Chapter Eighty-Nine: Refining the Shadow Pearl

Three immense vortices hovered above Shi Yan like clouds over a mountain, suspended high over his head.

Within those vortices, lightning flickered as strands of icy, malevolent energy were refined again and again, until they became countless strange gray motes of light.

Above the barren, yin-charged plain, the world’s lingering negative energy, which had persisted there for years, was now being steadily devoured by those three great whirls.

Shi Yan wore a solemn expression, as though he had entered some wondrous state.

Suddenly, from the three vortices overhead, those strange gray motes began to leak out and pour violently into his body.

At once, Shi Yan’s body gave off a tremendous suction force that anyone could sense!

He seemed to have become a black hole, swallowing every gray mote that streamed down from the sky.

The gray lights flashed and leaped as they were all drawn into Shi Yan’s body.

His body took on a faint gray sheen, and an aura of bitter cold spread outward from him in all directions.

Anyone who came near him would feel their body stiffen involuntarily, their vital energy slowing to a crawl. They would have to gather their strength just to resist, or else remain continuously affected by that dense, gloomy energy.

Shi Yan seemed to have turned into a colossal fiend devouring yin power!

He sat motionless, yet by means of the three vortices floating above his head, he frantically absorbed and transformed the yin energy of the barren plain, refining it continuously into tiny points of the purest yin force, which became nourishment for his cultivation.

At his chest, the yin vortices surrounding the Tianshu, Shenshu, and Yindu acupoints began rapidly gathering the gray motes flowing into his body.

Each pure gray mote represented the most concentrated essence of the world’s yin force. As vast numbers of them surged into the yin vortices, they were refined once more and turned into even purer yin power, which finally overflowed into the centers of the vortices.

Before long, without anyone noticing, three millet-sized beads had begun to take shape in the cores of the three yin vortices.

The moment Shi Yan sensed the condensation of the yin beads, his expression shuddered.

He quietly extended his awareness to the surroundings. Finding nothing unusual beside him, he once again urged the yin vortices onward, pressing with all his might to swallow even more of the world’s yin energy.

“You do not need to stop.”

Xia Xinyan stepped to Shi Yan’s side, her beautiful eyes shining with a strange light.

“I know what you are doing, and I know you can hear me. The Nine-Headed Serpent will be here soon, but we will handle it. You may continue devouring the yin energy here.”

Shi Yan could indeed hear Xia Xinyan’s voice, but he had no way to answer.

“Miss Xia, if Shi Yan does not stop now, the Nine-Headed Serpent will target him first,” Kurong said anxiously.

Guaiqi and Chixiao also looked toward Xia Xinyan with some surprise, unable to see what deeper meaning lay behind her suggestion.

“The Nine-Heaven Serpent has nine heads. Three can spew fire, three can spray venom, and three can control the yin energy of this barren plain, using it to form all manner of attacks.”

Xia Xinyan’s gaze turned solemn as she explained, “The three heads that can command the world’s yin energy are very troublesome, and even we will find them difficult to deal with. But now we have an advantage. So long as Shi Yan keeps devouring the world’s yin energy like this, then when the serpent arrives and tries to use that energy against us, it will be swallowed at once by the vortices above Shi Yan’s head! In that way, the serpent’s three heads that control yin energy will be greatly weakened!”

As soon as she said this, Guaiqi and Chixiao’s eyes lit up. They nodded in unison and praised, “Excellent!”

“Once those three heads lose their power, the Nine-Headed Serpent becomes much easier to handle. Guaiqi is not afraid of its venom, and you have brought the Silver Veil Curtain. That leaves us to focus only on its three fire-breathing heads. Because of Shi Yan, this battle will be much easier for us as well,” Xia Xinyan said calmly.

Guaiqi and Chixiao both gave silent nods, fully agreeing with her proposal.

