Chapter 111: [shadow Set: Ghost Companion Wetware 3]
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Moments later, figures with even more powerful qi flames descended from the sky, landing at the entrance of the cave shrouded in smoke and sand dust.
Whoosh!
A gust of wild wind dispersed the smoke and dust. The Cicada City powerhouse with a middle-aged appearance scanned the 【Summon Wind】 traces left by the Tiger Demon and puzzled, “Underworld traces? And Nightmare aura.”
Another cultivator who arrived shortly after guessed, “It should be a Demonic Creature smuggled in from the ‘Nightmare’.”
“Chase!”
The two rushed into the tunnel simultaneously, trying to find clues left by the Tiger Demon, but they found no traces of ‘pheromones’ along the way.
“Nightmare invasion! Nightmare invasion!” At this time, alarms began to spread through the underground passages, upward all the way to the bustling Central Urban Area.
…
For some unknown reason, after the Tiger Demon clumsily created this 【Shadow Dream Hole】, its connection with the Bubble World’s 【Shadow Dimension】 became extremely close.
If at the beginning of its arrival, it used its own ‘Shadow Authority’ to deeply perceive the native 【Shadow Dimension】, equivalent to obtaining a legal entry passport. Then at this moment, the Tiger Demon had obtained native residency through the 【Shadow Dream Hole】, and even acquired real estate in the 【Shadow Dimension】!
Therefore, the Tiger Demon’s Stealth ability was now even more powerful and concealed. It fled all the way, relying on the deep connection and aura-blocking effect of the 【Shadow Dimension】, successfully blending into the Central Urban Area and evading the first round of large-scale search.
Choosing a crowded underground plaza, the Tiger Demon looked around and took a fancy to a cave shop similar to a ‘bookstore’. It simply escaped into it through the shadows, hiding obediently and refocusing its attention on the projection of the 【Shadow Dream Hole】 in its mind.
It discovered that by attaching its mental power to it, it could obtain information like an instruction manual and detailed attributes from the projection.
Only then did it realize belatedly. Its 30m 【Shadow Space】 was essentially the shadow world of the Little Xihong Realm.
However, the current Bubble World’s ‘Shadow Dimension’ had a more bizarre and twisted composition. Even if the Tiger Demon broke through the 【Shadow Dimension】, it couldn’t drill in. This world had no substantial shadow world; instead, it thoroughly privatized the 30m ‘Shadow World Fragment’, giving it to the Tiger Demon as a mobile container house, plus a filter + flush toilet connecting to the Nightmare Layer.
Sounds great, right! Portable space! Got MVP!
But this ‘Shadow Space’ was wrapped on all sides by the 【Nightmare Layer】, separated by only a single permeable membrane, extremely fragile with one poke.
The Tiger Demon had a premonition that if some big guy in the 【Nightmare Dimension】 passed by nearby and took interest in this small shadow bubble, it could easily poke it and take out the supplies stored inside.
The more and more precious things it hoarded inside, the greater the attractiveness it emitted, the easier it was to attract endless chaotic twisted filth from the depths of the Nightmare.
“Hm?”
The Tiger Demon suddenly had a sense of déjà vu of using a Shrimp Cage to fish for shrimp: scatter bait (Qi Refining Cultivators) into the shrimp cage (Shadow Space), throw it into the water (Nightmare), wait for the prey to smell it and drill into the cage voluntarily.
After waiting one night, open the 【Shadow Dream Hole】, and then the ‘Nightmare Demonic Creatures’ that forcibly invade the Shadow Space, cruelly dismembering the cultivators and frantically devouring them, would launch a second round of delivery battle, feeding itself to them as well?
Tiger Demon: “What exactly is this 【Shadow Dream Hole】? Extract pollution from the Bubble World and throw it into the Nightmare Layer to obtain energy feedback + attract Nightmare creatures; then conversely use the Shadow Space as a springboard to hunt and fish passing Nightmare supplies, recover them into the Bubble World through the 【Dream Hole】……?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Sounds great and wonderful, but the premise is that you have the powerful strength to slay everything!”
