Amber Temple

Shadowfall Potion

Consumable - Potion - Magic (Blue)

Those who worship shadows mixed toad milk, demon nettle, snake enchantment... in a bottle using special methods. On moonless nights, they placed the bottle in shadow, away from daylight, until thirty-three days had passed, thereby imprisoning a demon's shadow within the potion and using it to glimpse the secrets of shadow.

After a special ritual, it could be used as a potion for advancement along the Shadow Path. If drunk directly, the soul would be forcibly cast into the realm of shadows.

Li Wen broke the seal on the bottle and drank the potion without hesitation.

The Shadowfall Potion was extremely cold as it entered her mouth. Its texture resembled mint-flavored jelly; it was rather bitter, with a faintly sweet aftertaste.

After drinking the potion, Li Wen closed her eyes and began reciting the many secret scriptures and incantations of the Shadow Path.

She began to feel cold. A piercing chill without cause spread through her body. The cold, hard ground beneath Li Wen's feet began to soften, then, like solid ice melting into water, it turned into a viscous and frigid liquid.

Li Wen's body sank into it and began falling endlessly. At that moment, she activated the extraordinary trait Retrograde in Shadow. Her descent stopped instantly. When she opened her eyes again, she was standing where she had been before, with a church-like structure before her.

It was dozens of times larger than the Candle Sun Church in Ake Town. Its overall style was identical to the other buildings of Amber City. A towering bronze gate stood before her, barring all entry. Engraved upon it was a withering World Tree, its crown shrouded in amber twilight—the symbol of the Twilight Lineage.

This enormous church was the Amber Temple, the dwelling of the Twilight Witch in the Mortal World.

It was said that after the Twilight Pillar collapsed, The Final Codex, which contained all the secrets of the Twilight Lineage, had been kept within by the faithful, isolated from the world to this day.

To open this bronze gate, one needed the fresh blood of three Elders and the approval of both Amber City's Council Hall and the Witch Disciplinary Center. Even in Li Wen's previous life, no one had been able to accomplish that.

The Strategy Group had not opened this gate either. They had entered the Amber Temple by a more brutal and savage method, using high-level magic in an attempt to blast the gate open directly. In the end, the gate remained intact, while the temple's outer wall was blown down.

This action had not been stopped by the Elders of the inner city. Instead, it had drawn an even more terrifying threat—the Daughters of Amber, who had been in Long Slumber within the temple, were awakened by the Strategy Group members' actions.

Not a single member of the advance team that explored Amber City that time survived.

Only afterward, when the Strategy Group entered the temple and obtained the Amber Temple's blueprints, did they roughly devise several methods of entering the Amber Temple without going through the Elders.

One of them was to make use of the extraordinary trait, Retrograde in Shadow.

When someone possessing the Retrograde in Shadow trait drank the Shadowfall Potion, Retrograde in Shadow would temporarily transform into its superior trait, Shadow Walker, until the next time it came into contact with sunlight.

Shadow Walker allowed a person to truly become a shadow and move as one, passing through any form of obstruction, gates, or walls to reach anywhere a shadow could reach.

Including the Amber Temple's bronze gate.

Recalling all the details in the guide, Li Wen took a deep breath and used the trait.

The world began to lose its color in her eyes. Whether it was the amber twilight or the lifeless black of the buildings, everything became gray-white, even colorless, to Li Wen.

Li Wen held out her hand, yet she could see nothing. Only the shadow on the ground maintained the same movement.

So this was what it felt like to become a shadow?

Li Wen did not feel that she had changed in any way. She glanced at the enormous bronze gate and tentatively walked forward.

Her shadow passed through the bronze gate without incident, and her body, which seemed no longer to exist, entered through the gate as well, entering the Amber Temple.

There were no superfluous details inside the temple. A corridor led straight to the inner hall.

Li Wen did not act rashly. When she looked up, she saw women suspended upside down above the temple corridor, each sealed within enormous pieces of amber.

The female figures within the amber all lacked faces. Their bodies were completely uncovered, and strange root-like patterns were carved across them.

They were the sleeping Daughters of Amber. From the temple corridor to the inner hall, these Daughters of Amber were everywhere. Once the amber shells sealing them dissolved, it meant they had awakened, and they would kill every living thing that had invaded the temple.

These Daughters of Amber were eternal creations. They could not be killed by any means and could unleash countless abilities of the Twilight Lineage without limit.

Even a powerful seventh-stage mage like Siswell could not guarantee victory when facing a Daughter of Amber alone, let alone when there were so many of them.

The best way to deal with them was not to wake them. As long as Li Wen remained in shadow form, there would probably be no problem.

With that in mind, Li Wen moved silently toward the inner hall.

The Amber Temple had originally been built as the residence of the Twilight Witch and a place of pilgrimage for the Twilight Believers, so there should not have been too many dangers within.

Thus, Li Wen passed through the corridor with ease and arrived at the inner hall.

A tall statue of a witch stood at the entrance to the inner hall. Like the Daughters of Amber, the statue had no face. Its entire body was draped in a cloak, and its hands were clasped in prayer.

The only one worthy of having a statue erected within the Amber Temple was likely the Twilight Witch herself.

Looking at the statue, Li Wen vaguely felt an unfamiliar sense of familiarity.

This was strange. It should have been her first time seeing this statue. Before this, even the Strategy Group's intelligence from her previous life had contained no information about it.

Perhaps it was merely an ordinary idol with only symbolic significance? But that was impossible. The Strategy Group had records of every brick and stone in the Amber Temple, much less something as symbolically and practically significant as a statue of the Twilight Witch.

Li Wen felt faintly uneasy. The Final Codex was in the inner hall ahead. As long as she passed this place and entered the inner hall, she could take The Final Codex into her hands. By then, neither the Daughters of Amber nor any other threat would have anything to do with her.

With that thought, Li Wen did not look back. She tried to go around the statue and enter the inner hall.

But at that moment, the "statue" turned its head and looked at her.

Li Wen noticed the detail as well. She froze in place, her entire body cold, not daring to make any rash movement. Due to Shadow Walker, everything in her eyes was gray-white or colorless. Therefore, whether it was a living person or a statue, there was actually no difference to her...

In other words, what stood before her was not a statue at all... but a Daughter of Amber that had already awakened.