### Chapter 28: The Secret of Black Shadow Mu Chen and the others left the ruins, their bodies weary and their hearts full of questions. Along the way, they discussed the origins of the mysterious Black Shadow and the secrets hidden behind him. Although sunlight shone upon them, the shadow of their earlier battle still hung over everyone's hearts. After returning to their temporary camp, they first treated their injured companions. As Mu Chen helped, he recalled every detail of the battle against Black Shadow. Black Shadow's strength and eerie nature left him deeply uneasy, especially his transformations after being attacked and that final core rune. All of it showed that Black Shadow was no ordinary evil creature. Once their companions' injuries had stabilized, Mu Chen gathered the cultivators who had taken part in the battle and began analyzing Black Shadow. "Let's hear everyone's thoughts. Black Shadow was far too strange. He seemed to have some special mission," Mu Chen said, looking at the others. An experienced older cultivator spoke first. "When I fought him, I could sense that although his attacks were fierce, they lacked any will of their own. It was more as though some force was driving him. And his reactions when attacked-that willingness to protect his core at any cost-made me think he was a puppet under someone's control." The others nodded in agreement. The cultivator in silver armor continued, "Exactly. I felt the same way. That core rune must have been the source of his power, and the rune was most likely bestowed by an even stronger evil force." "Then let's examine Black Shadow's behavior carefully," Mu Chen said. "He first appeared when we tried to destroy the black vortex. His main goal then was to stop us from approaching the vortex and protect whatever was inside. Later, we defeated him once, yet he appeared again, even stronger than before. That means the force controlling him didn't want us to ruin its plans, so it kept strengthening Black Shadow to attack us." "But why choose this method? Why not just attack the Spirit Road directly?" a young cultivator asked. "I think it may need to use certain special conditions within the ruins to achieve its goal," Mu Chen said after a moment's thought. "That black vortex might be the key. The evil spiritual energy within it could be one of the sources of Black Shadow's power, or it could have some connection to the force controlling him. And those strange symbols and patterns in the ruins might also have been supporting him." To learn more about Black Shadow's secrets, they decided to conduct an in-depth study of the information they had gathered about him during the battle. They borrowed special equipment from a cultivator skilled in spiritual energy analysis, which could identify the properties and origins of spiritual energy. They placed samples of the black spiritual energy left over from the battle into the testing equipment. After some analysis, they discovered a special mark within the energy. This mark was ancient and evil, utterly different from the spiritual energy native to the Spirit Road. It seemed more like something from another, unknown world. "This mark is strange. I've never seen spiritual energy with properties like these," the cultivator conducting the tests said with a frown. "It seems to contain a special command, like a curse, driving Black Shadow to act." Mu Chen studied the results, considering various possibilities. He recalled accounts of invasions by evil forces that he had read in ancient texts. In those old stories, mysterious beings often used special mediums to control native living creatures and achieve their unspeakable goals. "Could an evil force from outside the Spirit Road have entered it somehow, then used the conditions within the ruins to create Black Shadow?" Mu Chen offered his conjecture. "That's possible," the older cultivator said. "If so, we must find the source of this evil force and how it entered the Spirit Road as soon as possible. Otherwise, it might create more monsters like Black Shadow, and then the Spirit Road will truly be in danger." They decided to return to the ruins and conduct a more thorough investigation. This time, they made more extensive preparations, bringing various detection and defensive magical treasures. When they entered the ruins again, the evil aura within had weakened considerably, but a trace of its sinister atmosphere remained. They reached the place where the black vortex had been. The vortex had vanished, but black marks remained on the surrounding walls. Mu Chen approached a wall and examined the marks closely. He discovered that they formed blurry patterns, in which figures seemed to be performing some kind of ritual. "Look at these patterns. Could they have something to do with Black Shadow's creation?" Mu Chen said to his companions, pointing at the wall. Everyone gathered around to study the patterns and began offering guesses. "This looks like a summoning ritual. Perhaps Black Shadow was summoned through it," the cultivator in silver armor said. They continued searching along the walls for clues and discovered an ancient stone tablet in a corner of the ruins. The tablet was covered in writing and patterns, all different from those they had seen before. After deciphering them, they discovered that the tablet recorded an ancient pact. "This seems to be a pact made with an evil force. Someone, or some being, performed this ritual here in exchange for great power," Mu Chen said. "And Black Shadow may have been one of the products of that pact." As they studied the stone tablet, a faint tremor suddenly ran through the ruins. They looked up warily, sensing a familiar evil aura gradually approaching. "Has Black Shadow appeared again?" a cultivator asked nervously. They swiftly prepared for battle, spiritual energy surging through their bodies. However, what appeared this time was not Black Shadow, but a swarm of small black monsters. These little monsters resembled bats, their eyes gleaming red and sharp fangs jutting from their mouths as they swooped toward the group. "Be careful! These monsters may be controlled too!" Mu Chen shouted. He unleashed Star Transformation, infusing the power of the stars into his attacks as he struck at the swarm. The other cultivators also unleashed their skills and began fighting the little monsters. During the battle, Mu Chen discovered that although the little monsters were not individually strong, they were numerous and extremely agile. They attacked constantly from every direction, trying to divide the group's attention. "Don't let them distract you! Concentrate our attacks in one direction!" Mu Chen commanded. They concentrated their strength and attacked in one direction, temporarily suppressing the little monsters' assault. Just then, however, the monsters suddenly changed tactics. They gathered together, forming a massive black sphere that rolled toward Mu Chen and the others. The black sphere moved extremely fast, continuously absorbing the surrounding evil spiritual energy as it rolled and growing ever more powerful. Sensing the immense threat, Mu Chen and the others joined forces once again, unleashing their strongest offensive skills at the black sphere. Under their combined assault, the black sphere shattered, and all the little monsters were destroyed. But they knew this was only the beginning. The monsters' appearance further confirmed their suspicions: an evil force was manipulating everything from behind the scenes. They had to uncover the truth as soon as possible and stop this evil force from continuing to endanger the Spirit Road.
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