Chapter 429: The Newborn Shadow Bird, the Abilities of the Shadow Bird

In the middle of the night, Jier rode his horse out of Huitou Forest and arrived at the west side of Huitou Forest.

The white light emitted by his Hunting Sword was somewhat dim, likely because he had used up the vast majority of his Sun God Divine Power earlier; therefore, Jier had to take a bundle of prepared grease torches from the horse's luggage, light one, and insert it into the Weapon Rack behind him to provide him with limited illumination.

Jier did not really need to control Tianxuecao—after all, the Jiansheng was broken—but Tianxuecao clearly understood where it should go at this time; it had walked this path just that afternoon, so the route was still somewhat familiar, even though it was night and the road could not be seen very clearly.

Meanwhile, Jier on horseback was currently playing with the Shadow Bird in his hand.

This little fellow was very lively; when Jier raised his finger, it liked to hop back and forth between Jier's fingers, opening its mouth without making any sound. And although its flight and movement did not actually require flapping its wings, this Shadow Bird would still flap its wings to fly. Its communication and interaction with Jier were mostly conducted through a form of mental control, or rather, a telepathic connection.

"Go!"

Following a portion of the memory he received when he gained the ability, Jier threw the Shadow Bird from his hand and pointed at a bush in the distance that was shaking slightly.

Jier could roughly guess what animal was in the bush, but he just wanted to see the level of this new ability and whether it was easy to use.

The Shadow Bird flew out of his hand, obediently flying straight toward that bush. Because it was night, if Jier's gaze had not been constantly tracking his Shadow Bird, he would have been almost unable to distinguish its movements from the nighttime environment.

Jier nodded to himself; if nothing else, this was quite good for use at night.

The Shadow Bird's flight speed was neither fast nor slow, and even when it flapped its wings while flying, it made no sound. After all, it did not truly rely on its wings to fly; it could move flexibly in the air on its own, and flapping its wings was just for show.

After the small Shadow Bird plunged into the bush, a light "pop" sound came from there, as if it had pierced through something, and then the small Shadow Bird returned to Jier's hand along the same path.

As soon as Jier touched the surface of the Shadow Bird's body, he discovered that it was covered in fresh blood, but this blood was like water droplets on glass; he wiped it gently with his finger, and it all flowed off. Nothing could stick to or remain on the surface of the Shadow Bird.

"Oh, Tianxuecao, let's go over and see what good thing we hit."

Jier leaned down and pointed with his hand at a bush to the front and side of Tianxuecao's line of sight, and the warhorse obediently stepped forward. Before Jier could jump off the horse, Tianxuecao lowered its head into the bush and used its teeth to pick up an Iron-headed Rabbit that had been pierced through the abdomen.

"Not bad, let me see the wound."

Jier was somewhat satisfied. He took the dead Iron-headed Rabbit from Tianxuecao's mouth and discovered that this large rabbit had an irregular hole five centimeters wide in its abdomen; through the hole, several of the Viscera inside the abdomen were completely shattered, and it had also pierced an identical large hole through the opposite side of the abdomen.

"Against an unprotected animal, hmm, the damage is decent. As a comparison, an unprotected Human body would only be slightly stronger than this rabbit, but not by much. It seems it can be used for combat."

Jier made his judgment. He just didn't know what the lethality of the Shadow Bird would be when facing Armor.

But he estimated that it wouldn't be long before he had the chance to experiment with it.

Subsequently, Jier also noticed—since the lighting was insufficient before, he hadn't looked closely—that when he wanted to tie up the rabbit to carry it away, he discovered that the color of the rabbit's fur around the wound where the Shadow Bird had pierced it had undergone some subtle changes.

It turned black—no, it became somewhat dark and dim.

This discovery made Jier raise his eyebrows; he then disregarded getting his clean hard cowhide Glove dirty, pried open the wound on the rabbit's abdomen, and looked carefully at the color of the rabbit's Viscera.

He discovered that the color of the Viscera had also changed; the animal's Viscera, which should have been fresh, had now turned gray and appeared somewhat dirty.

This discovery made Jier somewhat surprised. If every attack left such obvious, distinct traces, then this thing could not be used casually. It was fine to use against beasts and Monsters, but if he were operating in Human society, he could not use this method to assassinate enemies.

Because if he did this too many times, someone would definitely trace it back to him.

At that point, it would inevitably lead to a pile of trouble.

As for this ability, Jier extended his finger, summoned the Shadow Bird to land on it, and then, without speaking, silently willed the Shadow Bird to expand its shadow in his mind.

Very quickly, Jier's finger underwent a change.

Starting from the tip of the finger where the Shadow Bird rested, his finger, including the hard cowhide Glove he was wearing, turned pitch-black and dim at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Within just a few breaths, his entire right hand had turned a pitch-black color; in this dark night, if he had his back to the night sky, Jier's entire palm would be completely undetectable.

