Chapter 60: Shadow

Out of good conscience, Lu Yang didn't take all of Qin Yuanhao's clothes, leaving him a pair of underpants for modesty.

Storage rings are widely used magical artifacts among cultivators. The Landfall Money Guild has conducted several surveys on the "Most Popular Magical Artifact," and storage rings consistently ranked first with a high number of votes. They are essential artifacts for travel, continent-spanning journeys, and for hiding treasures or personal savings. Moreover, storage rings are affordable; even cultivators at the Qi Condensation stage can buy them, though their internal space is much smaller. Every year, many Qi Condensation cultivators purchase storage rings, making the Landfall Money Guild a significant source of income. The Landfall Money Guild also releases improved versions of storage rings annually, primarily focusing on aesthetic enhancements rather than increasing internal space. For most cultivators, their first magical artifact is a storage ring, holding great sentimental value. Both righteous and demonic cultivators use storage rings, and Qin Yuanhao was no exception.

These were Qin Yuanhao's impressions of storage rings. Having lived for decades, he had never heard of anyone using a storage ring to collect an enemy's clothes! Was this reasonable?! Actually, it was quite reasonable. Storage rings cannot store living creatures, ghosts, or spirit treasures, which are considered sentient items with owners. Clearly, Qin Yuanhao's clothes did not fall into this category.

Fortunately, as a dignified demonic cultivator, Qin Yuanhao's sense of shame had long since vanished. He could fight just as well even in only his underpants! Then he saw Meng Jingzhou take out a recording orb.

"Damn it, which sect are you from? What deep-seated grudge do you have against me?!" Qin Yuanhao believed Lu Yang and his companions were fellow members of three other sects. Even if Lu Yang claimed to be from a righteous path now, Qin Yuanhao wouldn't believe it. He just couldn't understand why, despite having made enemies, he always knew his limits and never formed a mortal enmity with anyone.

Meng Jingzhou and Mang Gu also looked at Lu Yang strangely, seemingly surprised that he could devise such a unique method of attack.

"There's no need for chivalry when dealing with evil cultivators; let's attack together!" Lu Yang called out to them. With all three of them attacking together, even a half-step Core Formation stage tiger demon would perish, let alone Qin Yuanhao, who was only at the late Foundation Establishment stage. They had considered fighting Qin Yuanhao one-on-one; as geniuses, they were confident in their ability to fight above their level. However, to be safe, it was better for all three to attack together.

Qin Yuanhao cast aside his shame and engaged the three in battle. Sword light flowed like water, splashing like ink, filled with heroic spirit. Qin Yuanhao retreated repeatedly, not daring to face them head-on! Meng Jingzhou and Mang Gu simultaneously unleashed their four fists, which descended like mountains, pounding Qin Yuanhao's chest and making him cough up blood continuously! Qin Yuanhao flipped his palm, and three hair-thin poisonous needles appeared at his fingertips, stabbing into their chests. To his surprise, the three acted as if nothing had happened. Their swords and fists showed no signs of weakening; instead, they fought with even greater vigor. Lu Yang had already anticipated the possibility of poison and had taken an antidote in advance. Strictly speaking, the antidote shouldn't be called an "antidote"; "detoxification pill" would be more accurate. The principle of the detoxification pill is to encapsulate the poison before it takes effect and expel it from the body through sweat. Since the poison never took effect, how could it be called an "antidote"?

Qin Yuanhao secretly thought things were going badly. His opponents were too well-prepared. His insidious methods couldn't be brought into play, and even if they could, they weren't as insidious as theirs.

Meng Jingzhou's muscles bulged, and veins popped. In Qin Yuanhao's eyes, the fist grew from small to large, too fast for him to react. Something strange happened again: Meng Jingzhou's punch was incredibly powerful; a late Foundation Establishment cultivator would be crippled or killed by it, yet Qin Yuanhao was completely unaffected. Qin Yuanhao let out a strange laugh. He had said that these people couldn't deal with him!

After exchanging blows, Lu Yang finally discovered the truth about Qin Yuanhao's cultivation method. He swung his sword, and light flickered. The sword qi, like a long rainbow, was unstoppable. This sword struck nowhere else but Qin Yuanhao's shadow!

"Damn it!" Qin Yuanhao cried out in pain.

"Indeed, you were the one who killed the bandit gang last night. Your weakness is your shadow!" Lu Yang recalled Qin Yuanhao emerging from the brothel and receiving orders from the helmsman to act, which must have been to kill the bandit gang.

With his greatest reliance exposed, Qin Yuanhao no longer wanted to fight. His body vanished, and his shadow moved rapidly across the ground. Even if he couldn't defeat them, he was fully confident he could escape. No matter how sharp their swords were, could they really kill a shadow?

"You three juniors, I'll remember you! Just wait for my endless revenge, hahahaha..." Qin Yuanhao, feeling he had the upper hand, laughed incessantly.

Suddenly, a white light shone on the shadow, and Qin Yuanhao let out a heart-wrenching scream. It was as if a piece of his flesh had been forcefully torn away. It was a light-gathering array, a simple formation that absorbs and emits light. Easy to learn, yet typically a useless array, but used here, its effect was remarkably potent. Left with no choice, Qin Yuanhao's body emerged from the shadow, blocking the white light, and the gap in the shadow disappeared. His injuries recovered.

"It seems you came prepared, but so what? Do you naively believe a mere light-gathering array can harm me?" Qin Yuanhao scoffed, "Don't you know that the stronger the light, the stronger the shadow?"

Lu Yang calmly tossed out more light-gathering arrays and retorted with a scoff, "Then have you ever heard of a shadowless lamp?"

Qin Yuanhao hesitated, unfamiliar with the term "shadowless lamp," but Lu Yang's words filled him with a bad premonition. Lu Yang had no time to explain the principle to his opponent during the battle. Over a dozen white lights struck Qin Yuanhao, and his shadow hissed. Whether Qin Yuanhao revealed his body to block the light or retreated into his shadow, he couldn't stop the process. The shadow faded until, finally, it became so faint that it was indiscernible to the naked eye.

The principle of a shadowless lamp is not to make the shadow vanish, but to make it so faint as to be virtually nonexistent.

Qin Yuanhao roared, emerging from the nearly invisible shadow. His true form could no longer hide within it. A sword light descended from the sky like a rainbow from beyond the heavens, sudden and impossible to guard against, piercing through Qin Yuanhao's body. This was the moment Lu Yang had been waiting for.

"That was close, he almost got away," Meng Jingzhou said, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing Qin Yuanhao dead. If he had escaped, all their preparations over the past few days would have been in vain. Meng Jingzhou had thought their preparations were thorough enough, and that Qin Yuanhao couldn't possibly escape. Who would have thought his cultivation method involved shadows, making him extremely difficult to trap?

Meng Jingzhou chuckled, playfully nudging Lu Yang's shoulder. "Good thing you suggested making those light-gathering arrays before we set off."

"It was just luck," Lu Yang replied. "I merely suspected his cultivation method was shadow-related; I had no concrete evidence."

"But don't celebrate too soon," Lu Yang added. "It's not too late to celebrate after we've disposed of the body and destroyed all traces." At Lu Yang's suggestion, the three burned Qin Yuanhao's body until it was an unrecognizable dry corpse, then threw it into the tiger demon's cave and collapsed the cave entrance. This way, unless someone deliberately searched the mountain, no one would find the spot.