Chapter 54: The Great Elf Plant Heist

Although *Shadow Magic Research* was a forbidden book, the Imperial Magic Realm’s attitude toward Shadow Magic wasn’t to treat it as entirely taboo. Instead, it existed in an ambiguous gray area.

This was primarily because, unlike the Death God Faith which was viewed entirely as an evil heresy, the patron Divine Spirit of Shadow Magic—the Shadow Goddess Selena—was no obscure, backwater Divine Spirit. She was a legitimate member of the Seven Gods under the Supreme Holy Spirit, the Divine Spirit of thieves and craftsmen who presided over shadows, chaos, and deceit!

Although the concepts associated with the Shadow Goddess Selena were rather unpopular, and public opinion of her was far lower than that of the other six of the Seven Gods, she was undeniably an official Divine Spirit recognized by the Holy Light Church. She even had her own divine seat in the Pantheon of the Imperial Capital!

This moral legitimacy forced the Magic Association to swallow their distaste and exclude Shadow Magic from the list of Forbidden Magic.

However, compared to the orthodox and politically correct Main Magic Systems of wind, earth, water, and fire, Shadow Magic was still deeply unpopular.

This wasn’t just because Shadow Magic was rife with malicious effects like invisibility, curses, and confusion that easily facilitated crimes. It was also because the ruthless Shadow Goddess Selena was the only mob boss of a Divine Spirit who collected protection money from her own followers!

The price for using Shadow Magic was simple: paying the Shadow Goddess with one’s own lifespan!

Every time a Mage cast a Shadow Magic spell, their lifespan would rapidly drain, with the loss proportional to the level of the magic used. This made Shadow Magic the only school on the entire continent without a Grandmaster-tier Magic Spell.

Why? Because every Mage in history who had attempted to cast a Grandmaster-tier Shadow Magic spell had dropped dead on the spot from overdrawing their lifespan!

It was widely known that Magic Spells were divided into four tiers: Apprentice, Professional, Master, and Grandmaster. Successfully casting a Grandmaster-tier magic required the Magic Power of at least a seventh-tier Senior Mage!

Yet advancing as a Mage was incredibly difficult.

Aside from peerless geniuses like Simon Adrian, the vast majority of Mages would never touch the threshold of the seventh tier in their lifetimes. Those who did successfully advance to a Senior Mage were usually frail old men in their seventies or eighties, with one foot already in the grave!

These Shadow Mages didn’t have many years left to live in the first place. Couple that with the lifespan consumption of casting Magic...

If they didn’t die, who would?

Therefore, as a magic faction that was both evil and suicidal, Shadow Magic was not only officially excluded from the standard magic teaching curriculum by the Magic Association, but Shadow Mages themselves were also crushed at the very bottom of the magic pecking order!

Typically, when other Mages encountered the rare specimen that was a practitioner of Shadow Magic, they would greet them like this:

"Hey, how are you? How many Shadow Magic spells did you cast yesterday? How many days do you have left to live?"

Due to public disdain and the fact that Shadow Mages invariably died off rapidly, the lineage of Shadow Magic was now almost entirely extinct on the continent. The number of surviving Shadow Mages was barely greater than that of wild South China tigers.

This also resulted in the Magic Academy locking away *Shadow Magic Research* deep within the Forbidden Book Library, much like the World Health Organization sealing away the smallpox virus. In the eyes of the vast majority of Mages, this magic faction—which wasn’t officially forbidden but might as well have been—was better off going extinct sooner rather than later.

However, to successfully secure the Elf Plants, Xiahou Yan decided to risk his life this time with Shadow Magic!

Of course, since no one could predict their own lifespan, the Lord wasn’t naive enough to seek death by casting a Grandmaster-tier magic. When he opened *Shadow Magic Research*, he merely turned to the Chapter on the Apprentice-tier magic, *Shadow Stealth*.

True to its name, *Shadow Stealth* was an Invisibility Magic.

Unlike the Invisibility Technique, which altered the refraction of light, or the Sense Concealing Skill, which manipulated the enemy’s perception, *Shadow Stealth* achieved its invisibility by temporarily plunging a person into the Shadow Plane. Because the target of *Shadow Stealth* was actually projected into another Plane, it was the most reliable and undetectable method of invisibility.

In other words, it was perfectly suited for today’s mission of stealing the Elf Plants!

Xiahou Yan focused intently as he chanted the Iolian Ancient Language Spell for *Shadow Stealth*. The Spell was short, and the Chanting ended quickly. A thick cloud of black mist drifted from his hands, enveloping the Igor Family’s band of master thieves.

The group only felt a sudden chill wash over their bodies.

Take Alice Comstock, for example. The moment the black mist enveloped her, a massive wave of emptiness surged in her chest, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut. By the time she opened them again, the world in her vision had completely changed!

Although it had been nighttime previously, the street facing the Monastery of the Summit of Glory was still illuminated by streetlamps and the lights from neighboring houses!

But now, the entire world had turned into a realm of pure, profound darkness, so pitch-black she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face!

Even the moon and stars in the sky coyly hid their faces, like shy beauties concealed behind veils!

At the same time, the only things visible in her field of view were fuzzy, dark gray shadows of various sizes. They writhed slowly, causing the female swordsman to feel a sudden, inexplicable palpitation in her heart—