Chapter 117: Birth of the Demonic Shadow

Finished speaking, the leading man glanced at his subordinate beside him.

The subordinate understood tacitly and immediately stepped forward.

With indifference on his face, he reached out to pull open the passenger door of the car, preparing to take Zhou Huai away by force.

Zhou Huai's gaze turned cold.

The night was deep, and the streetlights were dim.

A pitch-black shadow poked out without warning from the shadow beneath Zhou Huai.

That was a sharp claw.

Pitch black all over, it shimmered with a cold metallic luster.

"Splat!"

The sharp claw sliced through the subordinate's hand reaching for the car door as easily as cutting tofu.

It was severed cleanly from the wrist.

Fresh blood gushed out like a fountain.

"Ah——!"

A shrill scream pierced the silent night sky.

The subordinate widened his eyes, looking at his empty wrist, his face filled with incomprehensible horror.

The remaining five people finally reacted, their expressions changing drastically as they retreated one after another and assumed defensive postures.

Treating it as a formidable enemy, they looked at the off-road vehicle with fear.

Zhou Huai expressionlessly looked at that group of people outside the car.

"I know you are just following orders, and I don't want to make things difficult for you."

"Go back."

The leading man's eyes were filled with dread.

He stared fixedly at the shadow beneath Zhou Huai, his heart pounding wildly.

He couldn't see what that thing was at all.

He only saw a black shadow flash by, and his subordinate's hand was gone.

By the side of this eldest young master of the Zhou Family who was driven out of the house, such a terrifying expert was actually hidden.

He didn't dare to make any rash moves anymore.

He quickly bowed and nodded respectfully toward Zhou Huai inside the car.

"Offended, Young Master."

"Thank you, Young Master, for sparing my life."

Finishing his words, he immediately called out to the others, helped up the companion with the severed hand, and quickly dived into the car.

The three sedans panicked, turned around, and disappeared wretchedly into the night.

Zhou Huai watched the direction they left, his gaze profound.

The reason why he didn't kill them was because right now he didn't want to, nor could he, completely fall out with the Zhou Family.

After all, his Clone's Rank was still too low.

As this small episode ended, Xiang Yu restarted the car and merged into the traffic.

The vehicle soon drove away from the bustling urban area and entered a secluded section leading to the outskirts of the city.

On both sides of the road were dense woods.

Zhou Huai suddenly furrowed his brows.

He keenly sensed that within the woods on both sides of the road, several figures were speeding through.

Even when shuttling between the dense trees, their speed was not slower than the off-road vehicle at all.

How come another batch of people had come?

Was this Zhou Feng determined to make him go back today?

Just as he was pondering, an abrupt change occurred!

Rumble!

The asphalt road ahead bulged upward without warning.

Dirt flew, and gravel splattered everywhere.

A thick earthen wall instantly rose from the ground, lying horizontally in the middle of the road.

Xiang Yu's reaction was extremely fast, slamming hard on the brakes.

The screeching sound of tire friction rang out.

But the distance was too close; it was already too late.

"Bang!"

The entire car body slammed fiercely into the earthen wall.

The violent impact caused Zhou Huai's body to lean forward abruptly, only to be yanked back fiercely by the seatbelt.

Fortunately, this specially made off-road vehicle was sturdy enough; the car body only deformed slightly and did not fall apart.

But before he could even catch his breath,

in the sky, a piercing sound of breaking air came.

Zhou Huai raised his head and through the car window saw dozens of fist-sized fireballs dragging long tail flames, falling from the sky like a meteor shower.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The dense sounds of explosions merged into one.

Fireballs smashed onto the roof and hood of the off-road vehicle one after another.

Every explosion caused the entire car body to vibrate violently.

Even this special vehicle capable of resisting exotic beast attacks could not withstand such a violent magical bombardment.

The car windows were covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and the vehicle body armor began to melt and deform.

Before long,

"Rumble——!"

a loud noise rang out.

The whole car turned into a huge fireball and underwent a violent explosion.

The terrifying shockwave blew the surrounding trees in half.

High above in the sky,

a man wearing a black martial arts suit hovered quietly in mid-air.

He overlooked the raging fire below, with no expression on his face.

Raising his hand, he pressed the communicator by his ear and issued an order in a cold voice.

"First Squad, go over and confirm whether the target is dead."

"Once the mission is complete, we withdraw."

Inside the communicator, a short reply quickly came.

"Received."

In the dense forest, three figures dashed out silently and quickly approached the scrapped off-road vehicle.

Their movements were agile and their coordination tacit, making them clearly well-trained assassins.

However, they didn't notice that

when they approached that ball of fire, the shadows on the ground began to distort and wriggle abnormally.

A figure slowly rose from the shadows.

It was Moria, who incarnated into the Night Stalker.

The night was his home turf.

In the Night Demon state, all his attributes were boosted by a full five times.

