# Chapter 748: Eternal Night Without Light, Yellow Springs Ashes
Beneath the vast sea, Yun Che had already sensed that Fen Juechen had stopped sinking. Though obviously heavily injured, the aura emanating from his body was expanding at an incredibly astonishing speed... In the blink of an eye, it had already surpassed the peak of his profound energy intensity from his earlier state, and it was still rapidly surging.
At the same time, an extremely gloomy and oppressive aura silently spread across heaven and earth, as if a terrifying world-destroying storm was brewing in secret.
Yun Che's brow furrowed tighter and tighter. Of the two sword strikes that had landed on Fen Juechen earlier, the first had shattered all of his sternum, while the force of the second had ravaged his entire body. If it had been anyone else, they would have died instantly. Though Fen Juechen wasn't fatally wounded, when he was smashed beneath the sea, his life force and profound energy aura had become extremely faint... Yet at this moment, such an abnormal surge had occurred.
Could it be... that in his unwillingness, he had activated some kind of forbidden power?
Just as Yun Che was in doubt, the sea below suddenly turned pitch black... This drastic change didn't happen gradually. In an instant, the vast ocean within his field of vision shifted from azure blue to jet black, as thick as ink. And before Yun Che could react, the world before his eyes also became completely dark, without a trace of light to be seen.
Hundreds of miles away, Feng Xue'er brought Xiao Lingxi to the edge of the sea. The moment their bodies crossed the coastline, a vast black world appeared before them.
"Ah!" Feng Xue'er and Xiao Lingxi cried out simultaneously.
This black world was hundreds of miles away, yet it seemed to be right before their eyes. The region shrouded in darkness was like a black hole that had suddenly been carved out of the sky, where everything within was completely devoured, vanished, turned into nothingness.
A gloomy, irritable sensation enveloped their souls. Feng Xue'er quickly became alert, immediately protecting her heart with Phoenix profound energy while transferring a large portion of her power to shield Xiao Lingxi. This pitch-black power, exuding such a terrifying aura, was something Feng Xue'er had never seen before. Her unease multiplied tenfold. She held Xiao Lingxi tightly and said urgently, "Let's hurry."
Before her anxious words had even faded, Feng Xue'er's entire body blazed with Phoenix flames, her flying speed abruptly increasing as she rushed toward that black region like a fire-bathed phoenix.
The surrounding world was engulfed in darkness, and this was by no means merely a lack of light. Yun Che felt as if he had fallen into a black swamp; the world had become incredibly viscous. Simply moving a finger required several times the strength of normal. Countless streams of cold, oppressive, and eerie energy assailed his soul from all directions. This erosion of the soul was extremely terrifying. If it had been anyone else, they would have already developed strong negative emotions, even lost their sanity. But Yun Che possessed the Dragon God's Soul, so he was not afraid—at least not in the short term.
"This is a high-level domain of the 'Eternal Night Illusion Demon Scripture,' called 'Eternal Night Without Light'!" Mo Li said gravely. "With Fen Juechen's current ability, he can only barely activate it, and it might even come at a great cost."
"Eternal Night Without Light?" Yun Che began to feel countless bone-chilling, eerie auras madly surging toward him. Gradually, he started to feel as if he had been swallowed into the belly of a heaven-devouring giant demon, on the verge of being digested into nothingness at any moment.
"Once you are covered by this domain, everything will be devoured completely, leaving not a trace... including light!" Mo Li said solemnly. "This domain now covers a full range of one hundred fifty miles. Even if you use all your strength, you won't be able to forcibly escape before it completely devours you... The only thing you can do now is to tear it apart with all your might!"
With Yun Che's spiritual perception, he could not sense the edge of this dark world at all, as if it were infinite. As the surrounding world grew thicker and more sinister, his range of perception also drastically decreased. The aura of death multiplied with each passing breath. Eventually, Yun Che even began to feel a hint of despair, as if he were being drawn into an endless black hole.
"Yun... Che!!" From the depths of the dark world came a voice like the wailing of a demon. This voice belonged to Fen Juechen, but it was completely twisted by extreme hatred: "Vanish... forever!!!"
