Although they were all prodigies, they couldn't help but feel their heads go numb with fear and their hearts beat in intense palpitation.
A shadow had suddenly disappeared before their very eyes.
They had all been staring at it intently, yet their attacks had created a large and instantaneous fluctuation. This affected their senses slightly, creating a miniscule time gap during which the shadow suddenly disappeared.
"It's all your fault!" Xia Wuque shouted, his finger pointed at Ling Han. There was a look of blame on his face, and he said, "If you hadn't tried to play the hero and attacked, we wouldn't have lost sight of that mysterious shadow!"
He had been displeased with Ling Han to begin with, and he was simply finding an excuse to criticize him now.
Shui Yanyu flared up in anger, and said indignantly, "If it hadn't been for Ling Han's warning, you wouldn't have even known that there was a shadow stalking us!"
Xia Wuque was a prodigy, after all, and he already knew that he had no chance of getting together with Shui Yanyu. Thus, he naturally severed his feelings of love and admiration of her. "As a member of the team, one naturally has to act in the best interests of the team," Xia Wuque said with a humph. "However, this person is completely full of himself! Who here doesn't have a more powerful offensive ability than him? Was there a need for him to attack? Now we've let that mysterious shadow escape."
Ling Han was also ticked off, and he said, "I'll beat the hell out of you when we get out!"
Xia Wuque chuckled coldly. When they got out, the only person getting beaten would be Ling Han—only his physique and recovery ability were powerful, so weren't these to prepare him for a good beating?
"I'll be waiting!" he replied.
"Hehe, let's concentrate on how to find that shadow first," Luo Jingren said. He walked over to diffuse the situation. This had nothing to do with him, but they were all team members now, so any incidents would end up affecting the entire team.
Su Jing pondered for a moment, and asked, "Have you guys heard of any existence that has no physical body and only a shadow?"
Everyone shook their heads. Such a being seemed far too eerie and sinister.
"Let's just forget about this for the moment. Our aim is just to make it through this place. When we're close to succeeding, that mysterious shadow will definitely reappear to attack us," Du An said.
Everyone agree with Du An's suggestion. If the aim of that mysterious shadow was to obstruct them from passing this tower, it would definitely reappear to attack them. If not, then they wouldn't need to worry about it anyway. In any case, their priority was to make it through this place.
They started to advance forward again. This time, however, everyone kept their eyes on the shadows that were flittering about on the ground.
The only light source here was the columns, and because of this, their shadows would change every time they passed by a column. After some time, the number of shadows on the ground suddenly changed again.
The 10 people instantly stopped in their tracks. This was just as they expected.
The number of shadows on the ground had increased again. Moreover… there were 12, not 11, shadows!
'F*ck! The ghost shadow has friends?'
Shui Yanyu involuntarily shuffled closer to Ling Han. She was a female, and thus she was inherently afraid of such kinds of unknown. In any case, her lover was by her side, and this caused her to unknowingly become reliant upon him.
None of them acted rashly. This was because they hadn't determined which two shadows were the "ghost shadows" yet.
"Spread apart."
Everyone distanced themselves from each other. Now that they were spread apart, the two shadows couldn't hide in the "group of shadows" anymore. Instead, they would stick out like sore thumbs.
"Die!" The 10 of them attacked in unison, all of them unleashing their full strength.
Peng!
"It's there!" Ling Han activated his Eye of Truth and locked onto a shadow. He then sprinted after it in pursuit.
This ghostly shadow had an agile transformation ability. It had still been as large as their shadows just a moment ago, yet now that it was fleeing, it had transformed into a tiny black dot. It was so tiny that it was barely noticeable. It was no wonder that they had let it escape before.
Lin Han stabbed with his sword, and the Divine Demon Sword instantly transformed into a streak of light. He had already activated the Fast Technique, and this made his Divine Demon Sword travel at a speed so fast that it was indescribable.
Pu!
