Chapter 157: Return to the tempering grounds.

"The situation? Haru asked with a hint of confusion.

"Yeah, the situation when you went to the soul tempering grounds. Where tensions high between the three clans? Or did everything seem like it was alright?" Li Jun asked and then thought deeply. He seemed to know more about the soul tempering grounds than he was letting on.

"Tensions? Well yeah, The temple master had to speak to the demon clan about acting out against the other clans. But that wasn't the only thing… There was supposed to be a fight between someone of the human clan and one of the demon clan's princes." Haru said and waited for Li Jun's response.

"A fight between a demon prince? Who won?" Li Jun asked and then looked up at Lao who seemed like he had better things to do as he seemed lost in thought.

"I'm not sure. I left before the fight ended, so it could have gone either way." Haru replied and then looked at the troubled look on Li Jun's face.

"Lao, Can you open op a portal to the soul tempering ground?" Li Jun asked of Lao, He nodded his head with no reaction to what Li Jun had just asked of him and then suddenly there was a white portal hovering above the ground. It was like a vortex spiralling round and round.

"You want me to take a look?" Haru asked with a bit of worry. He had just been told not to go back there by one of his friends and the first thing he was going to do was go back to see what had happened.

"Yeah, we need to get a better understanding of what is going on. It's fine. All you need to do is step back through the portal and you will come right back if you manage to run into any trouble." Li Jun reassured him.

"What if something bad has happened and I die before I can get back to the portal!?" Haru said in protest but Li Jun had already made up his mind.

"Oh don't be silly. It is just the soul tempering grounds. They have a limit to what cultivation level you can be when you enter. You won't find many people that are really strong apart from the elders." He reassured him with a smile to make it seem like he was worrying for nothing.

"Fine… But if I die I am going to haunt you." Haru said before taking a step into the portal. His whole body felt like it was spinning around as his soul was dragged through emptiness before feeling the hard stone floor beneath his feet.

He took a second to adjust his vision but was took back by what he was seeing. The ground in the yard he had appeared in was littered with all different types of weapons like a large scale battle had taken place. But there were no bodies since everyone who was here had to enter with their soul even after a battle there would be no corpses.

But that wasn't the thing that stuck out the most to him. The huge pyramid that he had seen when he had arrived was now in ruins. The stone blocks used to build it were missing from the top and it looked like it had been hit by a bomb with the hole that was missing in the side of it.

He was bewildered by the sight before him. 'Just what happened? Who would do this, I thought they all had an agreement…' He thought as he walked toward the pyramid. But as he got closer he noticed something.

It looked like a body lay on the floor. He couldn't make out who it was but he could see a white robe as he got closer. As he got close enough to recognise the body lay on the floor with a sword piercing his chest he called out and ran toward him.

"Old man!" He shouted before running to the body of the temple master that lay face down by the door of the pyramid. He reached down and held his fingers against the old man's neck to check for a pulse but there was no such thing. His body was cold and not even the slightest bit of Qi surrounded his body.

He was dead. 'How does this make sense? I thought that you could only enter this place with your soul. So how can there be a body here?' Haru thought to himself before sensing a large amount of Qi above him.

He looked up to see what appeared to be a ship floating through the air. It looked similar to a pirate's ship with its black sails and wooden construction but there appeared to be some kind of mechanism that stuck out of the bottom of the ship like pipes and coiled around one another.

"What is…" He began to ask himself as he felt a strong killing intent come from behind him. He reacted by pulling out his sword and trying to block.

A loud crashing sound echoed out as Haru's feet began to slide across the floor as he was hit back by the force of the attack. He then looked up to see a familiar face.

"What are you doing here human? This place is now controlled by the demon clan. How dare you trespass within our territory." Said the demon man who Haru recognised from the first time he had entered the soul tempering grounds. It was the first demon to cause a problem with him when he registered himself to fight.

But he didn't seem to recognise Haru at all since he wasn't wearing the mask that he had worn when he first appeared here.

"Well then explain yourself! The prince has ordered that we capture anyone who trespasses… But if they resist then we can kill them without mercy." He laughed as he looked Haru up and down.

"That sword…" He said while he stared Haru in the eyes.

"What about it?" Haru said before using the breath of shadow technique to appear behind the man and plunging his sword through his chest.

"How did you!?" He coughed out blood as the sword tore through his chest.

"Are you really that surprised? I thought I told you last time that I could kill you at any moment." Haru whispered to him before twisting the sword and cutting through his whole body until the sword was free.

"You are…" He said as his last breath escaped from his lips for his body fell to the floor in a pool of blood.

'That was actually his body!? Just wait is happening. Why can people enter with their bodies?' Haru was struggling to come up with an explanation but it had seemed like the demon clan had decided to take over the soul tempering grounds by force and somehow got their bodies and strange airship to enter…

"You!" The voice of an old man screamed out as he flew through the air toward Haru. One of his arms was missing from the shoulder down. but with his other arm, he was wielding a two-handed sword like it was meant to be used with one hand. He flew with enough speed to make a sonic boom as he dropped down from the airship and landed on the ground creating a crater beneath his feet.

He looked down at the body of the man who Haru had just killed and then up at Haru.

"Are you the one who did this, human?" He asked calmly and then looked into Haru's eyes.

A sense of great fear took over as Haru felt the strength of this man stood before him. It was unlike anything he had encountered before. He couldn't quite explain it but he knew that this man would be impossible to fight against with his current strength.

Haru looked the man up and down for a few seconds while trying to locate a weakness in his stance but he was stood casually and there were still no openings.

'I need to make the first move…' Haru thought as the old demon looked down at the body of the demon that had just died by Haru's hands.

'Now is my chance!' Haru thought as he saw the man's defence open up a little bit.

As the man dropped his defence Haru took the opportunity to retreat back to the portal. He began to run as fast as he could across the yard. 'Fuck that. He is way too strong for me to handle.' Haru thought as he made his escape.

"Did you really think that I would let you go after killing my son?" The man's voice called out from behind Haru as he continued to run.

Haru turned his head to see the man was flying over him. 'Fuck… Fuck… He's going to catch me!' He thought as he turned back and continued running back toward the portal.

"I could kill you now… But I would much rather see where you are planning to run away too. Are the rest of the humans hiding on the other side of that portal? I wonder…" The man said again as he flew above Haru and then sped up toward the portal and landed in front of it and looked back at Haru.

Haru stopped in his tracks and didn't dare to approach the demon stood blocking the portal.

"Did you make this portal?" He asked.

Haru didn't respond he just stood where he was and tried to look for another way out but all the places where portals used to be within the soul tempering grounds had vanished or been destroyed.

"What do you think will happen if I go through it?" He asked Haru another question he couldn't answer.

"You will die…" Haru said in a way that tried to make it sound like he wasn't threatening him. He didn't want to piss him off anymore and make him decide to kill him before entering the portal.

"I will die? Hahaha! Now that is a bold claim! So this is where your Human clan is hiding!" He said before turning back to enter the portal without hesitation.

"Fuck!" Haru shouted before running through the portal following behind the demon.