Chapter 455: This Shadow Isn't Quite Right

Zuo Bai widened his single eye, blue light flickering in the sclera, as if a computer were about to blue-screen.

He watched the gradually shrinking 【Mask】 circle, each 【Mask】 stepping with uneven Steps, yet closing in on him in perfect unison.

In a trance, he seemed to hallucinate countless death gods' Footsteps, closing in from all directions.

"Wait, death gods' Footsteps?"

"There are Footsteps?!!"

Although the sound was very faint, barely audible, and intermittent, appearing and disappearing, like a Hallucination and not at all real.

But in Zuo Bai's ears, he indeed Captured the wet, splashing Footsteps of Leather Shoes treading on Sewage.

Zuo Bai's heart jolted: "Shadow, why would there be Footsteps?!!"

You have to know, the previous Shadow, aside from speaking, was completely silent the whole time.

Let alone Footsteps, even when it sneak-attacked and backstabbed him, piercing a hole through his Chest, it didn't make a single sound.

"Something's wrong... this Shadow is different from before, this Shadow isn't quite right!"

Zuo Bai sensed a bit of anomaly, but did not fully perceive it.

This is the same principle as doing an experiment — discovering the problem is only the first step; next, you have to propose a hypothesis, design experimental steps, find all kinds of evidence appearing during the experiment to verify the hypothesis, and only then can you summarize and infer the experimental Conclusion.

And experiments need time, but death is different; death never leaves people much time to Prepare.

Those Footsteps were both the problem Zuo Bai discovered, and equally, the countdown to the experiment's deadline.

"Why is there sound? Just what is wrong?"

Zuo Bai pricked up his ears, listening carefully to the source of the Footsteps.

However, the sound was now left, now right, now front, now back; one moment continuous, the next intermittent, with no Pattern to follow.

The blue light in Zuo Bai's Pupils flickered increasingly frequently; wisps of black smoke on his forehead gradually Condensed into a patch of black Fog.

Suddenly, he violently whipped the ten-meter-long Bone Snake, drawing an outward-expanding circle around himself.

Hiss— Hiss—

The nearest circle of 【Mask】 was pierced through the waist, yet it felt like piercing through a circle of illusory Shadows, utterly without substance.

Every 【Mask】 still advanced toward him unhurriedly; the 【Mask】 circle's Radius shrank again.

"All illusions? Visual afterimages? But if they're fake, why can they move?"

Zuo Bai thought secretly, brows tightly Locked.

"【Mask】 can not only turn into a Shadow, he can also Copy his own illusions and control them?"

His brain ran at high speed, trying to sort a clear train of thought from the chaotic clues.

However, there was no experiment time, nor experiment Conditions, for Zuo Bai to repeatedly test or deduce.

He could only shelve the questions for now, and by a scientist's Intuition, Assume a Conclusion — all these moving ones are illusions, all are illusory 【Mask】.

"The real 【Mask】 is only one, hidden inside these illusions, and able to Exchange Positions among the illusions at any time.

That's why your Footsteps can be now left, now right, now front, now back, with no Pattern to follow!"

Zuo Bai's eyes lit up; his hands didn't stop, continuing to wave the Bone Snake with all his might; the Bone Snake moved like a nimble swimming dragon, piercing through circle after circle of 【Mask】 illusions, trying to find 【Mask】's true body from within the layers of illusions.

At the same time, he Cold Laughed repeatedly:

"【Mask】, your little tricks, I've already completely seen through.

The reason you can Exchange Positions in the illusions is not because you truly possess some miraculous ability to teleport across space, but rather..."

Zuo Bai's gaze abruptly shifted downward, no longer watching that dense circle of 【Mask】, but staring dead at the turbid water surface.

There, under the feet of countless illusions, hid a Shadow blended into the Sewage, silent and soundless.

That Shadow wound and Rotated underwater, like an ouroboros with head connected to tail, threading the needle to string together all the 【Mask】 on the water.

"Wherever the underwater Shadow can extend, you can instantly Appear there."

Zuo Bai's voice was low and cold, pointing straight at the core of the truth:

"Plus you can use some means to create illusions, the two overlapping, created this Magic-like Zhang Ai!"

Worthy of Zuo Bai, his speculation was already infinitely close to the truth.

The principle of this Magic trick is indeed the combination of 【Shadow Symbiosis】 + 【Ghost Shadow】.

【Ghost Shadow】 is the Limit Break technique of Soul Chasing Step; when used, as the step frequency increases, there is a probability of Summoning a Ghost Shadow behind oneself that is hard to distinguish from the real thing, causing confusion and bewilderment to the enemy.

When using Soul Chasing Step, the faster the step Frequency, the higher the probability of triggering Ghost Shadow, and each Ghost Shadow can maintain inertial motion for 0.5s before dissipating.

And 【Shadow Symbiosis】 allows the main body and Shadow to Exchange Positions at any time.

Combined, they can indeed create a Qiyi effect like a Magic stage.

However, even though Zuo Bai had speculated to this extent, he still missed the most fatal point.

He still couldn't figure out why the Shadow had Footsteps this time?

But, Zuo Bai really had no time to investigate deeply.

The 【Mask】 encirclement, its Radius had unknowingly sharply shrunk to less than 3 meters, truly a single Step away.

"Found you!"

Zuo Bai shouted coldly, the Bone Snake in his hand stabbing straight toward the right diagonal like lightning.

He saw the Shadow in the muddy water pause there for a split second, the Sewage under its feet faintly Rippling a thread of Ripples, and its own suit color also suddenly deepened a tiny bit.

Although all these changes occurred in the blink of an eye, almost impossible for the naked eye to distinguish, Zuo Bai still precisely caught that fleeting... reality!

The Footsteps abruptly stopped.

The Bone Snake's Spine joints cracked apart, Mercury Liquid Nanoworms surfaced, violently oscillating into mist, drifting to envelop the Yang Tou 【Mask】.

【Mask】 slightly Looked Up; the gold-rimmed lenses instantly fogged with a thin mist, blurring those pitch-black, lightless Pupils.

His cheeks, suit surface, even the cloak behind him, were all covered in a layer of fine water vapor, as if his whole body was Wrapped in a soft Raincoat.

On the Raincoat's surface, Silver Patterns appeared faintly, like embroidered designs by a tailor, indescribably beautiful.

At the same time, the 【Mask】 beneath the Raincoat did not dissipate like an illusion this time, but instead rippled with a layer of viscous Ripples on its surface.

Zuo Bai's Pupils shot out a cold Blue Flame light, countless data streams flashing across the surface of his Eyeballs.

In the next Instant, the entire Bone Snake exploded inch by inch, turning into a patch of white Bone fragments that adhered to the surface of the Raincoat, making those Silver veins even deeper and more profound.

The air vibrated with a "hum," as if some unknown power in the void space had been stirred.

Just like wireless charging, the Silver veins on the Raincoat were instantly filled to the brim, light flaring brilliantly; the dazzling Silver radiance shone upon the Shadow beneath his feet as it melted away inch by inch, as if it were also being Devoured bit by bit by the light.

"Light creates shadows, and likewise can Devour shadows."

Zuo Bai stared with unblinking eyes, speaking word by word:

"This time, 【Mask】, you tell me, how will you resurrect again? Answer me! Why are you Not Speaking?!!"

(End of Chapter)