1295 Darkness



Alex jumped down into the ravine, the sword aura moving around him. He could feel the intent behind the attack that had left the sword aura. It was a mixture of killing intent with cutting intent. 

The swordsman that was responsible for this had cut down the entire mountain range to form a ravine with just his Sword, so it was overflowing with sword aura. 

Even generations later, the ravine still lingered with the same aura, albeit far weaker than what was probably used all those years ago.

"Can you sense the death aura?" Scarlet asked.

Alex slowly landed down in the ravine where the sunlight only reached the ground because it was noon. The cliff-like walls protruding from the mountains cut up mountains around him and wouldn't allow for sunlight to reach here at any other time.

His vision shifted so that he started seeing more than just the ordinary world. Colors flooded his vision, one of every shade. However, the one that was most prominent was the white one. 

The sword aura was the only thing he could see.

"I don't think I can find it," he said while trying his best. "The Sword aura is much stronger than the death energy, so it's quite impossible unless I'm close to the source."

He quickly reached into his mind and called out to Godslayer who was sleeping.

"What?" Godslayer asked in an annoyed voice. "Why are you bothering me?"

"Are you still absorbing the energy you took from that replica of yours?" Alex asked.

"You woke me up just to ask that?" Godslayer's voice sounded even more annoyed.

"No. Look at where we are," Alex said. "This place is overflowing with sword aura, but there is something that is producing Death aura in here. I need your help locating it. You are more attuned with death aura than I am."

"Hmm, death aura?" Godslayer's attention was finally piqued. "Where?"

"I need your help to find it," Alex said. He explained the general present situation to Godslayer, who could only come up with a single answer.

"If it's hiding death aura inside people's dantian, then it has intelligence," he said. "You have to be careful."

Alex nodded.

The ravine was narrow with barely 20 meters of width at the base. However, it was very, very long, with numerous cracks along the side that one could stay in.

Alex quickly flew over to the very end of the ravine further than which there was no sword aura. Then, he turned around and slowly made his way to the other side.

There was a small stream in the ravine, barely deep enough to reach one's shin. There were very few insects and absolutely no animals. Plants grew along the side of the walls, of which very few seemed to hold any special properties.

Due to the abundance of sword aura, life simply wasn't thriving as much as it should have.

Alex continued down the river, his senses heightened to the extreme. 

"It's quite weird now that I think about it," Alex said and asked Godslayer. "I mostly just find Death aura. Why is Darkness aura so hard to come by?"

"Death is a common occurrence. Everyone dies including beasts and plants. As they die, the Qi in their body slowly changes, turning to Death aura, which makes it so easily available," Godslayer said. "But darkness, on the other hand, isn't easy to come by because it can't have many sources."

"Is it because most places aren't truly dark?" Alex asked. "Because most places have light, darkness cannot fester."

"No, that's just what darkness truly is," Godslayer said. "What you're describing falls more under shadows than darkness."

"True darkness is not the absence of light in a physical sense, but the lack of kindness, morality, or even justice. It is the aura of human corruption."

"True darkness can only grow in the hearts of ones who have been wronged, and those who seek to right this wrong by giving up that which made them kind and moral. When these people let themselves be corrupted by evil, that is when darkness truly forms."

"That is also why the presence of an absurd amount of darkness corrupts people, why they forget themselves and become evil," Godslayer explained. "Darkness once acquired is easily fueled. Once corrupted, anyone can feed the darkness, which makes them stronger than they ever were."

"It then becomes a power that powers itself, and that is how anyone that is corrupted by darkness usually ends up dying. Because they don't realize that something cannot be created from nothing."

"The darkness that powers them comes from themselves. When nothing is left in their body to power the darkness, the corrupted individuals die," Godslayer explained. "That was why I had to continue changing hosts so much back when I was corrupted by darkness too. Because I always ran out of the fuel to power my darkness."

"Darkness brings them down to death's door, which inadvertently also powers me."

"That is also why you can't find Darkness aura so easily, for anything that has unrestrained darkness usually ends up burning itself away to death," Godslayer explained.

"I see," Alex said. Understanding what Godslayer said gave him a new perspective on life. "Darkness isn't something to vie for, is it?"

He continued walking through the ravine with Scarlet on his shoulders. Scarlet was on the lookout for anything, but due to her lack of understanding of Death aura, she couldn't be of much help.

Thankfully, Godslayer was looking out just the same as well.

"Stop!" Godslayer shouted all of a sudden, surprising Alex. A second later, Alex sensed it as well.

He barely noticed it from the corner of his vision, but a small black aura had weaved itself through the sword aura and entered his body.

Before he could react, it had settled itself into his dantian. 

"What the hell?" he couldn't help but be surprised. "How was it able to conceal itself so well until the end?"

"I don't know," Godslayer said. "Is it strong?"

Alex closed his eyes and looked into his dantian. With a thought, the golden core in his dantian produced a bit of Qi that it was holding. This Qi was fully yellow in color and was the most potent Yang Qi Alex had produced in a long time.

In the next moment, the death aura simply vanished, like a drop of water on a red-hot iron.

"Scarlet," Alex called out. "Let me check your dantian."

"Huh? Why?" Scarlet asked.

"You might have been infected by the death aura too," Alex said. With Scarlet's allowed, he checked her dantian using his Qi and spiritual sense.

A moment later, he cleared away the death aura in Scarlet's body. "It might be better if you went away for a while, Scarlet. I can handle death aura, but I can't protect you from it," he said.

"But you need me," Scarlet said. "I'm stronger than you."

"If it's strong, I'll call you out," he said. "For now, you need to hide."

Scarlet grumbled for a moment and quickly disappeared into the tattoo that was her beast space. Once she was gone, Alex finally focused on his surrounding.

"It came from nearby, didn't it?" he asked.

"Yes, it's nearby," Godslayer said. "Move around a little. We should be able to find it soon."