Domain X Research X Results

When Jiang Ye returned to the camp, Iron Wall was standing under the sentry post at the entrance of the container area, his shield at his feet, one hand resting on the edge of the shield, his rough face appearing somber in the pale sunlight.

When Tie Iron Wall saw Jiang Ye emerge from behind the pile of scrap metal, his shoulders visibly relaxed.

"You're back."

"Um."

Jiang Ye walked past him, his steps slow and he didn't stop.

What did the Grey Elder say?

"The banquet will proceed as scheduled tomorrow night."

Jiang Ye pushed open the door of his container and glanced at Iron Wall.

"Go ahead and get busy, I'll call you later."

Iron Wall opened his mouth, glanced at Jiang Ye's expression, swallowed the rest of his words, nodded, and turned to leave.

Jiang Ye closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a sigh of relief.

The sweat on my palms had dried.

He glanced down at his own shadow, its Max Elephant outline lying deep within, much more stable than before he went to Grey Elder's place, its edges no longer trembling.

But what truly kept him awake at night wasn't Max Elephant.

The wisp of air behind the curtains on the second floor of the Grey Elder Villa.

It was extremely well hidden and didn't move at all, yet its presence was greater than the four men in black on the porch combined.

The Grey Elder hair does indeed have something hidden, and that thing won't be on the table tomorrow night.

Jiang Ye walked to the iron-framed bed, sat down, took off his arm guards and placed them on the headboard, and moved his wrists a couple of times.

He currently has five Shikigami.

Divine Dog: Totality, Toad, Rabbit Escape, Nue, Max Elephant.

It's enough to fight a single Nen user, and it can hold out for a while against three or four, but if the opponent is hiding something on the same level as Illumi, even releasing all five Shikigami won't be enough.

He needs a card that's bigger than the Shikigami.

Jiang Ye closed his eyes and went through all the information about the Ten Shadows Technique in his mind from beginning to end.

Hand shadow, Shikigami, subjugation, Shadow Space, Shadow Stealth, Shadow Spike, shadow screen.

He's already very familiar with these techniques.

But he never even touched the Ten Shadows Technique he had ever mastered.

field.

Chimera Shadow Garden.

In the original world, this was something created by sorcerers of Ten Shadows Technique projecting their inner Cursed Technique landscapes into reality.

To put it bluntly, it's about using one's own energy to transform the surrounding space into a battlefield that only benefits oneself.

You'll always lose when you fight on someone else's turf, but in your own territory, you set the rules.

Jiang Ye opened his eyes, stood up, walked to the center of the container, and pushed the tables and chairs to the corner.

The container isn't big, less than ten steps in front and back, and seven or eight steps in the left and right, but it's enough.

He raised his hands, interlocked his fingers, arched the backs of his hands outwards, and pressed his thumbs together.

It's exactly the same hand shadow used to summon Max Elephant.

But this time he didn't push the air into his fingertips.

He let the energy rise from his abdomen, travel up his spine, and after passing the back of his neck, it didn't go to his arms but dispersed.

It spreads evenly and slowly throughout the entire interior space of the container.

It's like slowly pouring water into a dark room.

The gas seeped from his skin, clinging to the metal walls, the floor, and the ceiling, gradually filling the entire space.

Jiang Ye closed his eyes and tried to draw a picture in his mind.

A boundless darkness.

The ground is flat, but when you step on it, you sink in half an inch.

There was no sky above, no walls around, only shadows slowly moving in all directions.

In this darkness, his shadow was not a thin layer of black spread on the ground, but a three-dimensional, surging thing that seemed to spread out from his feet like a living thing.

He tried to push the image in his mind outward.

The shadow beneath my feet shifted slightly.

It really moved.

A black shadow emerged from beneath my feet, spreading outwards along the corrugated iron floor, encroaching on the corners of the walls, and climbing half a foot up the corrugated iron walls.

Then it stopped.

Jiang Ye opened his eyes and looked down.

The floor of the container was covered with a thin layer of black, like a layer of black water.

The half-foot-long shadow that had climbed up the wall was slowly dripping down, like paint that hadn't fully dried.

There was nothing on the ceiling.

He withdrew his hand gesture, the shadow retracted to his feet, and the container returned to its original state.

"Not enough."

Jiang Ye said in a low voice.

He walked to the bedside, sat down, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

The energy level dropped by nearly 10% just now, but it only affected the ground and half a foot of the wall.

If the Chimera Shadow Garden were to truly unfold, it would need to encompass at least an entire battlefield, and it would need to be stable, not just flow downwards on its own like this.

