Duality of Shadows-Chapter 997: Smaller World

In a seemingly ordinary region of the underworld void, far from everything and everyone, a sudden change occurred in the dark Yin permeating the place. The spatial laws seemed to tremble, and the space was fragile, as if made of the churning waters of a river.

Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass echoed. A rounded figure appeared, holding a hammer.

As soon as he showed up, thousands of golden channels materialized. However, with a single swing of the hammer, he shattered space again and vanished into the already fragile dimension.

Right after, countless entities emerged from the spatial channels. They sensed the fluctuations caused by the figure who had passed through, but it was too late—they knew where he was headed.

***

Without a second thought, the whale nodded, and his tattoos pulsed like stars. In that instant, thousands of runes, all completely different from one another, moved toward him. These were the 777 heavenly energies—they were now in the world of these energies, where nothing else existed but them.

Alm and Bruno knew exactly what to do. Using the tattoos, the runes came together, forming a hundred-meter-long structure shaped like a ship. They fit together like puzzle pieces, emanating a solid and stable force.

It only took ten seconds before the whale landed on the runic ship. He opened the entrance to his inner universe, and from it, eight figures emerged beside him.

Immediately, they looked upward... but there was nothing. It was like staring at an eternal spatial distortion, devoid of light, color, or any semblance of a sky.

When they shifted their gaze to their surroundings, they noticed the peculiar ship and found themselves in a vast ocean. On the ’waters,’ a magical glow shimmered. The common sky appeared to be beneath them.

The waters had no color, but when they focused, they could glimpse stars, galaxies, and planets—countless of them. The more they strained their eyes, the more they saw; it seemed endless.

The air was humid, and the winds carried a peculiar atmosphere. Surprisingly, the place wasn’t as frightening as they had imagined; on the contrary, it felt comforting and welcoming.

"We’re literally at the core of the heavenly laws. This is the center above everything. Below, space distorts and connects to all universes and the underworld. But if you fall into this ocean, you won’t be taken to a universe. Your body will dissolve, becoming part of the heavenly laws forever."

The whale explained calmly. At that moment, he was the only person in history who knew so much about the place. He had witnessed its creation and knew its purpose. He even had extensive knowledge of all the energies there. Not even the queen knew 10% of what he did. That was his greatest current advantage.

Corin took a deep breath, astonished. "My Qi and laws…"

"Yeah, all your power here stops functioning and freezes in your meridians. Here, you can only use the 777 heavenly energies. But since your Dao fused with the heavenly laws, it’s perfectly possible to use it with these energies. You just need to adapt quickly and learn to wield it with these energies."

The whale nodded, and the ship began to move.

Everyone nodded and focused on doing as he instructed. All their cultivation had been nullified in that place. This was actually favorable for six of them, who weren’t immortals, as it put them on the same level as the enemies who had also entered.

The runic ship advanced in a specific direction. Alm and Bruno knew the area well and were familiar with the location of the nine islands. They had created the ship because touching that ocean meant certain death for the six non-immortals.

When divinities arrived, they would fall into the ocean and face this terrifying tribulation. Practically 99% would die within the first few minutes. They didn’t know how to control the energies and lost the power of their cultivation and abilities. However, their bodies were still resilient, and there was a chance of survival if they adapted quickly.

The queen had to use her full power to move her subordinates, and even she had to be cautious. Not that she would die if she fell into the waters, but she would get trapped in the river and have difficulty escaping. If she failed to return within thirty days, she would be trapped in that world for fifty million years since nothing could escape once the gates closed.

A few minutes passed. Alm and Bruno calculated that, with the power of the runes on the ship, it would take them three days to reach the first island... until a soft zither sound resonated.

Suddenly, all the laws around them harmonized with the ship. Alm and Bruno were surprised to realize that moving now was much easier.

They turned to Nixis, who waved at them excitedly. "Good job. It looks like your Dao is special and can be used perfectly in this place." The whale spoke softly.

Nixis’ Dao was simple: she used music to control the environment, the laws, and everything around her, affecting allies and enemies by either helping or hindering them. Since it didn’t rely on Qi or common laws, it wasn’t heavily affected by these different energies.

