Chapter 586 Open Your Eyes and Look at Me

In the deep, dark passage.

Bai Yu had lost his Fire Manipulation ability.

And when Song Ciwan herself tried to summon her Samadhi True Fire, she discovered it wouldn’t appear!

Without fire, there was no light.

Without light, there was no direction.

Without direction, she could not see, could not hear, could not feel. Even the air seemed nonexistent.

In that moment, Song Ciwan had clearly lost all five senses. It was as if her entire being had been stuffed into a giant black hole!

’If I’ve entered a black hole, then in this pitch-black world of nothingness, is there really a passage at all?’

’Am I truly on the path into the Ancient Divine Palace? Or is this just an endless, unknown void?’

An indescribable, unprecedented panic descended upon Song Ciwan.

She had always believed herself to have a steadfast will and a clear Dao Heart, unshakable no matter the danger. But now, as darkness consumed all her senses, she realized that if a person lost all perception, cracks would inevitably form in their spirit.

This was true for any human, any living creature.

It wasn’t even a matter of whether Song Ciwan’s Dao Heart was firm enough; it had nothing to do with it.

At this moment, the only thing Song Ciwan could be thankful for was the presence of her ten Daoist Soldiers by her side.

Thus, though she could not see or hear, though she even suspected this world was just a grand deception—with no passage, no path forward, no end...

At least she still knew she was herself.

She had not gone mad.

The presence of the ten Daoist Soldiers, under her complete control, guarded her steadfastly.

So, Song Ciwan continued to rely on forward movement to resist the endless darkness—

But in reality, she didn’t even know if she was truly moving forward. She could only keep walking, one step after another, without stopping!

She walked for a very, very long time. How long, exactly?

’I can’t say for sure. Just... a long time. It felt like it went from a moment to half a day, then a full day, then a month, a year, a decade...’

It was too long. Far too long.

Song Ciwan used Shrinking Inches, but she could not walk out of the darkness. She tried Riding the Clouds and Mist to fly, but she could not fly out of the darkness either.

It was too dark. There was no direction. She couldn’t even be sure if she was actually flying.

Using the Martial Technique Close But Far Away didn’t work either. Using a Space Technique—

No, she couldn’t even sense the existence of space itself!

Above, below, in all directions, past and future—all had dissolved into chaos.

What sorrow was this?

In that instant, grief seeped into her like a silent, endless night rain.

Song Ciwan couldn’t help but stop, raising a hand to her chest.

A profound sense of withered desolation bloomed from her heart.

’The sun and moon are silent, black and white are void, life is a fleeting rush... what is it all for?’

’Just a moment of joy, a moment of sorrow. Greed, anger, delusion, and folly... a scramble for nothing. How dull. How utterly dull.’

’Better to dissolve into this darkness, return to one’s true essence, and sleep eternally with the world. That is the way to immortality.’

’Yes... to let go of desire, to let go of attachment, and to slumber here for eternity... that is the true path to everlasting life.’

Song Ciwan stood there, hand on her heart, a smile gracing her lips.

What she couldn’t see or hear was that, not far in front of her, the Corpse Demon was roaring at her in terror.

The Corpse Demon had originally come to kill the Celestial Prides of the Human Race. When she realized it was impossible, she had decisively turned and plunged into the passage of the Ancient Divine Palace.

Her intention was twofold: first, to explore the Ancient Divine Palace while she was at it, and second, to find another opportunity to kill within the palace.

But who could have known that the passage of the Ancient Divine Palace would be so indescribably terrifying?

The Corpse Demon was a demon born from an ancient corpse buried for a thousand years. Deep beneath the earth, she had experienced endless darkness and solitude; these were the two things she should have feared the least.

But she was afraid of not being able to get out!

She had suffered for so many years in the damp, deep earth, digging for so many years, all for the sake of getting out and returning to the bustling mortal world. If she were to be forced to slumber beneath the earth again, how could she possibly bear it?

Thus, for the Corpse Demon, the most terrifying thing in the palace passage was not the darkness or the silence. It was the endless stream of living beings walking past her, again and again.

But those beings could neither see nor hear her.

Even more terrifyingly, these beings who couldn’t see or hear her would walk endlessly in circles.

They walked and walked—for a year, for ten years, for a hundred years!

They walked for an eternity, until finally, at a certain moment, they went mad.

They would stand in place, either wailing madly, crying in despair, cursing the heavens, or... collapsing in some other way.

But in the end, without exception, they would all dig out their own hearts, tear off their own heads, and crush their own souls.

And then, just like that, they would dissipate before the Corpse Demon’s eyes.

At first, when the Corpse Demon plunged into the passage and saw such a madman appear beside her, she gloated.

Because she had discovered something interesting: in this passage, she alone was special.

All other living beings, whether Human or demon, could see nothing and hear nothing. They had no sense of direction, no knowledge of past or future, no awareness of forward or back... They just walked in circles like idiots.

But the Corpse Demon—although she also couldn’t escape this pitch-black passage or find the way forward—could at least see and hear others in the dark.

However, the joy of being different did not last long.

Not when the Corpse Demon gradually realized that her so-called ability to see and hear was actually a form of torture—a sentence to witness everything, but influence nothing.

Not when she watched, clear as day, as the several Great Demons who had come with her collapsed and died in the darkness.

And not when she finally understood that no matter how she walked, how she raged, or how she fumed—even if she exhausted all her Demonic Power—she was just like those other beings who had lost their sight and hearing, utterly incapable of escaping the darkness...

The Corpse Demon broke down, too.

She no longer wanted to watch others become a joke; she just wanted to get out of here.

She began to desperately hope for a demon or a Human to come along—any living, breathing creature would do—who could also see her, interact with her, and talk to her.

’Please, don’t die in front of me again! Walk out of here with me!’

But this had clearly become an extravagant hope.

’Could it be that even Celestial Pride Xing Lan of the Human Race can’t break through this illusion?’

The Corpse Demon rushed in front of Song Ciwan, face-to-face, slapping at her, roaring at her, blasting her with Demonic Power—

But between the human and the demon, there was clearly an invisible barrier. Even with her overwhelming Demonic Power, the Corpse Demon could not break through it.

Song Ciwan couldn’t hear her breaking down, couldn’t hear her screaming and cursing in a rage, "You fool! Aren’t you a Celestial Pride of the Human Race? What kind of Celestial Pride are you?! Wake up! Open your eyes and look at me! Ahh—"

The Corpse Demon’s voice stopped abruptly, followed by a terrified shriek.

Because she suddenly felt that in the eyes of the Human Race’s Celestial Pride across from her, her own reflection had seemed to appear.