256: Chapter 256 The Ultimate Concealment and the Shadowless Thrust

In the stone passageways beneath Shura City, dim, bloody light stretched the shadows on the walls.

The massive, severed-dragon stone gate descended with a teeth-grating screech of mechanisms, and with a dull thud, completely sealed off the frenzied cheers that seemed capable of overturning the heavens and the pungent scent of blood from the outside world.

The space within the stone chamber instantly fell into absolute silence.

Zhou Wannian's body, which had been hunched over as if on the verge of collapse, suddenly ceased all trembling the moment the stone gate fully closed. His face, pale and twisted from over-exerting his life force, smoothed out as if wiped by an invisible hand, returning to an expressionless, icy composure.

He casually tossed the now completely ruined, chipped, and cracked black heavy sword into a pile of rubble in the corner, producing a crisp clang.

The crimson blood that had flowed from his seven orifices now seemed to possess a life of its own, rapidly flowing back along the lines of his skin and seeping flawlessly back into his pores. The few minor wounds that had split open were restored to flawless smoothness in less than half a breath, not even leaving a white mark, thanks to the powerful self-healing ability of his taiyi grade Physical Body.

All disguises were shed in an instant within this absolutely secure, private space.

Without any superfluous movement or the heavy panting of someone who had narrowly escaped death, Zhou Wannian walked to the meditation cushion in the center of the stone chamber, smoothed the hem of his cyan robe, and calmly sat down cross-legged. His demeanor was so relaxed it was as if he had just taken a leisurely stroll through a Mortal market outside the city, not as if he had just emerged from a life-or-death struggle targeting the Soul.

Tiezhu's cold, monotonous mechanical voice sounded on time from the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

"Report, Host. Environmental safety scan complete. The three-layer isolation Restriction within the stone chamber is operating normally. No Divine Sense eavesdropping or Law infiltration of any form detected. Based on the energy feedback data collected moments ago, the Divine Sense fluctuation frequency in the VIP seating area where the Heavenly Court envoy Gongshu Tian is located spiked abnormally at the exact moment the White Night Puppet's core shattered. System deduction: the other party has developed deep suspicion regarding the method you used to break the deadlock just now."

Zhou Wannian, with his eyes closed, lightly tapped his fingers on his knee in a steady, unhurried rhythm, responding faintly in his Sea of Consciousness: "No rush. Since I'm the prey, I must have a prey's awareness. Gongshu Tian is the lofty angler right now. How could I risk startling him prematurely?"

He was well aware of how abrupt his performance on the arena had been. A pure Body Cultivator, completely deprived of their five senses by a high-level Law of Illusion and dragged into a Soul illusion realm, could not possibly shatter the core of the Law with precise timing relying solely on rage and so-called willpower. As long as Gongshu Tian's brain wasn't addled, he would definitely investigate the true cause behind the instantaneous destruction of those thirty-six illusion beast inner cores.

Gongshu Tian would suspect some extremely covert Divine Sense secret technique, or perhaps some rare treasure specifically designed to counter illusions. Either possibility would elevate Zhou Wannian's status from that of a mere brute-force Loose Cultivator from the Gray Realm to that of an extremely dangerous and deeply concealed variable.

But this was precisely the effect Zhou Wannian desired.

If you keep playing the pig, you might really end up being slaughtered like one. He needed to tear open a corner of his disguise little by little, like peeling an onion, ensuring those lofty figures from the Heavenly Court could never see his true trump cards. Each time they thought they had figured him out and sent a targeted assassin, they would find themselves crashing into an even more impregnable iron wall.

This was the absolute control hidden beneath the facade of relaxation.

"Two hours remain until the start of the third round," Tiezhu's voice continued to echo in the Sea of Consciousness. "The list of the fifty who have advanced has been updated via the Formation resonance of the Blood War Altar. The System is currently retrieving the bone age, Cultivation Technique schools, and combat data displayed in the first round for these individuals. Special attention is required: besides that powerful expert from the Blood Weeping Tribe native to the Shura Realm, there is another contestant whose aura is extremely peculiar."

