Chapter 255: The Frightening Shadow

"What? What caused that scream?" Ye Dafu exclaimed.

"Stand guard over the Chief Steward and General Ma," Xiao Nanfeng commanded Ye Dafu and Ye Sanshui.

Then, he headed toward the rear yard.

There, You Jiu was searching all around the yard for something, sword in hand. Before him lay a pile of headless corpses, clearly servants and maids of the manor given their attire. They had died a ghastly death.

"What's going on, You Jiu?" Xiao Nanfeng asked immediately.

"Master, by the time I noticed something amiss, all these corpses were already on the ground, their heads gone. I saw a figure and stabbed at it, but I missed," You Jiu reported.

"Missed? Even you? Could it be some Wingform-realm assassin?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

"I don't know. I only saw a shadow."

"Oh?"

"Right there! It appeared again." You Jiu suddenly pointed in the distance.

A servant was quivering as he stood, not daring—or perhaps unable—to move. Under the moonlight, his shadow lengthened. Another figure's shadow emerged from within it, as though the figure had originally been concealed within the servant's shadow.

"What? How could this be? A transparent man? No, someone's using some sort of technique that confers limited invisibility. The moonlight has revealed their shadow," Xiao Nanfeng concluded.

"Kill!" You Jiu shot forward, blade in hand.

His qi spread out all throughout the yard but didn't sense any foreign presence. Even when You Jiu thrust his blade into the shadow, nothing seemed to happen.

"Be careful, You Jiu!" Xiao Nanfeng suddenly shouted.

The shadow's hands extended to grab onto You Jiu in a sinister fashion. You Jiu immediately dodged aside, causing the shadow to miss. Then, it suddenly bulged, transforming from a two-dimensional outline to a three-dimensional shadowed figure. It grabbed onto the servant's head and twisted, wrenching it off in a fountain of blood. The servant died on the spot.

"What's this? A shadow spirit?!" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

You Jiu shot forward once again.

However, You Jiu's sword passed straight through the shadowy figure without seeming to hurt it at all.

You Jiu blanched and retreated again.

The shadow, now supremely confident, didn't seem to be worried about sneak attacks any longer. It suddenly opened its mouth wide to reveal rows of sawtooth-like teeth that made the cultivators retreat in fear. It placed the servant's head between its teeth and chomped down in a spray of blood.

Xiao Nanfeng and You Jiu felt chills go down their backs.

After the shadow consumed the head, it suddenly smiled at the two cultivators in a chilling and sinister fashion, then slumped back down into a two-dimensional outline and reached out for them.

"Run!" Xiao Nanfeng shouted.Both cultivators immediately leapt back. The shadow didn't give chase; to it, the entire Xiao

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

manor was its prey. There was no need to give up on the whole forest for two leaves. It rushed elsewhere in the manor, causing servants' cries to ring out in the distance.

"Everyone in the Xiao manor, get out!" Xiao Nanfeng roared.

The spectral guards had seized control of much of the manor, but they couldn't afford to stay with this shadowy monster roaming around. Everyone had to leave, or those who encountered it would die.

"You Jiu, your attacks are ineffective against that shadow. Leave with everyone, quickly!"

"Yessir!" You Jiu replied.

Xiao Nanfeng flew back to the front yard and landed before the Chief Steward, stomping down on his prone body with a foot. "What sort of monster is that? You released it, didn't you?"

The Chief Steward laughed. "Xiao Nanfeng, didn't you say you weren't going to kill me, that you were waiting for me to expose my trump cards? This is my last one. Stop it if you can!"

"Tell me what that is. If you don't, I'll kill you right now." Xiao Nanfeng applied more pressure to his foot, causing another mouthful of blood to spray out of the Chief Steward's mouth.

The Chief Steward, realizing that Xiao Nanfeng really would make good on his threat, had no choice but to reveal some information to drag things out. "It's the cursed effigy that's been sealed in the old well in the forbidden courtyard. Of the three flares I sent up, the third one was responsible for informing the guard watching over the well to release the seal."

"The old well that my father forbade me from going near? What cursed effigy is sealed inside?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

"I don't know. I only know that your father was forced to seal it with the power of the old well and the draconic vein. He told me that, if it were to be unsealed, it would kill everyone in the city. It's tangled up with the draconic vein. If a cultivator were to try to excavate the draconic vein, its ability would allow it to control the head of that cultivator. Only by releasing it can the draconic vein be excavated," the Chief Steward replied.

"You dared to release that cursed effigy without knowing what it is?!" Xiao Nanfeng pressed.

Madness flashed in the Chief Steward's eyes. It was clear that he intended to die with Xiao Nanfeng if he couldn't beat him.

"What's that cursed effigy like?" Ye Dafu asked curiously from the side.

Suddenly, fresh blood splashed onto Ye Dafu's face. Ye Dafu turned in shock to see a humanoid shadow by his side near the ground. The majority of its body was still two-dimensional, but its hands had turned three-dimensional and bulged out from the ground. It tore General Ma's head from his body.

General Ma never imagined that he would die in such a sinister fashion. His face was a mask of fear, but there was nothing he could do. He watched on as the shadow widened its mouth, revealed its sawtooth-like teeth, and crunched down on his head in a spray of blood.

"What sort of monster is this? Die!" Ye Dafu shouted, slashing at it with his sword.

The energy from the attack left a furrow on the ground in a spray of earth and stone, but the shadow seemed completely unaffected. Like a shadow, nothing seemed to be able to interact with it.

"Impossible. Why can't I touch it?!" Ye Dafu exclaimed.

Suddenly, the shadow's hands reached for Ye Dafu's head.

"No!" Ye Dafu bellowed.

Ye Sanshui kicked his nephew away, but it was useless. The shadow had latched onto Ye Dafu and was continuing to clutch his head. Even as Ye Dafu was struck aside, his neck extended as the shadow pulled, intent on tearing his head off his body.

"Save me!" Ye Dafu cried out in horror.

Xiao Nanfeng slashed at the shadow with the divine undying blade, chopping off its hands. Ye Dafu barely avoided a gruesome fate.

"Curse against curse—it's effective!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up.

The divine undying blade was a cursed spiritual avatar, and it did manage to strike the shadow when nothing else had succeeded.

The shadow's chopped-off arms reattached to its body; no wounds were visible where they joined up.

As though enraged, the shadow ground its teeth and shot toward Xiao Nanfeng. It let out a howl.

"Kill!"

The divine undying blade bisected the shadow at the waist, but its two halves quickly recombined as it continued charging at Xiao Nanfeng.

"Don't let it touch you, King Xiao! The moment it struck me, I was unable to move!" Ye Dafu called out.

Xiao Nanfeng frowned. He swung his blade ever faster, dicing the shadow up with dozens of slashes, but each of those shadowy fragments recombined as though they were alive. The shadow's hands reached out for Xiao Nanfeng's head from every direction.