"The wind has risen, it's time for you to die."
Jiang Xiu felt the breeze brushing past his palm, his eyes as calm as a lake, calmly looking at the abyss ants before him. At his feet was a black shadow ready to fight at any moment.
"Black One, go!"
Soon, Jiang Xiu targeted another small abyss ant. With a flick of his wrist, the black shadow beneath his feet charged forward, heading straight for it.
The next moment, the two figures classed, while Jiang Xiu watched silently from the side, his eyes flashing with a sharp light.
"The extracted shadow retains sixty percent of its combat power in life, intelligence... hmm, this thing doesn't have intelligence yet."
Jiang Xiu analyzed inwardly, but he already knew through his Shadow Monarch Martial Soul that the amount of combat power retained in a shadow in life was linked to his strength.
That is, as Jiang Xiu's strength increased, the combat power of the extracted shadow could gradually approach that of its original body, or even be a one-to-one replica.
"Truly formidable power,"
Jiang Xiu exclaimed, his short sword reappearing. Taking advantage of the abyss ant's struggle with Hei Yi, he killed it with a single blow, then extracted its shadow again, adding another member to the legion.
Time passed, and the number of shadows around Jiang Xiu increased to nine, surrounding him like a king.
"Pfft!"
Another sound rang out, and a shadow ant fell, its shadow slowly rising.
But at this moment, a dazzling light shone from Jiang Xiu's blood-red eyes, followed by an extremely dense surge of dark power erupting from beneath his feet, instantly plunging everything within a ten-meter radius into eternal night.
The ten shadows surrounding Jiang Xiu, however, instantly became excited in their crimson eyes, their aura rising.
"Ten men form an army."
"Has this activated my Martial Soul's Innate Domain?!"
Sensing the surrounding darkness, Jiang Xiu's blood-red eyes shone even brighter, and upon experiencing the effects of this Innate Domain, his heart trembled slightly.
His innate domain, named the Monarch Domain, has three main functions. First, within the domain, any shadow he extracts will have its overall strength increased by 20%, with no limit on the number.
Second, using the Monarch Domain greatly conceals his own aura, from the inside out.
The third point, and the one Jiang Xiu values most, is the Monarch's Majesty, unaffected by the pressure of any living being's aura, including bloodlines!
Furthermore, this is a growth-type domain, strengthening as Jiang Xiu's power increases.
However, Jiang Xiu currently values the latter two functions most, since his shadow is currently in the Abyss, the territory of the Abyss Saint King. If discovered, his shadow would be utterly destroyed.
Although the Abyss Saint King usually slumbers, sending the Spirit Emperor to patrol the various Abyss planes on his behalf, this cannot be ignored.
Regarding the effects of the Monarch's Majesty, Jiang Xiu immediately thought of Tang Wulin. Although his first martial soul, the Purple Emperor Annihilation Dragon, is known as the Ancestor of Sub-Dragons and is rumored to have been born alongside the Dragon God, its level should theoretically be no lower than the Golden Dragon King.
However, Tang Wulin possessed the entire origin of the Golden Dragon King, while he only had a Martial Soul. Furthermore, all the Soul Beasts and Soul Beast Masters on the continent were suppressed upon encountering him—simple yet powerful, like the answer to a problem.
Now, with the Monarch's Might, he could temporarily relax.
After familiarizing himself with the Monarch's Domain, Jiang Xiu smiled slightly. Although powerful geniuses emerged in abundance during the Douluo Continent III era, it seemed his sword was still effective!
Suppressing his excitement, Jiang Xiu prepared to continue the fight, because no matter what the future held, he was still just a Soul Master who hadn't even obtained his first Soul Ring.
A fallen genius wasn't a true genius.
But just as Jiang Xiu led the Shadow Soldiers to kill the eleventh Abyss Ant, he was about to continue extracting shadows when he felt slightly dizzy.
"It seems today's slaughter will have to end here,"Jiang Xiu said regretfully, withdrawing his hand. The Shadow Monarch's extraction had no limit; it could infinitely transform the shadows of the dead.
However, his mental strength is limited. In other words, his physical attributes are strong, but his mental strength can't keep up. After all, he had only awakened his martial soul less than half a day ago and hadn't even started meditating yet.
"I'll spare your lives for now, but next time it won't be so simple."
Jiang Xiu's gaze swept over the dense swarm of abyssal creatures before him, and he chuckled softly, but his tone was utterly indifferent, devoid of any warmth.
Whether it was to avenge his parents or to save his future self, these abyssal creatures deserved to die.
This wasn't about justice, but simply a difference in perspective.
"Hmm?"
Just then, Jiang Xiu noticed that two abyssal ants not far away had started fighting amongst themselves until one won and devoured the other. After the ant finished eating, its size increased several notches.
Jiang Xiu was slightly taken aback, then laughed.
He had forgotten that the entire abyssal plane followed a single law: devouring evolution. This applied not only to the abyssal plane but also to the abyssal creatures themselves.
And the king of every race, even the highest-ranking emperors, were all the strongest of their kind, having devoured countless of their own kind.
True abyssal creatures never played by the rules of inheritance.
"This law of the jungle is both dangerous and fascinating, Black One. I will lead you to carve a bloody path from the bottom, so that you, as someone from the bottom, can see a sight you've never seen before."
Jiang Xiu's gaze was deep, he inhaled the smoky air, and stroked Black One at his feet.
"Smack smack!"
Black One had no intelligence, only expressing its loyalty to Jiang Xiu.
"Kings, emperors, even the top ten emperors of the abyss, I will come to see you, in the near future."
A smile appeared on Jiang Xiu's lips, a resolute glint flashing in his blood-red eyes, which then turned dangerous.
Although the abyssal creatures he extracted were the same group of ant queens that attacked Snow City, although they lacked intelligence, they retained some fragmented memories from before their rebirth.
From these fragmented memories, Jiang Xiu learned that this abyssal tide was not initiated by the abyssal plane itself, but rather a spatial rift suddenly appeared, sucking these ant queens away and landing them above Snow City.
"Was this an accident, or was it intentional? There aren't many people with this kind of ability these days."
Jiang Xiu's gaze was deep, then he suppressed the thought. His current strength was still too weak to support him in investigating these things.
Feeling the weakness in his mind, Jiang Xiu slowly sank his consciousness into the shadow, gradually returning.
As his consciousness returned, the tall shadow vanished silently, taking ten shadow soldiers with it as it sank into the scorched earth and disappeared.
"I'm back."
Under the bright lights, Jiang Xiu slowly opened his eyes, looking at the surrounding silver-white metal walls, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.
But he knew very well that it was all real.
"I wonder how much time has passed now. Is the time flow in the Abyss Plane the same as that in the Douluo Continent?"
Jiang Xiu looked around but couldn't find a clock, and his communication soul tool had long been destroyed in the Abyss Tide.
But just then, a strong voice came from outside the Soul Guidance Emergency Center, as if two people were talking, and their tone even seemed to be igniting a war.
"Old Dong, it's not that I'm disrespecting you, but I'm taking this person away today, and no one can stop me!"
"Old Mu, don't try to fool me. Do as I say, and everything will be fine. If you dare to use force, I'll blast you with the army's ten-position soul-guided cannon shells, sending your mech flying with you!"
(End of Chapter)