"Retrieve his data," Zhou Wannian ordered faintly.

In his Sea of Consciousness, a blurry three-dimensional light-shadow image rapidly formed. It depicted a tall, slender figure completely wrapped in grayish-white, tattered bandages, revealing only a pair of dead-fish-like whites for eyes. This person held no weapon. In the previous two rounds, his average time to kill an opponent did not exceed three breaths. Moreover, all those who died by his hand showed no fatal external injuries, not even a trace of their protective immortal light being breached.

All the deceased had withered Nascent Souls and had perished due to the bizarre dissipation of their Divine Souls.

This method of killing was not unfamiliar to Zhou Wannian. Within the vast Cultivation Technique System of the True Immortal Realm, there existed an extremely niche and hard-to-defend-against type of assassin. They did not Cultivate the Five Elements or the Physical Body, specializing instead in the Law of Shadows, which targeted a Cultivator's shadow.

They refined Law power into shadows, severing the connection between the Divine Soul and the Physical Body by attacking the enemy's shadow. It was a high-level assassination technique that was nearly impossible to guard against.

The corner of Zhou Wannian's mouth lifted slightly, revealing an extremely faint trace of mockery as he muttered softly to himself, "It seems Envoy Gongshu is already impatient to strip away this Body Cultivator skin of mine."

Since he suspected a powerful hidden Divine Sense, he sent a shadow assassin specifically targeting the Divine Soul, whose attacks were soundless and traceless, to test him. If Zhou Wannian were truly a Body Cultivator, he would undoubtedly die facing this attack that ignored physical defense. If he used powerful Divine Sense to counterattack, it would immediately confirm Gongshu Tian's suspicions.

The calculation was indeed clever.

Unfortunately, Gongshu Tian had misjudged the most fatal thing.

Zhou Wannian slowly opened his eyes. His sleeve sagged slightly. The void-splitting ruler, its entire body silvery-white with fine spatial cracks flowing across its surface, lay quietly against the inside of his forearm, exuding a restrained sharpness potent enough to sever a realm.

Who said that dealing with formless shadows required Divine Sense?

Time flowed slowly in the silent stone chamber. Zhou Wannian did not deliberately regulate his breathing, nor did he swallow any Medicinal Pills. He simply sat there quietly, adjusting his breathing rhythm, allowing every muscle and every Meridian to settle into a perfect state—seemingly relaxed yet ready to erupt with taiyi grade power at any moment.

Two hours later.

That heavy, desolate drumbeat from ancient times once again pierced through the thick rock layers, pounding heavily in the hearts of every survivor.

The third round. Fifty advance to twenty-five. A life-or-death decisive battle.

The heavy severed-dragon stone gate rose once more.

Zhou Wannian stepped out of the stone chamber. The light outside made him narrow his eyes slightly. He once again draped that aura of outward strength masking inner exhaustion, that spent force, over himself and walked with heavy steps towards the Blood War Altar.

Inside the massive Shura Blood Arena, the atmosphere had been pushed to its peak. The roars of a million Gray Realm Cultivators converged into a tangible wave of sound that reverberated back and forth above the entire Colosseum. For these bloodthirsty beings, nothing excited them more than watching lofty powerhouses struggle desperately in the mire.

The Gray Immortal Elder presiding over the blood battle hovered in mid-air, announcing in a booming voice infused with immortal spiritual power: "The third round, the life-or-death duel, officially begins! All fifty advanced warriors, please inject your Divine Sense into the Blood War Bone Tokens in your hands. The Formation will automatically match you with opponents. The victor advances; the defeated becomes nourishment for Shura City!"

Zhou Wannian raised the Blood War Bone Token in his hand and sent a wisp of Divine Sense into it.

Bloody light flickered, and a distorted number materialized.

Arena Thirteen.

Following the guidance, Zhou Wannian walked onto the arena. The stone slabs beneath his feet had been cleaned, but the heavy, pungent scent of blood deeply ingrained in the stone's texture could not be washed away.

The moment he took his stance, the ghostly figure opposite him slowly materialized.

