“Whoosh!” The sword of light crossed through the darkness and left behind something everlasting. It severed the temporal cycle, the samsara cycle, and karma ties. Only death awaited its target! “Ahhh!” The pitiful scream of the Nightking Phoenix resounded across the hall. Finally, its massive head fell into the ground. Blood gushed out of its neck like a spring, resulting in a rain of blood. Its blood had a frightening corrosive nature. Even space itself was being refined and issued quiet buzzes. “Rumble!” Finally, its mountainous frame dropped to the ground. The powerful dark beast couldn’t handle this invincible slash. It used to dominate alongside Desolate Saint but its fate was determined the moment Li Qiye decided to take action. “This slash could take down the samsara.” Li Qiye smiled and blew away the blood on the blade: “Even the formation prepared by Desolate Saint can’t save you.” In fact, even if the progenitor was here in person, he still wouldn’t be able to save the phoenix. Li Qiye smiled and returned the sword to its sheath. Meanwhile, this weapon remained quiet, aware that it needed to obey Li Qiye in order to survive. He didn’t bother looking at the corpse and moved deeper into the hall. The place turned quiet after the phoenix’s death. This muted eeriness became chillingly creepy. Nevertheless, Li Qiye slowly walked onward with a profound gate. He eventually reached his destination and saw a pond. Nothing else was here. Wait, to the back of this pond was a cliff with an engraved painting. Li Qiye’s eyes turned cold once he got close enough to take a good look. The pond wasn’t actually that large. It was filled with a liquid as black as ink. One would certainly mistake it for ink in the beginning. Upon closer inspection, there was a shade of red as well. This red was so dark and thick that it looked like ink. “Dark blood.” Li Qiye carefully analyzed. The pond was filled with this type of blood. They haven’t congealed despite being here for so many years. Recognizing this blood and the mysteries here required others to use their heavenly gaze. Darkness existed in this pond in the form of tiny strands of laws. Each strand contained the power of an entire world. This was the reason why the blood remained in this liquid form, the same with its evil power. Li Qiye scowled after figuring out everything. He spread his palm and the blood suddenly split in the middle. Remember, each drop of blood was insanely powerful and as immense as a mountain. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to move a single drop, let alone splitting the entire pond. Alas, this invincible power of darkness couldn’t resist Li Qiye’s overwhelming force. The bottom of the pond became exposed after the blood moved to the sides. He saw a root at the bottom - one as clear as jade with light laws surrounding it. Each law looked like a supreme grand dao. This thing has been absorbing the power of the dark blood. Strangely enough, it wasn’t stained by this affinity either. On the contrary, its sacred light power increased in power. “A dao root feeding on evil blood.” Li Qiye uttered coldly: “Desolate Saint, how did you come up with this? To actually leave this backup plan behind? You wanted to live again after another world destruction?” His eyes turned bright as he looked at the ancient painting on the wall. It wasn’t engraved by him. Desolate Saint took it from somewhere then added it to the wall. It depicted several strange existences never seen by anyone else before. However, Li Qiye recognized them because he has seen them before in the final palace at Moneyfall. They were part of the thirty-six statues found there. “This is what you wanted to do?” Li Qiye smiled and gently shook his head while looking at the painting: “Dao root, do you want to turn into a devil or a saint?” This was an evil double-edged blade. It could either turn towards the light or the darkness. Though it could absorb the power from the blood without turning to the darkness, this was actually still the same path. Its light power might seem untouchable now, but just crossing a thin thread could turn it to the darkness. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚 Thus, no one knew what Desolate Saint wanted to do outside of leaving a backup plan for himself. The real question was - what was the point of bringing that painting here? “Everlasting Forefather sought the samsara in order to live forever. Who knows about you though? After all, you have a previous conviction before.” Li Qiye said something that no one else would understand. “This evil dao root is so similar to you, or maybe it is you in this generation. The light was only a brief stopping point in your life.” He became slightly emotional. Desolate Saint was one of the greatest progenitors in Three Immortals. His famous illumination and his legacy - the great system named Academy of Light. These were incredible achievements. Three Immortals had plenty of progenitors before but none of them tried as hard as he did to save the living beings. However, no one knew about his dark past. His front was full of boundless light and salvation. Once he turned around, they would see an abyss of darkness. He crawled up from this abyss and reached this world. Perhaps he had thought about doing other things but ended up picking the light. This choice had nothing to do with mercy and love for the light. Maybe he wanted to try something else after failing once - another experiment. Or perhaps he wanted to leave behind a strand of his own conscience in this world. His illumination might be a way to comfort the souls of the dead along with burying his final vestige of light. This might be the real him. What he had done in Three Immortals wasn’t because he was a saint, only the afterglow of his final light. Later on, Desolate Saint would be no more. Only an existence that would herald darkness for future generations! “Hmm, I don’t care if this is a real yearning for the light or darkness in preparation for the expedition, I won’t leave this potential seed of discord behind.” Li Qiye shook his head and made up his mind. A dark hand behind the curtain like him couldn’t afford to be merciful. “I’ve killed you once before so I can also destroy your remnant spark.” Li Qiye smiled and crouched down. “Poof!” A fire engulfed his hand. This was his supreme fire dao with immense power.