Unseen by Anyone

With a thought, Xia Shou sent his shadow crawling up to the top to begin devouring the two fresh corpses.

Meanwhile, Su Weiyu stood silently to one side without asking any questions, only taking out her compass now and then to check the direction its needle pointed.

Soon, the first corpse had been devoured, yielding a fragment of [Spirit Strike]. This ability allowed Xia Shou to touch incorporeal beings such as Grudge Spirits with physical attacks.

The second corpse, however, was being devoured much more slowly than the previous ones.

If his guess was right, the slower his shadow devoured a corpse, the better the skill it yielded would be. This time, he might even obtain a high-quality skill like [Death Road]!

Unless he was mistaken, the corpse he was devouring now belonged to the leader of the six, the level-two Cleaner, Zhou Hongjie!

[Devouring complete! You have obtained a skill-[Everlasting Wound]]

[Everlasting Wound: Gaze upon a wound as though gazing upon a fragment of death.]

[Effect: For ten minutes, any injuries you inflict will never heal.]

[Cost: As long as a creature afflicted with [Everlasting Wound] remains alive, your wounds cannot begin to heal. This effect persists until the target creature dies.]

"So it really is a skill! Looks like level-two Cleaners are already capable of yielding skills." Xia Shou smiled.

Without hesitation, Xia Shou immediately ordered his shadow to begin devouring the mysterious charred corpse that had been there for who knew how long.

This time, the progress was frighteningly slow. Even the digits after the decimal point barely changed!

Xia Shou's expression grew grave as he felt an indescribable strain.

[Devouring progress: 2.75%...]

[Devouring progress: 3.85%...]

Not only was the devouring slow this time, it even affected his own movements. Xia Shou discovered that he could no longer move his body! He could not even speak!

[Devouring progress: 4.1%...]

"You can devour that corpse too? I thought it was just part of the scenery in these ruins," Su Weiyu remarked casually.

"..."

Xia Shou stood where he was, silent as a stone.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

[Devouring progress: 5.7%...]

The devouring progress continued to rise.

"Finally found you. You've been running all over the place. Made me work to track you down." An unfamiliar voice came through the opening at the top of the ruins. Then a cloaked man dropped from above and landed steadily on the ground.

Spectral beast claws enveloped his hands, their outlines wreathed in black, incorporeal flames. A peculiar killing intent instantly blanketed the entire ruin. Every hair on Xia Shou's body stood on end as a chilling dread swept through him!

This man was extremely dangerous!

"Sorry, but to improve our chances of completing the mission, I'll have to eat you here. It'll replenish Little Black's strength too. It's somewhere else right now, but it should arrive soon," the Tamer said calmly, as though this were perfectly natural and only to be expected.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" The Tamer also noticed something was wrong with Xia Shou and slowly walked closer.

Xia Shou could not speak, but he saw Su Weiyu silently draw the Odachi from behind her back.

"Should I kill him?" Su Weiyu glanced at Xia Shou, her delicate brows knitting slightly. "But it looks like you can't talk, so I'll decide for myself... If he tries to attack you, I'll kill him."

"Can't move anymore? Is it because of that thing?" As though he had not noticed Su Weiyu at all, the Tamer looked up at the charred human figure connected to Xia Shou's shadow overhead. "See? Even if I hadn't come, you wouldn't have survived here. Just some random anomaly was enough to pin you down."

He mistook the shadow for an anomaly restraining Xia Shou, never imagining that it was actually Xia Shou's own power.

The Tamer kept advancing, raised his enormous spectral right claw toward Xia Shou, and swung it down like lightning!

Thud!

His arm fell to the ground, and blood spurted from his shoulder.

Su Weiyu flicked the huge blade with one hand, shaking the blood from it.

"That hurts." The Tamer gritted his teeth and stared at Xia Shou, never once looking at Su Weiyu.

Only then did Xia Shou realize what special ability the girl beside him possessed. It seemed that people could not see her!

"Goodbye!" The Tamer seemed completely unconcerned that his right hand had been cut off. Without so much as a glance at his severed arm, he raised his remaining left hand and swung it hard at Xia Shou!

A flash of steel streaked past, and his left hand flew into the air!

Blood gushed from the severed stumps of both his arms!

Xia Shou stared blankly at the Tamer, who had lost both arms yet still barely reacted. He was utterly bewildered.

If a normal person suffered a mysterious attack and was badly injured, shouldn't their first instinct be to go on the defensive? Why wasn't he reacting at all?

Xia Shou suddenly realized that Su Weiyu's ability was not as simple as being invisible!

People could not perceive her existence!

No! Even a lack of presence could not describe it. Not only did people fail to perceive her, they did not notice anything strange about the effects she had on reality. The Tamer before him, for instance, did not even think there was anything wrong with suddenly losing both hands!

"You're surprisingly hard to kill." Enduring the excruciating pain, the Tamer lifted a foot to kick Xia Shou.

"I'm killing him, then," Su Weiyu said flatly. She swept the Odachi through a broad arc, sending the Tamer's head flying high into the air as blood erupted from his severed neck.

"You can't move because that charred corpse up there hasn't fully sunk into your shadow yet, right? In that case, I'll wait here." Su Weiyu sheathed her blade, stepped over the Tamer's corpse, and found a raised pile of stones among the ruins to sit on, watching Xia Shou with her chin propped on her hand.

Unable to move, Xia Shou stood where he was and watched the progress bar slowly fill.

[Devouring progress: 10.5%...]

The progress bar continued to advance before his eyes, while his mind raced.

Su Weiyu seemed to possess an ability that made people ignore both her and her attacks, but the Blood Demon had indeed wounded her. Did that mean the ability only worked on humans?

But if it only worked on humans, did that mean he was not human?

Time passed, second by second, and the devouring progress bar slowly advanced.

Xia Shou stood where he was, while Su Weiyu sat atop the raised pile of rubble. They looked at each other without speaking.

At that moment, the atmosphere was strangely peaceful and quiet, as though these were forgotten ruins where no danger lurked and no Blood Demon would come looking for them.

The tranquil wait even allowed Xia Shou to relax a little, easing the nerves that had remained taut ever since he came in.

Just then, an overpowering stench of blood suddenly drifted through the air!

The bloody odor filled Xia Shou's nostrils. Unlike the usual smell of blood, it carried a strange, moist heat, restlessness, and cloying sweetness... Or perhaps it was not a smell at all, but an eerie emotion that could make him feel it directly!