Of course, Jiang Lin wasn't so bored that he'd actually force the other party to cosplay as Golden Body Minato.
Afterward, he controlled the shadow to release several of his own skills, such as the Five Elements Shield.
However, this time, the other party did not react. It seemed that after being defeated, all its previous memories had been wiped clean.
Closing his eyes to sense carefully, Jiang Lin reached out again and performed a 'Black Tiger Heart-Pluck' on this Golden Jiang Lin, piercing straight through its body.
Immediately, the Golden Jiang Lin transformed into a stream of golden light that flowed along Jiang Lin's arm and attached itself to his body.
Jiang Lin didn't show any surprise at this; it was as if everything was within his expectations.
Through his earlier perception, Jiang Lin had discovered that there were two ways for the shadow to copy other creatures.
The first was to possess the target directly and stay for a full hundred hours. This required the possessed creature to offer no resistance, allowing the shadow to probe its abilities at will. Only then could the copy be completed.
If it didn't stay for the full duration, the shadow could only do what it had done before: use visual observation to acquire the target's appearance, turning into an empty shell without any abilities.
The second method was to defeat the target until it had no strength to resist, after which the shadow would devour it. Once devoured, the corresponding form would be unlocked.
However, its abilities had limitations. Copied skills could only be released while in the form of the creature they were copied from; they could not be used after changing states.
For example, if the Shadow of Blood copied both Jiang Lin and Little Black at the same time, it could release skills like sword qi while in Jiang Lin's form. But if it switched to Little Black's form, it wouldn't be able to release sword qi and could only hiss.
Furthermore, the level of the target the shadow copied could not exceed its own by too much, and the power of the copy would not exceed the shadow's own capabilities.
However, if it chose to devour a target, it could obtain that target's physical strength and other attributes, allowing it to exert power far beyond its own base level.
But devouring also required that the level difference not be too great.
Additionally, after devouring, there would still be a ten percent loss in power compared to the original entity.
Even so, this was incredibly broken.
For instance, if it had the ability to devour a dragon, it could directly transform into a blood dragon and exert ninety percent of the devoured dragon's power.
As for the shadow's advancement and growth, it seemed to require devouring other demons.
But this was where the problem lay.
The other party needed a hundred hours of attachment to copy his abilities.
So how had it copied him so perfectly before?
And its combat ability hadn't even been weaker than his own when he was still at rank-0.
If it had disguised itself as a crimson claw-wing to sneak out and found an opportunity to attach itself to him, he wasn't an idiot—why hadn't he noticed?
Jiang Lin was completely baffled by this.
"Little Black, have I ever spent a long time in a state like this recently?" Jiang Lin, currently radiating golden light, asked Little Black.
Little Black looked at Jiang Lin sideways, feeling that this question was a bit moronic.
"Of course not. Don't you know your own body? Besides, you haven't slept at all. If you don't even know, how would I?"
Jiang Lin nodded, feeling that this made a lot of sense.
After thinking for a moment, he removed the effect of the 【holy arbiter】 title. The holy light disguise faded, and he asked Little Black while his body radiated a bloody glow:
"Then what about this state?"
Seeing Jiang Lin's blood-red glow, Little Black actually hesitated for a moment:
"Does that time you were killing cultists in Boulder City count?"
Jiang Lin shook his head:
"It has to be for over a hundred continuous hours."
Little Black also shook its head:
"Then definitely not."
Hearing this, Jiang Lin felt even more strange.
In that case, why did it have my abilities?
Jiang Lin scratched his head, unable to find an answer or even a plausible guess, so he decided not to dwell on it further.
Right now, he really couldn't find any reasonable explanation.
Furthermore, what was that figure he saw the moment he contracted the Shadow of Blood?
Just one look at the other party had made him feel immense pressure, generating all sorts of madness and murderous desires in his mind.
And his body and flesh seemed to have started showing signs of demonization after that single glance.
Fortunately, he had summoned the Shadow of Blood in the end to absorb that mental energy; otherwise, he might have turned into a Jiang Lin version of a demon.
Thinking of this, a thought suddenly occurred to Jiang Lin.
Could it be that all these demons in the Blood Realm were created because of that entity?
And the Shadow of Blood he contracted was just one of those influenced by it.
