The light radiating from the columns shone onto their bodies, creating long and drawn out shadows that moved as they walked.
Ling Han was bored, and he started counting the shadows on the ground to pass time. ‘One, two, three, four, …, 10, 11.
‘Hang on…’
He faltered for a moment before the astonishment suddenly hit him. ‘Why are there 11 shadows? There are clearly only 10 of us. The 11th shadow… signifies that someone joined our group without our detection.’
This realization made his head go numb with apprehension. Eight members of their team were supreme prodigies, yet none of them had detected this uninvited guest! Ling Han had only noticed because he had been counting their shadows out of boredom.
“Stop for a moment,” he said.
Everyone stopped where they were. However, they were all feeling a little confused. They had been walking smoothly, so why had Ling Han suddenly called for them to stop?
“What’s wrong?” Xia Wuque asked impatiently. In reality, he didn’t want to be in the same team as Ling Han. Although Shui Yanyu was also brought closer to him as a result, there was a person that he detested between the two of them. Thus, it was pointless even if she was here.
Ling Han waved his hand dismissively. If it weren’t for the fact that only teams of 10 could pass, he definitely wouldn’t bother with this person at all. He swept his gaze around, and his expression changed drastically.
“What’s wrong?” Shui Yanyu hurriedly asked.
“T-there are only 10 people here!” Ling Han stammered with some difficulty.
“Heh, Brother Ling, are you a little too tense?” Quan Lixuan said with a chuckle. He had spoken politely in order to give Ling Han some face. If it had been someone else, he would’ve immediately scolded them. What was there to be astonished about? If there weren’t 10 people, would there perhaps be nine people? Or would 11 make you happier?
Right now, he had genuinely become suspicious. Could someone like this pass the stone statue formation?
‘Strange!’
Ling Han looked at the ground again, and his expression changed even more. “Guys, count the number of shadows on the floor.”
“Ling Han, have you had enough yet?!” Xia Wuque roared. He had already been displeased with Ling Han to begin with, and thus he was naturally even more ticked off now.
The others remained silent, yet their expressions had already exposed their thoughts.
“Hang on!” Shao Sisi’s expression also changed drastically, and she said, “Look at the shadows on the ground!”
The others finally looked at the ground after hearing her repeat Ling Han’s words. Their expressions also changed drastically.
There were 11 shadows!
How was this possible? There were clearly 10 of them, so how could there be an 11th shadow?
They had to be seeing things!
“One, two, three, four, five…” The others all started to count the number of team members. However, there were only 10 of them no matter how they counted. Meanwhile, there were 11 shadows on the ground.
Ling Han composed himself, and said, “Everyone, move.”
The others nodded and raised their arm. The shadows on the ground also mimicked their actions. The problem was, all 11 shadows did the same.
“Do it one by one!” Ling Han raised his arm first, and only one of the shadows mimicked his action.
The others raised their arm one after another. The second person, third, fourth, fifth… eighth, ninth, tenth.
Shua!
Everyone looked toward the shadow that hadn’t moved from beginning to end.
“Die!” Ling Han unsheathed his Divine Demon Sword and activated it with his Origin Power. Wisps of auras flowed down, each of them as heavy as a mountain. At the same time, flames surged into the air and transformed into a firebird.
These were the divine patterns of gravity and divine patterns of flames that Ling Han possessed. He had inscribed them into his Divine Demon Sword, and at this moment, he had activated both of them together.
Boom!
Sword light flashed about like a rain of arrows.
Everyone instantly looked over, only to see that the number of shadows on the ground had already become 10 again. That mysterious shadow had disappeared, and they couldn’t find it anywhere.
Chapter 1113 - Ghostly Shadow
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Although they were all prodigies, they couldn’t help but feel their heads go numb with fear and their hearts beat in intense palpitation.
A shadow had suddenly disappeared before their very eyes.
They had all been staring at it intently, yet their attacks had created a large and instantaneous fluctuation. This affected their senses slightly, creating a miniscule time gap during which the shadow suddenly disappeared.
“It’s all your fault!” Xia Wuque shouted, his finger pointed at Ling Han. There was a look of blame on his face, and he said, “If you hadn’t tried to play the hero and attacked, we wouldn’t have lost sight of that mysterious shadow!”
He had been displeased with Ling Han to begin with, and he was simply finding an excuse to criticize him now.
Shui Yanyu flared up in anger, and said indignantly, “If it hadn’t been for Ling Han’s warning, you wouldn’t have even known that there was a shadow stalking us!”
Xia Wuque was a prodigy, after all, and he already knew that he had no chance of getting together with Shui Yanyu. Thus, he naturally severed his feelings of love and admiration of her. “As a member of the team, one naturally has to act in the best interests of the team,” Xia Wuque said with a humph. “However, this person is completely full of himself! Who here doesn’t have a more powerful offensive ability than him? Was there a need for him to attack? Now we’ve let that mysterious shadow escape.”
Ling Han was also ticked off, and he said, “I’ll beat the hell out of you when we get out!”
