"Even when our own people perish in the sea of gloomy darkness, they cannot produce an effect like this."
"It is too light, far too light."
As the You leader explained, Li Fan immediately understood.
It was judged by the disturbances caused within the sea of gloomy darkness.
Mo Rubin's corpse did not behave at all like an ordinary living being's upon death.
"Either it is merely an empty shell used as a decoy, or..."
"...this person was deeply favored by the darkness, so that upon his death, the vast majority of the spirituality within his body returned to the sea of gloomy darkness in an instant, leaving behind only the decayed remnants to slowly melt into the dark." The You leader suddenly offered another possibility.
"Still, even the most powerful priest in our clan's history never achieved a post-mortem state anywhere close to his. Therefore, I am more inclined to believe what we saw was merely an empty shell."
Li Fan's eyes flickered at these words.
When he first heard the You leader speak, he had felt a tremor of shock in his heart. But if the gloomy dark power here was connected to the King of Profound Heaven, then the anomaly following Mo Rubin's death made sense.
"Yet I cannot let down my guard. The Profound Heaven Sect is extraordinarily bizarre and treacherous, with endless tricks at its disposal. Constant vigilance is necessary."
"Regardless of whether he is truly dead or not, my plans will not change in the slightest."
As the thought flashed through his mind, Li Fan inquired further about the details of Mo Rubin's corpse.
The location where Li Fan had seen him not long ago was clearly not here.
He had not expected the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals to find a way to resist the contagion of gloomy darkness in such a short time and transfer him to this place.
"If it really were merely a worthless empty shell, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals wouldn't have gone through so much trouble to move it. In my view, the vortex through which the Alliance siphons the darkness probably relies on Mo Rubin's corpse to remain stable," Layman Qiaogong offered his own deduction.
"This gloomy dark power shares some properties with Source Power Essence. By ordinary logic, given the immense scale of the sea of gloomy darkness, opening such a small outlet would inevitably produce an unimaginable energy vortex. Yet here, things are a bit too calm."
Layman Qiaogong spoke with utter conviction, leaving the You leader momentarily stunned.
The leader observed carefully for a long time before exclaiming in surprise, "Emissary, what this immortal master says is true! The gloomy dark power, which should have been turbulent and violent, has actually stabilized after being filtered and influenced by that empty shell!"
"To be able to soothe even the gloomy darkness, what could he possibly..." The You leader's voice was full of shock and uncertainty.
Hearing this, Li Fan sank into thought.
If the You Realm truly had ties to the King of Profound Heaven, then aside from former companions of the Profound Heaven Sect, the only thing likely to catch his particular attention...
...was probably the statue of the Faceless True Immortal.
However, it remained uncertain how massive a disturbance would be caused if the True Immortal statue were revealed in the You Realm. Whether to take that step required careful consideration.
The primary objective of this trip was still to seize the opportunity to study this mysterious gloomy dark power and to gather information on Mo Rubin.
"Can we approach this area and secretly open an opening connected to the pocket world?" Li Fan asked. "With Mo Rubin's corpse stabilizing things, the disturbances generated shouldn't be too large."
The You leader pondered for a moment before giving an affirmative answer.
"However, it is best not to draw too much gloomy dark power. Otherwise, two vortices of equal size could easily interact with each other, drawing closer until they merge into a single massive whole."
"Understood. We will only siphon a small amount for study. We won't be greedy."
With Li Fan making the call, the group went into action at once.
Led by their chief, the You people secretly opened another spatial passage right beside the Alliance outpost.
This was their homeland to begin with, and with Li Fan and the others displaying their respective techniques to conceal the ripples, everything proceeded smoothly without being detected by the Alliance from start to finish.
Of course, this might also have been because the Alliance personnel had focused all their attention on guarding the colossal vortex.
"Truly miraculous. The surging sea of gloomy darkness actually turns so gentle here," the You leader marveled aloud as he witnessed this wondrous scene firsthand.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the passage, within the subterranean world...
The moment it escaped its cage, the gloomy dark power reverted to its original nature.
At a staggering speed, it surged outward in all directions, swallowing everything in its path.
The subterranean world's final traces of light soon vanished entirely.
Countless creatures perished silently, never knowing why or how.
Fortunately, this subterranean pocket world was not particularly large.
After rapidly filling it to capacity, the gloomy dark power began to flow in reverse, surging back toward the You Realm.
It truly moved like an undulating tide.
At the entrance connecting the subterranean world to the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan sharply noticed that the darkness had begun to seep through.
However, because they had not opened that passage, the process was exceedingly slow.
"If we must enter and exit through here, then before long, the leaking gloomy darkness will surely be detected by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals," Liu Ruchen said with a frown.
"Leave it to me," Layman Qiaogong volunteered. "Source Power Essence and gloomy dark power are mutually incompatible. Perhaps we can construct a buffer zone here. Of course, this might require a substantial amount of Source Power Essence."
As Layman Qiaogong spoke, his gaze drifted involuntarily toward Li Fan.
Li Fan had no attachment whatsoever to the dregs of this True Immortal's power. Over this period, he had accumulated a sizable quantity of it, with no specific use for it.
Even so, he feigned long and difficult deliberation before reluctantly agreeing.
Overjoyed, Layman Qiaogong set to work at once, summoning his cherished creation to assist him.
A female immortal puppet of breathtaking beauty obeyed Qiaogong's every command.
She was crafted using the same techniques as the Tianyang immortal puppet, though where Qiaogong had acquired the puppet's conscious personality was anyone's guess.
As he built the buffer zone, Qiaogong ended up bragging and casually revealing her origin himself.
"Back when the Ancestor collapsed, I barely survived the catastrophe with my life and fled my homeland. But some people were not as fortunate as I was. Her body was destroyed in the calamity, and only a backup of her consciousness was preserved, which I carried with me ever since."
"Don't let her obedient demeanor fool you; back then, she used to scold me constantly! Hahaha!"
"Back during my time in the Heavenly Spirit Sect, I prepared a puppet body for her as well. But it was too rigid, and I didn't care for it. After playing with it for a short while, I lost interest and destroyed it."
"Nothing like this one—vivid, lifelike, and virtually indistinguishable from a real person!"
Chapter 1100