[Lu Family Courtyard] Shadow Ghost

Their eyes met.

From an angle no one else could see and only the two ghosts could perceive, Ren Yi's eyes, which had dimmed slightly with frustration, suddenly lit up.

His earlier impatience at waiting vanished in an instant. His previously subdued aura came alive, and his gaze locked onto the pair of red dots in the shadow.

So that was it!

His earlier confusion cleared away. He finally understood why his perception hadn't reacted, yet the participants could all see it with their naked eyes.

His perception was three-dimensional, scanning for abnormal energy and physical entities in three-dimensional space. But this ghost was living inside the two-dimensional plane of a shadow!

Ever since he had seen Ren Man use his shadow as a portable storage space for a chair, Ren Yi had been fascinated by this unconventional way of using shadows.

The ability didn't seem to be a rule-based ability, either. Since his older brother could do it, was it possible for him to learn it too?

Unfortunately, Ren Man had never explained it to him in detail.

Now that he had finally encountered a ghost with a similar ability, he had to go find it for a good chat after the instance ended.

Everyone in Aunt Lu's instance really was full of hidden talents!

Ren Yi offered the sincere praise in his heart.

In the instant he was lost in thought, the ghost in the shadow moved.

It moved too fast for an ordinary human retina to register. Ren Yi's vision blurred, and the places where his shadow connected to his legs suddenly "broke" apart.

The whole shadow rapidly contracted and changed shape, as if becoming some kind of small canine, then slipped whole between Ren Yi's legs.

His shadow had been stolen.

Ren Yi reacted quickly. Almost as soon as the black shadow darted out, he spun around and drove the pitchfork in his hand into the shadow on the ground.

But it had no effect. Like an ordinary optical phenomenon, the Shadow Ghost slipped naturally out from under the pitchfork.

None of the remarkable scenarios Ren Yi had imagined, such as "spearing the shadow" or "pinning down the ghost," happened at all.

The Shadow Ghost slipped toward a watermelon.

Meanwhile, in the two-dimensional plane of shadows, the Shadow Ghost was actually a little panicked.

It had heard the Watermelon Field say that a young master the madam had brought along was conducting some kind of experiment here, blending in with the participants, so it had wanted to join in the fun.

But just after it crept closer and hid in the young master's shadow, he suddenly looked down and caught it red-handed.

At that moment, out of "work habits" formed over a long time, it couldn't help instinctively carrying out the standard procedure.

By the time it realized what it had done, it was already too late to back out.

Oh no, oh no, oh no... Did I mess up? Will the young master be angry? How do I act like I'm working hard, let him off in a believable way, and avoid disrupting his plan?

The eldest young master said the young master's experiment was nearly finished, so it probably won't matter much if my acting is a little off... right?

At the same time, Ren Yi's thoughts were racing.

No, something has to be wrong.

He stared at the pitchfork in his hand, which seemed utterly useless, then looked at the watermelon not far away, which the black shadow was about to touch.

Given the balance of an instance formed by the rules of the two worlds opposing each other, a tool so clearly issued to participants and seemingly meant to counter a particular ghost could never be a mere decoration.

But it was an undeniable fact that the pitchfork had passed through the shadow without effect.

Then the problem is with me. Either I used it the wrong way, or I didn't use it in the right place?

He lifted his head slightly.

He had originally been standing with his back to the moon. After stealing his shadow, the Shadow Ghost had fled swiftly between his legs, and he had instinctively turned around to pursue it, ending up facing the moon.

Now, the bright full moon met his eyes.

That's it. Why did it hurry away and run behind me? If it were truly immune to physical interference, it could have stayed in my shadow and done whatever it wanted. There was no need to flee at all.

Ren Yi suddenly understood. He whipped the pitchfork around and plunged it into the ground behind him, where his shadow should have been at that moment.

Although the spot was empty because his shadow had been stolen, the concept of "the place where the shadow should have been" truly existed.

"Ow!"

The instant the pitchfork struck, a short scream rang out behind Ren Yi.

Ren Yi quickly turned around.

There at his feet lay the black shadow that had been stolen and transformed into the shadow of a beast. It had returned to its normal human-shaped projection, looking perfectly fine, as though it had never left.

Only the pair of blood-red beady eyes had reappeared on the shadow. They were full of disbelief and looked a little... aggrieved.

Oh no, I got a little too into character...

Ren Yi's expression turned awkward. He immediately pretended to fluster about, cried, "Oh dear," and hurriedly pulled the pitchfork out of the ground.

At the same time, using the turn of his body and the movement of his arm as cover, he frantically mouthed "I'm sorry" from an angle the livestream camera absolutely couldn't capture.

The Shadow Ghost gave him a resentful look with its red beady eyes, then slowly closed them, and the eyes vanished completely from the ground.

"Hee-hee, hee-hee."

For some reason, the laughter of the watermelons in the surrounding field, which had seemed a little tired of calling out, suddenly grew louder.

Ren Yi's cheeks grew warm with embarrassment. He silently walked back to the large rock and sat down, wondering whether he should buy something for the Shadow Ghost as an apology after returning to the Alliance.

Whether their clash just now had been due to him using too much force, the other party's stiff acting nearly making things go wrong, or both.

After all, the Shadow Ghost was one of Aunt Lu's people, an official employee of this instance who had come to help with this "harvest."

By any measure, having hurt a colleague who had kindly come to help, he ought to properly express his apologies and thanks.

Just then, a torrent of positive emotion, vaster and purer than any before it, descended without warning like a river bursting its banks.

The astonishment, admiration, excitement, and even the hint of fervent worship it contained were so intense they almost took tangible form.

In the livestream, comments like "Awesome!", "Holy shit, what a move!", "So that's how you use the pitchfork?" and "Master, accept my worship!" completely flooded the screen. They were packed so densely they nearly obscured the video.

Yet Ren Yi, bathed in this vast energy of emotion, showed no joy on his face.

What a waste. He sighed inwardly.

By the time he finished this instance, his progress bar would almost certainly be full.

But it would be nice if he had some way to store this energy, like making energy crystals or something.