This volume of the Treatise on Sharing a Shadow Beyond the World only extended to the perfected Dayan realm. Ding Songyan spent four years of his lifespan mastering it completely.
As he sat in the wooden chair, he suddenly vanished into thin air.
Several breaths later, his figure reappeared, still in the same spot.
"This art leans more toward 'communion with plants and trees' and doesn't make enough use of mountains and forests. But any object made primarily from plants or any environment formed from them lets me share its shadow and shape, merging into it. Only arts like Candle Eyes and Star Pupils, the Hundun State, or heavenly mind perception could detect me..." Ding Songyan carefully assessed it for a while, and double pupils formed in his eyes again.
When he had asked Liu Cheng for this secret manual, he had actually been prepared for a refusal. After all, the Treading the Sea Gang had fish and dragons mingling among its members. The practitioner of the Treatise on Sharing a Shadow Beyond the World might have been an outsider who had joined them, or someone who only obeyed Leader Hu and paid no heed to the Young Master. That was why Ding Songyan had first sought Fan Chunlin's guidance, securing a fallback.
Closing the book, Ding Songyan rubbed his temple, concealed his exhaustion and weakness, and rose to leave the Liu residence, retracing his route to the vicinity of Prince Kang's Residence.
It was already past the third watch. Rather than returning to the residence, he found an inn at random, lay down, and fell asleep.
When he woke, it was broad daylight.
With his energy restored, Ding Songyan ate a bowl of noodles and headed to the lane beside the Cheap Wine Shop.
Twelfth Madam Luo had changed