With that step forward, a large amount of black smoke spread out from Su Ming"s body. The aura of death from the black smoke was incredibly thick, and it was enough to make all those who saw it feel their hearts trembling in shock. No one would know what would happen if they touched it.

The indescribable pain disappeared when Su Ming walked away, and the cave abode collapsed with a bang and turned into ruins, though there was still a thick aura of death surrounding the place. Almost at the same time Su Ming disappeared, numerous long arcs swiftly closed in on the ruins, and the person in the lead was Shen Dong. Right behind him were all of the powerful Immortals who had descended in Evil Spirit Sect and were currently residing in Thousand River Valley.

"What great aura of death!"

"Who was it? We couldn"t see his face clearly just now, but the thickness of this aura of death is terrifying. Could he be a heavenly corpse type monster?!"

"There"s also a sign of someone"s Nascent Divinity descending in this place!"

Shen Dong looked around the area before his gaze landed in the direction where Su Ming left, and he looked as if he was absorbed in his thoughts. The people behind him were attracted by the strange sights in the place, and as they discussed the phenomena around the area among themselves, they retreated, unwilling to get too much of the aura of death in the place on themselves.

"Progenitor, should we continue chasing him down?"

A middle-aged man walked out from behind Shen Dong. There was a slight hint of wariness on his face. Once he cast a look at the thick aura of death around the place, he wrapped his fist in his palm towards Shen Dong.

He fell into a moment of pensive silence before he said slowly, "No need. We"ve already obtained the Bright Yang Stone from Gu Yuan Hai and completed our mission. There"s no need for us to bring new problems on ourselves…"

"Indeed. After all, we have to complete the other task given by Sir Ji An next and prepare to fight against the other sects. Judging by the thick aura of death here, the person who left just now must surely have an astounding level of cultivation. There"s no need for us to provoke him," an old man in red robes stated in a deep voice.

Bao Qiu was also among the group. At that moment, her heart was pounding against her chest. They might not have been able to see Su Ming clearly just now, but based on her senses, she could tell that the person who let out that thick aura of death just now was him!

The group with Shen Dong as the lead stayed a little longer in the place to search the area thoroughly. Once they did so, they gradually left into the distance and turned into long arcs, flying into the sky.

"The only person around the area who could overpower a Nascent Divinity cultivator who descended in this place might only be him…"

When Shen Dong left, he turned his head around and cast a glance at the place filled with the aura of death. The image of a person who he could not forget popped up in his head, and he cast a glance at Bao Qiu in a seemingly casual manner.

Su Ming warped again once he reappeared after his first warp, and he continued warping until he appeared inside the cave abode with the eight runic symbols in Thousand River Valley. The moment he was there, he staggered. His whole body was surrounded by the black aura of death, and it was especially thick around his right hand. It looked as if it was about to melt.

Sharp pain filled Su Ming"s entire body. He gritted his teeth in the cave abode and sat down cross-legged, then stared at the stone in his right hand. The extreme Yang presence coming from it was like a burning sun that wanted to melt all ice.

It was as if he was holding onto a ball of flames that would never die in his hands, one that currently posed a huge threat to him.

Su Ming glared at the Bright Yang Stone in his hand, with labored breathing, and red gradually filled his eyes.

"It"s just a small stone, and it"s already left me in such a pathetic state… If I truly leave this place and reach Bright Yang Region in the future, I might disappear in just a few breaths…"

Su Ming did not loosen his grip around the stone, but instead curled his fingers tighter around it.

"I don"t believe that with my level of cultivation, I won"t be able to suppress this petty Bright Yang Stone!"

Veins popped up on Su Ming"s face, and his power swiftly burst forth from his body. All his power as a Berserker circulated through him, causing even more aura of death to spread out of his body. After some time, the cave became filled with thick black smoke, and it was so dark that even if Su Ming stretched out his fingers, he would not be unable to see them.

The circulation of his power increased in speed. At that moment, he was circulating all the power he could muster within him so that he could suppress the Bright Yang Stone in his hand!

"This stone is like a ball of flames. It might do nothing to other people, but to me, it"s as if it"s working against my Life!"

Su Ming lifted his left hand and formed a seal before he pushed it down swiftly on that Bright Yang Stone in his right hand. With it, his left hand immediately showed signs of disappearing, and his body also started trembling, as if all his efforts were in vain and he could do nothing towards the stone.

"I don"t believe that I can"t do this!" A dark look appeared in Su Ming"s eyes.

"Even if this stone is a ball of flames and even if I"m just a moth before it, I will still use my body to extinguish it! Even if it"s the sun and I"m just ice that will melt when it gets close… then I will make it extinguish as I melt!"

Su Ming"s body rapidly aged. At that moment, he looked like an ancient old man, and even if a person who was close to him appeared before him at that moment, they would find it difficult to recognize him.

As his power erupted from his body, Su Ming felt like an endless amount of ice sprayed on the sun. He was melting continuously and disappearing nonstop, but he still did not give up. There was a determination within him, along with a refusal to give up.

He refused to believe that he would be defeated by a mere stone. If he could not even suppress this stone, then he did not know whether he would have the courage to move even further and walk out of Yin Death Region!

Time pa.s.sed, and in the blink of an eye, seven days went by. During them, most of Su Ming"s body had become indistinct, and even his will was starting to shake as if it could not withstand the constant intense pain. The pain, the gradual disappearance of one"s body, and the feeling as if something was directly conflicting with their Life[1] was enough to push anyone going through it straight into the depths of madness.

