Chapter 348: Expansion: Part 1

After bringing Taozi back to the mansion, Lin Sheng taught her some basic knowledge of the supernatural world. He also found a stealth skill suitable for women to learn and step-by-step guided her.

Taozi studied martial arts from Lin Sheng every day and spent her free time praying to the holy light under Lin Sheng’s guidance. She cultivated her faith and strengthened her willpower. She was determined to find out the cause of her parent’s disappearance.

These trivial matters aside, Lin Sheng thought he might have found a way to get his hands on the high-power dark-energy weapons.

Baine University had a huge stockpile of high-power weapons because it was the entrance to the Ashen World.

A professor and two teachers were the only persons guarding the armory. The professor’s name was Cavendian, who was the key to Lin Sheng’s access to these dark energy weaponry. In his mid-eighty, the professor was only considered a middle-aged man in the world of the transcendent. He was also a Six Winger. Drinking was his hobby but never excessive. Apart from that, he touched neither cigarette nor gambling. Not even women. He was obsessed with keeping the weapons in tiptop condition and dark energy cultivation. Cavendian was an incorruptible man.

Lin Sheng got this intel from Professor Madillan Byrnbaer, whom he recruited as logistics support. Madillan’s body improved after learning how to cultivate holy power. As the holy power stimulated his dark energy, his injuries began to cure. This made him even more grateful to the sanctum and his insistence and pursuit of the holy power reached a peak. Especially that the sanctum was born to suppress the Black Tide. The holy power had a powerful suppressive effect on the mist emitted by the Black Tide. Madillan had tested it. So when Lin Sheng asked him to collect intel for him, it was just a piece of cake.

Lin Sheng spent half a day studying Cavendian, the armory manager. He then got an idea.

Cavendian was flawless. He had a son, Basbo, an ordinary human who had a successful career as a senior executive of a record company. But not long ago, he was dragged into a massive corruption and bribery case, suspected of secretly hiring transcendent and forcing women to sleep with VIPs.

As Basbo was under investigation, Cavendian rummaged through his network of influence to save his son’s ass.

“It’s a breakthrough.”

Lin Sheng stood in front of the Chowchow Record Company building with a weird smile on his face. But he was in the body of a red armor warrior.

He had information that Basbo’s office was in the building. He looked up at the 19th floor, where the target was. Before this, the red armor warrior had trailed Basbo to this place.

“There aren’t much weaknesses I can exploit in this guy. But I can make one.”

Lin Sheng did not enter the building. Instead, with the snap of his fingers, an office guy in suit and leather shoes emerged from the underground parking.

The man’s face was pale, his head lowered. No one saw him, as if he did not exist. A security guard at the parking entrance was chatting with his colleague while smoking as the office guy walked past. But they ignored the office guy as if they had not seen him.

Lin Sheng went to a cafe across the street, sat down by the window and ordered a cup of hot black coffee. He flipped a free magazine in his hands but kept an eye on the office guy.

After the office guy came out from the underground parking, he headed straight to the entrance of Chowchow Record Company building. His steps were wobbling at first, then stable and heavy. His body bulged gradually, tumors the size of a fist grew out of his skin.

In just ten seconds, his upper body had swollen, doubling his original size. He now looked deformed.

As the office guy got closer to the building, his deformation got worse, the tumors burgeoning to the size of a human head. It looked as if a dozen heads squeezed into and competing for the body.

The office guy roared and strode through the entrance. Yet no one seemed to see him or hear his yell.

Lin Sheng looked calm, still browsing the magazine. “This is the first synthetic shade I’ve made. If I’m not wrong, it should have the invisibility of the natural shades, and the steel skeleton of the Two Winger.”

Armed with the Institute’s shades transformation technology and a full range of equipment, it was easy to reproduce the shades. What was more, Lin Sheng had technical knowledge in his memories. He could study and improve the special properties of the shade race.

The shades were modified beings, the remnant of the souls. Their weak and incomplete state and the lack of a physical carrier meant that they were invisible to humans.

But the shades were unique. When they attacked, they could bite off the soul power from living people. The shades might have low physical attack ability—in fact only as strong as an ordinary adult—but their non-physical ability was top notch. And they had short-range teleporting ability. This was what Lin Sheng liked about them.

Lin Sheng sat in the cafe, took a sip of the black coffee and occasionally cast his eyes at the building on the outside.

Sitting opposite him on the next table was a beautiful brunette. Wearing a bright yellow sweater and a white skirt, she was chatting with another bestie about the latest fashion in town.

Just when Lin Sheng picked up the coffee and was about to take a sip, a brown-haired young boy only half the height of an adult emerged behind the brunette. The young boy wore a gray shirt and white track pants with dirt and mud all over his body. His face was pale, his smile creepy as he raised his hands and wrapped his arms around the brunette.

The waiters, the brunette’s bestie sitting across the table, and other patrons in the café did not see the young boy.

“Not a shade.” Lin Sheng cocked an eyebrow, staring at the young boy. He was curious what the boy was doing. Similar thing had happened before in the noodle restaurant. Now the same thing was happening in this café. The world had become more chaotic than before.

What intrigued Lin Sheng was that no one had ever remembered the existence of the noodle restaurant. Everyone just went on with their lives.

Lin Sheng did nothing but watch as the young boy hugged the beautiful brunette from behind. The young boy melted and entered the body of the beauty.

While the brunette still talking, she put down her coffee cup, hitting the glass tabletop so hard that it made a loud clink. The brunette lowered her head and started sobbing.

Seeing this, her bestie began to console her as if she knew what happened. Then the sob turned into cry. The brunette looked really sad.

Suddenly the brunette grabbed a fork and stabbed herself in her eye. Half of the fork had penetrated her eye with blood and fluid sputtering into the coffee and on the table.