The digital readout scrambled frantically before flashing a blinding crimson number:
6,500 kg!
Lucian inhaled sharply, his chest freezing for a fraction of a second.
Six point five tons!
His own baseline physical punch right after condensing the obsidian Spiritual Seed sat at 5,100 kilograms, a metric that had already stunned Magnus into near speechlessness. Yet this commander entity, spawned directly from his breakthrough, possessed a raw physical strike that eclipsed his own base output by more than a ton!
"Now channel the techniques," Lucian muttered, his pulse picking up. "Show me your grasp on the three arts."
The commander did not hesitate.
It took a half-step back and settled into a low, coiled stance. The ambient shadows pools scattered across the edges of the room began to writhe. A pitch-black mist carrying the oppressive frost of the Eternal Night Demon Codex poured out from the cracks in its armor, causing the room’s temperature to drop instantly.
At the same time, its silhouette blurred, fading halfway into the empty air like a lethal apparition utilizing the stealth arts of the Shadow Kill Secret Canon. Underneath that concealment, the heavy, gravitational density of the Floating Pagoda Mysterious Skill wrapped around its armored forearms, making the air around its fists vibrate with a low, bone-crushing resonance.
It possessed all three.
Because the commander was an extension of his own Martial Soul, it inherited Lucian’s cultivation comprehension entirely. It could execute the Blood Battle Saber Technique with brutal precision and slip through blind spots using shadow steps.
"Incredible..." Lucian exhaled, rubbing his chin as a grin slowly spread across his face. "A commander that thinks, leads, and hits harder than a normal late-stage Martial Master. And if I merge it into myself using Shadow Integration..."
Lucian reached out his right hand.
"Merge."
The tall armored figure dissolved into a pool of pure liquid darkness that surged up Lucian’s arm.
The moment the dark energy poured into his limbs, Lucian’s breath hitched. His muscles expanded by a fraction of an inch, his bones let out a series of dense, popping sounds, and the obsidian Spiritual Seed in his dantian began spinning at three times its normal speed. A violent, suffocating sense of raw physical power flooded his veins.
He didn’t need to punch the machine to know the truth. In this integrated state, his single-strike punching force had blown past the ten-ton threshold. He could smash an armored personnel carrier into scrap metal with his bare hands!
With another thought, Lucian released the integration. The darkness poured back out, reforming the silent, kneeling commander at his feet.
Lucian’s chest heaved as he stabilized his breathing, looking down at his palm. The sheer potential of this setup was mind-boggling. But alongside this exhilarating power, a cold splash of reality hit him.
His stomach gave an enormous, hollow rumble that sounded like an angry engine.
Intense hunger clawed at his gut.
The 1,001 Shadow Soldiers inside his Soul Sea were constantly circulating energy. Every second of their passive training drew sustenance from Lucian’s own physical foundation.
If he had only been eating ordinary bread and cheap street food, his body would have withered into a dried husk overnight just trying to supply the calories his Martial Soul demanded.
Even with the mountain of high-grade Otherworldly Beast meat the Sterling family served at every meal, he was barely keeping the hunger at bay.
He was currently living inside the Sterling Grand Courtyard. The family treated him well, Evelyn treated him even better, and Magnus was generous beyond reason. But Lucian was not the kind of person who could comfortably live as an absolute parasite forever.
More importantly, staying confined inside the safe walls of Silverwood City would slowly strangle his progress.
"The pond is too small," Lucian whispered, his eyes narrowing into cold slits as he looked out the window.
Beyond the sprawling, neon-lit skyline of Silverwood City lay the dark, jagged ridges of the wilderness. Specifically, thirty kilometers to the north sat the ominous, cloud-shrouded expanse known as the Thousand Mountain Forest.
It was one of the most perilous zones in the eastern province. Five hundred years ago, during the initial resurgence of Spiritual Energy and the cataclysmic beast invasion, that mountain range had been the primary frontline.
Entire armored divisions of the old military had perished there. Mutated alien beasts had claimed the craggy peaks, turning the deep ravines into their hunting grounds.
Even today, after centuries of human Martial Artists clearing out the outer edges, the Thousand Mountain Forest remained a forbidden zone for ordinary mortals. The inner valleys were thick with poisonous miasma that could rot an ordinary person’s lungs in three breaths.
Ruined concrete bunkers, twisted steel trenches, and abandoned military outposts lay buried beneath thick, blood-colored vines. Countless First-Order and Second-Order beasts roamed the ridges in packs.
Rumors even persisted that within the unexplored abyssal caves of the innermost peaks, terrifying creatures capable of slaughtering entire Martial Master squads dwelled in slumber.
To ordinary high school seniors preparing for the college entrance examination, the Thousand Mountain Forest was a nightmare that claimed dozens of lives every single year.
To Lucian, however, it looked like an endless, all-you-can-eat buffet.
"Otherworldly Beast meat... beast cores... and shadows," Lucian murmured.
His second innate talent, Shadow Devour, allowed his soldiers to consume the shadows of slain beasts to strengthen themselves and feed pure vital essence back into Lucian’s body. If he let his shadow army loose in a dense forest packed with thousands of bloodthirsty beasts, how fast would his strength skyrocket?
He wouldn’t need to worry about starvation. He wouldn’t need to worry about hitting a cultivation bottleneck. His shadow army would become an unstoppable engine of slaughter, harvesting resources round the clock while he rested!
However, leaving the Sterling Manor in broad daylight to venture into the Thousand Mountain Forest was out of the question.
Magnus had already placed the city under tight surveillance to safeguard Evelyn’s S-Rank Awakening. Security checkpoints were set up along every highway leaving the urban perimeter, heavily monitored by municipal defensive arrays and veteran Martial Artists.
If Lucian, a student officially registered as a mere D-Rank Shadow Warrior, suddenly marched out toward a deadly wilderness zone alone, it would instantly trigger red flags. Magnus would stop him, the school would panic, and his true combat strength might be exposed before he had enough power to defend himself against the lurking Outer God Cult.
"I can’t go personally," Lucian thought, his eyes lighting up as he looked down at the silent commander standing before him. "But who says I have to go?"
He had a Shadow Military Lord with independent combat consciousness.
He had a thousand shadow soldiers who could slip through walls, travel beneath the earth, and blend seamlessly into the darkness without leaving a trace of thermal heat, scent, or electronic signature.
The municipal perimeter arrays were designed to scan for foreign biological lifeforms, high-energy Spiritual Energy signatures, and vehicular traffic. They were completely blind to pure, shapeless shadows sliding along the concrete cracks in the dead of night.
Lucian’s gaze sharpened.
"You don’t have a name yet," Lucian said, looking at the towering commander. "From now on, you are Shadow One."