Nixis was already able to use her power completely in that place. She quickly adapted to manipulating the 777 energies, and the ship moved faster and faster. Alm and Bruno grew excited—now they could reach one of the islands in less than twelve hours.

Everyone else focused on sensing the energies of the place and began trying to manipulate them, attempting to integrate them with their own Daos.

The whale steered the ship, trying to sense the area and the waves with his eyes closed. Here, they were free to use their Celestial Soul to the fullest. The queen wouldn’t detect them due to the influence of the dense energies.

Over time, they felt their souls integrate with the ocean. This was definitely a power derived from the Heaven’s Will mandate.

After some time, the whale opened his eyes with a faint smile. That place was supposed to have only nine islands and the strange ocean. Yet, they’d found something hidden that didn’t exist at the beginning of it all.

His eyes gleamed as ripples appeared in the space, and the boat’s course shifted slightly.

Three hours later, everyone on the boat opened their eyes as they passed through a concealed barrier. In front of them was a rounded island, barren of vegetation. It was composed solely of black, dry soil and mountains. Not even the heavenly laws could be sensed there.

"Interesting," said the whale as the boat stopped at the shore.

They all jumped onto the island. Instantly, the entire place began to tremble.

They could feel a violent aura emerging. In the distance, the entire area was suddenly engulfed in a grayish mist. It seemed like monsters were spewing miasma far away, but they neither saw nor sensed anything alive on the other side.

Even Anizu and Ciceya, despite being immortals with incredibly resilient bodies, felt a deadly pressure emanating from that miasma. It was corrosive, capable of consuming both flesh and soul at an alarming rate—powerful immortals wouldn’t last long against it.

The surroundings grew murky, almost as if black ink had stained the entire area. Just staring forward for too long caused dizziness and confusion. However, behind them, the atmosphere seemed gentler.

"That’s a clear invitation for us to retreat," declared the whale, stepping forward without hesitation. The corrosive mist clung to his body, trying to invade him.

He ignored the threat entirely. His tattoos pulsed, and with a simple wave of his hand, the miasma was completely purified. However, fervent roars echoed ahead, shattering the brief calm.

There shouldn’t have been any beasts in that world—at most, divine beings from beast races—but that didn’t seem to be the case. Even so, the whale commanded everyone to advance without hesitation.

"Nixis bought us a little time. Let’s figure out what’s here. This will be a great chance for all of you to practice your Dao and quickly adapt through combat."

As soon as he finished speaking, a colossal claw fell from the sky toward the group, pushing the mist aside and revealing its size—it was massive enough to crush a mountain easily.

Everyone was startled; no one had sensed its approach, and it was already only ten meters from them. But the whale merely smiled as he watched the claw descend.

*BOOM!*

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

The others instinctively stepped back, but he simply extended his hand and caught the claw.

*CRACK!*

A black saber appeared in his other hand, and he effortlessly sliced the claw in half. Yet there were no roars, no blood, not even a body falling—just a muffled burst of energy.

Immediately afterward, a thunderous sound echoed, and a monstrous creature, as large as an island, emerged from the darkness.

It resembled a massive lobster with countless scythe-like legs on either side. Each swing of its blades was undoubtedly capable of slicing an immortal in two.

Its gray shell appeared to be made of countless fused bones, with no flesh or muscles inside—just more bones. Simply looking at that hellish abomination was enough to send chills down their spines.

*Slash!*

The monster retreated; it had previously possessed two claws, but one had been destroyed by the black saber.

The strange creature furiously swung its remaining claw, making the world seem to flip upside down.

Time froze, and the beast became almost immobile. Anizu took a deep breath, managing to activate a fraction of his Dao to control time-space.

Corin roared and attacked with his spear, piercing the creature. In the next moment, the group saw the monster dissolve into the air as if it had been undone.

"They’re weak defensively. They’re just made of energy and have no intelligence. They’re connected to this island, as if controlled by a formation. Let’s move forward," the whale said calmly, stepping forward with determination.