Xia Wuque chuckled coldly. When they got out, the only person getting beaten would be Ling Han—only his physique and recovery ability were powerful, so weren’t these to prepare him for a good beating?
“I’ll be waiting!” he replied.
“Hehe, let’s concentrate on how to find that shadow first,” Luo Jingren said. He walked over to diffuse the situation. This had nothing to do with him, but they were all team members now, so any incidents would end up affecting the entire team.
Su Jing pondered for a moment, and asked, “Have you guys heard of any existence that has no physical body and only a shadow?”
Everyone shook their heads. Such a being seemed far too eerie and sinister.
“Let’s just forget about this for the moment. Our aim is just to make it through this place. When we’re close to succeeding, that mysterious shadow will definitely reappear to attack us,” Du An said.
Everyone agree with Du An’s suggestion. If the aim of that mysterious shadow was to obstruct them from passing this tower, it would definitely reappear to attack them. If not, then they wouldn’t need to worry about it anyway. In any case, their priority was to make it through this place.
They started to advance forward again. This time, however, everyone kept their eyes on the shadows that were flittering about on the ground.
The only light source here was the columns, and because of this, their shadows would change every time they passed by a column. After some time, the number of shadows on the ground suddenly changed again.
The 10 people instantly stopped in their tracks. This was just as they expected.
The number of shadows on the ground had increased again. Moreover… there were 12, not 11, shadows!
‘F*ck! The ghost shadow has friends?’
Shui Yanyu involuntarily shuffled closer to Ling Han. She was a female, and thus she was inherently afraid of such kinds of unknown. In any case, her lover was by her side, and this caused her to unknowingly become reliant upon him.
None of them acte
d rashly. This was because they hadn’t determined which two shadows were the “ghost shadows” yet.
“Spread apart.”
Everyone distanced themselves from each other. Now that they were spread apart, the two shadows couldn’t hide in the “group of shadows” anymore. Instead, they would stick out like sore thumbs.
“Die!” The 10 of them attacked in unison, all of them unleashing their full strength.
Peng!
“It’s there!” Ling Han activated his Eye of Truth and locked onto a shadow. He then sprinted after it in pursuit.
This ghostly shadow had an agile transformation ability. It had still been as large as their shadows just a moment ago, yet now that it was fleeing, it had transformed into a tiny black dot. It was so tiny that it was barely noticeable. It was no wonder that they had let it escape before.
Lin Han stabbed with his sword, and the Divine Demon Sword instantly transformed into a streak of light. He had already activated the Fast Technique, and this made his Divine Demon Sword travel at a speed so fast that it was indescribable.
Pu!
The tip of his sword struck the tiny black dot, and it surprisingly felt as if he had struck a physical body.
Ling Han shook his sword, causing tremendous power to surge through it and obliterate the tiny black dot.
Countless wisps of black aura instantly rose into the air. In fact, there were even shrill and ear-piercing screeches traveling out from the auras.
No, these weren’t sounds, but divine sense. They traveled into Ling Han’s mind and sought to plant conflict within him.
‘Humph! Trying to destabilize my divine sense?’
This was a joke. If one wanted to affect Ling Han’s divine sense, they needed to be many cultivation levels above him—even those at the consummate level of the Mountain River Tier wouldn’t be able to inflict damage to Ling Han’s divine sense. Under the tempering of the Indestructible Heaven’s Scroll, his divine sense had already become incredibly tough.
Like floodwater meeting a dam, the ear-piercing screeches were instantly reflected back.
A look of surprise appeared on Ling Han’s face. This kind of attack—or this type of form, to be more precise—appeared especially familiar to him.
Shua!
The wisps of black aura regathered to form a shadow again. Then, the shadow ferociously lashed out with its arms.
Qiang, qiang, qiang!
Like saber blades, five razor-sharp claws sprung out from its hand.
“Humph! Paltry tricks!” Guan Rong just happened to be beside Ling Han, and he naturally wasn’t willing to let Ling Han steal all the thunder. He immediately swung a fist toward the shadow.
There were a whopping 60 divine patterns on his fist, and this caused his arm to become like an unparalleled God Tool.
Peng!
His fist collided with the ghostly shadow’s claws. The divine patterns on his fist lit up, and the strike from the ghostly shadow was instantly blocked. In fact, the ghostly shadow was even sent flying by his strike.
It was clear that the ghostly shadow was no match for Guan Rong, both in terms of power and in terms of battle prowess.
Guan Rong’s strike had been effective, and this caused his confidence to shoot through the roof.
The unknown was the most terrifying. Now that this ghostly shadow had displayed strength that was at the high extreme of the Mountain River Tier at most, it merely appeared strange. As such, Guan Rong naturally didn’t need to be overly cautious anymore.
However, similar to Ling Han, this ghostly shadow also possessed an astonishing recovery ability. Black aura whirled about, and it instantly recovered its original form. Then, it immediately lashed out with its claws again.
Its body flashed about as a cold glint reflected off its claws, and it appeared much like a god of death.
At this moment, everyone finally understood that the corpses from before hadn’t been ripped apart by Demonic Beasts. Rather, they had been ripped apart by this ghostly shadow!
