First Meeting with the Shadow Clan

Chapter 39: First Encounter with the Shadow Clan

The light of the Heavenly Dao enveloped the entire Ancient Wild World, nine-colored mists permeating the air. Everything within sight was hazy, dreamlike, and illusory. Yet, the Xuanji Primordial Spirit saw it clearly: under the illumination of the Heavenly Dao, the corpses of the two giant beasts began to decompose and dissipate, merging into the earth of the Ancient Wild World.

Rumble!

A thunderous roar erupted as the world began to evolve. The land stretched and expanded, the sky climbed ever higher, and simultaneously, the Heart of the World within the Primordial Spirit strengthened at a rapid pace. The cultivation of the Primordial Spirit also surged at an unimaginable speed.

Primordial Spirit Mid-stage—Primordial Spirit Late-stage—Primordial Spirit Peak!

As the evolution of the Ancient Wild World continued, the main Primordial Spirit had already reached its peak. At this moment, it was sufficient to break through to the Hexu Realm. However, the Hexu Realm required an understanding of the mysteries of nature and the unity of heaven and man. While achieving this within the Ancient Wild World was simple, it could not be compared to the Primordial World, and the cultivation method for the Hexu Chapter of the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole had not yet been fully perfected.

The Heart of the World grew stronger, and the main Primordial Spirit reached its peak. Xuanji could feel the mana stored within his Primordial Spirit continuously increasing. A thought stirred in his mind: while a single main Primordial Spirit could not fully utilize the power of the world's evolution, he still possessed twenty-four Inner Mansion Primordial Spirits!

At this moment, the twenty-four Inner Mansion Primordial Spirits were within the Ancient Wild World. With a flick of Xuanji's will, they appeared before him instantly. Streams of Primordial Spirit power surged into them, and under the guidance of the main Primordial Spirit, the cultivation of all twenty-four Inner Mansion Primordial Spirits began to rise.

Three inches—four inches—five inches—six inches...

Primordial Spirit Initial-stage—Primordial Spirit Mid-stage...

Time passed in a blur amidst the soaring cultivation. When the corpses of the two giant beasts had completely merged into the earth and vanished, the world turned clear. The light of the Heavenly Dao retracted into the Ancient Wild Heavenly Dao, and the nine-colored mists gathered to wrap around it.

The world evolution was complete!

Xuanji was extremely excited. With the help of this world evolution, all twenty-five Primordial Spirits had reached the peak of the Primordial Spirit stage. His cultivation had increased greatly, his mana surging like a vast sea. With a mere gesture, he could divert rivers, split mountains, and shatter peaks—he was truly possessed of vast divine powers.

Although he was only at the peak of the Primordial Spirit stage, Xuanji was confident he could fight and defeat even an early-stage Hexu practitioner.

"Eh?" Calming his excitement, Xuanji began to examine the evolved Ancient Wild World and was immediately stunned. The world, which had originally been over six thousand meters, had now expanded to over twenty thousand li; it was incomparable to before.

Gazing into the world, he saw the thickness of the earth had more than doubled. The sole spiritual vein had also grown significantly, branching into two smaller tributaries, greatly increasing the efficiency of dispersing heaven and earth spiritual energy. At the same time, there were many more minerals—iron, bronze, brass, silver, and so on. After a moment of thought, he realized these were likely formed from the giant beasts' iron armor, fangs, and sharp claws. The souls and consciousness of the two giant beasts had also been divided into hundreds of sources of life under the operation of the Heavenly Dao, beginning to gestate. The evolution of the Ancient Wild World had also improved the Heavenly Dao, nearly doubling the speed at which it could deduce Daoist techniques and divine powers, which left Xuanji pleasantly surprised.

"Who would have thought that the corpses of two early-stage Earth Immortal giant beasts would be so effective? If I could get my hands on a few Heavenly Immortal-level giant beast corpses, to what extent could the Ancient Wild World evolve?" Xuanji pondered. This was practically a shortcut to cultivation! As long as he could break through the shackles between realms, using the Ancient Wild World to boost his mana was incredibly sharp.

The benefits this time made Xuanji pay close attention to giant beast corpses. Although he could not kill them with his own strength for now, the beasts often left behind many corpses after fighting each other. As long as he could find them, it would not only evolve the Ancient Wild World but also increase his own mana—a win-win situation.

The twenty-four Primordial Spirits returned to the Inner Mansion, and Xuanji's consciousness returned to his body.

Opening his eyes, he saw a desolate scene. Not a blade of grass grew, and the ground was covered in sand and stone. In the wake of the battle between the two giant beasts, all plants and animals within a radius of ten thousand li had been destroyed.

"The power of an early-stage Earth Immortal is truly formidable!" With a sigh, Xuanji held the Xuanji Sword and headed toward the distant dense forest of giant trees. A faint aura radiated from his body—it was the aura of the giant beasts. The two corpses had not only evolved the Ancient Wild World and boosted his cultivation, but they had also significantly advanced his Profound Art of Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend. Now, Xuanji could transform into the two giant beasts, and simulating their aura was a simple matter.

Possessing the aura of the giant beasts, the demon trees, demon flowers, and demon grass dared not attack, allowing Xuanji to walk through the forest with ease.

He casually cut down a few demon flowers and stored them in the Ancient Wild World. They were immediately dissolved by the earth, but they provided no help to the evolution, merely growing a few flowers while the demonic energy settled at the bottom of the earth. This result left Xuanji slightly disappointed, and he lost interest in collecting divine-demonic plants, only taking one or two of each variety of flower, grass, and tree.

Moo!

Deep within the forest, he did not know how far he had walked when Xuanji suddenly heard a shrill, miserable scream. His heart skipped a beat.

