Chapter 713 – Dreamweaver World 51

Mo Lan was quietly stuffing dream coins into her pocket, calculating which materials to purchase, completely oblivious to the fact that on the wall behind her, Teacher Matina’s shadow had twisted into an exaggerated grinning face and was even sneaking a victory sign.

The shadow grocery shop was on the other side of Shadowstone Plaza.

“It’ll be faster to go through the Shadow Realm,” Matina said, diving into the nearest shadow.

Mo Lan had already mastered Shadow Walk and swiftly let her own shadow carry her into the shadow world. In just a few breaths, they had crossed the entire Shadowstone Plaza.

When they returned to the real world, Mo Lan was surprised to find a stone grotto standing before her that looked almost identical to Matina’s home.

The same fan-shaped black lacquered wooden door, the same wall windows, even the doorbell hanging at the entrance was exactly the same. The only difference was the glowing sign above the door lintel that read “Shadow Grocery Shop.”

Mo Lan stopped in her tracks.

In all of sprawling Shadow Village, the houses came in every shape imaginable—some hung upside down from cave ceilings, some were embedded in rock walls, and the most common were stone grotto houses carved out of hollowed-out boulders.

But even among stone grotto houses, no two were completely identical, because no two boulders were ever exactly the same.

Yet the grotto before her looked as if it had been directly copy-pasted from Matina’s home.

“Teacher…” Mo Lan sensed something was off. “The owner of this shop…”

“Well, well! If it isn’t our esteemed village chief!”

A raspy voice tinged with amusement suddenly came from overhead.

Mo Lan looked up to see the second-floor window of the grocery shop thrown open, and an old woman wearing an eyepatch leaned out halfway. Her gray-white braids were wound with glowing shadow threads. “What’s this, the reclusive old hag finally deigns to crawl out of her cave for some fresh air?”

Matina’s stone cane slammed into the ground with a resounding thud, startling several passing shadow bugs into scattering in all directions. “Copycat! Hurry up and open the door—don’t hold up my apprentice’s training!”

“Apprentice?” Leona was taken aback at first, her single eye flashing with surprise. Then a mischievous grin spread across her face. “Oh my, you’ve finally come around and found yourself a man to settle down and have babies—” Halfway through her sentence, she noticed Mo Lan standing off to the side, and her expression froze. “Her? You took an adventurer as your apprentice? Have you lost your mind?!”

“She paid tuition—three dream crystal coins!” Matina smugly lifted her chin, tapping out a smug rhythm on the ground with her stone cane. “How long would you have to sell groceries to earn that much? I made it in just a few lessons!”

Leona’s single eye went perfectly round. The corner of her mouth twitched as she barely resisted the temptation of three dream crystal coins, forcing herself to keep a straight face. “So it was all about earning dream crystal coins! If you’re broke, just tell me—there’s no need to go scamming adventurers!”

She deliberately raised her voice, directing the warning at Mo Lan. “What can an adventurer possibly learn from us? It’s just a matter of buying a few skill books! I’ve got plenty of skill books right here—even if you bought one of everything, it wouldn’t cost nearly that much!”

“Heh,” Matina let out a cold laugh. “My apprentice just converted to our tribe this morning—and within an hour of converting, she’d already mastered Shadow Walk, Shadow Jump, and Light Cloak walking. Right now she’s ready to learn how to tame the shadows of non-sentient creatures. You tell me—can she learn something or can’t she?”

The moment these words left her mouth, Matina fixed her gaze on Leona’s face. Sure enough, Leona’s expression froze instantly. Her single eye was filled with utter disbelief, and even the shadow threads wound through her braids bristled out in shock.

Matina immediately felt thoroughly gratified, and even her back straightened a few degrees.

“How is that possible?” Leona’s voice shot up several octaves. “I’m not trying to be rude, but learning from skill books—can you even call that learning?” Her hands gripping the window frame unconsciously tightened, and the wooden frame let out an overburdened creak.

“Would I, Matina, use skill books as teaching materials?” Matina scoffed, rapping her stone cane impatiently against the ground. “Hurry up and open the door! I still need to take my apprentice to pick out materials for the next lesson!”

…

The two of them bickered back and forth, and Mo Lan couldn’t get a single word in edgewise.

She now understood perfectly—these two identical houses were clearly the product of their rivalry!

On the wall, Matina’s shadow was baring its teeth and waving its claws at the second-floor window, while Leona’s shadow, not to be outdone, slithered out from the window and flipped them the middle finger.

It seemed tonight’s shopping trip was destined to be anything but peaceful.

The shop door suddenly creaked open on its own. Leona had somehow teleported to behind the counter on the first floor, her single eye staring intently at Mo Lan as she walked in.

Leona rapped on the counter and called to her daughter, who was taking inventory by the shelves. “Leah, didn’t you always say there’s nobody your age in the village who can match you? Well, it just so happens that your Granny Matina’s new apprentice is at the same level as you and about the same age. Why don’t you two see whose shadow is more stable?”

Leah turned to look at Mo Lan, and in the blink of an eye, vanished from where she stood.

The next moment, Mo Lan felt something stirring within her shadow. She said nothing, quietly channeling her psychic power.

In the shadow world, Leah was trying to burrow into Mo Lan’s shadow to take control—only to find the shadow beneath her hands as solid and immovable as a boulder. “???”

She had never failed against anyone her age before. She was utterly astonished, but she also refused to make her mother lose face.

If she couldn’t control the shadow, tearing off a small piece would do. She could always return it after winning the contest—it wouldn’t cause too much harm.

Leah hid in the shadow of the counter and condensed her Power of Shadow into a blade, slicing toward Mo Lan’s shadow.

Mo Lan’s shadow casually scratched an itch, then reached into the counter’s shadow and grabbed.

“Ah!”

Leah tumbled out of the shadow world without warning. One of her fingers wouldn’t move at all and ached with a dull pain. She looked at her own shadow—sure enough, a section of her finger’s shadow was missing.

That piece of shadow was currently being tossed up and down in Mo Lan’s shadow’s hand!

“Mother, I lost. Her shadow is too stable—I couldn’t budge it or control it. But she pulled me out with ease and even cut away part of my shadow.”

Having achieved her goal and helped her teacher save face, Mo Lan had her shadow return the girl’s finger shadow.

If they waited too long, that finger could actually become permanently damaged!

“How about that? Real ability, isn’t it?” Matina said smugly.

Leona didn’t nod, but only because she refused to concede to her old rival. She had seen everything clearly just now—this adventurer showed none of the rigid, mechanical signs of someone who’d learned from skill books. Her control over her own shadow was remarkably fluid.

But Matina wouldn’t let her off the hook and kept looking at her with that teasing expression.

Not wanting to lose her composure in front of the younger generation, Leona finally squeezed out a single sentence: “You really did find yourself a good apprentice…”