The Dark Hole existing in the northeastern district of Dragon City is an ancient place which existed even before the whole Dragon City was created, now it is one of the forbidden places of the city and is one of the places which still hold huge amount of Dark Miasma in the whole Universe.
Dark Miasma is an old enemy for the realms as many tried to either destroy it or seal it in order to allow people to live on the huge lands covered by them while also unearthing the secrets hidden by underneath it.
In the history books it is mentioned that there is another reason big clans tried to remove it, it is considered as a hidden danger as it can block the Qi and even limit the Divine Sense for a cultivator and if anyone stays long in there and keep on inhaling it, depending on their level of cultivation, they soon face a disharmony in their body. While most can solve this disharmony and expel Dark Miasma naturally, many deaths were recorded and among them most are by the whole body exploding due to imbalance is the most common record.
Due to the potential dangers of the huge spots containing Dark Miasma many big clans monitor it every second; they remain ready to evacuate others if it starts spreading.
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In the depth of the Dark Hole in Dragon City lied a huge ancient altar made of concrete. The altar was white coloured with lamps burning with everlasting blue flames illuminating an ancient structure with no sign of deterioration.
There are three lifelike towering statues on every wall. Each statue is made differently and shows armoured men and women, the celebrated heroes and founders of a long-forgotten civilization.
In the middle of the altar was a circular pedestal where ancient ceremonies once held. The pedestal was covering around 40% of the total space and was so huge that 10,000 people could stand there.
Pedestal was mostly made of same white coloured material joined with concrete just as statues and wall were made. But in the centre of the pedestal lied a small hole which was covered with planks made of the current age World Tree and thousands of sealing magic spells layered on each other with the aim to seal something.
A few meters besides it a black circle appeared and two people walked out from it. They are a pair of people, who were precisely Bai Changming and Serena who teleported here.
Man is wearing white casual clothes and has an ethereal aura around him which made him appear even more holier as he appeared in the pure white altar. Woman is wearing maid clothes as it became one of hobby, she is a beauty on her, a special type which just seems to soothe anyone looking at her and have become a famous big sister maid cosplayer with a huge following in Snapgram.
Serena looked curiously around for a few seconds before looking at the picturesque man and brought out a smart phone and captured the images due to the habit enforced by his aunt who made her his agent and tasked to capture some good photos once in a while so.
Bai Changming looked at her and knew that his aunt must have asked for some strange photos and didn't find it abnormal. But he wondered how much alike these immortals and people of earth are, both just cannot stop their thumb from snapping the images.
"Sis, since when you became like this? You do know that we are not at a tourist place?"
"But Changming this place is so beautiful! I have never seen any place like this, one or two photo will surely not hurt much, do they?"
"Sigh, why you immortals even need the photos when you all have near perfect memory. This technology was made for mortals not for you all."
"Hahaha, actually it is more fun to capture images than transposing our memories by our Divine Will on some imagery stone and also we can only share the photos captured by the phone so we too developed a habit to use it just like other."
"Anyway, just don't take my pictures, feel free to take them while I am doing some preparation."
"I will capture them with my best capabilities!"
He smiled and let her do her things. He knows that even if she posts the photos no one will associate it with this altar as after he is done with his work it will most likely be reduced to rubbles. It was also his will to keep a few images of forgotten civilization forever on internet and was glad that she is also doing this tedious job for him as his own pictures were quite badly taken.
He went to the seal he placed with the help of Alpha and World Tree. It was a special seal containing the knowledge he got from the elves, Arcadia, and notes of Marduk. It was made of world tree branches and sap with which he and Alpha wrote exactly 1000 spells to contain the dead mana, as known as Dark Miasma to the world.
He did all that just for today.
He bent down and bite his finger. As a dop of blood dripped on the seal it glowed and 1000 green coloured spells glowed and vanished on their own into fine particles in the air. And as all spells vanished soon the wooden planks smashed into bits as a gust of dead mana entered the altar violently before asserting mellowing out by asserting its presence across the altar, dying it in black.
She was dumbstruck at this and hurriedly stashed her phone in storage ring while grabbing him and taking to a safe place.
She placed him to her side and looked seriously at the dead mana filled altar which transformed from a pure white building full of holiness to the corrupted abomination which should be destroyed from the world.
