Chapter 453 - 406: Reflected Shadow Killing Array and Scouting

Chapter 453: Chapter 406: Reflected Shadow Killing Array and Scouting

March 7th, deep within Pinglu Valley.

Guan Tong held the Wordless Book, its pages open to the sixth page.

He closed his eyes for a moment to prepare.

When he opened his eyes, a massive amount of Psychic Power flowed into the pages. Boundless shadows swiftly spread out from his feet, enveloping everything around him.

This was his "Shadow Realm," which, like his other abilities, had been enhanced after he entered the second stage of Sublimation.

The most obvious improvements were to its fundamental characteristics: deployment speed, range, and energy cost.

But this enhancement was still far from meeting his expectations.

Once the Shadow Realm was enclosed, Guan Tong willed it, and a multitude of eye-shaped Shadow Creatures appeared.

This was an ability he had developed the first time he activated the Shadow Realm to kill everyone who had attacked him and Shi Jingyi. Its purpose was to monitor every corner of the Shadow Realm and share the visuals with him.

Now, these eyes emitted a faint red glow, appearing somewhat different than before.

This wasn’t the first time Guan Tong had worked on his Shadow Realm ability; he had developed it further on two previous occasions.

Once, he had enabled the Shadow Realm to slowly absorb the Psychic Power of enemies trapped within. The second time, he developed an attack using a compressed Small Space.

Now, Guan Tong combined these "surveillance eyes" with the "Psychic Power absorption" function, allowing him to accelerate the absorption of an enemy’s Psychic Power simply by having the eyes gaze at them.

He got the idea from a former enemy—Jiang Lanying’s grandson, Jiang Ming—who possessed the ability to absorb and release Psychic Power through his eyes.

Over the past few days, Guan Tong had been referencing Jiang Ming’s method of absorbing Psychic Power to make similar modifications to his Shadow Realm.

This way, the next time an enemy was trapped within, their Psychic Power would be absorbed at an accelerated rate the moment they met the gaze of those eyes.

If they deliberately avoided the eyes, their vision would be obstructed. It was a catch-22; either choice would put them at a disadvantage.

Guan Tong might not even have to fight himself. By simply maintaining the Shadow Realm, his enemies would be defeated without a battle as their Psychic Power was rapidly drained dry.

And that wasn’t the only new technique he had developed over the past few days.

"Return."

Guan Tong issued the command, and the vast Shadow Realm rapidly retracted from all directions, converging on the palm of his right hand as its core.

During the retraction, countless sharp shadows, accompanied by the CRASHING of falling trees, sliced through everything they touched.

It was like an umbrella assembled from blades. As it closed, everything beneath its canopy was sliced apart.

It was also like a fishing net full of barbs. The fish might be unharmed when it’s cast, but when the net is hauled in, they are torn to shreds by the dense hooks.

This was exactly the effect Guan Tong wanted.

The fully contracted Shadow Realm formed a Small Space in his palm, ready to be used for an attack at any moment.

Guan Tong looked up at his surroundings.

The large swath of forest previously enveloped by the Shadow Realm was now a field of shattered wood fragments.

Even solid mountain boulders had been sliced apart, reduced to stone chips.

This meant that if any enemies had been inside the Shadow Realm, regardless of their number, their fate would have been no different from these trees and rocks... they would have been sliced into countless pieces.

He named this new Domain ability the "Reflected Shadow Killing Array," creating a counterpart to the "Thorn Shadow Killing Array" he often used to eliminate multiple enemies.

As for the Small Space form...

Guan Tong glanced at the dark vortex in his right palm. The moment he stopped channeling Psychic Power into it, it vanished into nothingness.

’If I had more time to research this, I could probably strengthen it and also properly study Condensation and Mind Martial Techniques, but... time waits for no one.’

Tomorrow, the 8th, was the day Shi Jingyi and Lu City were scheduled to meet. It was already noon on the 7th.

As he’d told Shi Jingyi he would, it was time for him to go and scout the meeting location.

However, he had improved significantly over the past few days. For now, it seemed sufficient.

’The location is the stadium on South Academy Road...’

Guan Tong prepared to depart.

...

Academy Road hadn’t always been called Academy Road. The main street was renamed only after the Academy relocated there from Capital Yong’an.

