Chapter 3: Summoning a Diamond-Grade Hero!

 The [Diamond-Grade Hero Summoning Order] in Ling Yuyan's grasp shone brightly as it turned into many strings of bright runes.

So many strings of bright runes slowly formed a silhouette of a person.

But something completely out of Ling Yuyan's expectations happened...

Those strings of bright runes were dyed completely black in the blink of an eye, and even the surrounding environment suddenly became as dark as night.

RUMBLE~! RUMBLE~! RUMBLE~!

A black fog swirled right in front of Ling Yuyan accompanied by lightning and thunder!

"Wha... What else is happening right now?! Don't tell me the summoning failed, and I summoned something ominous instead?!" Ling Yuyan murmured in a frustrated and nervous tone.

When the black fog dispersed and the surrounding environment returned to normal, there was a slender figure clad in black clothes standing in front of Ling Yuyan.

It was actually an extremely beautiful young girl around the same age as Ling Yuyan, but her expression was very indifferent and cold like a thousand years of unmelted ice.

"Are you my master?" The young girl clad in a black cloak asked Ling Yuyan.

'What an iconic moment~! But this is surely even more epic than in any movie I have ever watched before!' Ling Yuyan thought in amazement.

Ling Yuyan puffed her flat chest proudly and answered: "Yes, that is right~! I am your master."

The young girl clad in a black cloak observed Ling Yuyan for a few moments before kneeling in front of Ling Yuyan and said: "Your most loyal subordinate, Shadow Empress, is here to serve you."

"Get up, you do not need to be so polite." Ling Yuyan spoke while smiling happily as she quickly helped Shadow Empress to get up.

Ling Yuyan realized that she could actually check her subordinates' stats with her system, so she decided to take a look at Shadow Empress's stats.

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[Name: Shadow Empress]

[Qualification: Diamond-Grade Hero]

[Martial Realm: Low-Rank Martial Commander]

 [Talent: Shadow Master (Gold), Child of Darkness (Diamond)]

[Internal Cultivation Technique: Nine Phantoms Demonic Arts (7th Layer)]

[External Cultivation Technique: Ethereal Darkness Body Tempering Method (3rd Layer)]

[Martial Arts: Phantom Dance Dual Blades Techniques (Small Success), Nine Phantom Steps (Small Success)]

[Spells: Shadow Stealth, Shadow Clones, Armor of Darkness, Darkness Nets, Thorn of Darkness]

[Innate Skill: Shadow Blend, Shadow Killing Strike, Shadow Binding Whip]

[Loyalty: 100% (Diehard Loyal)]

[Equipment: (Phantom Cloak), (Assassin Garb), (Shadow Blades) x2]

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'Holy cow~! What an incomparably luxurious stats~!' Ling Yuyan gasped in shock.

Ling Yuyan had an urge to kneel and worship her new subordinate, then begged her to become her master or teacher instead.

'No, no, no... That is too unsightly. I must maintain my prestige in front of my own subordinate.' Ling Yuyan quickly shook her head to deny that absurd idea.

'Uh, her martial realm is only at Martial Commander~?! It is not bad but isn't her martial realm too low for a Diamond-Grade Hero?' Ling Yuyan asked with a skeptical tone while frowning deeply in dissatisfaction.

This Martial Continent was divided into upper-bound and lower-bound.

Let's not talk about upper-bound since it was still too far from her reach, but there were six martial realms in lower-bound.

Martial Apprentice, Martial Warrior, Martial Commander, Martial General, Martial Master, Martial Grand Master.

Each martial realm was divided further into five ranks: Entry-Rank, Low-Rank, Mid-Rank, High-Rank, and Top Peak-Rank.

Entry-rank Martial Commander was only at the lower middle echelon, but it was already quite powerful in this Spring River Town.

However, Ling Yuyan thought Shadow Empress should be a lot more powerful than that. Well, at least she should reach Martial Master or Grand Master, right? I mean her name was an empress after all.

Right at this time, the System explained to Ling Yuyan to dispel her confusion.

[The maximum initial realm of all subordinates can only be three realms higher than the master. Host do not need to worry too much about it. That Diamond-Grade Hero can improve much faster than Host expected.]

Ling Yuyan's lips twitched in annoyance as she grumbled in her heart: 'All right, I get it~! So, it is my fault, right?! I am really sorry for being weak, okay?!'

Ling Yuyan also decided to check Shadow Empress's two talents with great curiosity.

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[Shadow Master (Gold-Grade Talent)]

[Description: The real master of shadow with unparalleled mastery in the Darkness attribute arts.]

[Effect 1: Fighting power and overall stats increased by 150% in the dark environment.]