"This is Dark Miasma! No, this thing is even more sinister that it, what place is this!?
"Before that, if you feel like coughing use this mask."
He pulled out a black matte finished mask and handed it over to her and moved towards the source of the changes.
She tried to stop him but soon felt breathless and instinctively used the black mask.
After she stabilized, she felt a little ashamed and more scared of this, she has spent days in dark miasma during her missions but there was never such a situation where she was so helpless; this also scared her as she has never heard of the presence of such a strong miasma deep underground.
She adjusted her breadth with the help of mask and blocked her other apertures with Qi. Feeling the mask capable of producing breathable Qi filled air she wondered how ancestor even made this. But soon her different emotions turned to panic as she saw him without a mask like her.
Looking at her running for him, he knew that he forgot telling her about the fact that he is okay without it "I don't need it sis. You take it. With the guidance of ancestor, I can breathe properly here. You need it more than me as only I can use the technique here.
See, I am not only having any problem but is also able to speak without any problem. "
She paused and after confirming this nodded weakly at his words and looked at the new room made of white and black patches. It was a strange transition for her, if previous pure white room was making her little brother look like a holy emperor this new gray room was making him look like a mysterious person dyed in chaotic elements black and white.
After ensuring the required amount of miasma in the room he nodded and started explaining the reasons of what he did and the true nature of the things happening in this altar.
"Sister. To become an Immortal what do you usually need on the basis of your own experiences."
"A perfect divine soul and divine sea of qi. Without them not a single cultivator cannot reach true Immortal level."
"That's true. Divine Soul is used to mold mortal soul into long living immortal soul. Divine Sea of Qi born from the mortal realm cultivation is used to mold a body of Immortal.
But there is one more thing you require sister, and that thing is an insane amount of Qi."
She opened her mouth behind the black mask and wanted to refute him but soon stopped as after feeling that this is indeed correct, she nodded.
"Just like you who wanted to deny my words, most immortals in the current world take amount of Qi required in immortal ascension for granted.
If such a huge amount of Qi was not required then why there is no immortal in lower realm? Why do they have to move to higher realms to become an immortal? The answer is what people in top 5 realms take for granted, the sheer amount of Qi."
"...Yes, that is true. As during the process a huge amount of Qi is used to refine the body and soul."
"Yes, similar to this my Magic System requires huge amount of mana to reach immortal level. Actually, mana consumption is even higher because a magician like me don't have anything similar to divine soul to covert our mortal soul into immortal soul and need to use mana for evolving the both of them. And to get the required mana for my ascension we came to this place."
"All this dark miasma is the mana!?"
"Hm, it's actually dead mana which was rejected by the ancient Heavenly Will as a vile thing. There were a few civilizations which used this dead mana and formed a broken magic system which infuriated the Heavens so much that it declared it as a taboo and punished them while burying them like this. The place you are standing on used to be a religious altar for one of those taboo civilizations and is the only thing which could tell us that they existed, besides the huge amount of dead mana buried by the Heavens as because of something it was not able to destroy it.
Then later at some point of history the magic system and most magicians vanished altogether leaving behind a few to pass it on to the future generation. All the inheritors of magic system had to move to lower realms where they may still exist because as soon as magic system vanished mana was removed from the top ruling realms and higher realms which led to the age of 10 Divine Emperors as mentioned in the books."
"You mean that before the age of Divine Emperors there were magicians like you, and they lived with immortal cultivators."
"Yes, at that time there were two systems of cultivation approved by the Heavenly Will of Universe. But something happened, which even ancestor don't know about, and magic system and most of the magicians vanished.
Now I, a traditional magician, can only cultivate with scarce mana on lower realms which is not enough to help me reach even the Arch-Mage level before I die due to old age but as you saw from my 10 rings I have reached it quite fast.
To achieve this miracle, ancestor and I, together, found a way to use all the dark mana for my use while not committing the taboo and anger the Heavenly Will. With this I can convert dark mana into pure mana and with an array I got from ancestor I can control convert even more dark mana into pure for a week."
"Should you really be doing this? You said that you could convert miasma into mana you need to reach next level, then why are you not taking it slow. For me it is strange enough for a Bai Clan ancestor to hide the fact from the clan that there is a way to process the miasma, but now you are telling me that the ancestor also wants you to take in a huge amount of miasma to become an immortal?"
