The Lotus Genesis Art! Yang Kai's most powerful soul-attack technique.
Facing such a bizarre shadow, he didn't dare hold back any longer. His very first move was a killing strike.
The lotus pattern flashed and vanished, appearing the next instant inside the shadow's body. The lotus began to bloom slowly, and the source of its blooming power was the shadow's own origin energy!
The shadow, which had been less than a foot from Yang Kai, suddenly froze. Then it collapsed to the ground, wailing miserably.
By the time the lotus finished blooming completely, the shadow was long gone. In its place, a black lotus remained on the spot for a moment before crumbling apart and dissolving into nothingness.
Only then did Yang Kai have a chance to check on the others.
Luo Lan was closest to him. When Yang Kai turned his head to look, he was alarmed to discover a human-shaped shadow standing behind this Void King Realm cultivator—a shadow identical to the one he had just destroyed, another formless, featureless entity with no facial features whatsoever.
Right now, that shadow seemed to be draped over Luo Lan's back. From the area where its face should have been, something like a proboscis extended and pierced straight through the back of Luo Lan's head.
A sinister, malevolent force radiated from within the shadow, clouding Luo Lan's thoughts and dragging her soul into an illusion.
Luo Lan didn't know what kind of illusion she was experiencing, but her delicate body trembled ceaselessly, her expression shifting over and over. The fine hair on her forehead was already drenched in sweat, and with each breath, her heaving chest rose and fell dramatically.
"There's more than one!" Yang Kai's heart clenched with alarm.
He had assumed that the same shadow had attacked both him and Luo Lan, but now it was clear that in this subterranean depths, there was far more than one such creature.
Looking further on, Xue Yue and Ni Guang were in exactly the same situation. A shadow was draped over each of their backs, with a proboscis-like appendage extending from the shadow's face and drilling into the back of each person's head.
None of them had noticed when these shadows attacked—not even Ni Guang had detected it.
But judging by the state of things, they had all been in the same situation as him just moments ago.
Chilling winds swept through the surroundings. Eerie, sorrowful sounds echoed without end.
A sudden coldness washed over Yang Kai's entire body. He whipped his head around to survey the area, and his expression changed involuntarily.
In the brief moment he had been distracted, human-shaped shadows had begun emerging from countless cracks in the ground all around them. The instant these shadows appeared, they all turned their faces toward Yang Kai. Though they had no eyes, he still felt the unsettling sensation of being watched by countless gazes.
"So many!" This time, Yang Kai's face truly turned pale.
He wasted no more time. He immediately charged toward Luo Lan, condensing his Divine Sense into a sharp spike and driving it into the shadow crouching on her back.
His soul power was immensely powerful, not at all inferior to a strong cultivator like Ni Guang, so a single soul-strike was enough to send the shadow attacking Luo Lan into a violent tremor. Its solid form seemed to dim considerably, clearly having sustained serious damage.
When Yang Kai hit it with a second soul-strike, it let out a miserable shriek and dissipated into nothing on the spot.
Yang Kai exhaled in relief, then realized that destroying these shadows wasn't actually that difficult. With his soul power, two strikes were more than enough.
The problem was… there were far too many of them.
With the shadow destroyed, Luo Lan let out a soft moan and broke free from the illusion. She opened her eyes and saw Yang Kai right in front of her. Her gaze was still somewhat dazed—she clearly hadn't fully shaken off the illusion yet.
Yang Kai barked: "Senior Luo Lan, if you don't want to die, snap out of it right now! Use your soul power against them!"
"Them?" Luo Lan's delicate brows furrowed. "Who are they?"
There was no need for Yang Kai to answer. Amid shrieks and wails, a swarm of shadows lunged toward both Luo Lan and Yang Kai.
Luo Lan let out a startled cry and finally snapped to awareness. She swept her hand forward, and a handleless short sword radiating brilliant light materialized before her. Under her control, the sword danced through the air, and any shadow that drew near was slain in a single stroke, dissipating into nothingness one after another.
She was a Void King Realm cultivator after all, and this brilliantly glowing handleless short sword was clearly no ordinary soul Artifact. Driven by soul power, it was the perfect counter to these shadows.
Seeing this, Yang Kai felt a weight lift from his chest. He shouted: "Hold on for a moment—I'm going to wake Ni Guang and Xue Yue up!"
"Make it quick!" Dense beads of cold sweat had already formed on Luo Lan's forehead. Though she had been fighting these shadows for only an instant, she could already sense how troublesome they were—their numbers were enormous!
Fighting while retreating, Luo Lan charged with Yang Kai toward the location of Ni Guang and Xue Yue. Any shadows that tried to block their path were shattered by Yang Kai's soul power.
Though he didn't have a soul Artifact like Luo Lan's, his own cultivation of Divine Sense was formidable, so they carved a clear path forward without much obstruction.
In moments, he reached Ni Guang's side and unleashed a powerful soul-strike at the human-shaped shadow crouching on the elder's back.