Daybreak
The next day, Long Tian decided to test what the shadow could do.
He stood with his back to an old pine tree in the open space, then swung his palm forward. The Dragon Shadow behind him moved in sync—its right forepaw followed the trajectory of Long Tian 'Long Tian right palm, moving 30% faster. A thin, gray crack was sliced through the air where the claw tip passed, remaining suspended for two breaths before closing. Long Tian watched the crack slowly heal about two zhang in front of him, paused for a moment, then turned and swung his left hand once more. The Dragon Shadow's left claw followed the same trajectory, moving even faster, creating a wider crack than the right claw, and taking a breath longer to heal.
He tried to execute a series of movements—two punches to the left and two to the right, followed by a side kick. Dragon Shadow followed his movements, unleashing four claw strikes and a tail sweep. The final tail sweep swept across the open ground, creating a gust of air that uprooted a clump of short grass, scattering clods of soil across the ground. Yu Jin watched from the doorway as the tail sweep uprooted the grass and its aftershocks. The uprooted grass paused in the air for a moment before falling back to the ground. Unlike a normal gust of air, it landed neatly, as if someone had picked it up and moved it to a different position.
Long Tian stopped and looked at the patch of grass that had been moved, then turned back to look at the Dragon Shadow behind him. It also stopped after he stopped moving, a layer of dim light still lingering on the tip of its left claw. Its eyes, which had been closed the night before, opened—all four eyes were open at the same time, two half-closed and two fully open, the pupils of the two fully open eyes reflecting a burning gray-gold flame.
He conducted another test. He had Dragon Shadow swing his claw at a distant tree while he stood still. When Dragon Shadow's right claw swung out, it created a gray-gold arc of light. After leaving the claw, the arc flew towards the target, leaving a diagonal mark about half an inch deep into the wood grain. Then he tried having Dragon Shadow combine his force with his own palm wind at the moment of the palm strike. When that palm strike was released, two parallel trajectories appeared in the air simultaneously: one was Long Tian's own palm wind, shallow and wide; the other was Dragon Shadow's superimposed claw mark, deep and narrow, running through the center line of the palm wind. The two trajectories converged in mid-air into an overlapping gray-gold pillar of light. When the pillar struck the rock wall ten feet away, it produced a short, muffled thud, leaving a shallow crater in the rock surface. The debris at the bottom of the crater was still emitting heat.
Yu Jin walked down from the doorway to the edge of the clearing, squatted down, and picked up a blade of grass that had been carried by the air currents. He examined the cut. The cut was clean, with a thin layer of grayish-gold luster on the edges, smoother than if it had been cut with a knife. He placed the blade of grass on the stone, looked up at the Dragon Shadow behind Long Tian, and asked, "It can already combine with your strength. Can it walk on its own next time?"
Long Tian stopped and stood still. He turned his head to look at the Dragon Shadow behind him. The Dragon Shadow also tilted its head slightly, as if it were moving in sync with his movements, but with an added element of its own reaction. He turned back to look at the rock wall in front of him where a shallow pit had just been created, focused his attention on the Origin Return Pearl, and then thought—go.
The Dragon Shadow moved.
It detached from his back and flew low along the ground, faster than any previous autonomous outward movement. It flew over the open space, skimmed past the uprooted clump of low grass, rounded a bend in the side of the rock wall, and stopped about ten zhang away, glancing back in Long Tian's direction. Long Tian, standing still, could clearly feel that the connection between it and the Origin Return Pearl remained stable—no weakening, no blurring; the strength of the connection was almost no different from when it was within three zhang. He stood there watching the Dragon Shadow slowly raise one of its forepaws ten zhang away, completely autonomously, and place it on the low bush beside it. The claw tip didn't exert any force; it was just resting, as if sensing the boundary of an unfamiliar touch.
Yu Jin remained crouched, motionless from beginning to end. He watched as the Dragon Shadow stood for a moment, perched on a shrub about ten feet away, before turning back and flying behind Long Tian, reattaching itself to the outline of his spine. He stood up, brushed the dirt off his knees, walked to Long Tian's side, and stood half a step behind him, observing the reattached outline on his back— the Dragon Shadow's head drooped slightly after returning, all four eyes closed, like an extended limb that had completed its mission relaxing its joints before resting. The vertical line on its forehead shone for a moment after its eyes closed, a slender, vertical ray of light, identical in shape to the Long Tian had seen in the darkness before falling asleep last night, like the spine of a closed scabbard illuminated from the inside out in the darkness.