“Will my young master be all right?” Han Feng suddenly opened his eyes and looked coldly at Xia Xinyan. “We care about the Heavenly Gate, yes, but my young master’s life matters more!”

“He is not a bait. He only needs to remain as he is now,” Xia Xinyan said with a frown. “If he is willing to wake, he may do so at any time. But to gather the world’s yin energy to this extent again would require more time.”

Boom, boom, boom!

The thunderous roar drew closer and closer.

The earth trembled. In the distance, a vast and terrible silhouette slowly began to emerge.

“Prepare for battle!” Chixiao called softly.

...

At another entrance to the Hidden Yin Valley, Beiming Shang’s expression changed slightly. He stared at the vortex raging skyward like a column of wolf smoke more than ten thousand meters away, and a trace of confusion flashed through his icy eyes.

“Grandfather, has the fighting started?” Beiming Ce asked.

Shaking his head, Beiming Shang said, “No. The world’s yin energy has changed. It is all gathering toward Chixiao and the others. The Nine-Heaven Serpent has come out of the Hidden Yin Valley and is charging toward Chixiao’s side. I do not know what is happening over there.”

“When do we go over?”

“We wait. We will move when the fighting there is nearly over.”

...

Elsewhere, Dark Nether and his group also stared in astonishment at the three vortices suspended in the air over Shi Yan’s position, equally unable to tell what had happened there.

“Master? It seems... it seems the world’s yin energy has changed and is converging toward that place. Could it be that the Nine-Heaven Serpent has already made its move?” the alluring young man guessed.

“Although the serpent can also cultivate by drawing on the world’s yin energy, it is not this overbearing. To drive so much yin energy madly toward one point with such scale—this is not something the Nine-Heaven Serpent could accomplish. Besides, those changes are taking place outside the Hidden Yin Valley. It is obviously the work of Chixiao and the others,” said the Lord of the Dark Nether in a deep voice.

“Should we go and look?”

“No need. We wait for news from Beiming Shang. If Beiming Shang does not send word, we move for now. Your mistress should already be over there. If the Heavenly Gate truly appears, she will send back a signal as well. There is no need for us to be so anxious.”

“I understand.”

...

The three yin beads were condensing slowly. As more and more world yin energy was poured into them, they grew ever brighter and more translucent.

In the centers of the yin vortices outside the acupoints, the beads spun round and round. Whenever a strand of gray yin essence entered, the beads would immediately absorb it.

Only once the yin beads were truly formed would they sink of their own accord into the three acupoints.

Shi Yan understood this well, so even though he had heard Xia Xinyan’s words and knew Han Feng and Kurong were deeply worried about him, he still did not stop the vortices from spinning.

He had a premonition that the yin beads were at a crucial juncture. Perhaps very soon, they would truly condense successfully and sink into the acupoints.

He was equally shaken by the three enormous vortices rising above his head.

Only after those three great vortices appeared and began frantically devouring the world’s yin energy did Shi Yan finally confirm that this seemingly ordinary Dark Yin Art was absolutely not so simple.

What sort of ordinary martial skill could create such a vast disturbance when cultivated?

He truly could not imagine it.

Howl! Howl! Howl!

A terrifying roar came thundering from afar, like rolling thunder, reverberating through the entire barren yin plain.

The Nine-Heaven Serpent was a peak seventh-tier demonic beast, said to be an ancient hybrid born of a union between a dragon and a python, possessing the ability to evolve continuously. Once it had devoured enough yin energy, venom, and flame, it could evolve again and reach the level of an eighth-tier or even ninth-tier demonic beast.

This Nine-Heaven Serpent had forcibly occupied the barren yin plain precisely because it had seen the thick yin energy here, while the outskirts of the Dead Silence Marsh were veiled in toxic mists. By seizing this place, it sought to cultivate by means of the poisonous miasma and yin energy.

Soon, the serpent’s mountain-like body, with its nine massive heads, finally emerged from the Hidden Yin Valley.

