I Don't Agree to the Terms

This was still just a hazy semi-shadow, as it was the first summoning, so it was not proficient. If one could summon a complete shadow projection, wouldn't it be possible to overwhelm Rein?

The thunder gradually ceased, clearly indicating that Rein had the upper hand, after all, this was Rein's home ground.

"Teacher, where did you find this Abnormal, its strength is quite impressive." Rein hastened over in an instant, as the traces of the attack from the Spring Thunder Strike were very easy to identify, starting exactly at Gu Shanhai's location.

"A new ability, want to try again?" Gu Shanhai suddenly flashed a brilliant smile.

This made Rein tense up inside, he felt Gu Shanhai was setting him up, otherwise he wouldn't be smiling so slyly, hence he hurriedly said, "I don't have any spare time, next time, definitely next time."

After speaking, he thought about running away.

But Gu Shanhai wasn't about to let him get his way.

The Rebirth Lotus activated once again, but this time the shadow summoned was none other than Rein himself.

"Take action!" Gu Shanhai shouted, and with the experience of a second attempt, the shadow this time was no longer hazy. Aside from some blurry parts, the rest was very distinct.

Rein also witnessed this scene and his eyes widened, then he hastily called upon his Human Dao Seal to respond.

For, as soon as Gu Shanhai shouted to take action, the shadow didn't hesitate to smash the illusory Human Dao Seal right at him. If he didn't take proper measures, he would be hit until his face blossomed like a peach.

"Damn, this thing actually has thirty percent of my strength, how did you manage this, Teacher?"

The two Human Dao Seals collided, Rein's Seal did shatter its counterpart, but the opponent was just a shadow, and an incomplete one at that.

"Oh, I don't know, I just pulled people out, and then they could fight you," Gu Shanhai also made a rough estimate, if a complete shadow should have about fifty percent of the person's strength, then improving to a further projection should be around eighty percent of the strength.

As for summoning a complete incarnation of power, that would require further research by Gu Shanhai.

"Hold on, let me give it a BUFF," said Gu Shanhai as he drew the White Tiger from his embrace.

"Roar~" With the roar of the tiger, a mana halo was stimulated by the White Tiger, and it was visible to the naked eye how Rein's shadow's strength started to grow, at least by twenty percent.

That wasn't all, Gu Shanhai also stuffed quite a few supportive spells into Rein's shadow, visibly increasing its strength by another ten percent, bringing it to sixty percent of Rein's strength. Rein's face turned green with envy.

Therefore, he could only decisively execute a kill move, directly smashing his own shadow to death.

"Teacher, this... what the fuck, what's going on?" Rein was about to complain to Gu Shanhai when he noticed the shadow he had shattered starting to reassemble and its strength was crazily rising.

"How could this thing have inherited the Abnormal's power of mutation and resurrection after death?" In an instant, Rein understood.

He saw his own shadow dressed in imperial robes, with the will of the Human Dao transformed into a golden true dragon swirling around, and the Human Dao Seal in its hand shining even more brilliantly than the one in his hands.

The one resurrected now was not the shadow of Rein, but the shadow of the Abnormal Human Emperor, with a strength that was gradually nearing his.

"Ah... I am not quite sure either." Gu Shanhai didn't know about these things, but he did realize one point: the strength of these summoned shadows might not reach one hundred percent due to his lack of proficiency, but all the abilities were fully inherited.

Which is to say, Rein's shadow wouldn't disappear like other shadows after dying, but would continue to mutate into even more terrifying and peculiar Abnormals. If Jiang Lu's shadow were summoned, it might not be just one person, but his Dao Soldiers too. If Yun Yu, the Sect Leader, were summoned, it would be all his magical treasures and perhaps even accompanied by a God Slayer Mecha, and so on.

"Teacher, please withdraw your Divine Skills first," Rein called out as he parried the shadow of his own post-mortem transformation, pleading for Gu Shanhai to save him.

Kill? It was possible to kill now, but what to do after the killing? As the transformations persisted post-mortem, the strength would continue to grow more and more immense.

