Curse The Mainframe - Chapter 430

The Shadow Panther was a being that was made for assassination. It was half in the illusory realm, and half in reality.

One could hardly tell that it was there if they weren’t paying enough attention. Even then, 95% of the people were never able to tell before it was too late.

The panther quietly melded into the shadows, remaining incorporeal and invisible from plain sight.

The Shadow Panther never acted unless it had certainty, and it didn’t like to act against the strong ones. Instead, it liked to lurk around in the darkness and strike at the most opportune time.

Compared to most creatures and monsters, the Shadow Panther was smart and cunning, and it would run away when it thought that it no longer had a chance of winning, and it would not obstinately stalk its prey.

This particular Shadow Panther was currently following a group of four without any problems.

None of them had discovered its presence yet, and it had tried phasing in and out several times.

Of them, there was only one of moderate strength, and the other three could be disregarded.

The way that the Shadow Panther measured its prey’s strength was by its bloodl.u.s.t and killing intent.

Other than the tallest figure, the other semi-notable one was a human with black hair and red eyes.

The other two could be ignored altogether and dealt with leisurely.

The Shadow Panther crept along, stalking its prey as they flew from place to place.

They were searching for something, and the Shadow Panther felt unease rising as it realized that they were heading towards the hidden grounds that none of the beings felt comfortable with.

It was guarded by the Supreme Being, and that was its territory.

The Shadow Panther’s eyes flashed, and it made up its decision. It had already stalked its prey for a good amount of time, and if it did not act now, then it would be losing the prey to the Supreme Being.

Thinking of this, it melded even more securely with the shadows and crept up on the four at a speed that was faster than what they were using.

Alec’s eyes flashed as he noticed how the creature that had been stalking them the entire way and dispatching those other lower-ranked creatures and monsters that had ‘designs’ on them start to make its move.

The Shadow Panther didn’t know that it had already been long discovered by the four of them. If they didn’t have Alec, they would have been hard-pressed to notice its existence, but with Alec’s disgustingly powerful ears, how could they be in the dark?

Clang!

A small but powerful dagger shot out and targeted the Shadow Panther’s eyes, but the creature quickly shut its eyes, causing its metal eyelids to slide over and prevent the dagger from doing any harm.

The moment the Shadow Panther made its move, it had to fade back into reality, which meant that it was fully corporeal.

Shocked, the Shadow Panther retreated a little before melding back into the shadows.

The creature had a lingering fear as it was shocked out of its wits before becoming enraged. How dare those humans scare it?

Once again, it circled them before attacking Alec, who fought it off with some difficulty.

Seeing how its attacks weren’t working, the Shadow Panther went for one of the weaker ones – being Le Xuan.

Le Xuan revealed a big grin and she stuck out her tongue and faded into shadow as well, causing the panther to miss.

The Shadow Panther let out a silent growl as it continued to try and assassinate the various members of the team.

At first, Katherine and Ye Sha were a little overwhelmed, but with time, they grew steadier and accustomed to the Shadow Panther’s tactics.

Before long, the Shadow Panther narrowed its eyes as it realized that something was wrong.

He couldn’t exactly deal damage to them, but they couldn’t do damage to it either.

With a yowl, it decisively left, melding back into the shadows.

It would look for other, less deceptive prey. It knew that there were many humans who had come in alone. They would be easy pickings.

Alec watched it go without doing anything. Hmm. It realized so fast that Alec was hiding his strength? After all, they were just using it to temper Katherine, Ye Sha and Le Xuan.

There would be stronger opponents in the future that would have the same abilities.

Of the three, Le Xuan was relatively better off, and she seemed to be developing and furthering her control over the shadows as well as her body.

In this place, Le Xuan would be like a fish in water, which delighted her greatly.

Not only did her survivability skills increase, she was also increasing her control.

The four of them made their way deeper into the city unmolested after the Shadow Panther fled.

The deeper in they headed, the more they realized that the originally modern city started to have some discrepancies.

There started to be different styles of buildings that didn’t seem to come from the same era, or perhaps it was just from a different culture altogether.

It made Le Xuan and Katherine marvel, but to Ye Sha and Alec, they narrowed their eyes.

They could recognize some of these styles across the eras, and throughout the different worlds.

This ruin seemed to be a mishmash of the various times, across various civilisations. It just made the two of them more certain that this had to be done by someone else that was either stronger or more powerful than Ye Sha.

Judging by how they could block Ye Sha trying to look into the ruins, this was also certain.

But still, there was not yet any outside interference, which meant that things were somewhat autonomous. Otherwise, they would have already made a move on Ye Sha.

They turned into an area that had very Asian-style buildings. There were paper lanterns hanging around each building, and the lights were lit, but not a single person could be seen on the street.

Even the shadow creatures and monsters that had designs on them previously all fled once they neared the area.

It was eerily quiet, and even their normally silently footsteps seemed to echo.

It could be seen that there was an even stronger monster inside here, preventing them from entering its territory.

An unknown sense of fear washed over the four of them, and they grew more solemn, watching their footsteps.

Alec had the feeling that whatever was here was slumbering, and it didn’t particularly care about them as long as they didn’t make too much noise.

Le Xuan spoke quietly, but it still seemed to echo. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” she said, her eyes were wide and curious.

Katherine nodded as well. “It feels very magical. We won’t find anything like this back on our land.”

Alec smiled quietly. Of course they wouldn’t. This place was born from a different culture, and as different cultures and civilisations emerged, their styles of buildings would change over the years.

“This way,” Ye Sha said, leading them onwards.

They headed towards the towering building in the middle of the region that looked like a nine-storied pagoda.

The pagoda was stunningly beautiful, painted in reds and gold, and it exuded a sense of elegance and class.

Ye Sha pushed the doors open.