Tiger Demon: “With this 【Shadow Dream Hole】, I always feel like I’ve grasped something more fundamental and essential?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Boss, a patrol team just passed by outside earlier and didn’t discover our traces. Now, shouldn’t we take action?”
Tiger Demon: “Hide a bit more, play it safe. Things are not going well today; Insect City’s power is somewhat beyond imagination. I just wanted to quietly visit that underground city, and I suffered an undeserved calamity. A mere 【Earth Rank】 could see through my Shadow Stealth? Simply outrageous.”
Little Spicy Stick hurriedly comforted: “They can’t do it now. Your Majesty has achieved great success in divine arts, fusing as one with the native 【Shadow Dimension】, aura blocked and heavenly secrets shielded!”
Tiger Demon shook its head: “Not necessarily. I can now evade Earth Rank cultivators, but what about Heaven Rank making a move? This world’s 【Shadow Dimension】 is weaker than imagined, and the world structure is more broken than ‘Little Xihong Realm’, but the intensity and specifications are clearly higher.”
“Boss, since we’re not going out, why not look around the shop? I see this place seems to sell knowledge, but not books, instead using a kind of jadeized insect as a medium, somewhat like the 【Jade Slip】 in cultivation novels. This 【Cicada City】 is deeply influenced by Kunlun Immortal Path, full of all these fancy things.”
“Insect Jade Slip?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Let’s ‘learn’! No need to steal; just break the restriction, take one, read it with mental power, record with 【Immortal Scripture】. We scan a copy of the shop’s knowledge, without taking a single Insect Scroll, it’s not stealing! Just copying the knowledge.”
The Tiger Demon looked at the shop outside the shadows. Called a bookstore, it was a huge cave with a bunch of glowing fireflies hanging upside down from the roof. The Shop Owner was a drowsy middle-aged man with ‘True Qi’ reactions in his body, strength far exceeding the two siblings but far inferior to the cultivator imprisoned in the 【Shadow Dream Hole】.
Yuan Zhu guessed that the other was probably an 【Earth Rank】 who had condensed the Twelve Main Meridians and was opening acupoints, but not high level. In the Qi Refining System, Earth Rank spans from the complete growth of 12 meridian Dao Seeds to the condensation of 360 acupoints of the heavenly cycle, a vast span.
This Boss was a weakling among ‘Earth Rank’, not much of a threat.
Thus, the Tiger Demon released strands of shadows right under the Boss’s nose, climbing along the crude shelves, wandering in the already dim cave shop. Sure enough, it discovered traces of magic arrays; every compartment of the shelves was sealed, forcibly taking an ‘Insect Scroll’ would trigger an alarm.
The Tiger Demon, not understanding native magic array knowledge, decisively stopped and shifted its target back to the half-asleep half-awake Shop Owner.
Taking without asking is stealing. Though for a scholar’s affairs, how can it be called stealing? But if it actively wakes the Boss and has him open the shelves, it wouldn’t be stealing!
Observing the outside of the shop again and confirming no patrols or search teams, two shadows slowly closed the shop door. A mass of shadow silently emerged from behind the Boss.
At this time, the Tiger Demon, empowered by the permission blessing inherent in the 【Shadow Dream Hole】, elevated its entire body’s Shadow Power once more, evading the Shop Owner’s perception without triggering the Qi Refiner’s keen spiritual sense.
The next second, countless shadow tentacles shot towards him simultaneously. The Boss in slumber suddenly opened his eyes, erupting massive True Qi from his body, but was immediately wrapped in boundless darkness (shadows). Even the ‘pheromones’ he sprayed out were blocked by the preservative-film-like viscous shadows.
Swish swish swish……
Strands of shadow vines spread from under the Tiger Demon’s feet, trying to wrap and bind the Shop Owner’s limbs. But rays of Qi Threads burst from the opponent’s body, intertwining, whipping, and cutting the vines.
