Chapter Ninety: The Changing of Heaven

Outside the Valley of Utter Darkness, thunderous explosions raged without end, and all manner of brilliant, savage forces streaked across the sky like lightning.

Chi Xiao, Xia Xinyan, and Zhua Qi had all leaped into the air and were now joining forces to battle the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent.

Chi Xiao had transformed into a giant amid rolling smoke, holding aloft a silver veil to block the spray of venom. In his other hand he wielded a massive light sword, single-handedly holding back three of the serpent’s fire-breathing heads.

Zhua Qi’s body clung to an earth dragon, weaving back and forth among the three heads that spewed venom. The Nine-Headed Sky Serpent apparently knew that venom was useless against him, and so it simply opened its maw of fangs and locked in a savage bite with the earth dragon that carried Zhua Qi.

Xia Xinyan was the most at ease. Suspended in the void like a goddess, she formed strange hand seals with both hands. From time to time, a divine claw would appear in midair and rake down viciously at the serpent’s other three heads, as though tearing open the clouds themselves.

Those three serpent heads could command the yin energy of heaven and earth. Yet the moment they unleashed it, it was swallowed clean by the three great vortices floating above Shi Yan’s head.

After several exchanges, the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent was furious beyond measure. It writhed its massive body and desperately squeezed toward Shi Yan, determined to destroy him first.

Han Feng and Ku Long stood beside Shi Yan with the tense bearing of men facing a great enemy, uneasy and vigilant.

Zuo Shi, Wu Yunlian, and Chu Ping had also arrived. The six from the Shi and Zuo families stayed together, and aside from Shi Yan, all of them looked upward at the battle between the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent and the three mighty experts.

Shi Yan had his eyes closed, expression indifferent, still sitting motionless where he was.

Yet he could clearly feel the tide of devastating power surging all around him.

A battle between heaven-ranked experts had crushed every plant outside the Valley of Utter Darkness to dust, and split the earth into countless bottomless ravines. Such fierce impact even made Shi Yan, with his eyes closed, inwardly tremble.

Even so, he never once stopped the Dark Vortex from devouring the yin energy of heaven and earth.

At his chest, three yin pearls at the center of the vortex were finally taking shape, radiating a faint black luster and a chilling aura as they slowly sank into the acupoints of Divine Gate, Celestial Gate, and Yin Capital.

The instant the three yin pearls entered the acupoints, Shi Yan’s seated body gave a slight jolt.

He looked inward.

He discovered that as soon as the three yin pearls fell into those three acupoints, the various negative forces already present within them suddenly surged up, as though they meant to assimilate the pearls.

Shi Yan was startled and hurried to focus all his attention on the changes within the three acupoints.

He suddenly remembered that every acupoint in his body was filled with some form of negative power. When condensing the yin pearls, he had not considered that these negative forces might repel them.

Inside the three acupoints, wisps of negative energy gathered slowly, taking the form of pale white ribbons.

The moment the three yin pearls entered, those negative forces immediately coiled around them, brazenly trying to wrench the yin power out from within, as if to break the pearls apart again.

But after all, the yin pearls were the essence of yin energy refined from immense quantities of heaven-and-earth yin and tempered again and again before taking form. The negative forces within the three acupoints, though exceedingly domineering and sinister, were far inferior in quantity.

Over these past days, Shi Yan had indeed absorbed no small amount of negative power, but that power had been scattered throughout the acupoints all over his body.

He had seven hundred and twenty acupoints in total, so the amount allotted to these three acupoints was naturally limited.

Thus, although the negative forces within the three acupoints erupted together, they lacked the strength to seize the yin pearls and could not break apart the yin power within them again.

The yin pearls themselves seemed to know how troublesome these negative auras were. They held tightly to their own ground and did not clash with them to the death.

Gradually, the negative power within the acupoints and the yin pearls ceased their blind struggle.

As more and more yin energy poured into the Dark Vortex, three new yin pearls slowly condensed once more at its center.

In this way, the three yin pearls that had previously sunk into the acupoints seemed to receive fresh reinforcements, and they slowly gained the upper hand within those acupoints.

As for the arrogant negative forces from the beginning, because they could no longer receive replenishment, they had no choice but to condense in a corner of the acupoints and cease their rampage.

The yin pearls seemed to understand that they could not eliminate those negative forces. After the latter settled down, the pearls began releasing dense yin energy, linking it together with the yin energy inside the three new pearls that were about to take shape beyond the acupoints.

Shi Yan looked inward and keenly sensed the changes within the acupoints. Seeing that the yin pearls and the negative forces were now living in peace, he quietly let out a breath and continued to drive the Dark Vortex, drawing in even more heaven-and-earth yin energy.

Above Shi Yan’s head, the three vortices like cloud mountains continued their frenzied devouring of yin energy.

In the barren plain of utter darkness, where the sun had not shone for countless years, the first ray of sunlight suddenly appeared.

The yin energy that had shrouded the void above the plain for a thousand years was, beneath the savage suction of the three cloud-like vortices above Shi Yan, actually being reduced to the brink of exhaustion.

The frigid plain, once steeped in utter darkness, began to grow faintly warm under the infusion of sunlight.

More and more sunlight poured down from above, bathing the plants and demonic beasts within the plain.