It was precisely that tall, slender figure wrapped entirely in grayish-white bandages, revealing only dead-fish eyes. He stood like a withered log, with no breath, no heartbeat, not even the slightest fluctuation of immortal spiritual power leaking out.

Meanwhile, in the VIP seating area at the very top of the Colosseum.

Gongshu Tian set down the new folding fan in his hand, leaned forward slightly, his cold eyes locked firmly on Arena Thirteen. He spoke in an eerie tone to the Shura Realm Lord beside him: "Lord Luo, the good show is about to begin. That bandaged freak is a Class-A assassin I borrowed at great cost from the Heavenly Court's Shadow Division. Codename: Yin Jiu. His skill with the Law of Shadows can ensnare even a taiyi grade Early Stage Cultivator if they are the slightest bit careless."

Lord Luohou crossed his arms over his chest, watching the scene below expressionlessly, offering no comment on Gongshu Tian's words.

Gongshu Tian sneered and continued, "I want to see if this crude Body Cultivator can still rely on his so-called willpower to withstand a sure-kill technique that ignores physical defense. The moment he dares to employ even a shred of Divine Sense power that defies reason to counterattack, this envoy will immediately take him down!"

Gongshu Tian lightly tapped his fingertips on the armrest of his chair, as if already seeing the scene of Zhou Wannian being subdued after exposing his trump cards.

On Arena Thirteen, the barrier light screen completely closed.

Unlike the previous match, Zhou Wannian did not roar and charge aggressively. He kept his hands lowered, watching the opponent Yin Jiu warily. He breathed heavily, even breaking out in a cold sweat on his forehead, portraying a physically exhausted and deeply apprehensive Body Cultivator to perfection.

Yin Jiu's lifeless eyes fixed on Zhou Wannian. A strange, rasping sound, like a broken bellows, issued from his throat.

In the next instant, without any warning, Yin Jiu's figure dissolved.

Like a drop of ink falling into a black mire, he vanished into thin air on the arena, not stirring a breeze or leaving any trace of Law fluctuation.

Exclamations of shock erupted from the surrounding spectator stands. This bizarre method of concealment exceeded the understanding of the vast majority of Gray Immortals.

Zhou Wannian stood in place, his brow furrowed, his gaze darting around in apparent panic. He even raised his arms to shield himself—a most instinctive defensive posture when facing an unknown danger.

But in reality, deep within Zhou Wannian's Sea of Consciousness, his vast, ocean-like Divine Sense, though not extended outward, functioned like radar, capturing every minute change within a ten-zhang radius around him.

Not only that, his powerful physical intuition had already keenly captured that extremely faint, icy aura in the air that did not belong to the real world.

It wasn't above his head, behind him, nor to his left or right.

Zhou Wannian's gaze, seemingly panicked as it swept over the ground, was in fact already firmly locked onto the shadow at his own feet.

At this moment, the bloody light from the sky projected onto the arena, stretching Zhou Wannian's shadow very long.

And at the seemingly ordinary edge of that shadow, a patch of extremely deep, almost light-devouring pure blackness was slithering upward along the shadow's edge at a speed that defied common sense, like a venomous snake.

Here it comes.

Yin Jiu's killing move was never aimed at the enemy's Physical Body. He fused his true form with the Law of Shadows, infiltrating the enemy's shadow. As long as his Shadowless Blade pierced the heart area of the shadow, that Law of Shadows imbued with extreme corrosiveness would instantly sever the connection between the enemy's Divine Soul and Physical Body.

In the VIP seats, Gongshu Tian's eyes widened, and he even unconsciously held his breath.

He stared intently at Zhou Wannian, waiting for him to erupt with powerful Divine Sense to resist this certain-kill strike. The moment Zhou Wannian's Divine Sense moved, the detection Formation he had arranged on the barrier would immediately sound the alarm.

Within the shadow, that patch of pure blackness had slithered to the chest area of Zhou Wannian's shadow.

A point of icy cold, black glimmer, imperceptible to the naked eye, silently extended from within the shadow, stabbing straight at the shadow's heart.

At that very instant.

Zhou Wannian moved.

