Ryu slowly made his way to the stadium. The festivities can be felt in the air as music rang throughout the streets and smell delicious food flooded people’s nose. Ryu blended in with the shadows and snuck in to the stadium.

Everything looked identical as three years ago to him. The contestants were lined up, the recruiters were on the bleachers watching the fights intently, and someone familiar stood out from the crowd. It was his very own teacher from the Inferno Fist School!

“Teacher has reached level 14. That’s good.” Ryu whispered to himself with a smile. Seeing his teacher made him miss his grandpa that much more.

Without further ado, Ryu decided to expose the Wang family.

Sneaking off to the side where nobody is watching, Ryu put on an enchanted black cloak. This cloak was a Rank 7 item, forged by those that have at least entered the King Domain. The ability granted was simple; it allows Ryu to slip off almost completely into the shadows. Unless one pushed their aura to the utmost limit and spread it around, Ryu is practically invisible.

Before Ryu started, he noticed another familiar face on the stage. Guan-Xia whom Ryu utterly defeated for doing indecent acts on his senior classmate, Eu-Meh, three years ago was on stage dueling another teenager. Due to his horrible performance and even worse behavior, he wasn’t recruited to any good sects so his only option was to take this examination again.

Ryu concentrated his Qi into the earth and lightly stomped his right foot. The ground beneath Guan-Xia’s right foot sank a bit, causing him to lose balance and get hit squarely in the jaw. As Guan-Xia attempted to get up, he slipped again as the earth beneath him shifted.

Not a lot of people guard against Qi attacks from the ground because it is so uncommon. Ryu realized this in his fight against Fang-Da. Even the referee couldn’t figure out why Guan-Xia was flopping around like a fish. Each time he’s about to get, his legs would spread apart as if he’s doing a split. His hands could not hold onto the floor either. This was due to Ryu’s earth manipulation.

Kwong knew something was wrong and flew downwards from the VIP room, blasting the door down.

“No one can make fun of my son and get away with it.” He hissed. His son had already brought so much shame to his family three years ago and it’s happening again.

Just as Kwong arrived, Ryu stopped with his tricks.

“Who dares go against my Wang family? If you have the balls, come up and face me!” Kwong announced to the whole stadium. The ten thousand or so audience started murmuring amongst themselves.

“Patriarch of the Wang family, explain to everyone present how you acquired the blacksmithing methods used by your business today. Leave no details out.” A mysterious voice boomed out. It was clear and concise, the inner Qi backing it up was clearly very strong.

“The methods are from the Infernal Fist, Freezing Rain, and Violet Steel blacksmiths. My father and I employed people from the Devouring Ghost Sect and the Death Origin Organization to assassinate our competitors and steal their techniques a hundred and thirty years ago.” Kwong spoke in a robotic voice. It was as if he’s hypnotized. His eyes are dull and his face was emotionless. A great deal of people gasped, most of them were adults. The two powers Kwong hired were infamous for all the wrong reason.

The Death Origin Organization was one of the biggest underground assassination business. They are rumored to have started wars, killed all kinds of big shots and most importantly they are one of the major powers on the Dark Continent. Ryu didn’t know how much of a big deal when Alexis mentioned it but seeing everyone’s reaction he realized how powerful they are now. The Devouring Ghost Sect is infamous in its own ways too. They practice forbidden arts that consumes humans to enhance their own power!

“Show us.” The mysterious voice boomed out again. The lord of city tried tracing it but the stadium is far too big, with his aura he can’t cover even half of it. Besides, what Kwong revealed was beyond shocking and took more priority.

Three years ago a powerful beast in the Emperor Domain at least threatened to destroy this city and thankfully a Wudang elder was around by chance to fend it off. Even the elder was gravely injured. Afterwards the imperial army and Wudang sent more people to investigate and concluded that such a devious beast was not native to the Heaven Continent. Since it retreated back into the Forbidden Forest, the investigation couldn’t continue due to the potential wraith the forest might bring if humans go too far.

Kwong took out the storage ring he loaded up earlier. It contained all the stuff from his secret treasure vault. One after another, he took out manuals and artifacts he stole with the help of hired assassins.

“There’s over ten blacksmithing manuals there!”

“Has the Wang patriarch lost his mind?”

“The Violet Steel methods, that bastard! It belongs to my Huang family!”

“Is this for real? The Death Origin Organization is one of the major forces on the Dark Continent!

“Was he responsible for the incident three years ago?”

Countless abuses, cry of shock and protest shot out from the restless crowd.

After Kwong took out the last remaining item related to the assassinated blacksmiths, he snapped out of his trance. He knew what happened but he was powerless to stop it.

That’s not possible. How could he have such a specialization? Binding one person completely to a contract. Is his real cultivation hidden from me? Even if his level in doubled to over 80, an expert in the Supreme Domain shouldn’t have something like this… Kwong had been living for nearly two centuries now. After breaking into the Grandmaster Domain almost a century ago, his lifespan had increased by a few hundred years. His knowledge of specialization is deeper than commoners and low level cultivators.

