Chapter 53: Good Friend, You're Finally Here

During his battle with Ye Fanyu, thanks to his preparations over the past few days and a massive expenditure of mental energy, he had successfully altered the man's cognition.

There was a condition in this world called face blindness. Sufferers typically couldn't distinguish facial features; in their eyes, everyone looked more or less the same.

Su Mu had exploited this exact principle to modify Ye Fanyu's perception, causing him to see Su Mu's face no matter who he looked at.

Hypnotizing a transcendent was incredibly draining. Fortunately, Ye Fanyu's mental resistance was clearly inferior to Yang Dongqing's. He guessed this was due to the difference in their abilities.

One possessed Five-Finger Flame Bullet, the other Heart of Steel. Every supernatural ability provided a transcendent with comprehensive enhancements, but these boosts had different focuses.

For example, while Five-Finger Flame Bullet enhanced Ye Fanyu's physical fitness and mental energy, it leaned heavily toward fire affinity and fire resistance.

Yang Dongqing's Heart of Steel didn't grant him the ability to manipulate fire, but it provided a much greater boost to his physical constitution and mental resilience.

Through his understanding of the Transcendent Tier, Su Mu increasingly felt that he wasn't a true transcendent. His enhancements weren't comprehensive at all; they were severely unbalanced. Aside from increased mental energy, he received no other physical boosts.

Entering sleep right now was primarily to recover his mental energy in preparation for hypnotizing Tingting. Otherwise, barring special circumstances, he would never choose to sleep. Sleeping would only accelerate his death.

...

...

Night fell.

"You're finally awake," Yang Dongqing said softly.

Su Mu slowly opened his eyes. A splitting headache made him frown slightly. Suddenly, he felt a warm sensation in his nose and eye sockets.

"Su Mu, you..."

"Leader!"

Yang Dongqing and the others quickly gathered around, staring at Su Mu in shock.

Su Mu looked terrible. Blood was leaking from his nose and eyes, making his already pale face look entirely bloodless.

He took the handkerchief Zhao Chaoyao handed him, took off his Tinted Glasses, and gently wiped the blood from his face. "It's fine," he said with a faint smile. "I feel much better after a nap."

"You don't look fine at all. You look like you're about to die," Yang Dongqing said bluntly.

Su Mu put his Tinted Glasses back on. "It's exactly that near-death feeling that makes me feel so much better."

Yang Dongqing was speechless.

After a moment of silence, he finally said, "Didn't you say we could find Tingting once night fell? Let's go."

Su Mu didn't get up. He remained seated in his chair. "No need to go anywhere. We wait right here."

"Wait?" Yang Dongqing furrowed his brows. "Wait here for Tingting to show up on her own?"

Su Mu slowly shook his head. "No. We wait for the Shadow."

"The Shadow?!" Yang Dongqing was startled. "Why wait for the Shadow? Don't tell me you want to be taken away by it again?"

"Have you still not realized?" Su Mu pushed up his glasses, completely hiding his dark, unreadable eyes. "Think carefully. Have the Shadow and Tingting ever appeared at the same time?"

Yang Dongqing blanked. Fragments of their past experiences flashed through his mind. Back at Tingting's house, after it had gotten dark, Tingting had said she was going out to find her sister and left. Only after that did the Shadow appear.

"But what does that prove? It could just be a coincidence, right? Tingting went out when it got dark, and the Shadow appeared when it got dark. Maybe they just happened to miss each other?"

Su Mu smiled faintly. "At first, I thought it was a coincidence, too. But do you know who the first person I saw was after I walked out of the darkness?"

"Could it be..." Yang Dongqing's expression instantly turned ugly. "Tingting?"

Su Mu nodded.

"So you suspect Tingting is the Shadow?"

"Sigh." Su Mu rested a hand on his forehead, sighing relentlessly. "Blockhead. What an absolute blockhead. Did you watch the Silhouette of Time for nothing? That was the only time Tingting and the Shadow appeared in the same frame. Therefore, Tingting cannot be the Shadow."

Yang Dongqing flushed with embarrassment and snapped, "Then what exactly do you mean?"

"My meaning is very simple. Ever since that incident, the Shadow has likely been parasitizing Tingting. When I walked out of the darkness earlier, I vaguely sensed a faint connection between myself and the Shadow, but it was incredibly weak, fading in and out.

"I suspect that as long as someone passes the Shadow's test, they can earn its recognition and subsequently become its host. It chose to parasitize Tingting, which is why the connection to me was so weak.

"Otherwise, what do you think the Shadow was doing? Just inviting you for a stroll? And why would the Shadow contain Tingting's experiences?

"Where is the Shadow during the day? We know it's afraid of light, so it can only hide in dark corners. Or perhaps..."

"In a person's shadow!" Zhao Chaoyao blurted out.

Clap!

Su Mu clapped his hands, glaring at Yang Dongqing in utter disappointment. "Even this muscle-brained meathead is smarter than you. There's a reason your grades are so poor, student Yang Dongqing."

Clenched. Yang Dongqing's fists were tightly clenched.

Zhao Chaoyao rubbed his bald head in embarrassment, his face flushed with a healthy glow. It was clear that the Leader's praise made him very happy.

Yang Dongqing stubbornly retorted, "Everything you've said is just a guess. What if the Shadow isn't hiding in Tingting's shadow, but in some dark corner somewhere?"

Su Mu looked even more exasperated. "Do you know, student Yang Dongqing? Sometimes, the person raising doubts isn't necessarily smart—they might just be a self-righteous idiot.

"In nature, even animals with less intelligence than humans know to seek advantage and avoid harm, let alone a Nightmare Creature like the Shadow.

"If you were the Shadow, where do you think would be absolutely safe to hide?"

Yang Dongqing had nothing to say. He had finally figured it out as well: in this entire Nightmare, the safest place had to be within the shadow of its very source—Tingting.

"It seems you understand now. That's why Tingting was the first person I saw when I walked out of the darkness—because I emerged directly from her shadow."

"Leader! Look!" Zhao Chaoyao suddenly cried out, his fierce eyes locked dead onto the shadows in the corner of the room.

Everyone turned their heads. In that dark corner, a mass of shadows was surging. Gradually, it morphed into a humanoid figure. It was tall and slender, looking like a giant over two meters tall that had been stripped down to its bones. Its arms were incredibly long, dangling almost to the floor. Where its head should be, a pair of scarlet eyes slowly opened.

Su Mu smiled faintly. "Good friend, you're finally here."

Leaning on his Snakewood Cane, he walked slowly to the Shadow's side. Before the creature could even reach out, he extended his hand first.

Whether it was an illusion or not, when faced with that pale, slender hand, the Shadow actually seemed to freeze for a moment.