The tip of his sword struck the tiny black dot, and it surprisingly felt as if he had struck a physical body.
Ling Han shook his sword, causing tremendous power to surge through it and obliterate the tiny black dot.
Countless wisps of black aura instantly rose into the air. In fact, there were even shrill and ear-piercing screeches traveling out from the auras.
No, these weren't sounds, but divine sense. They traveled into Ling Han's mind and sought to plant conflict within him.
'Humph! Trying to destabilize my divine sense?'
This was a joke. If one wanted to affect Ling Han's divine sense, they needed to be many cultivation levels above him—even those at the consummate level of the Mountain River Tier wouldn't be able to inflict damage to Ling Han's divine sense. Under the tempering of the Indestructible Heaven's Scroll, his divine sense had already become incredibly tough.
Like floodwater meeting a dam, the ear-piercing screeches were instantly reflected back.
A look of surprise appeared on Ling Han's face. This kind of attack—or this type of form, to be more precise—appeared especially familiar to him.
Shua!
The wisps of black aura regathered to form a shadow again. Then, the shadow ferociously lashed out with its arms.
Qiang, qiang, qiang!
Like saber blades, five razor-sharp claws sprung out from its hand.
"Humph! Paltry tricks!" Guan Rong just happened to be beside Ling Han, and he naturally wasn't willing to let Ling Han steal all the thunder. He immediately swung a fist toward the shadow.
There were a whopping 60 divine patterns on his fist, and this caused his arm to become like an unparalleled God Tool.
Peng!
His fist collided with the ghostly shadow's claws. The divine patterns on his fist lit up, and the strike from the ghostly shadow was instantly blocked. In fact, the ghostly shadow was even sent flying by his strike.
It was clear that the ghostly shadow was no match for Guan Rong, both in terms of power and in terms of battle prowess.
Guan Rong's strike had been effective, and this caused his confidence to shoot through the roof.
The unknown was the most terrifying. Now that this ghostly shadow had displayed strength that was at the high extreme of the Mountain River Tier at most, it merely appeared strange. As such, Guan Rong naturally didn't need to be overly cautious anymore.
However, similar to Ling Han, this ghostly shadow also possessed an astonishing recovery ability. Black aura whirled about, and it instantly recovered its original form. Then, it immediately lashed out with its claws again.
Its body flashed about as a cold glint reflected off its claws, and it appeared much like a god of death.
At this moment, everyone finally understood that the corpses from before hadn't been ripped apart by Demonic Beasts. Rather, they had been ripped apart by this ghostly shadow!
It could slice people into six pieces with a single strike, and added to the fact that it had a potentially undying body, it definitely couldn't be underestimated.
Ling Han followed up Guang Rong's strike by unleashing his Seven Kill Subduing Soul Technique.
"Ahhh!" An agonized wail instantly traveled into everyone's mind. This was the howl of the ghostly shadow.
The ghostly shadow couldn't maintain its original shape anymore, and it continually shifted into different forms. It transformed into a human figure for a while, then into a beast figure, then into a fish figure, and then into a bird figure. In the end, it became a mess of shapes. It appeared as if it were on the brink of collapse.
'As expected!'
Ling Han nodded in his mind. This ghostly appeared to be unafraid of physical attacks, and it had been able to immediately recover after being smashed apart. However, it was extremely vulnerable against divine sense attacks.
Guan Rong laughed heartily, and said, "So it turns out that it was afraid of divine sense attacks."
"Humph! Witness the power of my Spirit Refining Swords!" Xia Wuque shook his arms, and countless golden swords flew out from his eyes. These weren't physical, but instead formed from his divine sense.
Xiu, xiu, xiu!
Tens of thousands of swords surged outward, and the other ghostly shadow was naturally unable to escape. It was pinned to a column by the golden swords.
It shrieked in agony, and its figure transformed rapidly. It twisted about for a moment, and then eventually vanished into nothingness.