Chapter Eighteen: The Black Shadow Reappears

  English level exam failed...... Feeling terrible......

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  Zong Yin endured the discomfort, his entire body covered in blood as he rushed into the dormitory. As soon as he entered, he heavily fell to the ground, violently colliding with the floor, yet he didn't feel any pain.

  "Ugh!" The intense dizziness made him vomit everything he could, and even in the end, blood threads flowed out of his abdomen. Despite this, Zong Yin continued to feel unwell, constantly banging his head against the ground with great force.

  It was as if he had a fever of forty degrees, the whole world was spinning constantly, and in his head, there seemed to be a dragon turning over and stirring up the ocean, as if something was about to burst out of his head.

  "You don't have the endurance for this! Can you even handle such high-intensity soul manipulation?!"

  A surge of anger and resentment burst forth from Zonghui, but a gentle wave of soul energy emanating from the depths of his being gradually calmed down his originally turbulent spiritual and soul powers.

  After a long time, Zong Yin finally felt a bit better, and his physical sensations returned to his body. A wave of intense headaches made him tremble uncontrollably. Zong Yin couldn't help but laugh bitterly - he had never expected that taking control of all the changes in his soul power at once would cause his spiritual energy to backlash, causing his soul power to become chaotic.

  "If..."

  Hun Yu seemed to want to say something more, but halfway through, she suddenly fell silent.

  Then Zong Yin understood the reason for Hun Yu's disappearance. A wisp of black air slowly floated out from his head, gradually forming a black shadow in front of him that he would never be able to forget.

  "I felt the intense fluctuations of your soul and thought you were dead, but unexpectedly, you've already condensed your first Soul Stone. Well done! As I always say, rewards and punishments are clear-cut, so let's consider this a reward for you."

  The black shadow's purple, date-like pupils slowly swept across Zong Yin's body, and the places where he was swept instantly broke out in goosebumps. The black shadow's eyes seemed to be able to see through all things, and Zong Yin felt as if he had been stripped of his clothes, exposing himself completely before him.

  A dark mist extended from the body of the black shadow, rapidly enveloping Zong Yin. The soul outside was like a tangled mess of threads, but in an instant, they returned to their original position. The turbulent spiritual energy also became as calm as a still lake surface, without a single ripple.

  After this double rebound of spiritual power and soul power, Zong Yin unexpectedly gained a blessing in disguise, and instead produced more than ten new strands of soul power. To know that since the soul power from the Tongtian Cauldron was merged into the Human Soul Stone, his cultivation speed had slowed down a lot, basically taking half a day to form a new strand of soul power every day.

  Zong Yin got up from the ground, and without warning, threw a punch at the black shadow. The black shadow's eyes narrowed, and Zong Yin's full-strength punch easily passed through his mist-like body.

  Zong Yin did not give up, seeing that his fists had no effect on the dark shadow. The soul power he had just recovered was released without reservation, transforming into a short needle of soul power that shot into the dark shadow's body. Zong Yin could no longer care about whether his soul and spiritual energy would be counterattacked again; he only wanted to resist. However, the effect of the soul power short needle was beyond Zong Yin's expectations - it was like a mud cow entering the sea, without any news.

  "Hum! You're just like those damned Wolf Tribe, wild and untamed. I helped you, but you don't know how to repay kindness, instead you want to deal with me. Do you know what we do to people like that?"

  Hei Ying let out a cold hum, his eyes filled with a hint of mockery and disdain for Zong Yin.

  His eyes turned bright red, and he gritted his teeth to suppress the dizziness that was rising up. He prepared to charge forward once again, aiming a punch at the black figure's face, even if it would have no effect. However, just as he was about to move, his body convulsed violently, and he fell to the ground, twitching uncontrollably like he had been electrocuted, with saliva flowing out of his mouth unconsciously.

  The black chains that bound his soul grew countless reverse hooks that pierced his soul in an instant, and what's more frightening was that these chains were constantly tightening, moving, and the reverse hooks pulled out one after another on Zonghui's soul.

  Seeing Zong Yin already exhausted, the black shadow coldly snorted, those inverted hooks retreated back into the lock chain, and the lock chain slowly returned to its original position. With a look of disgust at Zong Yin, the black shadow whispered: "Lowly creature, ignorant of good fortune, if it weren't for the Soul-Sealing Order malfunctioning and temporarily unable to find another puppet, this king would have had your soul annihilated!"

  It was as if he had gone through countless years, before Zonghui finally managed to crawl out of that unbearable pain. Compared to the soul being pulled out by the reverse thorns on the chain, the backlash of his spiritual power and soul force was like an itch, and even Zonghui himself did not dare to believe that he had actually survived that terrifying pain.

  "Remember your identity and be honest, if there's a next time, I won't let you off so easily. Your current abilities are still too weak, work hard to improve your strength and become the lord of Jiuhuan City. Only when you've become the lord of Jiuhuan City and possess the power of a soul master will you barely have the qualifications to do things for me."

  He gave Zong Yin a cold glance, and the black shadow disappeared into his mind like smoke, vanishing without a trace.

  Taking a deep breath, Zhong Yin's eyes were filled with angry light. This mysterious black shadow had not appeared since the first day it came out, to the point where even Zhong Yin had gradually put this hidden danger behind his mind, and even held a thread of luck in his heart that the black shadow would never appear again. Unfortunately, the appearance of the black shadow this time thoroughly shattered Zhong Yin's fantasy.

