535: Chapter 535

The darkness at the bottom of the cliff was bone-chillingly cold.

Qin Yun woke from his stupor, his entire body wracked with intense pain that radiated from his very bones.

He tried to move his fingers, and a sharp, stinging pain shot through his palm.

He wanted to sit up, but his body would not obey him.

All around was pitch black, so dark he could not see his own hand, with only the sound of his heavy breathing remaining.

The smell of blood.

It was faint, his own blood.

He finally managed to prop up his upper body, and by the faint moonlight filtering down from the top of the cliff, he saw his palm clearly.

There was a gash in his palm, cut by something sharp, still oozing blood.

Right beside his palm lay a severed horn of some unknown creature, emitting wisps of black Qi.

Just at this moment.

A faint scratching sound came from the depths of the darkness.

A sense of oppression rapidly approached from that direction.

Qin Yun's heart tightened abruptly, and he instinctively shrank back.

He was not the only one at the bottom of the cliff.

That thing had been drawn by the smell of blood.

The scratching sound drew closer and closer, carrying a foul aura.

Qin Yun could not see the creature clearly, only barely making out a twisted, bloated silhouette in the dark.

It had no eyes, but Qin Yun could clearly feel that he was being "watched."

An instinctive fear made his whole body go cold.

He wanted to run, but his severely injured body simply would not obey him.

As the creature drew closer, that malevolent aura almost caused his consciousness to dull.

A life-or-death moment.

Under this extreme pressure, a power that had lain dormant within Qin Yun for nine years was forcibly stimulated.

Boom!

A surge of golden Qi and blood power suddenly erupted from within his body.

The golden light was not dazzling, but it carried a searing heat, instantly dispelling the darkness within three feet of him.

The moment the twisted evil creature touched the golden Qi and blood, it let out a shrill screech.

Its bloated body recoiled violently as if burned, its movements visibly slowing down.

It worked!

Joy stirred in Qin Yun's heart.

Disregarding the excruciating pain in his body, he forced himself to circulate the golden Qi and blood, attempting to drive the creature back.

The power of the Primordial Origin naturally restrained all evil things.

The golden power of Qi and blood formed a thin film of light, protecting Qin Yun within it.

The evil creature paced and hissed outside the light film, but dared not take another step forward.

It seemed to fear this power greatly.

Qin Yun saw hope; gritting his teeth, he squeezed out the last ounce of strength in his body to maintain the circulation of the golden Qi and blood.

However, he quickly discovered a problem.

His current Realm was too low.

His cultivation at the Spirit Transformation Realm was simply insufficient to support him in mobilizing the Primordial Origin for an extended period.

Under the continuous consumption, the golden film of Qi and blood began to dim.

The range of the light was also shrinking bit by bit.

They remained in a stalemate for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick.

Qin Yun felt his vision darken, and a sense of weakness rapidly washed over him.

The evil creature seemed to have sensed his exhaustion.

It stopped hissing, and its twisted silhouette approached him again, even more agitated than before.

The golden film of Qi and blood flickered violently, unstable.

He wasn't going to make it.

Qin Yun's heart sank; was he really going to die at the hands of this ghostly thing just after escaping the pursuit?

Just at the final moment when he was about to despair.

A sudden change occurred.

Hum.

A slight tremor came from the deepest part of the cliff bottom.

It was not emitted by the evil creature.

Rather, it was an older, more oppressive aura.

The moment that aura awakened, the golden Qi and blood within Qin Yun uncontrollably resonated with it.

No, it was not resonance.

It was that some deeper connection had been triggered.

The approaching evil creature's body suddenly froze.

Its instinct, which had been reduced to nothing but the desire to devour, gave rise to fear at this moment.

An instinctive fear.

In the darkness, it was as if a pair of invisible "eyes" had opened.

Qin Yun could not see what was happening, but he could clearly feel that the atmosphere at the bottom of the cliff had changed entirely.

That newly emerged aura only awakened for an instant.

Just for an instant.

A powerful suction force erupted from the deepest part of the cliff bottom.

The evil creature did not even have time to think of fleeing before its massive, twisted body was instantly dragged away by that suction force.

There was no scream, no struggle.

It did not even make a sound.

It vanished silently, as if swallowed directly by the darkness.

The suction force came quickly and left just as quickly.

It lasted no more than a breath.

The bottom of the cliff returned to a deathly silence.

The evil aura had vanished completely.

As if it had never existed.

Qin Yun's tightly coiled nerves finally relaxed.

His severely injured body, coupled with the overexertion of his Primordial Qi and blood, left him unable to hold on any longer.

His vision went black, and he passed out completely.

...

Unknown how much time had passed.

A ray of morning light spilled through a gap at the top of the cliff, illuminating this cliff bottom that had been silent for who knows how many years.

Qin Yun woke up amidst a blinding light.

He slowly sat up and discovered that he was lying on a patch of soft grass.

The bone-chilling cold and darkness of last night had long since dissipated.

All around were jagged rocks, dead vines, and some unknown weeds.

On the ground, apart from the marks left by his own unconscious body, there were no signs of any battle.

That evil creature, that fierce battle where he had nearly lost his life, felt like a hallucination.

But the weakness in his body and the hollowness from the overexertion of his Qi and blood served as reminders that everything that happened last night was real.

He instinctively looked around, confirming that the thing was completely gone.

The moment he lowered his head, he froze.

On the index finger of his left hand, at some unknown time, a ring had appeared.

The ring had an ancient style, with a dark golden color throughout; there were no flashy patterns on its surface, only a minimalist relief that looked like a sun.

He brought the ring up to his eyes.

A warm aura emanated from the ring; it was faint, yet it brought a hint of warmth to his body, which had been cold from the overexertion of his Qi and blood.

This was not his item.

Qin Yun frowned and attempted to remove the ring from his finger.

It did not budge.

The ring seemed to be grown onto his hand; no matter how hard he tried, he could not remove it in the slightest.

Qin Yun stood at the bottom of the cliff in the morning, looking with a solemn expression at the ancient, sun-like ring on his hand.

The disappearance of the evil creature, the stillness at the bottom of the cliff, and this inexplicable, irremovable ring.

Everything that happened last night pointed to that unknown existence hidden in the deepest darkness.