He could hear Fen Juechen's voice, but could not determine his location at all, because the sound came from every corner of the dark domain. By now, Yun Che was completely suffocating, unable to even take a breath. The devouring force that enveloped his entire body, and even the entire world, grew more terrifying by the moment, gradually approaching the limit his protective profound energy could withstand.
The dreadful crisis drew ever closer. Yun Che's expression was extremely rigid, but his gaze grew colder and calmer. At that moment, the corner of his eye caught a glimmer of light.
A light that should not have appeared in this dark domain.
Yun Che quickly looked down, focusing his gaze... That glimmer was not an illusion or a hallucination. Though faint, it was real, and it showed a special vermilion-red color!
Yun Che was extremely familiar with this vermilion-red... It was the color of the Heaven-Defying Sword!
Yun Che's heart stirred. In an instant, he poured his entire profound energy without hesitation into the Heaven-Defying Sword. Immediately, flames ignited on the sword, and the Golden Crow Flame blazed fiercely through the Heaven-Defying Sword as its medium, releasing a blazingly intense firelight within this darkness that devoured all light.
The Golden Crow Flame illuminated the entire blade of the Heaven-Defying Sword, as well as Yun Che's face and body, driving away the darkness within a full zhang radius around him. In this seemingly endless dark domain, it effortlessly burned out a region of light.
It burned a hole in this domain with ease. A strange light flashed in Yun Che's eyes. He focused his gaze and swung his sword forward.
Boom!!
A dull roar followed the trajectory of the Heaven-Defying Sword. The dark space ahead was fiercely torn open, and a fiery gash several zhang long was vividly imprinted in the darkness ahead, lingering for a long time.
"The aura is extremely strong, and the commotion is quite frightening, but it seems... it's nothing more than that."
The heavy pressure that had been weighing on his heart suddenly became several times lighter. The dark world that Yun Che had perceived with his body and spiritual sense earlier was truly terrifying. He couldn't escape, had no confidence in tearing it apart, and could even clearly smell the scent of death... Unexpectedly, this fearsome dark domain was so fragile under the Golden Crow Flame—completely a paper tiger that looked intimidating but collapsed at the slightest poke!
Mo Li: "..."
If that's the case...
Yun Che held the Heaven-Defying Sword, the blazing fire burning intensely on his body and sword. Even in his pupils, two dots of slightly golden crimson flames appeared. Behind him, a massive Golden Crow shadow slowly materialized, transforming from illusion to reality. A wave of scorching heat wildly spread in all directions.
"Golden Crow Annihilation Domain—Yellow Springs Ashes!!"
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom—
The Golden Crow shadow raised its head and let out a long cry. Space trembled, and heaven and earth resounded. The flames of the ancient True God, bearing unparalleled high temperatures and annihilating power, fiercely pierced through layer after layer of the dark domain. Even using the Dark Profound Force as a medium, they burned the light-devouring darkness into a dazzling, blinding blaze.
Within the dark domain, mournful howls like ghostly wails echoed everywhere. The sky-covering darkness madly surged toward the Golden Crow Flame, trying to drown and devour it. At first, their struggle could barely contend with the Golden Crow Flame, but as the domain expanded, the erupting Golden Crow Flame quickly became a blazing inferno, scorching the once-complete dark world into a sieve full of holes.
"Ah!!"
The onrushing heat wave made Feng Xue'er stop in the air with a cry. The originally cool sea breeze became as hot as flames. Below, waves hundreds of zhang high surged madly like crazy, forcing Feng Xue'er to fly up to nearly a thousand zhang in altitude. Within her vision, the massive black region underwent a drastic change. Flames pierced out from the edges of the dark area, increasing in number. In the blink of an eye, the black world was already fragmented.
The darkness struggled, and the flames devoured. Above the chaotic sea, it was as if a crimson beast and a black beast were cruelly tearing at each other.
But the darkness was clearly no match for the crimson flames that appeared later. Before long, under the annihilation of the blazing red flames, the dark region had collapsed and shattered into countless scattered fragments. These fragments, without needing to be burned by the flames, quickly dissipated on their own. Meanwhile, the flames grew increasingly intense, already turning the originally dark sky a bright red. A thick layer of steam churned across hundreds of miles of the sea, lingering for a long time.
