Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 38. Shade.

“Where do you think you are going to?” Shade asked the twenty remaining Shadows of his in a playful tone; a tone which sent shivers up the men’s spines. “I don’t recall telling you to retreat,” he added lightheartedly, with quite some pain moving his gaze away from the two boys and turning it to his subordinates.

“Master,” the number twenty-eight spoke up nervously. He wanted to bow and fall to his knees, but Shade was on the roof above them; he needed to keep looking up if he didn’t want to appear disrespectful. “Those two are too strong for us. There’s no way we can defeat them…” he pleaded, his throat clenching and unclenching rapidly as he bowed as deep as he could. The others did the same, hoping to be able to preserve their lives.

“I know you can’t, who do you think I am?” Shade asked with a childish accent and snorted pompously.

“M-master…!” The number twenty-eight was about to break down. Did Shade no longer care for their lives at all? Was it for his amusement that he was telling them to go and die?

“What, you aren’t willing?” Shade asked in a surprised tone and tilted his head. On the contrary, however, his eyes showed no emotion; they were ice-cold.

The number twenty-eight froze in place, unable to move or say anything. He was still rational enough to know that either way he would face death, but not wanting to hasten it, he stopped himself from giving in to impulses. Those other Shadows on the other hand… after the first one transformed into a blur of shadows and attempted to escape, the rest of them followed instantly. They respected and feared their master, but which of them would willingly forsake his life for him? They could go into a dangerous situation, but they wouldn’t fight with no chance of survival!

“Hmph,” Shade snorted, his figure turning into a very apparent and easily visible cluster of shadows. In the half-ethereal form, Shade moved far faster than what the kind of his subordinates from lower ranked units could perceive. In fact, even Yin with his great perception failed to follow Shade’s movements and could only make out an indistinct blur in the places the cluster of shadows moved through.

What was even more abnormal though, was that those fleeing Shadows began dying one after another and Shade hadn’t even emerged from the protection of darkness! All that could be seen was his hand sweeping out from within them, to then break necks or directly slash off his men’s head with the aid of a little bit of Qi. It didn’t take more than three seconds for all twenty Shadows to fall, none of them having made it even as much as halfway to the tunnel outside, not to mention actually escaping.

“So you didn’t run,” Shade said casually as he emerged from within the shadows a meter or so away from the number twenty-eight. “Sorry though, one needs to be thorough while cleaning up,” he added with a shrug of his shoulders and flickered his finger, releasing a wisp of darkness which wrung its way into the number twenty eight’s chest and decomposed his body from within, killing him before he had a chance to plead or scream.

Watching from afar, Laien and Yin swallowed at the same time they saw the body of that black-cloaked man dissolve and turn into ashes while he was still standing up. Seeing this kind of effect reminded Yin of the aftermath that short-haired girl had left on the ground; whatever that black-masked man did had the same effect, just tens if not hundreds of times stronger.

“Who is that man?” Laien asked helplessly, taking this while of relative peace to wonder how in the world did they manage to offend someone so freakishly powerful. He had watched a major battle between elite martial masters of the top schools of the Sarkcente Kingdom and yet, his instincts were still telling him that this black-masked man was stronger than them! He was almost certain that this black-masked man was nearly at Rudford’s level of strength, what in itself made it impossible for either him or Yin to resist him in actual combat.

Yin only laughed bitterly in answer to Laien’s question. He was pretty sure the black-masked man was one of the true leaders of the Anarchic Lands, but him saying so was pointless. Just like Laien, he was in low spirits; as a magical beast he had instincts much sharper than Laien and now that this man had momentarily stopped suppressing his aura, he realized they were completely out of his class.

“Why so stiff?” a merry question resounded a few meters in front of Laien and Yin, startling them heavily. How did this man appear in front of them so quickly?! He had been a kilometer away just a second ago! What kind of ridiculous movement technique was that?!

“Come on~” Shade said with a smirk and did something that would have astonished anyone who knew or had heard of him; took his mask off.

To Laien and Yin’s surprise, he looked surprisingly normal, appearing to be in his early twenties, or perhaps even late teens. His facial features were rather amiable and playful, fitting well with his usual character. Had one not known this person was a Great Chieftain of the Anarchic Lands and moreover, a Shade, he would have likely taken him to be a friendly neighborhood older brother.

