CHAPTER 110: SHADOW GENESIS SUTRA

Adrian collapsed onto the floor of the Blood Star’s inner sanctum, gasping for air. His entire body trembled from exertion. Too close.

That was way too close.

He sat up slowly, assessing his injuries. The cut on his cheek stung, and his shoulder ached from the near-miss. But he was alive. That was what mattered. He quickly took out some Rank 2 healing pills that he had concocted and immediately swallowed them.

He sighed in relief as he felt the familiar wave of energy wash through his body. The pain from the cut on his cheek had subsided, and it had stopped bleeding.

The adrenaline had also begun to wear off, leaving him tired and sleepy. He had initially wanted to check what was inside the black storage ring, but soon gave up on that idea. Now that he was safe, he could do that at any time. He just decided to rest for now and deal with it when he woke up.

As for going back outside to check on the situation, there was no way he was going to do that. He collapsed on his back, and within a few moments, he was deep asleep.

He woke up a few hours later, feeling refreshed and reenergized. The cut on his cheek had also fully healed and left no trace behind, as if he had never been attacked.

He quickly had a simple meal. He was eager for what he was going to be doing next. Because of all the shenanigans that happened, he didn’t have the time to be excited about what he had accomplished.

He had acquired the legacy of the Hundred-faced thief, a Transcendent realm cultivator. If he were a normal Foundation Establishment realm cultivator, this would have been enough to change his life completely.

However, Adrian’s goals were too grand, and even the legacy of a Transcendent realm cultivator was not enough to help him accomplish them. It was a good start, though. A damn good start.

He glanced at the ring on his index finger and began to infuse his Qi inside. Since it was an item without an owner, it immediately became bound to him when he infused his Qi into it.

After a few moments, the ring stopped absorbing his Qi. It had truly become his property now. He sensed what was inside and was surprised to find out how big it was.

Since it was a Soul grade storage ring, its capacity was naturally huge. It had five hundred cubic meters of space, the same capacity as the current Blood Star. Of course, that was the only similarity it had with the blood star.

However, Adrian wasn’t paying attention to that right now. He immediately retrieved a small box from the ring. The box was a simple yet exquisite one; its plain body did not diminish its beauty, making one admire it greatly.

Only very important items could be kept inside such a box. He opened it to find a few books and scrolls inside. He immediately knew that they were cultivation techniques and martial skills.

He picked them up one by one and began inspecting them excitedly. While he wasn’t sure he was going to use them, having them in his possession still felt nice.

The first one he brought out was a cultivation technique. On the front were three big and bold words.

"Shadow Genesis Sutra," Adrian muttered to himself.

He quickly glanced through it and had a preliminary idea of what it was. The Shadow Genesis Sutra was a Profound rank cultivation technique. It was a technique that allowed the one who cultivated it to become like a shadow.

Their aura and presence would become so diminished to the point where they would be basically shadows. It would be very easy for them to hide in plain sight and avoid the detection of other cultivators.

It said that if this technique were cultivated to its peak, it could allow its user to be able to become shadows themselves. Cultivators at the same stage as the user would not be able to sense the user, so long as they didn’t want to be found.

Even those one realm higher would have to concentrate hard in order to find the user. Adrian’s eyes widened when he read all this. With this technique, stealing anything must have been a child’s play for the Hundred-faced thief.

No wonder he was considered such a menace back when he was alive. With this technique, no one in his realm would have been able to do anything to him. However, in order to cultivate this technique, one had to have a high affinity for either the wind or the darkness element.

The element of darkness was an immortal element and considered rare in this world. There were twelve different elemental Qi in this world, and they were divided into three categories.

They were known as the Five mortal, Four immortal, and Three heavenly elemental Qi.

The five mortal elements were water, earth, fire, wind, and metal. They were the most common elements in the world, and every single individual has at least a minute affinity with all five of them.

Even mortals who didn’t cultivate have affinities with them. The fisherman who was able to come back every time with a sizeable harvest, the chef who was able to make delicious meals at just the right temperature, the little boy who was much stronger than his peers, as if his bones were made of iron.

This was all due to their affinity with that element. Of course, those whose elements’ affinity was high enough to be noticed could be considered geniuses whose talents were above average.

Adrian also had an affinity with one of these mortal elements. Fire. The members of the House of Thorne were pretty diverse, so his elemental affinity wasn’t guaranteed at birth.

His mother, who was a former disciple of the Blooming Lotus sect was had an earth and wood affinity. The wood element was also one of the immortal elements, alongside lightning, which his father had.

His father also had an affinity for fire, which Adrian probably got from him. Most of the time, when an individual has an affinity with an immortal element, they would also have an affinity with a mortal element.

However, this wasn’t always the case. There were some geniuses out there who had affinity with only a single immortal element. At first glance, they might seem limited because they can only use techniques and skills of that element, but this is not the case.

Cultivators with a single affinity are able to focus more on one single element, rather than splitting their focus among different elements. They would be able to progress faster and would be much stronger in using that element than others who try to wield multiple elements.

Since Adrian’s affinity with the wind element was very low, he would probably not be able to cultivate this technique. He didn’t have an affinity with darkness either, so this technique definitely wasn’t suitable for him.

This didn’t dishearten him, though; he wasn’t planning on cultivating this technique either way. While the technique from the hundred-faced thief was certainly great, he had something even better, the inheritance of the Sage of Slaughter.

If both were to be compared, it would be pretty obvious which one was better. Plus, the Shadow Genesis Sutra was only a Profound rank technique. It wasn’t even enough to make him an immortal.

He vaguely remembered that the Hundred-faced thief told him that he escaped from the Lone Sword sect. He was wondering what he would be doing there. Now it seems he had a clue.

After cultivating the Shadow Genesis Sutra to its peak, he was not able to advance further. He wasn’t able to become an immortal. He needed a new technique, which was why he snuck into the Lone Sword Sect and wanted to steal one from them.

Of course, he was unsuccessful, which was why he had to escape while being chased down like a thief. Well... He was. While he was only speculating, Adrian was pretty sure that this was what happened to him.

Anyway, the limitation of the technique was what ultimately led the Hundred-faced thief to his downfall. While Adrian was still too weak to worry about becoming an Immortal, it wouldn’t hurt him to be proactive about such issues.

Since he was sure that the Sage of Slaughter’s inheritance would have cultivation techniques of a higher rank, there was no need for him to struggle to cultivate the Shadow Genesis Sutra.

Besides, with his low wind affinity, if he decided to cultivate this technique, his cultivation would slow down to that of a snail’s pace. Elemental affinity didn’t just help one decide on which element they could use; it also determined the speed of cultivation.

If someone decided to cultivate a technique with an element they had little affinity with, it would be an incredibly slow and tedious process. It would take the cultivator much longer than if they were to cultivate a technique of an element with which they had a high affinity.

Adrian ultimately placed it aside and decided to check the other cultivation techniques and martial skills.

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