"A giant beast?" Xuanji was secretly delighted. The scream indicated it had encountered danger, and perhaps he could obtain its corpse. He immediately suppressed his aura and quickened his pace, moving toward the source of the sound.

"Moo! Moo! Moo!..."

The bellowing of cattle shook the heavens. He saw a herd of bovine giant beasts, numbering about thirty, each around eighty zhang tall. They were covered in armor over a foot thick, with a pair of massive horns towering above. Their strange, three-headed forms were covered in thick black fur, and their blood-red eyes held no bovine gentleness, filled instead with cruelty, brutality, and a thirst for slaughter and blood. Yet, at this moment, the herd was in a panic, their eyes filled with terror, shock, and—despair!

Whoosh!

The shadow of one of the bovine giant beasts manifested and solidified in a bizarre fashion. Its power was no different from that of an early-stage Earth Immortal. The shadow ox was the same size and shape as the original; if not for its pitch-black body, it would have been like a mirror image.

Moo! Swish!

Seeing the shadow ox before it, the original bovine giant beast was terrified. It lowered its head and charged with its massive horns. The void tore open, and a strange whistling sound arose, carrying immense power.

"Hmph! The strength of a mere ant, overestimating yourself." A faint, disdainful voice came from the shadow ox. It did not dodge or block the attack.

Whoosh! The massive horns pierced through the shadow ox, but it was as if they had struck a true shadow—ethereal and void, like hitting cotton.

Pfft!

Black, foul-smelling blood slowly flowed from the center of the bovine giant beast's brow. A pitch-black ox hoof had pierced through it—it was the hoof of the shadow ox. Before, it had been like a phantom, but now it was solid, which was exceptionally bizarre.

Bang! As the corpse of the bovine giant beast fell heavily to the ground, the shadow ox's form fluctuated, gradually taking the shape of a humanoid shadow with wings on its back and three horns on its head.

"Moo!..."

Bang, bang, bang...

The thirty-some bovine giant beasts fled in a panic. They seemed to know the strange shadow well, and despite their thirty-some early-stage Earth Immortal cultivation levels, they had no heart to fight.

"Can you escape?" The strange shadow sneered and flickered, disappearing. Immediately after, the shadow of one of the fleeing oxen manifested and solidified. With a slow, effortless kick, it pierced the ox's skull. After killing the beast, the shadow ox dissipated and collapsed, returning to the shadow of the ox corpse, while simultaneously, the shadow of another bovine giant beast began to manifest.

Xuanji, hiding in the shadows, watched in a daze. This completely exceeded his understanding. Those bovine giant beasts were no less powerful than the giant wolf and leopard he had seen earlier, and their defensive capabilities were terrifying. Yet, they had no power to resist the strange shadow. Xuanji now understood the horror of the shadow: it could manifest by using others' shadows, possessing identical cultivation, while controlling the transition between the solid and the void. No matter how powerful the opponent was, they had no effect against the phantom form. Moreover, no matter how fast the original was, the strange shadow could use "following like a shadow," and when it attacked, the full cultivation of the shadow's owner was unleashed.

"Terrifying! Does such an existence have enemies?" Xuanji's pupils dilated in shock. He was horrified; he had never imagined such terrifying existences existed in the Primordial World.

As Xuanji pondered, all thirty-some bovine giant beasts had died under the hooves of their own shadows. The strange figure reappeared, and he saw it stretch out its hands. A drop of blood appeared between them, suspended in the void, emitting a faint red light that seemed to contain unimaginable blood energy.

Swish! Swish! Swish!...

As soon as the blood drop appeared, the flesh and blood of all the bovine giant beasts gathered into it. A few breaths later, only the massive horns, armor, and bones remained scattered on the ground.

Putting away the blood drop, the strange figure muttered, "The three thousand beast bloods required by the Patriarch are almost complete. This mission is nearly finished." After speaking, he couldn't help but look at the armor, horns, and bones on the ground, sneering disdainfully.

"Mere low-level giant beasts—to my Shadow Clan, they are no different from ants." The strange figure flashed and moved away, teleporting through the shadows of the giant trees, disappearing completely within a few breaths.

"Shadow Clan? Three thousand beast bloods?" Xuanji mused, his heart in complete turmoil. The giant beasts were already powerful existences, yet they had no power to resist this so-called Shadow Clan. What surprised him most was that this strange figure belonged to a clan, meaning their numbers were likely not small. If one was already this terrifying, what would happen if there were many?

"It seems the Patriarch of the Shadow Clan is collecting giant beast blood. I must get to the bottom of this." Xuanji knew that for a powerful clan like the Shadow Clan to collect beast blood, it certainly wasn't simple; there must be a significant reason behind it.

Whoosh!

With a flash, he arrived at the site of the armor, horns, and bones. These could also be of help to the Ancient Wild World, at least forming minerals and metals for the earth. Xuanji naturally wouldn't waste them. With a wave of his hand, the power of the world enveloped them, and he stored them all in the Ancient Wild World, leaving the Heavenly Dao to process them.

Watching the direction in which the Shadow Clan practitioner had disappeared, he sneered. He activated the Profound Art of Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend, and with a flash of three-colored light, Xuanji transformed into a small mosquito and gave chase. By now, his Profound Art of Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend was basically complete; he could change into thousands of forms, but they all lacked the "spirit"—only the giant wolf, the giant leopard, and many of the Ancient Wild World's spiritual essences and plants possessed the true spirit.

In later ages, the transformations of the Profound Art of Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend would only appear after the Primordial World's Heavenly Dao was perfected. Now, Xuanji's transformations were based on the Ancient Wild World's Heavenly Dao, aided by his memories from his past life. The path of "form" was already perfected, but the path of "spirit" still had a long way to go. However, in the current Primordial World, Xuanji was the only one capable of the Heavenly Dipper transformations.