Kwong was right. Due to the mysteries regarding Ryu’s second reservoir, Ryu was able to create a specialization that should not exist. First of all Ryu is giving up nearly nothing, as long as his opponents agree, he can set whatever terms he wants and that person can’t disobey.

Usually when establishing a specialization, you make a request and you offer a condition. Just like any bargain, you don’t want to offer too much. Ryu offered the simplest condition first – as long as he gets an agreement, he can impose laws on them. Unexpectedly the specialization was accepted. Since Ryu had no master, he didn’t know how hard it was to establish a specialization. Most fail numerous times but Ryu was able to create two with one try each!

“Arrest him!”

“I want the Wang family to pay with blood!”

“I can’t believe I ever bought stuff from them!”

The people were outraged as they should be. The Wang family became one of the three strongest families in Frost Fire City within a century. The only one that is above him is the city lord but his power came from the Lin Empire.

“Do you think it’ll be that easy to capture me?” Kwong hollowed out. The situation has turned from worse to worst in a matter of seconds for him.

“Don’t resist, answer all questions asked and you are forbidden from using Qi until every single one of your evil deeds are resolved.” A small whisper entered his ears. Ryu had purposely sent a private voice message with air Qi, directing the sound waves to a localized area.

F*** no! Kwong screamed in his mind. His body was disobeying him yet again.

Although the crowd yelled out for justice. No one here is really capable of subduing Kwong, a grandmaster expert! Even if another grandmaster fought him, fighting to a standstill is the most likely outcome. The city lord isn’t confident in capturing him at all.

The ground beneath Kwong shook and a small golem rose up. It was a mini version of the Terra Golem that Ryu created. It held Kwong up by his armpits and all Kwong could do was struggle helplessly in front of over ten thousand people.

Ryu stopped looking and took off his black enchanted cloak. He stepped out of the shadows and maneuvered silently to behind his teacher. Her fist was clutched tightly in shock and rage, her finger nails dug into her palms until blood was drawn.

“That bastard…” Seo-Yon muttered. Words could not describe how angry she was.

“Ms. Lee, calm down.” A low voice came from behind and she felt a hand on her shoulder. Waves of powerful Qi entered her body. She was instantly alarmed but the Qi was warm and friendly, it didn’t show any signs of hostility.

“The secret manuals will be returned to you in time. Right now take your students and head home.” The voice faded and Seo-Yon turned around. There was no one there!

“Who is this person?” She asked to herself. Suddenly a small squeeze was felt on her finger. It was a storage ring! She quickly injected a small amount of Qi inside to see its contents.

Inside was a small hill of gold coins and on top of the coin pile was the Infernal Fist Manual that had been lost for over a century and another mysterious Qi cultivating manual! Alexis only gave Kwong the blacksmithing manual from her ancestor and kept the Infernal Fist for himself. Later Alexis presented it to Ryu to bribe him into getting a treasure.

“Who was he…” Seo-Yon had many questions in her mind but with the manual back along with what seems like a profound fire Qi cultivating method, she was sure she could restore her family’s lost reputation.

Ryu’s job was done so he put on the cloak again and disappeared into the shadows. He easily made it out of the city and ran into the forest.

“It would be troublesome if I flew now and someone saw me.” Ryu said to himself. He didn’t want anyone to find out about him. Leading trouble back to his town was the least he wanted to do so instead of flying on a beast or by himself, he’s going to run from inside the forest. With the help of the enchanted cloak, he’ll remain invisible to anyone that’s under level 60 as long as he is within shadows.

Ryu’s speed is just under a regular flying mount so he arrived at his home town within three hours.

“Wow, it’s been a while…” Ryu said to himself. The town itself hasn’t changed much. Stepping out of the forest he remembers how he used to collect herbs secretly at night for his grandpa. Sometimes even low level monsters would chase him but right now all the monsters flee on sight.

Since a town is significantly smaller than a city and is only ruled by a Master Domain expert, it’s safe to that no one can detect Ryu at all.

Traveling down the old paths he used to take, he finally arrived at his old home. He stood on top of the roof and found that his grandpa wasn’t there.

“Who are these people?” Ryu wondered to himself. Inside was a family of four that was foreign to him.

“Did grandpa move?” Ryu said after observing for a few minutes.

Like a ghost Ryu disappeared from where he stood. Naturally he went to the Infernal Fist School afterwards. His spread his aura around the small campus and found the person he was looking for, his grandpa was in one of the rooms on the second floor with his teacher. Since a flying mount would only take two hours, she must have arrived just a bit earlier than he did.

Ryu flew directly outside of the room and opened the window. Standing on the window sill he excitedly spoke with pent up emotions, “Grandpa! I have---”

Ryu was definitely not ready for this. His aura can detect the Qi of people but not what they are doing. His grandpa was sitting topless on the bed with his teacher in his lap. She was wearing a very thin pajamas. They were in a middle of a joyous conversation when Ryu interrupted. For a minute no one spoke.

Sheng slowly spoke up, “Ryu? It can’t be…”

Covering his eyes, Ryu blushed and said, “Grandpa Sheng it really is me. I’ve returned!”