The remaining shadow warriors did not hesitate. They gripped their cross-shaped throwing knives tightly and shot them towards Xu Le in the sky.
"Rabbit, Chicken!" Facing the dart hurtling towards him like a bullet, Xu Le's mind stirred, and he silently chanted the name of the talisman. The talismans representing the rabbit and chicken within his body shone brightly. The dart pierced through Xu Le's body, and just as the shadowy warrior was about to clean up the corpse, Xu Le's figure vanished from the sky in the next second.
A blur! His speed was astounding. The eleven shadowy warriors, on high alert, searched everywhere for Xu Le's whereabouts.
"Are you looking for me?" Xu Le's voice came from behind a rather thin shadow warrior. Without hesitation, the thin shadow warrior reached for a small knife and stabbed behind him. But before he could pierce anything, his hand was grabbed, and a tremendous force, like a steel cable, tightly bound his right hand. At the same time, a delicate, fair hand grabbed his head, and then... nothing more. Xu Le exerted force and directly ripped the shadow warrior's head off. The headless shadow warrior's body turned into a black puddle and merged into the ground, and the head in Xu Le's hand also vanished.
"Without fear, with sufficient loyalty and enough force, you are indeed the best army in history." Xu Le was increasingly satisfied with this shadowy army. These were just ordinary troops. If other troops were added, as long as there were enough of them, they would be more than capable of conquering some ancient worlds or low-tech worlds.
In his perception, these shadowy warriors were all equivalent to martial arts masters, each capable of taking on a dozen or more ordinary people. Coupled with their excellent teamwork, Xu Le was determined to conquer this legion. Having exhausted his options, Xu Le lost interest. The pig talisman within him lit up, and bolts of lightning shot from his eyes. Although the shadowy soldiers resisted a few times, their bodies were shattered, turning into shadows and merging into the ground.
Looking at the ruined library, Xu Le made a decision. Lightning gathered in his eyes, and when it reached a critical point, a bolt of lightning as thick as a fist shot out, striking the books. A raging fire engulfed the entire castle, billowing black smoke. Xu Le had considered it carefully. He couldn't take so many books with him, but leaving them to the Holy Lord also left him feeling somewhat unwilling. So, he decided to destroy them.
Anyway, there's no one around here for miles, so there's no need to worry about being discovered.
Feeling the air around him growing thinner, Xu Le smashed the door, soared into the air, and flew away from the place. Now that he had obtained the complete encyclopedia of magic, he needed to figure out how to suppress the will on this demonic mark. As he thought this, he watched the plane fly towards the airport.
Liu Fei was an ordinary young traveler who had just arrived in this area for tourism. Feeling a bit tired after walking a long distance, he sat down to rest. Looking at the azure sky, he felt a sense of peace and couldn't help but sigh in his heart that traveling was indeed a great way to relax.
Suddenly, a figure flew across the sky. Liu Fei, who was admiring the sky, shuddered and rubbed his eyes hard. He realized it wasn't a hallucination and immediately grabbed his phone to take a picture. Unfortunately, because it was too fast, he could only vaguely see a figure in the sky. But this didn't dampen Liu Fei's enthusiasm. He immediately found a place with a signal, uploaded it to Weibo, and the title was: "My God, I saw an angel."
Liu Fei is a somewhat well-known traveler, and his landscape photos are quite popular among netizens. This particular photo, once uploaded, instantly sparked a wave of discussion and criticism. However, Liu Fei didn't pay any attention to it; he simply watched the departing figure with a sense of longing.
Xu Le, who was busy on his journey, was unaware of this matter. Even if he did know, he wouldn't care. After all, he was wearing a mask, and no one would know who he was. The invisibility without the snake talisman was troublesome.
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In the office, the sleeping Holy Lord was awakened by the shadow warrior, who reported what had happened to him in the castle. Unexpectedly, after listening, the Holy Lord was not angry. The red light in his dragon eyes changed from bright red to dark red. The shadow warrior knelt on one knee to the side, waiting for orders.
"He took nine of my talismans, stole my complete encyclopedia of magic, and burned down my castle. This person seems to know me very well. I thought it was an accident before, but it seems someone is targeting me." Shendu's voice was devoid of emotion. Thinking of Valon and his group, who were more trouble than they were worth, Shendu instructed the shadow warrior beside him, "Remember that person's scent. Follow that scent to find him. It seems I still have to rely on myself." After saying that, his dragon eyes lost their color and he turned into a stone statue again. The shadow warrior beside him also turned into a black shadow and disappeared underground.
