Your Lord Has A Screw Loose?
Chapter 257: Chapter 259: The Ancient Shadow Monster of the Mountains

Chapter 257: Chapter 259: The Ancient Shadow Monster of the Mountains

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Stepping out of the Super Space-Time Transmission Channel, Qin Muye found himself on a cliff, which left him utterly baffled.

"Where's the ancient Shadow Monster?"

The defining feature of the ancient Shadow Monster was its size, but standing atop the highest point, he couldn't spot it.

This place wasn't like before, where the aquatic ancient Shadow Monster could hide at the bottom of a lake or within vast underground caverns.

"Speaking of size... the mountain beneath my feet seems quite large, doesn't it?"

Qin Muye turned and looked back, seeing that the mountain range was barren, without even a blade of grass, let alone anything else.

Whoosh~

A loud boom echoed as a massive black shadow oscillated in the sky, rolling towards him with crushing force.

Upon closer inspection, it was a gigantic arm, and it was made of rocks and stones.

If that were to hit him, he figured he'd be dizzy for a while, not that he would die. His skin was thick and tough—under normal circumstances, killing him would be much harder than catching him.

However, now that he had noticed it, naturally, Qin Muye wasn't about to surrender without a fight, so he prepared to teleport further away to assess the situation.

Bang~

The collision of rocks and stones flew in all directions.

The noise was tremendous, yet it oddly gave Qin Muye a sense of déjà vu, as if someone were slapping a mosquito on their belly.

And then the ground shook and the earth moved, tipping Qin Muye off-balance, as if some giant lying down had just stood up.

Luckily, Qin Muye could fly, so he turned around to look.

The once vast mountain range had transformed into a dark behemoth, but calling it a behemoth was perhaps inaccurate—it resembled more a life form constructed of various rocks.

It wasn't shaped like a human or animal or plant; instead, it was more akin to a strange, abstract painting, wriggling about.

Without clear facial features or limbs, as the rocks shifted, they would form various organs as needed, eerie and bizarre.

Qin Muye felt exasperated; he had theorized this possibility but never imagined that the cliff he was stepping on would truly turn out to be an ancient Shadow Monster—and merely a part of it at that.

The true ancient Shadow Monster was immensely huge, comparable to a mountain range.

It was much larger than the Shadow Monster he encountered when he first entered the Human Realm or the aquatic one he had met before.

"Not bad, I'm quite satisfied. I'll choose this thing to help my Shadow enter the Third Stage of Shadow Transformation," Qin Muye mused, squinting at the mountainous ancient Shadow Monster.

"Aside from being oversized, having a foul temper, being excessively rough, and specifically targeting me, it doesn't have many flaws."

Qin Muye noticed that Shadow Monsters treated Shadow creatures with exceptional focus, unlike the Dead Shadows who exhibited polarizing behaviors.

Whenever they encountered a Shadow creature, these Shadow Monsters would prioritize it as their primary target, unlike the Dead Shadows who might deviate due to various factors.

Take this ancient Shadow Monster, for instance; it was neither starving nor short of food, since many other Shadow Monsters were around, enough for it to feast on.

Yet, it decided to forsake an abundant meal for a morsel of meat that wouldn't even stick between its teeth. This was an issue of attitude, not appetite.

Constantly dodging through the Super Space-Time Transmission Channel, Qin Muye pondered how to merge such a colossal ancient Shadow Monster with his own Shadow for mutual benefit.

In his spare time, using some samples he collected from Yin Mountain Lord, he had deduced some techniques, although they possibly didn't have much to do with Yin Mountain Lord after all.

"Sigh, my first step is to calm down this ancient Shadow Monster; that's asking for trouble," he sighed.

Qin Muye wasn't nearly large enough to transform into something capable of pacifying it with brute force, so he had to resort to other methods.

"Earth's Decree, Halt!"

In an instant, the previously raging mountainous ancient Shadow Monster froze in place as if Qin Muye had poured concrete over it.

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This thing was a blessing given to him by Gaia back then, the Earth Protection.

Later on, at a previous family gathering, it was upgraded, from incomplete to a complete Earth Protection, enabling him to deter and manipulate any life standing upon the earth, and so on.