One strange and bizarre plant after another withered slowly under the sun’s glare, quickly collapsing into limp, lifeless husks.

Many demonic beasts roared wildly and ran at full speed across the plain, desperately fleeing toward the dead marshes at the edge.

“Huh?” Zuo Shi cried out in surprise. “These plants and demonic beasts are actually afraid of sunlight?”

“The plants on the plain of utter darkness were born from heaven-and-earth yin energy. They had long since adapted to this environment. Now that the yin energy has vanished, and they have never before been exposed to sunlight, they naturally cannot endure it and can only wither away one after another,” Wu Yunlian explained.

“And the demonic beasts?”

“They are the same. The beasts living here cultivate by absorbing yin energy. Their bodies are heavily saturated with it, and by nature they prefer cold shade and dislike sunlight. So the moment they see daylight return, they can only desperately flee to the outer marshes. At least there, poisonous miasma can offer some cover, and the shadows of ancient trees are better than standing naked beneath the sun as they are now.”

“So that means the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent is affected too?”

“Indeed.” Wu Yunlian was startled, then turned to look at the serpent.

Sure enough.

Under the blazing sun, the three serpent heads that spewed yin energy looked utterly weakened.

Under Xia Xinyan’s repeated attacks of divine giant hands, those three heads could do nothing but evade, and had in fact lost all ability to strike back.

The two burly men, who had been watching Xia Xinyan with great concern, only now finally relaxed.

One of them looked back from afar at Shi Yan, frowning as he said softly, “That fellow did rather help us. If he had not absorbed the heaven-and-earth yin energy to this extent and brought sunlight back to the plain of utter darkness, this Nine-Headed Sky Serpent would truly have been difficult to deal with.”

“Mm. I never expected the Profound Yin Art to have been passed down here. I wonder where he got it from...”

“Boom, boom, boom! Boom, boom, boom!”

Reeling and staggering all the while, the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent suddenly rushed swiftly toward the Valley of Utter Darkness.

With the sun returned and its body badly damaged, it had actually entertained thoughts of fleeing for its life.

“After it!” Zhua Qi bellowed, charging forward first and pursuing the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent with relentless ferocity.

Chi Xiao and Xia Xinyan exchanged a glance. They both knew the Heaven Gate lay within the Valley of Utter Darkness; in any case, they would sooner or later have to enter the valley to investigate it. If they allowed the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent enough time to recover, matters would only become more troublesome.

Rather than that, it was better to destroy it now while they had the chance.

Thus Chi Xiao and Xia Xinyan also gave chase.

Within the Valley of Utter Darkness, earthshaking booms continued to ring out one after another. Inside the valley, Chi Xiao and the others were likely still locked in bitter combat with the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent.

Outside the valley, the three enormous vortices above Shi Yan’s head slowly vanished.

The vast, yin-charged plain of utter darkness had, before anyone knew it, been completely swallowed clean.

At Shi Yan’s chest, the next three yin pearls had also finished condensing and sank together into his acupoints.

Feeling the Dark Vortex gradually slow to a stop, and no longer sensing even the slightest trace of yin energy entering his body, he finally woke up.

Opening his eyes, Shi Yan stood up and looked at Han Feng, Wu Yunlian, and the others beside him, all of whom wore expressions of astonishment. He said, “Let’s go take a look at the Valley of Utter Darkness. From the sound of it, the Nine-Headed Sky Serpent is nearly finished.”

Indeed, when the others listened closely, they discovered that the noises from within the valley were growing weaker and weaker.

“Young master, are you all right?” Ku Long could not help asking.

“I’m fine. I cultivated a technique, but I did not expect it to be so strange.” Shi Yan frowned slightly and, with a thought, tried to drive the three yin vortices in his chest.

Waves of peculiar yin power suddenly spilled out from the acupoints of Divine Gate, Celestial Gate, and Yin Capital. The yin power flowed into the vortices, and they began to spin rapidly, releasing threads of pure yin force.

The yin force was different from essence energy, yet it surged out along his arm...

A cold, dark light flickered in his palm, and an ashen blue sphere of light slowly spread to cover his entire hand.

As he urged the yin force, that sphere grew larger and larger, gradually forming a blue orb about the size of a human head.

Taking a light breath, Shi Yan’s mind shifted, and the blue orb shrank bit by bit once more. All of the yin force returned along the same path, reentering the vortices, where it was transformed into specks of gray light and then drawn once again into the pearls by the yin pearls within the six acupoints.

The yin pearls were the source of power behind the Profound Yin Art. Through the vortices, that power could spill outward and then surge along the meridians to unleash attacks.

After quietly sensing it for a moment, Shi Yan immediately understood the method of using the Profound Yin Art. In truth, it was roughly the same as the method for devouring yin energy, only reversed.

“Beiming Shang! What are you doing here?”

At that moment, a sharp cry from Chi Xiao suddenly rang out from the direction of the Valley of Utter Darkness.

The expressions of those outside the valley changed at once.

“Hurry, go see!” Wu Yunlian called to the others and rushed toward the valley without delay.

Shi Yan, Han Feng, and Ku Long did not dare lag behind, and likewise sped out, rushing toward the Valley of Utter Darkness.