He was stunned for a while and felt that indeed that no ancestor would even think of using an extreme method like converting infamous dark miasma into pure mana for breaking into the immortal realm. But he can not also tell her the truth that he has an Elemental Body with which he can absorb any type of mana and can use dead mana to cultivate without arousing any problem from Heavens as the dark mana absorbed by him becomes pure mana as soon as he uses it for cultivation.
He had developed a plan of using the source of dark mana to become an immortal the moment he found it and sealed it so that he can collect more dark mana in the spot. This action also resulted in historically low miasma level in the whole Dark Hole, but since no one cares to look inside it every year only he knew that the miasma fell to such a level that he could get form an office for Umbra just like the other secret organizations in Earth's fiction who make bases at strange forbidden places.
And just like System said, if he worked hard and absorb the dark miasma from the source for 5 years he would naturally become Magus Supreme, but he didn't want to use every second of his time to cultivate hard and after so many years with System he knew that it could be extorted to some degree, especially when it is posting new missions. But now with the array made by Marduk he could regulate the dark mana if he remodelled the array not to work as a producer of Class 5 mana but only as a regulator of mana.
He picked out the blue shining sphere containing the array from his storage attracting the attention of Serena as it was only thing which was able to glow so brightly in the room which is now filled with dark foggy mana.
"What's this?"
"This is the array I told you about it. With a few changes it will be able to regulate the dark mana of this room allowing me to force out all the dark mana from this source."
"All the dark mana!?"
"Of course, I will need this much energy to become a Magus Supreme. And after this only a few remnants dark mana will exist in Dark Hole. Who knows, after a few centuries one of the forbidden zones of the Dragon City will become a normal place."
"...You are saying the things like changing the landscape of one of the biggest cities as if you are telling me some daily forecast."
As she was shocked by his nonchalant speech, he felt that he was not wrong as it will indeed happen the moment, he is done here.
He touched the array following the instructions from the notes and left the array on top of the seal he broke. Soon the blue glowing sphere flashed a huge blue glow which scanned the whole altar through the thick fog and started itself.
The blue sphere opened up revealing the true appearance of the small rectangular array with 4 purple stones on the four direction and one big blue pulsating stone in the middle.
"What's this? It feels like an immortal spirit stone"
"Hm, this is a class 5 mana stone as per the notes given by ancestor. Even I am seeing it for the first time."
"This array of yours, it is like what I used one time in Immortal Master realm and can see that it can produce your so-called class 5 mana. But the type of mana is different from the dead mana here, will it not cause any problem?"
"What a nice observation sis. Yes, I can't use both at the same time. While the dead mana is in huge quantity in the depth of this altar what we are getting here for now are kind of leftover wisps. I can store them, and then use them together along with this array after some years and I will be having enough mana to evolve.
But there is a way to stimulate the dead mana the source below this altar, by attacking it an impact to big that we can just get out all of the mana hidden there."
"...You called me for this."
"Yes. Around me, you are the only one powerful enough to do this, that's why irrespective of timing I would have eventually come to get your help."
"Have you gone senile now!? You do know that you are asking me to attack something which is like the dragon vein for the dead mana of yours!?"
"Come on sis, it is not so dangerous."
"You! You! What not dangerous!? I may survive but the power will be enough to turn you into dust! It will not be a gentle explosion you are thinking of but a one-point blast enough to let the more than half of the dragon city covered in miasma! As the Young Master of Bai Clan how can you think of even doing this!?"
"So, you really can create a blast enough to stimulate it? Do you even need the mana stone for it?"
"Ahh! What the hell you are thinking about even after I said all this!? Let's go, seal this damn hole and make another plan about this, together. You don't need to do things like this to gain powers so fast Changming! Trust me, you will be the one who will regret the most if anything bad happens."
"It will not be any problem, because I can control the rate of mana perfectly, no it will be actually you who will control the rate with this."
As he completed his words, he pulled out a tablet with various controls with which she could control the array.
"I am sure that you have seen things like gathering Qi using array but this special array has been modified by ancestor and with this you will be able to control the flow of mana. Keep it on max for all the time, if all goes well within a week, I will be able to break 10 rings and become immortal. And if anything goes wrong you can stop the flow and take me back."
