The blacksmith was silent for a while, digesting the information that he had just learned. “… Can you tell how much of my life force was stolen?”

Red hesitated again, but he knew there was no point in hiding the information from his master. “… Three decades at least.”

The youth was expecting Goulth to show shock or dismay at this revelation, but instead, the man let out a small laughter.

“Bah! To think I was worried about dying against the imperials…”

Red frowned at this reaction. “Are you not worried?”

“Why should I?” Goulth shook his head. “Didn’t you listen to me earlier? I have already accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish anyway, so why would I worry about dying?”

‘This same speech again…’

“You don’t need to die.” the youth said. “Life force isn’t impossible to recover. If you come with us, we can seek a way to help you in the Crystal Sky Sect.”

The blacksmith snorted. “What nonsense is this? You think I want you to waste your time with an old man like me? Even if there was a way to heal me, it would be extremely expensive, and I would rather kill myself than to become a burden on my disciple!”

Red sighed. “Why must you be like this?”

The youth just couldn’t comprehend how people like Rog and Goulth felt so compelled to embrace death. Even if one lost the main joy in their life while the other accomplished everything they wanted to, he just couldn’t understand what would push someone to seek their own death in such a way. In this cultivation world where everything was possible, Red thought it only natural that one should seek to struggle for as long as possible for even the faintest possibility to recover that which you lost or to find purpose anew.

It was what drove him back then in the underground when survival was his only reason for living and freedom didn’t seem possible. This hope was made him unable to understand the oblivion these two walked towards willingly.

“You’re too young to understand it.” Goulth shook his head. “The drive that kept me going when I was young has burned out a long time ago… I accomplished what I wanted to do, and now the best end I can hope for is dying a worthy death. It’s the only sort of dignity I have left of my cultivator spirit.”

Red frowned. “Is that what a cultivator spirit is? To seek a worthy death?”

The blacksmith smiled. “For me, yes. For you, this is clearly not the case, which is why I know you will accomplish great things in the future, and why I feel at ease letting go.”

The youth wasn’t any closer to understanding Goulth’s mentality, but he also accepted the fact this was something he probably would never comprehend. In spite of that, when he looked into his master’s eyes, he saw a resolve that gave him no choice but to respect the man’s decision, as doing otherwise would be an insult to what the man stood for.

It was the same kind of gaze that Red saw in Viran’s eyes on the day he left him to die in the underground.

He looked over at the runes on the table. “… I should never have tried to study them.”

Goulth laughed. “It’s not your fault. I was the one with far more experience and that still decided to help you. The knowledge we gained is something no one else in this world knows about, and that alone makes it worth pursuing. Besides, we couldn’t have predicted this could have happened with the Blood Moon.”

Red shook his head. “It’s a demonic rune. We should have expected the worst.”

“If you knew this could have happened, would that have stopped you from studying it?”

“If I knew it came at the cost of your life force, I would have not done it in your presence… but I probably wouldn’t have given up on it.” The youth couldn’t bring himself to lie in front of the man.

Goulth nodded, as if he was expecting this response. “Then let this be a lesson: don’t underestimate the demonic powers you are dealing with, even if you feel like you have absolute control over them. It’s better that it came at the cost of an old man’s life like me rather than your own.”

The way the blacksmith put it didn’t make the youth feel any better, but he knew what his master wanted to say. Even after taking every safety measure necessary, there was no guarantee that these demonic powers he was dabbling in would be safe for himself and for those around him. After all, there were a lot of cultivators far more experienced and stronger than him in the world that still refused to use demonic powers despite the enormous advantages it provided. Were these people stupid or just extremely righteous in their ways? Could they not find a way to combat the corruption, not even in small quantities? That was unlikely, which meant that there were obvious drawbacks other than the pollution of their being and morals that pulled them away from it.

The unexpected and violent way these infernal runes reacted to the Blood Moon was likely one such reason. Demonic powers were unstable and unpredictable, and the way they reacted to the world and its elements was not something that was documented to any extent - or if it was, such records were lost with the destruction of the demonic sects.

Red was walking blindly on this path, and this lesson he learned came at a great cost to someone close to him, even if the blacksmith wanted to tell him otherwise. This wasn’t something he would ever forget.

“We should destroy these runes.” he said, making a decision.

“No!” Goulth grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t do that!”

Red frowned. “Why not?”

“They might still be useful!”

“If I leave them as they are, your life force will probably be drained completely.”

In fact, Red was rather afraid of just standing close to these glowing runes. He didn’t feel like his life force was being drained at the moment, but the mere possibility was enough to frighten him.

“You don’t need to leave all of them,” Goulth shook his head. “Just leave this one.”

The blacksmith pointed at a particular rune. This symbol was the first infernal rune they drew, and the one that had left the biggest mark on them.

