Chương 408: XIe Ling's terror

Long Feng felt his consciousness sinking into an abyss of darkness after an enormously force smashed into his body. The last thing he recalled was seeing the Head warden standing before him, and then… nothing. The force would have destroyed his soul if it hadn't been devoured by the seven colored sapling in his soul world. For an infinite amount of time that seemed to be a single second as well, all he could sense was a soul chilling darkness. This was a kind of darkness that originated from the abyss itself…

a darkness that devoured darkness itself! Within this darkness, nothing existed. Even his soul, his consciousness didn't seem to exist. He couldn't even recall if he had his consciousness or not. All he knew was that there was a light, the only light in this mind crumbling darkness, and he rushed towards it instinctively. He thought he would escape this darkness, and he did. But he found himself somewhere else. In a boundless starry sky, where infinite stars twinkled from immeasurable distances away.

A subtle pressure engulfed him as he stared around with a chaotic consciousness.

"Who… am I?" He questioned, unable to form a single coherent thought.

"Where is this place? …" His very existence, what was it? What was he? He couldn't find answers to any of these questions, and it threw his consciousness into more disorder. He curled up in the vastness of the space, looking even more insignificant than a speck of dust in a dessert as he buried his head in his arms, unable to explain the empty sensation in his soul. He had no concept of anything whatsoever, not even time. Was it days? Months? Years? Centuries? He didn't know how long it was exactly.

All of a sudden, a single word resounded through his mind and throughout this endless space.

"Prime!" He let out a roar of pain as his mind seemed to expand beyond his limit, causing an excruciating pain to spread through his soul. Countless broken scenes flashed through his mind, each one causing the pain to multiply. He wasn't able to glimpse at any of the scenes properly, especially when his soul was literally being torn apart by an indescribable pain.

"Prime! Prime!! Prime!!! Arrghhh!" He roared, his voice echoing through a great expanse of space. The pain vanished, and so did the fragments, causing him to return to his confused state as he stared ahead blankly. A throne. Floating through the space. Countless runes were carved upon the throne, and it emanated an unspeakable aura that could drown stars. Seated upon this throne was a man, clad in black robes that were darker than night.

His hair was scattered across his shoulders and some stands fell over his forehead, partly concealing the mask that he wore. With his head lowered, not a portion of his appearance was revealed. His arm was resting on the throne and his chin rested on his palm, giving him a majesty beyond what anyone could comprehend. Surrounding the throne were nine blazing pillars of golden light that seemed to support the entire cosmos.

They revolved around the throne like stars around the sun, guarding and worshiping the masked man. Beyond those were thirty three distant pillars of light, dimmer than the first nine yet still emanating an unmatched aura. Long Feng's eyes were glued to the masked man seated upon the throne. An unknown feeling surfaced in his heart as he stared at the man, and a curiosity to know who it was overwhelmed him. Slowly, the masked man lifted his head.

His movement was calm, deliberate, yet the revolution of the nine pillars and the thirty three pillars of light further out froze. The space around the throne began to fracture like glass, crumbling to reveal the dark void beneath. Long Feng didn't glance at any of these. His eyes was focused on the masked man who was slowly lifting his head, until… He saw them. Two gray pupils that weren't concealed by the mask. It wasn't the usual gray that signified death. It was a colorless gray that erased meaning.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. There was no light. No depth. No emotion. No structure. It was a color that lack the presence of everything that made existence… existence. Long Feng's soul instantly crumbled the moment he met those eyes, and his own eyes suddenly fluttered open in the real world. For a moment, they were gray. Filled with nothing but Chaos.

Xie Ling's soul shivered in uncontrollable terror as she stared at those eyes, a terror that came from the depths of her being. A voice was screaming for her to flee, get as far away as possible. Yet her body was frozen in time. Then the gray color faded and the eyes returned to a deep black color that was much less frightening. Everything returned to normal like nothing had happened, and the inmate terror vanished from her soul. The sudden transition left her doubting whether what just happened was real.

Yet the shiver in her soul, the sweat that drenched her in that split second and her stiff body told her that… everything was real! Even if she didn't want to believe it. She pulled away from Long Feng, trying to rise to her feet. Unfortunately, her entire body was dead, and her bones seemed to have turned to jelly. The slightest movement caused her to lay helplessly on the floor, breathing roughly as she tried desperately to regain control over her body.

One could only imagine the kind of terror she felt that left such after effects. Long Feng stared blankly at the ceiling for over a minute.

"Prime…" he muttered faintly, before his memories suddenly rushed back like a flood. The Teng clan… Head warden's attack… falling into the river… He couldn't remember anything else besides that. He was in utter darkness for who knows how long, and how he had suddenly awoken. As he began to regain his consciousness, he heard faint whimpers and rapid breathing beside him, causing him to turn his neck with some effort, only to stare into the large eyes of a girl filled with fear.

