Darkness Erosion

The greatest turmoil of the Mythological Era was the corpse calamity caused by the practice of the Reincarnation Seal Longevity Method.

Especially during the period when Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord proved the Dao, the corpse calamity ran rampant, and living beings suffered disastrous persecution.

After Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord proved the Dao, he constantly fought to pacify the corpse calamity.

Regarding the corpse calamity of the Mythological Era, there are only fragmented records left today.

Through the words of Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord, Chen Zhao gradually came to understand the essence of the corpse calamity.

Sentient Immortal Corpse?

Hearing Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord mention this past event, Chen Zhao's gaze narrowed slightly.

This past event was precisely the origin of the legend passed down to later generations about Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord holding the Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation to slay immortals.

He reversed the heavens and slayed a true immortal with the status of the human path.

This matter sounded like a sheer fantasy.

The original text of Covering the Sky mentioned Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord's immortal-slaying feat multiple times, but never unraveled the mystery.

"A sentient immortal corpse emerged, attempting to devour the living beings of the universe to make up for its own deficiencies."

"This immortal corpse possessed extreme strength; even as merely a sentient corpse, it still surpassed the Human Dao Domain."

Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord slowly recounted this past event, and when speaking of this sentient immortal corpse, his tone still contained a piercing, bone-chilling killing intent.

"Holding the Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation, I reversed the heavens to slay the sentient immortal corpse. At the cost of my own grave injuries, I killed this sentient immortal corpse in the Cosmic Frontier."

"After slaying this immortal corpse, I also reached the brink of death, and desired to use the immortal corpse's Immortal Dao Source to live out a second life."

Speaking up to this point, Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord paused for a moment, his tone carrying a trace of regret as he said, "After I used that Immortal Dao Source to undergo transformation, I discovered that within the Immortal Dao Source, there was a deeply hidden, special substance."

"This special substance was extremely peculiar, capable of eroding my primordial spirit."

"At that time, I could feel a new primordial spirit being born within my skull. That primordial spirit was tyrannical and cruel—that was my fallen primordial spirit."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhao roughly knew what that special substance contained within the Immortal Dao Source was.

According to what Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord described, under the erosion of this special substance, a new primordial spirit was born within him.

This naturally made Chen Zhao think of the erosion of dark power.

"When I discovered that a fallen primordial spirit had been born, I had no choice but to disembody my physical form, scattering it across various parts of the cosmic star river and merging it into the heavens and earth, utilizing the power of heaven and earth to suppress it."

"In the end, I used my Dao Cultivation as fire, my primordial spirit and true spirit as firewood, and my Xiantai as a furnace to ignite myself!"

Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord sighed leisurely, lingering fear in his heart as he said, "This bizarre substance is extremely special, clinging like bone-gnawing maggots and difficult to eradicate."

"After igniting my Xiantai, it took countless years for me to burn away those special substances, and my true spirit fragments were scattered across various parts of the universe..."

Speaking of this, Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord cupped his fists toward Chen Zhao and said, "If not for Fellow Daoist making a move this time, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to gather my true spirit and return."

"I, Numinous, spent my entire life suppressing corpse calamities, yet after death I almost became the universe's greatest corpse calamity. Truly, fortune plays with people."

Hearing Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord say this, Chen Zhao spoke up. "This bizarre substance is likely dark matter that survived from the previous era."

"I once obtained surviving texts from the previous era and discovered that the end of the previous era was related to a special kind of dark power."

"This dark power can erode the primordial spirits of living beings, causing them to fall into depravity and giving birth to a new dark primordial spirit."

Although Chen Zhao understood the plot, his identity was special, so he could only pretend to reveal the news through ancient texts.

"So that's how it was. No wonder that sentient immortal corpse was so bizarre; back then, I thought it was due to the misfortune of a corpse becoming sentient," Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord realized, deeply moved.

Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord was also truly unlucky; the Immortal Dao Source he encountered happened to harbor dark matter, and he himself had nearly suffered from darkness erosion.

Yet his method for dealing with the darkness required immense courage: he actively disembodied his physical form and ignited his own Xiantai to burn away his primordial spirit.

No wonder there were flames inside Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord's Xiantai—this unresolved mystery was finally solved.

This method was far too resolute for ordinary people to emulate, and its danger was also extreme.

In later generations, Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord never returned, perishing completely.

"Fellow Daoist Numinous returning this time means you have successfully lived out another life. This is the greatest fortune amidst misfortune," Chen Zhao said.

Immediately afterward, thinking of something, he continued to inquire, "I wonder what relationship Fellow Daoist has with the Heavenly Court Master of the past, Emperor Lord. I discovered Dao patterns left behind by Emperor Lord within Fellow Daoist's Xiantai."

"Emperor Lord? In the Mythological Era, his name was Primordial Heavenly Lord. He existed in the world even before I attained the Dao, and I discussed the longevity method with him many times. He is a fellow Daoist of astonishing talent."

"I never expected that Fellow Daoist Primordial could also cut away all Dao and law, and re-prove the Heavenly Lord Dao."

The moment Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord returned, his consciousness penetrated the inside and outside of the universe, understanding the major events that had occurred from ancient times to the present.

Therefore, he knew who the Emperor Lord in Chen Zhao's mouth was.

"Emperor Lord's temperament underwent a drastic change in his late years. Could it be that, like Fellow Daoist, he was infected with dark matter?" Chen Zhao asked.

Emperor Lord as an individual was extremely contradictory between his early and late years, the contrast before and after being far too vast.

In his past life when Covering the Sky was merely a novel, Emperor Lord's inexplicable turning dark in the later stages could only be explained by the red-hair late-years misfortune that caused the author to ruin the ending of Covering the Sky.

However, the current Covering the Sky was a real world, so the reason for Emperor Lord's inexplicable descent into darkness warranted investigation.

Aside from being eroded by dark matter, Chen Zhao simply could not think of any reason that would cause a person's temperament to undergo such a drastic change.

Even Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord was eroded by darkness and nearly fell into it, forced to disembody and ignite his Xiantai.

Thus, it was extremely likely that Emperor Lord had also suffered the erosion of dark power.

Only when Ye Fan and the others broke into the Strange World and slew the Undying Heavenly Emperor would Emperor Lord appear in a face-to-face manner, attempting suicide to seek release.

Even Duan Dude, who returned with nine lives of the Reincarnation Seal merged into one, believed that person was not Emperor Lord.

"That is possible. In the past, Fellow Daoist Primordial loved to use himself to test the longevity method, so it is possible he was eroded by dark matter during that process."

Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord sighed. "However, since Fellow Daoist Primordial has now fallen, everything has returned to dust and earth..."

"Fellow Daoist Numinous, according to my discoveries, Emperor Lord is not dead. Right now, Emperor Lord's formation patterns exist all over the universe, and the purpose of those formation patterns is to refine the Human World Universe," Chen Zhao stated.

Upon hearing that Emperor Lord was not dead, Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord furrowed his brows slightly. "Then I'm afraid Fellow Daoist Primordial truly has fallen into the darkness."

"In the past, I came to understand my own dark primordial spirit; it was extremely cruel and extremely tyrannical."

Chen Zhao waved his hand. "Emperor Lord is not dead, yet he cannot return to the Human World Universe, residing instead within the Strange World. As for the backup plans he left behind, I also have a way to deal with them."

"Strange World? Could it be the world to which the Mars path to immortality leads?" Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord inquired.

"Could it be that Fellow Daoist also understands the Strange World?" Chen Zhao asked with some curiosity.

Numinous Treasure Heavenly Lord had lived out three lives, and with his astonishing combat prowess, he had forcefully cut his way into the path to immortality. It was hardly surprising that he understood the Strange World.