Someone had once said this: the deepest darkness would vanish because of the faintest glimmer of light.
Standing outside the boundless darkness, Zheng Qing understood how terrifying it was, but only after walking within it did he truly feel the suffocating air beneath that terror.
One li, five li.
Thirty li, sixty li.
One hundred li, two hundred li, three hundred li...
At the end of the darkness, the point of light Zheng Qing and the others had taken as a marker not only failed to grow larger and clearer as they drew nearer, but even dimmed for a time, fading from milky white to dark red.
Like a supernova, after reaching the height of its brilliance, its remnants slowly burned.
Zheng Qing could not help doubting whether they were truly heading in the right direction, moving forward in a straight line.
But beneath the Night Veil of the Black Prison World, aside from that point of light, the group had no other way to determine their direction. Whether spells or compasses, they could only roughly point out east, west, south, and north. The powerful Confundus Charm surrounding Black Prison Castle interfered with every attempt to locate it through magic.
Four hundred li, eight hundred li.
One thousand li, two thousand li, three thousand li...
Their advance through the darkness seemed endless. The black cat had long since stopped singing, and its raised tail had drooped limply behind it like a water snake with its bones removed.
Zhu Si had also grown tired of the monotonous surroundings and began dozing on Zheng Qing's back.
Zheng Qing and Jiang Yu, on the other hand, always seemed able to find something to talk about.
From the old fishman's prophecy at Quankelai to their usual hobbies; from Zheng Qing's school life in the