I am the Thunder Emperor in the fight

In the Shadow Beast Wasteland, under the eternally dark sky, the Night Falcon journeys alone.

His steps seemed slow, yet they carried a peculiar rhythm, as if subtly harmonizing with the pulse of the black sand beneath his feet and the shadowy energy flowing in the air.

He didn't deliberately conceal his aura, but the extremely pure and restrained dark origin of the Dark Ancestral Symbol within his body allowed him to thrive in this shadowy environment, making his senses exceptionally sharp.

He sensed two malevolent, venomous auras lurking behind him, constantly and subtly locking onto him, trailing far behind – these were Ghost Nightmare's subordinates.

The Nightmare himself did not come, presumably because he was confident in his status or went to compete for more conspicuous prey and resources.

Sending two peak Ninth-Rank Supremes to deal with one Ninth-Rank Supreme is more than enough, in Ghost Nightmare's view.

Night Falcon sneered inwardly, but his face remained calm and indifferent.

He deliberately changed direction, heading towards a relatively remote area of ​​the wasteland, filled with strange rocks and where the shadow energy was more chaotic.

As he ventured deeper into a stone forest composed of countless enormous black stone pillars, the two concealed auras behind him suddenly accelerated, like two black arrows released from a bow, flanking him from the left and right, silently encircling him!

At the same time, a chilling spiritual fluctuation quietly spread, attempting to interfere with his perception and create a brief moment of disorientation—a common tactic used by practitioners of the Ghost Path.

"Boy, stop right there!" A dark figure appeared first on the left. It was a middle-aged man with a thin face and fierce eyes, holding a pair of poisoned short blades that glowed green.

On the right is a short, stocky, bald man with a sinister grin, holding a heavy bone hammer that exudes a chilling, ghostly aura.

The moment the two appeared, they completely blocked Night Falcon's escape routes in all directions, their auras firmly locked on him.

"My young master doesn't like you. You only have yourself to blame for being ungrateful and daring to oppose him!"

The man with the blade spoke in a sinister tone, his voice like sandpaper scraping.

"In this wasteland, being torn apart by shadow beasts or falling into shadow rifts is all too common. Don't worry, we'll give you a quick death and let you suffer less."

The short, burly man licked his lips, ghostly energy swirling around his bone hammer: "Why waste words with him? Let's finish this quickly, take the goods, and report back to the young master!"

Night Falcon stopped, slowly turned around, and calmly swept his gaze over the two of them, as if looking at two noisy ants: "Did Nightmare only send the two of you?"

His composure startled the two assassins, who then flew into a rage.

"You're courting death!" The man with the blade attacked first, his figure flashing like a ghost, instantly splitting into three afterimages that attacked the Night Falcon from different angles.

The short blade in his hand traced a cunning and vicious trajectory, aiming straight for the throat, heart, and dantian—vital points. The green light on the blade carried a strong corrosive and paralyzing toxicity.

The short, burly man attacked almost simultaneously. Instead of moving quickly, he took a step forward and unleashed a powerful bone hammer from a distance!
A massive hammer shadow formed from solidified ghostly energy crashed down on Night Falcon like a mountain, blocking the space above him from dodging. The hammer's wind was fierce, and the cries of wronged souls could be faintly heard!
The two worked together seamlessly, one fast and one slow, one skillful and one clumsy, one close and one far, instantly blocking all possible routes for the Night Falcon to respond. They were clearly seasoned veterans who were used to killing each other in tandem.

Even if an ordinary ninth-rank supreme being could barely withstand such an attack, they would inevitably become flustered, reveal weaknesses, and then quickly perish.

However, the night falcon moved.

His movements, though seemingly slow and even somewhat sluggish, possessed an indescribable fluidity and precision.

Faced with the three poisonous blade afterimages that came at him, he did not distinguish which one was real and which one was fake. He simply raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and gently pressed it forward.

"Shadow, freeze!"

In an instant, the air, light, and even the flowing shadow energy within a radius of several feet in front of his palm seemed to be frozen instantly!

The three rapidly approaching afterimages, whether real or fake, suddenly slowed down, as if they were stuck in an invisible swamp. Their trajectories became clearly visible, and even the green poison light on the blades froze for a moment!

In that split second, the Night Falcon's left hand formed a sword shape with its fingers together, and a deep, profound darkness quietly gathered at its fingertips, as if it could absorb all light.

He gently tapped the most solid afterimage on the left.

"Dark Erosion Finger!"

There was no dramatic display, only a thin, almost invisible black light flashing by.

puff!
The afterimage trembled violently, then vanished like a burst bubble.