“You passed the Trial of Strength so brilliantly I even did you a favor and got rid of everyone who saw you two battle. I imagine you wouldn’t want your secrets to leak out into the world, especially you kiddo,” Shade said with a laugh and gave Yin a meaningful look towards the end. The news of a human-shaped magical beast that was still in the mortal realm would have caused all major world powers to go crazy; they would all wish to capture Yin and integrate his bloodline into their own families!

“Well, I guess almost everyone,” Shade added with a resigned chuckle and turned his gaze towards the field of ice statues and frozen, mostly dead people nearby. “Some of them are still clinging to their lives. Let me fix that for you,” he said and waved his hand, releasing something akin to an ominous ghastly shadow which slowly creeped upon the battlefield, then began washing over and dissolving the bodies there one after another; the only thing left after it passed a spot would be an interspatial ring or an extremely durable weapon. Everything else would rot away and turn into nothingness.

“Okay, where was I again?” Shade scratched his head, this little annoyance having sidetracked his train of thoughts. “Ah, right! Congratulations, you two passed the second stage of the Shadow Trials; the Trial of Strength,” he said with a smile, then laughed when he saw the boys remain wary of him. “You know, I shouldn’t be talking with you at all until the Shadow Trials are over, but you did so well I just need to make you my friends. I have a feeling you are going to be right in the center of the huge storm that is about to be unleashed in some more years,” he mentioned carefreely, but began pouting a little when the boys still stayed on their guard.

“Oh fine, you are too scared to speak? Then let’s fight some,” Shade said with a smirk, causing Laien and Yin to nearly jump; fight this monster? How were they supposed to do it? “Oh don’t worry, I will go easy on you. Rather, let’s make this useful and gave you learn something! You both have very impressive insights into the Secret Arts, but your Awareness is rather lacking. From what I could tell from your fights, you both only have partial insights into the true essence of Awareness, no?” he inquired, clearly surprising Laien and Yin with his knowledge.

“Oh, don’t tell me no one taught you about that?” Shade asked, surprised by the boys’ surprise. “Wow, don’t tell me you gained insights into the true essence without knowing what it is? You probably don’t even know what I’m speaking about, eh?” he asked and sighed heavily. Now that was troublesome! Without knowing which part the boys lacked he would find it hard to stimulate them. He wanted to reward them for their performance in his own way, but it was starting to be more troublesome than he had expected.

“I think we know what you are speaking about,” Laien said carefully, having calmed down enough to have a proper conversation with Shade. He was more or less used to interacting with people who could kill him as easily as turning their hand, so he had collected himself before Yin could. “If you are talking about the foundations that make the Aspects stronger and easier to control, then I know about them and so does Yin,” he answered, then breathed with relief with Shade’s expression brightened.

“That makes it easy! Please confirm then,” Shade said with a broad smile and first asked Laien. “You should have two full true essences, of foundations as you call them; Wrath and Tranquility. Then, you also have half of the Awareness?”

“That’s correct,” Laien admitted, unable to think of a reason he would want to lie in this situation. This man before them appeared not to care about the death of his men at all; he was also quite eccentric… so they would hopefully get out of this alive.

“And you,” Shade turned to look at Yin. “You also have two full foundations. Pride and Humility if I’m not mistaken; I’m not too familiar with those Secret Arts. Then comes a half-complete Awareness and still plain Desire, no?” he asked with a smile and stomped his feet energetically when Yin responded with a nod. Good!

“So, both of you tell me, do you remember when your Awareness got stronger? What were you doing and feeling at the time?”

Yin’s expression turned dark, but he answered nevertheless. “I gained basic insights into it while training, then developed the foundation… while thinking about the past and the future,” he answered vaguely, in the end unwilling to share his past with the no-longer black-masked man. He had told Laien about everything, but that was only because how close the two of them had grown.

“I also gained the first insights in battle,” Laien picked up, aware of the reasons for Yin’s reluctance to speak in more detail. “Then… I’m not sure when it was. I think I created the first part of the foundation when I reflected upon my character and actions,” he answered, having long since guessed that understanding oneself was the requirement to establish a half of the foundation of the Aspect of Awareness. However, this line of thought was quite disturbing since if his next guess was right, then it indeed was an extreme battle that pushed one’s perception to the very limit that was required to complete the foundation of the Aspect of Awareness.

