Black Energy Stone

My name is Zuo Tao.

I am an emissary of the Black Raksha Sect sent to Baicheng.

By the order of the High Archbishop, I carry the Divine Stone.

Once I deliver it to that person, the Black God shall descend upon Baicheng.

The Divine Realm shall arrive.

And we shall be bathed in divine radiance.

This task is unimaginably difficult, yet it is my sacred duty.

For the Holy Sect!

I must not fail!

And now, I am just a few kilometers away from that person.

So close.

I am overwhelmed with excitement.

---

In the dim underbrush, no one would suspect that a cultist was lying in wait.

Su Xuan had no idea that such a dangerous threat lurked along his usual jogging route.

Gradually, as Su Xuan ran closer, he entered the cultist’s sight.

“Is he from the Bureau of Inspectors?”

Zuo Tao, who had been on his way to meet a certain figure, suddenly spotted the approaching runner and paused to observe.

“They’ve tracked me here already?”

“He’s carrying an exotic iron blade—must be one of them!”

“Alone? And his aura is so weak… just a rookie, huh?”

“Heh… What better gift to bring than the head of an inspector?”

His eyes gleamed with malice as he watched Su Xuan approach, like a hunter stalking prey, calculating the precise moment to strike.

Two black throwing darts appeared in his hands.

With a flick, they flew.

“Swish swish…”

“What was that?”

Su Xuan suddenly heard a strange sound from the dark ahead, as if something was crawling out of the bushes.

In an instant, his heart tightened.

He rolled diagonally back.

A black dart shot out of the grass, slicing through the darkness and vanishing beyond.

Had he not dodged in time, he would already be lying on the ground.

“Heh heh… A little brat from the Bureau, and brave enough to come alone…”

An unpleasant voice rasped from the bushes, like someone speaking with stones in their throat.

Disgusting and grating.

A middle-aged man climbed out of the shrubbery.

“Bureau of Inspectors?”

Su Xuan repeated the term silently.

He had read about it just yesterday.

Different from ordinary police, they specialized in dealing with cults.

Which meant this man crawling out of the shadows was a cultist!

“A cultist?”

Su Xuan spoke in confusion, while frantically thinking of any way to escape.

“Heh heh, only sent one of you? Seems like the Bureau hasn’t lost enough people yet. Never learns its lesson.”

With those words, the man rushed toward Su Xuan like a ghost.

Su Xuan quickly raised his sword, staring solemnly at the cultist flying toward him.

“He’s so fast… like a phantom…”

Su Xuan was shaken.

“Wham!”

Before he could react, a heavy blow landed on his abdomen.

His body felt like it was falling apart.

He was flung backward like a kite with a severed string.

Even as he flew, he gripped his blade tightly.

He could not afford to let it fall.

If the enemy got his hands on it, he’d be dead for sure.

“The gap is too big…”

Su Xuan felt a wave of despair.

He couldn’t even track the man’s movements—how could he fight back?

How could he escape?

“Heh heh heh… Bureau brat, you’re not the first. I’ve killed at least ten like you!”

Hearing his twisted words, Su Xuan’s hands clenched around the hilt, burning with anger and sorrow.

“You’re out now, aren’t you? Hahaha… I love that look of hate on your face.”

“Keep it.”

“Die with that beautiful expression.”

“I’ll offer your pretty face to the great one!”

Zuo Tao’s hideous features twisted into a grotesque grin, making him look even more vile.

“Huff… Huff…”

Despair bloomed inside Su Xuan’s chest.

Like falling into a bottomless abyss, with no light in sight.

“What do I do… What do I do?!”

Su Xuan wailed helplessly in his heart.

[Call to me… Accept me…]

As if hearing his cries, a voice suddenly rang in his mind.

“You…”

[I… Su Xuan’er, your Phantom Soul~]

Su Xuan shouted her name in his mind.

“Su Xuan’er!”

A strange sensation surged through his body.

A warm current full of life energy flooded his limbs.

The energy within him boiled, and an unmatched power filled him entirely.

Witnessing Su Xuan’s transformation, Zuo Tao looked utterly deranged, muttering to himself in disbelief.

“What is this? Third form?”

“A newbie who hasn’t even forged his weapon yet—third form?”

“O mighty Black God, omniscient sovereign of eternal darkness, tell me, what is happening here?!”

[Focus… Don’t daze off…]

Su Xuan’er’s voice echoed in his mind, sounding tired, on the verge of falling asleep.

Clearly, this state consumed her greatly.

Su Xuan didn’t speak.

His right leg slid back into a bow stance.

His right hand gripped the sword.

His eyes narrowed.

Countless days, countless swings of the blade—condensed into this single strike.

“One-Stroke Kill!”

In the next instant, Su Xuan vanished.

A flash of blue-white light cut through the air.

Su Xuan appeared behind Zuo Tao.

“Ugh… Hah… Who… are you…”

Spurt!!

The moon hung in the sky.

Under its silver glow, a mist of blood erupted in a straight line between them.

A body fell, split clean in half.

A black metal block, about the size of a mahjong tile, clinked as it rolled on the ground.

Standing with his sword, Su Xuan remained still for a few seconds.

