Nether Phantom

Xing Tian immediately used Night Fierce Light, attempting to cleave through the ring of fire.

Qin Ming would not foolishly wait for Xing Tian to succeed; he condensed flames at his fist peaks, preparing to detonate them the moment he made contact.

Xing Tian reacted quickly, turning to attempt a block.

However, Qin Ming's fist suddenly changed trajectory, smashing into the ground instead as he launched Fire Wolf Explosive Flame Strike once more.

The ground shook, causing Xing Tian to lose his footing. The flames erupted, and the scorching shockwave left Xing Tian's entire body numb, his soul power stalling for a brief moment.

"Look at your opponent's shoulders, not their hands!"

Qin Ming's left hand had already seized Xing Tian's right arm, his body spinning violently as he sought to slam him into the ground again.

Xing Tian was thrown into mid-air, yet he suddenly grinned.

He knew that conventional methods could not defeat Qin Ming; he had to win through the unexpected, and now was the time.

"Something's wrong!"

Qin Ming suddenly felt a chill down his back. His crimson wolf ears stood upright instantly, and a strong sense of danger shot up his spine to his crown.

This was not just due to his rich combat experience, but also the intuitive warning granted by Gray Wolf Ambition, a sixth sense more precise than any other perception.

Without a moment's hesitation, he released Xing Tian's arm and lunged forward to the side, simultaneously sweeping his wolf tail backward to hastily deploy a thin shield of fire.

Qin Ming instinctively turned his head to look behind him, his pupils shrinking.

It was a black figure identical to Xing Tian in every way except for its color, controlling the Dark Evil Spirit Mantis spirit behind it, wielding its sickle-like forelimbs to shatter the fire shield.

After landing, Qin Ming turned rapidly, his yellow beast eyes locked onto the black figure: "Xing Tian, is this your second soul skill?"

Xing Tian looked regretful: "Yes, I call it 'Nether Phantom'. It's a pity the sneak attack didn't succeed."

Qin Ming scanned Xing Tian, his gaze finally stopping on the ground as he said in surprise: "Your shadow is gone! Could it be?"

Xing Tian explained: "That's right, my second soul skill is to turn my shadow into a physical clone. And because of the Darkness Attribute, the process of it materializing is difficult to detect. I guess your second soul skill is to enhance perception similar to intuition, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to dodge that strike!"

Qin Ming wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, feeling immense regret.

He often taught his students the principle that "a lion uses its full strength even when hunting a rabbit," and that one must never underestimate any opponent, yet he had committed that very mistake himself.

Without knowing the effects of Xing Tian's second soul skill, he had launched such a reckless close-quarters attack.

Qin Ming felt a lingering fear: "Was Xing Tian's retreat in close combat just now a pretense? Was it to make me lower my guard for a one-hit kill?"

At this moment, the Shadow Clone reverted to its shadow form and returned to Xing Tian's feet.

Qin Ming looked at the shadow re-gathering at Xing Tian's feet, his eyes filled with gravity. He was unsure how many times Xing Tian could use this move with his current soul power, but such sneak attacks were truly impossible to guard against.

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

Qin Ming lunged at Xing Tian again. The moment he closed in, the shadow at Xing Tian's feet suddenly detached, but instead of forming a physical clone, it slid across the ground at a speed the naked eye could barely track.

Qin Ming was immediately alert; Xing Tian's shadow was trying to flank him.

Yet he remained incredibly surprised: "It can even dash while in shadow form?"

Qin Ming's heart sank, and he was forced to jump backward again to avoid the shadow, his fist-peak flames ready to erupt at any moment.

But just as he steadied himself, he discovered that Xing Tian's main body had vanished from where it stood.

The next second, Xing Tian's main body suddenly appeared at the shadow's position, directly in front of Qin Ming's face.

The black radiance of Night Fierce Light carried a sharp sound of tearing air as it slashed straight at Qin Ming.

"Teleportation? How is that possible!"

Time was tight; Qin Ming had no time to dodge and was forced to defend. He crossed his arms, abandoning his flames to withstand the blow with nothing but his Soul King-level physique.

Qin Ming was sent flying by the strike, a sharp pain radiating from his arms as blood began to gush out.

At this point, Qin Ming finally realized just how much he had underestimated Xing Tian's second soul skill.

The shadow could be animated, switching between a physical clone and a shadow state; the physical clone was used for combat, while the shadow state was responsible for high-speed movement and served as a coordinate for the main body to teleport.

These three characteristics combined to form a perfect "containment-assault" tactic.

Moreover, Xing Tian could use this soul skill perfectly, allowing the shadow to switch states at the right time, making it difficult for opponents to defend.

To obtain this soul skill, Xing Tian, with the help of Xiao Xiao, had spent over a month searching in the Sunset Forest before finding the Phantom Beast, a special soul beast.

The Phantom Beast could turn itself into a shadow for high-speed movement or hide in other shadows; it had no combat power a thousand years ago.

But once its cultivation reached a thousand years, it was completely different, as it could form a symbiotic partnership with other soul beasts.

The Phantom Beast could merge with the shadows of other soul beasts, helping them monitor their surroundings and allowing their shadows to materialize and fight alongside them.

When the Phantom Beast's cultivation reached four thousand years, it gained another ability.

Once the shadow fusion was broken, it could pull the soul beast to which the shadow belonged to the shadow's position.

Therefore, while Xing Tian's soul skill appeared to have three abilities, it essentially had only one: the control of shadows.

Although pulling the main body back to the shadow's position did not look like controlling the shadow, one must realize that under normal circumstances, the main body and the shadow cannot be separated.

Thus, once the second soul skill was deactivated, the main body and shadow had to merge, naturally producing a displacement effect.

It was just that because the source of the second soul skill was the Phantom Beast that controlled shadows, it was not the shadow returning to the main body, but the main body moving to the shadow's position.

That's right, Qin Ming had miscalculated again, only this time he had overestimated.

Xing Tian hadn't used a space-type teleportation just now; it was simply that under the enhancement of the Nine Deaths Footwork, his speed had reached its absolute limit, moving even faster than a shadow, making it nearly indistinguishable from teleportation.

However, to achieve this kind of "teleportation," he had to continuously reuse his soul skill, consuming even more energy than his first soul skill combined with manifesting the shadow into a Shadow Clone.

It was only because the recovery power of the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Evil Art was peerless under the heavens that his soul power remained inexhaustible; otherwise, he could never have sustained multiple teleports.

Just as Qin Ming was about to stand up, Xing Tian's true body and his Shadow Clone had already formed a pincer formation, trapping him in the middle.

What is going on? Which one is the real body, and which one is the clone?

When facing a soul master with a clone soul skill, identifying the true body is the most critical task, but Qin Ming suddenly realized that the two Xing Tians before him were identical—both were pitch black, both were wreathed in black mist, and their auras were completely consistent, making it impossible to tell them apart.

The two Xing Tians said quite smugly, "Teacher Qin Ming, my second soul skill, Shadow Clone, has a massive flaw in its state: its color. As long as one's vision is normal, the true body and the clone can be distinguished at a glance. How could I possibly let such a flaw persist?"

Xing Tian had discovered this issue while exploring tactics in private using Nether Phantom. While the Rejuvenation Art could alter his appearance and the color of his Soul Ring, it could not change the shadow.

Thus, he had constantly tried to find a way to compensate for this shortcoming until, after his battle with Yu Tianheng, he discovered that the dark elements within him had fully awakened, and he immediately thought of this flaw.

After months of exploration, he successfully managed to spread the dark elements throughout his body, turning his true body into the same black color as the Shadow Clone, with even his aura and the black mist matching perfectly.