The Black Shadow Appears

City Central Hospital.

Nurses' station.

"Oh, it's you, Xu Yuan. Your mother is having treatment. It'll be very late before she's done, so she said you should go home and rest."

The older nurse had a kindly face and a warm manner.

"It's fine. I'll wait for her outside," Xu Yuan said.

There were plenty of chairs in the corridor outside the ward.

Xu Yuan sat down on one.

He still had quite a bit of homework.

Should he do it?

He might as well do some.

No.

He needed to take it seriously.

He had to get familiar with this world's body of knowledge as quickly as possible.

He took out Senior-Year Artifact Refining Exercises (Volume One), turned to page nineteen, and began working through the questions.

According to the original Xu Yuan's memories—

Nothing particularly momentous had happened during those three days.

They had been downright uneventful.

Until the night of the third day.

The original Xu Yuan had been walking along the road when he was suddenly abducted and drugged unconscious. Then a sword pierced him, carried him into the air, and pinned him to the Jianghe Bridge.

How was any of that fair?

Xu Yuan shook his head, ticked off a few true-or-false questions, and moved on to the fill-in-the-blanks.

"Artifact Refining can be used to build houses, bridges, tunnels, and other civilian facilities. It can also be used to build () facilities and produce () and ()-type items."

Xu Yuan filled in the blanks with "military," "weapons," and "armor."

Next question.

As he read it, he suddenly caught sight of a figure at the edge of his vision.

The person stood in the corridor, swaying as they walked toward where he sat.

Who—

Why was this person looking him over while walking toward him?

A friend of his parents?

Should he say hello or something?

Xu Yuan looked up.

The corridor was empty.

No one was there.

His eyes had played tricks on him!

Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes and stared down the corridor for a few moments longer.

There really was no one.

All right.

Perhaps he had strained his eyes. He could buy some eye drops later.

He lowered his head and continued filling in the blanks.

He finished one question.

Then came the second.

Xu Yuan was reading it carefully when the figure appeared again at the edge of his vision.

Just a few meters to his left.

A black shadow.

It stood in the corridor, noticeably closer than before.

His eyes weren't playing tricks on him!

Xu Yuan jerked his head up.

The incandescent lights overhead cast a bright glare everywhere.

Nothing could hide in that light.

But—

There was no one in the corridor.

Silence.

Several breaths passed.

From the distant nurses' station came the sound of a nurse answering the phone, making everything feel all the more real.

No.

This certainly wasn't a dream. It was a real night.

Xu Yuan said nothing. His grip on his pen slowly tightened.

Shop.

He called out silently.

The Qi Refiners' Combat Prep Room immediately appeared before his eyes.

The shelves still had not refreshed with any items.

But a small pile of gold coins had appeared beside them, with a number marked next to it:

"21 coins."

Xu Yuan had earned those coins by killing the traffickers and assassins in the "easy difficulty" match.

Gold coins could buy things!

But there were still no goods.

What now?

Xu Yuan slowly lowered his head and began writing his answers again.

"The hand seals used to control an Artifact Refining cauldron are divided into () categories. Students at the high-school level can study the first () categories."

He had memorized this.

He could write down the answer straightaway.

Xu Yuan began writing, but his pen abruptly stopped.

The black figure had appeared again at the edge of his vision.

This time—

The black figure sat right beside him, silently watching him do his homework.

Xu Yuan pretended not to see it. He kept his head down and answered the question carefully.

Was there any way—

To get a weapon he could use in a fight?

Come on.

Any weapon.

Even a fist guard would do!

In response to his fierce desire, a line of faintly glowing text suddenly appeared in the air:

"Spend one gold coin to refresh the shelves once."

You could've said so sooner!

Xu Yuan immediately paid one gold coin.

The next instant—

Two items appeared on the shelves.

A short saber.

The tag in front of it listed its details:

"Night Walk."

"Qi Refining Realm short saber, excellent grade."

"Qi blade +1."

"Price: 2 gold coins."

A saber was a weapon.

Some people simply had no knack for swords and chose the more common saber instead.

There was also an Alchemy Robe.

Its tag read:

"Alchemy Robe."

"Qi Refining Realm robe, common grade."

"Dust repulsion +1, fire protection +1."

"Price: 3 gold coins."

Only two pieces of equipment!

Xu Yuan finished writing his answer, then heard footsteps.

In the corridor—

A man passed by, pushing a wheelchair.

An elderly person with a leg in a cast sat in it.

Several men and women accompanied them, chatting animatedly.

The black shadow vanished at once.

