Chapter 638

The Shadow-Stealing Person was different from the two types of eerie Jie Ming had encountered before.

The Salty Finger didn't have a fixed entity; it just temporarily created a finger when killing, and disappeared after the mission was completed.

Although the graffiti eerie had a core that could be compressed, its main body was integrated into the rules most of the time, only showing its form when forced to the limit.

And the Shadow-Stealing Person was different from both.

It held a main body like a shadow at all times.

That flattened human-shaped dark shadow was itself.

Theoretically, this made tracking much simpler; as long as you could keep up with its movement speed and identify this abruptly appearing shadow at all times, you could track it.

But in actual operation, this was simply as difficult as ascending to heaven.

After all, wanting to track a shadow in the dark was simply wishful thinking.

However, Jie Ming could still keep up.

The Eye of Shimmer attached itself to the surface of the Shadow-Stealing Person's shadow film, wandering along with it in the underground sewers, abandoned buildings, and night streets of Fog City.

Jie Ming followed behind, not making a move to capture it directly; after all, this was a good opportunity to collect data.

After careful observation of the Shadow-Stealing Person, Jie Ming discovered a pattern.

This eerie had a "preference" for certain specific locations.

The instinct of the Shadow-Stealing Person eerie was similar to a living organism; it would wander back and forth in places it passed repeatedly that met its "predation" conditions. For example, dim alleys, long wall roots, open spaces with single light sources that could cast clear shadows.

Seeing this, Jie Ming chose an alley.

This alley was located between the seventh street and the eighth street of the old city area, a narrow alley running north-south.

The width was less than three meters, with towering mountain walls on both sides, the walls mottled and covered with withered vines.

There was a gas street lamp at the south end of the alley, and no light at the north end, only a piece of darkness.

Jie Ming stood under the street lamp.

He deliberately chose this place with only a single light source.

The orange-yellow light of the street lamp shone down diagonally from the top of his head, stretching his shadow very long, extending all the way to the depths of the alley, almost touching the edge of that darkness at the north end.

The shadow was very long, very clear, very... "tempting."

Jie Ming leaned on the street lamp pole, hands in his coat pockets, his expression as calm as if waiting for someone.

Information from the Eye of Shimmer showed that the Shadow-Stealing Person was moving in this direction.

The speed was not fast, the trajectory was tortuous, like a snake moving along a scent.

About ten minutes later, Jie Ming's gaze moved slightly.

In the darkness at the north end of the alley, a layer of almost invisible dark human shadow slid out along the ground.

Its speed was very slow, as if testing, and as if confirming there was no danger around.

The edges of the dark shadow figure were almost indistinguishable in the darkness; if it weren't for Jie Ming's Eye of Omnipotence always operating, ordinary people couldn't possibly discover it.

The Shadow-Stealing Person had come.

It wandered along the wall roots, the shadow film sliding silently on the rough brick surface.

It seemed because it had just been frightened, it didn't approach Jie Ming immediately, but first slid back and forth twice along the walls on both sides of the alley, as if checking whether this area was safe.

Jie Ming appeared very stable; from any angle, he was just an ordinary young man standing under a street lamp in a daze.

... if ignoring the current time point.

It was a pity that the Shadow-Stealing Person obviously didn't have such high intelligence.

Jie Ming had discovered in the previous battle that although the power of this eerie was strong, its intelligence was afraid it couldn't even compare to the graffiti eerie, more like a beast with only instincts.

After confirming there was no danger around, the Shadow-Stealing Person finally let down its guard.

It slid out from the wall root, sticking to the ground, approaching Jie Ming's shadow.

Jie Ming's shadow was stretched very long, extending from under the street lamp to the depths of the alley, and the Shadow-Stealing Person approached its "prey" bit by bit along the edge of this shadow.

Jie Ming observed it with his peripheral vision, secretly recording the other side's action mode in his heart.

Just as he thought, the Shadow-Stealing Person's behavior mode was more like a beast, having "wisdom," but not much.

Jie Ming's shadow was long and clear, and there was only one light source around.

In the eyes of the Shadow-Stealing Person, it was simply the perfect prey.

The Shadow-Stealing Person approached the end of Jie Ming's shadow.

Its "body" raised slightly, like some kind of snake aiming at prey.

Then, its shadow human shape split a gap from the middle, the edges of the gap having fine protrusions similar to teeth.

It bit the edge of Jie Ming's shadow without hesitation.

