Chapter 441 - 309: Shadow King, Demon Tree

Chapter 441: Chapter 309: Shadow King, Demon Tree

As he slashed out, darkness enveloped Tang Wen, but his mind was perfectly calm.

His eyes were fixed on the black shadow and nothing else.

"Oh?" the black shadow uttered in surprise.

Tang Wen felt as if he were sinking into a quagmire!

His full-powered Sword Gang was a strike that even an expert just entering the Fifth Grade would have to evade.

Yet, at this moment, it was stopped!

To be precise, it was stopped by the very tip of the black shadow’s elongated finger.

That alone was not enough to drive Tang Wen to despair.

But the giant White Tiger claw—a full-powered strike from the Peak of Fifth Grade—also suddenly dissipated into nothingness.

"You’re Fourth Grade," Tang Wen said, his eyes filled with shock and his voice heavy.

"Isn’t that obvious?" The black shadow retracted the attack it had never fully committed to, its tone suddenly becoming light and cheerful.

"Kid, you’re practicing the Night Divine Fist. Your awakening isn’t low, and your Spiritual Power is high enough. You’ve been suppressing your breakthrough to Sixth Grade because you want to walk the path of ’perfect transformation,’ don’t you?"

Tang Wen’s unease deepened.

He had only made a single strike, and his true capabilities had been completely seen through.

’What in the world is this shadow?’

"I am trying to," Tang Wen said in a low voice.

’What is this shadow up to?’ he wondered.

’Why has it stopped attacking?’

The black shadow snorted. "Not bad. Looking at your underlying talent... You’re only sixteen this year, aren’t you?"

Tang Wen was stunned. Besides his sister, almost everyone he had ever met—from the Peak of Fifth Grade Shui Qianjun to a Sixth-Grade Elder skilled in bone-reading—had failed to discern his true age.

He had transmigrated here before he was fifteen, and it had been just over two years since.

"Sir, are you from the White Tiger Tribe?"

"Heh! Not completely stupid, are you? Figured out I’m on your side?"

’On my side?’

’The kind of ally who nearly kills me?’

Tang Wen narrowed his eyes, venturing a guess. "You are indeed a senior from the White Tiger Tribe."

"Haven’t you met Jade Tiger?" The black shadow’s form shifted, coalescing into a large Shadow Tiger.

"And how should I address you, Sir?" Tang Wen’s feelings were a complicated mess. ’After all this, was my life-and-death crisis just a game to a Fourth-Grade master?’

"Shadow Tiger."

Tang Wen’s expression was a picture. He had never heard that name before.

Shadow Tiger chuckled. "No need to look like that. If the Saintess hadn’t recommended you, saying you were fit to be my disciple, I wouldn’t have bothered coming at all!"

Huh?!

’Recommended me to be a Fourth-Grade master’s disciple?’

’Sister Hulan really does love me!’

Tang Wen tossed his saber aside and shouted, "Master, please accept your disciple’s bow!"

He immediately moved to kneel.

To put it in perspective, in his previous life, the status of a Fourth-Grade Shadow Tiger was at least equivalent to being the top military and political leader of an entire province.

Never mind an Extraordinary like Tang Wen; even a Fifth-Grade master from Ganshan City wouldn’t be able to find the connection to kneel, even if they wanted to.

If Shui Qianjun—Tang Wen’s master, father-in-law, the titan of Ganshan City, and Gang Leader of the Black Water Gang—were here, he’d probably kick the back of Tang Wen’s knees with both feet to make him kneel firmly!

"Stop, stop, stop! I haven’t agreed yet!"

Even though its facial features were indistinct, an expression of disdain was still visible on Shadow Tiger’s face.

But Tang Wen paid it no mind. As the saying goes: When there’s a thigh to hug, you hug it. Don’t wait until you’re thigh-less and get screwed!

PLOP!

He knelt with a solid thud.

Shadow Tiger sounded somewhat resigned. "...Let’s see if you can even learn my techniques first."

Overjoyed, Tang Wen nodded vigorously. "This disciple has some aptitude, I assure you."

Even though he had his doubts. ’Can a human like me really practice a White Tiger’s Cultivation Technique?’

’But so what if I can’t learn it?’

’The master-disciple relationship must be set in stone!’

’I’ve claimed this master.’

’Not even the Jade Emperor himself could talk me out of it!’

Seeing Tang Wen’s eager, attentive posture.

Shadow Tiger nodded slightly. "There’s no rush. You’re not Sixth-Grade yet, so you certainly can’t learn it now. Your foundation is quite solid. As for the path of ’perfect transformation’..."

He paused. "That path is extremely dangerous. Tell me, how have you been training for it?"

Tang Wen had heard this question many times before, so he immediately explained the Resilient Five Gods Organ Cultivation Technique and his practice of directly consuming Extraordinary Beast Blood Marrow.

During Shadow Tiger’s silence, he asked another question. "Master, if I fail... well, I mean, if the perfect transformation fails, what are the consequences?"

Shadow Tiger fell silent for a moment, then split its large black mouth into a grin. "Haven’t you already guessed?"

Tang Wen jolted, studying him carefully, his heart filled with shock.

"You become like me." Shadow Tiger’s form mimicked a smile, but no sound emerged. "However, I only exceeded the limit by a tiny bit, which is why I was able to survive."

Perfect transformation requires one’s ability awakening to hit the 100% threshold exactly—no more, no less.

Shadow Tiger said, "I only went over the limit by a tiny bit."

Two of its shadow fingers pinched together, gesturing a gap so narrow that not even light could pass through.

"Any more than that... BANG! A return to darkness." The shadow hand exploded like a special effect made of light and shadow.

Tang Wen couldn’t help but lean back slightly.

The shadow hand reformed. "But as you can see, if you succeed, the rewards are also immense."

"If I succeed, can I also transform into a shadow?"

"That’s called the Shadow Transformation Divine Techniques!"

"Divine Techniques?" Tang Wen’s eyes lit up. "The Divine Power Realm? Does that mean if I succeed, I’ll reach the Divine Power Realm?"

"In your dreams! That’s something for the Fourth Grade. You’re only at the Seventh Grade now," Shadow Tiger retorted bluntly, crushing his hopes.

Tang Wen wasn’t fazed; on the contrary, his heart burned with fiery enthusiasm.

Shadow Tiger asked again, "Your Spiritual Power seems to have reached Great Success. What Meditation Technique are you practicing?"

Tang Wen was practicing a Meditation Technique from the Bai Family, which contained a maximum of forty-nine pictographic runes.

In Ganshan City, it was considered a top-tier Meditation Technique.

But after hearing this, Shadow Tiger just shook its head. "Switch it out. Practice this from now on."

It tossed a Jade Scroll to Tang Wen. "A total of seventy-two runes."

Tang Wen’s heart leaped with joy as he scrambled to catch it.

Forty-nine versus seventy-two.

Don’t be fooled by the simple difference of twenty-three. You must understand that after the thirty-sixth spiritual rune, the thirty-seventh rune contains nearly double the Spiritual Power of the one before it.