Once the group had passed and left the corridor on this floor—

The black shadow appeared again.

This time—

It stood right next to Xu Yuan.

As Xu Yuan bent over his homework, it leaned toward him and whispered in his ear:

"You—"

Hiss!

A short saber suddenly pierced the black shadow.

Xu Yuan had struck!

The shadow trembled slightly, but seemed entirely unconcerned about being hit. There was even an inexplicable delight in its voice:

"You've entered the path."

Xu Yuan pulled his saber free and retreated, slashing several more times as he went.

White-thread qi blades flew from the edge, but the shadow slipped aside and dodged them.

Yet the moment it moved, Xu Yuan's saber moved with it—

With reactions measured in milliseconds, Xu Yuan lunged after it, saber in hand, and unleashed a move from the Swallow Song Sword Art—

Arc Dance!

Man and saber became a single arc, winding down from the wall to slash straight at the shadow!

"Not bad."

The shadow offered that praise, then flickered aside again, evading the strike.

But that movement carried it into a wisp of white qi blade—

The blade sank into the shadow's body like a stone into the sea, causing no damage at all.

"Armor?"

Xu Yuan's expression tightened.

In this close-quarters fight, he had already used every bit of his reaction speed, anticipation, and killing technique.

Yet his opponent still seemed to be holding something back.

The shadow took a step, then suddenly disappeared.

Its voice sounded beside Xu Yuan's ear once more:

"Follow me."

Xu Yuan looked around.

He couldn't see it!

Damn it.

Where was it hiding?

Xu Yuan abruptly stopped searching.

The shadow stood in the empty corridor, hands clasped behind its back, silently watching him.

Xu Yuan slowly turned to face it.

Silence.

"Who are you?" Xu Yuan asked.

No answer came.

Dead silence.

Ring, ring, ring—

A phone suddenly rang.

The shadow raised a hand, motioning for him to answer it.

Xu Yuan stared at the dark figure, took out his phone, and answered it.

"Hello..."

"Mom, I'm not waiting outside."

"I'm home already. Yes, I'll come see you again tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll go to bed early. You should too."

The call ended.

The dark figure waited silently for him to finish, then raised a hand and held up one finger.

A faint voice sounded beside Xu Yuan's ear:

"I'm here to kill you. You need to hold out for at least ten seconds."

Before the voice had faded,

the dark figure vanished.

It crossed dozens of meters in an instant and appeared at Xu Yuan's side.

At almost the same moment—

Xu Yuan pressed his thumb against the knife's hilt, his other four fingers whipping the short blade around as he unleashed five slashes in a trembling blur.

Flying Swallow Chain!

If the boys in his class had been there, they would have looked at him in astonishment.

The Swallow Song Sword Art had four moves in all and ranked among the finest sword arts taught in high school.

Flying Swallow Chain was its final move.

Its "ultimate move," as everyone called it.

—That was what the senior students called the move.

The original Xu Yuan could barely perform it and often made mistakes. He could not meet the standard needed to score points on the exam.

To truly master this sword art, one had to slash out at least three sword shadows in succession!

Yet in this life-or-death crisis, Xu Yuan's reflexes, hand speed, and combat instincts made the move flawless, pushing it to the very limit this body could achieve.

—Drawing on his memories and guiding his body through the sword technique, he unleashed five streaks of Sword Qi in an instant!

Not sword shadows. Sword Qi!

After all, he had now entered the path of cultivation. He was a true cultivator.

As he performed the move, it naturally drew on the Spiritual Power within him, condensing the sword shadows into incomparably sharp Sword Qi and lifting Flying Swallow Chain's power to another level.

Five razor-sharp white lines flashed into being, slicing through the air with a howling whoosh as they struck at the dark figure.

"Hah..."

The dark figure dodged again and again, drifting backward as it said softly,

"I underestimated you."

Its voice cut off.

Xu Yuan held the knife in one hand, while the other formed a hand seal.

—In high school, he had learned all kinds of hand seals for controlling pillfire. Without Spiritual Power, though, he had never been able to use them.

But now, as Xu Yuan channeled his Spiritual Power, he immediately summoned the fire of the five elements.

Pillfire: Furnace Incineration!

Boom—

A ball of raging flame shot toward the dark figure.

He had timed the spell to its movement and landing point so precisely that it looked as though the figure had thrown itself into his flames!

At the most perilous moment, he had reacted in time, chosen the right strategy, and unleashed a lethal attack that would decide the entire battle!

—That was the true value of a world esports champion!

(End of chapter)