"Who?!"

The leader of the three-person squad noticed the abnormality first and turned his head abruptly.

He only saw a blurry black shadow flash by like a ghost.

"Splat!"

A slender bloodline appeared at the throat of a team member beside him.

That team member covered his neck, his eyes filled with terror and incomprehension, and fell straight down.

"Enemy attack!"

The captain shouted sternly, and the other team member also turned around immediately, the dagger in his hand flashing with cold light.

But it was too late.

Moria's figure appeared behind him like teleportation.

The pitch-black demonic claw easily pierced his heart.

The last remaining captain's pupils suddenly shrank.

He couldn't even clearly see the enemy's face.

He only felt a cold Killing Intent lock onto him firmly.

He wanted to escape, but his legs were as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

The next second, he saw a pale and slender hand stroke his forehead.

Then, his world plunged into eternal darkness.

High above in the sky,

the man in black furrowed his brows.

"What's the situation?"

Through the night vision device, he saw that the first squad he sent out had all lost their vital signs within just a few seconds.

But from beginning to end, he didn't see clearly what kind of people killed them.

"Something's wrong, how are there still survivors?"

As soon as his voice fell,

"Bang!"

a loud noise rang out.

The door of the off-road vehicle, which had already burned down to its skeleton, was kicked flying outward from the inside by a huge force.

Xiang Yu's mountain-like figure walked out from the burning wreckage.

In his arms, he held an unharmed Zhou Huai.

Zhou Huai's expression was stern, and his gaze carried undisguised Killing Intent.

This gang of people was completely different from the ones sent by Zhou Feng earlier.

That previous gang just wanted to take him back,

while this gang came for his life right from the start!

The man in black in the air saw Zhou Huai appear completely unscathed, a look of disbelief appearing on his face.

Having suffered such an intensive attack and the car blowing up into scrap metal, this guy actually didn't die?

How was this possible?

But now was not the time to be shocked.

He immediately issued instructions again through the communicator.

"Second Squad! Third Squad! Go over immediately and eliminate the target!"

"Understood!"

"Understood!"

However, these two squads had just received the order when

the next second, exclamations suddenly came from the communicator.

"Wait! What the hell is that thing!"

"Ah!"

Immediately afterward, a burst of dense screams came from the communicator.

"Second Squad! Third Squad! What's the situation?"

"Please reply! What's the situation?"

However, for a long time afterward, there was no response at all,

only the rustling sound of current.

One minute ago,

Moria precisely locked onto the positions of the other two squads lurking in the dark.

Rich Devilish Qi surged crazily from within his body.

This Devilish Qi converged and compressed in front of him, ultimately condensing into a pure black shadow.

The shadow's figure was slender, no different from a human form, yet it had no facial features, and its entire body was composed of flowing shadows.

[Birth of the Demonic Shadow (LV1)]!

This was a brand-new skill Moria comprehended after reaching Rank 15.

[Effect: Consume Devilish Qi to create a Shadow Assassin. The more Devilish Qi consumed, the stronger the Shadow Assassin's strength. In the Night Demon state, all attributes of the Shadow Assassin are increased by three times. Every time an enemy unit is killed, it will consume the Soul and flesh and blood of the killed person to generate a new Shadow Assassin. Duration ten minutes, no cooldown.]

The next second,

Moria and his Shadow Assassin acted separately like two arrows shot from a bowstring toward different directions.

A silent massacre unfolded in the dense forest.

The three members of the Second Squad were vigilantly observing the firelight in the distance.

Suddenly, in the shadow behind them, a dark shadow burst forth.

The Shadow Assassin, like a black lightning bolt, instantly lunged at an archer at the very back of the team.

The archer only had time to emit a short exclamation before his throat was slashed open by the shadow blade.

"What is that!"

The other two warriors reacted and turned around immediately.

What they saw, however, was a scene that made their Souls scatter in terror.

They saw that the archer's corpse was rapidly shriveling down, turning into a dried corpse.

And beside him, a new Shadow Assassin slowly took shape.

One-on-three instantly turned into one-on-two.

No, it was two-on-two.

Before the two warriors could recover from their shock,

two dark shadows had already launched attacks simultaneously from different angles.

The battle ended in a mere ten seconds.

The two warriors also turned into two dried corpses.

The four Shadow Assassins quickly disappeared into the dense forest.

On the other end of the jungle, Moria also easily resolved the Third Squad.

In less than a minute,

the two elite squads lurking in the dense forest, totaling six people, were completely wiped out.

High above in the sky,

no matter how the man in black shouted, there was no response in the communicator.

An ominous premonition spread in his heart.

He looked down.

I don't know when, but the young man held by the burly man below had already raised his head, noticing his existence.

The firelight flickered uncertainly on the young man's face.

The corners of his mouth slowly curved into an arc.

That smile made the man in black in the air feel his scalp go numb for a while.