“Great, it means no boring self-reflecting talks between us are necessary,” Shade said brightly and put his mask back on. He was so used to fighting with it on that he felt almost naked without it, so he naturally did what he found most comfortable to do. “Oh?” he said with a smirk, then released his aura and clad the strands probing him with his own perception, thus completely blocking them from scanning or even sensing the presence of his body.

“That’s an exquisite aura-manipulation skill you have there,” he praised Yin with a smile. “However, refrain from using your aura. It won’t do you any good since I can hide from it, though it’s quite annoying to be constantly on guard against such probing too,” he advised merrily and produced a scimitar from his interspatial ring. “Focus and try to defend, okay? If you don’t you might even die,” he warned with a laugh, then suppressed his aura and… disappeared. There weren’t even the usual shadows accompanying a movement technique; both his body and his presence went and disappeared!

Despite trying, Yin was unable to suppress the trembling of his body. He had managed to briefly probe this black-masked man’s cultivation base and discovered… that he was only at the third Realm of Heroes! For him to possess this kind of power at such an early stage… how monstrous would he become when he advanced to the seventh, eighth or even ninth Realm of Heroes? It was too frightening to even think about it! For the first time Yin felt that even if his cultivation base matched that of another person’s, he might not necessarily be stronger than him!

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

What made Yin’s belief in his inferiority even stronger was the way Shade countered his probing with strands of aura. He had attempted to do the same multiple times, but it was too hard to do even when the six-year-old was cooperating with him! Yet, this man did it so effortlessly!

“No other way about it huh,” Laien laughed, maintaining the flow of Qi and spiritual energy in his body. His skin was still pale, his pupils were a mix of white mist and black color and most of his hair had become silver; he grabbed his spear with both hands and closed his eyes, waiting for an attack to come.

Unlike Yin, Laien had gone through hardships against which he had fought head-on. His mentality was already stable enough to allow him to focus and not panic even under the direst circumstances, especially now that his soul had gotten more powerful and stable after today’s breakthrough.

“Hmm, so Laien first, huh?” Shade smiled, sensing the boys’ location purely through their presence, without relying on the aura or Secret Arts at all. He could tell that Laien was calm, while Yin was restless. To make a breakthrough in the Secret of Awareness one needed to have a calm, Tranquil mind. He himself had a full foundation of the Secret of Tranquility just like Laien, so he was sure this boy would find it easy to make the necessary breakthrough as long as someone pushed a few correct buttons.

“Yin, calm down, it will be fine,” Laien said quietly, able to sense how unnaturally nervous and scared Yin was through their spiritual bond. Yet, before a response from Yin could come, he sensed a chill from the side; even though he wasn’t looking, he saw a silhouette of a scimitar appear in his mind. It was as if he himself had only become a colorless, gray silhouette, a mere contour, and just nearby, there was a blade lazily approaching his shoulder.

It wasn’t a problem for Laien to raise his spear in time to block; the attack Shade had thrown was purposely not perfectly hidden and quite slow. However, the moment Shade’s scimitar collided with the shaft of Laien’s spear, the latter one was nearly blown off from Laien’s hands as he staggered back and bumped into Yin.

What a frightening bodily strength! Shade had very obviously struck very casually, without using his Qi or the Secret Arts he had mastered. Laien, on the other hand, was employing full strength of his insights and was actively strengthening his body with his Qi; and yet he was the one blown away! This was the difference between an elite martial practitioner of the eighth rank and an elite martial master of the third rank!

Intoxicated by the new experience, Laien took two large steps forward and calmed his mind once again, preparing to take another blow.

“What a kiddo, he’s smiling!” Shade laughed in his heart. It was already amazing enough for a twelve-year-old to keep his calm in those circumstances; the people he had personally trained rarely were able to do that, but this boy was actually enjoying this! What a freak! “Good, let’s see how far we can go!” he thought excitedly, finding this little instruction process to be much more pleasant than he had thought it would be.

Another blow of the scimitar was sent after a few seconds; just to make it safe, hidden no better than the previous one. To Shade’s satisfaction, Laien sensed it even earlier than the first time and put his whole body into blocking, thus preventing himself from being knocked away.

“Good, if he can block all seven levels then he will certainly complete his true essence of Awareness,” Shade thought contentedly and proceeded to strike at Laien from different angles. The first two attacks of his had been at the rudimentary ‘first’ level, whereas all the following ones were hidden better and better, being harder and harder to detect. The moment Laien got used to dealing with a lower level, he would up the difficulty and continue.