He did not erupt with any Divine Sense power; his Sea of Consciousness was as calm as a windless lake. Nor did he summon any defensive Magic Treasure.

He simply made a move that left everyone utterly bewildered.

His right foot suddenly retreated half a step, and his body tilted awkwardly, even clumsily, to the right, as if he had suddenly slipped due to exhausted stamina and was about to fall onto the arena.

It was this seemingly utterly clumsy slip that caused his body to deviate from its original vertical axis in an instant.

And his shadow, due to the change in the light source's angle, underwent a violent distortion and stretch.

Yin Jiu's Shadowless Blade, which was stabbing at the shadow's heart, missed its target by a fraction of an inch due to the shadow's sudden shape change, only piercing the shadow's shoulder area.

Zhou Wannian grunted. A burst of blood bloomed on his left shoulder, and his entire left arm instantly lost sensation, hanging limply. This was precisely the Law backlash inflicted on the Physical Body after the shadow was attacked.

He actually avoided a vital spot.

In the VIP seats, Gongshu Tian abruptly stood up, his eyes filled with disbelief. Gnashing his teeth, he growled in a low voice, "How is this possible?! Yin Jiu's assassinations have never failed! That Body Cultivator didn't use his Divine Sense to probe at all. How could he so precisely avoid the fatal strike to the heart?! A coincidence? Could it really just be a slip due to exhausted stamina?!"

Gongshu Tian felt a knot of frustration in his chest. The feeling was like punching cotton with all his might, making him so uncomfortable he almost wanted to vomit blood.

And on the arena.

Clutching his bleeding left shoulder, Zhou Wannian slumped to the ground, gasping for breath in large gulps, his face etched with the terror and pain of a narrow escape from death.

But deep within his lowered eyes, an extreme coldness and calculation flickered.

That move just now was, of course, no coincidence. It was the most precise micro-adjustment he made, relying on his taiyi grade physical reaction speed, in the absolute instant he perceived the killing intent upon his body.

If he had used his Divine Sense to defend, he would have lost this psychological game. So, he chose to endure a non-fatal injury, using the price of flesh and blood to trade for a complete miscalculation in Gongshu Tian's judgment.

Not only that.

In the moment Zhou Wannian fell, the void-splitting ruler he had been hiding in his right sleeve had already silently slipped into his palm.

Missing his strike, although shocked, Yin Jiu, as a top-tier assassin, reacted immediately. He did not choose to reveal himself but prepared to retreat back into the darkness along the shadow's edge, seeking another opportunity to strike.

However, how could Zhou Wannian give him a second chance?

Thinking of hiding back in the shadow was nothing but a fool's dream.

Zhou Wannian sat slumped on the ground, his right hand seemingly pounding the bluestone floor beside him in pain.

A dull thud echoed.

To the surrounding million spectators, this was just the desperate act of a loser pounding the ground.

But only Zhou Wannian knew that the moment his palm touched the ground, the void-splitting ruler in his hand erupted with a strand of the Space Law compressed to an extreme, as fine as a hair.

This spatial Law did not spread outward. Instead, like an invisible, razor-sharp scalpel, it precisely cut into the root of Zhou Wannian's own shadow along the cracks in the stone floor.

Spatial Fault.

It wasn't an attack on Yin Jiu, but a forceful dislocation and severance, at the Law level, of the spatial coordinates of Zhou Wannian's location from the spatial coordinates where his shadow existed.

From the Void Realm, an extremely faint yet horrifying tearing sound suddenly came.

Yin Jiu, who was rapidly moving within the shadow preparing to withdraw, suddenly found the shadow world around him collapsing.

The patch of shadow he was in, along with the space itself, had been cut by some terrifyingly powerful force into an independent, sealed, and continuously inwardly collapsing miniature spatial fault.

Yin Jiu's usually placid state of mind instantly shattered. He desperately tried to activate the Law of Shadows to escape, only to find his proud Law power as fragile as paper before this absolute spatial severance.

He didn't even have time to let out a single scream.

The miniature spatial fault that had been cut out instantly collapsed inward into an infinitely small point, then completely vanished.

