SHADOW SLAVE: A FINAL HOPE

"Huh?" The moment Fang Yuan opened his eyes, he saw pitch-black darkness. Disoriented, he struggled to adjust to his new surroundings.

All around him was darkness, with no light in sight. It was a stark contrast to the vibrant world he had just left behind, and for a moment, he felt as blind. His breathing was shallow, his chest rising and falling as his mind tried to piece together where he was.

Finally, clarity began to return. He stretched out his hand, brushing against cold, damp stone. A faint drip echoed in the distance, and the musty scent of earth filled his nostrils. As he tapped the rocky walls, the sound reverberated faintly, giving him a sense of the tunnel's size. This was no ordinary passage; it was massive, a subterranean world stretching endlessly into the unknown.

Moisture clung to the walls and floor, and mud stuck to his skin where he had been lying moments before. The realization sent a shiver up his spine.

Fang Yuan focused on the rocky terrain beneath his feet. He crouched low, feeling the texture of the ground with his hands. It was uneven, damp, and littered with jagged stones. Slowly, he began to map the tunnel in his mind using sound, piecing together it. The oppressive stillness made his heart pound louder in his ears. There were no signs of life—yet his instincts screamed otherwise. The silence wasn't comforting; it was a warning.

Taking a deep breath, Fang Yuan calmed his racing mind. His golden eyes began to glow faintly in the darkness. Calming his raging mind, he first summoned his weapon.

The [Sword of Parting], unlike other memories, weaved itself into his arms almost instantaneously, becoming one with the surroundings in its obsidian hue.

The tunnel was eerily quiet, but Fang Yuan's instincts remained on edge. The sound he had made earlier—his tapping against the walls—was a mistake. He knew it. Sound carried too well in a place like this, but he couldn't move without having a rough idea of the terrain. His mind churned through possibilities and contingencies, crafting and discarding plans at lightning speed. He hadn't even begun to act on one when he felt it: vibrations through the ground.

A low, guttural hiss echoed from the dark. A massive centipede emerged, two dim embers glowing in the creature's segmented body. Its carapace glistened with a sickly sheen, each leg clicking against the stone, creating a terrifying soundscape. Its grotesque head, dominated by sharp fangs and bulbous, glowing red eyes, locked onto Fang Yuan with predatory intent. [image]

Reacting instinctively, Fang Yuan sidestepped as the creature lunged, its fangs snapping shut where he had stood a moment earlier.

He twisted his body, bringing his sword down in a clean arc. The blade struck the centipede's armoured body near one of the dim embers with a sharp clang, leaving a shallow gash. The creature screeched in fury, its segmented body twisting unnaturally as it lashed out with its tail. Fang Yuan ducked, rolling across the damp ground before springing back to his feet.

With practiced precision, he struck again, this time aiming for the creature's vulnerable underside. The centipede convulsed, its legs flailing wildly as blood sprayed from the wound.

It twisted and lunged once more, but Fang Yuan was faster. He darted beneath its bulk and drove his sword upward, piercing through its head into the other ember. The beast shuddered violently before collapsing, its body coiling into itself in death.

[You have slain an Awakened Monster: Giant Centipede.]

Fang Yuan barely had time to catch his breath and hear the spell's words when the ground trembled again. More glowing eyes appeared—a dozen of them with dozens of glowing embers. The centipede's kin had arrived.

"Oh!" he muttered, tightening his grip on his sword. "So this attribute can help me in this way too, huh! How convenient."

The swarm descended upon him, their screeches filling the air. Fang Yuan moved like a blur, his [Combat Sage] attribute coming into play, his blade a streak cutting through the onslaught.

Fang Yuan used the monsters' glowing eyes, glowing embers, and the sound of their clicking legs as a medium to map the battlefield. Fighting in such a way seems impossible with such beasts surrounding him while him being nearly blind but his [lesser demonic physique] made him exceptional in memorization and boosted his analytical skills to the peak this combination alongside the [eyes of weaver] made this deadly battle not hard but a simple one.

One by one, the centipedes fell, their bodies piling up around him. His golden eyes glowed brighter, his movements growing sharper and faster with every strike, the blade becoming sharper to match his ferocity. The tunnel became a battlefield, the air thick with the stench of blood and decay.

