Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

Read Chapter 285, Second-Order Familiar: Shadow Night Hawk, now to begin today's exciting content.

In the darkest hour before dawn, the air was heavy in the underground laboratory at 12 Golden Oak Street.

Ian sat cross-legged in the center of the star-guiding array, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

His spiritual power, like thousands of fine silver threads, emanated from between his brows and seeped into the violently trembling shadow before him.

Gaga's body is out of control.

Sometimes it expands to a wingspan of three meters, and its dark silver feathers burst open like blades.

Sometimes it shrinks to the size of a goose egg and rolls around on the stone slab.

Each transformation was accompanied by a sharp, tearing sound in space.

"Hehe, hold on."

Ian's voice was low, piercing through the chaotic energy fluctuations.

A magical aura emanated from his fingertips; it was the [Original Bloodline Tracing] technique brewing.

Within the soul connection, Gaga's consciousness was like a small boat in a storm, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

"Ian...I see..."

The creaking sounds were intermittent, carrying pain and confusion.

"So many shadows... so many versions of myself... flying in different spaces..."

Which one is true?

Ian's pupils contracted slightly.

He could feel two forces tearing each other apart deep within Gaga's bloodline.

The shadow messenger's agile and mysterious nature is clashing violently with something older and heavier.

That ancient aura carried the chill of the starry sky and the profundity of shadows.

He carefully observed Gaga's changes with his mental power and constantly comforted him.

Time flowed slowly by, and Gaga continued to groan and scream in pain...

"Now."

Ian suddenly opened his eyes, and the golden aura at his fingertips surged!

"Awaken, trace back to the source!"

Pale golden lines spread from his palm, wrapping around his trembling body like vines.

The shadows in the laboratory suddenly came to life.

The shadows on the wall began to writhe, the dark spots on the floor twisted and deformed, and all the darkness converged towards the creaking sound.

Ancient whispers echoed in the air, as if they came from the depths of the starry sky billions of years ago.

A phantom slowly rose from behind Gaga.

It was the outline of a giant bird, its wingspan blotting out the sky, its feathers like a flowing night curtain, and its pupils reflecting shattered stars.

Ancient shadows and night hawks.

The moment the phantom appeared, the temperature in the laboratory plummeted by tens of degrees.

Fine ice crystals condensed on the stone slab, and within each ice crystal was a tiny star reflected.

It squeaked in pain.

Its body began to disintegrate... literally disintegrate.

Black feathers transform into dark silver specks of light, bones appear and disappear, and flesh shifts repeatedly between shadow and reality.

But amidst the pain, something deeper is merging.

Ian gritted his teeth and unleashed his full mental power.

Through the soul connection, he clearly sensed the phantom of the ancient shadowy night hawk, which was gradually seeping into Gaga's original bloodline.

The two do not devour each other, nor do they cover each other; they resonate with each other.

Two eras, two bloodlines, guided by the [Original Bloodline Tracing], have found a common source.

The first wave of transformation came unexpectedly.

Gaga's originally gray left eye and blue right eye suddenly dimmed at the same time.

Then... a silvery-gray light shone from the depths of his pupils.

Deep within his pupils, tiny starlight began to twinkle, like a shattered Milky Way.

Ian's breath hitched.

A completely new sense of awareness surges forth from the soul connection.

It's not conventional vision, but a more direct kind of "premonition".

He "saw" the trail of a spider crawling in the corner of the laboratory.

But ahead of the trajectory, three pale gray phantom branches appeared.

That's the route the spider might take in the next three seconds.

"The Eye of Calamity has advanced." Ian was overjoyed.

This once-powerful skill of Gaga has once again demonstrated its eerie power.

Not only can it foresee danger, but it can also briefly glimpse the "shadow trail".

The possible behavioral paths of all living things in the next few seconds.

Gaga turned her head, her silver-gray pupils looking at Ian.

It blinked blankly.

In an instant, three possible actions that Ian might take flashed through his mind.

Raise your hand, stand up, or continue the witchcraft.

Each action was labeled with a probability.

"This ability..."

