It was very quiet. Darkness had consumed his vision and senses, and he could no longer tell what was up or down. It was almost as if he was at the bottom of the ocean.
Tian Kai didn't know how to describe his current predicament. All he could say was that he was much more calm than he should've been.
Looking down at the back of his palm, a glowing symbol shined like a beacon in the darkness.
The infinity sign glowed brighter every second, until a bubble of light encompassed Tian Hai's surrounding.
"What the-" he wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew that as long as the bubble remained he would be okay.
"But what about Tian Kai or Xue Chang…" he couldn't just stay in there forever. He needed a way out of this weird void.
Suddenly, a shriek erupted from the darkness as a shadowy palm reached out toward the bubble.
The hand pierced through the shield invading the small space of safety that Tian Hai had.
He tried to react quickly and attack the palm but his body seemed to still be frozen, unable to take action.
Only his head could move, but what could he do with just his head?
The shadow hand froze in place for a split second but continued to slowly slide itself toward Tian Hai, reaching out to him.
Watching the disgusting wriggly fingers wiggle toward his face caused a strange reaction to occur in Tian Hai's brain.
He immediately went into flight or fight mode, and since he couldn't run even if he wanted too, he went for fight.
Opening his mouth, he threw his head forward and clamped down on the gross fingers.
It was like biting into a carrot as the members got sliced off from the palm and plopped into his mouth.
It immediately turned into a strange goop and floated down his throat.
The goop had a slimy and sticky sensation that made Tian Hai want to gag and vomit, but after a second passed the feeling subsided. And to Tian Hai's surprise, in its place was an overwhelming amount of power.
It seemed that whatever was in the black goop was making him stronger. Not only that but after swallowing the fingers he was able to slightly move one of his arms!
With this discovery, Tian Hai didn't hesitate and immediately reached out toward the rest of the shadow hand.
Dragging it deeper into the bubble, he opened up his mouth and began chowing down.
Eating more of the shadows allowed the rest of his body to regain movement, but it didn't end there.
He reached out of the bubble and dragged another shadow in.
Running a few tests, he discovered that he couldn't really injure the odd apparition for some reason. But he already knew if a way to deal with them.
One by one he began to gobble down on all of the shadows. To his surprise, he could actually feel his cultivation level rising as he did this.
As expected, nothing ever went correctly when Xue Chang did something, but the rewards were worth the risk.
Tian Hai lost track of time in the darkness, but quite a bit must have passed. He continued to eat shadows every waking moment, only taking short rests when it felt like the power be devoured would cause him to implode.
And finally, after an uncertain amount of time, he was able to see another source of light appear from the darkness.
Continuing the year through the shadows, Tian Hai watched as the night sky opened up above him. The light of the moon sending down its gentlest rays.
His pupils dilated at the sight as a sigh of relief escaped his mouth. He was free!
"You're late." A familiar voice interrupted his train of thought. Turning to look beside him, Tian Hai found Tian Kai standing there spear in hand.
His clothing had been ripped to shreds and there were scratches all over his body.
"What happened to you?"
"I could ask you the same thing. I just had to fight my way out of that pile of shadow whatevers. It was hard at first being unable to move my body properly, but the more I killed the easier it became to move around." Looking at Tian Hai, he couldn't help but say, "You seem to have had it easy though."
In comparison, Tian Hai had no injuries on him. In fact he showed no signs of fighting whatsoever. If it wasn't for the fact Tian Kai had just watched him pop out of the dark mass, he would've questioned if they were in the same predicament.
"Well my situation was a bit different from yours I think… at the very least I didn't have to fight anything."
He chose to leave out what he did exactly but he did realize that his situation may have been unique.
Looking at the back of his palm, the odd symbol which had shined so brilliantly was now nowhere to be seen.
"So how long have you been awake?" Tian Hai questioned his brother curiously.
Tian Kai shook his head in response and said, "Not long at all. Less than an hour. I've been watching over your little patch of darkness as well as Xue Chang."
"Xue Chang! Where is he?" Tian Hai had forgotten about Xue Chang temporarily but now that Tian Kai reminded him he finally looked around and noticed Xue Chang sitting there with a frustrated look on his face.
"Welcome back Tian Hai, you've missed a lot." He struggled out.