[Effect 2: Any Stealth spell or skill's level improved by several levels in the dark environment, and it would be many times harder for anyone to sense or track you in the dark environment.]

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[Child of Darkness (Diamond-Grade Talent)]

[Description: The one and only favored child of Darkness. Born innately close with Darkness attribute and blessed with power by the Darkness itself.]

[Effect 1: When practicing the Darkness attribute techniques, improvement speed will be increased by 300%.]

[Effect 2: The effect and power of all martial arts, spells, and skills with the Darkness attribute will be increased by 200%.]

[Effect 3: The possessor will obtain Darkness attribute innate skill for every breakthrough to a higher martial realm.]

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'What the heck are these talents?! Aren't they too powerful to be true?!' Ling Yuyan mumbled in astonishment, but unfortunately, she could only stare enviously at these two overpowered talents.

Then Ling Yuyan suddenly remembered about the [Shadow Empress Ring] she had obtained from the lottery before.

'[Shadow Empress Ring] and Shadow Empress hero... Don't tell me that they have a connection with each other?! I mean maybe I can summon Shadow Empress as my hero because I possess [Shadow Empress Ring] as the medium.' Ling Yuyan wondered in her heart.

Ling Yuyan took out the [Shadow Empress Ring] from her Spatial Stone and gave it to Shadow Empress while saying: "This is my welcome gift for you. You can take it, Shadow Empress!"

[Shadow Empress Ring] might be extremely powerful, but it was not a suitable treasure for Ling Yuyan and would not improve her much.

So, giving it to Shadow Empress should be the most correct decision, because only Shadow Empress could use this ring properly and utilize its full potential.

"This... Master, I do not dare to accept it. I have not done anything to help you, so how could I accept any gift from you." Shadow Empress politely refused with her usual cold and indifferent tone.

Ling Yuyan smiled brightly as she felt very satisfied with Shadow Empress's attitude.

But she still threw the [Shadow Empress Ring] in her grasp to Shadow Empress.

Shadow Empress could only helplessly catch the [Shadow Empress Ring], the she hastily thanked Ling Yuyan: "Thank you, Master, for your welcome gift~!"

"You do not need to think too much about it. I give this ring to you because only you can make use of this ring to reach its fullest potential. Err... By the way, do you recognize this ring?" Ling Yuyan asked curiously.

Shadow Empress observed the [Shadow Empress Ring] in her grasp carefully and frowned deeply for a while.

"This ring... feels very familiar. But I cannot remember where I have seen it before." Shadow Empress replied to Ling Yuyan with an unsure tone.

"Can you clearly remember everything such as what were you doing and what happened to you before you got here?" Ling Yuyan asked again.

Shadow Empress shook her head and answered while frowning deeply: "I can only remember some of them clearly, but most of them are unclear like they are covered in thick fog."

Ling Yuyan stopped asking about Shadow Empress's past since she was afraid that it would make Shadow Empress feel uncomfortable.

Anyway, Shadow Empress was her most loyal and reliable subordinate right now, and her past was no longer important.

"You can drop your blood to bind that ring now." Ling Yuyan instructed Shadow Empress.

"Yes, Master." Shadow Empress replied as she bit her finger and dripped her blood onto the [Shadow Empress Ring] to bind it.

"Calling me Master sounds so awkward, you can just call me, Sister Yuyan." Ling Yuyan stated to Shadow Empress.

Well, they basically called each other Master and Empress, and Ling Yuyan honestly thought that it sounded really pretentious.

If the others accidentally heard it and laughed at her because of it, she might be embarrassed to death.

But Shadow Empress thought that Ling Yuyan wanted to hide their relationship in front of others, so she obeyed it without any hesitation.

"This subordinate understood, Sister Yuyan." Shadow Empress nodded with a solemn expression.

Ling Yuyan nodded in satisfaction, but after she thought for a while, she also decided to give Shadow Empress another nickname to avoid getting into unwanted trouble.

They were currently living in the Dajing Dynasty after all.

Everyone knew that the Dajing Dynasty already had its own Empress.

It would only attract unwanted attention and hatred if she called Shadow Empress in front of others later, so it would be better to give her a more low-key nickname instead.

"From now on, I will call you, 'An Yue' (Dark Moon). It is a good name, right?" Ling Yuyan muttered with a friendly smile on her face as she patted An Yue's shoulder.

An Yue also smiled back stiffly at Ling Yuyan: "I get it, Mas... Sister Yuyan. My name will be An Yue from now on."

"All right, then let me see how many Shadow Guards you can summon at one time." Ling Yuyan curiously ordered An Yue to try to use one of the [Shadow Empress Ring]'s abilities.

An Yue wore the [Shadow Empress Ring] on her finger and injected her Darkness attribute internal force into the ring.

[Shadow Summon]~!