Su Ming gritted his teeth, but he did not loosen his grip around the Bright Yang Stone. He could put it away and avoid its brilliance temporarily before attempting to suppress it again once his level of cultivation raised a little higher.

But he did not!!

He was not willing to do such a thing. If the thought of pus.h.i.+ng this back formed in his heart and avoidance took seed in his mind, then he would lose his courage to leave Yin Death Region.

He did not believe that one mere stone would be able to kill him!

It was precisely because of this unwillingness to believe that his will remained unshaken, no matter how great of a pain he had to suffer. During the seven days, he had circulated his power madly within his body so that it would completely burst forth to suppress the stone!

"If you are fire, then I am the ice that will extinguish fire!

"If you are the sun, then I am the darkness that will chase away the sun!

"You and I are born to counter each other… but since you are countering me, then I can also counter you!" Su Ming roared in his heart.

On the eighth day, when all his power erupted from his body and his cultivation base started showing signs of weakening after eight continuous days of suppression, for the first time, the Bright Yang Stone in his hand started letting out cracking sounds, and a crack appeared on it!

As that crack appeared, a large amount of aura of death surged inside and crashed into the power within. At that moment, as if fire and water were fighting against each other, the extreme Yang presence within the Bright Yang Stone started showing rare signs of weakening through Su Ming"s continuous fight against its might from his disadvantageous position!

If any Immortal saw this at that moment, they would definitely be shocked, because Bright Yang Stones were objects that could allow Immortals to preserve their souls in the state of Yang. That"s why they would not be too affected by the land itself once they descended in Yin Death Region, and these Bright Yang Stones were rare even in Bright Yang Region.

It was practically impossible to change the stone, and it was impossible for it to be filled by the aura of death, because wherever it was, it would instantly make all the aura of death disperse!

Yet now… that Bright Yang Stone was showing signs of being changed and suppressed because of Su Ming. These signs might still be far from the stone being truly transformed, but the appearance of these signs was enough to leave anyone who might learn of it in shock.

When the tenth day arrived, Su Ming"s cultivation base became even more dried up, but the red in his eyes showed his determination. The extreme Yang presence from the Bright Yang Stone in his hand could no longer compare to what it was ten days ago. It might still be strong, but there was no way Su Ming could be wrong about what he sensed.

It could be said that he had gone through an indescribable metamorphosis during these ten days. He endured through it all despite the extreme pain and madness, and the longer he endured, the weaker the Bright Yang Stone became!

"One of these days, I will be able to change this stone completely and turn all of its life force into an aura of death, and I will turn this Bright Yang Stone… into Yin Death Stone!"

When the stone"s might became much weaker and started showing signs of being suppressed, Su Ming lifted his left hand and cut open a gash across his chest. At the instant that wound appeared, he pressed the Bright Yang Stone in his right hand onto the wound.

At the instant Su Ming did this, his eyes became hazy, suddenly lacking focus, but they swiftly returned to normal in an instant. He gritted his teeth and forced the Bright Yang Stone into his wound to fuse it with his body.

This was his counterattack against Bright Yang Region!

He wanted to remember this feeling of being burned. He wanted to remember this feeling of withering away under Bright Yang. He wanted to remember all these things and get used to it slowly. He was going to make plans, make preparations, and get used to this feeling when he left this place in the future!

When the Bright Yang Stone fused into Su Ming"s body, he formed a seal with both his hands, and his body instantly turned into something akin to a giant vortex that swept up all the aura of death in the cave and brought it all towards him, while loud rumbling sounds echoed in the air, to seep into the wound on his chest. This process lasted for four hours, and once all the aura of death in the cave was absorbed, the wound on Su Ming"s chest closed up and could no longer be seen.

However, there was a Bright Yang Stone in his body that forced him to endure constant pain. But this pain… was something Su Ming wanted to get used to!

"When I no longer feel pain, then the destruction Bright Yang Region will bring to me will definitely be reduced. This is the process of reversing the seasons—winter moving towards spring—which is what I have come to understand!

"To move from death to life!"

Su Ming sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes. In the mid of the intense pain, he slowly circulated the power in his body to allow it to slowly recover and maintain a balance within him while also suppressing that stone.

He also spread out his divine sense down, towards the depths of the ground. Three days later, he found the Spirit Vein of Thousand River Valley deep within the ground!

Translator"s Notes:

1. Directly conflicting with Life: A meek reminder that life + fate = Life, and it came from the idea of birth/natal chart but it has been changed to Life Matrix in PoT.

Anyway, why bring this up?

Because I thought it might sound a little abstract.

Just think of it this way.

(Below is not a very good example, but it"s the quickest way to understand this whole "conflicting against your life" XD, and also related to this whole birth chart/natal chart/Life Matrix thing, only disgustingly simplified)

Let"s say we have a Pisces person, who is supposed to be a romantic.

Then she runs into a Sagittarius, who loves freedom and supposedly lacks tact.

A Pisces would like to be coddled and stuff, but the Sagittarius won"t be able to give it, because of his personality (which is somehow determined because of his month of birth, lmao)

And the two of them constantly argue because their personalities don"t match.

This part where their personalities don"t match and you end up constantly arguing is what you mean by saying "going against your Life", because the Pisces didn"t find a person whose birth chart/natal chart/Life Matrix worked with hers.

So here, we have Su Ming, who is from Yin Death Region, and Bright Yang Stone is obviously from Bright Yang Region.

Both come from places that are binary opposites.

And since there is no way binary opposites can work together, that"s why the stone is conflicting with Su Ming.