  The black shadow not only appeared, but also made Zong Yin realize the gap between himself and him. The joy of winning with one against six had disappeared, and he had no ability to resist in front of the black shadow.

  After a long time, Zong Yin finally recovered from the aftermath of his soul being torn apart. He simply cleaned up the vomit he had left behind and sat cross-legged on the bed, starting to circulate his soul energy.

  Only with stronger strength can you defeat the mysterious dark shadow, and only with a stronger soul can you find a way to remove those shackles that bind yourself.

  "I remember you once said that after I became a Soul Master, you had a way to help me remove the lock on my soul. Why didn't you do it?"

  Although the surface is calm, there is always a fire burning in his heart, Zong Yin asked as if he was talking to himself.

  "As that mysterious black figure said, you are still too weak now. I can only loosen the soul lock chain a bit, but not cut it off completely. Moreover, there is his mark on these soul lock chains. If they are not removed all at once, he will sense it, and the consequences are probably not worth mentioning."

  Hun Yu let out a sigh, seemingly feeling somewhat guilty. When Zong Yin was suffering, it had hidden away, and no matter what the reason was, it made him feel uncomfortable.

  "What kind of strength do I need to have in order for you to be able to remove all the chains at once?"

  Zong was silent for a moment, and naturally he wouldn't expose the ability to remove the shackles just because of a short-term relaxation of the soul lock chain. After half a moment of silence, he continued to ask.

  "It's hard to say, you've only formed a human soul stone for now, and I don't know what the situation will be like after you form three spirit stones. At least wait until your Qi, Power, and Central Spirit Stones are fully formed, then I can give you an accurate answer."

  Hun Yu did not give a clear answer this time, after all, the Soul Refining Technique that Zong Yin cultivated was created by Hun Yu based on another world, and there was no experience to draw from, not even right or wrong could be distinguished, let alone future strength.

  Zong Yin fell silent once again, apparently he was the first to eat the crab. This was a gamble, a high-stakes gamble, if he lost, he would lose everything, including his life, but if he won, he could regain his freedom, of course, he also had a third option, not to gamble. But not gambling also meant giving up, following the path arranged by Hei Ying and the Zong family like a puppet without any autonomy.

  Without a doubt, Zong Yinyin resolutely chose to gamble. Waiting for death was not his habit. Even if he lost everything, he would exhaust all his strength to gamble. Even if he failed in the end, it was better than becoming a puppet. Moreover, he still had a chance to win!

  "To form the first soul stone, you need 300 more strands of soul power in your body, which is equivalent to a Soul Master level four. At your current rate of soul power cultivation, it will probably take about a year."

  When Zong Yin was silent, Hun Yu slowly opened his mouth. Although Hun Yu didn't say it explicitly, Zong Yin knew that the implication was that his cultivation speed was too slow. The three Charms controlled by Renhun Stone would take nearly three years to cultivate, so how long would it take to successfully cultivate the other two Soul Stones and four Charms? It was hard to say whether Zong Yin had that much time.

  "Is there any way to obtain the kind of soul power that was in the bronze cauldron before and accelerate its production?"

  Zong Yin suddenly felt a little nostalgic for the soul power that had been impacting his soul fetus before he became a formed person soul stone. If he could get something like that again, he thought it wouldn't take long for him to become a three-soul stone and become a Soul Master.

  "It's difficult, the soul power from before was the original soul power of the bronze cauldron. Soul artifacts that have reached that level rarely release their own original soul power externally, and you've already formed a human soul stone, your soul is even more condensed than before...the weak soul power like before can no longer achieve the effect of impacting the external wall of the soul..."

  Hun Yu's answer, however, was somewhat disappointing to Zong Yin. From his tone and explanation, it wasn't hard to tell that Zong Yin had basically no hope of getting what he wanted. Not wanting to continue listening to Hun Yu's lengthy theoretical explanations, he directly cut him off and asked straightforwardly: "In other words, there's no way?"

  But unexpectedly, this gathering gave an unexpected answer.

  "Yes! Without an internal soul force impact, you can use external soul force. Go find a soul technique that can detonate the soul force and then form control over the soul force to explode outside the soul fetus, which can achieve almost the same effect, but doing so..."

  Zong Yin was overjoyed when he heard that there was indeed a way, but his brow furrowed as he listened to the rest.

  "Such a soul skill is at least above green star, where can I get it?"

  The aftermath of this method is obvious, and if not controlled properly, it may cause permanent damage to one's own soul. However, Zong Yin couldn't care about that anymore, interrupting Hun Yu's warning once again, asking in confusion.

  "Monthly tests, yearly exams!"

  The jade-like words came out of the ordinary without any lengthy nonsense, and after saying only two nouns, they sank into the depths of Zonghui's soul.

  Zong Yin immediately flipped out the poster that was sent by the school at the beginning. Among the prizes for the top three newcomers in the annual exam, one of them was a low-grade martial soul technique from Blue Star, "Star Burst"!

  "Got it."

  He lightly responded with a sentence, and Zong Yin also stopped talking, preparing to restore his soul power to its best state, and then cultivate the growing assist soul technique on that stone slab. In his view, every little increase in strength might save his life in the future.