https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-237-Triggering-a-Total-Annihilation/12850388/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-239-The-Shadow-Dressing-for-the-Shadow/12850390/
Chapter 238: A Correction, the Premise of Being Human
Chapter 238: A Correction, the Premise of Being Human
Black Eagle was dead. Qin Muye originally thought that he wouldn't be in any trouble for decisively shattering his own shadow, but it turned out that this thing was linked to his life, right?
However, it didn't seem quite right. It was likely due to the Shadow Realm that his shadow's destruction led to his death.
It was also possible that it was simply because of the temporary skill's effect that caused Black Eagle to die suddenly.
Soon, a group of dead shadows surrounded them, looking at the ground where Black Eagle lay with eyes wide open, his shadow already shattered.
"Leave the Shadow Realm, human," the leader of the dead shadows said.
"First, I need to correct you on one point: I am not a human," Qin Muye said.
Who would need to implant human bloodline into their body if they were a normal human?
"What?" In an instant, the dead shadow felt as if the Shadow Realm was being repelled by something.
Suddenly, the shadows of pavilions and towers appeared, and the vast shadow of a floating city covered a large area.
Then, the projections of spirits appeared, each with a cold, emotionless gaze, ready to attack the dead shadows at Qin Muye's command.
Although these spirit projections came from the Overlord talent, Hell Projection, and had only 50% of the original attributes, they inherited all the skills.
More importantly, he had the title of Ruby King, which brought a territory projection, increasing the attributes of his allies by 50% and reducing the attributes of his enemies by 50% within the projection area.
The consumption was not small. Since his territory was level 4, it consumed 40 points of magic per second. He hadn't projected the entire territory, just a part of it; otherwise, it would have consumed 4000 points of magic per second. It wasn't that he was stingy, but he was worried about attracting the attention of certain entities in the Shadow Realm.
However, he could still control the territory projection. While it might be a low-end version, it was fully functional. The projection range was set to within his territory, and the End of All Things artifact, which was stored in his territory, also became effective.
This rise and fall created a new situation.
Qin Muye's spirit projections became even more terrifying, while the dead shadows were suppressed to their limits.
"I have an immature suggestion. How about we sit down and talk?" Qin Muye didn't want to kill these dead shadows; they were excellent experimental subjects.
The dead shadows, seeing the spirit projections ready to attack, finally nodded in agreement.
Qin Muye was naturally pleased. Fighting and killing were not ideal; it would be better to turn them into his allies.
"Why did you relentlessly pursue Black Eagle and the others but leave me alone?" Qin Muye wanted to confirm his suspicions, so asking was the best way. Torturing them was out of the question; they were shadows, not normal humans, and he doubted they even felt pain.
"Because your shadow did not develop a spirit and is not one of our kind," the dead shadow, which seemed to be a rhinoceros-type armored leader, hesitated before answering.
"You mean that using the Shadow Stone can awaken a spirit in the shadow?"
"In other words, the Shadow Stone can bring life to something intangible," Qin Muye was quite shocked. What was the origin of this Shadow Stone? It was so powerful that it could create life out of nothing.
The fact that they were living beings was indisputable. They could speak and had a sense of self, which made them living beings.
"I don't know, but we can sense the presence of our kind in the shadows of every human who claims to be a Shadow User. By killing the Shadow User, our kind can be born and nurtured in the Shadow Realm, eventually forming their own consciousness."
"During the time they were enslaved by the Shadow User, we had no awareness."
The leader of the rhinoceros dead shadows spoke. These things were not secrets to the dead shadows; many people knew about them.
"Regardless of whether you kill the Shadow User in the Shadow Realm or not, when the Shadow User dies, the shadow will automatically return to the Shadow Realm, right?" Qin Muye asked again.
The other nodded: "That's correct. As long as the Shadow User dies, the shadow will inevitably return to the Shadow Realm."
"What I'm saying is, isn't there a possibility that if you don't deliberately kill the Shadow User, the shadow will naturally be born and grow, giving you a free boost in strength? Isn't that better than you forcing a premature birth?" Qin Muye thought that the strength of the shadows that grew naturally would be greater than those that were artificially cultivated, considering the minimal growth the dead shadows gained daily.