Along with Yin Jiu hidden within, his Physical Body, his Nascent Soul, his Law of Shadows—all were crushed by this spatial collapse force into the most primitive nothingness, not leaving behind a single drop of blood or a speck of ash.

Instant kill.

And a true instant kill that erased all traces of existence.

On the arena, Zhou Wannian still maintained his posture of sitting slumped on the ground, clutching his shoulder and panting.

There was nothing before him. No enemy corpse, no traces of combat.

In that strike just now, he had applied the spatial Law of the void-splitting ruler with ultimate, meticulous precision. Even the monitoring Formations on the barrier didn't detect any abnormal energy fluctuations, mistaking it for a routine spatial tremor during the arena Formation's operation.

The entire arena fell silent.

The million spectators of Shura City looked at each other, completely unaware of what had happened.

Where did that strange bandaged assassin go? Did he escape? Or was he brewing some super move?

A full half-cup of tea's time passed.

Above Arena Thirteen, the bloody light representing the Formation's judgment suddenly lit up, enveloping Zhou Wannian.

That was the light of victory, bestowed only after confirming one party's complete death.

The Gray Immortal Elder presiding over the blood battle was also stunned. He repeatedly checked the feedback from the Formation core before finally announcing in a tone of disbelief, "Arena Thirteen, the victor! Zhou Wannian!"

The Shura Blood Arena erupted into deafening uproar once more. Everyone was frantically discussing what had just happened. Some speculated that the bandaged freak suffered a Cultivation Technique backlash and self-destructed; others guessed there was a problem with the Formation. No one connected Yin Jiu's death to that heavily injured Body Cultivator sitting on the ground gasping for breath, struggling even to stand.

And in the VIP seats.

Gongshu Tian stood there dumbfounded. The white jade floor beneath his feet was already covered in dense cracks from the taiyi grade pressure he had unconsciously leaked.

Gongshu Tian's face was livid. For the first time, a trace of extreme irritation and unease surfaced deep in his eyes as he stared fixedly at Zhou Wannian enveloped in the victory light, gnashing his teeth and muttering in a low voice, "Impossible... Yin Jiu's life tablet actually shattered."

This guy clearly didn't use a shred of Divine Sense, clearly was forced into a corner and even injured. Why did Yin Jiu suddenly die?

Could it really be that Yin Jiu's Cultivation Technique went awry, suffering backlash from the Law of Shadows? Or had this Body Cultivator's luck become so Heaven-Defying that even the heavens helped him avoid the fatal strike?

Lord Luohou sat beside him, watching Gongshu Tian's ugly expression. The corner of his mouth curled up into an almost imperceptible cold smile as he mercilessly mocked, "Special Envoy Gongshu, it seems the Grade-A assassin you borrowed from the Heavenly Court is nothing special after all. Couldn't even deal with a crude Body Cultivator, and instead got himself eliminated."

Gongshu Tian took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the evil fire in his heart, and sat back down in his chair. He coldly retorted, "Lord Luo jests. It was merely an accident."

He picked up the teacup on the table, wanting to take a sip to calm his mood, only to find the tea inside had long since spilled completely due to his earlier loss of composure.

Gongshu Tian slammed the empty cup heavily onto the tabletop. His gaze turned incomparably sinister as he viciously swore an oath in his heart: "Fine. Very well. Whether you truly have good luck or are just putting on an act. Next round, this envoy will absolutely not give you any more chances to exploit loopholes."

On the arena, Zhou Wannian finally propped himself up on his knees and stood up unsteadily. Dragging his injured left arm, he walked out of the barrier under the gaze of a million people, his steps faltering.

The moment he stepped into the dark passageway.

That face full of pain and exhaustion instantly regained its coldness and indifference. The deep, bone-revealing wound on his left shoulder stopped bleeding and scabbed over at a visible rate.

He walked forward without looking back, his gaze profound, leaving behind only an extremely soft murmur audible only to himself.

"The first hidden card, the probing is over. Gongshu Tian, whatever other tricks you have, go ahead and use them."