Chapter 135: Violet Shadow
Chapter 135: Violet Shadow
His brush traced a winding path. Three Shadow Runes bloomed on the paper, one by one, beneath Li Yi’s moving hand.
Though all were Shadow Runes, each felt completely different.
Besides one ordinary-looking rune, the other two pulsed with strange and eye-catching auras—one profound and deep, the other menacing and wicked.
Yet even that ordinary-seeming one, studied closely, held a sense of natural perfection, flawless and complete.
“Hmm, quite well!”
Li Yi examined them carefully for a moment, then nodded with satisfaction.
The three runes were drawn from: the Qi of the Great Soft-Shelled Turtle, the power of the Black Dragon, and the Qi of the Ancient Alligator.
“The River Styx Restriction was drawn using Dragon-Turtle Qi.”
“The Cold Moon Restriction with Great Soft-Shelled Turtle Aura!”
“And the ‘Remaining Night’ Restriction…”
Muttering to himself, Li Yi worked without pause, drawing further Restrictions. His movements were nimble and quick, yet methodical.
He was beginning to understand the source of Wu Yi and Yan He’s constant lectures.
“Gotta move fast,” Li Yi reminded himself.
For this piece of Dao Transformation Armament, Yan He had helped gather the materials. But Li Yi intended to complete all other stages himself.
He wasn’t deliberately shutting others out. He wanted his deepest feelings, his conceptual realm, to flow pure and unbroken right through it!
It would be a tribute to his past life.
His own, unique, memory.
This Dao Transformation Armament didn’t have a name yet.
Li Yi didn’t even know its attributes or special effects.
He didn’t know if this Armament would be an angel, a devil, or just useless junk.
But he didn’t care!
He would create this Dao Transformation Armament, even if it meant it would just hang on the wall, unused.
The progress was remarkably fast. In just three days, all preparations were complete.
Li Yi sat bolt upright. Magic solutions, Runes, Restrictions, the Mana Engraving Knife, and his Crane-Luan Brush lay neatly arranged before him.
“Begin!”
His brush descended. A single, fluid line—sometimes straight, sometimes curved—bloomed under the magic solutions and layered Mana. It glowed with dreamlike, shifting colors that shimmered endlessly.
Within it, a Rule seemed trapped, struggling wildly to break free.
“A good start…”
His brush danced across the surface—bold and unrestrained sprouting like trees. Magic Arcs took root, forming a canopy. Rules steadily formed deeper within, and countless illusions flickered into life within the swirling, luminous mist.
“Hmm? If it’s a Sacred Phenomenon… isn’t it a bit early?”
The illusions appearing before him made Li Yi pause briefly.
A nine-winged angel. A pit fiend. A cosmic behemoth. The Sin Lord of the Abyss…
Elegant, vicious, savage, corrupt—myriad illusions flickered before his eyes, roared in his ears, seeking to shatter his concentration.
Li Yi’s gaze remained calm and unwavering. With a silent grunt, the image of the Great Soft-Shelled Turtle appeared overhead, guarding his mind.
His arm remained as steady as Mount Tai. Fingers and wrist moved supplely, like boneless things. The Crane-Luan Brush obeyed his will, painting tirelessly.
More arcs congealed, their colors strange and eerie, crisscrossing to sketch the entire skeletal framework of the Armament.
Hum!
The instant the skeleton finished taking shape, those phantom images seemed to go berserk. Shrieking and clawing, they lunged like wild beasts!
“Scram!”
He barked a single word. Waves of blue-green radiance spilled forth, encasing Li Yi and the Dao Transformation Armament inside an isolating barrier.
Expression composed, he began filling flesh around the bones.
……
Outside the Alchemy Room, someone brought meals at set times.
Yet each trip revealed the previous meal untouched, every time.
For a full week, this was the case.
“Has the guy inside starved and passed out?” The delivery boy wondered nervously. Hesitant to disturb, he lingered uncertainly before leaving.
Inside the room, Li Yi condensed a sphere of water above his palm and shoved it straight into his mouth.
Gulping the water down, he allowed himself no pause, immediately refocusing, diving back into his work.
His movements possessed a rhythm both graceful and efficient, like a musician performing a piece—unhurried, precisely measured.
Though exhaustion shadowed him, his expression was vibrant—excited, expectant, with a simmering fervor just beneath.
“This Armed Equipment… this one is my true foundational work! The ‘Profound Darkness Heart’ was copying… imitation. But this time? It’s creation. True, real creation!”
The crafting of this artifact was an outpouring. The deep joy embedded within was unspeakable.
Stroke by stroke, surging like a mountain torrent, flowed not just his conceptual realm, his emotions, his accumulated knowledge… but his very soul.