Then, the vast aura around him vanished.

Along with the energy particles inside his body.

He felt exhausted.

But thrilled.

He had instantly killed someone so powerful.

How strong had he just been?

It must’ve been incredible!

“Hah… That strong?”

“I’m really this strong?”

“Su Xuan’er, if I can be this strong all the time, I’ll wear girl’s clothes every day, I swear!”

“I know you want me to wear them… Huh? No response?”

At first, Su Xuan was so excited he said it aloud.

But when Su Xuan’er didn’t reply, and remembering the earlier power-up, panic started to set in.

He kept calling her name inside.

But there was no response.

It made him extremely nervous.

His eyes drifted to the black metal block on the ground.

With Su Xuan’er still silent, Su Xuan felt like his soul had left his body.

In a daze, he approached it.

He crouched and picked it up.

But the moment he touched it, it melted like water and merged into his body, vanishing.

“?”

Su Xuan snapped out of his trance.

And immediately panicked.

Having some cult object suddenly enter your body—who could stay calm?

He fumbled to pull out his phone from his pocket.

But after a moment’s hesitation, he stopped.

He looked around.

Seeing no one, he quietly left the scene.

He had lived here for over ten years.

This hill was a blind spot for surveillance.

At most, cameras could show he went jogging in the morning.

They wouldn’t catch the fight or the kill.

And killing cultists came with no punishment.

In fact, there might even be a small reward.

To avoid trouble, Su Xuan vanished from the scene.

Just like a hero from the shadows.

Truthfully, Su Xuan didn’t want to deal with the Bureau of Inspectors.

Too many things were hard to explain.

Why he could defeat that cultist.

Why the metal fused with him.

Even worse—if they dug deep enough, they might uncover the secret of his Phantom Soul.

So Su Xuan decided to go home and examine himself first.

If needed, he’d go to the hospital later.

Under the night’s cover, Su Xuan returned to the silent neighborhood and entered his home.

Clunk!

He placed the sword back in the corner.

Though it had just slain a man, not a drop of blood stained it.

For this blade, perhaps killing someone was no more than swallowing a ginseng fruit—tasteless.

Chuckling to himself, Su Xuan turned on the bathroom light and stood before the large mirror.

He examined himself from front to back.

Aside from some bruising on his stomach, there were no other signs.

He got dressed and picked up an energy stone to begin absorbing.

“Su Xuan’er!”

“…”

Still no response.

But in the void, he could see her sleeping.

He could manipulate the energy particles around her, drawing a faint blue essence from her side.

But compared to cultivating with her active support, it was barely half as effective.

Suddenly, Su Xuan sensed a different type of energy inside him.

Unlike the kind found in regular energy stones.

After thinking for a moment, he realized—

It came from the black metal block.

“A black, metallic energy… Is this Black Energy Stone?”

Black Energy Stones were special materials used to create energy stones.

They could only be mined in chaotic zones and were produced by the Black Fiend civilization.

Humans could harvest them—but couldn’t manufacture or absorb them directly.

Yet he had absorbed it.

No wonder he was so different.

He truly wasn’t ordinary.

Su Xuan focused his consciousness on these energy particles.

They moved much more slowly than normal ones.

Like oil compared to water.

When he tried connecting these particles to Su Xuan’er’s body—

Something changed.

The particles surged toward her, flooding into her form.

A blue light glowed.

Eventually, they were transformed into ordinary energy particles carrying soul essence, which then seeped back into Su Xuan’s body.

The sticky sensation vanished.

As if Su Xuan’er were a converter, changing black energy into usable soul energy.

This process lasted several dozen minutes.

Most of the Black Energy was filtered and returned to Su Xuan’s body, now rich in soul essence.

“Mmm~”

Su Xuan’er frowned and let out a soft moan.

Su Xuan lit up with joy.

Clearly, the filtered energy had been highly beneficial to her.

“Nice!”

Seeing signs of her awakening, the weight on Su Xuan’s heart lifted.

Although he resented the feminine changes caused by her soul essence—

She had just saved his life.

There was only a little black energy left.

He wasn’t sure if he should save it or not.

Suddenly, a thought struck him.

“If Su Xuan’er can absorb this stuff…”

“Can the sword absorb it too?”

Su Xuan quickly summoned the crimson blade from the void.

He linked his consciousness to the sword and the black energy.

Immediately, the energy particles rushed into the blade like mad.

After several minutes, a small amount of soul essence emerged as well.

But this time, it carried a masculine resonance.

The blade turned an even deeper red.

A wild, ridiculous thought surfaced in Su Xuan’s mind—

A bold guess about the true nature of his Phantom Soul.

But all of that was less important than one fact—

This soul essence had a masculine polarity.

It was the vital essence that upheld his masculinity.

A divine gift he had yearned for!

Though it was far less than what Su Xuan’er produced—

That was only due to the limited energy supply.

This discovery filled Su Xuan with delight.

He had finally found a way to grow stronger without turning into a woman.

“This is only the beginning.”

“I will become a real, proper man!”

Su Xuan lifted his chin and declared proudly to himself.

But the future—

Who could say what it holds?