadow Domain?" a fiend general complained as he slew shadow spirits.
"No matter how many come, they're just going to die," another fiend general replied.
These were the most basic of shadow creatures and posed no threat at all, so while everyone complained, they weren't afraid.
"Don't get careless," Elder Wind barked.
Although this old fiend was a servant, he was somewhat stronger than the average fiend king. With a push of his hand, he unleashed a vortex that shredded all the incoming shadow spirits. These shadow spirits were congregations of Yin energy, and once killed, they turned into dark winds that sent chills through everyone's bodies. Tang Jie unexpectedly felt his skin going numb.
He slightly frowned, feeling like something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was.
As he followed the fiends, more and more shadow spirits appeared, and as they were killed by the fiends, the winds kept blowing. It was almost like when the Yin energy had yet to dissipate from the demon cave.
Like when the Yin energy hadn't dissipated?
Tang Jie shouted, "Wait!"
All the fiends looked at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie looked around at the flashing points of light and formation lines in the passages.
These formation lines were the foundation for this vast formation, and they were currently flashing. With every flash, shadow spirits would rush over. Tang Jie said in realization, "These shadow spirits must be the sinister wind that had been blasting out of the demon cave. No wonder those winds all disappeared. They had been turned into shadow spirits."
"All the winds were turned into spirits? Doesn't that mean that they aren't natural, but created through that phenomenon?"
"No wonder there are so many shadow spirits. But what's in the cave that turns the chilling winds into spirits?"
"It's probably connected to the formation. Gathering Yin energy and turning them into shadow spirits, what's the use of this formation?"
The fiends all discussed this topic.
Tang Jie heard a howl of wind and scowled. "Watch out!"
As he shouted, a giant tornado came sweeping over. This tornado had eyes, ears, a nose, and a mouth, forming into a savage face that shrieked at the fiends. A fiend general was struck by the tornado, unexpectedly finding himself unable to chop through it. Instead, he was swept up by this shadow creature and thrown into the air.
"A doom shadow! Damn it!" the fiend general screamed.
A doom shadow was a shadow creature born from a concentration of extreme Yin doom energy. It was much stronger than a shadow spirit and had a cruel and savage nature.
The doom shadow howled over to the rest of the fiends.
The fiend generals attacked as one, various colors of energy blasting the doom shadow into nothing.
But since there had been one doom shadow, there was bound to be more, and the fiends could no longer be as relaxed as before.
Sure enough, more doom shadows began to appear among the shadow spirits.
These savage creatures would lunge at the group the moment they appeared, and there seemed to be no end to them. Moreover, the number of shadow spirits began to dwindle, until eventually, it was almost all doom shadows lunging at them.
Although these doom shadows were still no match for the fiend generals, they were having such a hard time now that even some of the fiend kings had to start helping out. Only Tang Jie remained indifferent—if he didn't, he would expose himself the moment he intervened.
As they continued, the situation grew increasingly dangerous.
A frigid storm crashed through, and even the fiend generals combined couldn't stop it. In the end, the four fiend kings working together just barely managed to stop this icy gale.
"Damn it, it's a shadow terminator!" a fiend king shouted.
Shadow terminators were an even higher level of shadow spirit, their strength only a little weaker than that of a fiend king.
If more shadow terminators appeared, the fight would become impossible.
At this moment, everyone looked toward Tang Jie.
At this moment, only the Fiend Emperor could settle things.
But Tang Jie didn't dare to take action, mentally groaning while his face remained unmoved.
The shadow terminator was killed by the combined might of the fiend kings and fiend generals, turning back into a chilling wind. It was even colder than before, dropping the temperature of the passage significantly.
However, while so many shadow spirits had died, the amount of wind in the passage remained about the same.
Realizing this, Tang Jie shouted, "I get it! This formation can reform the dissipated shadow spirits, and with each reformation, it creates stronger and stronger existences."
The first time, the winds produced shadow spirits. At that time, there were no doom shadows in the passage. But as they killed the shadow spirits, the formation started to produce doom shadows, and the same was true for shadow terminators.
In this cave, the shadow spirits formed an endless cycle with the chilling winds. No matter how powerful one was, one would still find it hard to push through with force. It was just like the Reaping Wind Snakes from the Water Moon Paradise, but even more terrifying, for the Dao of Slaughter could not interrupt this conversion.
