Shadow

Out of consideration for his conscience, Lu Yang did not take all of Qin Yuanhao's clothes, leaving him a pair of underpants to preserve some modesty. …… A storage ring was a Dharma treasure widely circulated among cultivators. The Falling Coin Chamber of Commerce had conducted several surveys regarding the "Most Popular Dharma Treasure," and the storage ring had consistently claimed first place by an overwhelming margin. Whether for traveling, journeying across the continent, or stashing away treasures and private savings, it was an indispensable item for any household. Moreover, storage rings were very cheap. Even Qi Refinement cultivators could afford one, though the internal space would be much smaller. Every year, vast numbers of Qi Refinement cultivators bought storage rings, earning the Falling Coin Chamber of Commerce a fortune and making it one of their major revenue streams. Each year, the Falling Coin Chamber of Commerce also introduced improved editions—mainly featuring upgraded aesthetics, while the internal volume remained entirely unchanged. For most people, the first Dharma treasure they ever used after becoming a cultivator was a storage ring, giving it immense sentimental value. Members of both the righteous and demonic paths used storage rings, and Qin Yuanhao was naturally no exception. The above was Qin Yuanhao's general impression of storage rings. In all his decades of life, he had never once heard of anyone using a storage ring to strip an enemy's clothes! Did this make any sense?! In fact, it made total sense. What a storage ring could not store were spiritual entities with owners, such as living creatures, ghosts, spirit treasures, and the like. Qin Yuanhao's clothes clearly did not fall into those categories. Fortunately, as a dignified man of the demonic path, Qin Yuanhao had long cast his sense of shame to the winds. Even in just a pair of underpants, he could still fight! Then he saw Meng Jingzhou pull out an image-recording orb. "What the fuck?! Which cult are you bastards from, and what kind of blood feud do you have with me?!" Qin Yuanhao was convinced that Lu Yang's trio were fellow demonic cultivators from the other three cults. Even if Lu Yang and the others claimed to be from the righteous path now, Qin Yuanhao would not believe a word of it. He simply could not fathom it. While he certainly made enemies, he had always acted with discretion and never pushed matters to a mortal feud. Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu also cast strange looks at Lu Yang, apparently surprised that he could come up with such a peculiar form of attack. "No need to observe the code of chivalry against heretics and evildoers. Attack together!" Lu Yang called out to the other two. When the three of them struck in unison, even a tiger demon at the half-step Golden Core stage had ended up dead, let alone a mere late Foundation Establishment cultivator like Qin Yuanhao. They had previously considered fighting Qin Yuanhao one-on-one; as geniuses, they were confident in fighting above their level. However, for the sake of certainty, it was still best for all three to strike together. Casting aside all shame, Qin Yuanhao tangled with the trio. Sword light flowed like water and splashed like spilled ink, brimming with towering heroic spirit. Qin Yuanhao retreated repeatedly, not daring to face it head-on! Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu struck out with four fists simultaneously, descending like collapsing mountains to hammer into Qin Yuanhao's chest and make him cough up blood uncontrollably! Qin Yuanhao flipped his palm, and three hair-thin poisoned needles appeared at his fingertips, sinking into the chests of the three youths. To his shock, all three acted as if nothing had happened. Their swords and fists showed not the slightest hint of weakening, and instead they fought with growing ferocity. Lu Yang had long anticipated that their opponent might employ poison, so they had taken Detoxification Pills in advance. Strictly speaking, a Detoxification Pill should not have been called a detoxification pill; "toxin-expelling pill" was far more accurate. The principle behind it was to encase the poison before it could take effect, discharging it from the body through sweat. Since the poison never took effect from start to finish, how could it be considered detoxifying? Qin Yuanhao inwardly cursed. The enemy was far too well prepared. He couldn't bring his vicious methods to bear, and even if he did, they were no match for how underhanded these opponents were. Meng Jingzhou's