Feeling the feeling of the shadow being bitten away, Jie Ming couldn't help but squint his eyes.

That was a very subtle feeling, not any physiological reaction he was familiar with, but a more essential "loss" that seemed to come from the life level.

Just like standing by the sea, the sand under your feet is slowly being taken away by the waves; you can't feel the departure of every grain of sand, but you can feel yourself becoming lighter.

The Shadow-Stealing Person bit off a small piece of his shadow.

Jie Ming's Eye of Omnipotence clearly saw that process.

Those fine protrusions in the Shadow-Stealing Person's "mouth" bit onto the edge of the shadow, and then about a fingernail-sized small piece of the shadow was separated from the main shadow and swallowed by the Shadow-Stealing Person.

That piece of shadow that was separated disappeared inside the Shadow-Stealing Person's "body" the moment it was swallowed.

To be honest, Jie Ming was a bit surprised now; things were a bit beyond his expectations.

Because... this thing could actually have an effect on his true body!

His true body was a Void Refinement Perfection Dharma body, a thousand-meter-tall dark golden existence, fused with Body Forging Method, internal circulation, and countless resistance evolutions. The power of ordinary eerie was like a breeze to him, not even able to break through the outermost layer of resistance.

But that bite the Shadow-Stealing Person took, truly and surely stripped a small part from his life level.

Although the amount was not much, very little, so little it could almost be ignored.

But this was not a question of quantity, but a question of "whether it could be done."

The corners of Jie Ming's mouth bent slightly, couldn't help but reveal an interested smile.

The research value of this thing was even higher than he had expected!

Inside his body, the Body Forging Method automatically operated.

This body-refining method, which had already integrated into his instinct, immediately started the self-adaptive repair program after sensing the "damage" at the life level. His shadow "grew" out almost instantly after being bitten off a small piece.

Seeing this, the Shadow-Stealing Person subconsciously bit again.

The shadow grew out again.

The Shadow-Stealing Person was stunned.

Jie Ming could clearly see that the human shadow without facial features "stiffened" slightly when it was "stunned," and the trembling of the edges also stopped.

It seemed to be "perceiving" this prey in front of it in some way Jie Ming didn't fully understand yet.

Then it bit again.

The shadow grew out again.

Jie Ming took out a cup of spiritual tea from his storage bag.

The tea was hot, just brewed, the amber tea soup shining with a warm luster under the light of the street lamp.

He held the teacup, blew the heat on the surface lightly, and took a sip.

The tea fragrance spread in his mouth, carrying a faint sweetness.

He leaned on the street lamp pole, drinking tea while watching the Shadow-Stealing Person frantically gnawing on his shadow like a hamster eating sunflower seeds.

Once, twice, three times.

The Shadow-Stealing Person's "mouth" opened and closed rapidly at the edge of the shadow, the fine protrusions like rows of small teeth, constantly tearing and swallowing.

Its speed was getting faster and faster, the frequency getting higher and higher, as if competing with some invisible power.

But Jie Ming's shadow was like a well that would never dry up; no matter how the Shadow-Stealing Person gnawed, it always maintained a complete shape and length. And in this process, Jie Ming's Eye of Omnipotence and Fate System were always operating.

The Eye of Omnipotence pierced through the shadow surface of the Shadow-Stealing Person, straight to its core structure.

He saw the transformation process of those swallowed shadow fragments inside the Shadow-Stealing Person, recording various energy change data during this process. Time passed slowly, and a few minutes passed quickly.

During these few minutes, Jie Ming collected data on all aspects of the Shadow-Stealing Person.

The frequency of energy fluctuations, the efficiency of swallowing shadows, the transformation method of energy in the body, and its perception mechanism for "prey"... all these were recorded and archived, stored in the database deep in his consciousness.

Of course, the reason he didn't continue to collect data was purely because the Shadow-Stealing Person couldn't continue here.

After the initial excitement, now the Shadow-Stealing Person's movements began to slow down.

Mainly it discovered that its "mouth" didn't seem to be very useful anymore.

Those fine protrusions didn't peel off a piece as easily as they did at the beginning when biting onto the edge of Jie Ming's shadow.

Those fine protrusions bit onto the edge of Jie Ming's shadow, as if biting onto a layer of elastic, tough rubber, and even with great effort, could only bite out a small gap.

Jie Ming shook his head and sighed helplessly.

This was probably the only flaw after obtaining the true body.

The adaptation speed of evolution was too fast, and it was still an instinctive automatic evolution.