She took the console and fiddled it around. As she set the flow to minimum the blue mana and dark mana stopped and flew back to the array on the top of the source and marvelled not only at console which could control things so conveniently but also at the array which could not only control the blue mana from the class 5 mana stone but also the dead mana coming from below.
She checked with each option but was still not completely satisfied.
"I can control the flow of mana as you say. But what about the tsunami of dead mana you are calling from below?"
"Did you see the blue light flashing when array started?"
"Yes."
"That light established a territory. As soon as a whisk of mana appear within this altar it will be controlled by the array which in turn will be controlled by you. This much dark mana will surely not have any effect on you and this mask will providing you for the appropriate amount of Qi for the entire process, as I said, you need to set it to max and look out for me. If at any moment I start vomiting blood or I goes into cardiac arrest or some other organ failures it would be signal to you to stop and bail me out."
He picked out the class 5 mana stone and handed it over to her.
"While charging your attack if you feel that power is not less destroy it, it may help you."
She took it and looked at it carefully as it was the first time she held a mana stone. Unlike her thoughts that the magic may reject her or maybe it will feel just like the Qi she felt a refreshing cool aura travelling from head to toe in her body.
As she enjoyed the feeling of mana Bai Changming looked strangely at his so called sister being able to sense mana which is not a normal thing in this Dao Universe filled with Qi as without System changing his body when he was an infant even he who used the powers of an Arch-Mage in Arcadia would have never felt mana in this life.
'I knew that she was the one with problem not me when she found about the mana heart. I guess, this cheap sister of mine, is not an easy existence as well. Anyways, I will have enough time to find out about her little secrets as a side project after this.'
"Bai Changming it feels so good touching it!"
"Yeah, yeah, I am sure it does. Actually, you can have it for your own use if you can attack the source enough to make it berserk without using it."
She nodded hard and went to the hole releasing the dead mana and array of only 4 stones besides it. She gathered her Qi and attacked it with all the power she had creating a sonic boom which created a mini earthquake and echoed loudly as it moved towards the source in the depth of the Dark Hole.
He nodded and felt that this much surely will surely do the job and sat down in meditative position.
"Okay, you can move away now, it is enough."
"Huff, huff. Of course, it should be enough, I gave my all to release the blast."
"Yes, you did. Thanks for that. And please keep it on max and adjust only when I can't handle it."
"Sure. Anything else I can do."
"Yes, there is."
Just as he finished the whole altar shook crazily accompanied by a deafening blast sound and even stronger earthquake than before. Both of them went silent as they felt as if something huge was coming from the depth of the earth in response to punish them from awakening it just like a mythical beasts.
He smiled as for the current him it was not a rumbling voice of an angry starving beast but a melody which will take him to heavens. He looked at Serena who stood besides him with console in her hand.
"Actually, sister there is another task for you."
"Hm, yes, you were telling me something earlier."
"Hahaha, yes, it's actually a little thing for future. It is possible that after the week at the final ascension a heavenly tribulation will come for me."
She looked at his smiling face and felt her face colours draining "Tribulation, as in Immortal Tribulation?"
"Yes. The altar will be destroyed due to them, and it will be stronger than general because of Magic System. Just take me away if I can't move after facing it and please make sure that this altar does not collapse before I am finished."
"You!You!"
"Hahahaha. Don't look at me so angrily. I will surely compensate you for this service, while taking any punishment from you for this. For now, just give me an all the best."
Feeling the tsunami of dead mana coming towards here she knew that she could not stop him now. She calmed herself and coldly looked at him.
"You have gone overboard this time."
"Yes, but it is all according to plan."
"Still, if you don't want me to tell your parents about me give me proper reasoning after this is done. I will not hide anything from them if you plan to do crazy things like what you are doing now."
"Hey! Didn't you say that you will support me?"
"Yes, I did. But I will not support you if your whole life is in danger by your own plans like this."
"Relax, it is fine. You will have enough time to find it how 'dangerous' my plans are for me."
"We will see. And Bai Changming, Good luck."
He smiled satisfactory at her cute appearance of wishing him well even with all this anger while looking at the tsunami of dead mana entering the altar and making him one with the endless amount of dead mana coming from the source.