Starting with SSS-rank talent, I contracted the Forbidden Ferocity.

The tip of the pen, casting a gray shadow, fell.

The first stroke of the inscription on the final name monument took shape.

It wasn't the sound of writing.

It was the sound of bones being bent under pressure.

Click.

Shen Ye's shoulders slumped slightly.

His shadow was forcibly pulled away, but his body was still bearing the weight of that stroke.

A system warning went off.

[The ghostwriting service by Zang Ying has been activated.]

[Judgment Logic: The shadow follows the body, the shadow falls on the brush, and the body falls on the brush.]

[The host's final name is being forcibly written.]

[Current completion rate: 3%]

Night Feather's Black Sun Netherfire surged, attempting to incinerate the gray shadow.

Shen Ye raised his hand.

"Don't burn the shadow."

The flames remained suspended in mid-air.

Night Feather let out a low cry, and black flames surged in its eyes.

It understands.

That was Shen Ye's shadow.

Burning the shadow is equivalent to burning away the traces of Shen Ye's existence in Shenming Lake.

The second seated person stood on the gray-white coffin, and gently touched the broken pen.

"Did you see it clearly?"

"If you won't write, I'll let your shadow write for you."

"Shadows don't lie."

"It grew from your feet and has accompanied you all the way here."

"The final name it wrote down is definitely yours."

The gray-white shadow raised its hand again.

The tip of the pen falls on the second stroke of the inscription.

Five beams of light from the outside vibrated simultaneously.

Qin Wuji's lightning anchor was the first to explode.

"Shen Ye!"

The thunder reached the lake, but was suppressed by the layers of gray water.

Li Xuance's sword anchor transformed into a streak of blue light, attempting to slash into Shenming Lake.

But the sword light was blocked by countless name-marking monuments the moment it touched the lake surface.

Chu Jinglan's anchor churned.

Meng Qianqiu's Thousand Autumns Sword Intent cleaved through the gray mist.

Lu Chenzhou's old night anchor was the most stable, like a flickering lamp, firmly anchoring Shen Ye to where she came from.

The shadow can be buried in the lake.

The outer anchor only proves that Shen Ye is still there.

We cannot take back his shadow.

The second seatmate said calmly:

"They can't save you."

"External evidence only proves the place of origin."

"Write your name in the lake."

Shen Ye looked at his own shadow.

The gray figure remained expressionless.

But his movements were exactly the same as his.

Hold the pen.

Put pen to paper.

End of writing.

The second phase is about to be completed.

Shen Ye suddenly took a step forward.

He did not draw his sword.

The short sword was not recalled.

He walked directly toward the gray figure.

The second seatmate's eyes flickered slightly.

"You want to steal the Shadow?"

"The shadow has already entered my writing."

"When you touch it, you're also touching a pen."

Shen Ye did not stop.

The lake water reached above his ankles.

The second stroke on the final name stele was pressed down.

Shen Ye felt a muffled thud in his chest as a wisp of his vital energy was forcibly drained away.

[Current completion rate: 7%]

[Warning: The shadow pen continues to fall; the host's final name will take shape within thirty breaths.]

Shen Ye looked up.

"Thirty breaths?"

That's enough.

He stepped right in front of the gray figure.

The gray shadow also looked up.

That face, just like Shen Ye's, had no expression in its eyes.

There was only a deathly stillness, like the gray-white lake.

The broken pen in its hand fell again.

This time, the pen tip wrote "night".

The second seat's voice was icy.

"Night King Shen Ye".

"The more prestigious the name, the heavier the final reputation."

"You reign supreme over the night, so I will first write about your night."

Shen Ye reached out his hand.

He grabbed Gray Shadow's wrist directly.

boom!

The entire Shenming Lake suddenly sank.

Countless gray and white characters crawled up Shen Ye's palm from the gray shadow's wrist, as if trying to turn his bones into a pen.

The system is displaying a rapid beating signal.

[The host has come into contact with the Shadow Pen Path.]

Pollution is worsening.

[The pen-breaking rule is attempting to determine if the host personally wrote the pen.]

The second seat finally smiled.

"You've taken the bait."

"To grasp the writer" means to hold the writer's hand.

The pen in Gray Shadow's hand began to vibrate.

The writing style reversed, and the author decided to continue writing through Shen Ye's hand.

But Shen Ye's hand did not loosen.

He tightened his grip little by little.

"Who told you I was holding a pen?"

The second seatman's gaze sharpened.

The Myriad Beasts Divine Pattern lit up in Shen Ye's palm.

It's not a sword pattern.

It's not Fire Emblem.

Instead, it is a pattern resembling a path leading home.

Guixu emerged from behind Shen Ye, biting the dark gray trail beneath the gray shadow's feet.

"My path."

It made a very soft sound.

But it was driven into the bottom of the lake like a nail.

The gray shadow trembled.

The shadow path that had been pulled away from Shen Ye's feet revealed its original color for the first time.

black gold.

Shen Ye said coldly:

"A shadow follows you."

"It's not a substitute."

The Night King's Codex was opened behind him.

A new page begins, the black and gold lettering crashing down.

[The shadow is not my own. 】

The gray figure paused abruptly in his hand, holding the pen.

The second seat holder raised his hand and pressed down.

The broken pen fell, and the gray lake water transformed into countless fine threads, entangled the gray shadows.

"The shadow comes from you."

"It is a part of you."

Shen Ye said:

"The portion that was taken away does not represent my authorization."

The second line of text lights up.

[Shadow Stealing is unauthorized.]

The thin, grayish-white threads broke off one by one.

