Chapter 1072: Shadow Palace
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Little Master Ling did frequently bust out some astonishing moves, but something like directly pulling open someone’s mouth and going in was still a shock to Loopy Toad. It dashed forward to grab hold of Wang Ling’s clothes, and followed him into the Shadow Image’s stomach.
What astonished the man and dog was that there was actually another world inside the Shadow Image’s stomach.
This was a great world which functioned according to its own laws, but it was in black and white, as if someone had taken photos on their cell phone, and each image was an extremely beautiful ink and wash painting.
Wang Ling was surprised by his little sister’s “masterpiece” yet again. Not only could she endow someone else’s shadow with abilities and activate their Shadow Image, she could even create a great world inside the Shadow Image’s stomach.
Wang Ling felt that this was like spending two hundred yuan to buy a smartphone on the streets: it was a roadside product which in the end worked better than the real deal, and the most ridiculous thing was that it had 256G of space instead of the 16G you were expecting!
It could only be said that as a brand-new Great Dao, Wang Nuan’s Shadow Dao was constantly surprising Wang Ling.
When Wang Ling and Loopy Toad these two colorful people entered this black and white world, they stood out in stark contrast.
“There’s very powerful demonic qi here,” Loopy Toad said as it raised its guard.
The demonic qi which they had felt outside was now so thick inside this Shadow Image’s world that it assailed Loopy Toad’s nose.
Wang Ling furrowed his brow before raising his hand to produce two golden light shields to cover them securely. He himself wouldn’t be affected, but he was still worried that Loopy Toad might be swayed by the evil intent. While Loopy Toad was currently on the right path thanks to Wang Ling’s training, it was in the end from the demon race, and definitely still harbored evil thoughts in its heart.
And one of Shadow Dao’s abilities was to stir up the wicked thoughts which a person had repressed. If the demonic qi invaded Loopy Toad here, it would be yet another inconvenience for Wang Ling later.
“The heart demon is there.”
Lifting his head and looking around, Wang Ling murmured the words in his heart.
The demonic qi that Loopy Toad was talking about was none other than the heart demon which dwelled deep inside the Shadow Image’s world. Wang Ling speculated that once he ferreted out the heart demon and destroyed it, the Shadow Image would directly disappear and the undertaker outside would return to normal.
Wang Ling gave this world a name, and called it “Shadow Palace.”
He had to find the heart demon that was hiding inside the palace.
The Shadow Palace world was set up according to each Shadow Image’s state of mind. In this undertaker’s Shadow Palace, for example, graves stretched into the distance, as far as the eye could see. These graves weren’t arranged in tidy rows like in a cemetery, nor did they have finely and elegantly carved tombstones.
They looked like a jumble of burial mounds, with the graves haphazardly scattered throughout this world; Wang Ling felt like he was in a horror game.
Wang Ling walked over to a grave, the words on the black broken tombstone almost indistinguishable: Wang Lin’s Grave .
Wang Lin? Was it the legendary Old Demon Wang?
Wang Ling was a little shaken. While the legend was that Wang Lin had long died after attempting to attack the Gate of Immortality, Wang Lin himself was also a legend. That was because the world now only had three Gates, and the Gate of Immortality didn’t exist.
Next to Wang Ling, Loopy Toad also had an inkling of what was going on. “Demons emerge from a person’s heart. All this is fake. Everything in the world of the heart demon is nothing but an illusion. This is a great world, but none of what we see is real – it’s just a true reflection of the heart.” Although Loopy Toad said this, it was well aware that only Little Master Ling was able to resist being corroded by this heart demon. If it was anyone else, they would very quickly be assimilated into the heart demon’s world.
Man and dog continued to explore the place. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any end to this world. Wang Ling saw all kinds of oddly-shaped tombstones, and no two tombstones were alike.
Activating the King’s Eye, Wang Ling searched the entire world with a godly perspective, and finally discovered a shabby cabin in one corner of the world.
Taking Loopy Toad with him, Wang Ling approached the cabin before coming to a halt in front of it.
He could sense a person’s aura inside.
Then, the door was pushed open, and a kindly-looking old man walked out of the cabin.
It was precisely the undertaker whom Wang Ling had seen in the outside world.
The hunched old man’s expression was as unperturbed as ever. “Come in…”
It was as if he knew Wang Ling and Loopy Toad would be coming; he didn’t look very surprised, and instead showed them in.
From the moment he saw the old man, Wang Ling already knew that he was a manifestation of the heart demon. What Wang Ling found unexpected, however, was that despite the strong demonic qi around this old man, there wasn’t the least bit of killing intent from him.
After entering the cabin, Wang Ling and Loopy Toad noticed that the cabin was all the old man had.
“There’s nothing else in this house.” Sitting on the ground, the old man laughed bitterly. “You were able to enter this place – you really aren’t simple people.”
Wang Ling was silent as he also sat on the ground silently. He gave Loopy Toad a meaningful look, indicating for it to ask the questions.
Loopy Toad understood Wang Ling’s meaning.
Loopy Toad: “Are you the heart demon, or…?”
“I am, and also not.”
Unexpectedly, the old man gave this cryptic reply. “Everyone has shadows in their hearts. I’m the heart demon, but also a victim.”
“Victim?”
“The reason why people push their shadows down to the bottoms of their hearts and don’t let them out is ultimately because of their conscience. I am Mr Li Daiwei’s inner conscience. But unfortunately, as you can see, I’ve already been corroded by the heart demon… I can’t escape this place. What’s more…” when he said this, the old man’s gaze swept over their surroundings, “You’ve seen this cabin…”
From the moment they entered the cabin, Loopy Toad had already noticed that there was something strange about it, and at the old man’s words, Wang Ling and Loopy Toad paid more attention to the place.
They were astonished to realize that the cabin was shrinking bit by bit.
“Whatever conscience is left is the size of this cabin. As for the graveyard outside, that’s all the heart demon’s territory after it corroded Mr Li’s conscience.” The old man sighed gloomily. “The graveyard wasn’t big before, and this cabin was instead a huge palace. Unfortunately, Mr Li Daiwei ate a bag of frozen dumplings several days ago, and the palace was taken over bit by bit. It kept shrinking until it turned into this shabby cabin. I was living in the palace all this time, and in the end, I wasn’t able to escape, and the heart demon took control… The moment this cabin is thoroughly corroded, this old man will transform into the real heart demon.”
“There should be a way to stop it, right?” asked Loopy Toad.
The old man shook his head helplessly. “There isn’t a solution.”
“No solution?”
“I’m the conscience that has been taken over by the heart demon. If you kill me, you can indeed kill the heart demon. This might seem to put an end to everything. You have to remember, however, that you’ll also be killing the conscience.” The old man said, “If a person loses his conscience, it’s no different from being dead.”