"Not exactly. If the shadows return naturally, they will still have affection for their previous human hosts, making them traitors!" the rhinoceros dead shadow gnashed its teeth, speaking with a clattering sound that was different from before. Qin Muye could tell it was expressing anger.
From this, Qin Muye deduced that there seemed to be a faction of dead shadows in the Shadow Realm who were loyal to humans and were quite powerful.
This explained why the Yinshan Army had come to suppress this group of dead shadows in the first place; they were the ones who killed humans.
This made Qin Muye find the situation quite interesting. He hadn't expected that even these peculiar beings, the dead shadows, could have factions. Shadows that returned naturally and those that died in the Shadow Realm formed two distinctly different types of dead shadows.
Black Eagle had no knowledge of this, which was quite normal, as no one with a sound mind would come to a place like the Shadow Realm.
"Then what about the shadow beasts? Why didn't they attack me but went after Black Eagle instead?" Qin Muye countered.
"They are both our prey and our hunters."
After hearing the explanation, Qin Muye understood. It still came down to the issue of spirit. His shadow had no spirit, so it was essentially just a rock, and shadow beasts didn't eat rocks.
In other words, the Shadow Realm was relatively friendly to ordinary people, at least they didn't have to worry about being killed by some unknown entity.
"There's one more question: why did Black Eagle die immediately after destroying his shadow?"
"In the Shadow Realm, the shadow is the human, and the human is the shadow. Even if they haven't developed self-awareness or intelligence, this fact remains unchanged."
"The relationship is inverted, indeed quite interesting."
Qin Muye asked a question, and the dead shadow answered. It seemed this group of dead shadows knew quite a lot, as if they were part of an organization.
"What would happen if the dead shadows and shadow beasts left the Shadow Realm?" Qin Muye asked curiously.
"Nothing would happen."
This answer was somewhat unexpected. He had thought that the dead shadows and shadow beasts would be unable to survive outside the Shadow Realm, but upon reflection, it made sense.
At this moment, Qin Muye suddenly realized something. The ancient texts that recorded the "great famine" might not have been referring to a famine at all, but rather to the dead shadows and shadow beasts that had gone mad in the Shadow Realm and burst into the human world, hunting shadow users and causing chaos, leading to the suppression.
"Last question: what exactly is the Shadow Stone?" Qin Muye was very curious about this.
From historical records, there were a significant number of shadow users in ancient times, even spread across various towns and villages, much like the Yinshan Army. According to various clues, Qin Muye pieced together that during the peak of ancient history, there were at least 100,000 shadow users.
However, this number was not limited to the Yinshan Army. Many dynastic official institutions also had a large number of shadow users for governance, but they were later reduced for various reasons.
Even in the present, the situation was similar. For example, Black Eagle had managed to find a Shadow Stone.
The Shadow Stone was not cheap and was quite mysterious, but this was only true for the lower-level shadow users.
So, Qin Muye suspected where this thing came from and why it had such a large output yet remained rare.
"It's from the Shadow Realm."
"The Shadow Realm?" Qin Muye was somewhat surprised by the answer. He had expected it to be some kind of mineral or special technique, or even thought it might be derived from dead shadows and shadow beasts, but he hadn't expected it to be from the Shadow Realm.
"Yes, the Shadow Realm. Every year, the Shadow Realm sheds its skin, and these skins, due to various reasons, end up in the human world. When exposed to sunlight, they form Shadow Stones."
"Shadow Stones, also known as the skins of the Shadow Realm, can be used by humans to awaken their shadows and can also serve as nourishment to feed the awakened shadows."
The dead shadow didn't seem to mind sharing this information, possibly because it was intimidated by Qin Muye.
"I see, no wonder there's a large output but limited circulation. This is a strategic resource indeed." Qin Muye understood.
He suspected that the Yinshan Army, which managed the Shadow User Bureau, had confiscated all the Shadow Stones. Otherwise, how could the Shadow User Bureau have become the largest management organization for superhumans?
(End of Chapter)
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