"How magical! It's as if I myself have gained a superpower that I can use at will," Jier exclaimed.

Logically speaking, the various enhancements his body received after Knight Training could also be considered a type of superpower, and a very practical one at that. But the Life Energy produced by his body after Knight Training, because his level of training was still very basic, appeared too ordinary and simple in its manifestation.

It was not nearly as convenient and cool as this Shadow Bird that he could use according to his will.

"Again, let's shadow-ize my entire right arm—is that what it should be called?" Jier encouraged his Shadow Bird with his words, while actually communicating with it through his thoughts, letting it expand the range covered by the shadow.

Very quickly, the expansion of the shadow began from his palm and spread toward his arm; however, while the speed was fine at the beginning, once it reached his elbow, no matter how he urged the Shadow Bird to expand the shadow, his Upper Arm Armor remained as it was.

"It's a bit too weak. Is it because the time since I gained the ability is too short? Then how do I strengthen you?"

Asking this aloud, Jier nevertheless roughly understood the method to strengthen the Shadow Bird through the newly acquired memories.

In general, there were three methods he could currently implement. The first was to find an exceptionally dark place at night and release the Shadow Bird; the Shadow Bird would slowly gain strength on its own in such places filled with shadows.

The second was to find living beings or objects that possessed shadow power; when the target was unable to resist, the Shadow Bird could approach and absorb the shadow power from them.

The third was to let the Shadow Bird devour the broken souls of beings after they passed away; this would increase the Shadow Bird's strength and was the fastest method Jier could currently achieve. Especially since Jier had been repeatedly plagued in his dreams by the resentful, broken souls of the Bandits he had killed a few days ago, the Great Bird Deity had said at the time that Her Shadow Bird could guard Jier's soul, helping Jier clear away those void things that plagued him by consuming a daily amount of resentful, broken souls equivalent to one Human.

Thinking of this, Jier felt some regret—regret that he had previously used a Magic Potion to deal with the resentful, broken souls of those Bandits; if he had dragged it out until now, those hateful things that plagued him would have instead become a simple method for him to improve the Shadow Bird.

"But where am I going to find Bandits to kill now? And I can't be some pervert who kills one person every day just to satisfy the Shadow Bird's improvement, right?"

Jier gave a bitter smile and shook his head; he had to live in Human society, after all. If he did such perverted things too often, he would eventually be discovered, pointed at, and even investigated in detail.

And trying to kill as many enemies as possible in a single battle was not a good method either.

After all, the Shadow Bird could only process the broken soul of one Human-sized entity per day; any more, and it wouldn't be able to handle it. The remaining excess resentful, broken souls that he killed with his own hands would repeatedly intrude upon Jier's sweet dreams.

This was something he truly could not endure; a person could go without food, but a person could not go without sleep and rest.

An ordinary person would collapse after a few days without sleep or rest, and while he had been strengthened by Life Energy and might be stronger, as long as he was still a Human, he could not be strong to an absurd degree.

He still had to rest, and he still had to sleep.

Therefore, this method still had loopholes that were difficult to bridge.

"I can only take it one step at a time. That's it for now; let's not think about how to improve you yet, let me see what other abilities you have."

Jier let the Shadow Bird retract the shadow covering his right arm up to the elbow, and then he tried the next ability of the Shadow Bird.

He looked left and right and found no suitable experimental subject, so he reached his hand downward; the Shadow Bird dropped directly to the ground, falling into the shadow of Tianxuecao, which was generated by the Torch on the horse's back.

After the Shadow Bird merged into Tianxuecao's shadow, Tianxuecao seemed to sense something; it stopped moving, then raised its horse head, pricked up its pair of long ears, and inexplicably looked left and right, searching for something.

"Oh, this is interesting." A smile appeared on Jier's face, because in his perception, he suddenly had a very strange feeling.

It was as if he himself, a Human, had suddenly transformed into the shadow of his warhorse—the prairie horse Tianxuecao.

It was an extremely indescribable feeling; as Tianxuecao moved, Jier could feel a part of himself also undergoing corresponding, uncontrolled movements.

Of course, Jier's own body could still be easily controlled by him at this time, and he wouldn't follow the movements of Tianxuecao's shadow. It was just a feeling, a special feeling.

It was as if he had an extra hand he could control, or as if he had an extra eye growing somewhere else.

His entire person's sensory ability had been expanded.

Naturally, this experience of sensory perception that exceeded the common human range made Jier feel somewhat uncomfortable, especially after Tianxuecao realized that there was nothing strange about its surroundings and began to trot along comfortably once more.

Jier felt that as Tianxuecao moved, he himself was also trotting along on four legs and four hooves.

Since putting the Shadow Bird into Tianxuecao felt like this, what would be the result if he put it into his own shadow?

Jier found it interesting, so he opened his palm and recalled his Shadow Bird. The tiny, pitch-black bird flew out from Tianxuecao's shadow, flipped over, and landed in the center of Jier's palm.

