“Very well. The fight may begin!”

Just as those words were uttered, a red mist enveloped the whole stage, cutting it off from the outside world! Fang Lu suddenly felt someone’s breath on his exposed neck: he shivered as a demonic presence spread behind him…

He lifted his gaze: Fu Yin had disappeared from his previous position!

“You had pretty intense eyes while fighting with my sis, didn’t you? Maybe you wanted to tell me something?” The other’s amused tone sent a chill down the chubby youth’s spine.

Fang Lu gulped and kicked off the ground, reappearing a few dozen feet away. Once there, he turned around… only to find his legs giving out beneath him!

The whole stage was nowhere close as it had been in the past. Countless vicious, spiked thorns were erupting from the ground, a bloody grass had begun to grow and, as he walked on top of it, the countless small crimson blades bled whenever they were stepped on.

Rivers of fresh, red blood floated in the air while countless, blurry, dark figures whose real appearance couldn’t be seen either as small as an ant or even so big that they covered half of the entire battlefield, all stared at the chubby youth with vicious gazes…

“Welcome, everyone. Let me do the greetings!” Fu Yin spread his arms and winked at the terrified Fang Lu:

“This is my Qi: the Legacy! And such Legacy is none other than the strength of these demons, whom have passed away and now live within these new bodies I have granted them as mere shells of their former selves!”

Fu Yin was smiling as he stood in between the hordes of monstrous shadows. The youth’s two eyes were brimming with life as the two inverted triangles within glinted sharply.

Finally, this pair of eyes feel upon Fang Lu’s trembling figure. His gaze seemed somewhat disappointed:

“So, in the end, I am despised even among those who also wield immense power at their fingertips… if even you, Fang Lu, the chosen to wield the Pāramitān Scroll, actually trembles like so in my presence, what exactly is this identity of mine that induces terror in so many hearts?”

Fang Lu stood up on his wobbly legs, his face extremely pale, as if he had seen a ghost. Yet, despite all this, is voice sounded calm, almost too calm:

“Who are you? You aren’t human, your aura is that which the dead bear!”

The chubby youth examined Fu Yin’s body when his focus feel on the other’s weird pupils:

“Those eyes… in many languages, triangles symbolize the cycle of reincarnation. Life, death, rebirth, the cycle of the living and the dead. The top corner of the pyramid represents life, the bottom corners are death and reincarnation. By putting the two corners of ‘death’ at the top, what does it mean?”

Fu Yin lifted his gaze and smiled bitterly, his inverted triangles shining just as bright as earlier, even if a little bit more melancholy. He lifted one of his hands and caressed the nails embedded in his temples:

“That… is what I had hoped to ask you. However, seeing that you are also unable to answer it, I deem it would be useless to ask you any more… at least, for now. We will have more time later… a lot more.”

“After all, we will leave this place very soon. In just a few moments actually, so pay attention! I guess the Fang Clan should have given you more than enough information about the world, seeing that your sensed Qi is one that follows the nine elements and that you carry a Martial Way on yourself, so I’m going to keep it short.”

Fu Yin’s eyes refocused:

“Under the guise of an attack on the part of the Zhao Clan, we will disappear from the Sect in a few moments.”

“After I receive the signal, we will all be heading towards the center of the Sect and we will leave this plane of existence to venture to another one… more accurately, it is going to be an Ageless quality Plane of Existence.”

Fang Lu paled:

“What…”

“I know, it is quite shocking…” Fu Yin smiled bitterly:

“I too had been surprised when the old man first told me. Apparently, due to the little chaos a few months ago, some higher ups from the Nine Heavens found out that something was wrong… you know what I mean, don’t you?”

“Nine Heavens?” Fang Lu frowned.

Fu Yin rolled his eyes and sighed:

“Dear lord. It means that an ambassador of Tian, lord of the Nine Heavens, is coming here in a few months! And trust me, we do NOT want him to know about our presence here! because of that, we will have to disappear!”

Fang Lu paled:

“The Heavenly Emperor? Why would the Heavens focus on such a lowly Plane? And why should we escape?”

Fu Yin ignored him and lifted his gaze:

“Now, it should be about time!”

Just as those words were uttered, a loud bellow shook the ground:

“ENEMY ATTACK!”

