"I have a few other alternatives, but I still want to hear your method first," Leo said.
"Those alternatives must cost a lot of money, right?"
Benji mocked him. If not for the wizard coins, Leo probably would not have laid his cards on the table so soon.
At that thought, Benji gave another self-deprecating smile. If he did not even have this much value left to exploit, Leo presumably would never have laid his cards on the table, and he would not have had even the slightest chance of survival.
"I've earned quite a few wizard coins over these ten years, but I have other uses for that money. I'll save wherever I can."
Benji knew exactly how much money Leo had in his shadow space. During his eight years brewing potions in the tower, his earnings had flowed into his shadow space like water. With so much money, he still did not dare spend freely. Benji could not imagine what Leo intended to do next.
"You made the right decision. I have a secret technique that can turn the toxins in your body from waste into treasure."
"What secret technique?" Leo's eyes lit up. There was actually something this good? He had only hoped to clear out the toxins, never expecting an additional gain.
"Your bloodline was tainted by shadow power, an absolutely high-end power beyond your current reach. Your shadow is no longer merely a shadow, but a life-form somewhere between an insubstantial image and a semi-materialized being," Benji said.
"Before, you merely used the traversal and shadow space aspects of the shadow attribute. Those are its simplest applications. What I'm going to teach you now is a deeper application of shadows."
"Draw blood. Use your shadow as paper and your blood to draw the formation."
Benji explained the secret technique in an extremely solemn tone, pausing only when Leo cut his finger.
Leo asked curiously, "Why do I have to use my own blood to draw the formation? Wouldn't other blood work?"
Benji said, "No."
Leo said, "Then what makes it so that only my blood works?"
Benji said, "..."
Leo said, "Have you never wondered why?"
Benji said, "..."
Leo said, "And who did you learn this blood-drawn formation from? Why did they know to draw it this way?"
Benji had been speaking solemnly just a moment ago. After all, imparting such a secret technique was an important matter in any world, not to mention that the technique he was teaching was a treasure even gods would covet. But why did Leo have so many "whys"?
Didn't he have a few too many "whys"?
Hearing no response from Benji, Leo gave a slightly awkward laugh. He did not know when he had developed this habit of asking "why" about anything he did not understand.
"Don't ask me 'why'! I don't know either! It's been drawn this way since ancient times! That's what the secret manual says!" Benji's roar churned through Leo's mind. Clearly, Benji had flown into a rage.
"Then I'll research it myself later. Please continue, please continue," Leo said quietly and apologetically. He had not expected to anger Benji.
"Draw."
Benji growled. He did not want to say a single extra word to Leo.
Leo finished drawing the formation according to Benji's instructions. His entire shadow was now covered in mysterious patterns. They differed from the Wizard Rune System on his body, but for now, Leo could discern nothing beyond that.
His store of knowledge was insufficient. What Benji taught was clearly very advanced knowledge, yet he could not grasp it. It felt like entering a mountain of treasures only to return empty-handed.
All the mana in his body surged into his shadow. The pitch-black shadow began to boil, as though water had dripped into hot oil.
Leo carefully sensed the changes in the shadow beneath his feet. Its aura was slowly strengthening, and closer observation revealed that its color was deepening too. The change was slight, but it was indeed growing darker.
To the naked eye, there was a persistent, distorted strangeness to it, as though the shadow were about to leave the ground.
Only after quite some time did the boiling shadow settle down. The formation he had just drawn in blood had vanished, its aura had faded away, and its pitch-black color had returned to normal, as though nothing had changed.
"Can you feel it?" Benji asked.
"I can. If my shadow was part of my body before, now it's my clone."
Leo held out his hand, and the shadow on the ground held out its hand as well.
There was nothing unusual about that in itself, but the shadow's hand was not on the ground. Instead, it rested against Leo's arm,
The shadow was floating in midair!!!
"Legend speaks of a Shadow World connected to all shadows, where shadows also have normal lives. I don't know whether it's true, but the shadow power in our bloodlines can bring shadows to a semi-living state." Benji recounted a legend from his own world.
"There's a legend like that?" Leo hesitated. If such a legend existed, it was very likely true. The universe was vast, with far too many strange worlds. There were some worlds that even wizards were unwilling to provoke.
"You don't need me to teach you what to do next. Do it yourself. Your shadow won't die anyway, so experiment however you like."
Benji fell silent after that. Leo had no idea what he was doing inside his body. Without reaching the level of a rank-one official wizard, he could not look within himself. Only after officially advancing would Leo be able to see Benji's appearance with his own eyes.
