Innate Domain! King!

"The wind has risen, and it is time for you to die."

Jiang Xiu felt the breeze brush against his palm, his eyes as calm as a still lake as he gazed indifferently at the Abyss Ant before him. Beneath his feet, a dark shadow stood ready for battle.

"Black One, attack!"

In an instant, Jiang Xiu locked onto another Abyss Ant with a slender build. With a flick of his fingers, the shadow at his feet darted out, charging straight toward the target.

The next moment, the two figures were locked in a fierce struggle. Jiang Xiu watched silently from the side, a sharp glint flickering in his eyes.

"The extracted shadow retains sixty percent of its combat strength from when it was alive. Intelligence... well, this thing doesn't have any yet."

Jiang Xiu analyzed inwardly, though he already knew through his Shadow Monarch martial soul that the amount of combat strength retained by a shadow was directly linked to his own power.

This meant that as Jiang Xiu's strength grew, the combat power of his extracted shadows would gradually approach that of their original forms, eventually reaching a one-to-one replication.

"What a formidable ability."

Jiang Xiu sighed with emotion. A short sword appeared in his hand, and while the Abyss Ant was preoccupied with Black One, he struck it down in a single blow, immediately extracting its shadow to add another member to his legion.

As time passed, the number of shadows around Jiang Xiu continued to grow until there were nine. These dark figures surrounded him, as if guarding their own monarch.

"Squelch!"

Another sound rang out as an Abyss Ant fell, its shadow slowly rising.

At this moment, a dazzling radiance erupted from Jiang Xiu's blood-red eyes. A dense, extreme power of darkness surged from beneath his feet, instantly plunging everything within a ten-meter radius into what felt like an eternal night.

The ten shadows surrounding Jiang Xiu felt their scarlet eyes flare with excitement, their auras climbing rapidly.

"Ten men make a legion."

"Is this my martial soul's innate domain being triggered?!"

Feeling the darkness around him, Jiang Xiu's blood-red eyes grew even brighter. Upon sensing the effects of this innate domain, he felt a slight tremor in his heart.

His innate domain was called the Monarch Domain, and it possessed three major functions. First, within the domain, the shadows he extracted would receive a twenty percent increase in overall strength, with no limit to their number.

Second, using the Monarch Domain allowed him to greatly mask his own aura, from the inside out.

The third point, and the one Jiang Xiu valued most, was Monarch's Might: he was immune to the pressure of any creature's own aura, including those of bloodline origin!

Furthermore, this was a growth-type domain that would strengthen as Jiang Xiu's own power increased.

However, Jiang Xiu was currently most concerned with the latter two effects. After all, his shadows were currently in the Abyss, and the Abyss was the territory of the Abyssal Sage King. If he were discovered, his shadow would be completely finished.

Although the Abyssal Sage King was usually in a deep slumber and delegated the patrolling of the various Abyss Plane layers to the Spirit Monarch, one could not be too careful.

As for the effect of Monarch's Might, the first person Jiang Xiu thought of was Tang Wulin. Although his first martial soul, the Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon, held the title of the Ancestor of Sub-Dragons and was rumored to have been born alongside the Dragon God, logically speaking, its level should not be lower than that of the Golden Dragon King.

However, Tang Wulin possessed the entire origin of the Golden Dragon King within his body, while Jiang Xiu only had his martial soul. Moreover, soul beasts and soul beast-type soul masters on the continent were suppressed the moment they encountered Tang Wulin—it was like a version-breaking answer, simple yet overwhelming.

Now that he had Monarch's Might, he could finally set his mind at ease.

After familiarizing himself with the effects of the Monarch Domain, Jiang Xiu smiled slightly. Although the era of Douluo III was filled with countless geniuses and powerhouses, it seemed his sword was not yet dull!

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Jiang Xiu prepared to continue the slaughter, because no matter what the future held, he was still just a Spirit Master who hadn't even obtained his first soul ring.

