Chapter 15 – Shadow Within the Shadows
After teasing the girls for a few moments longer, Ryuga finally turned serious.
He sat down cross-legged beside the corpse of the Abyssal Shadow Panther, where a dark-purple soul ring was slowly forming.
His katana was placed across his lap as his breathing gradually steadied.
Without hesitation, Ryuga pulled the five-thousand-four-hundred-and-fifty-year soul ring toward himself and began absorbing it.
The instant the ring touched him, Yan Yan noticed its color and screamed in panic.
"Principal Meng, are you insane?! Stop him! That's a thousand-year-level ring for his second stage!"
Lingling's face turned pale.
"Elder Bai, please stop him! He'll die if he continues!"
When none of the three elders moved to interrupt, Yan Yan nearly lost control.
"If anything happens to him, I'll tell my grandfather everything!"
Zhi Lin finally spoke coldly.
"Calm down. Shouting will only distract him."
Before they could argue further, Zhi Lin explained everything about Ryuga's body, his talent, his preparations, and why he was capable of absorbing such a ring.
By the time he finished, both girls stood frozen.
They finally understood that the boy who teased Lingling daily and angered Yan Yan without fear was far more terrifying than they had imagined.
Meanwhile, Ryuga's absorption proceeded smoothly at first.
Years of consuming whale glue had strengthened his body far beyond normal limits.
For the first twenty percent, his breathing remained steady.
When the absorption passed forty percent, pain began to spread through his meridians.
His expression remained calm, but his muscles tightened slightly.
At sixty percent, sweat poured down his body.
The pressure slammed into his internal organs like heavy waves.
At eighty percent, blood seeped from tiny cracks across his skin.
The pain reached a level that would have driven most Soul Masters insane, yet Ryuga did not scream.
Instead, his lips slowly curved into a grin.
Blood stained his teeth as he continued absorbing in absolute silence.
By ninety percent, his entire body was wrapped in what looked like a cocoon of blood.
Yan Yan grabbed Lingling's arm in terror.
"Lingling! Heal him now!"
Lingling summoned her martial soul instinctively, but the elders stopped her at once.
"Do not interfere," Bai Baoshan said firmly.
"His life force is stable. This is adaptation, not collapse."
Zhi Lin nodded.
"The pain is severe, but his body is evolving."
Eight long hours passed.
At last, the dark-purple soul ring faded completely.
The blood cocoon cracked open.
Ryuga stepped out.
In that instant, everyone saw the change.
His height jumped from barely over three feet to nearly four and a half.
His childish frame hardened into compact, steel-like muscle.
All traces of baby fat vanished from his face.
His features sharpened into those of a young teen.
His shirt had been torn apart by his growth, leaving his upper body drenched in sweat under the moonlight.
Lingling and Yan Yan both turned away immediately, faces burning red.
Unbothered, Ryuga retrieved a fresh set of clothes from his storage ring and dressed himself calmly.
Only then did the girls turn back.
The elders ignored everything else.
Their eyes were fixed on him with burning curiosity.
"Show us your second soul skill," Meng Shenji said.
Ryuga smiled.
Instead of explaining, he took a single step forward.
In the next instant, his body melted into his own shadow and vanished.
Lingling and Yan Yan froze.
Before they could react, a hand suddenly patted both of their shoulders from behind.
They screamed at the same time.
When they turned around, Ryuga was already gone.
His voice echoed from every shadow in the training ground at once.
"I call this skill Shadow Dimension."
Only his voice existed.
His body could not be detected—even by three Soul Douluo using their full spiritual sense.
"I can move through connected shadows at will. As long as I can sense the shadow, I can travel to it."
"I can hide within this dimension as long as my soul power lasts. From inside, I can observe everything."
Then his laughing voice rang again.
"Yan Yan… I didn't know your undergarments had snake patterns too."
Yan Yan froze for a heartbeat.
Then she screamed and covered herself in fury and shame.
"You pervert! Come out right now, I'll kill you!"
Lingling clutched her skirt tightly as well, her face tinted pink.
Ryuga reappeared from Lingling's shadow with a grin.
"Pink suits you," he whispered teasingly.
Lingling's eyes trembled in shock and embarrassment.
The elders pretended they had heard absolutely nothing.
After testing his soul power, Ryuga confirmed his new cultivation level.
Level 23.
The three elders immediately plunged into discussion about combat applications and battlefield strategy.
Ryuga, however, left the training ground with the two girls as the night grew late.
Above them, the moon shone quietly.
And in the silence beneath it, something irreversible had begun to change.
Written by:- Ashborn_
Edited by:- Chat GPT