Chapter 406: The Returning Shadow Killing Array and Spotting |
March 7th, deep within the Pinglu mountain valley.
Guan Tong held the [Wordless Book], its pages opened to the sixth page.
He closed his eyes for a moment to prepare.
When he opened his eyes, a massive amount of Mind Power flowed into the page, and boundless shadows rapidly spread out from beneath his feet, enveloping everything around him.
This was his "Shadow Domain," which, like his other abilities, had also been enhanced after he entered the Second Stage of Ascension.
The most direct manifestation was the improvement in basic characteristics such as domain deployment speed, range, and consumption.
However, this level of enhancement was still far from satisfying his psychological expectations.
After the Shadow Domain closed, Guan Tong focused his mind, and a large number of eye-shaped shadow constructs appeared.
This was an ability he developed the first time he activated the Shadow Domain, in order to kill all those who attacked him and Shi Jingyi. Its effect was to monitor every corner within the Shadow Domain and share the visual feed with him.
The Shadow Domain ability was not something Guan Tong was developing for the first time; he had developed it twice before.
Once was to enable the Shadow Domain to slowly absorb the Mind Power of enemies trapped within. The second time was to develop a compressed Small Space attack.
Now, Guan Tong combined these "surveillance eyes" with the "Mind Power absorption" feature, accelerating the absorption of enemy Mind Power through the gaze of the eyes.
This idea was inspired by a former enemy of his, that enemy being Jiang Ming, the grandson of Jiang Lanying, the guy who possessed the ability to absorb/release Mind Power through his eyes.
Over the past few days, Guan Tong, referencing Jiang Ming's method of Mind Power absorption, performed a similar functional modification to the Shadow Domain.
This way, the next time an enemy is trapped within, as long as they meet the gaze of those eyes, their Mind Power will be absorbed at an accelerated rate.
If they deliberately avoid those eyes, their line of sight will be obstructed. It's a case of being damned if you do and damned if you don't; either choice puts you at a disadvantage.
This way, Guan Tong might not even need to fight himself. As long as he maintains the Shadow Domain, the enemy will be defeated without a fight due to their Mind Power being rapidly drained.
And this wasn't the only development he had worked on these past few days.
"Return."
Guan Tong issued a command. The vast Shadow Domain rapidly retracted from all directions, converging towards his right palm as the core.
During the process, countless sharp shadows, accompanied by the "crashing" sound of trees falling, sliced through everything they touched.
It was like an umbrella assembled from blades. When this umbrella transitions from open to closed, everything under its canopy is cut by those blades.
It was also like casting a fishing net full of barbs. When cast, the fish inside might not get hurt, but when the net is retrieved, they will be scraped all over by the dense barbs.
This was the effect Guan Tong wanted.
The fully contracted Shadow Domain formed a Small Space in his palm, ready to be used for offense at any time.
Guan Tong raised his eyes to survey his surroundings.
The large patch of forest previously covered by the Shadow Domain had now turned into a ground full of wood fragments.
Even some sturdy mountain rocks were sliced apart, becoming stone shards.
This meant that if there were enemies within the Shadow Domain, no matter how many, their fate would be no different from these trees and rocks... they would all be cut into countless pieces.
He named this newly mastered domain ability "Returning Shadow Kill Array," creating a counterpart to the "Thorn Shadow Kill Array" he often used to kill multiple enemies in the past.
As for the Small Space form...
Guan Tong looked at the dark vortex in his right hand, stopped injecting Mind Power, and it immediately vanished into nothingness.
"If I had more time to research, perhaps I could strengthen it and carefully study Condensation and Sublimation and Mind Power Martial Arts, but... time waits for no one."
Tomorrow, the 8th, is the day Shi Jingyi and Lu Cheng agreed to meet. Today is already the 7th, and it's already noon.
According to what he previously discussed with Shi Jingyi, it was time for him to go scout the meeting location.
However, he had improved quite a bit these past few days, which should be sufficient for now.
"The location is the stadium on South Street of Academy Road..."
Guan Tong was ready to set off.
...
Academy Road wasn't originally called Academy Road. It was only after the academy relocated from the capital Yong'an that the main road where it was located was renamed Academy Road.
Besides the academy, this road also contains off-campus faculty dormitory areas, several shelters, a large storage warehouse, a stadium, and a branch of the Emergency Management Bureau.
