Chapter 104 The Shadow Changer 7

The man's charred body seemed to have turned into a fragile eggshell, from which emerged an even larger, alien monster.

A grotesque head, as ugly and ferocious as a Damascus goat, with bulging black muscles and a colossal body three meters tall... a monster that could only be described as a "demon" appeared before the eyes of the people in the nightclub's lounge area.

The short girl who had been standing behind the massage chair collapsed to the ground in fear, letting out a trembling, childish voice as if she wanted to scream but unconsciously suppressed it. Because she was wearing a rabbit mask, I wasn't quite sure what was going on at first. Now I'm pretty sure, this short girl is probably one of the nightclub workers Chang'an mentioned, who is seven or eight years younger than the goldfish.

But I don't have the energy to pay attention to that right now. The monster has appeared, and he's my target. After revealing his battle form, the monster was still engulfed in flames, howling incessantly.

His consciousness must still be quite dazed. He was enjoying himself in a nightclub when he was suddenly engulfed in flames—who could have predicted that? It seems he didn't sense the shadow clones I summoned after killing the man in the black suit. Just as the immortal monster said, the monster and his shadow clones don't share senses.

The onlookers finally seemed to realize what was happening and fled in terror. Contrary to their expectations, the Shadow Man didn't attack anyone else; instead, it immediately turned on itself.

He transformed his right arm into a blade, intending to sever his own throat.

This is clearly an act of suicide. But because it happened to him, things aren't so simple. Once he commits suicide, his teleportation ability will be passively triggered, at which point he will swap locations with an unknown clone, transferring the flames engulfing him to the clone. In other words, he's trying to escape.

At first, I thought he might not even think of this way of using it, and I underestimated him. But I was prepared for this. The moment I noticed his unusual behavior, I manipulated the flames wrapped around him, turning them into a giant hand, which then locked him in its palm.

His movements were immediately and forcefully halted, rendering his body immobile. Then, the enormous fiery hand hurled his massive body diagonally upwards.

Like throwing a discus with all its might in a room made entirely of fragile glass, the Shadow Man's massive body, once propelled through the air, slammed right through the wall. His momentum didn't diminish after penetrating the wall; after crashing through several more walls and ceilings, he soared straight into the sky outside the nightclub.

The giant fiery hand I created possessed immense power. The monster that was thrown out flew horizontally for five or six hundred meters after leaving the nightclub, finally landing in a grove of trees far from the city center.

If it were a normal mortal, this would definitely have turned them into mincemeat. However, the other person was an oddball, with a body stronger than steel armor. He could withstand a hail of bullets head-on, so surviving a fall from a great height was a piece of cake. After the fall, although he was quite shaken, he seemed to only feel dizzy and didn't suffer any real injuries.

By implanting thermal energy signals into his body, I was able to sense the scene within a certain distance around him and summon flames at will within that range. The next second, I summoned a ball of flame some distance in front of him and teleported myself there.

With a blink of an eye, my view shifted from the bustling street to a secluded grove of trees, and just twenty meters away stood the strange man who was swaying as he stood up.

He looked up and caught sight of me.

Then, his nose twitched very noticeably. Because his head was now more animalistic than human, I suspected he was not only muscular but also had an extremely keen sense of smell. Perhaps recognizing me by scent as the "culprit" who had secretly attacked him with flames last night, he suddenly flew into a rage, letting out a hoarse roar: "It's you!?"

“It’s me.” I deliberately drew his attention, while raising my palm and summoning a fireball the size of a volleyball.

"Do you think I'll give you a chance?!"

He seemed to think I was about to attack, and immediately charged at me.

It seems he has no intention of fleeing for the time being. He's already suffered so much at my hands, yet he still won't retreat—no, perhaps it's precisely because he suffered so much that he wants to vent his anger on me. As for whether he can win, that's probably not even on his mind.

His confidence undoubtedly stemmed from his teleportation ability. Upon closer examination, this line of thinking is quite easy to understand. Teleportation grants both immortality and the ability to withdraw from the battlefield at any time. With his safety absolutely guaranteed, he naturally becomes as daring as he can be. Moreover, since I appear to be a lone fire-element user, he became even more unscrupulous.

The ability to teleport is also a problem we must overcome. For us, defeating him is easy; the real difficulty lies in killing him, especially killing him while ensuring that his brain information is not corrupted by the Seed of the Heart after his death.

Therefore, Zhu Shi is indispensable.

Just as the Shadow Man's attention was completely focused on me, Zhu Shi, wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, appeared silently behind him, wielding a sharp sword and with cold, clear lake-blue eyes.