So at the moment he contracted the Shadow of Blood, he saw the vision the Shadow of Blood had seen before it became a demon.
If that was the case, then that entity was simply too terrifying.
The sunset outside the window had already dipped below the horizon, and there were very few students left in the campus packing to go home. Those who remained were students whose hometowns were too far away or who simply didn't want to go home.
Of course, there were also a few students like Jiang Lin and Nora who had no home to return to.
Jiang Lin adjusted the Shadow of Blood back into its golden form, attaching it to himself to copy its skills and making himself radiate a brilliant golden light.
He gave up on thinking.
"Let's go, Little Black, let's eat roast fish!"
These past few days, Jiang Lin naturally hadn't just been focused on cultivation and studying. He frequently visited and scouted many nearby snack bars and restaurants.
The hard days of working overtime were over; it was time to relax properly.
As a coastal city, Clearwater City's fishing industry was much more developed than Boulder City's.
Jiang Lin skillfully turned into a small shop. The storefront wasn't large, but it was packed with people and kept very clean. The aroma of roast fish mixed with spices wafted through the air, making one's mouth water.
"Boss, I'll take two green-scaled fish, extra spicy and extra numbing!"
Jiang Lin finally found an empty seat to sit down and began ordering.
"Uh... golden light bulb, are you really not going to tone it down?" Little Black asked, looking at Jiang Lin's radiant form in the night.
Jiang Lin glanced sideways at Little Black:
"Are you going to eat the roast fish or not?"
Little Black fell silent.
Before long, the owner brought over two large, sizzling trays of steaming roast fish.
The bright red chili oil was bubbling and boiling, and the tender fish meat was partially visible among the side dishes, exuding a fragrant aroma.
"Please enjoy your meal!" The boss was all smiles.
With delicious food in front of him, Jiang Lin stopped worrying about the Blood Realm or the apostle assessment and began to feast.
The spicy and fresh fish meat entered his mouth, and the piping hot soup stimulated his taste buds, dispelling much of the fatigue from his recent battle.
The human and the cat ate until their foreheads were sweating, feeling thoroughly satisfied.
After paying the bill, the night had grown deep. Jiang Lin left the roast fish shop and walked slowly along the main road of Clearwater City, holding the stuffed Little Black.
The cool evening breeze dispersed the smoky smell of the roast fish and gradually settled his chaotic thoughts.
Breaking through to rank-1 was just the starting point.
Only now, as he became capable of using higher-level breathing techniques, could his path of cultivation be said to have truly begun.
He wasn't sure if the apostle assessment was a blessing or a curse.
The system had specifically created a sub-status for him to accept the identity of an apostle. If he continued to be promoted, would it create any risks?
However, the Great God didn't seem to mind him using powers that appeared somewhat evil. For example, the effect of his 【Crimson Slaughterer】 title was definitely not something used by a righteous person.
Yet, the other party had not punished or neglected him. Instead, they had bestowed a title upon him, allowing him to disguise his abilities, and had even granted him the qualification to become an apostle.
Moreover, looking at the description of the 【holy arbiter】 title:
'You are light, you are justice, you are the sharpest blade facing evil. Practice your beliefs, stand firm in your actions, and use the sword in your hand to slay all the evil in the heavens!'
It seemed the Great God's intention was for him to simply believe in the justice in his heart, no matter what means he used...
Although he didn't know if the god was personally involved in this, Jiang Lin felt it shouldn't be a bad thing.
In addition, the deadline for the apostle assessment was 150 days.
In other words, he had to make a decision within 150 days whether to participate.
He also had to hurry and raise his abilities to the limit of rank-1 within these 150 days.
Only then would he have enough confidence to participate in the apostle assessment issued by the Great God.
Jiang Lin thought it over and felt that since his system could provide him with a disguise title capable of resisting a god's gaze, the sub-status it created should also be able to withstand inspection.
Thinking of this, his confidence grew a bit stronger.
Afterward, he took Little Black through several twists and turns to reach the location of the Temple in Clearwater City.
After a series of checks, he successfully passed the Temple's inspection and completed the update and registration of his identity information.
He then directly collected the rank-1 Paladin Breathing Technique from the Temple.
This breathing technique was distributed for free by the Temple.
【Paladin Breathing Technique · Rank-1】 was an advanced version of the one Jiang Lin had learned before.
