After Forus successfully sealed off every pore on the infant's body, blocking all the holes that leaked out the air of melancholy, he threw the dead infant towards the already struggling Abicel. The dead infant, who couldn't scream or pumped out the aura of grief, gradually expanded, threatening to explode under the pressure of the unending stream of gas inside its sealed body.

The infant immediately met with the bloody formation, crashing into it directly. The icy layer of frost on its body served as the first layer of protection against the array formation. The freezing aura of ice began to freeze a small part of the structure, creating a flaw in the array formation.

Seeing the ticking time bomb was coming towards her, Abicel face turned pale from fright. She instinctively forced out more of her blood, strengthening the structure and forcing out every last bit of her sorcery energy to cast various spells to banish the female ghost. If she couldn't expel it in time, she knew that not only she would lose her concoction, but her life would also be in a disastrous situation.

Although she may seem to be in a threatening situation with no way out, a prodigy wasn't just a random nobody. If she assuredly felt that her life was going to end, she would still have more means to change the situation and made her escape.

However, the prodigy also had their pride, if she couldn't even deal with this predicament, the higher-ups of the Steel Cauldron would not place their attention at her. Not only that, her trump card should never reveal itself casually as it involved her secrets and inheritance. If she used all of her cards here, she wouldn't be able to use it as a life-saving card in the future.

Not long after her usage of the bloody formation, it had severely weakened the ghost lady, causing her strength to drop rapidly. Although the array formation was exceptional, it also cost a lot to create and maintain. The constant usage of the bloody arrangement caused Abicel's whole body to turn pale and her skin to age.

She weakly raised her finger, creating a revolving fireball around her finger. It expanded itself rapidly and circled the ghost lady, binding her body and readied to banish her. Her bloody array was also sucking out the aura of melancholy inside the figure of the infant, preventing it from an eruption due to massive stress.

At that moment, Forus suddenly pushed the refined physical body of the infant into the burning cauldron, causing the bluish flame to burn the body once more. After that, Forus sent all of the remaining ingredients into the container, combining them with the physical body.

The burning sensation of the corporeal body caused the incorporeal soul that was the ghostly infant to struggle madly, trying its best to break out of the array. This move that Forus had attempted was very taxing. He had to over-boost the flaming intensity of the bluish flame and controlled it with more precise not to damage the ingredients.

Seeing that Forus had taken advantage of her by making her the meat shield while he continued to refine the infant's body, Abicel was getting very enraged. She had to admit that her reckless action had caused this predicament, but, for Forus to use this opportunity to trap her as well as refining his pill at the faster pace, he might be more than he looked like at first glare.

Once she had thoroughly thought over all the possible outcomes, she quickly created a shape of fire that resembled a dagger and cut open a large wound on the ghostly infant, causing its air of melancholy to leak out. She then decisively withdrew her fireball and used the force of the bloody formation to throw the infant towards Forus.

While she had gotten rid of the ghostly infant, she also lost most of her strength. Abicel coughed out blood as she gritted her teeth and focused on banishing the remaining ghost. The ghostly infant that got thrown out didn't turn back to attack Abicel, but it instead flew towards Forus, who was refining its body and was the source of its intolerable pain.

Now, as the infant came into this physical world for a while, it had been learning to control its power rapidly. The infant could observe and replicate the process of manipulating the fundamental energy that Abicel used to bind the ghostly lady. Using its air of melancholy, it condensed them into a concentrated mass of blackness and sent it flying at Forus.

Regarding the approaching mass of melancholy, Forus still ignored it as it couldn't go any meaningful damage to him. He instead let the blazing bluish flame consumed it and used the last bit of the aura to refine the physical shell once more.

However, once the undiluted air of melancholy got near him, his soul slightly shook as multiple strings of faint light appeared and restrained his grey soul. The feeble and incompleted silhouette of an old man slowly manifested above his soul. His consciousness was under the invasion of multitudinous rays of light at the same time as the old man appeared.

The Decaying Dawn Ring on his hand trembled as it continuously emitted the Death Aura, corrupting the surrounding into pale ashes. This change caused the spectators to frown and glared at the examiners and the higher-ups of the Steel Cauldron.

However, in contrast to others, Ocelia Coruscare whose face was expressionless began to breathe slightly quicker. Her face twisted into a pleasant smile, beaming with genuine happiness and realisation.

The feeble figure was none other than Lord Phasma whose first appearance had almost caused Forus his life. The might of the unknown sorcerer who could split his soul into pieces and fused them with the treasures was unpredictable and formidable. Before he got consumed by the strange grey light that slumbered inside the grey soul, he had sent a hint of his fragmented soul inside Decaying Dawn Ring, in case he failed to take over the body and perish.

He would use the Death Aura inside the Decaying Dawn Ring to slowly recover himself to his peak before attempting to take over Forus' body again. However, little did he know that Forus would accidentally trigger the mysterious function of the Decaying Dawn Ring, pushing his weakened self out before the predestinated period.

