"A jealous woman..."
Leilin shrugged helplessly, let out a sigh, and followed after her.
With his current abilities, he could slip through the planar barriers of the
A layer of Comoina bloodline power enveloped his body. The Shadow World emanated a warm, welcoming aura, immediately accepting Leilin's arrival.
At this moment, deep within the core of the Shadow World, inside the boundless sea of primordial force.
Black stone had been shaped into a magnificent and exquisite palace, shadow power permeating the surroundings. At the very center of the palace stood an enormous black crystal, within which the faint outline of a girl with a stunningly beautiful face could be seen, slumbering.
"Hehe... the Magic Network responded. The prey has taken the bait — is it the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents?"
Amid laughter like the tinkling of silver bells, a girl in a black gauze dress stepped out of the shadows. Her face was identical to that of the girl inside the black crystal.
"Let me see... where are you?"
The girl extended her fair, delicate fingers. The authority of the entire world seemed to flow through her, projecting a brilliant screen in the air.
In the image, a black mandala bud and a red cocoon wrapped in bloodline power streaked as two trails of light, rapidly crossing the planar membrane and slicing across the outer sky of the Shadow World.
"Hm?"
But just as the girl tried to zoom in and track them, the screen before her suddenly flickered with black-and-white static, and a mechanical voice rang out: "Unknown interference detected. Tracking terminated!"
"Haha... what an interesting opponent. Wanting to play hide-and-seek with me? Well, I've been meaning to go out for a stroll anyway..."
The girl stretched languidly, revealing the elegant curves of her body, then vanished from the palace without a trace.
Numerous shadows surged forward, shrouding everything within the palace...
"What the hell was that?!"
The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents' exasperated voice came from ahead, bringing a faint smile to Leilin's lips.
"The Magic Network, or rather... the Shadow Magic Network? If I didn't have experience analyzing the Magic Network in the World of Gods, combined with my research on the Avatar of Karsus, unleashing that interference wouldn't have been so easy..."
"Ten Thousand Serpents — I've blocked their surveillance. But the situation has changed. We should split up immediately!"
The blood-red cocoon traced a graceful arc through the air, altering its trajectory.
Before parting, Leilin offered a good-natured warning: "Be careful. This Shadow World may be completely different from what you remember..."
After officially entering the Shadow World, Leilin understood why Ten Thousand Serpents had insisted on bringing him along.
The Shadow World now accommodated him just like the
"This complete absence of suppression and rejection... it's because of the original Ten Thousand Serpents bloodline, isn't it? Only she and I can minimize the attention of the world's will, and avoid detection by that Lady Night..."
Ten Thousand Serpents herself was a native of the Shadow World — she had even once come close to controlling the entire world, deeply favored by the primordial force.
As her former blood descendant, Leilin naturally carried the Shadow World's imprint. He would not be rejected by it innately, which was the prerequisite for concealing himself as much as possible.
Otherwise, beings like the Eye of Judgment would have been detected the moment they made contact with the world's membrane, drawing the Lady Night's direct intervention.
"After my interference, they should have lost track of both me and Ten Thousand Serpents for a while. But that's still not safe enough..."
Leilin reached into his robes and produced several oddly shaped dolls, their faces painted with various colors of greasepaint.
"Voodoo dolls I just finished making. I didn't expect to have to use a few here already..."
A spot of crimson light landed on the voodoo dolls. Then, bathed in the glow, the dolls eerily swelled to human size, emitting cheerful giggles.
"Hehe..." "Haha..."
Now the dolls — already the size of ordinary people — saw the paint on their faces shift and transform, gradually becoming vivid and lifelike, their aura subtly shifting to resemble Leilin's.
Boom!
The three voodoo dolls scattered apart. The original blood-red cocoon split into three, plunging in several different directions.
"This Shadow World seems to have been heavily modified by them, especially the early-warning network on the outermost membrane..."
In place, Leilin had already concealed his form. He began descending slowly toward a continent, with a premonition that after the Lady Night's tens of thousands of years of effort, the Shadow World had been forged into an extremely tight fortress. This operation was going to be quite difficult.
...
"Screech! Unidentified flying object detected! Begin transmitting data to ground control!"
After Leilin split off his several clones, in outer space, several massive mechanical satellites orbited the entire Shadow World along fixed trajectories. Now they triggered a warning alert toward the surface!
Below, inside a massive hall lined with numerous signal-receiving platforms, tense work continued without pause.