Its function was also to absorb magic essence to increase his level and life level.
As for increasing stamina and mental power, that required other breathing techniques.
Such breathing techniques could be found in both the school library and the Temple library. However, the school library was clearly more cost-effective, so Jiang Lin went straight back to school and borrowed two other breathing techniques.
【Basic Body-tempering Breathing Technique · Rank-1】
【Basic Concentration Breathing Technique · Rank-1】
According to the knowledge Jiang Lin had acquired, using breathing techniques to directly strengthen the body or mental power required the consumption of certain medicinal food.
Otherwise, simply using the breathing technique wouldn't provide any strengthening effect.
In fact, it had been the same back at rank-0. Generally, after students finished exercising, they would consume some supplements. After all, strengthening the body required energy, and energy wouldn't appear out of thin air.
As for Jiang Lin, it was purely because of the system's existence. He didn't know where the system got the energy from, but it would mysteriously increase his stats for him.
Fortunately, the corresponding medicinal food was relatively cheap and not very expensive. It could be purchased at the school canteen, which was covered by Jiang Lin's waived living expenses.
Therefore, Jiang Lin didn't have much pressure in this regard.
Next, Jiang Lin began learning the three breathing techniques.
Soon, a night passed, and Jiang Lin completed the initiation of the three breathing techniques on his own.
After returning the two breathing techniques to the school library, Jiang Lin began assigning points.
【Paladin Breathing Technique · Rank-1 (initiated) → (superlative)】
【Paladin Breathing Technique · Rank-1 (limit-breakable 0/2) → (limit-broken)】
Once the breathing technique reached rank-1, the skill points required to break the limit increased from one to two.
Correspondingly, the random skill points also became four.
But Jiang Lin wasn't short on skill points now.
And so...
【Basic Body-tempering Breathing Technique · Rank-1 (limit-broken)】
【Basic Concentration Breathing Technique · Rank-1 (limit-broken)】
After all three breathing techniques reached the limit-broken state, they began to operate automatically, just as Jiang Lin had expected.
To Jiang Lin's slight disappointment, reaching the limit-broken state with the 【Basic Body-tempering Breathing Technique】 and 【Basic Concentration Breathing Technique】 didn't grant any talents. Perhaps it was the unique nature of the Paladin Breathing Technique that required a talent to break the limit.
At the same time, Jiang Lin felt a bottleneck in the number of techniques he could run within his body.
He wanted to run the lower-level version of the 【Paladin Breathing Technique】 along with them, but he found that the flow of magic essence in his body had already reached its limit.
Was having three breathing techniques running passively the limit of the body?
As for how much his stats would increase each day from these breathing techniques, he would have to look at the overall results after a full day.
Having completed these tasks, Jiang Lin went to finish his daily quests.
However, today he clearly felt that as the body-tempering breathing technique operated passively, the original energy within his body was being rapidly consumed.
As for the operation of the concentration breathing technique, it was accompanied by an increasing feeling of exhaustion, making him feel a bout of drowsiness. He also needed to purchase additional medicinal food for his cultivation.
Thus, he went to the school canteen's medicinal food window and bought one portion of body-tempering medicinal food and one portion of concentration medicinal food.
After eating them, he indeed felt much better.
The consumed medicinal food was being slowly digested, releasing more energy for his body to absorb and utilize.
Afterward, Jiang Lin focused all his attention on practicing the Paladin Breathing Technique.
A familiar feeling welled up in his heart.
Since the previous 'small bowl' had turned into a 'large basin,' Jiang Lin had barely practiced for the past two months.
The speed had simply been too slow.
But after the breathing technique was upgraded to rank-1, the effect had improved significantly.
After a period of testing, Jiang Lin found the results to be similar to his previous efficiency.
If he practiced without rest, he could increase his level roughly once every five days.
Looking at it this way, he could reach level 20 within 50 days.
Calculated like that, he might even break through to rank-2 before the new semester started.
Furthermore, according to the books, the limit of rank-1 was around 200,000 attribute points.
The specific amount would vary slightly from person to person, but it was generally within this range.
Right now, he already had 100,000. Even without counting the two newly added breathing techniques, he could rely on the system's rewards to raise his attributes to the limit within 100 days.
This way, participating in the apostle assessment within 150 days would be more than enough.
Rate on N.U.
