A Card In Hand

Chapter 5: The Boots of Shadows

“Alright, we’re even in this life,” Li Ao shrugged his shoulders, no longer glancing at the remains of Youhuo.

He approached the two Shadow giant wolves, severely wounded on the spot after their master’s death, unable to flee.

Fingers propped under his chin, he pondered for a long while, “As for you two? In your past life, you bit me all over. This life, I think killing you outright is too lenient! Instead, I’ll turn you into boots to tread upon for a lifetime; only this can somewhat quench the rage in my heart!”

Upon hearing they wouldn’t die, the two Shadow giant wolves nodded desperately, whimpering loudly, fearing Li Ao might change his mind.

Li Ao pressed his hands onto the tops of the wolves’ heads.

Pure energy burst forth, causing stone debris to scatter and light to emanate.

Slowly, the light spread from his palms, rapidly transforming into two ancient, mysterious, and profound Celestial Refining Formations.

Within the light of the refining formations, the two Shadow giant wolves gradually turned ethereal, their bodies shimmering into streams of light, shrinking to a point, and finally merging into a purple card.

Boots of Shadows: Bronze level beginner, rune boots transformed from the twin shadow wolves. The master of the contract wearing these special boots can summon the spirit of the wolves into the battlefield.

Utilizing the innate path of shadows that comes with the wolf spirit, the master can enter the shadow dimension for short-distance travel, though an exit requires another shadow.

In the top right corner of the purple card, the maximum combat power of the two shadow wolves is denoted as: 220.

Li Ao took off his foul-smelling shoes, punctured by the marsh snake, and casually discarded them.

With a flick of his hand on the card, a flash of light occurred.

Li Ao executed a nimble somersault, and during the flip, a pair of uniquely designed, brand-new boots automatically formed around his feet.

Landing and bouncing a bit, he lifted his feet to check—perfectly fitting.

Li Ao nodded with satisfaction, “Now not just my feet, but my heart feels much better too!”

Li Ao leapt towards his own shadow.

The Boots of Shadows emitted a strange light, silently enveloping Li Ao within the shadow.

About two seconds later, Li Ao emerged from the shadow of the Stone Giant.

“Just under three seconds of travel time,” Li Ao’s face showed no joy, instead, his expression was somewhat disdainful: “Is that all you’re capable of?”

As he spoke, the two considerably slimmed down and semi-transparent shadow wolves appeared from the shadow, their eyes full of fear and eager to please as they circled Li Ao, ears down and tails stiffly wagging.

There was no helping it.

Their strength was only at this level.

Being of Bronze level beginner class, the three-second shadow leap time was, strictly speaking, above average.

After all, this was just a transitional skill for initial use.

Later, once the Hourglass of Time was completely unsealed allowing free travel through any space and time, the shadow leap could be discarded.

What’s done is done. Li Ao did not dwell on it.

The previously ambushing marsh snake, severely wounded and on the brink of death, twisted its body, attempting to flee.

In less than a second, its body was torn into seven or eight pieces by the two wolves, competing to show their new master favor.

Li Ao did not even glance at them and headed straight for the cliff ahead.

The two wolves quickly ran ahead to lead the way for their new master.

The cliff loomed imposingly, giving a strong sense of oppression.

Led by the two Boots of Shadows wolves, Li Ao quickly found a concealed formation on the rock face—a hiding formation.

The hiding formation required a certain secret key to unlock.

Li Ao thought for a moment. He did not destroy the hiding formation. Instead, he decided to preserve it, pretending not to know there was a secret entrance here.

He directly utilized the ability of “Stone Walking” to enter the thick stone wall, then traversed several meters to find the hidden door to the secret formation within the belly of the mountain.

The “Stone Giant” squeezed in right after him, its massive size filling the cave completely.

The two shadow wolves that followed had no place to stand and were awkwardly positioned behind its knees.

Fortunately, their bodies had already been refined into a semi-corporeal state of vaporization; otherwise, they might have been crushed into a pulp by the Stone Giant.

“You shouldn’t come in,” Li Ao said, looking back and noticing that the Stone Giant had forgotten to retract itself.

He reached out his hand and de-summoned the Stone Giant.

Transforming it back into a card.

The two shadow wolves saw their chance to show off and immediately rushed forward to lead the way.

Along the way, whether it was the rats scampering around in the passageways or the cave spiders catching insects for their meals, they all fell into misfortune.

Li Ao snapped his fingers, forming a small light orb the size of a fingertip with his energy to illuminate the path in front of him, and followed leisurely behind.

“Awoo!”

The two shadow wolves discovered something up ahead.

Li Ao walked over and saw a gravely injured rock bear lying on the ground, bleeding from its nose and mouth, barely clinging to life.

With such injuries, even a baby’s punch could kill it.

Li Ao understood; no wonder Prince Jinxi was able to make his way to the Cliff of the Crimson-Eyed Flying Dragon so smoothly in his past life—it turned out that someone had laid out the path to success for him early on.

“Should I heal it and let it attack Prince Jinxi, or should I just kill it and collect its energy crystal?”

Li Ao weighed the pros and cons of both options.

Healing the rock bear.

If it blocked Prince Jinxi’s path, he might notice the flaw and decide not to continue upward.

If he didn’t continue upward, how would Li Ao present his gift?

No gift, no surprise.

Thinking this, Li Ao used his energy to summon a formation and transformed the pitifully begging rock bear into a faintly glowing blue card.

Rock Bear: Biological, beast form, melee combat beast, Black Iron upper-tier, weakened state.

Talent – Simplicity: This creature’s naive demeanor engenders a certain degree of goodwill among intelligent beings.

Its maximum combat power: 85.

Apart from the word “useless,” he couldn’t find a more suitable word to describe it.

“Huh? This talent is somewhat interesting!”

A talent that achieves mental charm through feigning stupidity—such creatures were rarely seen in the lower realms.

Not that there were none.

It was just that creatures in the lower realms rarely looked so ugly yet were still endearing.

Li Ao thought for a moment, killing the severely weakened rock bear would not only yield an inferior crystal but also reduce its quality. Healing it, given its strength, would not likely stop Prince Jinxi’s advancement, revealing flaws, and it might even flee, being somewhat clever.

If that was the case, he might as well make a contract.

Normally using it as a facade for the war beasts in front of others.

The Black Iron level beast might be able to confuse unfamiliar enemies.

Li Ao raised his hand.

And lightly tapped the card.

The summoning formation materialized, and after a flash of bright light and a successful contract, he summoned it again.

Thanks to the owner’s contract energy, the rock bear was still weak but no longer dying.

It shook its head and clumsily stood up from the ground.

Li Ao kicked it lightly, “From now on, you pretend to be a boss among many war beasts, always acting like the big boss. There are so many enemies, maybe you can fool the less bright ones—deceive one if you can!”

The rock bear looked foolish.

But that wasn’t the case.

When it saw the two shadow wolves busily pleasing their master and how one wolf subtly moved to keep it at bay when it tried to get closer, it immediately understood.

It humbly lowered its head and silently followed behind.

A boss?

Ah, don’t overthink it!