Shadow Synthesis
“You ready? I can’t do anything about Lie Shang and Xiang Nan because they merged without erasing their spirit lords’ conscious. They’re rather radical despite having ascended to Apotheosis Realm due to their incomplete merge. I can help you perfect your fusion,” Cheng Yan guaranteed.
“You want to kill me?” grouched Ju Mang.
“You tried to steal my body, didn’t you?” Mu Yu ribbed. Sensing Ju Mang’s flames, Mu Yu shook his head with a smile. “I’ll pass.”
“Pass?” Ju Mang and Cheng Yan responded in unison.
“He saved Tian Ran and helped me.”
Cheng Yan, finding it hard to believe, queried, “Your spirit lord helped you?”
Mu Yu peered inside himself to Ju Mang and smiled again. “He’s not nefarious through and through.”
“Hmph,” scoffed Ju Mang.
After hearing Mu Yu recount Ju Mang’s contributions, Cheng Yan replied, “My spirit lord hasn’t been so kind; I didn’t feel guilty wiping out his mind. Seeing as Ju Mang is that nice, I suppose I understand where you’re coming from.”
“Whoa. I thought you’d talk me into fusing no matter what.”
“To merge means that you grasp your spirit lord’s domain. If you work it out on your own to ascend, you might even create a superior domain ability with your talent. I guess there’s a drawback either way.”
“Hmm… Does that mean I’ll have two domain abilities if I design my own as my means of ascending?”
“Correct. For that reason, I don’t intend to pressure you into merging. At the end of the day, harnessing your own domain ability is more important than stealing one.”
Hmm, I could share the technique with Qiao Xue, Mu Yu inwardly said. “First Brother, what’s your domain ability?”
“Cosmic Genesis.”
“Uh…”
Cheng Yan wagged his finger slightly. The ground swirled, and metals merged into shiny balls orbiting his finger that he could manipulate into any shape. “I don’t like the ability because it’s not mine despite how effective it is.” The shiny balls drew everything on the ground to them – no exceptions.
“You can pull anything in?”
“And repel away anything, including techniques and people as long as they’re within my domain.” Cheng Yan demonstrated the repellent ability, returning everything back to where he took them from. “I can’t manipulate things like you and Lie Shang do, though.”
“That’s overpowered. That’s better than magnets!” Xiaoshuai enthused.
“I prefer the celestial swords Shifu gave us because they’re our true roots. Moreover, there’s no such thing as a perfect skill to rule all. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and my domain has its own flaw. The same applies to our swords. I hope Mu Yu already realises this,” responded Cheng Yan, referring to the spacious area needed to draw power from the firmament for Mu Yu’s signature slash. “Unlike the three of us, you’ve learnt the art of formations. If you can glean Shifu’s formation knowledge, you can complete Shifu’s set of skills. I, as a matter of fact, prefer you rely on yourself to grow stronger since Ju Mang gets along with you.”
“I’ll do my best,” Mu Yu assured.
After Cheng Yan left, Mu Yu studied the black piece of metal the former passed on to him. The piece detailed the fusion technique Cheng Yan mentioned that was called “Shadow Shackle”, which derived from shadow and shadowless race’s “Shadow Synthesis”. Upon mastering the third level of Shadow Synthesis, one’s shadow and body split, giving rise to an independent shadow – Shadow Formation. The ninth level, which is also the last stage, requires the practitioner to merge the independent shadow back with the real body – Shadow Fusion.
The pioneer of Shadow Synthesis invented the style with the intent of doubling his cultivation speed via cultivating separately, then merging once they reached the ninth level. The plan went off the rails when the shadow argued it had the right to live on, unfortunately. Owing to the fact that nobody in the race’s history ever mastered the ninth level, Shadow Shackle became synonymous with Shadow Fusion.
“First Brother had it coming when he stole the entire manual. This is one hell of a discipline.”
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