The man wielding the blade staggered backward, his face filled with disbelief and horror. His protective spiritual energy had been pierced through his chest at some unknown time, leaving a small hole the size of a pinhole, from which dark, corrosive marks were spreading outwards.
A chilling and domineering dark power, seemingly capable of eroding the vitality of all things, was frantically drilling into his body!

"Ah!" The man wielding the blade roared in pain, hurriedly channeling his inner energy to resist the corrosive force, and his attack instantly crumbled.

At the same time, the enormous ghostly hammer shadow was already upon them.

After pointing out a finger, the Night Falcon seemed not to have moved at all, but only slightly raised its head, its pure black eyes looking at the hammer shadow that crashed down.

"break!"

He uttered a single word.

The next moment, a bizarre scene unfolded!

The terrifying ghostly hammer shadow, when it was still a few feet away from the Night Falcon's head, seemed to have hit an invisible barrier. Without warning, it collapsed silently, turning into wisps of black smoke that dissipated in the breeze of the wasteland!
"What?!" The short, burly man's eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost.

His all-out attack was effortlessly neutralized by his opponent? How is that possible?!
Just as he was shaken to his core and his old strength had vanished while new strength had yet to arise, the Night Falcon's figure suddenly appeared before him like a true phantom!
The distance between the two seemed to be erased in an instant!
The short, burly man didn't even see how the other person moved; he only felt a chilling aura of death that seemed to freeze even the soul.

He roared and instinctively held the bone hammer horizontally in front of his chest, his ghostly energy surging out wildly in an attempt to defend himself.

Night Falcon's right hand was now covered by a layer of shadow armor that was as clear as black crystal yet incredibly deep. His five fingers curled up and seemingly lightly pressed against the heavy bone hammer.

"Shadow Blast!"

Boom!
A loud bang that was extremely dull!
There was no dazzling burst of light, only an extremely condensed dark shockwave that spread out in a ring from the point of contact between the fist and hammer!
The surrounding black stone pillars were affected by this force, and their surfaces were instantly covered with fine cracks!
Click!

The ghostly bone hammer, which was clearly of a high grade, first developed cracks at the hammerhead, and then the cracks quickly spread to the entire hammer body, finally exploding into countless fragments!

The short, burly man was struck as if by a heavy blow. The bones in his arms cracked with a teeth-grinding sound. His massive body flew backward like a broken sack, spitting out blood. He crashed heavily into a stone pillar, slid down, and was barely breathing, having lost all fighting ability.

From the moment the two launched their attack to the moment one was seriously injured and the other was on the verge of death, the entire process took only a few breaths!

The night falcon stood still, its breathing steady, not even the hem of its clothes was disheveled.

He glanced at the two men lying motionless on the ground, his eyes devoid of any pity. He stepped forward and searched their bodies, finding their trial tokens and storage equipment. With a flash of black light from his fingertips, their trial tokens turned to dust, signifying their elimination.

He then flicked out two wisps of dark spiritual energy, which entered the two men's bodies, completely destroying their cultivation foundation.

Without any cultivation, they were practically halfway into hell during this perilous trial.

Having done all this, the Night Falcon acted as if it had done something insignificant. With a flicker of its body, it disappeared into the depths of the stone forest.

Only two unfortunate souls, their cultivation completely destroyed and unconscious, remained, along with a faint, pure, dark aura that had not yet completely dissipated in the air.

The stone forest returned to silence, as if nothing had ever happened.

However, this scene was vaguely captured by the "Eye of Shadows," which was ubiquitous in the sky above the wasteland and derived from the trial formation. These images and energy fluctuations were then transmitted to the senses of certain overseers outside Shadow Valley.

"Oh? That little guy named Night Falcon under Black Nether's command? He took down two Ninth-Rank Supremes in an instant? He seemed to have used... very pure dark spiritual power, and his technique was quite good." A Great Perfection Earth Supreme Supervisor, hovering in mid-air and shrouded in black mist, murmured with slight surprise.

"That Ghost Nightmare's men? They've bitten off more than they can chew. But Night Falcon's actions were swift and decisive, in accordance with the trial rules," another supervisor said calmly.

Night Falcon was unaware that it had already been noticed by the higher-ups, and even if it had, it wouldn't have cared.

If he wants to climb higher in the Black Sky Ancient Clan, he must demonstrate sufficient talent.

After dealing with the two smaller enemies, he didn't stop and continued deeper into the wasteland.

His goal was clear: to acquire high-quality "Shadow Marks".

In the time that followed, the Night Falcon fully demonstrated what efficiency and precision truly mean.

He no longer concealed his talent in using the power of shadow.

