Chapter 61—Reward
Chapter 61: Chapter 61—Reward
Chapter 61—Reward
Lei Cheng scrutinized the entity on the throne carefully. ’Must be Level Three. Bizarre Intent around twenty-nine percent.’
The Shadow addressed its kneeling servants. "I’ll grant you pleasure in exchange for your work."
Every conscious gang member lowered their head even further, anticipation replacing fear for a brief moment
Its form shifted—spreading outward on both sides like hands, a humanoid silhouette forming at the center. The upper portion rounded into a sphere, which seemed to be its head, half of it pulsing with a bright, cold crimson glow, while the other half remained empty. From the Shadow Bizarre, ice began to spread; it covered the entire room in a flash.
’So, is this its true appearance?’ Lei Cheng thought, nodding to himself. A chill ran through his body. He rubbed his shoulders against the cold radiating from the creature, his body lit up with white gold flames as he finally recovered from the cold. Its gaze—dozens of eyes forming on its body—swept across the room. Gang members fainted one after another the instant they beheld it directly. Those who remained conscious desperately clawed at the ground, wishing they had fainted as well.
After a few moments, only the gang leader remained conscious.
"Not bad," the Shadow said, satisfied. "Rise, human. You’ve earned the right to become my true servant." It turned toward the fainted men. "As for the rest—"
Click! Bang!
The floor tore open. Black, long, desiccated hands erupted from beneath, piercing bodies apart in a spray of blood. More hands descended from the ceiling, smashing and tearing without pause, until the gang leader collapsed face-first to the floor, twitching.
Lei Cheng clicked his tongue. "He fainted from fear alone. What a weak Dao Heart."
The thugs jolted awake at the noise, only to die before they could understand what was happening. Not a single scream lasted more than a heartbeat before another hand tore its owner apart.
Within moments, the room had been reduced to a pulp of flesh. Only the sacks of children and the still-alive gang leader—mouth foaming, eyes glassy—remained untouched.
The Shadow grinned. "A fine reward, isn’t it? Quite honorable, dying at the hands of the master you served."
Lei Cheng turned toward the sacks. Several had gone silent, frozen solid from the ambient chill.
’They’ll die if I don’t act.’ For the first time since entering the headquarters, he abandoned the idea of waiting.
Just as he moved to unleash white-gold flame to warm them, the Shadow raised a foggy hand. The eyes on its body returned to normal, and it extended a long black tentacle from beneath its round head, cracking open into two. Within the crack was an endless void, and black strings of saliva flowed.
"I wonder if they’d taste better than the children," it mused, moving to lick the pool of gore on the floor.
Just then, Lei Cheng’s body erupted with white-golden flame. Pressure slammed through the room, shaking the entire courtyard. The still-breathing gang leader jolted awake just as the flame consumed him. "Ahhh!" he screamed as he was burned to nothing.
’What? There’s someone?’ The Shadow reacted quickly, and its tongue lashed toward Lei Cheng’s head.
Lei Cheng didn’t flinch. The moment the tongue connected with the flame, it burned away instantly, the fire spreading down its length until the Shadow severed it with its own smoky hand. The tongue hit the ground, hissing, before turning to black dust and drifting off.
"Who are you?" the Shadow demanded, voice pitching unnaturally high. "You’re no Bizarre Cultivator. You carry Bizarre Qi, yet you’re something else." The confidence that had filled its voice moments ago had completely vanished.
"Why should I tell you?" Lei Cheng snarled.
The Shadow’s round head split open slightly horizontally, and even the crimson eye was cracked in the middle, revealing what looked like an endless black void strung with dark saliva.
"You disgust me," Lei Cheng hissed. ’It can open its mouth in both ways, horizontal and vertical... What an evil creature.’
Whoosh!
"Do I?" The Shadow flashed forward, only inches from his face. "You’re handsome..." Its tone carried genuine admiration, making the words far more unsettling than mockery ever could. Before it could say everything was on its mind, it caught fire the moment it tried to move a little more forward. It howled and thrashed against the floor as white flames began to burn it more vigorously. "What kind of flames are these?!" It roared, with raspy male and sharp female voices switching in between.