A fallen genius is no genius at all.

But just as Jiang Xiu and his shadow soldiers killed the eleventh Abyss Ant and he moved to extract its shadow, a slight wave of dizziness washed over him.

"It seems the slaughter for today must end here."

Jiang Xiu withdrew his hand, saying with a hint of regret. The Shadow Monarch's extraction had no upper limit; he could infinitely transform the shadows of the dead.

However, his mental energy was limited. In other words, while his hardware was strong, his mental energy could not keep up. After all, he had awakened his martial soul less than half a day ago and hadn't even begun meditation training.

"I will spare your lives for now. When I return next time, it won't be so simple."

Jiang Xiu's gaze swept over the dense swarm of abyss creatures. He chuckled, but his tone was indifferent, devoid of any warmth.

Whether it was to avenge his parents or to save his future self, these abyss creatures had to die.

This had nothing to do with justice; it was merely a matter of stance.

"Hmm?"

Just then, Jiang Xiu caught sight of two Abyss Ants in the distance fighting each other. Once one emerged victorious and devoured the defeated one, the victor grew slightly larger in size.

Jiang Xiu was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

He had forgotten that the entire Abyss Plane operated on one law: devour to evolve. This applied not only to the Abyss Plane itself but to the abyss creatures as well.

Every king of a tribe, and even the top-ranked emperors, had devoured countless of their own kind—they were the strongest of every race.

True abyss creatures never played by the rules of succession.

"This law of the jungle is truly dangerous yet fascinating. Black One, I will lead you all to carve a bloody path from the bottom, so that even you, a bottom-dweller, can see scenery you have never witnessed before."

Jiang Xiu's gaze was deep as he sniffed the smoke-filled air and stroked the Black One at his feet.

"Chomp, chomp!"

Black One had no intelligence; it only knew how to express its loyalty to Jiang Xiu.

"Kings, emperors, and even the top ten emperors of the Abyss—I will come to see you all, in the not-so-distant future."

A smirk tugged at the corners of Jiang Xiu's mouth. A flicker of resolve flashed through his blood-red eyes before they turned dangerous once more.

Although the Abyss creatures he had extracted were indeed the same batch of Ant-Royal kin that had attacked Snow City, they possessed no intelligence, yet they still retained fragmented memories from before they were recycled and reborn.

From these fragmented memories, Jiang Xiu learned that this Abyssal Tide had not been initiated by the Abyss Plane at all. Instead, a spatial rift had suddenly appeared, sucking these Ant-Royal kin in and dropping them directly over Snow City.

Is this truly an accident, or was it the work of someone deliberate? There aren't many people capable of such feats these days.

Jiang Xiu's gaze grew profound, but he quickly suppressed the thought. His current strength was still too weak; it was insufficient to support him in investigating such matters.

Feeling a wave of weakness wash over his spirit, Jiang Xiu slowly withdrew his consciousness back into the shadows, piece by piece.

As his consciousness returned, the towering shadow silently faded away, sinking into the scorched earth along with the ten Shadow Soldiers until they vanished completely.

I'm back.

Under the bright lights, Jiang Xiu slowly opened his eyes. Looking at the silver-white metal walls surrounding him, it felt as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.

But he knew very well that it was all real.

I wonder how much time has passed. I don't know if the flow of time in the Abyss Plane is consistent with that of the Douluo Continent.

Jiang Xiu scanned his surroundings but found no clock, and his communication soul device had long since been destroyed in the Abyssal Tide.

Just then, a booming voice echoed from outside the Soul Guidance Emergency Center. It sounded as if two people were arguing, the tone between them faintly sparking with the flames of war.

"Old Dong, it's not that I'm not giving you face, but I am taking that person today, no matter who tries to stop me!"

"Old Mu, don't give me that nonsense. Do as I say and everything will be fine. If you dare to use force, I'll blast you with ten fixed-position soul guidance shells from the barracks and send you flying along with your mecha!"