Somewhere inside the Dark Forest stood a man and a beast. The weak sunlight shone through the dense canopy, which faintly lit up the Dark Forest. The weak sunlight, coupled with the pitch black clothes on the man, gave off a ethereal feeling. That man was Shadow.
A beast stood facing Shadow. It was a wild boar that was thrice as big as Shadow. It's grey fur was extremely tough and 3 sharp horns were situated on its head, giving it the necessary defense and offense. Its only weak point was at the underbelly, where the skin was easy to pierce through. It was a Rare rank beast, Grey Coat boar.
As it charged towards Shadow, Shadow stood there unmoving like a deity looking down on mortals. Shadow slowly stretched out his hands towards the charging boar and in the next instant, several Dark Qi swords emerged from the ground and pierced the under side of the boar.
The boar gave a sharp cry before collapsing lifelessly onto the floor, fresh blood seeped out of the several sword wounds. Shadow walked towards the boar and cleanly sliced off several pieces of meat before eating it raw.
Shadow read in a book that eating a ranked beast meat raw would replenish your body with Qi and vigor. As the raw meat entered the black mist, it quickly dissolved and several weak strands of White Qi invaded Shadow.
Alarmed, Shadow immediately entered his cultivation state to force the White Qi out. 'Oh right. It's White Qi.' Due to the recent trauma, Shadow had been aimlessly killing beasts and sometimes, eating their meat forgetting that the Qi isn't compatible.
The black mist soon conjugated back into a human form after dispelling the White Qi. 'Sigh... How am I going to kill the imperial army like this.'
Whilst thinking of a way to level up, Shadow was currently targeted by 2 Devil cultivators. Devil cultivators were once human and gone down the path of evil to seek more power. Basically, they were the enemies of both the Human and Demon race.
The 2 Devil cultivators behind a large shrub eyed Shadow cautiously.
"Scar Face, do we kill him? We are on a mission, we can't let anyone know of this," An extremely beautiful woman with a pair of devilish eyes whispered worriedly.
Scar Face frowned and warily whispered back, "I can't sense his cultivation level, and he gives me the creeps...I think..."
"Can't sense his cultivation level?! How can this be?! You are already at Qi Formation upper stage!" The beautiful woman named Xiao Yao subconsciously exclaimed.
Swiftly, Scar Face placed his hands on her mouth and dragged her down behind the shrubs. His placed his fingers on his lips, indicating that she was too loud.
After waiting for a while and found out that Shadow did not detect them, they let a breath of relief. Xiao Yao then lowered her head, embarrassed at her own clumsiness.
"I think that he must be using some treasure to hide his cultivation base, otherwise, he would have noticed us by now. Let's do it." Scar Face ignored her and calmly made a logical judgement.
Silently, Xiao Yao nodded her head and the fingernails on her hands extended, becoming 10 sharp needles coated with a deadly poison.
However, Scar Face blocked her with his arm and walked forward while unsheathing his sword. "Let me do it. Back me up."
"But-t..." Xiao Yao wanted to argue but after recalling her previous mistake, she immediately shut up.
Scar Face poured his Qi into the sword and in the next moment, his figure blurred as he dashed towards the unsuspecting Shadow.
Puuuu! Only the sound of fabric tearing could heard, other than that, the sound of the sword piercing the flesh was completely absent. In that moment, Scar Face knew that he did not pierce his enemy and immediately withdrew the sword.
As Shadow was contemplating on the ways to increase his cultivation, he felt a destructive force invading him from inside. He immediately glanced down and saw that a thin sword that was coated with White Qi emerged out of his abdomen area. At the same time, however, the sword quickly sliced back out causing the White Qi to stop invading the black mist.
The residue White Qi rained down destruction on the black mist as they tried to escape out of the dense black mist. At this moment, Shadow once gain felt that his existence was fading away and quickly used 'Devourer of Night' to eject out the destructive White Qi. This time round, the invasion of White Qi was way stronger than the previous one.
While ejecting out the White Qi, Shadow turned around to face his attacker. He saw a middle-aged man with a scar across his face staring at himself in shock, in his hands was a sword. The same one that had attacked him. Right behind him stood an alluring woman with her fingernails outstretched.
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After a moment of silence. Shadow asked, "Why did you attack me?"
Looking at the mist-like figure with White Qi coming out of its body, Scar Face was completely on guard now, he realized that the figure in front of does not had a physical face.
Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, Scar Face seriously replied, "We had to kill you. We are devils after all."
Scar Face was betting that the mysterious entity would think twice before attacking them as the Devils were known for their strength and ruthlessness.
Upon hearing that they were after his life, Shadow formed a Dark Qi barrier around him and stealthily placed a few Dark Qi swords in the ground. Since they are after his life, he has to fight with everything he got.
