Nether Phantom

Xing Tian immediately used Night Fierce Light, trying to Slash through the ring of fire.

Qin Ming wasn't about to stand by like a fool and wait for Xing Tian to succeed. Flames gathered secretly around his knuckles, ready to Explode the instant his punch landed.

Xing Tian reacted quickly, turning around to try to block it.

But Qin Ming's fist suddenly changed direction and slammed into the ground instead. Fire Wolf Explosive Flame Strike activated once more.

The shaking ground threw Xing Tian off balance. The flames erupted, and the scorching wave of air left his whole body numb. Even his Soul Power stalled for a moment.

"Watch your opponent's shoulders, not his hands!"

Qin Ming had already grabbed Xing Tian's right arm with his left hand. He spun around sharply, intending to throw him to the ground again.

Xing Tian was flung into the air, but suddenly grinned.

He knew ordinary methods wouldn't defeat Qin Ming. He had to win by catching him off guard. Now was the time.

"Something's wrong!"

Qin Ming suddenly felt a chill crawl up his back. His red wolf ears shot upright, and a powerful sense of danger raced up his spine to the crown of his head.

It wasn't just the result of his wealth of combat experience. Gray Wolf Ambition also granted him an instinctive warning—a kind of sixth sense, more precise than any other form of perception.

Without the slightest hesitation, he released Xing Tian's arm and lunged diagonally forward, while sweeping his wolf tail behind him and hurriedly forming a thin shield of fire.

Qin Ming instinctively turned his head to look behind him. His pupils contracted.

It was a black figure identical to Xing Tian in every way except its color. Controlling the Dark Evil Spirit Mantis Martial Soul behind Qin Ming, it swung its sickle-like forelegs and shattered the fire shield.

Qin Ming landed and swiftly turned around, his yellow beastlike eyes fixed firmly on the black figure. "Xing Tian, is this your second Soul Skill?"

Xing Tian looked regretful. "Yes. I call it 'Nether Phantom.' It's a shame the sneak attack didn't work."

Qin Ming's eyes swept over Xing Tian, then suddenly stopped on the ground. He said in surprise, "Your shadow is gone! Could it be...?"

Xing Tian explained, "That's right. My second Soul Skill turns my shadow into a tangible clone. And because of its Darkness Attribute, the process of materializing it is difficult to notice. I'm guessing your second Soul Skill enhances a sense similar to intuition, teacher. Otherwise, you wouldn't have escaped that strike!"

Qin Ming wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, filled with regret.

He often taught his students the principle, "A lion uses its full strength even against a rabbit." They must never underestimate any opponent. Yet he had made that very mistake himself.

He had recklessly closed in without knowing the effects of Xing Tian's second Soul Skill.

A sense of dread washed over Qin Ming. "Was Xing Tian pretending to lose that close-quarters fight just now? Was he trying to make me lower my guard before going for the kill?"

Just then, the Shadow Clone turned back into a shadow and returned to the ground beneath Xing Tian's feet.

Qin Ming watched the shadow gather beneath Xing Tian again, his expression grave. He wasn't sure how many times Xing Tian could use this move with his current Soul Power, but the sneak attack was truly impossible to guard against.

"Don't think you can win just because you have a clone!"

Qin Ming charged at Xing Tian again. The instant he closed in, Xing Tian's shadow suddenly detached from his feet. But rather than become a tangible clone, it slid across the ground at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

Qin Ming immediately grew wary. Xing Tian's shadow was trying to circle around behind him.

Yet he was still astonished. "It can move forward even while in shadow form?"

Qin Ming's heart sank. He had no choice but to jump backward again to avoid the shadow, while the flames around his knuckles stood ready to burst forth at any moment.

But as soon as he steadied himself, he saw that Xing Tian's real body had vanished from where it had been.

The next instant, Xing Tian's real body appeared where the shadow was—charging straight at Qin Ming's face.

