Chapter 706 – Dreamweaver World 44

Chapter 706 – Dreamweaver World 44

Mo Lan’s gaze followed the direction Matina was pointing.

The light and shadow in that area resembled torn silk. Skylight leaking through rock crevices carved sharp golden lines across the stone slabs, splitting the Shadow Realm into countless tiny fragments.

Most of these scattered shadows were only as thick as a finger—far too narrow to accommodate a complete shadow form.

To traverse such an environment, one needed not only ample Power of Shadow to protect one’s shadow, but also control precise to the extreme.

Because you had to constantly reshape your shadow to slip through the gaps between light beams, hiding within the fractured shadows.

The slightest mistake would let the light slice into your shadow, sending you tumbling right out of the shadow world.

Seeing her silent, Matina’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. “What? Scared?”

Mo Lan gently shook her head.

In her view, this was far simpler than an Earth agent navigating a laser grid. After all, a flesh-and-blood agent couldn’t freely reshape themselves the way a shadow-wrapped form could.

In theory, as long as the calculations were precise, even the narrowest shadow path could become a clear passage.

She stared at the area, tracing out an optimal route in her mind.

Then her shadow suddenly flattened and shot forward. In the instant before touching the first beam of white light, the shadow abruptly stretched and thinned, like a ribbon pulled taut, deftly sliding through the gaps between the light.

“Wow!” Dani’s exclamation carried from the distance. “She turned into a shadow snake!”

What followed was a fluid, seamless traversal.

Mo Lan compressed her shadow into a thin thread one moment, then spread it into a membrane the next, dancing a dangerous dance along the boundary between light and dark.

Once, she nearly grazed a beam of light. In that instant, she split her shadow into two streams that diverged around the obstacle like a forking brook, then merged back together once past the danger.

With each extreme leap, the rapport between her and her shadow deepened, and controlling her shadow gradually became as natural as moving her own limbs.

When she finally reconsolidated her form at the target shadow, Mo Lan even felt a lingering thrill—a desire for more.

Matina should have followed immediately, but she was still rooted in place.

Wrapped in shadow from head to toe, her entire form pitch-black, her expression was unreadable—but only she knew how stunned she truly was.

Although every child in the village was taught by their own parents and elders, and Mo Lan was the first student she had ever taken on, Matina had gone through the learning process herself as a child. She knew just how impossibly difficult it was to navigate a mottled light-and-shadow area this smoothly on the very first attempt, effortlessly reshaping one’s shadow form along the way.

She recalled her own first attempt at light-shadow traversal—how on her very first leap, the light had severed the shadow of her left arm. She had cried from the pain all night, and it was only her mother’s pet shadow bugs that mended her.

And even then, she had been hailed as a once-in-a-century genius of the tribe.

Yet Mo Lan had only just converted to the Shadow Tribe today—had only just come into contact with the Power of Shadow!

This was astounding!

Could it be that all adventurers had been underestimated?

Matina thought of those adventurers who moved through the shadow world as clumsily as marionettes, who called the Shadow Tribe a race that couldn’t stand the light, and silently shook her head. “No, it’s this little monster who’s special!”

“Teacher Matina!” Mo Lan’s voice pulled her back to reality.

She had already crossed back through the light barrier and returned to Matina’s side.

“Not bad.” Matina offered a dry appraisal. Her personality wouldn’t allow her to heap on more praise—all she could do was raise her expectations of this student even higher and teach her more. “But where there’s light, there’s shadow. A true Shadow Hunter doesn’t shy away from light. Learning to turn light into your own cloak—to move unseen within the light itself—that’s when you can truly roam freely in the shadow world.”

Before she even finished speaking, her shadow surged violently, like an awakening beast lunging at the nearest shaft of sunlight. At the moment of contact, countless tiny vortexes rippled across the shadow’s surface. The light that should have seared the shadow was instead devoured and converted, bit by bit, until it became white patterns flowing across the shadow’s surface.

“Your turn, little monster.” Matina’s voice carried an unprecedented note of anticipation. Even the children hiding in the dark corners and sneaking peeks held their breath in surprise—Grandma Matina had never spoken to any child in that tone before.

Mo Lan gazed at the dappled battlefield of light and shadow.

This was the real test.

Not evasion, but conquest.

Not fear, but assimilation.

Fortunately, Mo Lan had done her homework in advance.

Among the skill books traded with the Federation, there was one called Mo Lan had done her homework in advance. Among the skill books traded with the Federation, there was one called 《Professional Skill Book – Light Cloak》, which covered exactly this subject.

Although she had been in her Dryad body at the time and couldn’t practice it, the theoretical essentials had long been committed to memory.

When traversing the shadow world, illuminated zones were always the greatest obstacle.

For a Shadow Hunter to move freely, they had to master techniques for dealing with every kind of light zone.

The most common approach was to find connected shadow paths, weaving around the light zones like navigating a maze.

But this method wasn’t foolproof. There were always places where shadows had been carved into such scattered fragments that there was nowhere left to hide—where one had no choice but to face the light head-on to keep moving forward.

Brute-forcing through with Shadow Armor was certainly possible, but the drawbacks were obvious: it not only rapidly drained precious Power of Shadow, but also left conspicuous traces during the crossing, exposing your position.

What Teacher Matina had just demonstrated—the Light Cloak—was the truly advanced technique.

Not resisting light, but taming it. Not being burned, but using the Power of Shadow to convert light into the shadow’s own armor.

The Power of Shadow had never been a purely dark elemental force. Where there was light, there was shadow—it was energy born from the interweaving of dark and light elements. In theory, it could drive small amounts of light!

“Light and shadow are two sides of the same coin. A true master of shadow must learn to wield light through shadow…”

Now, combining this with Matina’s live demonstration, a clear approach took shape in Mo Lan’s mind. Those golden beams of light were not enemies, but energy that could be “digested” by the Power of Shadow.

The key lay in controlling the flow frequency of the Power of Shadow, forming a dense vortex structure across the shadow’s surface—like countless greedy little mouths, tearing apart, devouring, and converting the light bit by bit.

Mo Lan guided the Power of Shadow—converted from her Mana—toward her shadow’s surface, imagining it transforming into a porous sieve…

As her focus intensified, she felt her shadow begin to undergo a subtle transformation.

Rippling patterns like water waves appeared across its surface. On closer inspection, those ripples were composed of countless spinning shadow vortexes.

The vortexes maintained perfect balance with one another—neither interfering nor leaving a single inch of the shadow uncovered.

She glided into the light zone just like that, standing steady within it. The light tried to wrench her out of the shadow world, but the vortexes in her shadow devoured it and converted it into protective light of her own, merging her seamlessly with the radiance.

From outside the shadow world, no one could tell that hidden within that pool of light was a person.