The wind that blew was no longer oppressive, but growing more violent and scorching. Feng Xue'er created a massive crimson barrier in front of her to protect Xiao Lingxi, then against the scorching storm, flew eastward at an even faster speed.
Brother Yun... please don't let anything happen...
Within a hundred miles of space, only the Golden Crow Flame remained, burning wantonly until it had incinerated the last trace of darkness completely.
Under Yun Che's "Yellow Springs Ashes," Fen Juechen's "Eternal Night Without Light" was utterly defeated!
Almost without the strength to resist or struggle.
Yun Che slowly lowered his raised arm and withdrew the Heaven-Defying Sword into the Heavenly Poison Pearl. With the sword gone, a heavy sense of exhaustion spread through every corner of his body. Although the process of annihilating Fen Juechen's dark domain had been extremely smooth, it by no means meant it had been easy. The consequence of fully unleashing Yellow Springs Ashes was that his entire profound energy was essentially completely depleted. The reason he put away the Heaven-Defying Sword was that in his current state, he could barely even lift it for ten breaths.
But at least he was a hundred times better off than Fen Juechen.
The flames in the sky began to fall. Every wisp of flame that landed in the sea brought up a towering plume of steam... If the power of the Golden Crow Flame Yun Che had released could be slightly stronger, even the steam would not have appeared; instead, it would have directly incinerated the seawater into nothingness in an instant.
Hoo...
Yun Che let out a long, slow breath, then extended his hand, palm facing the boiling sea surface diagonally below. A stream of profound energy was quickly released.
Boom!!!
The sea surface exploded, and a black figure flew out from the sea, shooting straight toward Yun Che, who firmly caught it in his palm.
Having been soaked in seawater for a long time, but not washing away the bloodstains on Fen Juechen. There were at least dozens of wounds on his body, still slowly oozing blood. The blood was an abnormal dark red color, sticking firmly to his wounds and body.
Fen Juechen's life force and profound energy aura were already extremely weak, barely describable as "a thread of breath." Held by the back of his neck in Yun Che's hand, his limbs hung limply downward, unable to muster even half a shred of strength. But his consciousness had not scattered, and from his mouth came weak, hoarse moans of pain...
"Why... is it like this..."
"How... could I... possibly lose..."
"How could I... lose..."
Yun Che said nothing, raising his left arm close to Fen Juechen's head. With a flash of light, Arcane Firmament shot out from his arm, instantly penetrating the crown of Fen Juechen's head, striking at his soul.
He wanted to know where the strange power on Fen Juechen came from. And what was the "Eternal Night Illusion Demon Scripture" that Mo Li had mentioned.
In just a single breath, Yun Che's expression shifted slightly. After a brief stalemate, Arcane Firmament flew out of Fen Juechen's body and returned to Yun Che's arm.
"What tenacious spirit and willpower." Yun Che muttered in surprise. "In this state, he can still resist the Arcane Firmament Soul-Seizing."
"Not only did his profound energy surge, but his soul also underwent a qualitative change. Coupled with his originally strong willpower, even half-dead, it's basically impossible for you to succeed with Arcane Firmament Soul-Seizing on him." Mo Li said indifferently, not surprised by the outcome.
"..." Yun Che swept his gaze across the sea, then dove down and threw Fen Juechen, who was nearly dead, onto a broken piece of reef.
"You're not going to kill him?" Mo Li said coldly. From Yun Che's body, she sensed no intent to kill. And his current actions clearly indicated he was going to let Fen Juechen go. "The consequences of not uprooting the weed are right before your eyes. Do you intend to make the same mistake twice with the same person?"
"I really want to kill him." Yun Che took a light breath, his expression full of helplessness. Back then, because he had let Fen Juechen go, it had created a terrifyingly huge trouble. With Fen Juechen's heaven-defying rate of growth, if he let him leave alive today, it would plant a calamity far, far greater than the one today, by who knows how many times.
But...