Lei Cheng raised his palm. "I want to know why you wait a full day before killing the children you take. Do you kill them immediately and simply hide the bodies? Or are the constables just too incompetent to find them sooner?"
He pointed his index finger. "Let’s find out."
A beam of white-gold flame struck the Shadow, reducing it to dust within seconds.
"Even if I kill you a thousand times," Lei Cheng said bitterly, "it won’t bring back the children you’ve already eaten." His deaths still wouldn’t be enough to repay what you’d done to this city.
Golden light flashed, and the Shadow reformed, wincing. "It still hurts... Who are you?"
"Does it matter?" Lei Cheng raised his finger again.
"Wait! I’ll tell you!" the Shadow shrieked. "The children—I prefer human kids. They taste extraordinary." Black drool oozed from its mouth. "Soft. Delicate. So tasty."
Lei Cheng released his flame again without hesitation. The Shadow screamed, turning to dust in under two seconds—only to reform once more from a flash of golden light, collapsing to the ground, clutching its foggy hands.
"Okay—okay," it gasped. "I like to see them afraid before I feed. They taste better with fear in them."
"So you wait." Lei Cheng kept his finger trained on it. "How long?"
"Seven hours..." the Shadow stammered. "Seven hours, maximum."
"That’s tied to your Bizarre Rule, isn’t it?" Lei Cheng said, sighing.
The Shadow fell silent. Its silence answered the question far more clearly than any denial could have.
"So you’re protecting your Bizarre Rule," Lei Cheng continued. "Since you only take cute kids, the rule must be bound to them specifically. You claim seven hours is about savoring fear—but I think it’s actually the time limit before someone finds you. You need to hide with your prey for seven hours straight to complete the rule."
The shadow’s crimson eye locked onto Lei Cheng’s gaze.
Clap! Clap!
The Shadow clapped slowly. "Exceptional. Truly. You do need to find me within that window—but can you?"
’My bet was right,’ Lei Cheng exhaled. He felt it could be fear as the Shadow stated, but he wanted to try something out and didn’t expect it to work out.
His expression soured. "You’re good at hiding. Even standing right in front of me, I can’t sense your true form."
The Shadow tilted its head nearly upside down. "Oh? You noticed this isn’t my original body."
"I don’t sense any power from you besides Bizarre Intent and Bizarre Qi." Lei Cheng’s flames vanished. "You’re hiding your nature." He paused and added a little later, "I can sense Illusion Intent in creatures that use it—if you’re truly shadow-type, you should carry Shadow Intent. But I can’t detect it at all."
’This is going to be difficult if I want to break its Bizarre Rule,’ he thought.
For the first time, Lei Cheng realized that defeating the creature and finding it were two completely different problems.
The Shadow clapped again. "Good. Good. You’ve nearly figured it out. Can you actually pull it off, though? Let’s begin round two."
"Round two?" Lei Cheng muttered, raising his brows.
It raised its foggy right arm.
Lei Cheng’s face darkened. ’Don’t tell me it’s already completed its Bizarre Rule.’
A blinding dark light erupted from the Shadow’s body, sending shockwaves tearing through the entire courtyard and beyond. The dark beam rushed straight into the sky. It was visible throughout the entire Azure Cloud City.
Lei Cheng lunged toward the pile of sacked children, his body flaring with white-gold flames; they turned into a wall of flames protecting the kids against the shockwaves. ’At least they’re all gathered here in one spot,’ he thought grimly, closing his eyes against the blinding flash.
When he opened them again—
The room stood exactly as it had before he had entered, undamaged, without a single crack or speck of dust on the ceiling disturbed. Not even the blood from moments earlier remained. It was as though the battle had never happened. He was still standing in the same spot, still wrapped in flame.
Lei Cheng slowly swept his gaze across the hall. Every corpse, every crack, every scorch mark had vanished completely. The only evidence that the battle had happened was the lingering unease in his heart.
A few minutes later...
He glanced around.
The sacks were gone. Every single child had vanished.
He bolted for the door.
’Damn it. Shadow has taken them...’ He scowled. ’I only have seven hours to find them.’
If he failed, it would be very painful.