The black gleam of Night Fierce Light made a sharp sound as it tore through the air, slashing straight toward Qin Ming.

"Teleportation? How is that possible?!"

There was no time. Qin Ming couldn't dodge, so he could only defend himself. He crossed his arms, giving up on using fire and relying solely on his Soul King-level body to withstand the blow.

Qin Ming was sent flying. Pain shot through his arms as blood gushed from them.

At last, Qin Ming realized just how badly he had underestimated Xing Tian's second Soul Skill.

The shadow could be animated and switch between tangible-clone and shadow forms. The tangible clone was used for combat, while the shadow form was responsible for high-speed movement and could also serve as a coordinate for the real body to teleport to.

Together, these three traits formed a perfect "containment-and-ambush" strategy.

And Xing Tian could use the Soul Skill with perfect control, switching his shadow's form at just the right moment and making it difficult for his opponent to defend against.

To obtain this Soul Skill, Xing Tian had spent more than a month searching the Sunset Forest with Xiao Xiao's help before finding the unusual Soul Beast known as the Phantom Beast.

The Phantom Beast could turn itself into a shadow and move at high speed, or hide inside other shadows. At a thousand years old, it had no combat ability.

But once it reached a thousand years of cultivation, everything changed. It could form a cooperative symbiotic relationship with other Soul Beasts.

The Phantom Beast could merge with another Soul Beast's shadow, helping it stay alert to its surroundings. It could also make that Soul Beast's shadow tangible so they could fight together.

Once the Phantom Beast reached four thousand years of cultivation, it could gain another ability.

After ending its fusion with a shadow, it could pull the Soul Beast that cast the shadow to the shadow's location.

So although Xing Tian's Soul Skill seemed to have three abilities, it essentially had only one: control over shadows.

Although pulling the real body back to the shadow's location might not seem like controlling the shadow, under normal circumstances, a body and its shadow couldn't be separated.

So once the second Soul Skill was deactivated, the body and shadow had to merge, naturally producing a displacement effect.

The only difference was that the second Soul Skill came from the Phantom Beast, which controlled shadows. So it wasn't the shadow that returned to the body; the body moved to the shadow's location.

That's right, Qin Ming had misjudged it again—only this time, he had overestimated it.

Xing Tian hadn't used spatial teleportation just now. With the help of Nine Deaths Footwork, he had simply moved at an extreme speed, faster than the shadow itself. It was practically indistinguishable from teleportation.

But to perform this kind of "teleportation," he had to keep reusing his Soul Skill, consuming even more Soul Power than activating his first Soul Skill and making his shadow tangible as a clone.

Fortunately, the restorative power of Nine Deaths Reincarnation Evil Art was second to none, replenishing his Soul Power without end. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to sustain repeated teleportations.

Just as Qin Ming tried to get up, Xing Tian's real body and Shadow Clone had already taken positions on either side of him, trapping him between them.

"What's going on? Which one is real, and which one is the clone?"

When facing a Soul Master with a clone Soul Skill, identifying the real body was crucial. But Qin Ming suddenly realized that the two Xing Tians before him were exactly alike. Both were black, dark Haze swirled around them, and their auras were completely identical. There was no way to tell them apart.

The two Xing Tians looked rather pleased with themselves. "Teacher Qin Ming, my second Soul Skill, Shadow Clone, has a major flaw when it's active: color. Anyone with normal eyesight can tell the real body from the clone at a glance. How could I leave that flaw in place?"

While experimenting with Nether Phantom in private and exploring different tactics, Xing Tian had discovered the problem. Rejuvenation Art could change his appearance and the color of his Soul Rings, but it couldn't change his shadow.

He had kept trying to find a way to make up for this weakness. Then, after his battle with Yu Tianheng, he discovered that the dark elements within his body had fully awakened. He immediately thought of the flaw.

After months of experimentation, he had successfully spread the dark elements throughout his body, turning his real body black like the Shadow Clone. Even their auras and the dark Haze around them were completely identical.