The problem lies in the "drawing" step.

When he exhaled, he thought of "utter darkness," but "utter darkness" was too vague.

In the darkness, there is ground, flowing shadows, and shrinking boundaries.

He hadn't thought these things through.

The realm of the Ten Shadows Technique is a projection of the spellcaster's inner landscape of Cursed Technique.

What is a "Cursed Technique landscape"?

It's the Shadow Space beneath his feet that appears every time he summons Shikigami.

He had been inside that space countless times; he could describe its shape, texture, the movement of shadows, and the source of light with his eyes closed.

But he never tried to move that space outside.

Jiang Ye stood up again, gathered his strength, and only raised his hand again when he had recovered to more than 90% of his original strength.

This time, he didn't rush to build up his strength.

He closed his eyes first, letting his consciousness sink into the Shadow Space beneath his feet.

That space remains the same.

The gray-black ground stretched out in all directions, with no end in sight.

The Divine Dog: Totality prone on the left, the Toad squatted in the middle slightly behind, the Rabbit Escape's true form huddled in a corner, the pheasant perched on a high pillar, and the Max Elephant's silhouette lay deep within, steady and unhurried.

The shadows moved slowly across the ground, like thick ink spreading gradually in cold water.

There was no sky overhead, but a layer of grayish-white light shone down from somewhere, illuminating outlines but not details.

Jiang Ye stood in the very center of that space, trying to "open" his eyes.

It's not about opening your eyelids, but about pulling your consciousness out of that space and simultaneously looking at the outside containers and the space inside together.

The container's sheet metal walls, the steel frame overhead, and the concrete debris underfoot.

The Shadow Space features a gray-black ground, flowing shadow screens, and the silhouettes of five Shikigami.

When the two paintings were superimposed, he saw a line.

The floor of the shipping container is the same as the floor of the Shadow Space.

The corrugated iron wall forms the boundary of the gray-white "sky" in the Shadow Space.

Jiang Ye raised both hands, and the energy rose from his abdomen, spreading out and covering the entire container.

This time, he didn't visualize "darkness" in his mind.

He directly pushed the images in the Shadow Space outwards.

The ground, walls, ceiling, the flowing screens, and the outlines of the five Shikigami were all moved outwards from their original positions.

A layer of black substance rose from the floor of the container.

The projection screen on the wall climbed upwards, one foot, two feet, three feet, until it stopped at the seam of the sheet metal.

Several thin shadows hung down from the steel frame of the ceiling, like upside-down tree roots.

Jiang Ye opened his eyes; the inside of the shipping container was now dark.

It wasn't the kind of darkness where the lights are off; it was more like the surrounding air had thickened, so that most of the light was absorbed when it came in.

The ground beneath my feet felt half an inch softer, exactly the same as the feel in the Shadow Space.

The few wisps of shadow in the corner were still slowly drooping downwards.

It's done.

Jiang Ye said softly.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, his magnanimity plummeted.

He gritted his teeth and held on for another ten seconds or so. The screen began to shake, the blackness on the ground thinned, and the screen on the wall slid down piece by piece.

He quickly withdrew the hand shadow, the screen shrank back to his feet, and the container returned to its original brightness.

Jiang Ye plopped down on the edge of the bed, panting heavily.

He had lost nearly 30% of his energy, was covered in sweat, and his clothes were stuck to the edge of the iron bed frame, making him shiver from the cold.

"Thirty percent of my energy was used, and it took about ten seconds to exchange."

He wiped his face and looked at his right hand.

"Still a long way off."

But the direction is right.

He did touch something in those ten seconds or so.

Creating a domain isn't as simple as just pushing air outwards; you have to move the images from the Shadow Space to the outside without making a change.

How soft should the ground be? How should the shadows flow? How dark should the light be? How tight should the boundaries be?

Everything has to match perfectly; even a slight difference is unacceptable.

He only checked the ground and half a wall; the ceiling and edges are still loose.

And ten seconds is too short.

If you were to actually use it in a fight, it would last at least a few minutes.

but...

Jiang Ye lay down on the bed, put his hands behind his head, and looked at the steel frame above him.

The Max Elephant has not been completely subdued yet, and at tomorrow night's banquet, the Grey Elder still holds a card that has not been revealed.

What he lacks most right now is time.

Mastering a domain isn't something you can do in a day or two, but he had a feeling about it.

Once the framework of the Chimera Shadow Garden is set up, even if it only lasts for a dozen seconds, it will be enough for him to do a lot of things.

He rolled over and was about to close his eyes when there was another knock on the container door.

Knock, knock, knock.