Chapter 65: A Tentacle Fell Out

“I had such a good plan at the start…”

Lu Yu, with just half of his body emerging from the darkness, slightly bowed his head, startling a group of people into retreating further.

He surveyed the scene with a twitch at the corner of his mouth, pondering which step had gone wrong in his mind.

Since it was his first time at the Black Market, he was unfamiliar with the process, so he followed the people silently, blending in until he saw these ghostly fire lanterns.

After observing for a while, he roughly understood that this was a type of device to identify strong individuals – anyone passing through in this manner was definitely a powerhouse above the gold level.

Upon seeing this, Lu Yu had an epiphany!

He was not a pet beast master of the gold tier, nor could he produce a commander-tier pet beast.

But…

He had The Little Hamster!

Lu Yu’s initial encounter with the Shadow Hamster involved being intimidated by its mimicry, the “Shadow Imitation,” causing him to mistake it for a powerhouse equivalent to a sovereign-tier magical creature.

Had it not been for the Eye of Truth, which sees through everything, he would have almost been fooled.

And then he found the true Shadow Hamster behind it all, resulting in him having to provide for it for a lifetime after taking it home.

It’s uncertain whether it was a gain or a loss.

However, ordinary people don’t possess the Eye of Truth to see through The Little Hamster’s Shadow Imitation. The blood of an Evil God’s offspring it had consumed granted it an automatic immunity from any divinations and probes beneath the level of Morning Star.

This pretty much made it an emotionless signal jammer plus a special effects machine.

To everyone below the Morning Star level, it was like facing a demotion in power!

Anyway, there was no need for combat inside, and since it was only his own alternative persona, disguising as a mysterious strong figure was all benefit and no harm.

He could skip the line and take the VIP express way, earning awe and reverence from the others, lowering the chances of running into trouble, and maybe it would even help with haggling…

What’s most critical is that he had just sheared the Soul-capturing Demonic Cloud a few days ago.

That entity lingered within the abandoned city district in the west of the city and generally did not leave. However, the “Forbidden Curse Mark” on his body, which was great for luring creatures and gathering materials, could be unreliable at crucial moments.

In case he suddenly emitted an irresistible aroma that drifted towards the west side of the city and lured that thing over…

Leaving aside whether the Black Market would be leveled to the ground, considering the grudges he had previously accumulated, he might end up being violently torn apart, barely mitigating the Soul-capturing Demonic Cloud’s grudge. In the end, it was very likely that his soul would be extracted and tortured for countless years.

“Just thinking about it is kind of exciting. It’s just a few jellyfish, not more than a handful. Worst comes to worst, I’ll just compensate you with… ten lollipops later on!”

Despite his words, Lu Yu decisively chose to have The Little Hamster mask his aura, then leapt into a nearby grove to prevent detection by others with similar sensing abilities.

This time, he chose to conceal these mimicry shadows beneath a yellow robe, being less concerned about his ruse being seen through.

Thus, he could perfectly infiltrate the Black Market and even attend some high-end gatherings for gold-tier pet beast masters, gather some news, and find treasures he needed.

But imagination is beautiful…

Reality is cruel!

He had overlooked one crucial detail.

Aside from mastering the “Shadow Transference” ability for escape, The Little Hamster’s other abilities were atrociously unpracticed…

Its high-tier skill “Shadow Imitation” was barely at 80% of the beginner level.

In other words, its control was far from adept. The previous effectiveness was purely because the skill was powerful!

Consequently, after using Shadow Imitation, although The Little Hamster tried its best to minimize it, several tentacles still wrapped around his body, filling the already oversized robe to the brim.

He had gone directly from a skinny dog to a fat tiger!

“You’re afraid of the dark, that’s fine, but how can you be so bad at your life-saving skill ‘Shadow Imitation’? This fat otaku hamster having not been eaten is truly the goddess of fate’s blessing!”

Lu Yu grumbled in his mind, but he could also comfort himself that changing his body shape was better for concealing his identity. However, as soon as he took one step forward…

All the ghostly fire lanterns exploded!

They could serve as an identity checker precisely because their perception was several times more acute than humans or even general magical beasts.

It’s an advantage, but it could also become a fatal flaw.

To Lu Yu and ordinary humans, The Little Hamster’s Shadow Imitation appeared as nothing more than the dark tentacles of a powerful creature.

However, to the ghostly fire lanterns, they were feeling that slight remnant within The Little Hamster, which despite countless years of eroding, had not decayed and contained endless distortion and chaos from the aura of an Evil God’s offspring.

A great demon writhing in the darkness, eager to devour endless beings, was approaching!

The sensation was like a flock of sheep spotting a great grey wolf approaching or spotting a dangerously high levels red-named player in a game – it was already great not to be scared crazy, let alone perform an identification!

That led to the previous spectacle!

Outside the Black Market,

“Eek eek!”

As Lu Yu appeared, as an evolved type of the ghostly fire lanterns, the Specter Lanterns naturally also sensed that strange and ambiguous aura, and couldn’t help trembling!

“Even the Specter Lanterns are terrified?”

Sun Jie was also aware of his own beast’s emotions, but what filled him with more dread was that even with his school’s secret exploratory technique activated – capable of easily seeing through the same level of spiritual strength and the shape of the soul’s fire, the “Spirit Fire Eyes” –

When he looked at the mysterious yellow-robed, masked person in front of him, all he saw was pitch-blackness. Neither the aura nor the soul’s fire, nothing could be seen.

It was as if the person opposite him wasn’t human…

But a silent, dark, and everlasting phantom!

He couldn’t see through it, and even the soul’s fire was hidden!

Could this be a Morning Star Tier?

At this thought, Sun Jie’s expression grew solemn. During this period, Dayuan City had a severe shortage of Morning Star tier pet beast masters. On top of that, due to the need for stable resource channels, the Evil God Cult had been behaving, with only a few representatives assigned.

But even if those representatives joined forces, they wouldn’t be able to confront a mysterious Morning Star sovereign!

One could only hope that it wasn’t some top dark side powerhouse!

The rest of the crowd observing Sun Jie also stiffened, as even opponents that could shake off the Beast King system’s powerful adversaries required caution…

There were no shortage of smart people in the crowd; they had already begun to look around for the best strategic retreat route.

“If this keeps up, a fight might break out and getting peppered with holes would be too unjust…”

Lu Yu watched the increasingly tense atmosphere, like a powder keg ready to ignite, and the culprits of it all were The Little Hamster’s poor skills.

“I must explain, I can’t let them mistake me for some evil beast master; otherwise, being attacked by the crowd would be disastrous, unless I reveal my identity, but that would be social suicide… After I get back this time, I definitely have to make The Little Hamster practice tirelessly to improve its proficiency…”

Lu Yu thought that with his silver tongue, he could easily resolve the misunderstanding. However, The Little Hamster, still hidden beneath the cloak and busy manipulating shadow tentacles, suddenly felt a strong malice from behind and uncontrollably shivered.

The result was a shadow tentacle quivering and falling out from beneath the yellow robe.

The scene suddenly fell into an eerie silence…