When he stared at her, she was so terrified that she directly burst into tears while trying to move. Long Feng's mind was still recovering, so he was rather slow to react. It wasn't until seconds later that his thoughts returned.

"You… who are you?" He asked with a frown as he stared at her and tried to move. Instantly, an excruciating pain wracked his body, causing him to give up on moving. The weakness he could sense in his body left him feeling surreal. Had he ever been this fragile in his entire life? Not even when he was a trash in the Long clan who couldn't cultivate. Even back then, he was stronger than he could sense now.

His bones were as weak as noodles, and even the slightest muscle twitch would send a shocking pain spreading through his body. While he could endure a bit without reacting, he didn't doubt that any large movement like lifting his arm would make him scream out in pain. Xie Ling's eyes were red and her face was drenched with tears as she lay weakly, staring at him. Luckily, his eyes weren't nearly as scary as they were a minute ago. Right now, they were filled with caution, but that was it.

The indescribable sense chaos was gone. Long Feng noticed that she seemed to be in some sort of situation herself, so he didn't push for an answer. He patiently waited, and that helped he tremendously without his knowledge. She finally confirmed that he was normal, or rather, human right now, and her body slowly began to loosen. From tiny arm movements, she quickly regained her body control nearly ten minutes later, albeit unstably.

When she stood up, she wobbled like a baby who was just learning to walk, and Long Feng stared at her in confusion.

"Are you alright?" He felt like she was suffering from some trauma from her reaction, leaving him speechless.

"I-i'm fine…" she replied as she leaned on a table and stared at him with several emotions.

"Wha- what was that earlier?" She asked.

"What was what?" Long Feng raised an eyebrow as he responded.

"You… your eyes… gray…they were different… extremely terrifying…" Xie Ling stuttered, still trying to control her vocal cords.

"My eyes?" Long Feng instantly frowned. Gray? Wasn't that… Wasn't that the same color his eyes turned to when he lost control after Yan Jian's death and fought Wu Kong? How could it happen again?

"You said my eyes were gray?" He asked to be sure. Xie Ling nodded in confusion. Wasn't he aware? Long Feng's mind whirled with countless thoughts as he tried to recall what happened after he fell unconscious, yet nothing was forthcoming.

"I'm sorry. I can't recall anything." He gave up with a sigh. Xie Ling nodded, yet no matter what, she couldn't get those gray eyes out of her mind.

"Where is this place?" Long Feng asked.

"The Xie Clan."

"And where is that precisely?"

"It is located in the border between the Eastern and Northern regions." Xie Ling replied.

"So far…" Long Feng breathed out lightly. The distance from the border to the supreme heaven sect was thousands of miles, a distance that would take him years to traverse with his current cultivation if there was no teleportation formations.

"What's your name?" He asked. Xie Ling hesitated before responding with her name.

"I am Long Feng. Thank you for saving my life." He replied. He didn't need to think too much to realize that they had rescued him and saved his life, so he owed them a great favor.

"I-it's nothing." She shook her head.

"Besides, it is my father who saved your life."

"Your father?" She nodded.

"He is the Clan Chief of the Xie Clan and the leader of this our small village." She replied.

"Oh." Long Feng nodded. They both remained silent for the next few minutes before Xie Ling spoke.

"How did you get so badly injured? Were you in a fight?" Long Feng's mind flashed with the memory of the events at the two cliffs as a chilling glow filled his eyes.

"That's right." He nodded, concealing the glow.

"We found you in the river. You were barely hanging on by a thread. They didn't even think you'd make it." Xie Ling muttered.

"Your injuries were very bad. Who caused them? Was he strong?" Long Feng nodded.

"Very strong."

"Oh." Xie Ling nodded as well.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Not bad. I can't move, but I suppose it's good enough that I'm still alive." He replied. Just then, the doors were pushed open and Xie Duan walked in, followed by old Du. Both men had severe expressions on their faces as they walked in, only to freese as they stared at Long Feng. Their expressions could only be described as colourful as they stared at him the way one would stare at a ghost.

"I-impossible!" Old Du gasped, shaking his head heavily and looking again. But nothing changed. The youth's eyes were clearly open, and they were staring at him.

"This… how?" Xie Duan muttered, also unable to believe his eyes.

"His soul was gone… how is he awake?" Old Du murmured. When he sensed now, the youth's breathing was suddenly back, extremely stable just as was his heartbeat. Moreover, his soul fluctuations were back, and he gave off the aura of a living person, which was in stark opposition to days ago when he felt more dead than alive