Benji might currently be in the deepest recesses of his mind, or coiled around his heart, or even living in his heel.
Benji was more at home in Leo's body than Leo himself.
"My shadow is me, and I am my shadow. Naturally, that means I can transfer the poison in me to my shadow."
Without any visible movement from Leo, the shadow that should have been cast on the ground suddenly stood up.
It was only a thin layer, like paper, lacking Leo's three-dimensional form. At that moment, the shadow looked more like a two-dimensional creature.
Leo smiled and lightly touched the paper-thin shadow with a finger. Instantly, the shadow began to take on volume as though being inflated. In the blink of an eye, a pitch-black Leo appeared.
Face-to-face, it looked exactly like Leo. Had the shadow Leo not been blacker than charcoal, most people would not have been able to tell which was the original.
Looking at the pitch-black shadow identical to himself, Leo smiled and moved to embrace it. Like Leo's reflection in a mirror, the shadow made the same movements and gave the same embrace.
Anything with physical substance necessarily had a shadow, from celestial bodies down to cells, atoms, and cell nuclei.
Not having seen it, not knowing it, not understanding it-past knowledge did not represent fact.
Leo could feel a power merging into his body, into his limbs and bones, into every internal organ, into every cell. Not a single spot was missed; the fusion encompassed everything.
The power of shadow began merging fully with his flesh. Leo felt no discomfort. Instead, he felt complete!
It was as though this had always been part of his body, previously outside it and now merely returning.
His body grew illusory, hazy and flickering in and out of sight. Leo clenched his fists, and his mind trembled. He discovered that he had actually gained a new ability.
He looked down at the ground. His shadow had already stood up and merged with him, so logically, there should have been no shadow on the ground. Yet another shadow was actually there. This shadow felt utterly unfamiliar, and Leo had no ability to control it.
This was a normal shadow!
"Shadow power is also one of the powers of rules. Your bloodline wasn't tainted by me. When the altar opened the spatial passage back then, the mingling and collision of the two worlds changed your bloodline."
"Although I witnessed everything that happened and wanted to take the opportunity to possess you, even I couldn't withstand the power of two merging worlds. I passed out as I entered your body, so I don't know how much your bloodline was tainted either."
As a demigod, Benji still retained his basic knowledge and perception. A few simple sentences cleared up the matter that had long puzzled Leo: what exactly was going on with his Shadow Bloodline.
It had not come from Benji, but from another world. As for which world, did that even need saying? Naturally, it was Benji's world, a world dominated by shadow power.
"World-level tainting-even the tiniest trace is the most fundamental origin power. I have to say, your luck is incredible. In our world, you could absolutely be a holy son. Every god would fight to take you as a disciple."
Benji would never have told Leo any of this before, but after their candid conversation yesterday, he had begun revealing things to him. His sour words were full of envy and jealousy.
"So the reason you've stayed in my body and refused to leave is that you covet my Shadow Origin Bloodline. I imagine this Origin Bloodline would be enormously beneficial to you becoming a god. Otherwise, you wouldn't have taken such a huge risk entering the spatial passage." Leo exposed Benji's secrets outright. This tenant of his had not been a good person to begin with.
Benji said, "..."
Benji fell silent again because Leo had hit the mark. For the beings of his world, growing stronger was a process of repeatedly purifying and evolving their shadow power. The purer it was, the greater their strength.
Shadow origin power was the evolutionary goal of all living beings, a treasure that even gods could not help but desire. Benji had been trapped at the demigod level for hundreds of years. How could he not be tempted when he suddenly saw it?
He simply had not expected that, though he had indeed seen shadow origin power, he would also end up trapped like a fish in a net. Not only had he gained nothing, but he had lost himself in the bargain.
With his sore spot exposed, Benji said nothing. Leo closed his eyes tightly and carefully sensed the changes in his body.
When his shadow and flesh merged completely, the toxins that clung like maggots to bone slowly moved toward his shadow.
As Leo saw it, the toxins were not alive and could not distinguish flesh from shadow. They only knew that the area they could damage had suddenly doubled. There was nothing more to say: they led their underlings in a mighty advance toward the shadow.
"1%, 5%... 47%... 50%."
When the toxins in his flesh fell to 50%, they stopped moving. His shadow and flesh now each held half the toxins. The two groups coexisted peacefully, each occupying its own territory and multiplying.
"How interesting. It's almost exactly like the principle of osmosis taught in biology class on Earth. Once the concentrations reach equilibrium, osmosis stops."