# Chapter 3378: The Darkness Deep Within Sword Soul Marsh
The Grand Elder did not come back to life.
Although his body radiated light, it remained completely still, like a clay sculpture.
His body had died, his soul had scattered, only his spirit had not been extinguished.
It was the mysterious power contained within the Sword Origin Divine Tree that had preserved the Grand Elder's essence, spirit, and soul. Awakened by the stimulation of Bai Qinger's blood energy, he had spoken a single sentence that startled Lei Zu into retreat.
In truth, if Lei Zu had lingered just a moment longer, he would have discovered something amiss.
Bai Qinger knelt before the Grand Elder, listening intently.
The Grand Elder, through his lingering spiritual thoughts, imparted something to her. She nodded from time to time, her gaze devout, then deeply kowtowed, her expression filled with grief.
The spiritual banner of the God-Defying Clan had finally fallen.
She could feel the regret in the Grand Elder's heart. If he had been able to find the Sword Realm back then, the vast majority of the God-Defying Clan's members might have been spared calamity.
After enduring countless hardships to reach the Sword God Temple, his life had already withered away.
"Hua!"
From the Grand Elder's chest position, a small universe flew out, filled with sparkling stars, sometimes illusory, sometimes real.
Nebulae blazed brilliantly, star rivers meandered.
This was the Grand Elder's divine heart, manifested in the form of a small universe, representing boundlessness and vastness without end.
The divine heart crashed into Bai Qinger's body.
Instantly, a blindingly dazzling radiance erupted from her body. A starry sky appeared above her head, and colorful nebulae spread beneath her feet.
A powerful spiritual force field enveloped her, warding off all evil.
She reached out and effortlessly grasped the Azure Mountain Divine Staff. Her spiritual power fluctuations grew even stronger! In an instant, the starry sky above her head and the nebulae beneath her feet surged back into her body like a tide.
She swayed unsteadily, falling to the right, and was caught by Zhang Ruochen.
Earlier, Bai Qinger's divine soul and spirit had been severely damaged. In this weakened state, after receiving the Grand Elder's spiritual power inheritance, she could no longer hold on.
An aged voice reached Zhang Ruochen's ears: "This is not a place you should be. I will use my remaining divine power, borrowing the Sword Origin Divine Tree and the spiritual will of the three thousand sword gods, to seal this place for a thousand years. Go and summon Hao Tian, have him lead the gods of the Heavenly Court to pacify Sword Soul Marsh!"
Yuqing Patriarch and Taiqing Patriarch had just repelled the sky full of evil anomalies and rushed over. Inside the Grand Elder's body, his divine sea burned, his divine source cracked, and powerful divine power tides and rule divine patterns crashed against them.
"Hualala!"
Space was pierced through, forming a colorful rainbow bridge.
Space collapsed, and space rules flowed around them.
Wrapped in colorful divine power, Zhang Ruochen and the others were instantly sent flying into the distant void.
When they stopped again, silence surrounded them, pitch black and freezing cold. They did not know how far they were from the Dark Night Star Gate and the Sword God Temple.
"What formidable spatial techniques. In an instant, we crossed an entire star domain. We must be at least tens of millions of divine spirit steps away."
Zhang Ruochen held the unconscious Bai Qinger in his arms, sighing inwardly. Then, his gaze fell on Ji Fanxin, who had transformed into the Divine Illumination Lotus, and he used his spiritual power to inquire about her condition.
"My physical body is destroyed. I will need to rebuild my martial path. My spiritual power is difficult to control. You should stay far away from me, or I might harm you," Ji Fanxin said.
She spoke lightly, but Zhang Ruochen could see that her situation was dire. Her divine soul was weak, and if she were to act again in a short time, it would certainly be very dangerous.
"Let's go. Return to the Sword Realm first."
Zhang Ruochen worried that Lei Zu could perceive heavenly secrets and see through the Grand Elder's void teleportation technique, chasing after them. Therefore, he had to immediately erase any lingering aura and leave this place.
After investigating, Zhang Ruochen discovered that their current position was at the edge of the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain.
Clearly, the God-Defying Clan Grand Elder had used his final spiritual consciousness to send them out of the darkness, hoping they would return to the Heavenly Court Universe.
