Era of Magic and Martial Arts

[Shadow Coexistence] (Golden)

Your shadow is not merely a reflection of light, but an independent entity gradually awakening. It will become your second body, coexisting and dancing with you.

You can swap positions with your shadow at any time, or let it bear a fatal injury for you in moments of mortal danger.

The strength of the shadow is closely related to your agility attribute; the higher your agility, the stronger it is, and the longer it can sustain itself each day.

"Your shadow is your most loyal companion, yet also the most dangerous enemy!"

There’s golden light before you; will you also see silver and bronze?

It’s like a top seductress appears on the bed, her allure enough to captivate your soul; would you still miss the gentle hands of a club masseuse or the innocent smile of the shampoo girl at the salon?

You would!

Indeed, that’s how kind men are, even when faced with the most dazzling choice, they still leave a trace of fondness for them in their hearts.

But if you could only choose one—

"I choose gold."

The man murmured softly, his tone unwavering.

[You have obtained the golden entry - Shadow Coexistence!]

In an instant, the man’s shoe sole lightly touched down, stepping into the sewer, the tip touching the surface of the murky, putrid water.

The water rippled slightly, creating circles that reflected his blurred shadow.

"The water is a bit cold!"

A strange feeling suddenly surfaced in the man’s heart, as if not only the soles of his feet touched the water, but his entire body was submerged in the icy, bone-chilling water.

The cold spread from the soles upward, crawling up the spine, covering the whole body like numerous icy hands gently stroking his skin.

He looked down at his feet; the shoe soles were barely touching the surface, yet the sensation of cold permeating his entire body was incredibly real.

Fortunately, he was already accustomed to low temperatures, exceptionally resistant to freezing.

He lowered his head and looked at the murky water’s surface, where his retina showed a faint bloodstrip — [10/10].

The man showed a strange smile, his lips slightly curving upward:

"Good, good, it’s indeed the golden entry, another one, right?!!"

The man wanted to stop and carefully study his shadow, explore its "body structure," to see what surprises this newly awakened "second body" could bring him.

However, another figure constantly haunted his heart — Yuhuai.

His love for Yuhuai was so deep it was almost obsessive, even surpassing his curiosity and anticipation for his shadow.

That attachment was like a red thread tied by a matchmaker, securely tied around his ankle, pulling him, making it impossible for him to stop.

"Shadow, we’ll get to know each other better later."

He said to the shadow apologetically:

"For now, my Yuhuai is the most important."

The man tapped lightly with his foot, the sole skimming over the murky water like a dragonfly touching the surface, almost without causing a ripple.

His steps seemed slow but were incredibly fast; after a few strides and accelerations, his figure already darted through the shadows of the sewers like a phantom.

Behind him, he left behind a trail of vivid, eerie shadows.

.....

"Did you hear... any strange sounds?"

The female assistant suddenly stopped in her tracks; she abruptly turned her head to look back, gripping the phone tightly and raising the brightness to its maximum.

The rusty pipes were a full 4 meters high, glimmering with a bluish-black metallic sheen under the strong light, like the decaying ribs of a giant beast.

Wet moss clung to the pipe walls like festering sores; the pipes twisted, extending towards different junctions, outlining deeper shadows at the phone’s light edge, like an army of giant snakes slowly writhing in the darkness.

"Senior? Is that you?"

The female assistant gently called out, her voice echoing eerily in the labyrinth-like sewer pipes and chilling her ears.

"Don’t shout; the seniors are ahead; they should soon catch up to the target."

The female doctor pouted her swollen lips, her voice filled with agitation.

She lightly tapped her glasses frame, and the lens immediately shot out a beam of white light, projecting a virtual map of the underground pipes in the air.

On the map, the intricate pipes stretched like a spider web; in the distance, after several turns, seven black dots and a red dot rapidly approached each other, seemingly about to overlap in the next second.

"Look, the seniors are about to catch up to the target," said the female doctor.

The female assistant hesitated for a moment, her voice trembling slightly: "But behind... there’s really a strange sound."

"Probably rats!" The female doctor frowned.

Drip —

A cold drop of water suddenly fell on the female assistant’s neck; shortly afterward, clearer and more urgent water sounds echoed from further away, as if torrential rain was violently striking puddles, splattering countless fine and dense raindrop sounds.

The female assistant stiffly lifted her phone, her trembling fingers barely holding onto the faint light source.

She slowly moved the phone’s beam towards the pipe wall top—

What entered her eyes were pipe walls covered in moss, mottled and worn, and above these walls were densely packed, horrifying scarlet eyes!

Thousands of rats with bristling fur bared their sharp teeth, hanging upside down on the pipe walls, their claws deeply embedded in the rusty metal, their bodies rising and falling with rapid crawling.

Dark yellow rusty water seeped from the wall crevices, dripping along the rats’ fur, creating a "drip, drip" sound.

The female assistant didn’t hear wrong; there was indeed a strange sound behind.

The female doctor wasn’t wrong either; the strange sound indeed came from rats.

They just didn’t expect there would be so many rats?

The female assistant’s throat felt as if it was being strangled by something, unable to make a sound.

Her phone’s light swept across the pipe wall, and those scarlet eyes subtly shifted with the light, uniformly staring at her.

She finally squeezed out a sound but found herself lacking the courage to turn around.

"Do you think... it’s these rats that stimulated the seniors?" the assistant asked, inspired.

The female doctor was also stunned, her gaze through the lenses fixed on the dense, gnashing rats.

The virtual map projected in the air faintly trembled as if even it could feel the terrifying atmosphere.

She couldn’t help but mutter to herself, her assistant always gave answers at the most untimely moments.

Last time reminding about the time was like this, previously forcibly waking her up was like this, this time was still like this!

"Is this assistant cursed?"

If she could survive today, she was determined to replace this assistant.

She took a deep breath, cold air filling her lungs.

In the next moment, she spun around suddenly, bolted without looking back, simultaneously shouting angrily at the assistant:

"Block them, find out if they really stimulated the seniors!"