Sacrificing Li Yan? How About Turning Side Effects into Benefits?

Looking at the eerie villagers throughout the forest, all holding torches as they searched for him.

Li Yan did not act rashly. Instead, he hid within the Concealment Array he had set up.

At this moment, Su Mo, the corpse puppet beside him, was holding a bowl of Spirit Liquid and taking small sips.

As she replenished her energy, she blinked curiously. "Master, they are very weak. Let me handle them."

"No. When something is abnormal, there must be a demon behind it."

"Look at their shadows."

Hidden within the Concealment Array, Li Yan pointed at the villagers' shadows.

He saw the villagers' shadows twisting in bizarre poses, as though the shadows were alive and had minds of their own.

Judging from this...

These villagers had surely been controlled by their shadows and were searching for Li Yan's whereabouts.

At that thought, Li Yan muttered, "I knew the Su Family's Blood Shadow influence was sky-high, but they actually dared to enslave villagers with shadows outside Mishan City."

"Aren't the Su Family's shadows afraid of offending Mishan City's Venerable?"

Just then, Li Yan saw several villagers' shadows huddling together and whispering.

"Could shadows communicate with one another? Hmm... I've got it!"

Li Yan formed a hand seal with two fingers and released his own shadow, sending it stretching outward.

When his shadow approached the other blood shadows, they showed no wariness toward Li Yan at all.

The black shadows merely glanced at Li Yan before continuing their discussion.

"A villager reported during the day that an outsider cultivator had arrived in Niu Family Village."

"He neither stayed in a villager's home nor went to an inn. Where could he be hiding?"

Another shadow answered coldly, "That Daoist Zhang Jiu must have meddled and saved that outsider's life!"

"Keep searching. If you fail to find him and delay the sacrifice... you know the consequences."

"Yes!"

The other shadows did not dare say another word. They immediately scattered and began searching for Li Yan.

The black shadow issuing orders let out a low growl. "That dog Daoist Zhang Jiu has ruined my plans time and again."

"He had better not leave the city at night. If I catch him, I'll turn him into a Shadow Puppet!"

Through his own shadow, Li Yan had eavesdropped on their conversation.

Just as he had guessed, the shadows refined through the Blood Shadow Technique all possessed self-awareness.

They would seize the bodies of their original owners. One Shadow Slave was no longer enough for them—they had even turned ordinary people into Shadow Puppets!

These villagers holding torches and searching the forest without aim were one kind of Shadow Puppet.

Li Yan also noticed that the black shadow had a white crescent mark between its brows.

Unlike the other shadows, the crescent between its brows was likely used to distinguish their ranks.

At that moment, the black shadow with the crescent mark looked toward Li Yan.

"New here? Never seen you before."

"You look dull and stupid. You must have arrived not long ago."

"You, come with me."

In the crescent shadow's eyes, Li Yan's shadow looked dull and emotionless, clearly a newly born shadow.

Seeing such a vacant-eyed, foolish-looking shadow, the Crescent Shadow did not lower its guard much.

Li Yan's shadow was not exposed. Curious himself, he silently followed behind the Crescent Shadow.

Just like that, the group of shadows searched the dense forest once over, yet failed to find Li Yan's true body.

Once the Concealment Array was activated, finding someone hiding in such a vast forest was truly difficult.

Seemingly growing impatient, the Crescent Shadow cursed angrily, "Dawn is almost here, and we still haven't found that brat."

"That brat probably isn't here! Now we may not be able to report back..."

"All of you, get over here!"

Following the crescent-marked black shadow's furious roar, the villagers' shadows stretched across the ground like giant pythons crawling over the earth, reaching the clearing.

"There were no gains today. Every one of you must sacrifice an arm to offer your loyalty to the Blood Shadow Venerable."

As it spoke, the Crescent Shadow wrote obscure Ancient Immortal Script into the sand.

Li Yan could not understand the Ancient Immortal Script on the ground, but he silently memorized the shapes of the characters.

The black shadow with the crescent on its forehead then gave orders to the other Shadow Puppets.

"Begin the sacrifice!"

The Shadow Puppets lined up and pressed their left hands to the ground,

Visible to the naked eye, the shadows' left arms gradually turned to ash and were drawn away by the Sacrifice Array.

Amid wails of grief, the shadows lost their arms and felt pain as well.

Li Yan had intended to take the opportunity to slip away and extinguish his shadow.

But then the system sounded.

[Detected a sacrificial ritual with severe side effects. Host, please proceed immediately. Opportunity must not be missed!]

Hmm?

The shadows were having their left arms sacrificed, yet the system was telling him not to miss this opportunity.

A bold idea sprang into Li Yan's mind.

The black shadow with the crescent between its brows looked around. Seeing the group of black shadows missing their left arms, it nodded in satisfaction.

Then it spotted Li Yan's shadow and immediately barked, "You're the only one left. Hurry to the Sacrifice Array and offer your arm to the Blood Shadow Venerable!"

"Yes."

Li Yan's shadow answered dully, without a trace of emotion.

Under Li Yan's control, it was actually walking toward the trap-like array.

Imitating the others, he raised a hand and controlled his shadow to place its arm into the Sacrifice Array.

The black shadow with the crescent on its forehead had yet to realize the gravity of the situation.

It began silently reciting the Sacrifice Incantation, preparing to sacrifice Li Yan's shadow's arm.

[Detected that the host's shadow is being sacrificed. Side effect conversion activated!]

[Side Effect: Sacrifice the shadow's left arm to the Blood Shadow Venerable.]

[Effect Converted: Absorbing the Blood Shadow Venerable's abilities.]

A complete reversal of heaven and earth!

At this very moment, no one realized that Li Yan's seemingly dull, mindless shadow.

Was continuously absorbing the Blood Shadow Venerable's abilities and transmitting them to Li Yan's true body.

[Absorbing the Blood Shadow Venerable's abilities. You have mastered—Blood Shadow Avatar Technique.]

[Absorbing the Blood Shadow Venerable's abilities. You have mastered—Shadow Puppet Technique.]

[Absorbing the Blood Shadow Venerable's abilities. You have mastered—Blood Shadow Immortal Method!]

[Absorbing the Blood Shadow Venerable's energy. Your cultivation has risen to the fourth level of the Blood Moving Realm.]

[Absorbing...]

When Li Yan began sacrificing himself, even the gods and Buddhas filling the heavens would have to tremble three times.

How was this a sacrifice?

This was clearly an offering of love.

While the other shadows sacrificed themselves, Li Yan was instead fleecing the sheep.

He mastered skill after skill, while his cultivation continued to rise.

And all of it happened without a sound. Perhaps even the Blood Shadow Venerable had not noticed.

However, the shadow with the crescent between its brows noticed that something was wrong.

"Hmm?"

"Wait, what's going on?"

"Not only has your arm not been sacrificed, you... your shadow is still growing stronger?"

Though the Crescent Shadow could not understand why this was happening, it realized something was abnormal.

"Just who are you?"