Naturally, Zhang Ruochen and the others did not go to the Heavenly Court. Instead, they used a Space Teleportation Array to return to the Sword Realm.
...
Zangjin Baihu had brought Chi Yao and the Thirteen Guardians of the Sword God Temple back to the Sword Realm first.
Sword Realm, Green Wood Continent.
In Taiqing Patriarch's Daoist temple, all those above the Great God level had gathered. Those who had submitted from the Hell Realm and the Heavenly Court were not among them.
Yuqing Patriarch said, "From the Sword God Temple to the Sword Realm, the distance is several million divine spirit steps. It is neither far nor near. With Lei Zu's cultivation, it is possible for him to find the Sword Realm."
"The probability is very low, but we must be on guard."
Yu Shenwang said, "Activate the Thousand Star Hengtian Array of Xinghuantian, the Star Prison Cage Array of the Hundred Clans Royal City, and the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array of the Heavenly Beginning Civilization. We will preside over the formations. Even if Lei Zu possesses Heavenly Venerable-level combat power, he will not be able to break in."
Taiqing Patriarch said, "Over the years, this old man and Yuqing have arranged a Heaven-Hiding Divine Formation in the void outside the realm. Once activated, even Lei Zu, at ten thousand divine spirit steps away, will not be able to sense the Sword Realm."
"To be safe, activate them all," Yu Shenwang said.
Taiqing Patriarch asked, "Ruochen seems to still be worried about something?"
Since returning to the Sword Realm, Zhang Ruochen had remained silent, his brow furrowed.
He said, "Before we left, the Grand Elder told me to go and summon Hao Tian, to lead the gods of the Heavenly Court in a joint campaign against Sword Soul Marsh."
At these words, all the gods in the Daoist temple held their breath.
Then, some began to murmur, others expressed shock and doubt.
Had the God-Defying Clan Grand Elder sensed something, that he would actually ask to summon Hao Tian?
Those who had not experienced the battle at the Sword God Temple, like Yu Lingshen and Amuer, found it even more unbelievable. Their faces all turned grim.
The crisis seemed even more terrifying than they had imagined.
Could it be that something as horrifying as the horde of demons at the North Marsh Great Wall was hidden within Sword Soul Marsh?
Zhang Ruochen continued, "But the Grand Elder also said that with his remaining divine power, borrowing the Sword Origin Divine Tree and the spiritual will of the three thousand sword gods, he could seal the Sword God Temple ruins for a thousand years."
Xiu Chen Heavenly God sat on a divine throne beside Zhang Ruochen, crossing her long, slender legs, her long hair hanging straight down. She said coldly, "This is not disrespect to the Grand Elder, but if there truly is a crisis within Sword Soul Marsh that requires Hao Tian and the gods of the Heavenly Court to resolve, could the Grand Elder's already-dead body seal them for a thousand years?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "I have the same doubt."
Yu Shenwang said gravely, "The Grand Elder has been dead for a hundred thousand years after all. He does not know the current situation of the world. He might not even know that the God-Defying Clan has been exterminated. In any case, we absolutely cannot go to summon Hao Tian and the gods of the Heavenly Court. Otherwise, the location of the Sword Realm will certainly be exposed."
Yuqing Patriarch and Taiqing Patriarch exchanged a glance. "Perhaps they know the true situation within Sword Soul Marsh."
"Hua!"
A jade sword materialized in the void behind Yuqing Patriarch, radiating rings of jade-white light.
Two immensely powerful auras emerged from within the jade sword's inner world.
Under the illumination of the jade light, two black silhouettes were cast onto the ground.
One was a tall, slender woman.
As she appeared, the sound of a flute echoed through the Daoist temple, like a heavenly divine melody.
Tens of millions of li away from the floating island where the Daoist temple was located, far from the gathering places of cultivators, the Divine Illumination Lotus floated on the surface of the Lianyun Sea, turning a region of sea hundreds of thousands of li in radius into a divine light forbidden zone where no living being could enter.
Ji Fanxin's shadowy figure appeared faintly at the center of the lotus, healing her wounds while calming the spiritual power tides within her body.
She was now the most dangerous person in the entire Sword Realm. If she lost control of the spiritual power within her, the billions of living beings in the entire Sword Realm could die.