His body, after sensing repeated "micro-damage," automatically adjusted the storage structure of life energy.

It quickly evolved a targeted resistance to this conceptual damage during the constant wear and tear of the shadow.

If it weren't for Jie Ming always deliberately suppressing his power and deliberately letting his life force dissipate, the leap of the Body Forging Method's adaptation from "being bitten" to "almost unable to bite" could probably be completed in an instant.

But even if Jie Ming did this, by now, the Shadow-Stealing Person was a bit unable to gnaw on his shadow.

The Shadow-Stealing Person bit again.

This time, its "mouth" slipped on the edge of the shadow, as if biting onto a smooth stone, and bit nothing off. So it stopped.

That flattened human shadow retreated a bit, as if re-evaluating this prey in front of it.

A kind of subtle wave-like undulation began to appear on the surface of its "body"; Jie Ming judged through the Eye of Omnipotence that it was a kind of energy expression similar to "confusion" or "unease."

"It seems... the power intensity of eerie existence and intelligence are not directly proportional. Also right, if the night eerie itself had intelligence, it shouldn't have dared to try to provoke a wizard." Jie Ming touched his chin thoughtfully.

Glancing at the Shadow-Stealing Person that seemed to be preparing to flee, Jie Ming didn't intend to continue testing.

The spiritual tea was finished, the data was collected enough, it was time to finish work.

He put down the teacup, the teacup disappeared the moment it left his fingers, sent back to the internal cave heaven.

Then he raised his right hand, five fingers spread, palm facing down.

A large number of blue runes emerged from the four walls of the alley simultaneously.

The blue runes spread rapidly on the mottled walls, connecting into a complete closed ring magic array in the blink of an eye.

The light of the magic array shrank inward, locking the Shadow-Stealing Person in a section of the area in the center of the alley.

This was the sealing technology Jie Ming learned from the Psychic Association.

That complete eerie he auctioned at the auction came with the association's standard sealing container and sealing ritual.

After this period of research and dismantling, he had already fully mastered the principles and operation methods of this technology.

Compared to the sealing arts of the Wizarding World, the association's technology was more targeted.

In terms of purely sealing eerie, the sealing magic array of the same energy level was even better to use than the barrier specifically for sealing law-type things on the wizard side. Thinking about it, it was understandable; after all, this was almost the core technology that humans in this world relied on to survive.

Although it was just mastered, with Jie Ming's technology, it was very easy to cast it.

The Shadow-Stealing Person's shadow film began to shrink under the squeezing of the blue light.

It tried to escape through the gaps, but every node of the magic array was tightly fitted together, without any loopholes.

It tried to climb up along the wall, but the light of the magic array covered the entire space from the ground to the roof, leaving no dark places for it. The dark human shadow shrank smaller and smaller under the squeezing of the sealing magic array, from the size of a carpet spread out, shrinking to the size of a tablecloth, and finally shrinking to the size of a newspaper.

Jie Ming took out a specialized metal box from his internal cave heaven.

Rectangular, silver-white, the surface carved with runes, very similar to the kind of container used to hold eerie items at the association's auction.

But the size was much smaller, more like a cigar box.

He opened the box lid and aimed the box opening at the Shadow-Stealing Person compressed to the size of a palm.

The final light of the sealing magic array flashed, and the Shadow-Stealing Person's shadow film was completely compressed into a mass of black, thick substance like ink. Jie Ming stretched out his hand, folded that mass of substance like folding paper, folded it again, and stuffed it into the metal box.

The box lid closed, and the bright light of the runes emerged from the silver-white surface.

It flickered steadily a few times, then returned to calm.

Shadow-Stealing Person, capture complete.

Jie Ming put the metal box back into his internal cave heaven, leaned on the street lamp pole, and closed his eyes.

His consciousness connected to those Eye of Shimmer scattered outside, checking their positions and status one by one.

Most of the Eye of Shimmer were waiting quietly in various places in the old city area, and the signals sent back were normal.

A few were attached to members of the Psychic Association, moving along with them.

Those were the elites who participated in the operation tonight, returning on the way to headquarters.

Then he found that Eye of Shimmer attached to the shark monster.

The signal was very clear, and the position information showed that the thing had stopped moving.

"But this position... is still on the sea, right?"

Could it be that the thing had already returned to the base of the person behind the scenes?

Or was it abandoned?

Thinking this way, Jie Ming's figure disappeared in place.