Jier looked at his own shadow, cast by the torch behind him onto the neck of Tianxuecao, and, filled with curiosity, held the Shadow Bird out toward it. At the same time, he said to the Shadow Bird, "Go, try going into my shadow."

The Shadow Bird obediently flapped its wings and flew inside; in an instant, Jier couldn't help but shiver on the Muan.

He could clearly feel a cold, shadowy thing possessing his body—no, his shadow. Yet, he himself felt a sense of chill because of it.

It was just like the feeling of stepping out of a warm room in winter and into the frozen world outside.

This was the feeling of being possessed by the Shadow Bird. Tianxuecao only paused slightly and looked around curiously, which showed that horses really didn't have very sensitive perception; in this regard, they were far inferior to humans.

Meanwhile, Jier could also feel the unique sensation of his own shadow.

He raised his hand, and the shadow produced by his arm, illuminated by the torchlight, raised its arm as well.

At the same time, through the sensations the Shadow Bird transmitted to him, Jier clearly perceived his own shadow arm lifting up.

"What is the use of this ability? Can it remotely perceive what someone is doing at a given moment? What is the point of this? If used for Scout, it is neither stealthy nor is the effect obvious. If, after possessing the opponent's shadow, one could see through the shadow and hear what the opponent hears, that would have some value for Scout."

Jier pondered, rubbing his chin with his gloved fingers, while his shadow performed the same action; immediately, from the perception transmitted back by the Shadow Bird, he also knew he was rubbing his own chin.

Although this unique sensation was useless, the perception itself was very fresh.

Just as he thought of this, he recalled another memory regarding the Shadow Bird.

These memories were clearly implanted in his brain the moment he obtained the ability, but if he did not engage in corresponding training and thinking, he would not know about these things that were not originally his memories.

It was like a memory file stored in his mind by someone else; if he didn't ask himself whether he had any relevant files, he wouldn't know he possessed such a file.

This suddenly recalled memory explained roughly that the Shadow Bird's abilities were far more than what they were now, because it was too weak at the moment; even though it possessed part of the Divine Power essence of the Great Bird Deity and countless bird Spirits, as a mere newborn, it still required quite a long time of growth and cultivation.

"Cultivation?"

Jier became puzzled, and then another memory was "recalled" by him.

It turned out that after the Shadow Bird's abilities were upgraded, the corresponding increased power could only be applied to one aspect. It was similar to skill points in a game; every time you level up, you are given a skill point, and you need to select a talent skill advancement direction on the Shadow Bird's skill tree.

And skill points could not be recovered.

Jier drew an analogy with the Shadow Bird's ability and suddenly understood.

"So that's how it is, I was worried it would be so complicated. This is too easy; a Warrior like me always has to fight and kill enemies, and the lingering Spirits of dead enemies will come to entangle and persecute me. At that time, the little bird will go up and 'feed' on its own to increase its strength. Once its strength is sufficient, because I always have it do certain things, it will specifically strengthen the related abilities?"

Jier talked to himself for a good while and finally figured out the general method for the Shadow Bird's improvement.

However, the types of Shadow Bird abilities appeared somewhat complex in a new memory.

"Hmm, this Great Bird Deity knows quite a lot. The source of these Shadow Bird abilities must all come from the Great Bird Deity, right?" Jier guessed, but he was wrong; in this other world, some seemingly ordinary birds and raptors actually possessed some inconspicuous, unique abilities.

Some abilities that humans did not yet understand or discover were even more bizarre.

While riding the horse and letting Tianxuecao carry him back to the Yingdi, Jier counted the Shadow Bird's related abilities on his fingers.

"Well, let me see, what abilities can it use right now, and what abilities can it not yet use because its strength is insufficient."

"【Shadow Concealment】, that is the ability that can turn my body and my carried equipment into shadow."

"【Shadow Raid】, that is the ability to fly out and directly cover the body with shadow Divine Power to break through the enemy."

"【Shadow Possession】, it can possess the shadows of living beings and objects, and transmit the possessed target's sensations to me in real-time."

"【Shadow Reconnaissance】, ha, I happen to need this; it can fly out to move at night and tell me what the Shadow Bird saw when it returns. Hmm, not very convenient, but having it is better than not having it."

"Besides this, there is one more ability it can use right now, 【Shadow Enhancement】, oh, it lets my weapon be briefly possessed by the Shadow Bird, and during an attack, it carries the same shadow Divine Power as when performing a 【Shadow Raid】 to strengthen the strike."

"This is convenient and direct, and it is also what I need most. But can my Hunting Sword, which carries Sun God Divine Power, use it? Or, can my pair of fists count as weapons? Can they be strengthened by the Shadow Bird? My roar also causes damage; does it count as a weapon? I stare fiercely at someone, which also causes mental and psychological damage; does this gaze count as a weapon?"

Jier muttered a string of words to himself, but he did not receive any new memories.

At this, Jier chuckled.

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? (End of this chapter)