John took the jade piece and sent his divine sense into it, reading the contents within. An incredible amount of information flooded into his mind, too complicated for him to understand immediately. Descriptions of an assassination art, the fundamentals behind each aspect, and then the methods to accomplish each step.
It started off simple, but quickly reached a level that made his mind spin. John eventually stopped reading the contents within, as it would take quite some time to comprehend even the basics of what he had seen. However, while he couldn't yet comprehend or use the art, he could understand the underlying fundamentals of how it worked.
His eyes went wide as he stared at the smiling man before him.
"This is insane," John mumbled with disbelief.
"Gahaha, you can say that again," the Prime Shadow laughed loudly, rubbing the back of his head. "I can't count the number of times practicing this assassination art almost killed me. In fact, if I'm not careful and mess up too much, it could still kill me now."
The Prime Shadow then patted John on the back forcefully, laughing while doing so.
"Gaha, don't worry, this assassination art was practically made just for you," he said exuberantly. "When my master created this assassination art, his greatest regret was that he was not an essence cultivator and body cultivator at the same time. I don't know how you've managed to cultivate both to such an incredible degree, but regardless of the reasons, someone like you is the absolute perfect fit for this assassination art."
John remained speechless for a short while, then looked at the grinning Prime Shadow.
"If this assassination art is so self-damaging, then why are you unharmed?" he asked, noticing that the Prime Shadow showed no signs of internal or external damage at all.
"Oh, that's because I only used about thirty percent of my power to show off that attack," the Prime Shadow said. "When I'm forced to use this art with my full power, I'm sometimes out of commission for a few days after that. In fact, one time, I used a bit too much power, and nearly killed myself. I've made sure to avoid that mistake ever since that day, that's for sure," the Prime Shadow said, then laughed at himself again.
John stared silently at the old man, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape.
'Thirty percent power? That was only thirty percent of what he was capable of?'
He thought back to what he had seen, then shuddered. This old man before him, with the stupid, disarming grin on his face, was far more dangerous than anything he had ever seen, other than the Asura, and perhaps the Jade Dragon Emperor.
'I think I'd rather face the Jade Dragon Emperor actually. At least a battle with him would be straightforward.' He shuddered at the thought of being the target of the Prime Shadow's full powered assassination art. If he was, he would be dead before he even knew what hit him, and was sure that would be the case even when he reached the Early World Expansion Realm.
John shook his head, then studied the jade piece for a moment.
"Shadow of Death: Form Two, huh?" he said out loud, reading the name of the assassination art. "So that's where the guild name comes from?"
The Prime Shadow nodded.
"My master was known as the Shadow of Death, and every self-created assassination art of his was named as such, only differentiated by the form," the Prime Shadow said. "He created six assassination forms, but the first two are the most lethal by far. When it comes to compatibility, the second form suits you the best by far, and that is what we will focus on entirely. Any questions?"
John shook his head, ready to get started on learning this dangerous yet incredibly lethal assassination art.
"Good, then let's get started," the Prime Shadow said.
"What's first? Am I going to learn the meridian pathway routes, or perhaps the-"
The Prime Shadow cut him off with a laugh.
"Gaha, the first thing you're going to learn, is how to avoid bats."
"....bats?"
Roar!
A powerful roar in the distance shook the entire land, its power making John's body groan with pain.
'Half-Step Holy Manifestation?' John wondered, trying to gauge the strength of the source of the roar. Whatever realm the beast was in, it was far beyond his ability to fight against. The Prime Shadow looked towards the direction of the roar, then laughed.
"Gaha, we've been discovered already. I don't feel like killing innocent beasts today, so let's get moving."
John was suddenly enveloped by the Prime Shadows power, unable to resist at all. The scenery before his eyes instantly changed, going from a bright, open field of skeletons to a dark, gloomy underground cavern.
The cavern was quite large, with glowing spirit crystals naturally embedded in the wall at different parts, giving a soft light to the otherwise dark cavern. John looked all around quickly, but found nothing of note other than the Prime Shadow.
"What are we doing down here? Avoiding bats?" he asked skeptically. He didn't know how avoiding these bats the Prime Shadow mentioned was going to help him.
"Exactly," the Prime Shadow said, then pointed forward. John looked in that direction, and spotted the mouth of a tunnel that led to somewhere unknown. "That tunnel is the only way out of this cave, and is filled to the brim with Toxfoul Bats."
"Toxfoul Bats?" John repeated, having never heard of such a creature.
The Prime Shadow nodded.
"And how is that going to help me learn this assassination art?" John asked again.
"What was the very first thing I did when I utilized art?" the Prime Shadow asked.
"You disappeared somehow," John answered, to which the Prime Shadow nodded his head.
"I didn't so much as disappear, but instead became invisible to your senses."
"Is there a difference?" John asked skeptically.
"A massive difference," the Prime Shadow said. "Not even I can completely disappear, but to hide myself from someone's senses? That is something I can do. And this training is part one of two of learning to hide from an enemy's senses, tricking their brains and souls into thinking you do not exist. In order to use the assassination art to its fullest, you must learn to disappear from an enemy's senses, and to do that, you must learn how to fully conceal your presence."
"I can do that already…sort of," John replied. He had trained with Lilian a while back to conceal his aura and presence, but had not much practiced it since. Still, he considered himself quite adept at concealing his aura.
"Good," the Prime Shadow exclaimed. "Then you should have no problem getting through that cave. The Toxfoul Bats within that cave are blind and deaf, but are quite sensitive to auras. All you need to do is conceal your aura well enough to get through the cave undetected, which means your aura and presence concealment has reached the appropriate level to move on to the next step of training."
"That's all I have to do, is get through that cave?" John asked. The nodding smile the Prime Shadow gave him sent a shiver through his body. It was the smile of a man about to watch and enjoy the suffering of another.
"This isn't going to be easy, or enjoyable, is it?" John asked gloomily.
"Not at all," the Prime Shadow smiled, then suddenly vanished.
"Good luck," his voice sounded out from all directions, while John groaned softly.
"It's just bats," he groaned to himself and moved towards the tunnel entrance. "It can't be that bad, can it?"
A flurry of loud screeches soon came from the tunnel, followed by yelps of disgust and pain.
