Chapter 45. The Dim Place
Fulan stared at the pitch-black cave entrance and thought that she had probably found the right place.
Earlier, she had followed the river for a while before discovering this completely dark area by the riverbank. Nothing could be seen inside.
“This should be it… the dim place.”
Even though there were glowing stones scattered around, once the light reached the edge of this area, it simply disappeared, as if violating the normal laws of light.
Fulan looked into the darkness.
She thought that no matter what, she had to go in and take a look. There might actually be something inside.
So she gripped the short sword she had just seized in one hand and held the tattered book in the other before stepping inside.
Once she entered, she discovered that she could only see things within three meters.
Anything beyond that distance was completely invisible.
And after she walked more than three meters forward, even the faint light behind her disappeared.
Fulan took a deep breath and continued walking deeper.
Fortunately, there were no obstacles on the path, so she could move forward in a straight line. To be safe, she casually carved a few marks into the stone wall as she passed.
After walking for a while, she realized that her field of vision had shrunk again.
Now she could see only slightly more than two meters.
But she still did not retreat and continued advancing.
“Hm?”
At that moment, she glanced at the book in her hand and noticed that it was emitting a faint glow.
When she opened it, she saw that the same text she had seen the first time had appeared on the first page.
She still could not understand it.
The characters seemed almost alive. They appeared on the page and then flowed away before vanishing.
Then, suddenly, a sentence appeared in her mind.
“My god will illuminate His believers…”
Immediately afterward, she felt that she had learned a technique called 【Light Prayer】.
Fulan quickly checked her panel and saw the new technique listed under the skills section.
【Light Prayer (Mastered) (Proficiency: 76/1000): You can emit light that illuminates darkness.】
Fulan’s pupils contracted slightly.
Why had this technique started directly at the Mastered proficiency level?
She had never encountered anything like this before.
She stopped where she stood and thought for a moment.
Just now, she had heard that mysterious sentence appear in her mind, and she had obtained this book from a place that looked very much like a church.
So… was this technique given to her by a “god”?
That possibility formed in Fulan’s mind, and she felt it was quite plausible.
“So… should I use it or not?”
Fulan already knew that if she continued deeper, her field of vision would shrink further and further.
And this book had just conveniently granted her a skill that could illuminate darkness.
It was practically telling her that this technique would be useful in the current situation.
But she had no idea what kind of side effects using it might bring.
After thinking it over, she decided to use it.
She trusted what Teacher Yiqi had said—her connection to the Spirit Realm was still very weak. There was little that could harm her right now.
“Light Prayer.”
A sphere of light appeared in her palm, illuminating a much wider area around her.
For the first time since entering this place, she felt like she could actually see properly.
“Hm… it seems like I can throw it.”
She tossed the glowing sphere forward.
The sphere rolled until it struck a rock wall and stopped there, illuminating the surrounding area.
“Not bad.”
She felt completely fine.
It seemed as though she could throw hundreds of these light spheres without feeling any strain.
---
The Gloom Lizard was a Spirit Realm creature commonly found in dark regions.
Its dark vision was extremely powerful, allowing it to see things up to ten meters away even in pitch darkness.
One of the ingredients used in Night Vision Potion came from hunting this type of lizard in the Spirit Realm.
Their eyes were extracted through special methods and brought back to the Material Realm to be processed as alchemical materials.
At this moment, one Gloom Lizard was lurking within the dark region of the Jade Corridors, waiting for Spirit Realm explorers who entered the darkness searching for jade.
Then it would ambush and kill them.
It moved with only faint sounds as it crawled.
Most Spirit Realm explorers only realized that a massive monster had crept close when it was already beside them.
As a Spirit Realm creature, it did not need to search for food or shelter like creatures in the Material Realm.
It had been created by the Spirit Realm itself.
From the moment of its birth, its entire life existed to serve the operation of the Spirit Realm.
A constant hunger burned within it, driving it to attack any Spirit Realm explorer who entered its territory.
It could sense that if it successfully hunted ten Spirit Realm explorers, the Spirit Realm would grant it a reward that would strengthen its body.
If it hunted one hundred Spirit Realm explorers, it would gain ownership of this dark region and become a Domain Lord.
Its entire existence revolved around this purpose.
It had no other motivations.
Only after becoming a Domain Lord would it be granted the intelligence to think about other things.
The creature lay flat against the ground, carefully listening for distant sounds.
The dark region was enormous. Even with its powerful dark vision, it often failed to locate Spirit Realm explorers who had entered.
By chance, after hunting three explorers, it had awakened a new ability—hearing the sounds across this dark region.
This allowed it to detect targets from very far away.
This time, the target seemed different.
Previous targets usually moved very slowly.
But this one was moving quickly.
From time to time, it also threw objects against the walls, producing noises.
The lizard understood that this target might be somewhat unusual.
However, it did not possess the intelligence to abandon a strange target.
As long as a target appeared, it would immediately pursue it.
When it attempted to crawl quietly toward the target for an ambush, it suddenly realized something.
It could not catch up.
As everyone knew, moving silently and moving quickly rarely went together—especially at the apprentice level.
For the first time, the creature’s brain encountered a situation where it could not catch its prey.
After thinking for a while, its desire for the target ultimately overrode everything else.
It sped up, making quite a bit of noise.
When it was still about twenty meters away from the target, it was discovered.
It no longer had the chance to slow down again after getting close.
It heard the target suddenly stop and remain motionless.
In this situation, it could only rely on its instinct as a Spirit Realm creature.
Once discovered, it would immediately pounce.
It did not possess the intelligence to hide temporarily and delay its attack.
As it continued charging toward the target, a portion of its vision directly ahead suddenly became invisible.
It did not know how to react and simply kept moving forward.
Then—
A sharp pain exploded in its eyes.
It could no longer see anything.
Its body seemed to collide with a spherical object.
The intense pain prevented it from concentrating on listening for the target’s movements.
It felt completely disoriented.
Then a single attack tore through its body, leaving it unable to move.
One minute later, its corpse vanished.
In its place remained a blue piece of jade.