“The blood explosion rune?” Red asked.

The blacksmith smiled. “Yes. Its power might not be as good as a proper talisman, but it is capable of something no other rune I know can do. With this, I can take anyone by surprise.”

Goulth was, of course, referring to the ability they named this rune after. As with every infernal rune, it was fueled by blood, but it also made said blood explode once it had fed on enough fluid.

Red and his master theorized in the past that a powerful way to use this rune was to plant it over an opponent’s bleeding wound, which would likely cause the flesh in that area to explode. They didn’t test this theory in combat before due to fear of revealing these highly demonic powers to the public, not to mention they couldn’t necessarily mass produce these runes.

Now, however, this wasn’t as much of a concern with his master impeding life or death conflict.

“Even a single rune might still absorb a lot of your life force.” Red said.

“It still won’t be enough to kill me overnight, will it?” Goulth asked.

The youth looked around the table. There were about twelve runes, so if the math stood true, keeping just one of them would be equivalent to a twelfth of the life force-absorption. Considering Goulth lost about 30 years’ worth of vitality in the course of three or four days, this would mean he would lose about 2 and a half years every three days with just one of them.

This was still an enormous loss by any accounts, which made Red hesitant to agree to this.

Goulth, however, looked at him with a resolved expression. “Come on, kid. I’m not as good in combat as Domeron or Rog. I need something to take my enemies by surprise.”

“What if battle doesn’t come for weeks until after we are gone?” the youth asked.

“Then I will destroy the rune myself. I don’t intend on falling dead before the battle comes.”

Red sighed. “Then do as you will.”

At this point, he knew better than to try to stop the blacksmith.

Goulth smiled with his pale expression. “Great! I’ll destroy the rest of them myself.”

He was true to his word and started to tear the rune hides apart with a knife. The glows of the infernal runes were quick to disappear as their form was damaged, and soon enough there was just one of them on the table, which Goulth swiftly stored inside of a chest.

Red was relieved as he saw this, but his spirits weren’t totally settled. Something the two of them had yet to acknowledge due to the problem with the runes was that this might be one of the last opportunities they would have to meet as student and master, and the youth didn’t quite know what to say or how to react.

Back then, he didn’t feel so hesitant to part with the dying Viran, partly due to the lack of guarantee of his own survival and also due to the fact that his relationship with the old warrior was based on mutual-benefits from both parties. With Goulth, though, this couldn’t be more different.

The blacksmith took Red on with open arms from the first day he arrived in the sect, wanting nothing but to impart his knowledge upon an inexperienced but ambitious child. Even when he didn’t display the same passion for crafting as his master, Goulth didn’t give up on him, willing to accept the youth as he was rather than trying to shape him into the idealistic image he had for a disciple.

This was the man Red knew he could count upon when he needed help - the man who was willing to accept and teach him despite his dark secrets and the danger he represented to others. He was the youth’s most trusted confidant, someone whom Red never felt the slightest need to suspect or be on guard against right from their first meeting - perhaps the only such person in his life.

Goulth was his trusted and loyal master, and only now did it seem to dawn on the youth that he was about to lose this connection very soon. He didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t want to leave without saying anything either, so instead he just stood there, looking at the table with a blank expression.

Goulth, however, broke the silence a bit later. “I have something for you.”

Red snapped out of his daze and looked at the blacksmith. “What is it?”

“Here.” The man handed over a leather-bound book to him.

The youth grabbed it and stared at the rather heavy and old tome that seemed on the edge of falling apart. He recognized it almost instantly.

This was the same book the blacksmith showed him the first time they met. The accumulation of the knowledge of a lineage of master blacksmiths that originated all the way back when the Amber Saber Sect was still alive.

“It’s time for me to pass you this.” Goulth said. “I know you might not pursue blacksmithing in the future, but this will still be useful for you either way if you ever plan to forge your own artifacts. Who knows, maybe one day you might have a disciple that is interested in blacksmithing and you can give this to them so they can add their own pages to it.”

Red didn’t say anything, staring at the book in silence.

The blacksmith continued with a shrug. “Truthfully, I don’t really care either way. I think as long as this book serves you well in your journey, it doesn’t matter to me if someone adds any more pages to it.”

“… Thank you.”

Red put the book on the table and bowed towards his Goulth, something he had learned other disciples did towards their master, but something he had never done before this moment.

Goulth seemed taken aback. “What are you doing?! I don’t want any kiss-ass disciples!”

The youth frowned. “But I thought-”

“Bah, just get out of here already if you’re done!” The blacksmith waved him off. “I have better things to do than to have you grovelling at my feet!”

Red was confused, but he still walked away as he was told.

Despite his words, though, the youth could feel a change in his master’s fluctuation. Even in his weakened state, his fluctuation didn’t flutter or tremble.

It seemed like Goulth was at complete peace.