Immortal Refiner

Pitch-black, deathly silent, and freezing—this was the prevailing tone of the World of Eternal Night.

Li Qing unleashed his vast divine sense, sweeping across the entire great earth, but found no trace of life.

The heavenly suppression, which had briefly vanished, once again weighed down on his body. This time, he didn’t resist. Instead, he bore the crushing pressure as he explored this utterly dead world.

The ruins showed no signs of life. He looked around, seeing only desolation and loneliness.

Li Qing measured the earth on foot, employing the Ground Shrinking Technique to cover ten million li in an instant.

”How could this be? Why has the Red Moon vanished? Has this entire world truly been extinguished?” Li Qing murmured. He couldn’t believe his eyes, even suspecting he might be under a demonic delusion.

But that was impossible. He was now a cultivator of the Void Refinement Realm; nothing in the entire World of Eternal Night could affect him.

He arrived at the former Boundary River. Now, the entire riverbed had run dry, with only a few lingering traces of Taiyin aura remaining beneath its surface.

Li Qing channeled his mana, using an unfathomable technique to gather the wisp of Taiyin Qi.

He looked at the former site of the Yellow Springs Holy Sect. The Yellow Spring Stele had vanished, and even the Yellow Springs River that once flowed through this space had completely disappeared.

Standing in the desolate ruins for a long time, Li Qing thought of his disciple, Lin Jing. She had once been recognized by the Yellow Springs Tablet Spirit and inherited everything from the Yellow Springs Holy Sect.

”Jing’er, are you still alive?”

With this thought, Li Qing resolved to thoroughly search the entire World of Eternal Night, hoping to find at least some clues about Lin Jing.

And so, Li Qing began to explore the World of Eternal Night. He no longer moved with the same caution as before; now, he acted without any restraint.

His Void Refinement Realm cultivation was his greatest source of confidence. He even hoped that some danger would suddenly appear, for that would mean this world had not yet completely perished.

With a turn, he arrived at the site of the former Giant Mushroom City. This place too was now nothing but ruins, with a large crater still visible on the ground where the mushroom spirit had once taken root.

He continued forward until he reached the edge of the land, where a calm ocean lay ahead.

This was his first time visiting the shores of the World of Eternal Night, but the ocean before him was completely frozen, transformed into a vast, boundless expanse of ice.

Li Qing extended his divine sense into the depths of the sea, but once again, he found nothing of value.

Crack!

As he stepped onto the frozen surface, a fissure spiderwebbed out from beneath his feet. The crushing pressure of heaven and earth weighed upon him, making every step feel incredibly heavy.

He traversed the vast ice sea, and by his count, another ten days passed.

Finally, he reached a new continent—a place he had never set foot on before.

But the result was the same as always: this land was also desolate, completely devoid of life.

Li Qing’s emotions had grown numb. He moved with mechanical steps, staring at the unfamiliar terrain without a flicker of expression.

Crossing endless mountain ranges and traversing deep ravines, he finally came to a halt before a peculiar, massive stone tablet.

”The World-Suppressing Stele.”

Li Qing narrowed his eyes and pressed his hand against the massive stone tablet.

Boom!

Suddenly, the mana within his body surged, drawn by the giant stele and flowing completely into it.

But Li Qing didn’t stop it. The mana within him was as vast as the boundless ocean; such a loss was insignificant to him.

Moreover, the Five Elements Spirit Root within his body had achieved a cycle, making his mana virtually infinite. Even in this heaven and earth where the Great Dao had been utterly extinguished, he would remain unaffected by the End of Dao Era.

Before long, Li Qing understood the origin of the World-Suppressing Stele.

”So it’s an Interface Treasure, similar to the Five Elements Spirit Pearls of the Human Realm.”

Since arriving in the Spirit Realm, he had learned many secrets and rumors about Minor Worlds.

Every Minor World possesses a corresponding Interface Treasure. Some exist as Five Elements Spirit Pearls, while others take different forms.

These Interface Treasures each have their own unique uses, but they share one common trait: they are extremely difficult to remove from their respective realms.

If one were to forcibly take an Interface Treasure away, that Minor World would gradually wither and perish.

”The World-Suppressing Stele is clearly still here, so why has the World of Eternal Night fallen into such a state?”

Li Qing sighed deeply, then ascended to the top of the stele and sat down cross-legged, closing his eyes.

Immersing his mind into the World-Suppressing Stele, Li Qing began to contemplate its hidden mysteries.

This was a supreme treasure with immense sealing power. When fully activated, its might should be comparable to—or even slightly exceed—that of an earth-grade spiritual treasure.

After all, this was merely a minor world. Even if it had gathered the entire world’s power, the treasures it could produce couldn’t truly be too heaven-defying.

Li Qing attempted to refine the World-Suppressing Stele, but to his surprise, the stone tablet resisted the imprinting of his divine soul.

This sudden development caused Li Qing’s brows to twitch.

”Hmm? Could someone have beaten me to it? Has this World-Suppressing Stele already recognized another master?”

”Or perhaps, with heaven and earth dead and silent, the World-Suppressing Stele can no longer be subdued?”

Refusing to believe it, Li Qing unleashed his full divine sense power, completely submerging it into the World-Suppressing Stele to explore its mysteries.

Soon, he discovered a faint Spirit Body Imprint.

He sensed it and discovered that this Spirit Body Imprint actually possessed its own consciousness, which quickly issued him a warning.

”This world is about to be re-opened. How could there still be any living beings?”

Hearing this, Li Qing’s brow furrowed. What did it mean by ”re-opened”?

”Who are you?”

”Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that? Who are you, and why do you still linger in this world?” the Spirit Body Imprint retorted.

Li Qing’s eyebrows shot up. He sensed something was amiss.

With that thought, he stopped hiding his intentions. He directly enveloped the Spirit Body Imprint with his powerful divine sense, intending to refine it completely and extract all the information it held.

”How dare you! I am a divine soul of the Void Refinement Realm from the Tianji Sect! How could a powerhouse like you be born in this Cage Small World?”

In response, Li Qing ruthlessly erased the Spirit Body Imprint’s autonomous consciousness and then began extracting its memories.

Before long, the Spirit Body Imprint completely disintegrated and collapsed. Li Qing let out a long breath.

”So that’s how it is...”

From the memories, he learned that the World of Eternal Night was actually a subsidiary realm of the Blood Spirit Realm. Its original name was not the World of Eternal Night, but the Sin Domain Realm.

The name itself revealed that the Sin Domain Realm was a prison-like plane used to incarcerate sinners.