He murmured to himself, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up in a smile.

Immediately, the second wave of transformation followed.

Suddenly, Gaga spread its wings, though at that moment the wings were still shifting between reality and illusion.

It made a simple flapping motion.

A storm suddenly arose in the laboratory; it wasn't real wind, but shadows.

Hundreds of jet-black, blade-like shadows burst forth from its wingtips, each as thin as a cicada's wing, yet with an eerie silver sheen at its edges.

They rotate silently, cutting through the air wherever they go.

A blade grazed the edge of the lab table.

The 30-centimeter-thick black ironwood tabletop, like butter cut by a hot knife, silently broke in two.

The fracture surface is as smooth as a mirror, with no distortion even in the wood grain.

Wind Blade Storm Evolution: Shadow Storm.

Each shadow blade is imbued with a faint shadow rule, no longer a simple energy cut, but possessing the characteristic of "ignoring part of the energy structure".

Ian casually flicked out a gravity-collapsed ball the size of a walnut.

At the moment the Shadow Blade collided with the collapsing sphere, the gravitational field experienced a brief disturbance.

Although it was ultimately crushed, that moment of resistance spoke volumes.

A standard level 2 energy shield would probably not last more than three seconds against this Shadow Blade.

Just as the third wave of transformation had begun, Gaga suddenly disappeared.

Its body faded, like ink drops into water, slowly dissolving into the shadows on the floor.

Then, from the shadow of the candlestick on the stone wall, a dark silver bird's beak peeked out.

Ga Ga emerged halfway out of the shadow on the wall, flapped its wings, and a faint black shockwave exploded around it.

The shockwave swept through the laboratory, causing all the candles to flicker simultaneously, creating a chaotic dance of light and shadow.

Then it disappeared again.

This time, he appeared in the shadows behind Ian.

Another shockwave from the shadows.

Five consecutive jumps, each appearing in a completely random location, and each jump was inevitably followed by an impact.

One last time, it leaped out of the shadow of the hanging medicine rack and landed steadily on Ian's shoulder.

Shadow Jump has been upgraded to Shadow Shuttle.

Within a radius of 500 meters, it can continuously jump between any shadows, and after each jump, it automatically unleashes a shadow impact to disrupt the environment.

Ian's lips He knew what this meant.

Later, in the complex battlefield, Gaga can always be in a state of "you can't hit me, but I can hit you at any time".

Ian reached out and gently patted the little guy's head on his shoulder.

The feathers felt cool to the touch, carrying the lingering warmth of the breakthrough.

"Gaga, you always surprise me."

Gaga nodded, then suddenly flew off Ian's shoulder and hovered in the center of the laboratory.

It closed its eyes, and then spread its wings.

There was no sound, no light, and no violent energy fluctuations.

The light in the laboratory began to disappear, and darkness spread like a tide, starting from the corners.

The candle was still burning, but the flame couldn't illuminate anything more than three feet away.

The light was swallowed up, absorbed, and distorted into an invisible chaos.

Ian raised his hand.

He could clearly feel his palms, yet he couldn't see them; it wasn't ordinary darkness, but a more complete "lack of light."

Even mental perception becomes sluggish and confused here.

A radius of 100 meters was completely shrouded in shadow... a second-order shadow domain.

Within the area, all light was forcibly absorbed, and the enemy's vision was completely rendered ineffective.

Mental perception is severely disrupted, sense of direction is confused, and even the flow of energy becomes difficult to detect.

Meanwhile, the figure of Gaga, the controller of the domain, flickered wildly within it.

Ian saw it appear at the east corner of the wall and at the west side of the wall through the link.

They appear silently every time and disappear without a trace every time.

In this domain, it can launch attacks from any shadow.

"This is... the true messenger of shadows."

The domain lasted for about ten seconds, then slowly converged.

When the light returned to the laboratory, Gaga gently landed in the center of the magic circle.

It opened its eyes, its silvery-gray pupils clear and bright, with starlight twinkling steadily in their depths.

On the dark silver feathers, faint shadow patterns flowed, and in the center of the spine, a phantom star slowly rotated.

