"You came too." Milia's moment of enlightenment had finally come to a complete end. Only then did she belatedly turn around and look at Luo Ya and Beiya.
"Milia, just now—?" The silver-haired elf could no longer contain her curiosity and was the first to ask.
"As you can see, I used the Laws of Wind to create this move, the 'Wind Shadow Clone Technique.' It seems this move isn't exclusive to cultivators of the Laws of Darkness after all." Having made quite an impression in front of her two friends, Milia was feeling very pleased with herself.
During that moment of cultivation, she had practically been able to make her thoughts come true. Unfortunately, it had lasted only a little while.
From now on, if she wanted to cultivate the Wind Shadow Clone Technique, she would have to work it out slowly on her own.
"Milia, you really are a genius!" Meeting Milia's slightly smug gaze, Luo Ya didn't hold back on the praise.
He had said the same thing to Milia after their sparring match last time, but his tone then had been nowhere near as sincerely admiring as it was now.
"Of course I'm a genius. I've known that for ages." Though she made no attempt to be modest, Milia had clearly noticed something in Luo Ya's expression just now.
Could the move she had just created be even more powerful than she'd expected?
"Milia, how exactly did you do it?" After congratulating and praising her, Luo Ya honestly voiced his question.
Although he had a general idea of where Milia's inspiration had come from, knowledge of this kind of cultivation was merely uncommon on the Material Plane. It was commonplace on the Supreme Plane and the Divine Plane.
Milia's success was surely due mainly to her exceptional talent. The principles behind the so-called Shadow Clone Technique that he had explained had only served as a spark.
"Well, it's hard for me to explain exactly how it happened. Basically, at first I tried to imitate the Shadow Clone Technique and turn the afterimage I left behind into a more realistic shadow..."
"But as I kept experimenting, I realized that I could create a shadow directly in the wind, even without an afterimage. In the end, I had a sudden idea: first, I merged myself into the wind, then I moved toward the shadow."
"Since both the shadow and I had merged into the wind, and there was an extremely subtle connection between us, I moved toward the shadow at incredible speed. When I reached the place where my own shadow was, I merged with it... The shadow disappeared—or, you could say, I took its place."
Hearing Milia describe this strange experience, both the elf Beiya and Luo Ya couldn't help but marvel.
The former simply admired how Milia had used the Laws of Wind to accomplish a move that, under normal circumstances, only a master of the Laws of Darkness could comprehend. The latter admired her even more because he knew that Milia had fused two different profound mysteries.
"Anyway, that's more or less how it happened." Milia herself didn't know how to explain the details, but Luo Ya and Beiya had already grasped the gist of her inventive idea.
After reaching the Saint Realm, the more of these inventive ideas a person had, the greater their potential. In Luo Ya's estimation, Milia was definitely a peerless genius who could become a god within a hundred years.
"All right, don't just stand there envying me. Weren't you two planning to spar earlier? Maybe a fight will help you improve, too." Realizing that she had somehow become the center of attention, Milia quickly changed the subject.
"True. We can't afford to fall too far behind." Luo Ya nodded in agreement, then glanced up at the dusk sky.
"Some techniques of the Laws of Darkness are more powerful at night. Let's save my spar with Miss Beiya for this evening." This was something Luo Ya had learned from decades of cultivation.
At night, Dark Element really was more active than during the day.
"I don't mind." The elf readily agreed to the suggestion.
In fact, night was when she had made the fastest progress in comprehending the Laws of Darkness, too.
Before long, night fell, and Luo Ya and Beiya were ready to fight.
A crescent moon hung in the sky that night, its faint silver light bathing the earth. It was as if a thin veil had been draped over the land.
In a densely wooded area on the back mountain, the two stood facing each other, several hundred meters apart.
Milia was the only spectator for this fight.
Patches of clear moonlight spilled through the thick forest canopy. Even Milia could see everything happening around her by that faint, hazy light. As for Luo Ya and Beiya, who cultivated the Laws of Darkness, darkness had never been an obstacle.
If anything, the darker their surroundings, the stronger their senses became!
"Miss Beiya, we can begin." As soon as Luo Ya spoke, his figure grew even more elusive as it merged into the night.
Although he had yet to comprehend the profound mystery of the true Shadow Clone Technique, he could still use dark magic to wield it to some extent.
When he had fought Harvey earlier, for example, he had also used the Ice Tentacles from dark magic to support him in battle.
Of course, without comprehending the corresponding profound mystery, the move's power was much weaker. If Beiya, who had comprehended the profound mystery of Evil, had used it, Harvey would never have broken free in such a short time.
"Good." The silver-haired elf nodded. Then, her whole body began to change dramatically. Eight eerie black tentacles emerged from the surface of her body. The long, icy appendages stretched out about thirty meters, constantly giving off black mist. They looked extremely sinister.
In an instant, the elf seemed to have transformed into an octopus monster. Her grayish-purple eyes turned utterly impassive.
"Plop!" "Plop!"
The eight icy tentacles extended from the elf like limbs, responding nimbly to her commands. With a casual swing, they could easily snap towering trees that would take several people to encircle or shatter the hard ground.
She hadn't even launched an attack yet, but the powerful aura emanating from her had already put Luo Ya on guard.
When she had demonstrated the move earlier, its power had clearly been nowhere near this astonishing.
As expected, the only way to truly experience the intricacies of this move was to fight for real.
Those tentacles must be her weapons. Indeed, unless she had specially crafted weapons, it would be hard to bring out the full power of her profound mystery. She might as well fight directly with the tentacles formed from elemental energy.
"Careful!"
Noticing that Luo Ya hadn't drawn his sword, the elf didn't think much of it. Instead, she launched her attack first!
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"...
In an instant, eight icy tentacles, radiating an evil and ominous aura, shot toward Luo Ya like arrows.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"...
Luo Ya didn't dare try to take the first volley head-on. Instead, he did his best to use his footwork to avoid direct contact with the tentacles.
It was plain to see that anything struck by the tentacles—whether a towering tree that would take several people to encircle or a massive, solid boulder—was easily pierced.
Clearly, the tentacles' attacks were every bit as powerful as those of any divine weapon.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Seeing her attacks dodged, the elf boldly charged straight at Luo Ya. She moved by controlling her tentacles, which clung to tree trunks and the ground. Her speed was far greater than Luo Ya's, and she quickly closed the distance between them.
"Go!" With the icy tentacles darting and dancing beneath the moonlight, it was difficult to dodge them all from such close range. So Luo Ya thrust out his right hand—and on it, he wore a Blood-colored Glove.
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