In truth, a session like that was almost never done in one go… but Shade had high expectations of those boys and Laien was answering them perfectly! Along the way Shade had actually reconsidered and started using Qi in attacks, seeing as his normal blows were at most capable of giving Laien light wounds! He didn’t want to aim at the vital areas, but wanted to give the kid a sense of crisis; thus, by the sixtieth exchange, Laien’s clothes were littered with holes and the top of his body had been practically stripped naked. More importantly, however, Laien had just cleared the sixth level and moved onto the most difficult, seventh one!

All the while, Yin watched what was going on from the side and with each passing moment was beginning to feel more miserable about himself. He criticized Laien for being too hot-headed and for rushing into danger without thinking, but now he couldn’t help but think he himself was being a coward! He had gotten so scared of Shade that he became unable to focus; thankfully, Shade’s ‘threat’ of the possibility of killing them proved to be nothing but a bluff. Had the man intended to kill them, he would have done so long ago! Yin felt he should have figured it out on his own too, what added to the sense of ridicule he felt towards his own person.

“What am I doing?” Yin asked himself and laughed silently. “This man mentioned some kind of Shadow Trials; he must be a member of the Guild of Shadows. He said we passed, so what am I worrying about so much? Yes he can kill us whenever he wants, but if just that causes me to shiver and become unable to do anything, then how do I ever want to avenge my family?” he asked himself, then took a deep breath and shut his eyes tight. A second afterward his trembling stopped and his breathing steadied; he focused, readying himself to undergo the same tempering process Laien was going through.

“Mhm,” Shade nodded contentedly. “It looks like this Yin has a lot in his heart. He obviously isn’t a coward, so there must be some other reason. Good thing he managed to deal with his inner devils on his own,” he thought in appreciation, but for the time being chose to finish with Laien. He had just given the boy a few new wounds, which Laien had instantly healed. Each time though his reaction was becoming better and better, causing Shade to be sure that soon he would make an advancement.

“It’s hard… the instincts don’t do it anymore. What do I lack? Battle Sense? No, he would have mentioned it…” Laien wondered, trying to come up with a way to defend himself in time. He could sense those attacks, but it would always be too late to late to react. He couldn’t perceive the physical, there was no sound, no wind pressure, no killing intent and no presence… then, what was left?

“What is left is…” Laien had a feeling that the answer was really close, just at the tip of his tongue. He took another blow, spilling some more of his blood and using up some more Qi and spiritual energy to heal himself. “It is…” he repeated almost unconsciously, then as another attack of Shade’s was coming, his eyes suddenly snapped open as he dodged out of the way!

“What is left is the heart, and the soul!” he told himself, a bright smile emerging on his face. Deep inside his spiritual sea, inside his soul, the omnicolored half-complete cluster of the essence of the Aspect of Awareness stirred up, then increased in volume and condensed into a perfect orb. With that final step, Laien had completed the foundation of the Aspect of Awareness!

“What a pleasant feeling,” Laien raised his spear and looked at it. The weapon which seemed to only be a tool to him until now seemed almost alive in his eyes. If he concentrated just a little he could sense the life force pulsing inside his spear and in fact, in everything else around him! In the rocks, in the dirt of the ground, in the air and in the waters of the lake! Everywhere!

“In just ten minutes… well done, very well done!” Shade’s voice rang out from nowhere, but Laien as he was now smiled cheekily and looked Shade in the eye, easily spotting the place the man was floating at with the assistance of a few strands of darkness-element Qi.

Shade chortled, finding this cheeky attitude of Laien’s to be quite pleasant indeed. “It’s your turn now, are you ready?” he asked Yin just to make sure. He wanted to help polish those rough diamonds, not to break them. However, he smiled happily when Yin responded with an eager nod; he wouldn’t expect any less from the two youths that managed to rouse his expectations!

“You, no hinting anything!” Shade said before beginning, obviously referring to Laien. Then, he hid his presence again and adjusted his efficiency down to the first level and repeated the same process he had gone through with Laien with Yin.

“Oh my, they are so much alike,” Shade laughed to himself. Yin was taking just about the same amount of tries to advance from one level to another; the only difference was that he couldn’t heal himself like his friend, so Shade had chosen to restrain himself properly this whole time. Yet, later on, a difference appeared; when they switched to the seventh level of difficulty, Yin comprehended the secret behind the Secret of Awareness after just two blows! It was considerably faster than Laien who had taken over a dozen to finally figure it out!