It could slice people into six pieces with a single strike, and added to the fact that it had a potentially undying body, it definitely couldn’t be underestimated.
Ling Han followed up Guang Rong’s strike by unleashing his Seven Kill Subduing Soul Technique.
“Ahhh!” An agonized wail instantly traveled into everyone’s mind. This was the howl of the ghostly shadow.
The ghostly shadow couldn’t maintain its original shape anymore, and it continually shifted into different forms. It transformed into a human figure for a while, then into a beast figure, then into a fish figure, and then into a bird figure. In the end, it became a mess of shapes. It appeared as if it were on the brink of collapse.
‘As expected!’
Ling Han nodded in his mind. This ghostly appeared to be unafraid of physical attacks, and it had been able to immediately recover after being smashed apart. However, it was extremely vulnerable against divine sense attacks.
Guan Rong laughed heartily, and said, “So it turns out that it was afraid of divine sense attacks.”
“Humph! Witness the power of my Spirit Refining Swords!” Xia Wuque shook his arms, and countless golden swords flew out from his eyes. These weren’t physical, but instead formed from his divine sense.
Xiu, xiu, xiu!
Tens of thousands of swords surged outward, and the other ghostly shadow was naturally unable to escape. It was pinned to a column by the golden swords.
It shrieked in agony, and its figure transformed rapidly. It twisted about for a moment, and then eventually vanished into nothingness.
Chapter 1114 - : Shadow-eating Tribe
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Xia Wuque couldn’t help but smile smugly.
He and Ling Han had both unleashed divine sense attacks, yet he had been able to insta-kill the shadow, while Ling Han had only managed to severely wound it. This showed the gap in strength between their divine senses.
Ling Han glanced at him, and a sense of scorn involuntarily formed in his mind. He hadn’t used his full strength while unleashing the Seven Kill Subduing Soul Technique just then, as he had wanted to gauge how strong ghostly shadows were. Thus, he naturally had to raise the power of the Seven Kill Subduing Soul Technique bit by bit.
In Xia Wuque’s eyes, however, this was a display of Ling Han’s “weakness”.
Ling Han didn’t want to argue with him. When their team dissolved after they left this place, he would definitely beat this person up. He would let Xia Wuque know that he had merely been embarrassing himself by bragging so shamelessly.
“What’s this?” Shao Sisi asked.
She was a beautiful woman, and thus she didn’t mind appearing a little “clueless”. After all, this wouldn’t cause the others to look down on her. On the contrary, men weren’t inclined to ask questions even if they didn’t understand something. This was especially so if one were among a group of prodigies. Who didn’t want face?
Everyone remained silent. This was because none of them knew what this was.
Ling Han pondered for a moment before saying, “Perhaps this isn’t a being from the Immortal Realm.”
“What?!” the others all shouted in surprise. What could it be if it wasn’t a being from the Immortal Realm?
“Ling Han, stop trying to frighten everyone!” Xia Wuque scolded.
Ling Han couldn’t even be bothered to look at him. “If I’m not wrong, this is probably a being from the Netherworld.”
This ghostly shadow reminded him of the Asura Demon Emperor. Neither of them had a physical body, and both of them possessed the ability to attack using their divine sense. In addition, their divine sense was both weak.
It was just that this ghostly shadow didn’t appear to possess sentience anymore—it merely knew how to launch some attacks in a mechanical manner. Otherwise, if this shadow were the as powerful Asura Demon Emperor, how could it charge over to hand them its life on a silver platter?<
br />
“The Netherworld!”
A solemn expression appeared on the prodigies’ faces. They were very fortunate that the barrier between the two realms was extremely secure in this galaxy. As a result, they didn’t need to fight off any invasions from the Netherworld. They had merely heard of the Netherworld’s existence.
Meanwhile, the Venerable Trinity was someone who had returned from the Two Realm Battlefield. Even a powerful person like him hadn’t been able to exterminate the intruders from the Netherworld. From this, it could be seen just how powerful the Netherworld was.
“Brother Ling, are you sure?” Su Jing asked with a serious expression. If a being from the Netherworld had truly appeared here, this would be a tremendous problem. Although the ghostly shadow had been weak, it would be extremely likely that there were more powerful beings from the Netherworld lurking around.
This meant that there was a possibility of a Two Realm Passageway existing in their galaxy!
If that were the case, they would need to battle. They would need to engage in a battle of immense proportions!
Ling Han shook his head, and said, “I’m only guessing as well. Moreover, even if this being is genuinely from the Netherworld, that doesn’t imply that there must be a Two Realm Passageway in our galaxy. Perhaps the owner of this tomb brought it over from some other place.”
This was extremely likely. Ling Han had witnessed the extreme narcissism of the tomb owner, who had replicated a stone statue formation after passing through a similar one in some Puppet Sect.
With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising if the tomb owner had killed many elites of the Netherworld in the Two Realm Battlefield and also captured some to bring over here to show off his might and greatness.
It was just that the tomb owner should have been dead for countless years already. Even if he had truly captured beings from the Netherworld and brought them over, could they really have survived for this long?
Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao c1-1294 Page 572