Light Fortress
Chapter 82 - 80 - s Silhouette

Chapter 82: 80 Chapters Silhouette

To ensure a hit with a single shot.

Gu Shen had been waiting... Finally, the silver arrow pierced through the adversary’s face as he had hoped, but he miscalculated Qu Shui’s ability.

This was not the real person.

It was her ability... a shadow.

From Qu Shui’s reaction at the moment, it was clear that the shadow was injured, and she was in pain too, but the wound that should have been fatal was greatly diminished. She had blood constantly streaming from her eyes, which was consistent with the through-and-through wound caused by the silver arrow.

Qu Shui’s shadow at her feet pulsed irregularly, at times coalescing into a petite girl, and at other times flitting into the shape of a tall man, like a wild beast thrashing desperately inside a cage.

"Her power is to control shadows and solidify them into physical forms?" Gu Shen’s gaze became somber as he watched Qu Shui, and that pair of large, shining silver scissors made him feel an abnormal sense of danger.

Too cautious.

Under the assumption that he didn’t know she was a Transcendent, she actually used a shadow to enter the cave... If it had been her true self inside, the fight would have ended with that single arrow earlier.

In the profiled world.

She cut "her father’s" throat with a single snip!

And in the file Hu Danian had on himself... all the victims died from sharp blades cutting their throats, their bones all crushed to bits, leaving only a thin layer of skin, and on the wounds, an Extraordinary Aura was detected.

Or, perhaps... the thing she was about to do in the cave, could it only be done by a shadow?

No!

Gu Shen suddenly recalled a detail.

In the clinic, he had used Fiery Fire Power to hypnotize Qu Shui... she had known she was a Transcendent all along.

Had she been acting since then?

With a "sizzle".

Gu Shen ran a finger past, igniting the Fiery Fire at his forehead.

Qu Shui paused.

She looked at the flame on Gu Shen’s forehead, and the anger in her eyes suddenly dissipated, turning into infatuation in an instant.

"This flame, it gets more and more captivating the more I look at it." She giggled, "Worthy of someone I like, to cut your shadow down, it would surely keep me company... for an exceptionally long time."

Amidst the flickering of the flames, the stone walls around them lit up.

Gu Shen looked somewhat pale.

Shadows twirled about the dry walls of the cave, swaying and circling as if they were paintings hanging on the walls when a breeze blew them, and these were the victims of the river bank case, far more numerous than what Hu Danian had reported, nearly fifteen of them.

All were males.

These shadows had all been cut out by Qu Shui, pinned inside the cave.

This was her version of "being together forever."

That pair of scissors... must be the key to cutting out shadows, but Gu Shen’s instincts told him that it was not an object of sealing, it seemed more like a vessel carrying Qu Shui’s Extraordinary Ability.

Even without those scissors... Qu Shui could perform the act of cutting shadows with any sharp object.

After his thoughts settled, Gu Shen had a rough idea in his heart.

He tightened his grip on the Truth Ruler and said coldly, "At the river bank... how many people have you killed in total?"

After hearing this, the girl actually lowered her head and began seriously counting with her fingers.

"One... two..."

After a while, she gave up.

"Dr. Xiao Gu, what are you talking about..."

Qu Shui raised her head, her cute and gentle face breaking into a harmless, radiant smile.

She pointed at the dry wall of the cave.

"I haven’t killed anyone... aren’t they all here?"

As soon as the words fell.

The shadows on the dry wall shook violently like scrolls, as if driven by some thought, one after another, they fluttered down and began to slowly stand up on the ground.

"Hold him down."

Qu Shui coldly spat out a sentence.

The dozen or so tall shadows that had landed took about two or three seconds to coalesce their bodies and flex their wrists. The next moment, one of the tall shadows charged forward at a frightening speed, its fist as large as a sandbag whooshed toward Gu Shen.

The follow-up moment—

Before the fist could hit Gu Shen’s face, the tall shadow shattered into pieces, screaming in agony as it fell to the ground in chunks.

Qu Shui’s pupils constricted; she wasn’t a Spiritual Extraordinary, and in the dim light, she couldn’t make out the exact scene.

She didn’t know what had happened... the shadows she had driven were sliced up in an instant.

She had witnessed Gu Shen’s abilities in the clinic before.

That wisp of Fiery Fire Power didn’t seem very lethal; it looked quite ordinary, nothing special.

But the Ruler was different, the arrow that had just hit her own shadow must have been the power of the Ruler.

The danger she felt now all came from the silver Ruler in Gu Shen’s hand.

Were his shadows just slain by the power of the Ruler?

Could this Ruler burst forth with slicing and piercing power?

"Indeed, just as I expected, these shadows... to cause harm in the physical world, they need to coalesce into form. Correspondingly, after they’ve coalesced, they can be harmed by the physical world," Gu Shen said with a low chuckle.

"When your shadow was hit by the arrow, you felt pain, but when these people’s shadows are hurt... you have no reaction. This indicates that while they are driven by you, they have no deeper connection with you. Quite interesting. I wonder whether you’re truly a Natural Transcendent or a Spiritual Extraordinary?"

His expression grew even paler, not from the fear of the shadows but because maintaining the Truth Ruler drained his spiritual power every second.

The stabbing pain was becoming more pronounced, and the duration of the Ruler was limited.

And his thoughts were clearer than ever.

He saw Qu Shui subconsciously frown, apparently the terms Natural and Spiritual Extraordinary were beyond her understanding, which could mean she was a Transcendent who awakened freely and yet remained under the radar of Da Du’s higher echelons.

With the augmentation of Fiery Fire Power, silver-white, thin threads swirled around the pitch-black stone walls, crisscrossing densely around Gu Shen within a two-meter radius. The tall shadow from before had been sliced by these threads.

This was Gu Shen’s arrangement in times of crisis, a repeat of an old trick.

Back during the fire incident, facing the Strong Attack Type Transcendent on the rooftop, it was this strategy he had used.

It was a very effective means against sudden and violent attackers.

But now, Gu Shen had more substantial and enduring spiritual power, as well as more experience. He chose to create nearly invisible intangible threads in a cramped and dim environment.

Any charge forward would be a death wish.

But the problem was... the Truth Ruler wasn’t suited for protracted battles and this was the second activation of the day.

There wasn’t much time left.

He needed to fight swiftly and decisively.

"Do you want to cut off my shadow?" Gu Shen fixed his gaze on Qu Shui and said each word deliberately, "Now that you’ve stopped pretending, I’ll lay my cards on the table too... Since the first time I saw you, I’ve felt nauseous, disgusted."

"Do you know what you remind me of?"

"Flies, vermin."

As expected, Qu Shui’s complexion changed.

Veins bulged on her forehead, and her pretty face was clouded with dark expressions.

"A self-pitying fly that tries to gain others’ sympathy, a hypocritical insect that only knows how to flaunt its misery..." Gu Shen continued to stare intently at Qu Shui, monitoring the changes in her expression.

He spoke faster and faster, trying hard to say words that would infuriate her. Insults weren’t his forte; these "dirty words" were already Gu Shen straining his creativity to the limit.

On someone else, they would hardly incite anger.

But for a girl in the sweet throes of first love, these unbearable dirty words were enough to shatter her heart.

"Enough!"

The girl’s angry shout interrupted Gu Shen’s words.

The cavernous cave almost overflowed with the tall shadows that all erupted in unison at that moment, their thunderous noises as a dozen shadows swarmed toward Gu Shen’s "Realm of Truth"!