"No, no...A name is something unique to humans. If you don't have one maybe you can try to come up with one?" Lin Fan rejected the just-made-up name immediately. How can there be 2 Lin Fan in the same sect!

"Then...Call me Shadow." Shadow pondered for a while before slowly articulating every word.

"Good. Good. Good. Now lets meet the Patriarch. Remember to greet him later." Lin Fan emphasized the word 'good' 3 times, afraid that Shadow will change his mind.

As they were walking towards the main hall where the Patriarch resided at, Lin Fan explained that there existed 3 continents on this planet-Holy Continent ruled by the Humans, Lands of Despair ruled by the Demons and Lands of Eternal Blood ruled by the Devils. The king of the Human race was the known as the Human Emperor, with a cultivation level at the Spirit Ascension Middle Stage-The pinnacle of cultivation that one could achieve in the Mortal World.

"Greetings Senior Brother Lin Fan." Along the way, they were greeted by several junior disciples which were gazing at him with adoration.

After exchanging some formalities and introducing Shadow to the general knowledge of the current world, they arrived in front of the Patriarch.

"Patriarch."

"Master."

Lin Fan and Shadow cupped their hands and greeted Patriarch Wei.

"This is..." Patriarch Wei stared at Shadow with a confused look.

"This is Shadow. This was his transformation from the black sphere after I fed him some Dark Qi Pills." Lin Fan quickly explained.

"Dark Qi... Black sphere... It's 100%!?" Patriarch Wei suddenly exclaimed when he realized that the entity before him was the 100% righteous black sphere.

After noticing that he embarrassed himself in front of his disciple, Patriarch Wei briefly cleared his throat and assumed the indifferent look.

"I won't say much, just nurture 100%...I mean Shadow properly. Since Dark Qi is more superior than White Qi, it is also harder to absorb Dark Qi due to its scarcity and the yang characteristics of the human body. However, Shadow has a full yin body so absorbing Dark Qi would be no problem."

"Take this token and bring Shadow to the 7th level of the Martial Techniques Building." Patriarch Wei spoke slowly and tossed a green token with 7 swords carved on it to Lin Fan.

After that, he dismissed the duo and slumped onto the chair, his eyes were void of any energy. In that moment, the Patriarch seemed to have aged a considerable amount. Words like "100%", "gone", "If only" could be heard coming from his mouth time to time...

***

"Lin Fan, what is this Martial Techniques Building?" Shadow finally broke the silence.

Lin Fan was still shock at how casually his master just granted Shadow access to 7th level. One has to know that martial skills were the strength and foundation of the sect, without them, the sect would cease to exist.

Upon hearing Shadow's voice, Lin Fan broke out of his stupor and explained, "Martial Techniques Building is the place where the sect's martial skills are stored at. It has a total of 9 levels-Levels 1 to 3 contain Common ranked skills, level 4 to 5 contain Rare ranked skills, level 6 to 7 contain Profound ranked skills, level 8 contains Spirit ranked skills while the last level contains Secret ranked skills, which is only accessible by the Patriarch himself."

Shadow sunk into a deep thought. 'Why did the Patriarch value him so much?'

At each level, there was a level guardian, they were in charged of guarding the skills stored on each level.

After showing the token to the level 6 guardian, the guardian granted Shadow access to the 6th and 7th level. As for Lin Fan, he was the Patriarch's core disciple so naturally, the 6th and 7th were automatically accessible.

When Shadow walked into the room, several bookshelves were arranged in an orderly manner with a few Elders looking through the skills.

When the duo came in, the Elders lifted up their heads and glanced at them briefly before going back to study their chosen skills.

The Elders knew that as long as the level guardians did not stop the duo from coming in, it meant they were qualified to be here.

Curious, Shadow browsed through the few skills that were closest to him.

[Thousand Sword Fortress]-Profound tier control technique

Description: Using White Qi to form 3 layers of sword wills, trapping the enemy within. Each layers will cause more damage to the target's soul and body.

Usable by: Core formation experts

For some reason, Shadow had a slight shiver when looking at the skill.

"Haha...Ah let's go over there. That's where the Dark Qi skills are located." Lin Fan gave an awkward laugh after noticing the skill. 'Holy cow...Why is this lying here?'

Lin Fan swiftly hid the skill away when Shadow's attention was towards the direction of Dark Qi skills.

***

At the Dark Qi skills section, the skills were covered with a layer of dust, evident that no Dark Qi user had appeared in the sect for a long time.

Shadow immediately wiped away the dust and browsed through all the martial skills.

"Remember to choose 1 cultivation technique, 1 killing technique and 1 defense technique." Lin Fan reminded. One could only borrow 3 books in total for one month before returning them to the building.

A few hours later.

3 books were presented in front of Lin Fan.

[Devourer of Night]-Profound Tier Dark Qi cultivation technique

Description: Relax the mind and body at night and adopt any comfortable position. Regulate breathing to 2 deep and 1 short. Dark Qi will start entering the body after practicing this for 100 times. Circulate the Dark Qi within the body to retain it. Able to increase one's cultivation stage.

Usable by: Dark Qi user with any cultivation stage

[Hidden Dark Swords]-Profound Tier Dark Qi killing technique

Description: Place Dark Qi swords in the ground in a fixed area. It will be activated when target steps on the area. Target with lower cultivation stage than user will die immediately. Target with same cultivation stage than user will sustain grievous injuries immediately. Target with higher cultivation stage than user will experience a temporary decrease in cultivation stage.

Usable by: Dark Qi user with any cultivation stage

[Dark Qi Barrier]-Profound Tier Dark Qi defense technique

Description: Forms a barrier at the user's will using Dark Qi. Able to block Qi and physical attacks.

Usable by: Dark Qi user with any cultivation stage

"..." Isn't this a bit too strong? Any cultivation stage?! Able to lower cultivation stage?! Holy!

Lin Fan was stunned beyond words, to think that Heavens allowed this kind of skills to exist.

Lin Fan sighed at the disparity in skills strength and approved the 3 Dark Qi skills.

"Let's go. Time for you to familiarize yourself with skills. We will check your cultivation stage in a few days time," Lin Fan said and brought Shadow back to his villa.

"Yes Lin Fan," Shadow obediently replied.

"Hahaha, call me brother Lin. From this day onward, we are sworn brothers!" Lin Fan smiled as he hang his arms around Shadow's shoulder.

"Brother... Yes brother Lin!" Shadow exclaimed with a tone of happiness. He felt a feeling that he had never felt before, happiness, so much so that he felt like...crying? So these are tears.

Under the setting sun, 2 youths could be seen laughing and teasing each other like brothers. One of them was wearing the sect's clothes while the other one was cover in black mist, his name is Shadow-brother of Lin Fan.