Currently, it only works on life forms of the seventh rank and below. Any rank above the seventh is unaffected, and as for the decree that made the twelve Titans disappear, it vanished on its own.

Furthermore, it allows Qin Muye to regenerate, shield, and gain extra Life Value, among other effects, when standing on the earth.

It's like a passive with an active component.

Similar to this, there is also Netherworld Protection, Ocean Protection, and Sky Protection, etc.

All were given by cheap relatives at gatherings.

The effects aren't too dissimilar; it's just that Qin Muye doesn't use the active abilities much and has always treated them as passive Skills.

This thing is a constant effect, and only one can be in effect at a time.

Earth Protection is the most commonly used. As for the rest, Sky Protection becomes effective when his feet leave the ground, and Ocean Protection requires entering the water. The most ridiculous is Netherworld Protection: it's either effective in the Netherworld or after his death.

Normally, only one of these four protections can be active at a time; they cannot be effective simultaneously, probably due to some authority issue.

Besides, there's a complete Eleusinian Mysteries, given by the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, which is quite powerful, making Qin Muye almost unkillable.

There are also Magic Gifts from Hecate, Power of Calamity from Ares, and so on. In short, he fleeced these relatives quite a bit.

Especially when a certain Goddess of Discord gave him a Golden Apple. Had there been no inscription on it, Qin Muye might have thought they were about to fight another Trojan War.

At that time, the atmosphere among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite turned stiff. At least Qin Muye found it very entertaining while eating melon seeds.

It's said that afterwards, the poor dragon Ladon guarding the Golden Apple tree, along with Atlas who holds up the sky, and Prometheus who followed them, ran into trouble again.

It was then that Qin Muye understood why she was known as the Goddess of Discord. She had a knack for stirring up conflicts; that single Golden Apple bore the pain of every divine being on Mount Olympus.

However, out of consideration for Qin Muye's face and the fact that the Goddess of Discord fled quickly, the party that was already close to ending concluded early.

Now, that Golden Apple is still sitting in his inventory, a Divine Artifact Level existence, flesh of the living dead and white bones of the corpse. Qin Muye keeps it to hang on for dear life when his day comes to an end; this thing is much more useful than ginseng.

Placed in the Primordial World, it would definitely be of Innate Spirit Root level. Besides that, he was also presented with a sheep covered in golden wool, another Divine Artifact Level item, just... utterly bizarre.

To this day, Qin Muye doesn't know what use the wool serves. Although it's also Divine Artifact Level, it has no Attributes and is just a material. He can only save it up and see if he can knit a woolen pajama shirt out of it in the future.

"Earth Protection is quite useful, though it sounds a bit cringy when spoken aloud." Qin Muye looked at the ancient mountainous Shadow Monster that couldn't move.

"Now that it can't move, things will be easier. We can start researching next."

Qin Muye narrowed his eyes, his mind whirring with thoughts about where to begin.

This thing didn't have a clear beginning or end, slightly better than his Slime shadow; at least it knew where its organs were, whereas Qin Muye's Shadow was rather hard to describe.

Essentially, except for the region where Aladdin's lamp exists, it could turn any part into whatever it wishes, even becoming a tentacle monster is no problem.

Aladdin's lamp now barely resembled its original form; it was just a vague mass, shrouded in mists and fogs, like a moldy piece of potato.

Embarrassing as it may be, it's also a necessary process.

"There's probably only half a month left to enter the Shadow Transformation Stage; I need to hurry." Qin Muye checked the progress feedback from the Magic Network quickly estimated the remaining time for the second stage, the Solid Shadow Stage. Unless Qin Muye paused it himself, the time was unlikely to change.

After all, during the First Rank Virtual Shadow stage, the data he integrated here was the Magic Network, making it effectively part of him.

The Magic Network could no longer be considered Magic, but rather Qin Muye's own creation, a Lord Talent, penetrating through territories, Troops, Magic, and so on.

It is an important part of his strength.

"I should have enough time, but if not," Qin Muye sighed, "then I'll just have to pause it."

Anyway, it's not a big deal. It's normal for the Shadow to awaken later for the sake of development. If he wanted to be quick, he could solve it in a day. The delay was simply to strengthen his Shadow a bit more, otherwise why would he have waited so long.

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