Since Hu Yan and Ruan Yu joined the Vulcan Squad, in the past few months, the two people's strength had advanced by leaps and bounds. Now, they could already take on responsibilities independently.
Especially with the special attributes of the entire team significantly enhanced, Hu Yan developed a combo of the Wind Whisper Spell and Ignite skill, boosting the Vulcan Squad's jungle-clearing speed by several times.
A month later, the Vulcan Squad successfully cleared warlord-level beasts.
Hu Yan and Ruan Yu's experience all reached level three max. Jiang Kai's fire intensity, Hu Yan's wind element control, and Ruan Yu's true energy strength all increased by 40 points.
At this time, the Destiny Materials were only one material short, and only the ninth fragment of the scroll remained.
On this day, the squad had just killed the last warlord-level White Tiger Spirit and found a patch of grass to camp.
At night, Jiang Kai lay in the grass pile spacing out, and once again saw that shadow atop the mountain.
That shadow turned its back to the moonlight, flickering quickly. Due to the distance and the shadow's fast speed, the image was blurry, and Jiang Kai couldn't be sure what kind of creature it was.
This was already an unknown number of times Jiang Kai had spotted the shadow. He sat up abruptly and shook Hu Yan awake.
"Old Hu, I saw that shadow again!"
Hu Yan groggily woke up. "What shadow? Oh, the moonlit shadow you mentioned last time? Captain Kai, I told you, it's just your imagination. I've never seen it during my night watches. There's no shadow."
Jiang Kai looked back at the cliff. Sure enough, the shadow had disappeared.
"This… sigh." Jiang Kai didn't know how to explain. "Forget it, I'll go take a look! You guys wait here for me."
"Captain Kai, don't go! Be careful of encountering a King-level!" Hu Yan grabbed Jiang Kai.
Jiang Kai shook his head. "I'm just going to take a look. With Ghost Eye Focus, if I'm careful, I won't run into a King-level BOSS."
With that, Jiang Kai quickly headed for that mountain peak.
The surrounding beasts had already been cleared by the Vulcan Squad, so there wouldn't be any warlord-levels appearing for the time being.
Still, Jiang Kai didn't dare to be careless. After all, inside the Immortal Trace Valley, there were still commander-level and king-level BOSSES.
They say, climbing a mountain breaks your legs—Jiang Kai walked for more than two hours, bypassed a commander-level tiger group, and finally arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Climbing up the mountain road, an hour later, Jiang Kai reached the summit.
In front of him was a flat rock, part of which protruded over the cliff edge, like a suspended stage shaped like a heaven-facing bowl.
In the night, Jiang Kai lowered his center of gravity and carefully searched the surroundings for traces of the shadow.
"Ghost Eye Focus! I'll see what this thing really is…" Jiang Kai took out a Pursuing Life, quenched it in fire, lit a flame, and temporarily used it as a torch to illuminate the area bit by bit.
After searching in a circle, he didn't find that creature.
However, beside the cliff, he did find a sword.
The sword was deeply embedded in the rock, with only the hilt and a small section of the blade remaining.
Jiang Kai cautiously approached the sword, then grasped the hilt and pulled hard...
With that pull, he nearly fell over.
Turns out the sword was far shorter than Jiang Kai had imagined. Its blade was already heavily damaged, leaving only a small segment.
Jiang Kai picked up the sword, frowning. "Isn't it said that weapons never drop in Immortal Trace Valley? Where did this sword come from?"
Unable to figure it out, he directly identified it.
From his few remaining identification cards, Jiang Kai took one and appraised it.
[Demon-Slaying Sword (Unique Divine Artifact) (Damaged)]
Jiang Kai nearly coughed up a mouthful of old blood—he picked up a unique divine artifact?
[Due to the Demon-Slaying Sword being severely damaged, base attributes and most effects cannot activate or be identified. Upon acquiring the artifact, if the holder's power has not surpassed the previous owner, they will only possess item ownership, and cannot bind the artifact.]