Shade was impressed, but also a bit confused when the two boys exchange a look and both smiled wryly at each other. Was there something he didn’t know about?

In reality, there was a major thing Shade had no idea about. Laien and Yin were deeply connected on the spiritual level; the moment one of them made a breakthrough the other one would be able to experience the sensations accompanying it. With as strong as their spiritual bond had gotten recently, they could almost chat through their spiritual bond alone. Given those things, how could Yin not have had a vague idea of what Laien’s realization was? He still needed to find it on his own, but having a point of reference made it many times easier.

Objectively speaking the comprehensive ability of Laien’s and Yin’s was at a similar level. Their comparable achievements in the Aspects and Principles were enough of a proof for that, as was their progress in them. The differences in their progress would only be attributed to their characters, the number of lucky chances and the number of challenges they would go through. As long as neither of them died along the way, they were practically destined to become top figures of the Starlight continent in the future and with some luck, they could even become its overlords!

“That was much faster than I thought, all in all under twenty minutes,” Shade said as he took his mask off once again, his figure emerging from within the ethereal world of shadows. “So, Laien, Yin, do you have any questions? I probably shouldn’t be telling you anything, but I can’t resist lending you a hand,”

“You said something about Shadow Trials?” Laien picked up immediately. Wasn’t there something about the Trial of Strength, which was supposedly the second Trial? Had they already gone through the first one without knowing? Did they fail it or did they succeed in it?

“I guess you’d normally ask about this,” Shade said with a little sigh but smiled right afterward. “In Shadow Trials there are three parts. The Trial of Heart which takes from three months to a year; the Trial of Strength which looks pretty much like you experienced just now, and the Trial of Will. You are already in the middle of the Trial of Heart and you passed my Trial of Strength. If you pass all three Trials, you will become Shades, just like me and a few others,” he explained and looked at the boys expectantly. Was there anything else they would like to know?

“So you are called Shade?” Yin changed the subject, sensing that the man was unwilling to go into the details of the other Trials.

“That’s just a title,” Shade answered with a chuckle. “My real name is Altair. It’s a name my master’s chosen for me, quite a silly one but I like it,” he revealed with a laugh. The next moment his expression changed a little as an idea came to his mind. He munched on it for a bit, then threw the caution to the wind. He produced two pitch-black sigils with a hissing snake on engraved on the front and a letter ‘A’ engraved on the back and threw one to each of the boys.

“There aren’t many people who know the sigil of Shades’, but those higher-ups who know of it will also be aware what you possessing it signifies. If you ever get into trouble, you can use it once to trade for your safety,” he explained with a scary smile and licked his lips, imagining what he and other Shadows liked to do to those who killed their protégées.

“Just to make it clear, it won’t help you with the Trials. If you fail the other two, you will be killed by the Guild,” he added with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. If he could he would have applied for the kids to have passed the other two Trials too all at once as they did things noteworthy enough of passing, but he was only one of the examiners. He didn’t have the authority to do this kind of thing.

“Your men almost killed me,” Yin brought up, making the atmosphere grow cold and strained. “You almost made Laien fail his important breakthrough too. But you gave us a chance and then provided us with assistance after we made use of it. For that, thank you, Altair,” he said honestly and smiled at the man. He perhaps wouldn’t come to like Shade after what he did, but he no longer hated or disliked him either.

“Haha, that’s right,’ Laien agreed with a smile. “Thanks for everything, for those too,” he said wryly and raised the black sigil between his fingers before storing it away.

“My pleasure,” Shade said helplessly. He didn’t expect those two to surprise him one last time with their straightforward honestly! “You must be both tired, and I guarantee the people of this village don’t have good intentions towards you. I will forbid them from going down for next twelve hours so feel free to have a nice rest before leaving,” he offered casually, then added before dissipating into darkness and leaving.

“Right, all the spoils of battle are yours. There should be some top-grade weapons here and some good things in all the interspatial rings too.”

Laien and Yin exchanged an amused look; their brains were telling him they really shouldn’t like a person like this man, but they couldn’t help it! They actually came to respect him for his strength and all said and done, the two of them had benefited a great deal from today’s events. All that was left was to gather the spoils of battle like Altair said and prepare for the arrival of the villagers in twelve hours.

And well… for that, Laien had a certain idea in mind. He chuckled to himself and looked over at the crimson and azure crystal, feeling the two presences inside it very clearly.