Its body was like a meat mountain, covered in silver scales and spikes. Each of its nine heads was more than twenty meters long, each resembling a giant boa constrictor with ferocious white fangs, spouting venomous mist, yin energy, and blazing fire in turn.

“Move!”

The instant Guaiqi saw it appear, his face hardened and he charged out first.

One earth dragon after another burst violently from the center of the ground. In a flash, Guaiqi merged into the body of one of them.

After Guaiqi entered it, that earth dragon’s body became covered in hard earthen armor. Its dragon head faintly took on Guaiqi’s features, and its body swelled to twice its original size.

“Guaiqi is an eighth-tier demonic beast, the Earth Swamp Flood Dragon, born from the union of the Flood Dragon and a human female martial artist. The Earth Swamp Flood Dragon was once the true master of the Dead Silence Marsh and could transform into human form. It was also the most powerful demonic beast ever to appear in this region. In legend, the Earth Swamp Flood Dragon was once the king of all demonic beasts here, and no martial artist dared offend its dignity. It is an eighth-tier demonic beast, comparable to a martial artist in the Spirit Realm, yet it died suddenly and inexplicably in the Dead Silence Marsh a thousand years ago. It was only many years after its death that the Nine-Headed Serpent emerged in the Dead Silence Marsh, drove Guaiqi to the marsh’s outskirts, and occupied the Hidden Yin Valley to cultivate. That is why Guaiqi’s hatred for it runs so deep.”

As Guaiqi, merged with the earth dragon, charged toward the Nine-Heaven Serpent, Chixiao quietly explained the enmity between them.

“Eighth-tier demonic beast!” Xia Xinyan’s expression also changed slightly. “No wonder Guaiqi was born able to command poisonous miasma and move freely through the mud. So he is a hybrid of the Earth Swamp Flood Dragon and a human.”

“If he could not command the poisonous miasma and the mud, he would have been killed long ago by the Nine-Headed Serpent. On the outskirts of the Dead Silence Marsh, so long as Guaiqi hides within the swamp, no one can do anything to him. That is what makes him so troublesome.”

“You two! Are you ready to make your move?”

Over there, Guaiqi, transformed into an earth dragon, shouted loudly amid the flames spewed by the Nine-Headed Serpent, sounding somewhat urgent.

The serpent’s three fire-breathing heads spewed torrents of flame thick as clouds. The raging fire burned fiercely, drying out many earth dragons and scorching the earth dragon into which Guaiqi had transformed, causing it to crack and pop.

The serpent’s other six heads did not spit venom or yin energy. Instead, they opened blood-red maws, revealing row upon row of dense white fangs, and bit straight toward the earth dragon formed by Guaiqi.

All heaven was filled with the serpent heads writhing and twisting in every direction. With all nine heads working together, even without venom or yin energy, they pinned Guaiqi down hard.

Guaiqi was at a complete disadvantage.

“Move!”

Chixiao signaled Xia Xinyan. Thick smoke suddenly billowed from within his body, and in that smoke his form began to lengthen slowly, his body swelling larger and larger with the haze.

In just a few seconds, Chixiao’s body had expanded countless times within the smoke, becoming a sky-striding giant nearly as immense as the Nine-Headed Serpent itself.

Amid the clouds, Chixiao’s mountain-like form charged at the serpent. Both his hands blazed with brilliant light as he drew out the Silver Veil Curtain to shield himself in front.

Xia Xinyan took a deep breath and also activated her Reincarnation Martial Soul.

The sky and space above seemed to fall into disarray. All manner of multicolored points of light shot forth, and a force as ancient as the long river of history suddenly poured out from a crack in space and time, directly flooding into Xia Xinyan’s body.

Xia Xinyan, who possessed only the strength of the Third Heaven of the Hundred Tribulations Realm, rose like a deity into the sky and charged at the Nine-Headed Serpent as well.

...