"Although I am out before I fully recover, it was still better than letting you have your time to cultivate your sorcery. Now that you are at your weakest period, I shall take back what was mine." Without wasting any time, Lord Phasma turned into a ray of brilliant light and shot towards Forus, accompanying with him, several hazy darts flew out from the void and rushed towards Forus, destroying the string of blood that protected his body.

Detecting the ambush, Forus instantly raised his hand and formed a fist. He then retracted the Death Aura inside his soul that was suppressing the spiritual seed with the help of the blazing spiritual power. Once the Death Aura ceased from containing it, the seed quickly fought back madly and swiftly spread out from his unusable right eye, causing pain to travel through his whole body.

Ignoring the pain, Forus burnt his fist with the Death Aura, burning his flesh into the decaying skin, and swang his nasty fist at the nearby ghostly infant. The overwhelming Death Aura broke through the air of melancholy and butchered the ghostly infant in an instant, killing it without letting it have any chance to defend.

After throwing out a punch at the ghostly infant, Forus waved his hand and sent the blazing cauldron at Lord Phasma and his hazy darts, blocking the trajectory of the darts. The bluish flame would consume all the darts that came into contact with it, increasing its power and reducing Lord Phasma's offensive ability.

While Lord Phasma was resisting the bluish flame, Forus made a grasping motion with his other hand, causing symbols to flash and disappear in a chain reaction. Lady Abicel who was about to finish off the ghost lady immediately felt her sense of crisis intensified countlessly, causing her hair to stand up.

The semi-transparent light that stabbed through the ghost lady abruptly exploded, sending out various streams of light, penetrating through everything in the surrounding, eliminating the female ghost and heading towards Abicel. The light repeatedly smashed into the bloody array before breaking it down and proceeded to rush towards her.

The light stabbed into her body, creating numerous wounds on her fragile body. Abicel suddenly collapsed onto the ground. Her face showed a torturous expression of despair. Her scream penetrated the countless soul and shook the atmosphere of the room, turning it gloomy and haunting.

However, her wounds were either superficial and wouldn't be able to diminish her potential, other than the psychological trauma. Now, if she wanted to recover to her peak or ascended towards the higher high of power, she needed to rid herself of the enormous shadow that weighted on her heart.

At the moment her hoarse scream ended, a cold snorted resounded the whole testing ground. Countless pale snowflake flew towards Abicel, enveloping her body as it touched her skin. The magical snow emitted a freezing wind to freeze the wounds and stopped the bleeding while recovering the injuries with the spiritual power inside of the blizzard.

While the blizzard was protecting the dizzy Abicel, a part of it continued to produce several ruby-red spears. The spears were releasing a bloody fragrance like the blood-thirsty monstrosity. Every single one of the spears positioned themselves into a pentagram formation, circling each other while continuously changing their positions.

"Falsus Nomen, you, a mere commoner, dare to harm someone under me?" A ruthless speech echoed the surrounding. The pentagram formation expanded out and shot the spears out successively. Each spear contained the force of the true sorcerer, making the ground trembled, sky rumbled, as it moved through space and time.

The owner of the speech was Glacies Ninguis. His current ruthless expression and domineering behaviour were utterly different from the previously calm and collected presence in front of Ocelia Coruscare. He, as future successor of the Ninguis Family, held his head high and accumulated his pride since his birth.

With superior talents and a great mind, Glacies had always been ahead of his generation, suppressing even his former teacher, who was at the peak of third-layered sorcerer apprentice, when he just advanced to the third-layered.

Only with his rival, Ocelia Coruscare, could he feel some pressure from getting suppressed and left behind. Solely by standing with her, he could become excited and motivated to cultivate. She was the only one from his generation who could stand proud and held her head as high as him.

His competitiveness slowly turned him into a cultivating madman, causing his power to surge and his skills to become much more refined. However, gradually, his feeling towards his rival also shifted from competitiveness into something else, an obsession.

Once he got to the peak of the third-layered, Glacies Ninguis chose to use this desire of his to break through the bottleneck and becoming a first-ranked sorcerer. By becoming a genuine sorcerer, he embraced his obsession and let it burrowed deep into his mind, making him wanted to keep her for himself alone.

"Die." Unnoticed by Forus, a small droplet of greenish elemental particle concealed itself within the group of crimson spears. It travelled alongside the spears, shooting itself towards Forus. It aimed at the right eye, right towards the spiritual seed.

Forus tried to defend himself from the spears of the bloody blizzard, causing him to overlook the droplet. When he noticed the greenish droplet, it was already too late. He wasn't able to activate all his defence, causing the droplet to slip in and penetrated his right eye.

At the moment of crisis, a soft sigh filled with adore and love echoed beside Forus. His entire body felt as if he had returned to his mother's embrace, it was warm and safe. There was not a single hint of pressure within this dreamy state.