I can return to the age of mysterious

Chapter 23: 023 Freebie Cheats_1 Chapter 23: 023 Freebie Cheats_1 “Who are you?!” Casio’s eyes widened.

Unexpectedly, the imposter immediately dashed towards a corner. Five seconds later, he was apprehended by Casio, his throat clasped by a muscular arm. He was forcibly pulled into a nearby alcove.

“Heh heh heh . . .”

The imposter’s throat emitted a wheezy, broken sound.

“Speak! What exactly are you?!” Although Casio apprehended the imposter, a chill of terror still ran down his spine. He’d noticed the absence of his own shadow!

“Hee hee hee.” The only response from the imposter was a cold laugh.

Suddenly, Casio felt the other “him” in his grip grow bigger, taller and stronger. This was immediately followed by violent struggling, the imposter violently elbowing back.

The blow landed hard on Casio’s belly with great strength.

Casio grunted, determination flaring in his eyes. His right hand tightened, the trained muscles in his arm as hard as steel. With a pull from his left hand, exerting force in one direction.

“Ugh!” The imposter’s eyes widened immediately, his hands abandoning their attack to desperately try to pull the arm locked around his neck.

Fingernails pierced deep into Casio’s flesh, fresh blood mixed with rainwater, dropping onto the street below.

“Who would have thought that one day I would kill myself with my own hands!”

Casio grunted as he pulled his arm upward. The imposter’s body jerked twice before going still.

Casio, not entirely convinced, maintained the grip for more than a minute ensuring the imposter wouldn’t wake up.

“Huh! Huh! Ha . . .”

In a gloomy alleyway corner, a man and a corpse slumped against the wall. Raindrops like cobwebs fell on the pitch-black hair.

Casio lifted his head, giving the deep grey sky a vacant look.

He had killed someone, another version of himself. Inexplicably, a sense of panic welled up inside Casio. After a moment, he shoved aside the confusion and was replaced by ruthlessness.

His current situation was far from safe, Casio needed tusks and strength to protect himself. Anyone looking to harm him would pay the price, be it human or not.

With clarity in thought, Casio returned to his senses. He quickly surveyed his surroundings. Due to the rain, the streets were deserted.

“I need to deal with the body quickly!”

He looked down only to see that the corpse was dissolving in a bizarre manner, transforming into a blurry and writhing shadow.

In a swish, the shadow returned to Casio.

In an instant, a flood of information surged into his mind.

He had been parasitised!

In those ancient ruins.

At the moment when he was forced to lean against the broken stone column.

The parasite was something called a shadow demon, where it came from and the reason for its parasitism, Casio did not know. He only knew that shadow demon had a mysterious logic and function.

A Shadow Demon, as the name implied, was a creature that dwelled in shadows. After a certain period, the demon would clone the host from the previous day. Mastery of Physical Body, muscle memory through training, even combat techniques would be perfectly etched.

The host, on other hand, would have only one more day of combat experience and techniques. A desperate battle would ensue, if the host dies, the demon takes over the body.

If the Shadow Demon is killed, the host will acquire all the combat techniques, experience, and physical strength from themselves a day ago.

This was as if all your efforts doubled! It sounded wonderful, but defeat would result in immediate death.

The memory, personality, and physical body would all be replaced by the Shadow Demon.

A key point was that the Shadow Demon wouldn’t be finished with just one death, it had nine lives. Only after defeating it nine times could one completely shake off its parasitic hold. If you could win against a demon with a probability of one in two, then the probability of winning nine times in a row would be one in five hundred.

In reality, this probability would only be lower. Because many people who were parasitized by shadow demons did not know and were directly ambushed and killed the first time the shadow demon appeared. The demon’s viciousness and cunning was more suited to fighting than most people.

Out of five thousand or even ten thousand individuals, perhaps only one parasite host can shake off the demon.

It was a chance filled with despair.

But . . .”

Casio touched the Wind Elephant Ivory Pendant, his expression strange.

If he remembered correctly, during the entry into the Era of Retrospection, the outside world remained still. When he returned to reality, the gains of several months or years of training would be immediately reflected on his body, much like the time in the ruins.

So . . . was he the natural predator of the Shadow Demon?

From the first manifestation of the Shadow demon, every subsequent manifestation was fixed. The second manifestation was after a month, the third was two months later, and so on.

A total duration of thirty-six months, a total of three years.

For example, Casio’s next face-off with the demon manifestation was on the 4th of July at 6 pm. He could choose any point between 6 pm on 3rd July to 6 pm on 4th July. It didn’t need to be too early or late.

At that point in time, Casio would choose to retrospect.

As such, when the shadow demon manifested at 6 pm on July 4, it would be faced with a Casio completely different from itself, a Casio who had the benefit of several more months or years of cultivation!

Being the stronger, Casio would fight a weakened version of himself that was clearly at a disadvantage. The shadow demon wouldn’t even have a chance.

At this thought, Casio blinked. Somehow, he seemed to have obtained an unexpected advantage.

Taking a deep breath, Casio grew alert again. Earlier, he’d assumed the perfect scenario, but there were several loopholes.

The primary issue was the recently awakened Retrospective Ability, it could absorb Obsession Energy from Legendary Antiques and retrospect to that era. But the Retrospective Ability needed to consume Obsession Energy, consumed one at a time.

The Obsession Energy in the Wind Elephant Ivory Pendant was gone, Casio needed to find new antiques implying Obsession Energy.

Secondly, retrospecting to the memory of the antique’s original owner. Casio must complete the original owner’s obsession; otherwise, the results could not be brought back.

In such a case, he would be equally matched with the Shadow Demon.

The road ahead was not all rosy, there were many hidden potholes and falling rocks on the way up the mountain. He couldn’t be complacent from the start.

Brave the hardships, savour the success.

“The wound has healed.”

In the rain-soaked alleyway, Casio glanced at his arm. The scratch marks that had been previously made had all healed up.

Even more, he could feel that his skin was now stronger than before, his muscular lines now more robust and powerful.

He flexed his body and felt an immediate increase in his strength, his physique looking more rugged.

It appeared as though he had shot up several centimetres in height.

Calming his mind, a steady stream of combat techniques flooded his mind. That was the memory of a person identical to him, training for six months. The results were now all layered onto Casio.

“Elephant Soul Secret Technique: Spike at 27.6% (divided into three parts)”
“Wind Elephant Fist incomplete: Gale at 9.9% (divided into three parts)”
“Wind Elephant Basic Combat Technique: …”