A ‘wither ray’ suddenly hit his back, weakness rapidly spreading from the back to the upper body, followed by respiratory failure.
‘Puff!’ A mass of disease poison mist sprayed on his face, perfectly inhaled into the body via the breathing method. Attacked from inside and out, the feeling grew worse. The other two Ghost Companions also struck simultaneously, attacking from four different directions.
The Tiger Demon guarded outside, fully surging Shadow Power to envelop and wrap the entire shop from the inside, while avoiding touching and triggering the magic arrays, striving to create an insulated soundproof space.
No 【Shadow Wind (Summon Wind)】 howling, no intense fluctuations from space 【claws】, the huge Snake Demon also restrained its rampaging impulse, solely outputting ‘Shadow Pollution’ to strengthen the four Ghost Companions.
Puff!
While the Shop Owner was fully engaged in 1vs4, the Tiger Demon seized the opportunity, flinging out a Skeleton Snake Tail. Little Spicy Stick escaped into the shadows, reappearing not inflated into a dozen-meter giant snake, still the original tail thickness, but length infinitely extending, precisely backstabbing and ambushing, biting the Shop Owner’s neck and injecting a special ‘venom’ into the blood vessels.
Before the Shop Owner could struggle and resist, it quickly coiled several times around the neck, squeezing tightly to create suffocation and oxygen deprivation, disrupting the vital breathing rhythm.
The four major Ghost Companions fearlessly rushed forward, one hugging an arm or leg, sealing the Shop Owner’s every move. The ‘venom’ injected into the artery by the Shadow Snake also rapidly (actively) broke through the blood-brain barrier, inserting a 【Liquid Dataized Soul Pollution (Memory Stick)】 into the brain.
The Shop Owner suffered a despicable gang beating led by the 【Tiger Demon】, with sneak attacks, more concealed sneak attacks + venom injection + throat lock suffocation…… Unable to hold out for dozens of seconds, he felt waves of dizziness, plus brain stinging pain and chaotic thinking.
Before the Shop Owner could struggle, the Tiger Demon slapped a claw on his crown. This claw didn’t use force to crack the skull and burst the head; on the contrary, the Tiger Demon was very gentle, like an immortal stroking the top, tying hair and granting a 【Brain Eggplant】!
A small tomato like the Gourd Boy, covered in brain gyrus structures, was pressed and inserted into the Shop Owner’s head by the Tiger Demon. The two leaves of the Shadow Brain Eggplant, grown with vascular patterns, rapidly sprouted countless root tendrils, piercing the scalp, drilling through the fontanelle position into the skull, rooting into the brain.
The Brain Eggplant Root Tendrils rapidly connected with the 【Dataized Soul Pollution Memory Stick】 that had broken through the blood-brain barrier.
The Shop Owner’s body convulsed violently, eyes rolling white, black petroleum-like filthy blood oddly flowing out, aura fluctuating erratically, spirit violently fluctuating……
“Boss, he won’t be unable to bear it and die from brain overload, right?”
The Tiger Demon narrowed its eyes and pulled out a constantly wriggling struggling 【Shadow Eggplant Seedling】 from the shadows under its body. During the three days preparing for the mission, it had thrown two 【Shadow Eggplant Seedlings + Goblin Flowerpots】 into the Universe Within The Belly for refinement, aiming to enhance its control over 【Eggplant Seedlings】 and turn them into ‘Ghost Companion Plugins’.
Ultimately, it obtained this ‘Ghost Companion Plugin. Shadow Parasitic Root Tendrils’. At this moment, with the Tiger Demon letting go, these dense hair-like Shadow Eggplant Root Tendrils immediately drilled into the Shop Owner’s nape, spreading along the ‘blood vessels’ throughout the body, and connecting with the ‘Brain Eggplant Root Tendrils, Shadow Memory’ in the brain.
Click!
The Shop Owner suddenly stopped trembling, opened his eyes, eyeballs pitch black, silently staring at Yuan Zhu, awaiting orders.
Little Spicy Stick: “Haha, boot successful!”
