The blood ghost gave no response. But Clear Wind felt something and it began to hum.
Then, the gleam of a blade flashed, slicing at Lin Jin’s peculiar shadow.
But a shadow was a shadow. How could it be destroyed?
Besides leaving a cut on the floor, the Sword Energy had done nothing else.
Clear Wind didn’t know what else to do. Lin Jin’s shadow seemed problematic, but it also seemed okay. Anyway, Clear Wind calmed down in the end.
Seeing this, Lin Jin knew they had met a tough opponent this time.
He looked to Xiao Huo and the latter began sniffing the shadow. He clearly sensed something was off too but didn’t know what to do with it because it was Lin Jin’s shadow that had a problem.
That was all.
There was no enemy nor aura of another being. So what could he do?
Attacking the shadow was obviously useless, the Clear Wind Sword had tried that earlier.
Besides Lin Jin’s shadow changing its appearance, nothing else happened so Lin Jin relaxed. Shu Xiaolou trotted over, still visibly surprised and blurted out what had been nagging inside her mind, “Lin Jin, your shadow had a gender change.”
Lin Jin rolled his eyes at her.
“But seriously, did you sense anything weird earlier?” Shu Xiaolou immediately straightened up and asked.
Lin Jin tried to recall anything of the sort but shook his head.
Nothing had felt weird. Ever since entering this layer, both he and Shu Xiaolou had been extra diligent, staying alert the entire time. If something strange had happened, they would have realized it long ago.
“What do we do now?” For a moment there, Lin Jin didn’t know what to do. He had never cultivated anything related to shadows and didn’t know how to investigate them.
Shu Xiaolou shook her head as well.
She had no idea either.
“Maybe something entered your shadow without us noticing.” Shu Xiaolou made a reliable assumption.
Lin Jin immediately remembered Shu Xiaolou saying that this Acheron River was a priceless treasure that could oppress all evil beings.
Then, could some powerful being have borrowed Lin Jin’s shadow so it could make a ‘prison break’?
It was possible.
Then, Lin Jin thought of something else. Since his shadow had been invaded, what about Shu Xiaolou’s? It didn’t make sense for her to be fine when he had a problem.
He turned to her shadow.
Only, Shu Xiaolou’s shadow looked normal. It was exactly as it has always been.
Lin Jin felt helpless. Did this thing think he was such a pushover?
Shu Xiaolou and Lin Jin were very close friends. As mentioned, they could always tell what the other person was thinking, so after noticing Lin Jin’s expression, Shu Xiaolou took another jab at him.
“This shadow looks so elegant so she must be a beautiful woman. She didn’t come to me because I’m a woman too. There’s the saying that opposites attract…” Before Shu Xiaolou could finish teasing him, Lin Jin waved. “Alright, alright, does this look like the right time for jokes? Help me think of a solution. We can’t go on like this.”
Indeed.
How could he offer his personal space to outsiders? Lin Jin may not be a worry-wart, but he still felt apprehensive now that something had happened to his shadow. Even his pet beasts couldn’t help in this situation. This was like being presented with a new subject he had no knowledge of, and then being tested on it. He couldn’t even begin to describe that aggravation.
He couldn’t hand in an empty paper either.
Handing in an empty paper would be to ignore the problem. Yet, this was like standing on a time bomb and who knew when it might explode.
So he couldn’t afford to ignore it.
Shu Xiaolou may have been teasing him, but she was also trying to figure something out.
“The Cosmos Ink works wonders inside painting realms. We’ll use it with a Seven Star Puppet Sealing method to seal off your shadow. You may find it a little troublesome and exhausting later on, but this will be a form of reassurance,” Shu Xiaolou proposed.
Lin Jin nodded.
He would try anything right now and reject no idea.
Shu Xiaolou went on to invoke a spell and dropped seven drops of Cosmos Ink onto the shadow to suppress it. She was using a rather crude idea, so no matter what was inside the shadow, she would suppress it all, including Lin Jin’s original shadow.
This wouldn’t have worked in the outside world but it did inside the painting realm.
Lin Jin thought it was a good idea. Since his shadow had become weird, they should put in some precautions. Shu Xiaolou had used spells so he should try something on his part.
The only thing he thought might be useful now was the Purple Thunder Needle.
This item was useful in suppressing many things, especially malicious beings. But it wouldn’t be effective to just pierce it into the shadow. After all, it was only a shadow.
‘Maybe the Purple Thunder Needle will be very effective when the thing inside the shadow moves,’ Lin Jin contemplated.
With this, he kept his guard up, ready to strike with the Purple Thunder Needle should any problems arise.
This was the only thing he could come up with. That was all.
Just as Shu Xiaolou mentioned, Lin Jin’s shadow merely changed its gender without doing anything else. It didn’t even seem hostile nor did it release any aura.
Since they couldn’t do anything to it, they would just leave it for now and do what they had set out to do.
Now, they were to continue down the painting realm, layer by layer until they reached the Unending Nature Landscape’s core layer so Shu Xiaolou could try to gain control over the whole realm. Then, she would become the Unending Nature Landscape’s painting spirit and experience great improvement in her cultivation level. And, Lin Jin would have another ally with profound immortal strength on his side.
That would mean so many advantages for him. So no matter what it took, Lin Jin must have this Unending Nature Landscape.
Upon entering the skeleton hall, Shu Xiaolou activated the Divine Cloud Passage inside it before she and Lin Jin stepped inside.
Both of them didn’t want to stay inside the Acheron River layer anymore as it was too harrowing.
Through the Divine Cloud Passage, they finally left that scary netherworld river and arrived at the next layer. This new layer was quite desolate as it was an endless desert. Dry beyond imagination, there was no sign of life anywhere.
Still, this place was much better than the Acheron River.
However, the first thing Lin Jin and Shu Xiaolou did after entering this later was to look at Lin Jin’s shadow instead of examining their surroundings.
They wanted to know if the shadow’s gender would only change in the Acheron River layer and not other layers.
Maybe it was back to normal now. Maybe that shadow gender-changing evil entity could only exist inside the Acheron River, unable to escape that place.
But those were only their wishful thinking. In reality, Lin Jin’s shadow still looked like a girl with long hair, long robes, and was very charming actually.