Xu Le, who was sitting on the plane on his way back, was unaware that his scent had given him away and that danger was approaching.
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Chapter Fifteen: Return
At San Francisco Airport, after getting off the plane, Xu Le went through the passenger passage to the exit, where many taxis were already waiting.
Xu Le randomly hailed a taxi. The driver, a Black man dressed in hip-hop style, saw that the passenger was Chinese and said to Xu Le in somewhat broken Chinese, "Hey, where do you want to go?" (not a typo). Xu Le wanted to laugh at his broken English, but he kept a gentle expression on his face and replied in fluent English, "To Chinatown."
When the Black man heard that Xu Le could speak English and that communication wouldn't be a problem, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He then started chatting with Xu Le about everyday things. Xu Le wasn't interested in getting to know him better, so she only answered his questions occasionally. The Black man noticed this and stopped trying to find topics to talk about after a few times. He turned on the car's music and started humming a song.
In Chinatown, Xu Le paid his fare and got off the bus, then slung his backpack over his shoulder and strode inside. Although he'd only been away for a week, he already missed it. Because he often came out to buy groceries, Xu Le had already gotten to know the shop owners. After all, they were all Chinese, and in a foreign land, it was easier to connect through that sense of camaraderie. He greeted the shop owners, walked to the corner of the street, and arrived at his only place in this world—Old Man's Antique Shop.
There were few luxurious decorations, and no wealthy customers coming and going, but it was precisely this simplicity that captivated Xu Le. He quickly dismissed the idea, however. He was destined to pursue eternity, a path fraught with loneliness. If he succeeded, he would stand atop the river of time, looking down upon all living beings; if he failed, he would die in some corner of some world, perhaps unburied, even devoured by livestock in the wild. But what did it matter? He would walk the path he had chosen, even if he died along the way; at least he had tried.
Pushing open the door, the familiar scent of sandalwood calmed Xu Le down a bit.
"You're back. Get to work! The shop's filthy. You're such a bad employee." The old man's eyes flashed with a hint of joy as he looked at Xu Le as he walked in, but he maintained his dignity as the shop owner and teacher, trying to keep his tone calm, though he couldn't hide his concern.
"Yes, I'm back." Xu Le felt a warmth in his heart as he sensed his father's concern.
"Where did Xiaoyu and Chenglong go?" Xu Le looked at the empty shop and felt a little strange. Today is Saturday, so school shouldn't be in session. Why isn't Xiaoyu here? She's been gone for so long. The shop is always lively when Xiaoyu is here, and it feels a bit strange to see it empty now.
"Jackie Chan was called to District 13 by Black again, and Jade went with him. Honestly, she's so unwilling to make me a pot of tea." The old man replied somewhat jealously. Jade was always by his side, which made the old man very envious. After all, he was getting old and wanted a child to always be by his side.
"Alright, alright, I'll go make some tea." Xu Le looked at his somewhat childish father and chuckled to himself, but still went to the kitchen to brew a pot of boiling water. He took out his father's treasured tea from the cupboard, which he heard was a gift from an old friend. Xu Le didn't know much about tea, but this kind of tea did indeed leave a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth.
Xu Le brought over a stool, sat down, poured a cup for his father and himself, raised the teacup, and felt the steam rising. The fragrance permeated his body through his nostrils. He took a small sip and found that there was no bitterness like in ordinary tea. His taste buds seemed to awaken at that moment, greedily sucking in the tea's subtle sweetness. Drinking tea was indeed a good way to cultivate one's health and temperament.
And so, the two sat in the shop, quietly sipping their tea. After some time, the old man's question broke the silence.
"How did things go this time you went home?"
Xu Le shook his head upon hearing this. His father's heart tightened, and he was about to ask what had happened when he saw Xu Le take out a red book with a demon pattern printed on it, which had four ancient characters written on it: "Complete Book of Magic".
"Where...where did this come from?" The old man was a little surprised. He had brought back a complete book of magic spells on his way home.