Gray Shadow's hand holding the pen began to tremble.

The character "night" on the final inscription was not even half-finished; instead, it was forced back by the black and gold light.

The second seat was grim.

"Do you dare deny your own shadow?"

Shen Ye looked at him.

"I recognize the image."

"But I won't accept you using it to write my fate."

The third line of text fell.

[The imagery is not my own.]

boom!

The monument was violently shaken.

The few gray-white strokes that had just been written on the stele cracked open at the same time.

[Host's final name completion rate: 7%...5%...2%]

[The ghostwriting by Zang Ying failed to be verified.]

The second-in-command broke his pen, releasing a burst of gray ink.

He finally lost his composure.

"Shen Ye!"

The gray-white coffin lid suddenly opened a crack.

In the lake's underwater stele forest, countless steles bearing names of the deceased lit up simultaneously.

Those names that he had suppressed were once again stirred up.

The second seat actually wanted to use the shadow of ten thousand names to suppress Shen Ye's shadow again.

"One shadow is not enough."

"Then let's use Ten Thousand Shadows."

On Shenming Lake.

A figure.

Ten figures.

A hundred figures.

A dense array of gray and white shadows rose up from the Forest of Steles.

They have no face.

They were all holding pens in their hands.

Every shadow looked up at Shen Ye.

The second voice was like cold iron at the bottom of a lake.

"Ten thousand people drowned in the lake, their shadows bear witness."

"They all wrote their final names."

"Now, they'll write it for you."

The surrounding lake water boiled instantly.

Countless pen tips pointed towards Shen Ye's final memorial.

As long as all shadows fall together.

No complete rules are required.

You could also simply use quantity to artificially inflate his final name.

Night Feather flew directly into the air.

The black sun and ghostly fire transformed into a pitch-black sun.

This time, Shen Ye did not stop him.

"Burning ink".

Night Feathers cried out.

The black sun falls.

The ghost fire does not burn the shadow, but only the ashes in the shadow's hand.

boom!

Large areas of gray-white pen strokes were burned into hollow shells.

At the same time, Zhu Jiu dived to the bottom of the lake.

The Nine Netherworld unfolds, not locking away the myriad shadows, but only those shadow lines connecting to the broken pen of the second seat.

"Sever."

Shen Ye spoke.

Zhu Jiu's vertical pupils turned cold.

The Nine Netherworld Burial Shadow was pulled in the opposite direction.

Hundreds of gray and white shadow lines were forcibly torn off.

Longyuan stepped out.

It had no attack shadow.

Instead, he punched the gray-white coffin chain in front of the stele forest at the bottom of the lake.

boom!

The coffin chains shattered.

Among those shadows forced to stand up, some suddenly stopped.

They looked down at the broken pen in their hands.

Then, one by one, the pens fell down.

They stop writing.

The second seat's expression was even colder.

"The shadow of the dead dares to defy me?"

Jie Chen's Heavenly Punishment Eye on his forehead opened completely.

Grayish-white lightning flashed across the Forest of Steles.

The names behind those shadows emerged one by one.

They are not the second-place Mo.

They were once living people too.

It has a source.

There is a road.

There are unfinished matters.

Shen Ye raised his hand and turned the page of the Night King's Classic.

"To be remembered after death."

"Prepayment is not accepted."

The black and gold lettering shines into the Forest of Steles.

The shadow of death cannot make a name for the living.

All the shadows trembled simultaneously.

The next moment, all the pens in the shadows' hands turned around simultaneously.

It doesn't refer to Shen Ye.

Instead, it points to the second seat.

The second person's pupils constricted slightly.

Shen Ye took a step forward.

He did not ask Wan Ying to kill for him.

He was merely using this moment to reclaim his own path in the shadows.

Guixu opened its mouth and bit down.

Click.

The black and gold shadow beneath Shen Ye's feet returned to his feet.

The gray-white shadow disintegrated.

The broken pen shadow, formed by the burial shadow as a substitute for the pen, was also bitten to pieces by Guixu.

"It tastes awful."

Guixu spat out a wisp of gray ink.

A system notification sounded.

[The method for cracking the "Burial Shadow" ghostwriting cheat code.]

[New rule to prove: The person in the shadow is not the person in the image.]

[New rule to refute: Shadow Stealing was unauthorized.]

[New rule to refute: The shadow copy is not written by me.]

[New rule to refute: A dead person cannot represent a living one.]

[Second Seat Authority Resolution: 75%...83%]

[The final seal has loosened: 17%...31%.]

The broken pen on the gray coffin cracked open again.

This time, the crack spread from the tip of the pen to the body.

The black and gold light inside was no longer just half an inch long.

It's like a pen tip about to break free from its confinement.

The second seatmate looked down at the broken pen.

Silent for a long time.

Then, he raised his hand and slowly pressed the broken pen into his brow.

From inside the gray-white coffin, the sound of countless iron chains being dragged could be heard.

All the name markers at the bottom of the lake sank simultaneously.

An even larger monument rises from the deepest part of Shenming Lake.

That's not someone else's monument.

Four characters are engraved on the top of the monument.

Second place.

The system notification turned red instantly.

[Warning: The second seat holder is currently writing their own final name.]

[Objective: To complete the broken pen's authority with my own final name.]

Once completed, Shenming Lake will enter its final state of burial.

The second seated man stood before the giant monument, his brow split open, from which flowed grayish-white blood.

He looked at Shen Ye, his voice hoarse.

"You won't let me write about you."

"Then I'll write about myself."

"Shen Ye, come here."

"Let's see if you can sever my real name before I finish writing my final name."