To be precise, the faculty dormitory area is a high-level dormitory area. Different from those inside the academy, the ones outside are mostly large residences with yards.
As a main Lecturer, Shi Jingyi possesses an independent courtyard. This wasn't something she requested herself, but rather the academy applied for it on her behalf, citing the reason that as a main Lecturer with a heavy daily course load and significant mental exertion, she deserved better accommodation.
Additionally, back when Yelanka was at the academy, she and Sigaochin also lived here, also in an independent courtyard.
This preferential treatment can be seen as a form of favor or even an investment from the Beixing Higher-ups—and judging by the results, the Kingdom of Xisiya, now firmly under the authority of Administrator Yelanka, has recently engaged in frequent and close cooperation with Beixing across multiple fields.
It's worth noting that the former Xisiya leaned more towards cooperation with the Suroma Empire. This shift is now led by Yelanka. The reasons for the change might include gratitude for the care shown by the Beixing authorities, or perhaps an unclear, indescribable relationship with Guan Tong.
But regardless, Beixing considers the investment to have paid off, so they have also increased their attention towards the children of high-ranking officials from other Human Consortium member states within the academy.
However, Guan Tong wasn't concerned with these matters. At this moment, he had already manipulated a wisp of shadow to arrive at that stadium.
This is a large indoor stadium. Before the Doomsday Rules era, it was one of the major public convenience projects built by Pinglu City, aiming to provide citizens with a large, free indoor space for physical exercise.
After the Doomsday Rules era began, this stadium served as a personnel gathering point for a long time.
It can be said that it provided shelter for tens of thousands of Pinglu citizens during multiple rules.
However, although this stadium is sturdy and spacious, it is, after all, not a dedicated shelter. Therefore, after a large number of shelters were built, the people originally staying here all transferred into the shelters, and this place was almost completely deserted.
Especially later, during the [Extraterrestrial Parasitism] rule, this stadium was requisitioned to centrally house "training personnel," which led to even fewer normal people willing to come after the rule ended—even though the authorities repeatedly debunked the rumors, many still believed that alien spores might linger in such containment facilities and were unwilling to approach.
"Lu Cheng choosing to meet Shi Jingyi here, at first glance, is not far from the academy, even on the same street... but it is, after all, an enclosed venue, and one that nobody wants to visit."
Guan Tong wouldn't let his guard down just because the location was close to the academy—before the Doomsday Rules era, some fake banks would specifically open next to real banks, aiming to exploit people's mentality to scam money.
"The meeting is tomorrow morning. If an ambush is planned, there should already be people inside now... Once Scarlet Terra appears at night, outdoor activity becomes extremely dangerous."
Guan Tong manipulated the shadow to enter the sports venue, conducting a thorough search, not missing a single corner.
However, after checking inside and out, even delving deep underground, he didn't find a single person.
Was my judgment wrong? Does Lu Cheng genuinely want to ask for help?
Or does Lu Cheng think he doesn't need helpers and can defeat Shi Jingyi by himself?
The latter is undoubtedly unlikely.
Even if Lu Cheng doesn't know Shi Jingyi's true strength, based solely on his perception during classes at the academy, he should clearly sense the gap between himself and a Lecturer.
Guan Tong suddenly frowned, a thought emerging.
"Could he be planning to use... a teleportation-type item?"
He didn't think of this initially because teleportation-type items have become increasingly expensive over time, almost unaffordable for individual Ascendants. Only official bodies and large organizations can afford them.
But after the Suzuki incident, by investigating the surveillance video replacement, he suspected the mastermind behind it used such an item to bypass the corridor surveillance of the withdrawal center.
Now he thinks if Lu Cheng has hostile intentions, he might also use this method to gather helpers in an extremely short time.
He just doesn't know, if Lu Cheng has helpers, how many there would be, who they would be, and why they would go to such great lengths to deal with Shi Jingyi, a mere academy Lecturer.
"...Regardless of whether my guess is right or wrong, I need to prepare in advance."
Guan Tong had already made a decision. Tomorrow morning, he would deploy a large number of shadows around the stadium.
As long as he detects hostile intent from Lu Cheng, even if Shi Jingyi can handle the crisis herself, he will still intervene to capture this kid and find out exactly what's going on.