"Let's try this to find out!" Tang Jie clenched his teeth and unleashed a barrier brimming with lightning. In these years playing the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor, he had moved to both increase his strength and also learn the various arts and techniques left behind by the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor. The Thunder Barrier was one of the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor's classic spell arts, so he had long ago familiarized himself with it. The only problem was that he still couldn't cast the barrier instantly like the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor, so he could only stand at the very back and keep his hands behind his back, casting the art in secret. The moment he finished speaking coincided with the completion of the spell art, everything perfectly timed.
The fiends were unaware of this, but when they saw Tang Jie put up his barrier, they threw aside any suspicions they might have had and put up their own barriers.
Another shadow terminator rushed over. The four fiend kings looked over, and they struck, but rather than killing it, they sealed it. A giant cage appeared in the air, locking up the shadow terminator.
Everyone pushed through with their barriers up. When they ran into doom shadows, they sealed the ones that they could and just pushed through while enduring the attacks of those that they couldn't.
Sure enough, as they charged through, they encountered fewer doom shadows, and no more shadow terminators. While there was a pack of doom shadows pursuing them, at least they weren't as threatening.
The fiend kings took turns creating obstructions to stop the pursuit of the shadow creatures, and the situation finally began to improve.
After running like this for an entire day, they finally saw a light at the end of the passage.
"Shit, we're finally at the end," a fiend general said with a long exhale. "This passage is like a set of intestines—long, twisting, and stinking something terrible, worse than the worst farts I've smelled." Everyone found his description very appropriate, and laughed.
But Tang Jie knew that if this formation covered the entire Verdant Cloud Domain, then it wasn't strange at all for the passage to be so long that it took an entire day to run through.
The exit was right in front of them, and as they walked up to it and looked at the sight beyond it, they all gasped in wonder.
————
The three Fiend Emperors had run into the same problem as Tang Jie's group.
While they had also ultimately noticed the relationship between the wind and the shadow spirits, they were a little slower than Tang Jie.
The Blackwater Fiend Emperor's group had finally noticed the root of the problem after a little less than half of the wind had been turned into shadow terminators, by which point they had lost three fiend generals.
The Iron Blood Fiend Emperor was even worse, realizing only when more than half had been turned into shadow terminators, so he lost five fiend generals.
The Aurora Fiend Emperor had actually realized the earliest of the three, but as he had brought the strongest force which killed the fastest, things became a problem much more quickly, and he had much less time to think.
In his passage, the Aurora Fiend Emperor was battling a massive dark and sinister figure.
This dark figure shifted erratically between solid and ethereal, releasing freezing waves of energy from its hand that forced the Aurora Fiend Emperor back, his body flashing with rainbow light.
There were no shadow terminators or doom shadows, only this single creature.
An Archshadow!
Archshadows were the highest level of shadow spirits, their strength on par with Divine Division fiends and their status akin to emperors.
It was formed from all the Yin energy in the passage, so the moment the Archshadow appeared, no more shadow creatures would appear. But a single Archshadow was more troublesome than all the other shadow creatures combined.
The moment it appeared, it killed forty-some Millepluma Guards.
Even though the Millepluma Guards were strong and proficient in combined tactics, rumored to even be able to kill a Fiend Emperor if they worked together, this passage was no place to exploit a numbers advantage, and the Archshadow was able to inflict heavy losses. If the Aurora Fiend Emperor hadn't come in time, the Millepluma Guard would have suffered even greater losses.
In the face of this terrifying shadow creature, the fiends didn't dare to linger, running as fast as they could while the Aurora Fiend Emperor held it off. Against this unkillable menace, the Aurora Fiend Emperor was on the verge of throwing up blood.
Fortunately, he managed to last until the exit and rushed out. When he turned to look at the Archshadow, he found that it seemed to be afraid, shrieking as it floated around the exit, not daring to go out.
The Aurora Fiend Emperor laughed and turned to leave. As he had expected, this shadow creature didn't dare to leave the passage.
He couldn't have expected that not long after he left, the Archshadow stopped floating about.
Seemingly having made up its mind, it floated out of the passage.
The light beyond the passage spilled onto its body like sunbeams on snow, causing it to hiss. But the Archshadow didn't move, enduring the light. After a while, it seemed to have adapted to the light. Its body shuddered, and then all the light that fell on its body was devoured by it, as if it had become a black hole.
"Keee!"
Letting out a delighted cry, it flew off.
The memories buried deep within it told it that there was a new passage with new companions in that direction.
The Silver Eyes Imperial Palace.
With a silver ripple, Tang Jie finally appeared.
Yiyi rushed over and grumbled, "Why are you only here now? You're late by an entire day."
"Being late has its advantages," Tang Jie replied with a smile. "At the very least, we'll have an easier journey. Relax. We'll catch up to them."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