"Well... something happened, but... that noise doesn't sound so good..."
Atlas started sweating profusely, unable to calm down his throbbing heart. Indeed, it took him some time to find the courage and finally move his fingers, but as expected, the gem made of a material similar to amber was utterly ruined.
The gem was gone, but the mysterious glow was still present. Actually, it grew even more intense when his fingers moved, allowing the light in the room to spread all over his palm.
"What is that?"
Atlas tried to gaze between the fragments, but suddenly, a beam of light dashed out, hitting precisely the smooth skin between his eyebrows.
He tried to evade that dreadful dart, yet it was too fast for the weak young man, and in not even a breath, the red dot had already pierced his tender skin.
"Dammit!! What the hell is this thing?"
He could feel the dot drill inside his skin, which was a terrifying experience.
His finger started chasing the small object, brutally digging closer to the small gap formed by that vicious thing. It was painful, but he couldn't stop because that object was going deeper and deeper, dangerously reaching his skull.
All happened so fast that inevitably, the object reached its target and made a tiny crevice in his skull.
"AHHHH!!!!"
Driven mad by the intense heat and tremendous pain, Atlas screamed and madly scratched his forehead with his bloody fingernails.
He wanted to stop that demonic thing from crossing that thin layer of bone. Alas, his fingers couldn't even touch that gem because it was protected by a strange barrier made of pure energy.
With his heart in turmoil and his mind in utter confusion and shock, Atlas couldn't even think properly. Still, somehow, he found a single moment of lucidity and viciously exploded his internal energy, condensing all his power over his forehead.
"Ahhh!!"
Atlas's cultivation erupted, sending wave after wave of profound energy against the intruder.
Two different types of energy clashed.
One pushed inward, and the other pushed outward with equal measure.
"Ah... ah... No... N... o..."
Atlas had tried to stop it. Unfortunately, he could only slow its advance momentarily. Left with no other choice, the young man, even if with difficulty, spouted a single word: "Ni... Ni... Nihilir!!"
He needed his help now more than ever before. So, he called out till his breath could last: "Ni... Nihilir!! Nihilir!!!"
His internal energy was churning madly, sending waves of intense energy against that thing, holding back hoping for a miracle.
"Nihilir!!!"
He could barely make up that single word. Indeed, nothing else came out from his lips other than that. Still, that phrase was the only thing needed at the moment because his plead reached that existence, giving the young man one last chance.
"Atlas... Move your internal energy… you must use the Devourer of Chaos... Now!"
The young man didn't know what was happening, but those words carried a tremendous and warm power that lifted the heavy pressure from his mind and body.
"Use it now! I don't have much time..."
The result had muddled his mind a bit, yet he drastically changed the flow of his internal energy and operated his Martial Cultivation Manual, Devourer of Chaos.
It was a brutal and greedy cultivation. It could devour anything in the world, and as soon as it started flowing across the young man's body, the pressure from that demonic thing weakened even more.
"Keep it up... I will help you ease the force..."
Atlas could feel Nihilir's voice becoming weak bit by bit, but he couldn't do anything now other than wholly concentrate on consuming the strange energy from that artifact.
A quarter of an hour passed, and miraculously, the pressure lessened by a large degree, giving Atlas the opportunity to easily handle it alone without the external help from Nihilir. Indeed, he could even talk to his savior with a calm tone.
"Thank you..."
"You... you could have died here... and so stupidly furthermore..."
Nihilir's voice was dangerously feeble, almost imperceptible, but Atlas could feel apprehension in those words.
"I'm sorry... I would have never imagined such a dangerous result..." Atlas sighed weakly.
"Well... you messed with something beyond your realm... something that you should have never touched in this state..."
The meaning behind his words was pretty obvious. The tiny object was an artifact so powerful that his low cultivation realm couldn't even handle it.
Clearly, the young man wanted to discover its origins and blurted out what was lingering in his mind: "Something beyond my realm? Is it a Saint Artifact?"
"Bah... as if a Saint Artifact could contain a Spirit... This is something even more extraordinary than a simple artifact for a weak cultivator at the Saint Realm."
Nihilir had uttered the word Spirit as if it were something trivial, but for the young man, that word was something related to the highest realm that ruled over the world, something that only godly beings could yield with their profound powers.
"The Obsidian Eyes can show you the true color of this world because they can grasp the true essence, the root of this world. You can use that power, but not alone. In fact, other than looking at the world through them, you should also feel its energy and perceive the latent pressure emanating from it."
This was an important lesson for the young man and clearly marked those words for the future, but he couldn't help but lament: "Well... you should have told me this before, don't you think so? You gave me this incredible ability but didn't even explain to me its profound and mysterious powers. How can I handle it properly without a bit of explanation?"
Indeed, Atlas had to test the powers of the Obsidian Eyes multiple times to decipher the meaning behind those strange glows surrounding the objects and the people. Actually, he could barely uncover that truth thanks to the knowledge he had acquired over the years about the artifacts and the cultivation world.
His blaming Nihilir was more than acceptable.
"Well... this is your destiny, not mine. I can guide you somehow, but the Obsidian Eyes is an innate ability that only you can bear. I don't know its profundity or how they genuinely operate. Otherwise, I would have told you everything before..."
Nihilir's words brought confusion to the young man. After all, he still clearly remembered his words from that fateful day. He told him that he was giving him a gift, so why was he talking about an innate ability, something that should have been his since the beginning?
Atlas repeated those words in his head and recollected his reflections about this matter, but before he could even open his mouth, Nihilir's voice resonated once again.
"Little boy... The Spirit inside the artifact is in a weakened state for the time being, so use this time to uncover the origin of the artifact and then collect all the necessary equipment for your next expedition."
"Wait..."
Atlas wanted to clear his doubts. Alas, no response came this time, leaving him with no choice but to hold back his contemplations.