muscles swelled, blue veins bulging across his skin. In Qin Yuanhao's eyes, a fist grew rapidly from small to large, moving so fast that he had no time to react. Then the bizarre occurred once more. Meng Jingzhou's punch carried staggering weight and power—anyone in the late Foundation Establishment stage would have been crippled if not killed outright by it—yet Qin Yuanhao remained completely unaffected. Qin Yuanhao let out an eerie laugh. He had told them they couldn't deal with him! Through their clash, Lu Yang finally discovered the truth behind Qin Yuanhao's technique. Slashing down with his sword, brilliant light leaped as sword energy surged like a rainbow, invincible and sharp enough to cleave anything in its path. This strike aimed nowhere else but directly at Qin Yuanhao's shadow! "Damn it!" Qin Yuanhao cried out, unable to hold back a howl of agony. "Just as I thought! You were the one who killed that band of thieves last night! Your weakness is your shadow!" Lu Yang recalled Qin Yuanhao emerging from the brothel and receiving orders from the Branch Master to take action. That mission had surely been to silence the band of thieves. With his greatest reliance exposed, Qin Yuanhao had no desire to prolong the fight. His body vanished, and his shadow sped across the ground. Even if he couldn't defeat them, he had absolute confidence in escaping. No matter how sharp your sword was, could you actually hack a shadow to death? "You three juniors, I'll remember this! Just you wait for my endless vengeance! Hahahaha!" Believing he held the upper hand, Qin Yuanhao laughed wildly. Suddenly, a beam of white light shone upon the shadow. Instantly, Qin Yuanhao let out a heart-wrenching scream, as though a chunk of flesh had been forcibly torn from his body. A Light-Gathering Array was a simple formation that absorbed light sources and released them. It was easy to learn and master, but ordinarily quite useless. Used here, however, its effect was extraordinary. Forced by agony, Qin Yuanhao's body emerged from the shadow to block the white light, and the tear in the shadow vanished as well. His injuries healed. "So you came prepared. But so what? Did you naively think a mere Light-Gathering Array could hurt me?" Qin Yuanhao sneered, "Don't you understand that the stronger the light, the stronger the shadow?" Unfazed, Lu Yang tossed out several more Light-Gathering Arrays and sneered right back, "Then have you ever heard of a shadowless lamp?" Qin Yuanhao hesitated. He had no idea what a shadowless lamp was, but hearing Lu Yang speak with such confidence gave him a terrible premonition. Lu Yang had no intention of explaining the science to an enemy in the middle of battle. Over a dozen beams of white light converged on Qin Yuanhao. The shadow sizzled and crackled. Whether Qin Yuanhao manifested his physical body to block the beams or shrank back into the shadow, he could not stop the process. The shadow grew faint, fading until it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye. The principle of a shadowless lamp was not to erase the shadow, but to diffuse it until it was practically nonexistent. With a furious roar, Qin Yuanhao burst out of the barely visible shadow. His true body could no longer hide within it. A streak of sword light descended from the sky like an otherworldly rainbow, arriving so suddenly that it was impossible to defend against, piercing right through Qin Yuanhao's body. This was the exact moment Lu Yang had been waiting for. "That was close. We almost let him get away." Seeing Qin Yuanhao dead, Meng Jingzhou breathed a sigh of relief. If the man had escaped, all their preparation over the past few days would have gone to waste. Meng Jingzhou had thought their preparations were thorough enough to ensure Qin Yuanhao could not escape even if he grew wings. Who could have foreseen that his cultivation technique was tied to shadows, making him exceedingly difficult to trap? Meng Jingzhou chuckled and nudged Lu Yang's shoulder. "Good thing you suggested preparing those Light-Gathering Arrays before we set off." "Just luck. I only suspected his technique was related to shadows, but had no real proof." "Still, don't celebrate too early. It won't be too late to celebrate once we destroy the corpse and eliminate all traces." At Lu Yang's initiative, the three of them burned Qin Yuanhao into an unrecognizable charred corpse, tossed it into the tiger demon's cave, and collapsed the entrance with an explosion. This way, unless someone deliberately conducted an exhaustive search of the mountain, no one would ever find it.