Chapter 404: Endless Darkness

_Outside_

"What just happened?"

Those who were watching Ye Xiao were shocked. They could not understand what just happened. Ye Xiao was clearly at the disadvantage just now but in an instant, without making any move, he was able to kill the strange creature in an instant.

The strange creature that was rushing at him with incredible speed stopped suddenly before falling down on the ground.

How was this possible?

Wu Cheng, Ta Mu, Huang Daniu, the Sect Leader of the Seven Star Sect, and other people, all of them started running their minds, trying to think of a solution but they could not find the answer.

They clearly knew how terrifying these creatures were. Even a Late-Stage Immortal King Realm martial artist will find it extremely difficult to deal with them but Ye Xiao was able to easily take care of one of them without even moving.

Suddenly, Huang Daniu's eyes flashed with light as he almost shouted out loud: "Soul Ability!"

Yes, this can explain what just happened and how Ye Xiao was able to kill the strange creature. Soul Ability can affect anyone whose soul is weaker than the attacker.

Clearly, the soul of these creatures was weaker than Ye Xiao so he was able to kill it in an instant.

"Divine Sea?" Ta Mu turned his head to look at Wu Cheng and Huang Daniu.

Both Wu Cheng and Huang Daniu nodded their heads, confirming Ta Mu's speculation. Wu Cheng said, "This kid really is not simple!"

.....

Ye Xiao neared the dead body of the strange creature and started studying it. He found that this creature's strength was equal to a Middle-Stage Immortal King Realm martial artist. It was no wonder that its speed was so fast.

What was more, the fog was blocking Ye Xiao's view, he could not even see what was in front of him. He was relying on his Divine Sense to walk forward.

After studying the strange creature for a while, a smile appeared on Ye Xiao's face. He placed his hand on the strange creature and said one word in his heart: "Devour!"

On the surface, there was no change on the body of the strange creature but in reality, a very precious part of this creature was devoured by Ye Xiao. This part was actually a jelly-like thing but Ye Xiao could sense a vast amount of chilly aura inside this part of the strange creature.

Immediately after devouring the jelly-like part of the strange creature, Ye Xiao started refining it on the spot. Since he devoured this part, it now belonged to him so no resistance came from it. In a split second, Ye Xiao successfully refined the Jelly-like part of the strange creature and was surprised to find out that his Ice Elemental Body was strengthened.

He believed if he could devour at most a hundred of these jelly-like things of the strange creature, his Ice Elemental Body will definitely evolve.

After that, Ye Xiao left the strange creature's dead body as it was and kept walking forward. As Ye Xiao walked forward, another one of the strange black creatures ran out from the dense white fog, faster than any of its kind before it.

But Ye Xiao was faster. With the help of his Divine Sense, he had already sensed the coming of this creature. He immediately used the "Spirit Devour Escape" and dodged the attack of this creature before destroying its soul as well.

Ye Xiao once again devoured the jelly-like part of the strange creature before refining it. Then he continued to walk forward.

On the verge of tumbling to the ground, the dense dark-gray fog around him abruptly vanished without any prior warning. Oddly enough, the shrill shrieks from those strange black creatures had also vanished.

Ye Xiao looked around blankly. When the white fog vanished, the entire valley revealed itself before his eyes.

Littered around the valley were black stones. Other than the stones, there were some random black trees of the strangest shape. Every tree only had two branches, like two arms of a person.

Ye Xiao took a deep breath. He lifted his foot and continued onward further into the valley. An hour later, he reached the other end of the valley.

On the mountain wall at the end of the valley was a dark, black hole.

From within that black hole that elongated into a tunnel came a cacophony of heart-breaking whimpers.

Ye Xiao hesitated for a moment but in the end steeled his heart and stepped in. Since he had come this far, he was unwilling to leave at this juncture without knowing what was at the end and without getting his hand on the white flag.

Ye Xiao followed the path of the black tunnel that contained nothing but complete and total darkness, absorbing all light. His eyes could see no more than three hundred meters ahead of him. Though there was no thick fog inside the black tunnel, Ye Xiao dared not relax his vigilance. He was always paying attention to the changes in his surrounding.

But it was as if there was no end to the black tunnel. Ye Xiao followed the path for several hours yet with no end in sight.

In the long black tunnel, there was nothing else but a stretch of endless darkness.

This was, in short, a psychological torment!

Imagine someone trudging forward in a small space that differentiated no day or night for several hours on high vigilance for any unexpected danger that might appear. An average person would have gone insane.

What was more, the cold aura kept increasing as he went deeper and deeper!

It was only because of the Sun Fire Soul that he was able to endure till now otherwise he would have been frozen into an ice sculpture a long time ago.

According to what Wu Cheng and the other two people thought in their hearts, it was simply impossible for any participant to get their hands on the White Flag that they put somewhere inside the valley.

According to their estimation, even if one managed to enter the valley, he or she would not be able to pass the thick wall of white fog and will die inside.

But Ye Xiao became an exception. He not only entered the valley but also easily passed the white fog. It was just that the second hurdle in his path was this dark tunnel. Ye Xiao had already walked inside the tunnel for hours but he was still unable to pass it.

Ye Xiao willed himself to move forward. He calculated and sighed as according to his calculation, he has already spent an entire day walking inside this black tunnel.

Ye Xiao had spent a day walking forward in the darkness yet there were still no signs of an end. Even for someone as strong-willed as Ye Xiao, he started to feel anger rising and irritation in his heart.

In the end, Ye Xiao simply stopped walking and sat cross-legged on the spot, meditating and adjusting his breathing to eliminate the anger and annoyance he felt inside his heart.

Just like this, time passed unknowingly. Only when he had calmed down did Ye Xiao get up and continue onward.

Hours and days went on as Ye Xiao kept moving onward in the darkness and stopping to sit down to meditate. This happened in so many intervals that Ye Xiao had even lost count of the days.

It was fortunate that there was no time limit for this competition, otherwise, he would have already been eliminated.

According to the rules of the competition, only when the ten flags were gathered would the competition will end.

But Ye Xiao started doubting one thing. Even he was feeling that it was impossible for anyone to acquire the white flag placed inside the valley, after all, even he was unable to find it till now, let alone others.

As for what those three people had thought about how to end the competition if no one was able to get the tenth flag that was inside this valley, Ye Xiao didn't know. He also had no intention of knowing or wasting his time thinking over this matter as he was really being tormented badly inside the darkness.

When he was starting to feel numb and thought using the Eye of Destruction to shoot the destructive red beams of light forward to see how far he has to go to cross this dark tunnel, he suddenly caught a glimpse of light up ahead in the endless darkness.

Light, hope!

For the current Ye Xiao, the tiniest spark of light represented boundless hope!

Ye Xiao leaped forward, no, he sprinted to the source of light with all his might.

However, though that tiny light looked close, it was further than Ye Xiao had expected. Even after an hour of rushing forward with full speed while using the Spirit Devour Escape, he had yet to reach where the light was.

*****

[Author's Note:- Sorry guys for not updating the chapters for five days. Actually, I had a bike accident and was hospitalized for these days.

This month was really full of accidents for me. First, it was the death of one of my relatives and then my accident.

Well, from today onwards, I'll continue to update regularly and try my best not to miss a single day without updating the chapters.

{Some of you also commented that I am updating my other novel but not this one, why? Actually, I had some extra chapters already written for my other novel and those chapters were updating one by one each day automatically as I had already set up the time when to update for those chapters.}

Hope you all don't mind and continue reading my novel and keep supporting me. Thank You in advance!]