It tilted its head and looked at Ian.

Then, it opened its beak and uttered a sentence that stunned Ian.

"Ian, I'm hungry."

The voice was clear and crisp, with the tender tone unique to five or six-year-old children, yet it also carried a hint of the ethereal quality of the starry sky.

Ian was taken aback and blinked.

"Gaga, your voice...does it change as you grow up?"

She flapped her wings and fell headfirst into his arms.

It nuzzled its head against his palm, the same action it took when they first formed a contract, only now it was much larger.

"Is it over? How does it feel?"

Ian instinctively rubbed its head.

The feathers feel smoother, and the temperature is a bit lower than before, but that familiar intimacy remains unchanged.

"I feel great, just very hungry."

Gaga repeated it again, looking up at him with earnestness in her silver-gray pupils.

Ian finally burst out laughing.

He took out a pile of monster blood essence from his dimensional ring, which was originally intended for Gaga's breakthrough.

Gaga's eyes lit up, she grabbed a few, tilted her head back, and gulped them down.

After finishing its meal, it let out a small, satisfied burp, flapped its wings, and its body began to change.

"Ian, watch my transformation now."

It first shrank, shrinking to the size of a goose egg, and landed lightly in Ian's palm, like an exquisite dark silver work of art.

Then it expands...wings unfold, one meter, three meters, ten meters...twenty meters.

Then... Gaga looked at the lab and finally stopped.

"This place is too small. I feel like... I can only transform to a maximum size of 100 meters."

At this time, although Gaga was only twenty meters in size, it could already appreciate some of the charm of the ancient shadow hawk.

Its entire body was covered in dark silver feathers, each feather edged with starlight. When its wings were spread, the shadow it cast covered almost the entire laboratory.

The pupils reflected the shattered Milky Way, and each breath created faint ripples in space.

It lowered its head and gently touched Ian's shoulder with its huge beak.

They moved very carefully, afraid of hurting him.

Ian raised his hand and touched its cold, sharp beak.

"How long can the largest form be maintained?"

"If we fight at full strength, it will take about fifteen minutes."

"How long can the largest form be maintained?"

"If we fight at full strength, it will take about fifteen minutes."

A child's voice rang in my mind, "In normal circumstances, it can always remain in its small form."

As it spoke, its body rapidly shrank back to the size of a normal raven and landed back on Ian's shoulder.

In the connection of souls, a clearer perception emerges.

Ian closed his eyes and experienced it; it was Gaga's vision.

He can "see" the structure behind the wall, the crawling tracks of insects three meters underground, and the weak points in the flow of energy in the air.

After Gaga's advancement, it can now fight alongside Ian's Vision.

If Gaga is willing, it can actively share its vision, giving Ian a near-omniscient perspective in battle.

"very good."

Ian opened his eyes, a glint of shrewdness flashing in them.

Outside the window, dawn finally pierced the darkness.

The first ray of sunlight shone into the room, but quietly dimmed when it came within three feet of Ian.

It was as if even the light itself was afraid of the shadow of the bird on his shoulder.

Gaga tilted her head, her silver-gray pupils reflecting Ian's calm face.

"Ian, if the assassins come again, I can eat them all for you."

Ian smiled and pushed open the door.

The morning light streamed in, illuminating the cold expectation deep within his eyes.

"The opportunity will come soon."

Just then, hurried footsteps came from outside.

Old Finn's face was grave, his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, and his breathing was slightly rapid, clearly indicating that he had jogged all the way here.

"The Wizard Marcus".

He paused, looked at the cuckoo on Ian's shoulder, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

"The young lady has arrived, and she's brought...quite a few people with her."

Ian raised an eyebrow slightly.

He stood up and dusted off non-existent dust from his wizard robes.

Caw Caw instinctively concealed its aura, the starlight in its pupils dimmed, and it looked no different from an ordinary raven.

But Ian knew that the little guy on his shoulder was already a true second-tier Shadow Messenger.

He walked toward the door, his footsteps echoing in the empty laboratory.

He hoped that Adele would bring him some good news this time.