……
The tenth day.
Threads of pale violet haze began seeping from beneath the door. Glow pulsed softly, drifting, its luminance fluctuating endlessly.
Outside the door was once an open space used for resting, where people often chatted or drank tea. These past few days, however, it was deserted. Ghost-town quiet.
Anyone passing nearby hurried onwards, unwilling to linger for even a moment.
The cause was those faint violet gleams.
Inside that quiet purple glow lay a heaviness that seeped straight into the soul. It evoked an unsettling sense of bleakness and gloom, a desperate desire to escape.
Yan He, determined to observe, forced himself to endure the pressure on his spirit, lingering despite it. But after a few more days, even he could no longer bear it.
By then, merely stepping into that area caused his heart to pound like a drum, impossible to control!
Yan He tried numerous measures: casting calming spells like “Mind of Steel,” wearing the “Calming Soul Pendant,” even bathing in holy water. Nothing changed.
Swallowing his unwillingness, he could finally only give up and leave.
“The gap between him and me… it grows ever larger.” Yan He thought silently.
……
“What’s going on? This insect… it’s the ‘Blight Fly’ from the Divine Mechanism Abode! Extremely adept at stealth, evading psychic waves, fantastic defenses too!” Hu Xuanhai slammed his palm down on the table. The noise was deafening. “Nine flies went in! Only one came back! You lot… really capable, aren’t you?”
News of Li Yi crafting Dao Transformation Armament wasn’t hidden, naturally reaching these future ‘Twilight Deep Eyes’.
They had plans, intending to scout information with the Blight Flies. Little did they expect to retrieve next to no intel; their incredibly precious insects, making their first attempt, had almost entirely perished!
“Wei Wei! Tell us! What happened?”
“I… I’m not sure,” Wei Wei spoke, his face filled with misery, a bitter tone in his voice. “They entered the room… and the Blight Flies started molting. Molted thirteen times in a row! They exhausted their vitality and died out! This last one… I called it back quickly. But it still molted nine times… lost most of its life force.”
“How… how can this happen?” Hu Xuanhai was dumbfounded, his throat gulping. He pressed on, “A magic trap? Some secret ward?”
“No idea.” Wei Wei shook his head, offering only a helpless, bitter smile. “My Blight Fly… it only saw a streak of purple light.”
……
Time flowed like water.
Inside the room, this unnamed Dao Transformation Armament required only one more stroke.
Yet this final stroke was immeasurably harder.
Blood vessels bulged visibly on Li Yi’s face. He strained as if using every ounce of strength, dragging the brush handle heavily. The brush tip, however, moved slower than a snail crawling.
Time itself seemed frozen here, refusing to advance.
Outside the space surrounding him, the myriad strange phantom images vanished completely.
These had been replaced by two colossal, coiling serpents of light and shadow. They bit their own tails endlessly, rotating slowly around him—like day chasing night.
As the brush tip crept minutely forward, the serpentine coils of light and shadow also began to shrink and condense.
“It’s… almost done!”
……
Outside the Butian Pavilion lay herb gardens and beast-training valleys.
That night, darkness pressed deep. Purple light transformed into a luminous mist. It spread silently, filling valleys and mountainsides.
Where the mist passed, strange changes took root. Some tender sprouts suddenly germinated. Some ancient trees withered. Some magical beasts shed fur and advanced. Others seemed visibly weakened. All manner of unusual events unfolded, each different from the next.
When dawn arrived the next day, the place exploded with chaos. A cacophony of noise threatened to lift Dawn Cliff itself skyward!
“My Heart-Cleansing Bitter Bamboo Forest! Withered to death overnight! WHO DID THIS? I’LL MURDER THEM!”
“Ha-ha! My Jade-Blue Orchid… it’s blooming! But bloom season is in two or three months!”
“Yes! My Griffon Horse advanced early! Clearly my training methods are excellent!”
“And my Mad Viper… how…?”
……
Some rejoiced, some grieved. Cheering joyfully, cursing loudly wildly. Utter pandemonium reigned.
No one imagined the cause came from high above, within one small Alchemy Room.
Inside that room, the very final stroke settled into place.
Li Yi raised his brush.
A gleam of light traveled across the magical tracery, completing a full circuit.
Exactly as Li Yi predicted, the pair of light-and-shadow serpents transformed—becoming one tiny, dense sphere that sank straight into the Armed Equipment.
Huuuum!
A resonant tremor sang out, like the final note of a grand symphony.
At the same moment, a strand of deep purple light manifested from nothingness. It began to descend gently, like a curtain of rain.
“Its name is…”
Li Yi looked upward at the falling violet light. An expression of utter puzzlement settled on his face as he whispered softly.