One-Tenth

Inside the palace hall, the air was filled with the scorched smell of exploded magic cores and the unique stench of a parasite.

"Yes, yes, yes, I am Xixi. Do you have any last words?"

Hearing the king roar Xixi Chinayega at him, Ye Chuan picked his ear, looking quite impatient.

He could sense that this king's strength was not great. It was about the strength of two little dragonmen, still measurable in standard units.

At this moment, the opponent's disguise had completely shattered. The luxurious royal robe was torn to shreds, and the originally human body had expanded and twisted, covered in densely packed eyeballs. Each eyeball gleamed with a murky red light, staring fixedly at Ye Chuan.

Countless dark purple tentacles sprouted from his neck, chest, and limbs, writhing wildly on the ground. The suction cups at the tips of the tentacles glistened with a viscous sheen, and the dripping sap instantly corroded small holes into the stone floor.

"Xixi, you destroyed my magic array and killed my kin. What impressive skills."

The king monster's voice emerged from the gaps between the countless tentacles, hoarse and fragmented, carrying a teeth-setting abrasive sound.

"If it weren't for the original owner of this body, that foolish king who madly pursued the magic of immortality and didn't hesitate to sacrifice a hundred mages to open the forbidden altar, how would I have had the chance to parasitize his body and control this royal city?"

It shook its eyeball-covered head, and its tentacles slammed fiercely against the ground, kicking up a spray of crushed stone.

"What does it matter if that piece of trash, addicted to power and eternal life, is dead? But you, an outsider, actually dared to ruin my grand plans!"

Ye Chuan innocently spread his hands. "Oh? But honestly, I don't care at all about who is more useless between you and that old king. I came here simply to send you on your way."

"Do I have a grudge against you?" the king suddenly asked.

"Not really."

"Then why have you repeatedly ruined my affairs!"

"Money."

"Money?" Hearing this word, the king's flailing tentacles paused for a moment. "Just this superficial reason? Just for money?"

"What else? It's not like I'm some noble and lofty person. Why wouldn't I do it for money?" Ye Chuan said.

There is no crime in loving money.

"Taking care of a skin-wearing monster is just something I'm doing in passing."

"Arrogant! I will make you pay the price!" the king monster roared. Countless tentacles suddenly tensed, and one of them slowly rose, holding a palm-sized black mirror.

The mirror's surface was as murky as ink, its edges entwined with dark gold magical runes that emitted bizarre spatial fluctuations as they flowed.

"Did you think you could beat me with your level of strength?" The king monster's voice revealed malice and a hint of smugness.

"The divine artifact, Shadow of Umbra, can extract the shadow of any living creature and condense it into a Mirror Shadow!"

"The Mirror Shadow only has one-tenth of the main body's strength, but once it is slain, the main body will die along with it! This is the binding of the rules, and no one can escape!"

Before he even finished speaking, the Shadow of Umbra suddenly erupted with a blinding black light. The mirror projected a gloomy beam of light that shone accurately onto Ye Chuan.

Ye Chuan only felt a slight chill sweep over his body. Looking down, he saw a faint black barrier quietly enveloping him. Runes originating from the same source as the mirror flowed across the barrier, but they did not bring him any sense of restriction.

The Indestructible Body of Chaos was inherently immune to all rule-based confinements. This so-called seal was nothing more than a thin veil to him.

At the same time, the light beam stripped a dark shadow from Ye Chuan. The shadow slowly condensed and took shape within the beam, ultimately transforming into a figure identical to Ye Chuan.

The Mirror Shadow wore the exact same robes as Ye Chuan, except its skin tone was tinged with a faint grayish-black, and its eyes were cold. A faint aura of chaos lingered around it, like a reflection stepping out of a mirror, standing quietly opposite Ye Chuan.

"One-tenth of my strength? Certain death by the rules?"

Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow. There was no trace of worry in his eyes; instead, they revealed a bit of curiosity and amusement.

"This divine artifact is somewhat interesting."

He simply crossed his arms and took two steps back, adopting the posture of a spectator, completely ignoring the king monster's threat.

