While an intense battle was brewing outside the Crafting School. Within a secluded cave on the northern peaks of Mt. Crimson.

Students were generally forbidden to enter this part of the schoolgrounds. At the current moment, one of the caves was filled with a warm-red light. Inside that cave was a room about twenty meters in circumference and had a stone altar half the height of a person installed in it. A miniature red sun floated above the altar and hummed with strange waves of energy.

Right beside this ball of light stood a single person. Zi Jin.

It hadn’t been long since the barrier had been activated, but Zi Jin could sense the explosive battle taking place outside along with the auras clashing with one another.

“Ouyang Hua broke his seclusion to fight?!” Zi Jin narrowed his eyes. Walking away from the ball of light, Zi Jin prepared himself to leave this place to enter the fight himself.

The barrier was activated now and could keep itself going. It should be fine without personal supervision.

“Hm?!”

But right as he was turning around…he saw someone!

Someone was walking into the cave. They turned around the corner to walk within eyesight of him. It was a person in black, and a person whose aura was faint, but distinctly there!

An enemy!!

An enemy had somehow entered the Crafting School and managed to stealth their way over to where the barrier’s formation was!

But how!

That was when Zi Jin began to sense a familiar energy from the person. Then when the person gradually got closer to him, Zi Jin could see the person’s face…

The other person came to a stop right in front of him. Curling at the lips, he smiled.

“Master…I trust you’ve been since our last meeting.”

Zi Jin was stunned. He couldn’t help but begin to shake at the body as his rage took hold of him.

“You!!”

He roared with unbridled rage. A sliver of sorrow and disappointment was heard in his voice as well.

Dongfang Ming didn’t even flinch. He simply stood there as if he was enjoying this meeting. “I’ve said it to you before, master. A day would come when I’d return to personally destroy the Crafting School.”

His words felt like daggers to Zi Jin’s heart. The hurt and disappointment he had felt even more pronounced.

“Why…why have you become like this!?”

“Why?” The smile on his face grew wider.

“Do you think I have a secret? Or that I may be controlled by Soul Puppetry? Allow me to inform you then…I am not.”

Looking at Zi Jin’s stunned face, Dongfang Ming continued to speak. “It isn’t very complicated. My goal is simply because of revenge. That’s all.”

Dongfang Ming began to sneer mockingly at his old master. “Revenge for your denial of me. For the Crafting School’s denial of me. You denied me everything and removed me. As such, I have come today to remove you all in return.”

“........”

Zi Jin still couldn’t believe it. The betrayal of his traitorous disciple had hurt him grievously for the last thirty years. But to hear him say these words today…it filled his heart with uncontrollable grief…

“What has…the demon armaments turn you into…” Zi Jin sighed in sorrow as he regained his wits.

Refocused, he glared at Dongfang Ming. In response, the other man took a step forward.

It was a single step, but his person moved ten steps forward somehow as if he was teleporting…

“Pcht pcht pcht pcht…”

The sound of stone being carved out could be heard moments after he took that single step. Scars and scratches could be seen in the place where Dongfang Ming once stood!

It was as if multiple blades had carved the ground! Those scars were so numerous that not even an inch of the original location was left untouched!

This was…the work of a spatial slash! And…invisible ones!

Dongfang Ming took that one step forward to evade this move. Any Soul King would’ve died to it, but he was a Soul Emperor.

“You’re not recovered yet and yet you can still pull off a move as strong as that…master, your Lacus Edge is as powerful as ever. Did you perhaps manage to refine it?”

“Do not call me your master!!”

Incensed by Dongfang Ming’s words, Zi Jin let out a loud roar before he swiped outward with his hands. Something akin to a sword in his right hand glinted in the light before disappearing while a small red shortsword shot out from his left hand!

Zi Jin was a rare soul cultivator capable of both elemental fire and spatial energy. Because of that, his two soul armaments, the space-type Lacus Edge and fire-type Ignis Edge were his main weapons. The Lacus Edge was his lifebound armament and had the ability to unleash invisible spatial tears. Its power was so great and rare that no one familiar with his soul armament would definitely fell prey to them. Even an Early-stage Soul Emperor.

But the person he was fighting wasn’t a stranger. It was his once loved student and a person familiar with him…

“You would have been a Mid-stage Soul Emperor by now had you ignored Cang Yu and her baby. I’d never be able to fight you in that case.” Dongfang Ming shook his head with a small smile. “But that isn’t the case anymore. You…are no match for me!”

He took another step forward and brandished his right hand forward!

The power of an Early-stage Soul Emperor exploded out at once. Red and black light traveled forward to slam int

“Boom!!”

The entire cave trembled as the red light then slammed into Zi Jin’s sword. The Ignis Edge let out a mourning cry before it was rebuffed and sent flying back,

“Pcht! Pcht! Pcht!”

On the right side, the black light Dongfang Ming sent out turned into a wall of black. It extended out toward Zi Jin before several invisible attacks perforated its surface. The wall looked as though it was sliced through by multiple blades, but it continued flying forward!

Dongfang Ming had a dual affinity for fire and darkness!

Zi Jin was forced to use elemental energy to attack, but Dongfang Ming played on a different level. He could harness the power of Law!

In one step, Dongfang Ming was already just less than ten steps away from Zi Jin!

One more step.

He was close!

A streak of red entered Dongfang Ming’s eyes. The neutral expression on his face was gone now. In its place was the cold glare of a man filled with hatred!

And in his right hand was a small blood-red sword!

“Swoosh!!”

The strange soul armament shined ominously in the cave light before it moved to strike Zi Jin’s throat!