My construction materials are weird

The next day.

With the replenishment of the Great Return Pill, Xuanhuang completed the second refinement of the Heavenly Pillar.

In the misty Qi Sea, a six-zhang-high Heavenly Pillar slowly took shape, and its connection with the power of heaven and earth became even closer.

With one more time, condensing a complete nine-zhang Heavenly Pillar, he would be able to connect with the power of heaven and earth, and then draw the power of heaven and earth into the furnace.

However, at this moment, he had once again exhausted all of his Qi, blood, and willpower.

At his weakest moment, a sense of inexplicable crisis appeared.

Xuanhuang did not dare to underestimate this warning, as his powerful willpower inherently possessed the ability to sense danger.

This is the integration of one's own field; it is a warning that another field poses a threat, a manifestation of willpower.

Xuanhuang immediately entered the small world, not caring about the consumption of the Great Return Pill.

It wasn't until the afternoon that he recovered half of his Qi and blood, but his willpower was fully restored.

That inexplicable sense of crisis disappeared.

"It won't happen for no reason; there must be something strange about this."

"The Town Evil Department's Jia Zhengyi? Or someone else?"

Xuanhuang seemed to have a clue.

Waiting like this is not the best approach and does not align with his character.

"Then I'll take the initiative."

Thinking of this, seeing that it was already four o'clock in the afternoon, and the autumn nights came quickly, it would be dark in at most an hour and a half.

Xuanhuang decided to take advantage of the approaching darkness to resolve the matter.

"Master Xuan, are you going out?"

"Yes, no one needs to follow me. I'm going out for a walk. I have some confusion in my cultivation and want to go out to relax and see if I can gain anything."

He also preemptively stopped Sun Tong from following, saying, "There's no need to follow me. Too many people will ruin the mood. I'll go out for a walk by myself."

"Alright," Sun Tong nodded in agreement.

Since Xuanhuang had said so, she didn't insist.

Thus, Xuanhuang openly walked out of the martial arts hall.

Coincidentally, he was spotted by Qi Long, who was preparing to take action.

Qi Long had been waiting not far away since noon.

If Xuanhuang didn't come out in a short time, he had planned to sneak into the martial arts hall's courtyard at night.

In any case, the martial arts hall's defenses were non-existent to him.

He didn't expect Xuanhuang to come out, which made him very happy.

It's best not to kill Xuanhuang inside the martial arts hall, lest the people of the martial arts hall be demoralized when they find out.

They finally produced such a figure; would he just die like this?

Qi Long felt that he wasn't an absolute villain; such a blow to the martial arts was inhumane.

He was actually quite kind.

… …

A desolate and remote small neighborhood, with fallen leaves covering the ground.

If someone who didn't know him saw him from afar, they would think he was an idiot.

"Especially after the integration of willpower, one can temporarily achieve the legendary 'upright without a shadow,' a transparent energy state. Although the time is very short, it is, after all, a transparent energy transformation. The more important purpose is introspection."

"For example, like this."

Suddenly, a wave of energy emanated from Xuanhuang's body.

The person was still the same person, but his body instantly became energized, as if transparent.

"So, Mr. Shadow, who are you?"

Xuanhuang's shadow disappeared.

The sunlight passed through him as if passing through air, without any shadow appearing.

And his shadow turned into a lifelike black mass mimicking Xuanhuang's movements.

"Not good!"

The shadow was immediately shocked.

Just now, he was wondering what Xuanhuang was rambling about.

But in a flash, he realized that Xuanhuang had no shadow, and he was completely exposed.

Qi Long was instantly terrified, encountering such a thing for the first time: someone who could temporarily energize their entire body and make their shadow disappear?

Am I a Gu Master, or are you?

What made him even more terrified was that he couldn't transform from a shadow state back into a human to counterattack Xuanhuang.

It was as if he was frozen in time and space.

At this moment, Xuanhuang stretched out his hand, and vine-like roots spread out from his palm.

The roots were filled with death energy, quickly enveloping the struggling and twisting shadow.

Qi Long was now full of regret. Since he became a rogue cultivator by controlling strange entities, his Strange Shadow ability was special.

He was almost always invincible, and he could turn dangers into opportunities.

Later, for resources and special drugs to suppress his spirit, he began to work as an assassin, collecting his Strange Entity puzzle along the way.

He had been smooth sailing for several years.

This time, for his own advancement, wanting to obtain the Strange Cloak, he accepted this task.

He thought it would be the same as before: even if you are stronger than me, you can't catch me, so what can you do to me?

He never thought that he wouldn't even know how he was trapped.

It was far beyond his expectations.

There was actually someone who could detect his shadow being invaded; he had never encountered this before.

If Xuanhuang knew what he was thinking, he could only say that he was too ignorant.

With extraordinary willpower, he could easily control minds and dreams; was your shadow special?

Did you understand the concept of omniscience?

Not to mention your shadow, I would have sensed it even if you tried to sneak attack me; this is a matter of mental perception.

"What's the name of this Mr. Shadow?"

Qi Long, wrapped in the roots of the death energy, realized that his life was rapidly draining away.

The shadow state was also useless; it was being rapidly absorbed.

This made him extremely terrified.

Fortunately, Xuanhuang released a little of his confinement, and he found that he could speak.

"Please spare my life, sir! I'm just doing things for money and am not your enemy."

As soon as he could speak, Qi Long immediately begged for mercy.

Feeling his life slowly disappearing, this state was too terrible.

"My name is Qi Long, and I have a nickname. Everyone calls me Strange Shadow Qi Long. Sir, I was blind and offended you. I will compensate you; please withdraw your supernatural power."

"Oh? Jia Zhengyi hired you?"

From his words, Xuanhuang understood.

Currently, the only one who has a grudge against him, although he doesn't know how the grudge was formed, and who has the ability to hire this person, seems to be Jia Zhengyi.

"Sir, you are wise! It was him! He has my important puzzle in his grasp. I can only seek him out if I want to improve. His request was to kill you."

"I have my difficulties, sir! Please don't absorb me! Please spare my life, sir!"

Qi Long was about to collapse. What the hell were those roots? Wasn't he a martial artist? How could he be more strange than me?

Constantly absorbing his vitality, was he going to be drained dry?

"Looking at your turbid soul, it's impossible to spare your life; you need to take a trip to the Great Mill."

"No, no! I have a secret! I have a great discovery! Spare me…"

"Whoosh!"

In Qi Long's pleas for mercy, the Jianmu's roots increased their absorption capacity.

In an instant, Qi Long's vitality was completely absorbed.

And the Strange Shadow, detached from Qi Long, rapidly expanded, like a twisted demon, baring its fangs and claws.

"Hmph, you can't escape either."

"My will is the will of heaven!"

Instantly, the small world's heavenly will and the domain were fully activated.

A will belonging to Xuanhuang immediately broke through the intelligence composed of the Strange Shadow's various twisted desires.

Xuanhuang succeeded in replacing it.

And those chaotic desires and souls were not wasted. Within the domain, Xuanhuang was heaven and earth; how could they escape?

They were quickly absorbed and refined by the Great Mill.

A first-tier peak ration, the Great Mill rotated excitedly, quickly digesting and enhancing itself.

The Strange Shadow was a special strange entity, without substance, a mass of black shadow.

Xuanhuang, since he once controlled… no, it should be enslaved a strange entity… no, more accurately, he replaced the strange entity's spirituality and made it his own.

This cannot be considered enslavement; it is directly erasing it and then using it himself.

This is the only strange entity he has obtained that he is interested in controlling.

He wants to personally experiment and study it to see if he can research something good.