Chapter 176: Ch 176- Shadow Walk

Soon, seven hours passed and the sun had already risen above the horizon.

Mo Yuan and the Golden Mouse had been working nonstop throughout the night. By now, almost all the Primordial Qi Stones hidden beneath the ground had been extracted.

After another saber strike, the Golden Mouse jumped into the newly created crater and searched around for a while. A moment later, it climbed back out and shook its head.

"Senior, there aren’t any Primordial Qi Stones left."

Mo Yuan nodded.

He had already spread his Origin Sense throughout the entire area. After searching the ground carefully, he also could not find any more Primordial Qi Stones.

"Alright. Follow me."

Mo Yuan turned around and headed toward a nearby mountain.

The Golden Mouse quickly followed him.

After walking for a while, Mo Yuan found another cave. The moment the Golden Mouse saw it, it immediately understood what Mo Yuan wanted.

"Senior, you can cultivate here without worry. I’ll make sure no one comes near you."

Hearing this, Mo Yuan nodded and entered the cave.

The cave was quite deep and after walking several hundred meters inside, he finally found a suitable place to sit down.

Mo Yuan sat cross-legged and opened his storage space.

The next moment, a large number of Primordial Qi Stones appeared before him.

There were a total of 12,654 Primordial Qi Stones.

Looking at them, excitement appeared in Mo Yuan’s eyes.

"Finally."

He had entered this Secret Realm for many reasons but one of his biggest goals had always been to obtain Primordial Qi Stones and now, he had finally accomplished it.

"First, I should paste Shadow Walk. After that, I’ll upgrade my Copy and Paste Talent."

Mo Yuan closed his eyes and gave the command.

’Paste Shadow Walk.’

The moment he gave the command, something strange happened.

Suddenly, everything around Mo Yuan disappeared.

There was nothing in front of him, nothing behind him and nothing above or below him. It was as if the entire world had suddenly been swallowed by endless darkness.

’What happened?’

Mo Yuan was confused.

He tried to look around but no matter where he looked, there was only pitch-black darkness.

Before he could think any further, the darkness disappeared.

Mo Yuan returned to the cave.

Then, the familiar pain began.

The pain from pasting a talent spread throughout his body and consciousness. Mo Yuan immediately gritted his teeth and focused on enduring it.

This time, however, the pain lasted much longer than usual.

Half an hour later, Mo Yuan finally opened his eyes.

Sweat covered his forehead.

"Finally..."

He wiped the sweat from his face and took a deep breath.

"That took at least half an hour. That’s one of the longest times I’ve ever needed to paste a talent."

Mo Yuan frowned slightly.

Then he remembered the strange darkness he had seen before the pain started.

’What was that darkness?’

He thought about it for a while but he could not find an answer.

"Damn. So many questions but I don’t have any answers."

Mo Yuan shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

Instead, he focused on his newly pasted talent.

He opened his talent panel.

Shadow Walk Talent: Exceptional Grade

Mo Yuan’s eyes lit up.

"Let’s see what this can do."

The moment he activated Shadow Walk, the world around him suddenly changed.

The cave was still there and he could still sense his body sitting inside the cave but at the same time, he was no longer inside the cave.

He had entered a pitch-black world and there was no light in this place.

No sky or ground and no visible objects.

Everything was covered in endless darkness.

"This should be the Shadow Realm."

Just as Mo Yuan expected, knowledge about the talent soon appeared in his mind.

A moment later, understanding appeared in his eyes.

"Oh, so this is the second layer of the Shadow Realm."

His previous Shadow Talent had only allowed him to hide in the first layer of the Shadow Realm.

Although that layer was useful, powerful cultivators could still detect him using their Origin Sense but the second layer was completely different.

Even Monarch Realm cultivators would not be able to sense someone hiding inside the second layer of the Shadow Realm.

Mo Yuan’s breathing immediately became faster.

"Holy fuck."

A wide grin appeared on his face.

"With this, cultivators at the Monarch Realm and below shouldn’t be able to find me."

Of course, there was an important limitation.

If a Monarch Realm cultivator suddenly attacked and gave Mo Yuan no time to run into Shadow realm he could still be killed instantly but that did not change how powerful this ability was.

At least now, Mo Yuan had a true way to protect himself and that was not all.

While inside the second layer of the Shadow Realm, Mo Yuan could also receive a two-times increase to his speed.

More importantly, this boost was independent of his Ultimate Speed Talent.

Mo Yuan’s eyes widened.

"Holy shit. What if I get a powerful movement technique in the future? How fast would I become?"

He immediately began calculating.

"My current base speed is 22 Mach. With my Ultimate Speed Talent, it becomes 440 Mach."

His eyes became brighter.

"And with the two-times boost from the second layer of the Shadow Realm..."

"880 Mach."

Mo Yuan could not help but grin.

"880 Mach..."

Peak Sovereign Realm cultivators had a base speed of around 500 Mach.

Of course, that did not include their movement techniques or other special abilities.

Even so, Mo Yuan’s speed was already extremely terrifying.

"And once I get a movement technique..."

Mo Yuan’s eyes shone.

"How fast will I become then?"

He had already decided.

Once he left the Secret Realm, one of the first things he would do was find a powerful movement technique.

Now he finally understood why Shadow Bull had been so terrifying.

That beast could approach its enemies through the Shadow Realm, attack them at an unexpected moment and then disappear back into the darkness before they could react.

With his current speed, if he used the same method...

"Hehe."

A cold smile appeared on Mo Yuan’s face.

The only drawback was that he still had to leave the Shadow Realm to actually attack his opponent but Mo Yuan did not care.

Being completely undetectable by even Monarch Realm cultivators, combined with a two-times speed boost, was already an incredible ability.

"An Exceptional Grade talent really is something else."

Mo Yuan smiled.

"Let’s test it properly."

He activated Shadow Walk once again and his body disappeared into the second layer of the Shadow Realm.

Then he activated all of his speed-related talents.

Boom!

Mo Yuan shot forward.

There was no sonic boom this time.

There was no atmosphere inside the Shadow Realm, so there was nothing for his movement to disturb.

As an Origin Soul Realm cultivator, Mo Yuan also no longer needed to breathe like an ordinary human. He could survive by relying on Primordial Qi.

After one second, Mo Yuan stopped.

He looked around and for a moment, he had no idea how far he had traveled.

He quickly began calculating.

"At 880 Mach, I can cover roughly 300 kilometers in one second."

Mo Yuan’s eyes lit up and this was without stopping.

If he moved through the forest with his speed, countless trees, mountains and beasts would obstruct his path.

Even if he flew through the sky, there would still be beasts and other obstacles but inside the Shadow Realm, there was nothing that slowed him down.

He could move in any direction without worrying about anything blocking him.

"Let’s go back."

Mo Yuan turned around.

One second later, he returned to the place he had entered the Shadow Realm from.

He then stepped out of the darkness and returned to the cave.

A smile appeared on his face.

"Not bad."

Mo Yuan looked toward the Primordial Qi Stones stored in his storage space.

"Now..."

His eyes became excited again.

"It’s time to upgrade my Copy and Paste Talent."

With that, Mo Yuan reached toward his storage space and prepared to use the Primordial Qi Stones.

The real reason he had worked so hard to collect them was finally about to begin.