Besides the Academy itself, the road was also home to an off-campus faculty housing area, several shelters, a large storage warehouse, a stadium, and a branch of the Emergency Management Bureau.

The faculty housing area was, to be precise, a high-end residential zone. Unlike the dorms on campus, the residences here were large houses with their own courtyards.

As a main lecturer, Shi Jingyi possessed her own house with a private courtyard. This wasn’t at her own request; the Academy had applied for it on her behalf, reasoning that a main lecturer with a heavy and draining daily course load deserved better living conditions.

Furthermore, when Yelena was at the Academy, she and Sikokun had also lived here in their own standalone house.

This preferential treatment was a sign of favor from the North Star high command, or perhaps even an investment. Judging by the results, with Yelena now firmly in power as the Governor of Sisiya, Sisiya Country had recently begun engaging in close cooperation with North Star across multiple sectors.

Previously, Sisiya had been more inclined to cooperate with the Soloma Empire. This shift was orchestrated by Yelena, perhaps out of gratitude for North Star’s support, or perhaps due to her inscrutable relationship with Guan Tong.

Regardless, North Star considered the investment a success and subsequently began paying more attention to the children of high-ranking officials from other Human Federation member nations at the Academy.

But Guan Tong couldn’t care less about any of that. He had already manipulated a wisp of shadow to the stadium.

It was a large indoor stadium, one of Pinglu City’s major public works projects before the era of the Apocalypse Rules. Its purpose was to provide citizens with a large, free indoor venue for exercise.

After the Apocalypse Rules began, the stadium served as a Gathering Point for a long time.

It could be said that it had provided shelter to tens of thousands of Pinglu’s citizens through multiple Rules.

But while the stadium was sturdy and spacious, it wasn’t a dedicated shelter. After numerous shelters were constructed, the people staying here were relocated, and the stadium was all but abandoned.

Later, during the "Outer Heaven Parasite" Rule, the stadium was even commandeered to house the "cultivators" in quarantine. As a result, no sane person would come near it after that Rule ended. Despite official and repeated denials, many still believed that Alien Spores could linger in such a containment facility and refused to go near it.

’Lu City chose to meet Shi Jingyi here. At first glance, it’s not far from the Academy, and it’s even on the same street... but it’s an enclosed space, and one that nobody willingly enters.’

Guan Tong wouldn’t let his guard down just because the location was close to the Academy. Before the era of the Apocalypse Rules, fake banks would often set up shop right next to real ones, preying on exactly that kind of complacency to swindle people.

’The meeting is tomorrow morning. If they’re planning an ambush, there should be people inside by now... Once Crimson Terra appears tonight, moving around outside will become extremely dangerous.’

Guan Tong directed his shadow into the stadium, searching meticulously and leaving no corner unchecked.

However, after searching it inside and out, even probing deep underground, he didn’t find a single soul.

’Was my judgment wrong? Does Lu City really just want to ask for help?’

’Or does he think he doesn’t need help, that he can defeat Shi Jingyi all by himself?’

The latter was undoubtedly impossible.

Even if Lu City didn’t know Shi Jingyi’s true strength, he must have clearly perceived the gap between himself and the lecturer just from attending her classes.

Guan Tong suddenly frowned as a thought occurred to him.

’Could they be planning to use... Teleportation Items?’

He hadn’t considered it at first because such items had grown increasingly expensive over time, to the point where they were nearly impossible for an individual Ascender to afford. Only official governing bodies and large organizations had the means.

However, after the Suzuki incident, his investigation into the replaced surveillance footage led him to suspect the mastermind had used such an item to bypass the corridor cameras at the rehabilitation center.

Now he felt that if Lu City were hostile, he might use the same method to summon reinforcements in an instant.

He just didn’t know, if Lu City did have backup, how many people there would be, who they would be, or why they would go to such great lengths to target a single Academy lecturer like Shi Jingyi.

’...Regardless of whether my guess is right, I have to be prepared.’

Guan Tong had already made his decision. The next morning, he would lay a large number of shadows around the stadium.

The moment he detected any hostility from Lu City, even if Shi Jingyi could handle the crisis herself, he would still step in, grab the kid, and find out exactly what was going on.