Chapter 350: Steward

Naimi Xisi stood on the cracked asphalt road, the hem of his robe torn into tassels by an invisible force. In the mirror world's sky hung leaden‑gray vortex clouds, the shadow storm swirled three blocks away, it had no face or limbs, merely a pure energy vortex, extending outward eight thick, terrifying gray mist tendrils.

In the reflection of the church behind him, shadows flowed between the bricks, emitting faint whispers. Every lightning bolt that streaked across the sky left a purple‑black afterimage in the shadows.

"Is the shadow storm commanding these monsters?" Naimi Xisi ignored the monsters slowly approaching from behind, merely lowering his head in thought.

According to the "Ying Ying Ming Jie Landscape Guide," the shadow storm should be a lifeless natural phenomenon, incapable of spontaneous instinctive behavior.

But the situation now is clearly different.

Having learned from the precedent of the activation spell, Naimi Xisi now views everything with a hair‑trigger suspicion; he doubts that the distant shadow storm tearing the sky is likely some kind of intelligent lifeform.

Naimi Xisi's divine sense suddenly gave a warning, an intuition beyond the five senses alerting him to the omen of a spatial tear.

Sure enough, the next moment the ground fifty feet ahead collapsed with a boom. Asphalt and bricks were sucked into the storm's eye, condensing into millions of prismatic dark crystals, hovering around the vortex like a black swarm.

The first wave struck without warning. The dark crystal matrix suddenly scattered, each crystal refracting a miniature "Dark Art" annihilation beam. Naimi Xisi activated "Flight Technique" and shot upward; the spot where he had stood was shredded into mosaic‑like cubes by the dense beams. The scattered dark crystals re‑aggregated, forming spiky armor on the storm's surface.

Naimi Xisi's eyes darkened slightly: "Indeed, it's you meddling."

He gazed at the distant elemental storm: "Elemental essence."

The Mage steadied his stance in the gale, his divine sense piercing the darkness' veil until it reached the core of the shadow storm.

He saw within the storm's core a surging mass, a gigantic shadow‑element crystal core at least ten meters wide—this chaotic energy was actually a shadow‑element creature!

"Outsider, leave this place," an ancient chaotic voice echoed in Naimi Xisi's ear.

Juan Ce Long narrowed his eyes, cautiously probing: "Who are you?"

"The steward of my master."

"Steward?"

Naimi Xisi's expression turned somewhat strange; as one of the nearly most dreadful calamities in the Ying Ying Ming Jie, the shadow‑element creature that the storm had become rivaled a Legendary in strength, able to unleash any shadow‑element attack at will.

Were it not for Naimi Xisi's immunity to the shadow storm's greatest means—shadow assimilation—he would likely have had to retreat three leagues.

It actually called itself the steward?

Naimi Xisi could tell with his feet that the master this shadow storm served was undoubtedly the Inverted Pupil.

Seeing that this dangerous intruder still hadn't left, the shadow storm grew anxious.

Before the master fell asleep, it had once issued a divine edict commanding it and the General to hunt down with all force a Juan Ce Long named Naimi Xisi, as well as a human infant called Eleven.

Although the master usually issues incomprehensible mad edicts most of the time, this edict was unusually clear.

This made the steward place great importance on it.

It had already positioned its pieces in the real world; the boy named Wei Er had been infiltrated without his knowing.

As soon as the moment arrives, it can activate that piece, infect that world, and open a rift large enough for it and the General to pass through.

But just then, a strange intruder appeared, swaggering onto the master's turf.

As a shadow‑element creature, it is acutely sensitive to magical energy; that human—no, that is not a human, but a monster wearing a human guise, possessing immense magical power that even it finds alarming.

Don't be fooled by how the shadow storm now looks like it bears world‑destroying heavenly might; inside it is also panicking. The only help it can rely on is a human it once nurtured long ago—the General.

But that useless fellow, having recently suffered grave wounds while chasing the girl named Eleven, still lies in his lair nursing his injuries.

Precisely for these reasons, it spends extra words trying to verbally drive away the intruder.

But obviously, mere talk won't work; so it comes down to fighting.

The steward resolved, suddenly mobilizing immeasurable shadow elements to launch a deadly strike.

The shadow storm's second wave tore the earth. The church bell tower was uprooted, bricks and stone reassembled in the vortex into kilometer‑long shadow tendrils, their surfaces covered with suckers draining negative energy. As the tendrils struck, Naimi Xisi cast the Fifth‑Circle "Stone Wall Technique"; dozens of five‑meter‑thick gray‑white granite blocks materialized from void, clashing with the shadow constructs with a metallic ringing.

Yet the elemental beast's shadow tendrils suddenly misted, piercing the stone wall; their solidified fangs halted half an inch from the Mage's throat. Naimi Xisi flicked a finger, igniting a sky‑rocketing flame that scorched the approaching tendrils to ash.

The steward howled in pain, and the other monsters on the ground writhed along. They are parasites that grow by feeding on the shadow storm; every iota of harm the steward suffers appears simultaneously on them.

"Interesting, so you are that collective will." Naimi Xisi curled his lip, understanding dawning.

He had once been very curious about who lay behind those chrysanthemum monsters; now it is clear that this shadow storm is undoubtedly it.

Shadow energy excels at control and deception; it is perfectly normal for monsters living off the shadow storm to become the other side's puppets.

Once the steward's fury eased from the agony and he prepared to press the attack, Naimi Xisi had finished the incantation of the Seventh‑Circle "Highly Effective Dissociation Technique"; an emerald beam severed the shadow tendrils at the waist and shot straight for the storm's crystal core.

The steward panicked to the extreme, sensing from that jade‑like beam the descent of the god of death.

The next instant, the space around a chrysanthemum monster twisted, enveloping it and transporting it onto the inevitable path of the emerald beam.

The dissociation strike hit the monster, cleanly shattering its entire flesh into a pile of ash.

The storm's retaliation came violently and precisely. The severed tendrils exploded into shadow maggots, each worm carrying the curse of a "Weakening Ray." Naimi Xisi's left hand maintained a "Magic Nullification Barrier" to block the swarm, while his right hand scattered blinding holy light to cast the Fourth‑Circle "Holy Light Strike"; the divine blast tore a golden gash in the black‑and‑white world.

Seeing all means futile, the steward plunged into utter rage, recklessly overcharging its crystal core to unleash maximal power; the terrifying elemental surge even fissured the otherwise adamantine core.

Correspondingly, countless dark crystals suddenly appeared in the sky, arranging themselves into a dodecahedral structure that compressed the mirror world's negative energy into a black‑hole singularity. Naimi Xisi's silver hair was yanked backward by an invisible force, and the protective runes on his robe burst one after another.

Naimi Xisi's expression shifted; this attack of the shadow storm had already reached the limit of Legendary magic.

(End of chapter)