Chapter 64: The Shadow
The storage ring, a widely popular magical treasure among cultivators.
The Land of Gold Commerce had conducted several polls on the “Most Popular Magical Treasures,” with the storage ring consistently ranking first.
Essential for travel, concealing treasures, and personal savings, it’s a must-have for every household.
Moreover, the storage ring is affordable even for Qi Cultivation stage cultivators, though the space is much smaller.
Every year, many Qi Cultivators purchase storage rings, making it a significant revenue source for Falling Money Commerce, which also releases improved versions annually—mainly aesthetic upgrades without changes to the internal space.
For most, the storage ring is the first magical treasure they use, holding sentimental value.
Both righteous and demonic paths use storage rings, including Qin Yuanhao.
This was Qin Yuanhao’s impression of storage rings.He had lived for decades and had never heard of someone using a storage ring to store an enemy’s clothes!
Is that even reasonable?
Actually, it is. Storage rings cannot contain items with their own spirit, such as living beings, ghosts, spiritual treasures, etc., and obviously, Qin Yuanhao’s clothes don’t fall into these categories.
Fortunately, as a person of the demonic path, Qin Yuanhao’s sense of shame had long been discarded. Even in underwear, he could still fight!
Then he saw Meng Jingzhou take out a recording sphere.
“Damn, which sect are you from, and what deep grudge do you have against me!” Qin Yuanhao was convinced Lu Yang and his companions belonged to another sect.
Even if Lu Yang and his team claimed to be from the righteous path, Qin Yuanhao wouldn’t believe them.
He couldn’t understand why, although he had made enemies, he always maintained a measure in his actions and never made mortal enemies.
Meng Jingzhou and Barbarian Bone also gave Lu Yang strange looks, seemingly surprised by his unique method of attack.
“There’s no need to talk about morals when dealing with the demonic path, let’s go together!” Lu Yang called out to his companions.
Together, they attacked, and even a Half-step Golden Core tiger demon would perish, let alone Qin Yuanhao at the late Foundation Building stage.
They had even considered facing Qin Yuanhao one-on-one. As geniuses, they were confident in their ability to fight above their level.
However, for safety, it was better for the three of them to join forces.
Casting aside his shame, Qin Yuanhao fought fiercely against the three.
The sword light flowed like water, splashing ink with boundless heroism. Qin Yuanhao kept retreating, unable to face the enemy head-on!
Meng Jingzhou and Barbarian Bone’s punches fell like mountains, striking Qin Yuanhao’s chest, causing him to cough up blood continuously!
Qin Yuanhao flipped his palm, revealing three poisoned cow hair needles, aiming for their chests.
Unexpectedly, the three acted as if unaffected, their swords and fists not weakening but growing stronger in battle.
Lu Yang had anticipated the use of poison and had taken an antidote pill in advance.
Strictly speaking, the antidote pill should not be called as such but rather a poison removal pill.
The principle of the antidote pill is to encapsulate the poison before it takes effect and expel it with sweat.
Since the poison never activates, what’s there to detoxify?
Qin Yuanhao realized the situation was bad; the opponents were too well-prepared. His treacherous methods couldn’t match theirs, and even when they did, they were not as cunning as his opponents.
Meng Jingzhou’s muscles bulged, veins popped, and Qin Yuanhao saw the punch grow from small to large, too fast to react.
The bizarre occurrence happened once again. Meng Jingzhou’s punch was powerful and heavy, which would severely injure or even kill a late-stage Foundation Building cultivator, yet Qin Yuanhao remained unaffected.
Qin Yuanhao let out a strange laugh, convinced that these people couldn’t handle him! After the exchange, Lu Yang finally discovered the truth about Qin Yuanhao’s cultivation technique. He swung his sword, emitting a bright glow, with sword energy soaring like a rainbow, unstoppable.
The target of this slash wasn’t just anywhere, but directly at Qin Yuanhao’s shadow!
“Damn!” Qin Yuanhao cried out in pain, unable to hold back.
“Indeed, it was you who killed the gang of thieves last night. Your weakness is your shadow!”
Lu Yang remembered Qin Yuanhao leaving the brothel, receiving orders from the helmsman to act, presumably to kill the gang of thieves.
With his biggest reliance exposed, Qin Yuanhao no longer wished to fight. His body disappeared, and his shadow moved rapidly across the ground.
Even if he couldn’t defeat his opponents, he was fully confident in his ability to escape. “Your swords may be sharp, but can you kill a shadow?”
“You three youngsters, I’ll remember you. Just wait for my endless revenge, hahaha…” Qin Yuanhao felt he had the upper hand and laughed uncontrollably.
Suddenly, a beam of white light shone on the shadow, immediately causing Qin Yuanhao to scream in agony, as if a piece of flesh was being torn off him.
The Gathering Light Formation, a simple formation that absorbs and emits light sources, is easy to learn but considered quite trivial. However, used here, its effect was surprisingly good.
Forced into action, Qin Yuanhao emerged from his shadow to block the white light, and the gap in his shadow vanished.
His injuries healed.
“It seems you came prepared. So what? Do you really think a mere Gathering Light Formation can hurt me?”
Qin Yuanhao mocked: “Don’t you know the stronger the light, the stronger the shadow?”
Lu Yang, unruffled, launched more Gathering Light Formations, similarly mocking: “Ever heard of a shadowless lamp?”
Qin Yuanhao hesitated, unfamiliar with the term shadowless lamp, but Lu Yang’s words gave him a bad feeling.
Lu Yang didn’t bother explaining the concept during combat. Dozens of white lights struck Qin Yuanhao, his shadow fizzing, unable to stop the process whether his body was exposed to block the light or hidden within the shadow.
The shadow faded until it was nearly invisible to the naked eye.
The principle of the shadowless lamp isn’t to erase the shadow but to make it so faint it’s almost non-existent.
Qin Yuanhao roared, emerging from the nearly invisible shadow, unable to hide within it any longer.
A sword light descended from the sky, like a rainbow shooting through, sudden and unavoidable, piercing Qin Yuanhao’s body.
This was the moment Lu Yang had been waiting for.
“That was close, nearly let him escape.” Meng Jingzhou breathed a sigh of relief seeing Qin Yuanhao dead. If he had escaped, all their preparations would have been in vain.
Meng Jingzhou thought they had prepared enough to ensure Qin Yuanhao couldn’t escape, but his technique related to shadows made it exceedingly difficult to trap him.
Meng Jingzhou playfully nudged Lu Yang’s shoulder: “Good thing you suggested making the Gathering Light Formation before we left.”
“It was all luck. I just suspected his technique was related to shadows, without concrete evidence.”
“But let’s not celebrate too soon. We can celebrate after we’ve destroyed the body and evidence.”
Following Lu Yang’s suggestion, they burned Qin Yuanhao’s body beyond recognition, dumping it into the tiger demon’s cave, and then collapsed the cave entrance.
This way, unless someone deliberately searched the mountain, no one would find it.