Chapter 10: Invasion of Darkness
Translator: Ninetales Editor: Ninetales
Sweat rolled down the forehead of Senior Brother Qu as he croaked, "No wonder no one has taken those precious artifacts. Junior Sister Qing, each of them has a mind of their own! They’ll harm anyone that isn’t their master!"
A chill went down Senior Sister Qing’s spine as she continuously nodded her head in understanding.
"These artifacts have always been here!" Qin Mu shouted coldly. "No one’s taken them, not even the strange beasts, which clearly meant that they’re dangerous! You already knew that, yet you still used your junior brother to test the waters. With a heart as vicious as yours, you’re the real devil here!"
"The devil has come to provoke doubt within us again!" Senior Brother Qu said with a shake of his head, an expression of deep sorrow on his face. "What do you know about the relationship between me and my junior brother? A little devil will forever be a little devil. You consider my heart similar to your devil heart, so of course you’d think I was as sinister as you. I shall no longer argue with you. When tomorrow comes, I’ll be sending you on your way."
Qin Mu frowned.
This Senior Brother Qu was indeed treacherous and ruthless. If he could exploit his junior brother’s life, he definitely wouldn’t let Qin Mu leave these ruins alive.
Unfortunately for Qin Mu, this Senior Brother Qu was extremely strong. Qin Mu couldn’t possibly beat him, not to mention the fact that he had the powerful Senior Sister Qing by his side as well.
Suddenly, the earth began to shake, causing the ruins to shake as well. The strange beasts started to howl as they recoiled into the positions they had claimed throughout the area. All of them looked at the gate at the front of the ruins, their expression full of anxiety and fear.
"What are these strange beasts afraid of?"
The moment that question popped into his head, the incredibly dense darkness suddenly surged towards the gate like a flood!
Qin Mu stumbled backward in shock. However, he realized that something like an invisible barrier covered the gate, blocking the darkness. The darkness frantically pounded into the barrier, trying to break through!
The barrier warped and distorted as the darkness kept pounding into it, but it did not shatter. The darkness distorted with the barrier, sometimes shaped like razor-sharp claws, while at other times it resembled wisps of smoke or countless sharp spikes. It was everchanging.
Then, all of a sudden, the relentless pound of the darkness against the barrier stopped. Silence reigned. After some time, the barrier that had been warped and distorted… stretched.
The darkness pushed against the barrier until it formed an indentation shaped like a face. It was extremely huge with its forehead taking up the sky of the valley and its chin pressing against the ground.
All of the strange beasts in the ruins cowered low to the ground. They didn’t dare to move, not even the slightest bit. They also didn’t dare to look directly at the face of darkness.
The face had three pitch black eyeballs. Upon looking at them, Qin Mu’s entire body went cold as if his soul were about to be sucked away by the darkness!
Words abruptly streamed from the face of darkness.
"Qi ke duo, sa mo ye, bo re bo re sa mo ye, qi ke duo bo re sa mo ye…" it said in an unknown language in its deep, vibrating voice.
The voice vibrated because it sounded as if multiple voices had been mixed together to form it. A bizarre force emanated from the voice, causing the earth in the ruins to constantly shake. The cracks and other signs of decay on the palaces and pillars scattered throughout the valley grew larger and larger, forcing many of them to collapse from the shaking.
When debris started to fall from the gate from the trembling, it was obvious it was not going to withstand any longer.
However, at that very moment, a bright light shone from the plaza. The luminescent pearl that floated above in the skeleton leader’s hand began to emit an increasingly bright light.
Noticing the light shining from behind him, Qin Mu immediately turned around only to see the pearl rise into the sky. The light that shone from it was a variety of different, intense colors.
The intense, multi-colored light shone down on the hundreds of skeletons. Every single skeleton that the light washed over suddenly came to life.
Qin Mu gaped at the sight.
To him, the skeletons bathed in light no longer looked like skeletons.
