Land of Flowing Shadows

Black text appeared before his eyes, carrying the texture of something slowly flowing.

"No."

Lin Ye murmured inwardly.

The black text vanished. His gaze fell on the back of his hand, where the Monument appeared. The third unlock condition was marked as (Completed).

After some thought, he set down the diary in his hand.

The (Completed) label did not change.

He picked up another brown leather book with writing on its cover. This one contained fewer than ten pages.

They were all handwritten in the same strange symbolic script.

There were also hand-drawn images of plants and animals. They were exceptionally realistic and clear.

Lin Ye nodded to himself. He had a computer; perhaps he could use the images to search for relevant information.

Besides, several of the images looked vaguely familiar, as though he had seen them somewhere before.

Holding the brown leather book, he silently recited in his heart, "Unlock achievement."

The next moment, the surroundings seemed to freeze.

Black mist surged from the Ouroboros mark on the back of his hand and spread up his arm.

A cool sensation followed, spreading from his arm throughout his body. It felt comfortable.

Before long, the cool current gradually faded, and Lin Ye could not help letting out a breath.

The black Ouroboros mark on the back of his hand glimmered faintly.

The surroundings shifted. Startled, he raised his hand and reached for the diary on the desk.

But before he could touch it, the world spun around him, and everything had already returned to the room from before.

"Xiaoye?"

A slightly weary voice reached his ears. Lin Ye came back to himself and looked toward the woman seated on the living room sofa—his "mother," Jiang Weilan.

Although she was already over forty, she looked much younger, barely seeming to be in her early thirties.

However, her eyes were somewhat red, and her expression was tinged with loneliness.

She held a phone in her hand, seemingly about to make a call.

"Mom."

He answered, inexplicably feeling a little nervous.

He had been an orphan in his previous life and had never experienced familial affection. For a moment, he was actually at a loss.

Jiang Weilan smiled, assuming only that her son was worried about tuition.

"Don't worry. We still have some savings."

Lin Ye's eyes lit up. "Mom, how about applying for a student loan?"

His mother was merely an ordinary bank employee. Though the benefits were decent, her take-home pay was not particularly high.

Supporting both his sister and him had long since drained their earlier savings.

Now that he had the Monument, even though he had not yet unlocked any achievements related to money, he could at least make some plans.

"What are you talking about!"

Jiang Weilan glared at him.

"There are too many traps involved. Even if you join a big company after graduation, don't expect to pay it off in less than three to five years."

"And there's all that talk online about some execution line. Just hearing it is frightening."

"You don't need to worry about tuition. The family still has money."

"It's getting late. Go get some rest. Summer vacation starts tomorrow, so go have some fun and relax."

She spoke with a smile, and some of the exhaustion faded from her face.

Lin Ye fell silent for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Okay."

After the sound of the door closing, Jiang Weilan smiled in relief. Looking at her phone screen, she let out a deep breath.

"Contact—Older Brother"

Back in his room, Lin Ye's breathing grew somewhat hurried. He quickly sat down at his desk and drew the curtains.

He set down the brown leather book and looked at the Ouroboros pattern on the back of his hand.

He silently called out, "Monument," and the weathered ancient stele appeared.

The achievement he had triggered earlier had disappeared from the lower half of the Monument.

In the blank ability section at the top, a new line of information had appeared.

[Ability—Yin-Attracting Constitution (1/10)]

[Potential Point: 1]

A stream of information flooded into his mind, and he immediately understood.

The (1/10) represented a number of times rather than experience points. As long as he underwent the Yin-Attracting Constitution baptism nine more times, this constitution would advance.

However, his four basic attributes had not changed. The Yin-Attracting Constitution did not seem to have enhanced his physical fitness.

Still, the number after Potential Point had become 1, and a small Ouroboros symbol had appeared beside the four basic attributes and the Yin-Attracting Constitution.

This meant he could use that one Potential Point to add points to one of the four attributes, or increase the Yin-Attracting Constitution count by one.

After pondering it for a moment, his gaze settled on the four basic attributes, and he decided to add a point to Strength.

After all, Strength was the lowest of his four attributes.

Relatively speaking, it was also the least risky option.

"Monument, add a point to Strength."

As he silently recited the words, the surface of the black Monument gave off a faint black glow.

A strand of black mist spread upward from its base and entered the Strength attribute.

At the same time, the familiar cold aura flowed from the Ouroboros mark into his body.

Strangely, it did not feel unpleasant. Instead, it felt as though every pore in his body had opened, leaving him utterly refreshed.

"Crack, pop."

"Crack, crack..."

His bones made faint clicking noises. Accompanied by slight tremors, his entire body tingled, and a sense of fullness surged up from deep within his marrow.

About five seconds later, the cold aura vanished, and Lin Ye looked at the Monument.

[Strength: 0.59]

"One Potential Point increased Strength by 0.1."

"The other three attributes should increase by the same amount."

He clenched his fist, his nails digging into his palm.

He squeezed his forearm with his other hand, then flexed his elbow. The feeling of his tightened muscles was not bad at all.

"They've gotten thicker, and harder too."

"My strength has increased quite a bit. I just don't know the exact numbers yet."

He stood up and tried throwing punches in the boxing stance from his previous life. His fist cut through the air with a solid sense of impact.

After punching for a while, he stepped onto the scale in his room. The needle pointed to 72 kg, while his height read 181 cm.

"I grew one centimeter taller. Before I took a nap this afternoon, I think I weighed 70 kilograms."

"So the Strength attribute probably corresponds roughly to muscle strength, bone density, and neural recruitment ability."

"It's normal for my weight to increase a little too."

He looked at the Ouroboros mark on the back of his hand, which resembled a faded black tattoo.

He thought of the monster in that Church. He wondered whether he could trigger other achievements from that monster.

If he could, would he be able to obtain other abilities as well?

He pulled out the chair and sat down, then pressed the computer's power button. After a humming sound, the screen lit up, displaying a grassland landscape as the desktop background.

He opened Chao Forum, recalled the monster's appearance, and entered several of its characteristics into the search bar.

More than ten minutes later, he had browsed through over a hundred related posts.

He frowned. He had found nothing useful.

After a moment of silence, he entered the words "Shadow Realm" into the search bar.

Several minutes later, he still found no information about the Shadow Realm.

However, he did find a somewhat related term—Land of Flowing Shadows.

He opened the post. There was no information at all; aside from the title, there was only a web link.

When he opened the link, a webpage appeared, and the light emitted by the entire computer screen suddenly dimmed.

Lin Ye's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the screen.

"Flowing Shadow is the history of contamination."

"Anyone who enters it will never enter only once."

"Remember! It is not you who pursue Flowing Shadow—Flowing Shadow is pursuing you!"