[Effect 1: Past Life Memory – The Demon-Slaying Sword followed its master through many battles. Even in ruin, it retains partial past life memory.]
[Effect 2: Resentment Unresolved – The Demon-Slaying Sword holds unresolved hatred toward the demon race. Upon encountering at least a King-level BOSS, it can activate past life memory and launch an automatic attack. Auto-attack strength is based on the previous owner's power.]
The Demon-Slaying Sword only had these two effects remaining.
Yet just these two effects already made Jiang Kai feel incredulous.
"Damn, what level was its former master? For the Resentment Unresolved trigger condition to have a minimum of King-level BOSS?"
Higher than King-level BOSSs would be Earth-level BOSSs and Domain Lords, right…
Which meant its original owner's lowest enemy was a King-level BOSS!
Was its original owner a player?
At this moment, the Demon-Slaying Sword began to tremble, from weak to strong, until it eventually broke free from Jiang Kai's hand and re-embedded itself into the ground.
Moonlight fell on that small section of the metal blade, reflecting a light that cast a human-shaped shadow at the cliff's edge.
"Shadow?!" Jiang Kai stared intently at the shadow—he instantly recognized it as the same shadow he had seen several times before.
Even though that shadow was now very close to Jiang Kai, it resembled a silhouette, with no face—only an outline.
At first glance, it looked like a human shadow.
Of course, even if it looked like a human shadow, that didn't prove it was human. After all, Dongli was a counterexample.
That shadow stood on the protruding rock, holding a longsword. But it faced Jiang Kai directly—no attack, no movement.
Jiang Kai furrowed his brow. "What does this mean…"
Then Jiang Kai looked down at the Demon-Slaying Sword. The sword was slightly trembling.
And that shadow actually cupped its fist toward Jiang Kai, making an inviting gesture.
"This… wants to spar with me?"
Jiang Kai hesitated a little.
His death penalty was quite terrifying. Facing an unknown opponent in an unexplained situation, he didn't know whether he should try it.
But the shadow made the inviting gesture again.
"Brother, do we really have to spar? Can we make a rule, just to test each other?" Jiang Kai stood up hesitantly.
Unexpectedly, the shadow actually nodded.
"Huh? It really agrees to stop at the point of contact? Then no problem." Jiang Kai breathed a sigh of relief and stepped to face the shadow.
"Actually, I do have some strength." Jiang Kai smiled slightly, one hand holding the King Yama card, and the other holding the God of Light card.
With two divine artifacts in hand, and possessing attributes unimaginable inside this realm, plus numerous lifesaving means, Jiang Kai thought he could at least exchange a few blows with the shadow.
If the King Yama card hit, a counter-kill wasn't impossible!
"I'll count down." Jiang Kai stared at the opponent, having already activated Ghost Eye Focus.
As soon as it started, he would trigger Gambler's Time and instantly throw out his two trump cards.
"Three, two—cough cough cough… cough cough… one!" At the moment of "one," Jiang Kai instantly activated Gambler's Time, quenched in fire, preparing to throw both ultimate cards!
However, before Jiang Kai could throw the god cards, he felt a blur before his eyes—and the next second, the shadow's black sword had pierced his forehead!
Jiang Kai still held the god cards in his hand, his eyes wide open.
The shadow was already behind him!
Even energy protection, void steps, and deceit substitute hadn't had time to activate!
He hadn't even had a chance—his opponent had instantly killed him!
Fortunately, the shadow did not cause Jiang Kai any real harm. This strike was more a spiritual shock.
After a long while, Jiang Kai finally came back to his senses and slowly turned around—only to find that the shadow had vanished.
However, a scroll had appeared on the ground.
He quickly stepped forward, picked up the scroll, and identified it.
[Fragment Scroll Nine – Gather Fragment Scrolls One through Nine to synthesize a skill.]
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