—They looked like beautiful, flesh-and-blood maidens with rosy pink lips and bright, fiery clothes!
These maidens sat in the plaza exactly where the skeletons had been. Their leader, who was also female, had been holding onto the luminescent pearl that was now slowly rising into the air.
Just like the face of darkness, the maidens started to chant in a bizarre language that was just as incomprehensible.
"Yi po xiu po sa nan jun he xi, guan ming duan jing wu si jiang you…" their voices softly rang out in unison.
The voice of the darkness gradually became louder, intensifying the tremors throughout the valley. As the darkness all around the ruins invaded from every direction, the voices of the maidens became clearer and more powerful. The luminescent pearl hovering in the air then released wave after wave of light that shone into the darkness, dispersing it like smoke.
The voice of the darkness and the combined voices of the maidens resembled gods and devils engaging in a verbal duel, each side constantly gaining the upper hand and then losing it. At the same time, the darkness and light visibly clashed with each other!
This unimaginable battle overwhelmed Qin Mu’s mind. Despite the fact that he lived in the Great Ruins, this was the first time he had seen such an extraordinary sight.
"This voice…" he whispered, a stunning realization washing over him.
The combined voice of the maidens reminded him of the god voice he had heard when he tried to break the Spirit Embryo Wall. Both had the same inherent grace in them. He could vaguely feel that the words of the two voices were different, but they had the same general feel.
Whenever he tried to break the Spirit Embryo Wall with his vital qi, Qin Mu could hear an indistinct, divine voice solemnly echo from the nine heavens above. Every time the voice rang out, his vital qi would uncontrollably retreat from the Spirit Embryo Wall, unable to break it.
At this point, the two voices were still in the midst of their heated battle. Both were powerful in their own ways, and neither one was able to keep the upper hand for long.
The devil voice that resonated from the darkness was strong and terrifying, while the collective voice of the maidens was divine, melodious, and persistent. Every time the devil voice seemed as if it were about to permanently seize the advantage, the maidens always managed to overcome it by deciphering its chant.
On the other hand, the devil voice would always make a comeback after losing the advantage, retreating and then erupting like a wild, majestic flood.
Both voices were unique in their own ways.
Qin Mu became engrossed in their constant struggle as he listened to the collective voice of the maidens when an idea suddenly popped into his head.
"The devil voice is fighting the god voice. This god voice is very similar to the one keeping me from breaking the wall... maybe I can use the devil voice to counter that voice!"
Qin Mu was absolutely convinced that this was a good idea, growing more and more excited because of it!
As long as he learned the words that the devil voice was chanting, he could then say them the moment the god voice resounded in his head. Doing so would counter the voice from the nine heavens above and allow his vital qi to break the Spirit Embryo Wall!
As long as he could break his Spirit Embryo Wall... with his Overlord Body and Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique, he wouldn’t need to be afraid of Senior Brother Qu and Senior Sister Qing!
However, once his thoughts got that far, he suddenly froze as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him.
If the voice in his head were actually the voice of a god from the nine heavens above, and he used words spoken by the voice of a devil to counter it, would that mean he was a devil that had been sealed by the gods?
Could it be that Senior Brother Qu and the rest of them had been right all along? Was he truly a little devil?
"N-no!" Qin Mu shook his head. If he were a devil, wouldn’t his Overlord Body be devilish as well?
If that were the case, why did everyone in the village call it an Overlord Body? Wouldn’t the name "Devil Body" be more accurate?
"Who cares if my body is a Devil Body or an Overlord Body! First, I need to break the Spirit Embryo Wall!"
Idea firm in his mind, Qin Mu got to work. He started by perfectly memorizing the syllables of the words that the voice in the darkness was chanting, as well as the tone and manner in which it said them.
Once he was sure that he had all of it right, Qin Mu then used the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique to circulate his vital qi. As he pushed his vital qi towards his Spirit Embryo Wall, which was located right between his eyebrows, he chanted the foreign words of the devil voice!