Chapter 268: A Great Discovery
Ace spat out a mouthful of blood. Using Shadow Raven Blink in a sorry state, he changed directions and barely managed to shake off the pursuers.
Even the shielding ability of the Spirit of the Book couldn’t completely block the secret imprint. It could only prevent the enemy from pinpointing his exact range, but they could still sense his general direction.
‘Damn it, it turned out to be a Great Hero! I’m f*cked.’
Ace cursed letting out a classic curse word from his past life. If not for his presence concealment and Shadow Raven Blink, he would have certainly been crushed on the spot by the prison created by the Great Hero.
The opponent hadn’t expected Ace to be able to blink away directly. Although he lost a Shadow Raven, he at least kept his life.
‘This can’t go on. The mark isn’t something that can be lifted in a short while; it’s too difficult to remove. I can only find a way to clear the mark by finding an undisturbed place to study this.’
Ace thought calmly.
Meanwhile, outside, the Divine Descendant Heroes and the Great Hero Karim had already surrounded the area.
“This strange desecrator actually interfered with the positioning compass’s search and even escaped from Lord Karim’s guardian cage. It’s too wierd!”
Purple-haired Roon muttered.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it felt.
“Could it be a conspiracy of the Devils , or a wrestling match between certain Deities?”
He knew the truth—the Deities didn’t mind whether mortals became extraordinary. Their governance of mortals was mostly laissez-faire.
Only individual Deities would choose based on their preferences; for instance, the God of Guardians Milne detested supernatural individuals who did not possess Divine Blood.
Through the Perception Spell and Astrological Prevision Spell, Ace had already peeked at the gradually shrinking encirclement. Half the night had passed. If daylight arrived, the flock of shadow ravens would be easily spotted, making escape even more difficult.
‘A flock of shadow ravens? An undisturbed place? The Reflection World!’
Ace’s thoughts connected. As long as he entered the Reflection World here, he could completely jump out of the encirclement.
He ordered the flock of ravens to stand guard while he calmly and quickly drew a teleportation magic array. Breaking through the planar crystal walls, he sent a shadow raven into the Reflection World, and then used the precise coordinates to reverse summon himself there.
Shadow ravens were natives of the Reflection World. They bore the traces of the reflection and could easily cross the planar crystal walls to return to the Reflection World, provided Ace released the corresponding binding contract.
With the rhythm of mana, the forms of the three shadow ravens in the magic array gradually blurred, while the surrounding Divine Descendants were also closing in.
Bang!
The three raven vanished. In Ace’s perception, they disappeared from the Material Plane.
They could only be found through the familiar contact constructed by the one-dimensional True Spirit line.
Several Heroes who had already discovered Ace exchanged glances and nodded slightly, slowly approaching him.
The sudden disappearance of the three ravens surprised them; thinking they had been discovered, they quickly pounced on Ace.
Unexpectedly, Ace had discovered them long ago. Transforming into a shadow to become immune to their attacks, he used mental power to pry the magic array, causing it to collapse on its own. Then, he quickly used Shadow Raven Blink to flee the spot.
…
The night gradually passed. Ace was surrounded once again. This time, he didn’t run. Instead, he cast Dream Mist on the spot to stall for time and directly set up a Reverse Summoning Magic Array.
“Open the Guard Authority! Surround this place completely! Don’t let him run!”
Several iron-masked men roared. They were all descendants of the God of Guardians Milne. Their authorities combined to form a complete spherical barrier.
Ace ignored them, and ignored the dozens of scythes flying towards him. He focused on constructing and activating the Magic Array. As Ace infused Bright Moon Mana, the scythes plunged into his body with squelching sounds. He hurriedly transformed into a shadow. The entire Magic Array glowed with a faint silver light, and the heavily injured Ace and the flock of ravens vanished.
When Karim arrived, the Magic Array had already disintegrated. The Punishers found nothing.
This was a difference in knowledge. Even as a Great Hero, Karim did not understand space, nor did he have the ability to imprison space. Although there was a mark, it still couldn’t stop Ace’s escape.
“My Lord, the mark on the compass has disappeared.”
Karim looked at the compass, his expression shifting uncertainly. According to Ashalei, this meant the target was no longer in the Material Plane.
“Send people to guard this place. Invite Ashalei here.”
At this moment, Ace had completed his shadow transformation, becoming a pitch-black, upright human shadow. He coughed, gasping for breath, as Bright Moon Mana vitality flowed through his body.
Borrowing the shadow-transformed body, Ace slowly recovered from his severe injuries. He stood in the bizarre Reflection World, exceptionally horrified.
Withered jungles and twisted trees danced ceaselessly, seemingly ready to devour people. The sky was a haze of darkness seeping with dark red bloodstains. The ground was parched, filled with drifting yellow sand. As the cold wind blew, the gravel crackled, revealing piles of white bones.
This scene didn’t surprise Ace; he had seen too much of it. What surprised him was that there were no shadow creatures here. Instead, they were replaced by groups of skeletons.
These skeletons came in various forms, including various animals and humanoid skeletons, walking in groups of three or five. They were so fragile that some fell down while walking, their leg bones shattering directly.
A humanoid skeleton that had lost its leg bones still dragged its half-body forward, attempting to attack a rabbit skeleton.
The scene was somewhat comical, yet also cruel. Within the skull of every moving skeleton frame lay a cluster of jumping gray fire. The fire was so weak that Ace would have subconsciously ignored it if not for careful observation.
‘Undead!’
A word that had never appeared in this world popped into Ace’s mind. Using the word “death” as a prefix and “spirit/soul” as a suffix, he coined a new term—and perhaps a new direction for research.
The pitch-black shadow figure grinned. The hollow face looked somewhat terrifying. This expression reflected its owner’s heart: new research subjects, new joy.
Running for his life and new research—double the happiness.
Just as Ace was feeling joyous, the rabbit skeleton and the crippled humanoid skeleton had determined a victor. The crippled humanoid skeleton grabbed the rabbit skeleton, smashed its skull, and brought its own skull close to the rabbit skeleton’s fragile gray fire.
With a slurp, the rabbit skeleton’s gray fire was sucked into the crippled humanoid skeleton’s skull. Chased by his gray fire, it was soon thoroughly absorbed and digested.
The crippled skeleton’s gray fire grew visibly larger. He pressed his hand bone against the rabbit skeleton’s remains. The gray fire separated a little, burning along the hand bone onto the remains, actually transforming the remains into a complete leg bone.
Ace observed with great interest. This crippled skeleton was different from the others. Most skeletons walked unconsciously. If they met, they would fight desperately under the drive of instinct, with the stronger one eventually absorbing the weaker one’s gray fire.
There were also skeletons whose fires extinguished as they walked, their bone frames rapidly falling apart to merge with the piles of white bones under the gravel.
The crippled skeleton possessed basic combat intelligence. He consciously attacked weak skeletons and avoided strong ones, using every method to strengthen himself.
Ace watched with a smile as the crippled skeleton consumed his gray fire bit by bit to regrow leg bones and toe bones, and consciously enhanced the hardness and toughness of his finger bones.
‘This skeleton seems like a good experimental subject. I’ll call it Skeleton Experiment Subject No. 1.’
Shadow Ace revealed a hollow smile.
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