The Heavenly Dao Flute manifested in the space beside the Divine Illumination Lotus and flew out as a streak of light.
The second silhouette that emerged from the jade sword resembled a large bird, very similar to the Earth Demon Sparrow.
Zhang Ruochen's gaze fell on the two silhouettes, and he let out a soft exclamation of surprise. "They were subdued by the Patriarch?"
The strength of these two silhouettes was definitely at the level of a king or venerable, possibly even surpassing the initial stage of Qiankun Infinite.
Yuqing Patriarch laughed. "Subduing them is no easy feat. They voluntarily attached themselves to my war sword, asking this old man to take them away."
The woman-shaped black silhouette spoke, her voice pleasant and clear. "We are the artifact spirits of the Heavenly Dao Flute and the Earth Demon Sparrow, having existed continuously since ancient times. Back then, our soul spirits were stripped from our main bodies by the power of darkness, turning us into dark soul slaves."
Everyone present was shocked.
This was too incredible.
Artifact spirits that had survived since ancient times?
The strange occurrences were becoming more and more numerous, each more bizarre than the last.
Yu Shenwang said, "That is impossible. Aside from a few divine trees and divine medicines, nothing in this world can survive from ancient times. If you were the artifact spirits of the Heavenly Dao Flute and the Earth Demon Sparrow, you should have long since died under the Eon Calamity, your souls scattered."
The large bird-shaped black silhouette said, "Within the Sword God Temple, the rules of heaven and earth do not exist. Without the rules of heaven and earth, how could heaven and earth sense us? How could they send down the Eon Calamity?"
The woman-shaped black silhouette said, "The vast majority of our time, we slept in the darkness. The total time we have been awake does not exceed a million years."
Yu Shenwang was extremely shrewd and raised another objection. "Even so, your cultivation should be far beyond this level."
The woman-shaped black silhouette said, "The darkness absorbs our soul power at regular intervals. We are soul slaves, controlled by the darkness, planted as food in Sword Soul Marsh. It continuously devours us to sustain itself."
She seemed to be telling a horror story, startling the gods present.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "What exactly is this darkness you speak of? Is it the remnant soul of that Ancestor-level powerhouse?"
The two silhouettes shook their heads in unison.
The large bird silhouette said, "The darkness is the darkness itself. At the end of Sword Soul Marsh, there is no physical entity. It is in a dormant period, not yet awakened. The two deep pool evil eyes you saw in the Sword God Temple are the envoys of the darkness, like the darkness's two eyes in the world."
The woman-shaped silhouette said, "If the darkness truly had a pair of eyes, they would definitely be ten times, a hundred times more powerful than the deep pool evil eyes."
"The remnant soul of the Ancestor-level powerhouse you mentioned, along with the remnant souls of Qiangshake, Xiang Fatian, and others, all emerged from the cracks in the world and reached some kind of cooperation with the deep pool evil eyes."
Zhang Ruochen had been using his Heart of Truth to sense them the entire time. They did not seem to be lying.
Could there truly be some unknown existence in the world powerful enough to reach the level they described?
Zhang Ruochen said, "You are soul slaves. Your divine souls should contain the power and aura of darkness, right? Can the darkness control you? Just like how the darkness forcibly made Divine King Guo self-destruct his divine source, correct?"
Yuqing Patriarch knew what Zhang Ruochen was worried about and said, "As long as they do not leave the jade sword, under this old man's divine power concealment, no one in the world can sense their aura and track them to the Sword Realm. Unless... an Ancestor reappears in the world."
"Hua!"
"Hua!"
The two divine artifacts, the Heavenly Dao Flute and the Earth Demon Sparrow, flew into the Daoist temple.
The two black silhouettes were about to enter the divine artifacts.
They told Zhang Ruochen that only by fusing with the newborn artifact spirits of these two divine artifacts could they evade the rules of heaven and earth. Otherwise, heavenly punishment would descend immediately, and they would not stop until they were struck until their souls scattered.
Zhang Ruochen stopped them from flying into the two divine artifacts and said to Yuqing Patriarch, "We must first refine the dark aura within their bodies, then have them recognize Fanxin and Qinger as their masters, before they can fuse with the newborn artifact spirits."
(End of Chapter)