Meanwhile, Mazao appeared from another direction. She had already removed her cat whisker mask and was rushing towards them from a distance.

This grove was a battlefield we intentionally chose, with Zhu Shi and Ma Zao lying in ambush nearby. That said, the trajectory of my throwing the Shadow Man wasn't very precise; the landing point was often off. Fortunately, we had discussed this beforehand, and the two of us ambushed at different locations in the grove. This way, after the Shadow Man landed, at least one of us would be relatively close.

It now appears that Zhu Shi was closer. Upon approaching, she immediately swung her sword at the back of the Shadow-Shifting Monster's neck.

At the same time, the Shadow Man seemed to sense her murderous aura and suddenly turned around to look.

Zhu Shi's deadly strike ultimately failed to take the life of the Shadow-Changing Monster. Just as she was about to succeed, a dark arm inexplicably grew from her shoulder and grabbed her wrist holding the sword.

Although I was quite far away, I was able to clearly see the truth behind this shocking turn of events through my thermal perception. It was an arm formed from shadow. The Shadow Manipulator had manipulated shadows to stop Zhu Shi's slash.

Shadows are often associated with crawling on the ground, but they can appear anywhere. They might be cast on a wall or on a person. If I'm not mistaken, it was probably tree shadows that were cast on Zhu Shi, and the Shadow-Changing Monster was manipulating those shadows.

More shadowy matter was generated from Zhu Shi's body, transforming into sharp blades to attack the host.

Immediately, a burst of silver sword light erupted, enveloping Zhu Shi in a chaotic dance, shredding all the shadowy matter. It turned out that Zhu Shi had switched the sword to his left hand, disposing of all the shadowy matter on his body at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

The Shadow Man didn't pursue Zhu Shi, but continued charging towards me. Perhaps in his view, eliminating me, the enemy with the greatest firepower, was the top priority. Compared to the immortal monster from before, this Shadow Man's manipulation of shadows and his combat strategy were clearly superior.

That's good. I wanted to try and see if I could overcome his teleportation ability on my own.

Taking advantage of the brief moment Zhu Shi had bought for me, I slapped the fireball onto my chest, setting my body ablaze.

I entered fire elemental form.

In this form, I don't have as many inconveniences as in the normal form. My consciousness operates at an incredibly fast speed, so much so that the passage of time seems to slow down to the point of stopping in my eyes.

The falling leaves seemed to freeze in mid-air, the surrounding sounds were stretched and distorted, and the strange figure that had been charging at me like an arrow just moments before now looked as slow as an earthworm crawling. Moreover, I seemed to be able to further accelerate the speed of my consciousness.

Zhu Shi, having dealt with the shadow matter, was catching up. Although she seemed slow to me, she was visibly faster than the Shadow-Shifting Monster. Considering I might make a mistake later and wanting to give her a chance to participate, I patiently waited for her to close the distance before launching my attack.

I stretched out my right hand in the direction of the Shadow Man, as if I were crushing an ant with my finger, and a pillar of fire several meters wide descended from the sky, crushing the Shadow Man who was caught off guard.

Under the baptism of flames, the Shadow Man's body instantly vaporized and evaporated.

Of course, I was still controlling the intensity. After consciously distinguishing the parts, the flames only destroyed the part of the Shadow-Changing Monster below the neck, while the head was completely intact, without even a single hair being burned.

At my current level of consciousness, the head even looks as if it's floating in mid-air. Actually, that's not the case; it just hasn't had time to fall yet. And what follows is the real challenge.

Through the flames surrounding my head, I once again had that incredible feeling, just like last night—something metaphysical that could not be described in size or shape appeared, something that wanted to escape from my flames quickly.

Perhaps this is the "cause and effect" that Zhu Shi mentioned. The ability to teleport and switch bodies attempts to exchange the existence of the original body and the clone itself, symbolizing that the cause and effect of the original body of the Shadow-Switch Monster is escaping.

Last time, I wasn't mentally prepared and could only watch helplessly as it escaped. This time, however, I was not only well-prepared but also entered my strongest fire elemental form beforehand. Now, I no longer have the problem of being unable to react; the activation speed of my teleportation ability even seems slow to me. I have ample time to observe and study it.

So, am I now able to directly interfere with cause and effect itself?

Observing this cause and effect, I quickly came to a conclusion.

I am able to directly interfere with this cause and effect through my power.

But this kind of interference doesn't seem to be what I want.

(End of this chapter)