The scene before them was astonishing. They all felt smaller than ants before the vastness they faced. There were hundreds of strange mutant beasts, each as large as a mountain.

Taking a deep breath, the group prepared to fight with everything they had. The creatures indeed died with well-executed direct strikes, but their offensive power was enough to kill any of them as well.

It was essentially a race to see who would eliminate whom first. The enormous size of the creatures made the fight slightly easier, but the overwhelming numbers tilted the battle out of their favor. The group was made up of only nine members, while they faced hundreds of enemies.

Bruno focused on protecting everyone from the corrosive miasma while fighting, using the array to absorb anything that tried to invade them. Alm took charge of combat.

"Weaklings," the whale commented, leaping into the air.

*BOOM!*

Several beasts vanished with a single move from him. However, more immediately appeared, as if they were part of an endless army. Their numbers didn’t shrink—this fight was unwinnable like this.

They had only two options: retreat or push forward. The whale led the charge, carving a path of destruction.

Right behind him, Rehvka and Idris were directly protected by him. As assassins, they needed to move quickly and stealthily, but right now, they couldn’t do any of that. They were vulnerable until they learned how to manipulate the new energies of this place.

Everyone ran forward, fighting with extreme caution while being attacked from all sides.

Fortunately, fighting this way was a thousand times better than staying on the boat meditating to grasp the Dao. Anizu quickly mastered his Dao, manipulating the surrounding space to attack.

Soon after, Corin and Venjio vanished.

A multicolored ring appeared in the sky, and a swirling multicolored power easily sliced the enemies in half. At the same time, a water dragon nearly ten meters long roared as ice and mist spread in all directions, destroying targets with much greater ease.

This was Venjio’s Divine Dao. His Dao allowed him to merge his body with the laws of water, making him vanish. Although these pure laws didn’t exist in this place, he manipulated the energies in the environment to create them.

To defeat him in this form, an opponent first had to face the dragon, which was terrifyingly resilient, aggressive, and even attacked the target’s mind and soul. On top of that, this dragon only used the environment’s power, and after being defeated, Venjio would reappear almost fully energized. It was literally like fighting two separate opponents.

Meanwhile, Corin stood at the center of a slowly rotating multicolored ring, like a shadow. At the same time, the seven natural laws began to distort under his control.

This was the most basic version of his Dao, which could be used to create an offensive domain through his bloodline. However, his true power was something else and could only be activated once, leaving Corin weakened afterward.

Nixis’ zither was constantly playing. While the whale cleared the path ahead, her power was the group’s main support. Everyone could feel the surrounding energies becoming easier to understand and control thanks to her.

In less than an hour, the eight of them could use their Daos at 70% of their strength. They pressed forward, eliminating the monsters until they noticed space rippling as if a portal was nearby.

The whale gestured, and the hidden portal forcefully appeared. Countless multicolored runes were intertwined; upon seeing this, the whale’s eyes gleamed.

The entire island was an alarming formation, with the beasts and miasma serving as its defenses. Everything was incredibly powerful, enough to kill immortals as if they were nothing.

But those multicolored runes... Alm and Bruno recognized them and got excited. Without thinking much, they moved forward.

Everyone leaped into the portal, invading it by force. In seconds, they were engulfed by light and felt a warmth similar to that of the sun.

They were all astonished. They had arrived in a small inner world, a place that resembled a habitable planet from a regular universe.

It wasn’t very large, maybe equivalent to one-tenth of planet Gloom. Everything around was green; they stood over a vibrant and pure forest. It didn’t take long before they spotted figures below, resembling elves living in villages scattered throughout the forest.

But… they weren’t real elves. Just by looking at them, everyone sensed something strange as if those figures weren’t real beings.

"They’re not elves but Wisps. Their bodies have no fixed form and aren’t truly physical. However, they can assume any appearance they want."

The whale commented calmly, noticing their true nature. Why they chose an elf-like appearance and why they were there was still a mystery to be uncovered.

Using the Celestial soul, Alm and Bruno located what they were seeking. They moved toward a place that seemed like an ancient soil located at the heart of the forest.