Seeing Ye Chuan so indifferent, the king monster assumed he was just feigning calmness. A flash of cruelty crossed its eyes.

"Still daring to be arrogant at death's door! Die for me!"

It violently swung dozens of tentacles. The suction cups at the tips opened, spewing out black sap laced with corrosive magic, while all the tentacles whipped toward the Mirror Shadow like a torrential rain!

Every single tentacle was wrapped in dense, dark purple magic, clearly intending to slay the Mirror Shadow in a single strike.

However, the moment the tentacles were about to strike the Mirror Shadow, the Mirror Shadow suddenly moved.

A dazzling golden light suddenly erupted from its body. The glow of countless buffing spells stacked upon it like a tidal wave.

"Strength Blessing," "Speed Amplification," "Defense Enhancement," "Mana Infusion"...

Halos of magic swirled around the Mirror Shadow. In just a single breath, over a hundred buff spells had been fully stacked, and the aura surrounding it skyrocketed madly!

"Huh?" The king monster's pupils abruptly shrank, its eyes full of astonishment. It had never seen anyone capable of stacking so many buffing spells in an instant, let alone imagined that the Mirror Shadow's aura would surge to such an extent.

Before the king monster could react, the Mirror Shadow's figure flashed, turning into a grayish-black blur that evaded all the tentacle attacks. At the same time, its right leg violently gathered power. The light of the Strength Blessing around it surged, carrying a devastating momentum as it kicked the king monster viciously in the chest!

"Bang!"

The violent sound of the impact shook the ceiling of the hall, causing rubble to fall. The king monster's massive body flew backward like a kite with a snapped string, crashing heavily into the hall's barrier.

This barrier was meant to prevent Ye Chuan from escaping, but it ended up acting as a protective shield to stop their clash from affecting the royal city.

Countless eyeballs fell off its body, and more than half of its tentacles were snapped. Black blood mixed with viscous sap gushed out. It lay sprawled on the ground, coughing violently, its aura instantly withering away. It was clearly in a half-dead state.

"How is this possible?!"

The king monster raised its wound-covered head, its eyes filled with unbelievable fear and despair. It roared, its voice hoarse and shattered.

"The Mirror Shadow is only supposed to have one-tenth of the main body's strength! Why... why is it so strong?!"

It stared fixedly at the Mirror Shadow, then suddenly looked toward Ye Chuan, who was leisurely watching the show. Its heart felt as if it were being squeezed by icy tentacles.

If the Mirror Shadow possessed such terrifying combat power, then to what extent did the main body's strength reach?

This was not a human at all, but a monster! A monster even more terrifying than a parasite like itself!

After kicking the king monster away, the buff spells around the Mirror Shadow did not dissipate. It slowly turned around, bowed slightly toward Ye Chuan, and then its figure gradually faded, merging back into Ye Chuan's shadow and disappearing.

Ye Chuan stepped forward and looked down at the half-dead king monster sprawled on the ground. "One-tenth of my strength? I'm afraid you have some misunderstanding about my actual strength."

"No, you have some misunderstanding about my stats." Ye Chuan grinned, the magic power radiating from his body resembling a pillar of light shooting into the sky.

"Standing before you is the legendary mage, Xixi Chinayega."

With that said, Ye Chuan directly stored the Umbra's Shadow into his backpack space.

[Item: Umbra's Shadow * Dark Gold

Can seal an enemy and summon a mirror clone of the target with one-tenth of their strength. Slaying the clone can inflict a lethal effect on the target.]

Not bad?

He applied a little pressure with his foot, stepping on one of the severed tentacles of the king monster.

The king monster trembled all over, the fear in its eyes reaching the extreme. It opened its mouth, wanting to roar, but could only let out a wheezing, leaking sound.

Even in death, it couldn't figure out why it had been defeated by such a terrifying outsider, despite having taken control of the royal city, possessing a divine artifact, and parasitizing the king's body.

But just as Ye Chuan was about to finish off this monster, the king monster suddenly shouted into the shadows,

"Save me!"