8 Chapter 8: Shadows

The Shadow Soul Reaping technique from the Heavenly Emperor's throne. The secret technique was hidden by the Shadow Immortal when he died because of old age. Ling found this secret technique inside a ruin. It was sealed in a throne so he took it back and made it his throne because he can't learn the complete technique. When he sat on it when he got home, he felt qi going into his body. With the qi flowing into his body, vague words began appearing in his mind but not a sentence. "Death", "Soul", and "King" were the words. He was curious what those words mean but he just shrugged it off back then.

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Ling slowly opened his eyes. He stretched his arms while yawning before standing up."Wow... My body feels like it can withstand a punch from the strongest body refiner back in Heaven's Lair." He said happily before looking at his hands and clenching his fists back and forth. "Let's try my strength first."

He walked towards the right side of the room and stood there silently with his eyes closed. He focused his strength in his clenched fists and looked at the wall. "Let's just try and tap my fist on the wall. The last time I did this, I blew up the whole city and I got chased out of that city."

He inhaled first then slowly tapped his fist on to the surface of the wall and exhaled deeply. His hands began emitting a huge amount of qi and it glowed in an instant between his fist and the wall. A quick earthquake shook the whole cave but Ling just nonchalantly closed his eyes once again.

The spot where his fist landed remained as it is. His fist still covered the spot but he immediately knew. "I'm still too weak..." he shook his head and removed his hands.

A fist mark can be seen carved on to the wall. It was 1 inch deep and the size of his fist and there were no cracks or signs of damage surrounding the fist mark. The only thing you can see on the wall was a deep fist mark.

Ling opened his eyes and said: "I can destroy this whole cave if it was me back then." Ling looked at the wall with disappointed eyes and an upset smile. He then tried to circulate his qi but felt something was different.

"Hmm... Come to think of it, I remember I reached the 1st level of the Shadow Soul Reaping technique..." he thought to himself. He sat down with his legs crossed and circulated his qi. He recited the technique in his mind multiple times with his eyes closed.

...

He opened his eyes like he discovered something big, ignoring his surroundings. "Kill so you can summon... What a technique." Ling grinned. Ling conjured qi in his hands and played with it. His qi curled onto his fingers and began slithering on his arms like a snake.

"Oh, you have a cat-like behavior huh... Like a lady begging for attention..." he said before retracting his qi. "My qi last time was acted like my best friend. Too bad I lost him..." Ling said like he was longing for a lover or a friend. He stared at the floor with teary eyes.

"This is no time to be acting like a deserted husband!" he wiped the tears in his eyes and stood up. He looked at his surroundings then saw a black aura surrounding him. The black aura seems to be the regrets, resentment, and bad energy from the dead souls in that room.

"I should try the Shadow Soul Reaping technique and see what it does." Ling raised his arm slowly.

A black hole appeared at the back of Ling, swallowing the black aura. Ling smiled at what he was seeing but a sudden urge to kill began to appear in his mind. His vision became red and his senses became sharper. His mana was becoming more aggressive, overpowering his qi.

Ling felt like his heart and dantian was about to explode. While gritting his teeth because of the pain, he sat quickly and tried to calm both his qi and mana. He was coughing up blood repeatedly and veins were visible on his forehead.

...

When Ling's qi and mana were now flowing smoothly, he laid down and sighed in relief. "What... was... that..." he was dumbfounded and was gasping for air. He closed his eyes so he can calm down.

After a while, he opened his eyes and now saw black circles floating in the air. He immediately stood up so he can look at the floating orbs and study them.

"So these are souls... There are about 50 demons here, including that insect faced demon and 1 human... Making it 51 souls..." he thought to himself. The souls were like glowing orbs. The color depends if your a human, demon, beasts, etc. In this case, there were 50 black orbs and there was 1 white orb.

Now that Ling knows how many souls, Ling closed his eyes.

"Dark Reap." Ling said while looking at the souls calmly. If this was a regular person, they with shiver because souls are pure qi and if they touch one, they will explode because of the overload of qi.

The orbs became shadow figures. Their eyes were glowing coldly with the color white and their forms were black. They each resemble their appearance when they were alive so Ling easily knew who they were. One shadow was even darker than the others. Its eyes glowed red and its face was like the insect demon. "You will be the leader of these shadows. You will be 'Hei'."

Hei nodded then all of the black shadows knelt in front of him.

"Hmm?" Ling noticed the white orb was still an orb so he approached it.

"So the black aura was yours..." Ling deduced.

"The black aura. The regrets, resentment, bad energy from when the souls were alive, can empower me and boost my qi. It can also stir my mana, making it more potent than the others." Ling thought to himself before grinning.

Ling then touched the white orb to see why it did not transform. Suddenly, his consciousness faded and he fell asleep. When he woke up, he felt like he was in a dream. His usual strong body was gone and was replaced with a middle-aged man's. It was like the last time when his soul traveled into the original owner's body but this time, he can't control it.

"Wang Lao!" a girl suddenly yelled from behind.

"Wang Lao? Isn't he already dead?" Ling thought to himself.

Ling's body moved on its own and replied to the girl. "What is it..."

Ling's body then began to clear up, revealing Wang Luo.

"... My Lady." he then kneeled in front of her like a butler.