Chapter 1335 Darkness and Gravity

Chapter 1335 Darkness and Gravity

"Darkness," Ning explained, "is far stronger than simply Shadow. Darkness is the power of the shadow, mixed with the vile evil that corrupts all those who use it."

"It was a good thing that it disappeared from this world long ago, but I managed to use it."

Nightblade lay on the ground, reaching for his own shadow. With the sun above him, his shadow was right in front of him, and yet no matter how much he tried to reach for it, he couldn't get access to it.

The Darkness Ning spoke of had completely cut him off from the place he went to when he used his Shadow Movement technique.

Something dark sprung from his own shadow, latching onto his shoulders and arm, pushing him upward. Some of the darkness held him by the chin, pointing it upward until he was looking directly at Ning.

"I am explaining what this is to you," Ning said. "Do you not wish to learn?"

Nightblade grunted. He tried to shake away the tendrils of darkness around him, but he was completely unable to. They bound him so strongly.

"Just... kill me," he said through gritted teeth. "Just kill me and be done with it."

Ning sighed. "No, I take back what I said," he said. "I won't kill you any longer."

Nightblade looked up, hope in his eyes, but suspicion as well. What was this man trying to do? The tendrils faded away, and Nightblade fell to the ground. He held himself up by his arm and started panting. He hadn't realized he was being strained so badly while strung up by those tendrils.

He had been freed from them. Did that mean he had been freed altogether? He didn't dare hope so, but he still checked anyway.

The shadow opened up and it swallowed him. The lack of sight, sound, and scent felt so blessed to him right now. If it was possible, he would cry right now. He looked at Ning through the hazy fog of black, watching him standing alone. Then, he remembered the forest in the distance. He needed to go there and run away.

Nightblade skimmed through the blackness and appeared beneath the shadow of a tree, gasping for air. He had spent too long inside and desperately needed his breath.

"Why are you running?" Ning asked from a treetop.

Nightblade turned his head upward in a near instant and a blade came out of his sleeve that he instinctively threw at Ning on the branch.

"I know who paid you to kill me," Ning said. "What I want to know is why did you accept."

The man looked up, not understanding what he was talking about. "It..." he slowly thought about it. "It was good money."

"That it was, I'm sure," Ning said. "Then let us go to another question. Had I been not alone in the room and was instead sleeping there with my student, what would you have done?"

"I—"

"Don't bother lying. I'll know right away," Ning said. "If you lie, I will kill you right here, right now. Maybe that will be mercy, but I'll give it to you."

"I-I'll speak the truth," Nightblade said.

"Good, then I'll leave you alive," Ning said. "Now say it. What would you have done?" "I..." he gulped a little, realizing what he was going to say. "I would've killed him. I would kill anyone who got in my way."

"But you weren't paid to kill them," Ning said.

"I have to. To cover for me," the man said.

"And how many such innocents have you killed, not counting the men you were paid to kill," Ning asked.

Nightblade didn't know. He didn't keep track.

"I—"

"83," Ning said. "You killed 83 innocent men and women. 105, if you count your victim as well. Think about it."

After saying that, Ning disappeared.

He would be gone from this island forever, condemning Nightblade to live in isolation from the world for weeks without any food to eat or shelter to live in.

It would be a short life for Nightblade, for he would take his own life to spare himself the agony of a slow death.