He had realized this was not a single transformation but rather dying once was akin to undergoing a double transformation. Aside from the abnormality of being an Emperor with his unique status, he also harbored the Human Dao will anomaly within him. Thus, if he were to die two more times, this shadow that originally possessed only a third of his strength would have a terrifying power even greater than his own, even without Gu Shanhai's augmentation.

"Tsk, I understand," Gu Shanhai canceled the shadow of Rein, which then dispersed like blue smoke.

"Phew~ Teacher, is this a new ability you've developed?" Seeing this, Rein also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, otherwise I'd summon a senior brother for you to test your mettle," Gu Shanhai teased, though in his estimation, the only one who could possibly spar with Rein on equal footing would be someone like Jiang Lu, a chief of soldiers; the others didn't have a world energy level that was high enough.

"No thanks, no thanks, I'd like to live a few years longer," Rein refused without hesitation, finding Gu Shanhai's ability far too unpredictable.

"But how did you manage to summon me, and why didn't I feel anything?" Rein asked again, his curiosity piqued.

"Well, it's the effect of a special Spirit Plant. I incorporated the Abnormal Destiny you gave me," Gu Shanhai explained without concealing much, just giving a brief description of the effects.

Rein only somewhat understood; he had not focused on these matters and had no desire to engage in research alongside Gu Shanhai.

For him, where was there so much time? Just maintaining the progress of the entire civilization was tiring enough.

"Teacher, next time you test something this dangerous, please give me a heads-up. Look at the power, if there had been people around, who knows how many would have died," Rein glanced at the disarray created by the 'Spring Thunder Blast' move, and that was the least of it—the place where the two of them had sparred had become a scorched earth.

"Rest assured, rest assured," Gu Shanhai cracked a resigned smile. He hadn't anticipated that Huang Yanshan's strength would have improved so much, nor had he expected the summoned shadow's strength to be based not on himself but on the entity being summoned, which was exceedingly rare.

Gu Shanhai hadn't quite figured out the construct of this phenomenon.

Was it because of the future?

The Future Destiny Lotus, with fate, destiny, and similar capabilities, had formed an effect that seemed to draw corresponding abilities from the future. However, Gu Shanhai had slightly distorted this effect since it wasn't truly a temporal power. Only because he had deliberately cultivated it toward this aspect did he manage to form a connection with the future.

Many other aspects were still under Gu Shanhai's research, and when specific results would emerge was yet to be determined.

After the successful combination and innovation of the Three Lives and Three Lifetimes Spiritual Plants, Gu Shanhai had shifted his focus toward his Child Skill and Golden Bell Shield Iron Cloth Shirt. If he could deduce these successfully, Gu Shanhai would have yet another way to strengthen himself.

At present, the only thing still enhancing his power from the Green Emperor Longevity Scripture was the Spirit Root Ability, the rituals of Daoist Soldiers, with techniques such as the Yunling Technique, Druid abilities, and others already maxed out, leaving little room for further advancement.

Among these, in terms of the Spirit Root Ability, only the power of the deities was worth noting. Indeed, it was related to the third level Spirit Root of the Green Emperor Longevity Scripture; as for the Daoist Soldier rituals, they naturally pertained to the sixth level, the White Tiger. Unlike the gradual grind of the Spirit Root Ability, there was only one way to increase Daoist Soldier ritual strength now: to produce more Heart Demon Dao Soldiers, thereby enhancing Gu Shanhai's powers.

Gu Shanhai had already fostered a million Heart Demon Dao Soldiers in his body and estimated that nurturing about ninety million more would probably reach his limit. This limit, of course, was not the White Tiger's theoretical limit, but rather his own capacity to sustain them. Any more would affect his own combat effectiveness and vitality—after all, he was the one sustaining these Daoist Soldiers. To nurture more, he would need more mana.

It was impractical to rely on the Yunling Technique for a surge in mana since it was a technique of gradual progress, so if he wanted to strengthen quickly, he needed to enhance the fifth level Golden Core. Yes, he referred to the Upper Three Realms of the Xuanzhen Realm system, which required him to deduce anew.

Theoretically, he had reached an end, but it was only theoretical. If Gu Shanhai were to proceed with further deductions, he could still forge his own Upper Three Realms.

It was somewhat troublesome, but no matter; he still had ninety years to spend in the Adventure World, absolutely no need to worry about these issues.