Scar Face frowned. This situation in front of him was developing towards a life and death fight. After taking in a deep breath, he got into an attacking stance. His fingers secretly motioning Xiao Yao to make a sneak attack.
With all the preparations done, Scar Face leaped forward with his sword in his right hand, getting ready to stab at any moment. Shadow immediately strengthened his barrier while leading him towards the hidden traps.
However, an agile figure was making her way towards Shadow from his blind spot. Just when she was about to pierce his throat, several Dark Qi swords penetrated her body, leaving behind several gaping holes. Instantly, Xiao Yao died without making a sound.
"Xiao Yao!" Scar Face screamed and ran towards her side. No matter how much he called out, she remained motionless. She had clearly died.
"You'll pay for this!" Scar Face charged forward, without giving a care about the traps. Dark Qi swords emerged wherever he stepped on, however, it was only able to leave a few slightly deep wounds on his body.
However, he did not realize that his cultivation stage has decreased to Qi Formation middle stage. As he continued to advance towards the retreating Shadow, he felt that his injuries were getting more and more grievous.
His vision blurred and soon enough, he fell, unconscious from the serious injuries. Shadow immediately stopped retreating and silently came over. Without a shred of sympathy, Shadow send waves after waves of Dark Qi swords through his body, eventually turning Scar Face into a bloody pile of minced meat.
After confirming that there were no one around him, Shadow left into the distance while reminding himself not to let his emotions control him in the future. This does not meant that he will not kill those who destroyed his sect.
After walking for a while, Shadow suddenly stopped. Without the myriad of emotions blinding him, he remembered the cosmic ring that Lin Fan had left for him.
He immediately imbued his Dark Qi into the ring and took out a map. 'Looks like I'm closer to the perimeter of the Dark Forest, there is a village close by. Alright, I'll find shelter there to increase my cultivation level' Shadow thought while glancing at the few Dark Qi pills.
***
When Shadow arrived at the gates of Dark Forest Village, the scene inside was the same as his sect; Dried blood was sprayed everywhere, crows were crowding together while devouring the corpses.
With a bad feeling in his heart, Shadow carefully walked into the village while keeping his guard up. The deathly atmosphere caused him to feel immensely depressed, his soul slightly shivering.
Then, he saw it. In middle of the village, where the corpses numbered to hundreds, a sinister black colored mist was floating above the bodies. When Shadow caught sight of it, a flood of memories soon invaded his mind, fragments of memories of the soldiers' massacre of the village played before his very eyes.
"Stop-p... Stop it! He's just a baby... NOOO!" Shadow clutched his head while kneeling on the floor. The atrocities that he had just witnessed were the soldiers killing off the defenseless villages one by one. When it came to the scene of the baby, Shadow was bawling his eyes out; his mind could not take it anymore.
Just when he was about to break, he mustered up what little consciousness he had left and whispered, "Holy Soul."
This time round, instead of a beam of light, a circular wave of golden light expanded outwards with Shadow at the center.
By using one's soul as a weapon, it will be extremely powerful yet dangerous as the impurities could easily invade the soul and corrupt it.
The black mist slowly dispersed under the brilliance of the light, turning into a ghastly white color which floated up into the sky.
When the golden light faded, the deathly feeling in the village vanished, what remained was a ghost town. Shadow remained in his knelt position as the dark mist in his body conjugated and dispersed. If one looked carefully, they could see that a tiny amount sinister black mist merging with the dark mist.
As Shadow continued to morph, the golden mist in his body also started to clash with the black mist. In the end, the golden and black mist were devoured by Shadow's own mist. With that, Shadow's facial features were completely gone.
What remained was a faceless head with 2 eyes. When Shadow was feeling better, he quickly ate a few Dark Qi pills to replenish the Dark Qi in his body. He had no idea what his own dark mist was or how he came to be. However, these were matters for the future.
Right now, he still have debts that needs to be collected; As what people said, an eye for an eye. When he opened his eyes, his right eye was gold in color while the left eye was red in color, giving the impression of a twisted God.
Without realizing it, he glanced down on his map and took note of the imperial capital, where the imperial army resides.
After storing his map, Shadow ran in a straight line towards the capital. As swift as the wind, his phased through every single object he passed by while maintaining his speed. He had advanced to the Qi Formation upper stage after the transformation, giving him an increased in speed, power and amount of Dark Qi.
For the next 4 days, Shadow diligently sped through the Dark Forest region and consume 1 or 2 Dark Qi pills to replenish his Dark Qi. Soon, he arrived outside of a large city, it was the Phoenix City, known for its fire related martial skills.
'After this city, the next one would be the imperial capital. Looks like I could gather some information here before going.' Shadow thought to himself before stealthily phasing through the wall; without having to pay the entrance fee.