Chapter 416: Another Shadow User
The Phantom Sword Saint was a very powerful class, but it was also a very hard class to acquire.
First of all, this was a class that players could change to even after completing the First Round—the game's equivalent of gods, who were at least Tier 6—so it was undoubtedly a powerful class.
In other words, this class had a very high upper limit and could be used until the Second Round, after which the player would have to return to the Evil God route.
The second reason was because the player participated in the Shadow Cult Event, which was the same as directly dropping Chamberlain's favorability into the negatives, so one could only imagine the difficulty of trying to learn from him again after that.
And because Chamberlain was the founder of this route, killing him wouldn't give the player any sort of inheritance.
There were some crazy completionist players who, in order to experience the power of the "Phantom Sword Saint" route, even used self-destructive methods.
After they defeated Chamberlain, they decisively chose to destroy their own Evil God physique, then respawned in the Evil God Temple, eventually changing their entire appearance to obtain the Phantom Sword Saint class.
Gu Nan himself also experienced this event, but he wasn't deranged to the point of destroying his own avatar. After several failed attempts to change his class to Phantom Sword Saint, he decisively gave up.
However, it was much easier now. He just needed to pull in some people from the Myriad Heavens and have them select that class.
But what Gu Nan didn't expect was for certain actions of his to cause the event to somewhat exceed his expectations.
...
Two figures slowly appeared in Sylvia's Shadows Divine Kingdom.
One was a very thin and somewhat hunchbacked old man. This was Aiden, the Sage of Deadwood.
Legend has it that Aiden was originally from the Shepherd Tree clan and was the only god among the Shepherd Tree people, only he became a god because he awakened to extremely special laws after being abandoned by his clan.
The other newcomer was tall and handsome. His every move seemed gentle and polite, like a model gentleman.
It was very hard to imagine that this would be the legendary God of Thieves, the complete opposite of the "shifty-eyed thief" image that people often thought of.
"The one that seems the most unlikely to commit crimes is often the real criminal." Gu Nan knew this very well, because the three great gods of crime all had the same image discrepancy.
After the two arrived, they didn't rush to greet Sylvia, instead studying Gu Nan first.
"Welcome, my friends." Sylvia led the two into the castle and took the lead in introducing Gu Nan beside her, "This is Mr. Gu Nan, from the... Myriad Heavens Universe."
"So that's it." A smile of understanding appeared on the Deadwood Sage's withered face. "It is a bit strange that nobody has ever heard of another wielder of shadows."
When Sylvia asked the two to come, she naturally told them the reason for the meeting.
Aiden was explaining the two's earlier actions, and Gu Nan nodded slightly without saying anything else.
The God of Thieves Sirius said, "Your Excellency Gu Nan, will you replace Sylvia in the battle? Since Your Excellency doesn't mind joining Shadow Cult, why don't you participate in this matter as yourself?"
Chamberlain's reputation was so great that both Aiden and Sirius were actually somewhat uncertain about their chances of victory.
After all, none of the three had laws suited for direct combat, while their opponent was the exact opposite—the epithet of Sword Saint was originally earned by piling up mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
If Gu Nan participated using his own identity, it would be the same as having four people simultaneously fight their opponent, so the chances of winning would be a bit greater that way.
"Actually... it won't make much of a difference," Gu Nan considered for a moment and replied.
Sylvia's face instantly darkened again. After Gu Nan noticed this, he turned his head again and very seriously explained, "Don't misunderstand—I wasn't targeting you specifically."
"..."
"Ahem." The Deadwood Sage coughed lightly to ease the awkwardness a little. "Mr. Gu Nan is very confident, so... will you let us see for ourselves?"
Be it substituting for Sylvia or simply joining Shadow Cult, testing Gu Nan's strength was inevitable. This was the main purpose behind the two's visit.
If Gu Nan were to join Shadow Cult, his strength would determine the internal distribution of benefits.
"Sure thing." Gu Nan smiled, the shadows under his feet already starting to converge. "Which one of you will go first?"
The God of Thieves and the Deadwood Sage exchanged a glance. Since it was just a test, it was actually enough for one person to go, so who went first was completely irrelevant.
Thus, the Deadwood Sage gently waved his hand, and among the crevices of Sylvia's castle, withered branches gradually sprang up and swiftly crawled towards Gu Nan.
These withered branches were scorched black, as if they had been burned by fire, yet they exuded ample vitality, looking incomparably eerie.
In the blink of an eye, the withered branches had curled and twisted themselves into a huge deadwood giant, which swung a fist down at Gu Nan.
Normally, Gu Nan would simply let the giant smash into him without even blinking, but this time, he used the power of shadows.
The shadows beneath Gu Nan's feet suddenly rose, turning into countless tentacles that rushed towards the deadwood giant. They drilled into the giant's body, weaving between gaps in the withered wood.
The next moment, the entire deadwood giant was instantly dismantled, a shadow attached to each withered branch.
The smile on Aiden's face stiffened. He continuously activated his divine power but couldn't influence the withered branches in the slightest. He knew what this meant.
Utter defeat.
...
Chamberlain was a very cautious person.
Despite having extreme confidence in his ability to suppress his opponents, even in a one-on-three fight, he didn't stop collecting information about the three enemies for even a second.
There was a lot of news about the God of Thieves and the Sage of Deadwood, but contrary to expectations, there was very little news about Sylvia. This mysterious goddess's trail was rarely discovered by people.
But this time, news about Sylvia spread everywhere.
Many people already identified Sylvia as the perpetrator of the tragedy on Dragon Realm's Metallic Silver Island. After all, she did appear there once.
But Chamberlain didn't believe that—because he was also a well-traveled person and had many friends, the majority of whom were battle maniacs like himself, such as Karina.
"You're saying there's an unfamiliar god by Sylvia's side?" Chamberlain asked contemplatively as he stroked the stubble beard on his chin.
"It's an unfamiliar god with a very hard fist!" Karina emphasized this while rubbing the back of her head, which was still a little sore. "And I can tell that his fundamental law is shadows."
That was what perplexed the two of them the most—that there was another god whose law was shadows whom they've never even heard of.
"Sylvia appeared together with a strange god at a time like this. It looks like there will be more twists and turns if I want to claim the name of 'Shadow'." Chamberlain couldn't help but sigh.
"You mean that person will help during the fight?" Karina revealed a look of surprise. "Great!"
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