Chapter 2073: What Can Counter Light?

As the Shadow Lord spoke, its body no longer emitted an unbearable light as it once did. Instead, it was entirely black, like the shadow figures Zu An had seen in *Detective Conan* in his past life. Without any facial features apart from its eyes, it resembled a faceless entity from a horror film.

If Zu An could have spoken at that moment, he would surely have remarked, "You are so ugly," and earned a wave of anger points in the process. Unfortunately, he couldn't move. Watching the creature stroll leisurely towards him, an unbearable sense of contradictory distortion overwhelmed him.

The Shadow Lord casually approached Zu An, reaching out to touch the Sun-Shooting Arrow. It spoke with a hint of surprise, "It truly is the legendary Red Bow White Arrow. Where did you acquire a weapon of this caliber?"

"Oh, I nearly forgot, you can't speak right now. But it's fine, just listen to me."

It wasn't that the Shadow Lord was particularly talkative; rather, employing the Time Interception technique came at an immense cost. It could only use this ability three times in its entire life. The first two instances were against incredibly powerful beings, and recalling those situations even now still filled it with lingering fear.

Thus, using the ability those two times had saved its life, and on one occasion, even led to a successful counter-kill. It considered those uses highly worthwhile.

This time, however, was different. From every perspective, this was a weak world. Although the Shadow Lord itself was restricted by this world's barrier, its current strength was still far beyond what this native could match. Yet, facing such a weak opponent, it had been forced to use its ultimate life-saving trump card—and this was its last one!

Anger points from the Shadow Lord: 88,888,888...

How could it simply kill the opponent without first understanding the situation?

Feeling the power of the Sun-Shooting Bow, it suddenly wondered aloud, "It is indeed the Red Bow White Arrow, but with your current strength, you can't unleash its full power. You shouldn't be able to break through my surrounding space-time barrier. Why then do I have a feeling of death?"

The Shadow Lord murmured to itself, closing its eyes to ponder for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed, "Huh? I seem to sense a special law forming between heaven and earth. Is it the effect of what you just said? You actually possess such powerful Word-Spirit magic? Could it be that you are the illegitimate child of some powerful figure from the myriad realms of the universe, left behind in this world?"

Listening to the creature's various analyses, Zu An felt an intense surge of anxiety. He knew the Shadow Lord hadn't made a move yet only because it hadn't resolved its doubts. Once it figured things out, it could take his life at any moment, and then everything would truly be over.

He frantically tried to think of a way to escape. Unfortunately, the opponent's Time Interception technique was far too overwhelming; many of his abilities seemed frozen and utterly unusable. He even tried to activate the "Ikkyu Trial Card," which was one of the few skills he could still access.

The Shadow Lord paused, then displayed a strange expression. "Huh? Why are such thoughts appearing in my mind? Are you behind this?"

Zu An's heart sank. It seemed this skill had no effect on the creature.

As expected, the Shadow Lord sneered, "An interesting skill, but such low-level desires are meaningless to a high-level life form like me."

Zu An: "..."

Helpless, he anxiously appealed to Mi Li in his mind: "Queen Master, do you have any ideas now?"

He wasn't even sure if Mi Li was still in slumber, and even if she was awake, whether she could communicate with him in this situation. Fortunately, Mi Li's voice quickly replied, "How did you manage to provoke such a powerful enemy now?"

"I didn't provoke it; it invaded this world, and I couldn't do anything about it," Zu An said, feeling somewhat disheartened. "It can even intercept time; that's beyond my imagination. How am I supposed to deal with an enemy like that?"

Mi Li snorted. "Forget about intercepting time; some truly powerful beings can even reverse time. Stop fixating on those scientific concepts from your previous life. The science in your world isn't developed enough; many things are inexplicable there."

Zu An was startled. How did she know about his past life on Earth? But his attention was quickly caught by the first part of her statement: "Time can be reversed?"

"Of course it can. What you call time is merely a distortion of space-time. For truly powerful beings, they indeed have the ability to manipulate time. Furthermore, there are some rare artifacts across the myriad realms of the universe that allow you to travel through the river of time, evading the erasure of its original laws."

Zu An was utterly shocked; these were concepts he had never heard of before. By the way, Mi Li once said she had awakened some memories. Could these be them? But this far exceeded the scope of what her identity should entail. Was she truly the Empress of Qin Shi Huang?

"This Shadow Lord can also manipulate time. How can I possibly deal with such a being?" Zu An couldn't help but feel disheartened.

"What do you mean 'manipulate time'? It can only affect a small area of a few thousand meters," Mi Li said dismissively.

Zu An retorted, annoyed, "A radius of a few thousand meters is still small?"

"Of course it's small. This distance might be significant to humans, but in this world, it's just a tiny speck, and this world itself is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the myriad realms of the universe. Do you still think his skill is impressive?" Mi Li's tone seemed to mock his lack of worldly knowledge.

"Are there truly beings who can affect the time of the entire universe?" Zu An was astonished.

"Of course there are." Mi Li suddenly sighed, as if remembering something.

Zu An, however, couldn't wait. "This isn't the time to talk about that. The key is how to deal with this guy. At least for now, its ability is already heaven-defying enough."

"Figure out a way yourself." To his surprise, Mi Li's reply was rather unfeeling.

Zu An: "???"

*Big sister, have you forgotten that you and I have a soul contract? We share life and death.*

As if guessing his thoughts, Mi Li said, "This can serve as a perfect training exercise for you. In the future, you'll encounter far more formidable enemies than this. If I help you this time, what will you do when you face enemies even I can't handle?"

Someone once said the same thing to her.

Zu An fell silent. That phrase sounded familiar. He had been weak then, but he never expected to hear it again now, at this point. He said nothing more to Mi Li and began to ponder.

Indeed, his mind had been previously constrained by certain concepts about time from his past life, and the previous divination had given him a subconscious belief that he was doomed, making him feel unable to resist. Now, thinking about it, that might not be true. Although Mi Li didn't give him a concrete solution, the information she provided was very useful.

Time manipulation was not a unique ability among the myriad realms of the universe. If so, there must be a solution. Moreover, this Shadow Lord was clearly not as powerful as he had imagined, at least according to Mi Li. Finally, and most crucially, he must have a way to resolve this predicament himself; otherwise, Mi Li wouldn't have adopted this attitude. Although she said it was to train his mindset as a strong person, if he were truly doomed to die, there would have been no need for her to say any of this.

What exactly was the solution?

Zu An began to ponder. The opponent's abilities were omnipresent light, and time interception... What could counter light, and what could counter time?

Wait, not even light can escape a black hole, and time is also warped near a black hole. Although it wasn't a real black hole, the Gluttonous Sky Devouring Art could slightly simulate the feeling of a black hole. Anyway, the opponent wasn't truly manipulating time either; both were "poor man's versions," so it depended on who was stronger.

Thinking of this, he desperately tried to activate the Gluttonous Sky Devouring Art. At first, all his meridians seemed still and utterly unusable, but he already possessed the Kunpeng's devouring ability, and eventually, he gradually awakened a wisp of gluttonous intent. Once he got started, the rest followed naturally. Soon, the Gluttonous Sky Devouring Art circulated within his body, and a small black hole seemed to appear in his Qi sea, furiously devouring everything around it.

At this moment, the Shadow Lord had lost interest. "I'll gladly accept these divine artifacts from you. Next, I will extract your soul and slowly interrogate you about those special skills you possess. Are you regretting now that you didn't agree to my recruitment earlier?"

As it spoke, a large hand reached directly towards Zu An's forehead.