When faced with hordes of low-level shadow beasts, he would simply spread out a shadow ripple, which would cause the energy within the shadow beasts to become disordered, causing them to fall in droves, and he could easily collect the shadow cores.

When faced with a lone Shadow Wolf whose strength was comparable to a Ninth-Rank Supreme, he moved with ghostly speed and the Shadow Blade he condensed in his hand could always cut into the weak point of its defense at the most tricky angle, killing it with one blow.

He not only hunted shadow beasts, but also knew the dark-attribute spiritual materials distributed in the wasteland like the back of his hand.

With his keen sense of dark energy, he could always avoid ordinary resource points that seemed tempting but actually contained traps or guardian beasts, and accurately find several places that were extremely well hidden and had obscure energy fluctuations.

At the bottom of an inconspicuous black pool, he collected three rare "Nine Nether Dark Lotuses," whose petals were naturally covered with shadow patterns.

In the ruins of a severely weathered ancient altar, he solved a simple shadow rune puzzle and obtained an "Ancient Shadow Jade" containing pure shadow power.

He even actively sought out and challenged the territories of powerful shadow beasts that other participants considered daunting.

In a canyon filled with poisonous miasma, he fought alone against a wounded two-headed shadow-scaled python whose strength was comparable to that of a half-step Earthly Supreme.

The battle seemed perilous, with the Night Falcon constantly circling and using various exquisite shadow techniques to maneuver around it. It effortlessly employed shadow arts such as "Shadow Binding," "Nightfall," and "Shadow Clone," and finally, with a "Shadow Pierce" that condensed highly compressed dark power, it pierced through the energy core at the giant python's vital spot and killed it.

The battle lasted for about fifteen minutes and was quite a spectacle, attracting the attention of many participants from afar. When they saw the Night Falcon dragging the giant python's enormous corpse to collect the core, they were all shocked.

Night Falcon did not deliberately pursue speed, but he always took the most effective path, and every move he made was clean and efficient. His use of shadow power was full of amazing spirituality and control.

The quality of the shadow beasts he hunted was generally high, and the spiritual materials he collected were mostly of excellent quality. Although the difficulty of the ruins he solved was not top-tier, his efficiency was extremely high.

This resulted in his acquisition of "Shadow Marks" not only increasing steadily in quantity but also far surpassing the quality of most participants.

His performance naturally caught the attention of more "shadow eyes" and some high-ranking officials who were keen to observe promising talents.

"This boy's affinity and control over the power of shadow is truly rare. Those shadow techniques seem to come alive in his hands."

"Excellent combat awareness, calm and decisive, and good at utilizing the environment."

"Hei Ming has picked up a promising talent. If he can pass the subsequent trials, he is worth investing resources to cultivate."

……

Various opinions circulated in the shadows.

The name Night Falcon began to attract the attention of some mid-level managers of the Black Sky Ancient Clan.

Several days later, Night Falcon traversed the vast Shadow Beast Wasteland, reaping a bountiful harvest of "Shadow Marks" along the way. The quality and quantity of these marks were enough to secure him a place among the top fifty participants.

His talent and potential have attracted considerable attention.

At the edge of the wasteland lies an even deeper darkness, seemingly capable of swallowing all light.

It was the entrance to a vast, boundless underground cavern, from which a cold, damp wind howled, carrying the wailing of flowing water and an even denser shadow energy.

The second area, the Dark Current Maze, is right before our eyes.

At this moment, nearly a hundred participants who had arrived first had gathered at the entrance of the cave, including many with powerful auras and sharp eyes.

They were all taking a short rest, adjusting their state, and preparing to enter the more complex and dangerous labyrinth.

Night Falcon also arrived near the entrance and immediately felt several gazes linger on him for a moment.

One of the figures came from a pale and gloomy young man not far away, surrounded by several people; it was none other than Ghost Nightmare.

Ghost Nightmare's expression was even more gloomy than before, clearly indicating that he had already learned of his subordinate's failure and subsequent crippling.

His gaze toward the Night Falcon was filled with undisguised murderous intent and resentment, but under the watchful eyes of everyone at the entrance, he did not immediately lash out. Instead, a cold smile appeared on his lips, as if to say, "See you inside."

The night falcon met his gaze, its pure black eyes calm and still, like an unfathomable ancient well.

The hidden, labyrinthine caves will be a place of even more direct competition and elimination.

And perhaps it's time to finally put an end to the troublesome Ghost Nightmare within the labyrinth.

Without the slightest hesitation, he followed the crowd and stepped into the dark cave that resembled the maw of a giant beast. (End of Chapter)