Ghoul

After leaving the Witch's little cabin, Xu Haoran and Hu Wenxu were nowhere to be seen. The door to the cabin behind him closed by itself. Lu Li had no idea what the Witch wanted to discuss with Gao Xiaowen, but it was no longer his concern.

Lu Li headed west. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, scattering dappled spots across the ground. It was easy to lose track of time walking alone in the forest, and he could only guess that he had been going for a while. He might even have left the Witch's territory. Life was beginning to appear around him, and every so often he spotted traces of human activity. If he kept going in this direction, he would probably come across a human village or town.

A strange sense was telling Lu Li that the cave the Witch had mentioned was nearby. Only then did he suddenly realize that she had merely told him to go west, without giving him an exact location. Yet he had come all this way and found the area through some uncanny sense. The Witch must have used some sort of means to influence him. That alone showed how terrifying she was: she had affected him without his even noticing.

"The gap between us is pretty huge..." Lu Li frowned. Although he had an exceptionally precise degree of control, the difference between him and the Witch was simply too great. This was beyond what control alone could overcome.

Once he came to his senses, Lu Li scanned his whole body, smoothing out anything that felt wrong and making sure to remove any influence others might have placed on him. Then he continued searching for the cave mentioned in the mission, pushing the Witch's manipulation of him to the back of his mind.

It didn't take long for Lu Li to find the cave the Witch had described. It was quite large, sloping down into the earth, and foul odors wafted from within. A few white bones lay near the entrance, impossible to tell apart as human or animal.

With Dark Vision, Lu Li didn't have to worry about seeing in the dark. The stench, however, was unbearable. His abilities could block his sense of smell, but the odors would still enter his body with every breath. It was unpleasant even to think about.

Lu Li entered the cave with a frown, thoroughly displeased. He wanted something interesting, not something disgusting. But he had no choice. For the sake of having fun later—and to avoid failing the mission and dying here—he could only hold his nose and put up with it. That just made him even more unhappy.

He hadn't gone far before the cave grew completely dark. There hadn't been much light to begin with, what with the trees blocking it, and inside the cave there was almost none at all. Lu Li could put his full strength to use here.

One of the slots in the skill bar attached to Lu Li lit up. His Shadow Magic was drained, and two figures appeared in front of him in an instant. They were pitch-black from head to toe, with only a pair of red pinpricks where their eyes should have been. In the darkness, they were almost invisible. They knelt on one knee before Lu Li, both hands on the ground, heads bowed as they awaited his orders.

"Go deeper inside and kill every living creature in this cave except me..." As soon as Lu Li finished speaking, the two figures darted away with strange, swift steps. Black throwing stars were clutched in their dark hands.

Feeling the connection to the two figures up ahead, Lu Li chuckled and followed them. Earlier, he had refreshed the game shop, hoping to find some modules to improve his Shadow Clone skill. After refreshing the shop, however, he had come across a special module. Until then, he had never seen a special module in the shop, and there was hardly any information about them on the forums. If Lu Li hadn't had a Special Module: Primary Intelligence of his own, he wouldn't even have known such things existed.

The special module he had found in the shop was called Unit: Assassin. Its description read:

[Special Module: Unit: Assassin. This is a special assassin template. Note that this template contains only information and requires appropriate components to fill it. The unit comes with stealth, throwing, assassination, and weapon generation. Purchase requires 200 Game Points.]

Lu Li had bought it immediately. The module was indeed a good fit for him, but special modules like this were far too niche, and their requirements were strict. Without suitable modules to fill it, the unit module was completely useless. In other words, to use this unit module, you needed at least a movable, humanoid vessel. And even then, without an Intelligence Module, it wouldn't be able to bring out the unit module's full potential.

He had optimized and adjusted the skill module, adding the unit module. The skill now had the following components, with the redundant Control Module removed: Module: Magic + Module: Will + Module: Manipulation + Module: Bestowal + Module: Fixation + Module: Intelligence + Module: Assassin Unit. In other words, the skill didn't actually have a Control Module. Instead, the two rule modules, Will and Manipulation, combined to produce an effect similar to one.

At this point, the skill could be considered quite good. The skills of many players who had gone through several game instances might not even measure up to Lu Li's.

Still, as Lu Li thought about how perfectly suited this module was, a flicker of contemplation passed through his eyes. When some things lined up too neatly, it wasn't coincidence. But there was no point thinking about it now, so he set the thought aside.

The two Shadow Assassins moved with strange steps, making no sound while moving at astonishing speed. A centipede had barely begun to crawl when a throwing star pinned it to the wall. The next moment, the star vanished, and another appeared in a Shadow Assassin's hand. Each one could generate eight throwing stars and a short knife. All of these weapons were made of shadow, yet they were razor-sharp.

Lu Li followed behind the two Shadow Assassins, sensing their extermination of everything in the cave. They were completely under his control, and obeyed his every command. Feeling the connection to the shadows, Lu Li's expression shifted. The Shadow Assassins had found a humanoid monster and were already lying in wait, watching for the right moment to strike. Their assassination skills were no joke.

Lu Li gave a cold laugh. The shadow behind him stirred. After a long time practicing, he could now shape a single person's worth of shadow in considerable detail. That was why he had split off two Shadow Assassins, to maximize his strength.

He was in a bad mood. A very bad mood. An extremely bad mood. When people felt this way, they needed to vent. Lu Li strode forward, a cold smile on his face. His shadow rippled behind him, then shot out of the darkness like an arrow, impaling a creature clinging to the cave ceiling. Seeing its deathly pale skin and doglike face, Lu Li said, "You doglike thing. Have you figured out how you want to die yet..."

Xu Ming was in an extremely foul mood. Someone had maliciously joined the reader group and posted prohibited content, trying to get Xu Ming in trouble. It had happened twice, and with a few other things on top of that, Xu Ming was in a terrible mood. This chapter was written while he was upset. Please forgive me if it wasn't very good...