*****

[You have slain an awakened monster: Giant Centipede.]

When the last creature fell, Fang Yuan stood still, hearing the spell's words, his chest heaving rhythmically due to the rigorous battle. His body was slick with blood and grime, but his eyes, ears and skin remained sharp, scanning the tunnel for more threats, his mind churning and calculating the next step.

The silence returned, heavier than before. He wiped his blade clean by pressing it between his forearm and bicep and began moving forward, though he first wanted to harvest the soul shards. As he was cutting the centipede open, he also thought to use the shells to make some makeshift armour until he acquired an armour-type memory.

The soul shard was a circular ball with some energy inside. For Fang Yuan, it was the first time he had seen something like this. He had seen soul shards before, though never above Awakened rank. Due to Jordan's advanced age, he didn't venture into the Dream Realm often, and his other subordinates were mere Awakened, unable to retrieve soul shards or materials from the Dream Realm. But now, with the Daemon's Eyes, Fang Yuan could somehow see more into this soul shard.

"Interesting, so this is the soul essence they told me about—the essence that strengthens the Awakened." His initial assessment through his sword piqued his interest in these soul shards. The same kind was inside his sword too, as he glanced at it again.

Fang Yuan could see seven dim soul shards inside the sword, with ethereal golden threads making up its structure. It reminded him of refining techniques from his previous world, yet it was different. The seven shards were weaved into the threads that formed the sword, powering its enchantments and entire structure like a nexus.

"Weave! Weaver so the spell is his creation?" The sudden thought made Fang Yuan alert. He knew that Weaver was involved, He had some gusses when he inspected the sword in his dorm room and knew it seemed similar but guessing and confirming were two entirely different things.

"It's interesting, though. My eyes can see the inner workings of memories and nightmare creatures unlike others. Could I then use my refining knowledge to make these memories?" The sudden thought left Fang Yuan puzzled.

He knew that Valor Forge Masters were renowned for creating memories and echoes. There were aspects that facilitated this process of crafting memories, but could the [Eyes of Weaver] attribute allow him to create memories?

To say that Fang Yuan wasn't interested would be a lie. Like the Gu from his previous world, memories in this world were the lifeline of an Awakened. His arsenal of memories was the only way to brave the dangers of the Dream Realm. The prospect of creating an arsenal to his liking intrigued him greatly.

"Let's think about it when I'm out of here or find a safe spot, if there are any." As he thought this, he crushed the soul shard as Jordan had advised. To his surprise, the essence didn't do anything. It spilled out and mixed into the air.

"Huh? Wait, the spell didn't announce that my soul grew stronger." Fang Yuan was shocked for a moment. The shard hadn't sent the essence through his core to make him stronger.

"How did I miss this simple thing? Don't tell me I can't absorb essence or grow stronger through soul shards?" This sudden realization hit hard. Though he had extracted all the information he could from Jordan before entering his first nightmare, he overlooked the possibility that his aspect might differ from the norm.

"So, since my aspect rank is unknown and unranked, is that what prevents me from absorbing soul essence?" He knew he was already strong enough to fight an Awakened, though a Sleeper shouldn't be capable of that. Yet the idea that he couldn't absorb soul essence from shards raised another troubling question.

"Does that mean I won't be able to use soul essence when I awaken?" He understood how vital soul essence was for an aspect. If he couldn't absorb it now, would he be unable to wield it in the future?

"No, I can summon a memory. That means I have essence, but maybe it's not the normal soul essence." He had learned that a Sleeper could summon a memory because of the small amount of soul essence they carried. So he did have essence, but likely a unique kind, different from others'.

"My soul sea is already an anomaly in this world. Now I can't use soul essence, too?" With that thought, he set the matter aside for the moment and entered his soul sea to check if the killings made any difference there or he truly was wasting time in collecting these soul shards.

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AUTHORS NOTE:- excited for the soul core revel idk if you'll are going to love it or not I do hope my imagination was up to mark I tried hard to make it relatable to the plot and future growths so yeah do have some leniency on me and drop some comments on if you loved this chapter or not I wanted to introduce weaver eye for a while now but was just lazy if you say:} so forgive me ;)

a double update if we get 20 powerstones by today and a 5 chapter extra on next Monday if we reach 70 stones till the end of the week