"The wind's up. It's time for you to die, too."
Jiang Xiu felt the breeze brush past his palm. His eyes were as calm as a lake as he gazed coolly at the Abyss Ant before him. Beneath his feet lay a shadow, poised to charge into battle at any moment.
"Black One, attack!"
Soon, Jiang Xiu fixed his sights on another small Abyss Ant. With a flick of his finger, the shadow beneath his feet shot forward, charging straight at it.
In the next instant, the two figures clashed in a fierce struggle. Jiang Xiu watched silently from the sidelines, his eyes glinting.
"The extracted shadows retain sixty percent of their former strength. Intelligence... Hmm, this one doesn't have any."
Jiang Xiu analyzed the situation in silence. But he had already learned through his Shadow Monarch Martial Soul that how much strength an extracted shadow retained was tied to his own power.
In other words, as Jiang Xiu grew stronger, the shadows he extracted would gradually approach the strength of their original bodies—even becoming exact replicas.
"What a formidable ability."
Jiang Xiu sighed. A short sword appeared in his hand once more, and while the Abyss Ant was occupied fighting Black One, he struck it down with a single blow. Then he extracted its shadow, adding another member to his army.
Time passed, and the shadows around Jiang Xiu steadily multiplied. Nine black figures now surrounded him, as if guarding their monarch.
"Pfft!"
Another sound rang out as an Abyss Ant fell, its shadow slowly rising.
But at that moment, dazzling light shone from Jiang Xiu's Blood Pupil. A darkness so dense it was almost tangible surged from beneath his feet. In an instant, everything within a ten-meter radius seemed to sink into eternal night.
The ten black figures around Jiang Xiu grew exhilarated, their scarlet eyes gleaming as their auras climbed.
"Ten form an army."
"Did I awaken my Martial Soul's innate domain?!"
Feeling the darkness around him, Jiang Xiu's Blood Pupil shone ever brighter. When he sensed what the innate domain could do, his heart gave a faint jolt.
His innate domain was called the Monarch Domain, and it had three effects. First, within the domain, all shadows he had extracted gained a twenty percent increase in strength, with no limit on their number.
Second, activating the Monarch Domain allowed him to conceal his own aura to a great extent, inside and out.
The third effect was the one Jiang Xiu valued most: Monarch's Might. It made him immune to the oppressive auras of any living being, including pressure from bloodlines!
Moreover, this was a growth-type domain that would strengthen as Jiang Xiu did.
But what mattered most to him now were the latter two effects. His shadows were currently in the Abyss, the territory of the Abyssal Sage King. If he were discovered, the shadow he had sent there would be done for.
Although the Abyssal Sage King usually slept and had the Spirit Monarch patrol the layers of the Abyss Plane on his behalf, Jiang Xiu couldn't afford to let his guard down.
As for Monarch's Might, the first person Jiang Xiu thought of was Tang Wulin. Though his First Martial Soul, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, bore the title Ancestor of Sub-Dragons and was said to have been born alongside the Dragon God, so its rank should be no lower than the Golden Dragon King's—
Tang Wulin possessed the entire origin of the Golden Dragon King within him, while Jiang Xiu's was only a Martial Soul. Besides, the Soul Beasts on the continent, along with Soul Masters of the Soul Beast type, were suppressed as soon as they encountered Tang Wulin. He was practically the answer to everything—simple and overpowered.
Now that Jiang Xiu had Monarch's Might, he could finally set his mind at ease.
After familiarizing himself with the Monarch Domain's effects, Jiang Xiu smiled faintly. In this era of Douluo III, powerful experts and prodigies were everywhere, but it seemed his sword was not without its edge.
Suppressing his excitement, Jiang Xiu prepared to continue fighting. No matter what the future held, right now he was still only a Soul Scholar who hadn't even obtained his First Soul Ring.
A fallen prodigy was no prodigy at all.
But just as Jiang Xiu and his shadow soldiers killed their eleventh Abyss Ant, he was about to extract its shadow when a slight dizziness washed over him.
"Looks like today's slaughter ends here."
Jiang Xiu withdrew his hand and spoke with regret. The Shadow Monarch's Extraction had no limit; it could transform the shadows of the dead without end.
His mental power, however, was limited. His physical body was strong, but his mental power couldn't keep up. After all, he had awakened his Martial Soul less than half a day ago and hadn't even begun cultivating through meditation.
"I'll spare you this time. When I come back, it won't be so simple."
Jiang Xiu's gaze swept over the densely packed Abyssal Creatures before him. He gave a soft laugh, but his voice was utterly cold.
Whether to avenge his parents or to save his future self, these Abyssal Creatures deserved to die.
It had nothing to do with justice. They simply stood on opposite sides.
"Hmm?"
Just then, Jiang Xiu noticed two Abyss Ants fighting in the distance. They fought until one defeated the other and devoured it. Afterward, the victor grew larger still.
Jiang Xiu paused, then smiled.
He had forgotten: the entire Abyss Plane followed one law—Devour and evolve. This applied not only to the Abyss Plane itself but to its Abyssal Creatures as well.
The kings of every species, and even the emperors near the top of the rankings, had devoured countless members of their own kind. Each was the strongest of their species.
True Abyssal Creatures never relied on inheritance.
"The law of the jungle is dangerous, yet captivating. Black One, I'll lead you all up from the bottom, carving out a path of blood. Then you, who have always lived at the bottom, will see sights you've never laid eyes on."
Jiang Xiu's gaze was distant. He breathed in the air thick with the stench of battle and stroked Black One at his feet.
"Chomp, chomp!"
Black One had no intelligence and could only express its loyalty to Jiang Xiu over and over.
"Kings, emperors, and even the top ten-ranked Abyssal Emperors—I'll come to meet you all, and soon."
The corner of Jiang Xiu's mouth lifted. A glimmer of resolve flashed through his Blood Pupil, then turned dangerous.
The Abyssal Creatures he had extracted were from the Ant Emperor Clan that had attacked Snow City. Though they had no intelligence, they retained fragments of memories from before being reforged.
From those memory fragments, Jiang Xiu learned that this Abyssal Tide hadn't been launched by the Abyss Plane at all. A spatial rift had suddenly appeared, sucked in the Ant Emperor Clan, and deposited them above Snow City.
"Was this really an accident, or did someone do it on purpose? There aren't many people capable of something like that anymore."
Jiang Xiu's gaze turned distant. Then he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. His power was still too weak to investigate any of this.
Feeling his mental strength fade, Jiang Xiu slowly sank his consciousness into the shadow, then returned bit by bit.
As his consciousness returned, the towering shadow silently vanished, taking its ten Shadow Soldiers down into the scorched earth until they disappeared.
"I'm back."
Beneath the bright lights, Jiang Xiu slowly opened his eyes. He looked at the silver-white metal walls around him, as if everything that had just happened had been an illusion.
But he knew it had all been real.
"I wonder how much time has passed. Does time flow at the same rate in the Abyss Plane and on the Douluo Continent?"
Jiang Xiu looked around but couldn't find a clock. His Communication Soul Tool had been destroyed in the Abyssal Tide.
Just then, a booming voice came from outside the Soul Guidance Emergency Center. It sounded as if two people were arguing, their words already on the verge of igniting a war.
"Old Dong, don't tell me I'm not giving you face. I'm taking the person with me today, no matter who tries to stop me!"
"Old Mu, don't give me that. Do it my way and we can work things out. If you try to force the issue, I'll use ten Fixed-Load Soul Guidance Cannonballs from the military camp to blast you into the air along with your Mecha!"
Before you continue