"Sir! Unidentified flying object detected! This is the footage captured by Flight Throne Three!"
A female soldier in a crisp uniform stood up and strode briskly to her superior, handing over a screenshot. It clearly showed one of Leilin's clones, forming a crimson meteor.
"Hmm! What does the Early Warning Staff have to say?"
The female soldier's superior was a middle-aged man with slightly graying hair and a pair of hawk-like eyes — his gaze cold and sharp.
"Based on the satellite imagery, we can confirm the object's volume does not exceed two shadow cubes, so it's not a giant meteorite. It may simply be some astral debris or cosmic dust... Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of an astral creature that has wandered in by mistake..."
The female soldier replied quickly.
"Mm. Those astral creatures tend to be quite dangerous — especially any bacteria or curses they might carry. If they spread on a large scale, it could cause significant social harm..."
The middle-aged man waved his hand: "Shoot it down."
"Understood! Anti-air light-guide cannon, number two, prepare! Shadow Magic Network charging complete. Countdown: three, two, one..."
The control console sprang into action upon receiving the order. A blue laser beam shot from the ground, aiming precisely at the crimson meteor. But at that very moment, the red meteor on the screen suddenly changed.
Blindingly bright red warning lights flashed frantically, accompanied by piercing alarm sirens.
"Target exhibiting high-energy response! Current energy level: Bohr! Rising rapidly!!! No — it's already reached Sith-class!!! Marked as 5A-level hazard. Automatic report to the Imperial Security Bureau!"
A researcher staring at the extremely distorted image on the screen screamed, his voice filled with panic.
On the hall's enormous video display, the crimson meteor seemed to possess a will of its own, tracing a brilliant arc that dodged the laser attack effortlessly.
Then, the image of a doll emerged from within the meteor. Its two jet-black eyes flashed with sudden light, and the screen instantly dissolved into static.
"Flight Throne Three has gone silent!" the female soldier cried out, the file folder slipping from her hands and clattering to the floor.
"Malice from another world! The invasion of a powerful entity?"
The base's commanding officer — the middle-aged colonel — cupped his chin with both hands and muttered: "I can't believe I've run into this again!"
"Everyone! Until the Supreme Order arrives from the Security Bureau, the time has come to prove our loyalty to the Empire!"
The middle-aged colonel stood up, tore open his collar, and began roaring at the top of his lungs: "All ground missiles — fire! I want it destroyed at any cost!!! Ground armored units — cancel all leaves! Everyone to full readiness! And... get me the Imperial Prime Minister on the line! I need the highest-level authorization for the Shadow Magic Network of Anduo City!!!"
"This... this... Yes, sir!"
Long years of training, especially the instilled sense of obedience, made the female soldier snap to attention and salute, accepting the order — though a trace of bewilderment lingered in her mind. "This level of preparation... even for a world war, this would be overkill, wouldn't it?"
"Re... Report..."
At that moment, another communicator on the control console crackled to life, carrying a voice of utter terror: "High-energy dissipation residue detected in satellite zones four and five! Identical meteor sighted! This is bad..."
BOOM!
A tremendous tremor rocked the ground and ceiling. The white-hot lamps powered by the new energy source flickered on and off, and blinding red warning lights flashed across the entire hall.
"The enemy has attacked! Branch Base Two has lost contact!"
After what felt like an eternity, a communications officer's voice finally came through, tinged with bewilderment and panic.
"Is it coming... the Fifth Impact that could destroy the Empire?"
The middle-aged colonel's glasses fell from his face, shattering on the floor into countless glimmering shards. He sank limply back into his chair, as though all his strength had been drained away...
"Hmm. Those were satellites? It seems this world's technological development exceeds even my expectations..."
Through the connection of his True Spirit, Leilin observed the satellite that the voodoo doll had destroyed.
Strictly speaking, it looked nearly identical to those from his previous life, only the energy source seemed to have undergone a significant change.
"And they've reached the level of laser weapons... Voodoo dolls — attempt an attack. Let me see their defenses!"
Leilin issued the order without hesitation and was rewarded with a satisfactory sight.
"It seems to be a branch base. Its defenses are at the Dawn Sun level... What's more impressive is that it appears to be operated entirely by ordinary humans, yet possesses the firepower to engage a Dawn Sun-class entity..."
Unfortunately, such power was utterly insignificant before Leilin. A single puppet dispatched casually could easily wipe it out.