Faced with his father's doubts, Xu Le didn't keep him in suspense and said directly, "This is the Holy Lord's Complete Book of Spells. My goal for this trip is this book. I apologize for not telling you earlier; I wanted to give you a surprise." This wasn't a lie. If he had told his father he was going to find the Complete Book of Spells, his father wouldn't have agreed. After all, the Holy Lord's territory was still full of dangers, and if anything happened to Wan Yi, it would be all over. So Xu Le simply acted first and asked for permission later, and went to get the book directly.
"Then why did you give it to me? Are you trying to drive this old man crazy?" The old man could tell that Xu Le had acted first and asked for permission later, and he was so angry that he was blowing his beard and glaring. But seeing Xu Le's obedient look, he didn't scold him. He took the book of spells and started flipping through it. Once he started reading, he was amazed. Although it contained ancient spells, many of them were worth learning from, and there were many spells that he had only heard of but never seen. He was completely absorbed in reading it.
Seeing his father engrossed in his studies, Xu Le didn't disturb him. He quietly returned to his room, took out a copy of the demon pattern from his bag—something he had already prepared. He used the Encyclopedia of Spells to appease his father, then experimented with the demon pattern himself. Xu Le took a square piece of wood from the table, dipped the pattern in water, and neatly pasted it onto one side of the wood. Logically, the surface of the wood wasn't as smooth as human skin, so the pattern shouldn't have been so easy to imprint. But strangely, the pattern seemed to have flown from his mind onto the surface of the wood, leaving no trace on the paper.
Picking up the wooden block, Xu Le softly called out, "Shadow Legion, heed my command and await orders here."
For a long time, the room remained silent, with no change whatsoever. The wooden block proved ineffective, so Xu Le placed it aside and tried iron, paper, and a hat. He tried almost everything in the room, but unsurprisingly, all of them failed. Although he could easily tattoo patterns on them, he could not command the power of the Shadow Legion.
Should he try it on a living being or on himself? If he lets someone else try it, people's hearts are fickle, and they might develop other thoughts. Even if they obediently comply, they will eventually be influenced by the mark in the demon's mark, their thoughts becoming uncontrollable. Letting someone else try it will only create an enemy. As for trying it on himself, although it can remove the tattoo, the power to control people's minds makes Xu Le very wary. Therefore, without sufficient safety, he will not try tattooing himself, but giving up is also somewhat unwilling.
Is there nothing that can destroy or suppress the will within this tattoo?
Xu Le racked his brains, still unsure how to use the pattern, but he was unwilling to give up. Suddenly, he remembered his supreme treasure—the Gate of Myriad Realms. Although this treasure only demonstrated the ability to traverse myriad realms, Xu Le refused to believe that it was limited to that. With this in mind, Xu Le calmed his mind and connected his thoughts with the Gate of Myriad Realms, which resided deep within his soul.
After communicating with the Gate of All Realms, his consciousness returned to the Starry Sky World. Countless portals shone brightly, like a constellation of stars in a performance. However, considering that these were individual worlds, calling them constellations wouldn't be an exaggeration, since Xu Le's world—Earth—was just a planet. Xu Le's spiritual power spread out, and suddenly, the Starry Sky World shattered, revealing a two-meter-high, pitch-black hole.
Xu Le understood that this was an entrance to the depths, and without doubt, since it was in the starry world, he controlled himself to float inside.
Upon entering, a massive white sphere of light stood in the center, with countless thin lines extending into the void, seemingly drawing nourishment from the sphere. Xu Le slowly approached, and all the thin lines in his path automatically parted. Reaching the sphere, Xu Le could clearly feel a connection, a bond that grew stronger the closer he got, as if they were one.
He slowly placed his hand on the sphere of light, and a vast, indescribable consciousness connected with his own. He could feel the intimacy within this consciousness, as if they were about to merge into one.
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Chapter Sixteen: The Shadow Legion, Misleading the Holy Lord
After communicating with this consciousness for a moment, he remembered the purpose of his trip and conveyed the question to the sphere of light with his consciousness. The enormous consciousness quickly gave an answer: Yes, but it must be done inside the Gate of Myriad Realms.
Xu Le gained a lot this time. He not only resolved his previous doubts about the Gate of Myriad Realms, but also put his mind at ease. Although he didn't care about life or death, he still didn't want to be under someone else's control. Moreover, he learned that the Gate of Myriad Realms had been severely damaged, so it only retained the ability to travel through it. As for the ability to suppress and erase, it could only be used in the internal starry world.