“Is that…” Fang Lu turned and looked at Fu Yin.

Fu Yin smiled: “Yes, that was Lao Jianghu. Pretty loud, wasn’t he? It looks like things are going to get hot out there! Now, shall we go?”

Before Fang Lu could ask anything, be it where, how or why, the air trembled, emitting ripples like that of a pond. Then, what looked like a veil was lifted and a beauty with a pair of wise, red eyes and long, ginger hair falling down her back, suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Her red eyes were faintly glowing purple, however the glow was slowly fading, replaced by the piercing red. As soon as she saw the two youths, she waved her arm:

“Come on boys, hurry! We cannot evade their gazes for much longer!” The woman waved her arm and a large veil spread in the space surrounding her.

Fang Lu frowned as he followed Fu Yin and stood beside the young girl:

“Their?” The chubby youth asked.

“Overseers from the Nine Heavens. For some reason, up to now, they had been unable to pierce the cover of our Plane of Existence... however, soon they will ”

She replied as she closed her blazing eyes and focused:

“They are still not aware what is happening right now. but they will be if we don’t hurry! Stop talking to me and let me concentrate! Yin brat, you know what to do!”

The white haired boy nodded. His pupils had gone back to normal, however his gaze was not lifeless at all, his expression being one of extreme focus and seriousness instead.

Fu Yin waved his hands and two of the smaller demons in the red mist began to twist. Their sizes resembling that of a human in his growing phase and they slowly shed the dark, outer layers of their skin as their appearance turned into that of the young, white haired boy as well as Fang Lu.

Fu Yin tapped his forehead and a tear in space appeared as the claws of a humongous beasts crawled out from within the cracks. Within the beast’s curled hand were two golden swords…

They were extremely fine, mesmerizing, even. The blue-eyed youth grabbed the pair of blades and threw them over to the fake Fu Yin and Fang Lu.

After grabbing the weapons, the two copies turned simultaneously and stabbed each other in the heart with the two glowing swords.

“Got them from the Zhao Clan spies we captured” Fu Yin explained as beads of sweat rolled down his forehead:

“Should be able to fool them for a while, at least up until that tiger is able to cook up something better! I must admit, faking one’s own death sure is exciting! Think of the big reveal!”

“Yeah, yeah, and you will die for real if you do not shut up.” The girl gritted her teeth.

“Uh, why do you say that Iris?” Fu Yin asked, confused. He saw nothing that could possibly threaten their lives.

The girl’s interrupted her chanting and turned to glare at the white haired boy: “Because I’ll end you. Kill you. Slaughter you. Lead you to meet your maker. You will stop breathing and be unable to move, ever, ever, ever again. Capish?”

“...”

Fu Yin shut up. The ginger girl nodded and resumed the chanting of her technique.

Fang Lu brought his hands to his mouth and choked his laughter. Had he not done so, he would have probably been choked himself.

A few moments of awkward silence passed until…

“Ah-ah! I hope your red fog is as thick you said it was, Yin Brat!”

Suddenly, the girl’s purple eyes lit up with blinding violet light. The two youths couldn’t help but shield their eyes, in fear of being blinded by such a bright light. Basked in the light, the woman didn’t close her eyes and, instead, looked right ahead of her.

She lifted her arms and searched for something in front of her… suddenly, her hand grabbed on to something!

“Got it! Kids, grab on to me! And be careful at exactly what you grab. My offer to a one-way ticket to hell still stands.”

The violet sea suddenly seemed to split apart as the frame of a completely white door, shining even brighter than the violet light, appeared in midair. What the ginger girl had caught with her hand had been none other than the knob to such a door. She turned the knob and the door of light revealed the inside of a large hall…

The girl’s eyes glowed a bright purple as she stepped forward, her hair and white robes fluttering madly, as if meeting an oncoming tempest: “Hold tight!”

Whoosh!

The light immediately disappeared while the red fog began to subside, having been cut off from the ones fueling the spiritual energy to the techniques. As soon as the scarlet fog had completely disappeared, cries of shock rang out everywhere in the crowds as the images of Fang Lu and Fu Yin’s bodies, the glowing, golden swords embedded in their chests, burned themselves into the minds of the audience...