Chapter 1210: Elder Chu Yintian

Dongfang Ming wasn’t finished with astonishing the crowd just yet. The moment his wounds were fully healed, he grabbed hold of the still-trembling longsword with his newly formed right hand.

Just like he did with Hu Yang’s lance.

Everyone’s heart lurched at the sight of that. Was he going to…?

“Bzzz….”

As if realizing its imminent death, the longsword began to tremble fiercely. But because of Dongfang Ming’s tight grip on it, how could it possibly avoid such a fate?

The dark-red light from Dongfang Ming’s hands spread into the longsword like ripples of water to resonate with the blade.

Each time the dark red light resonated with the blade, the blade would tremble even more. Streams of dark-red light could even be seen mixed with the light from the soul armament now… 

“Crack…crack…”

Seconds later, the soul armament in Dongfang Ming’s hand began to show signs of cracking while Dongfang Ming began to sneer.

“Crack…clang!!”

Then everyone gasped as they watched the longsword snap in two just like the lance had been!

“Pftt!!”

A large mouthful of blood burst out from Yang Yao’s lips the moment his soul armament was broken!

“This…it’s impossible!!”

Yang Yao muttered in between pained breaths. The death glare he gave Dongfang Ming wasn’t enough for him to understand how Dongfang Ming had managed to break his soul armament.

He wasn’t the only confused one. Everyone was filled with fear now—a high-heaven tier soul armament had been snapped apart like a rotten twig in the hands of Dongfang Ming! How could anyone not be afraid of him?

“Hm hm…senior Yang Yao’s goldflame dragonblade is quite powerful. I almost didn’t manage to break it, just as I expected…”

Dongfang Ming chuckled as he tossed aside the fragments of the sword. The smile on his face seemed to be abnormally big as if he had just eaten a large and satisfying meal of some kind.

No one understood how Dongfang Ming had managed to do it, but they did manage to realize something. When Dongfang Ming broke Yang Yao’s soul armament, there was some kind of ‘energy’ from within the fragments he managed to absorb. And evidently, this energy was what caused Dongfang Ming to power up even more!

The energy he had now…was no longer that of an Early-stage Soul Emperor. He was…now a Mid-stage Soul Emperor!!

It was shocking. A technique that could elevate a person’s strength one whole stage was extremely rare. Not even the Dual Flame Artes could accomplish such a feat at his current level.

But Dongfang Ming had managed to accomplish that feat. The technique he used to go from an Early-stage Soul Emperor to a Mid-stage Soul Emperor had to do with the energy he took from the broken soul armaments.

A technique that could steal the energy of a soul armament to strengthen oneself?!

Everyone had the same thought at the same time. But to the crafters, this thought was an exceedingly horrifying thought.

In one moment, Dongfang Ming managed to destroy the strongest soul armaments of two Soul Emperors of the Crafting School and manipulate someone into delivering a critical blow onto Zi Jin. Just by himself, Dongfang Ming managed to alter the situation of the battlefield in a completely one-sided way… 

“What…what do we do?!”

Kou Changkong looked grim. It alarmed him to see his ‘fellow student’ become this terrifyingly powerful. As the headmaster of the Crafting School, it pained Kou Changkong to feel so helpless in this situation. Having Zi Jin be injured by Huangfu Rui was a devastating blow to his confidence.

It was obvious to him that the Crafting School was in a great danger of losing if they were to fight again.

“There’s no other choice, we’ll have to ask him for assistance…”

Kou Changkong made up his made that moment. Ashamed of his powerlessness, Kou Changkong retrieved a bright-red crystal from his space ring and crushed it.

“Bzzz…”

Everyone felt the world tremble the moment when the crystal shattered in Kou Changkong’s hand. Without warning, a powerful aura exploded to life and brought everyone’s breath to an immediate halt.

Everyone who had been shocked about Dongfang Ming soon found themselves turning to the northern peak at once.

That was where this new aura was originating from. Everyone could feel an extraordinary amount of power come to life from somewhere.

“Late-stage…Late-stage Soul Emperor!!”

Huo Zhenting exclaimed in horror. An unbridled amount of fear erupted within his heart the moment he felt the energy spike—just how many freaks of power did the Crafting School have hiding away on that mountain. How was it that the rumored old monster was still alive after so much time!?

“Teacher Chu!!”

Many of the crafters were stunned, but it was Yang Yao that was the first to comprehend the situation. A quick glance at Kou Changkong told him all he needed to know.

If Yang Yao was young enough to call someone ‘teacher’...then wasn’t this someone from long before the current generation?!

A person appeared within the sea of flames. Like a woken dragon manifesting from its abode within the flames, this person had a magnificent aura with him that made everyone else in the area realize the implications of his appearance at once.

Dongfang Ming’s eyes were narrowed closely to stare at the source of the new powerful individual.

“Chu Yintian? So it’s teacher Chu…I thought you were dead, but…if you’re still a Late-stage Soul Emperor after these sixty-seventy years, you must be close to death, aren’t you? Breaking your meditation…you must be planning to sacrifice yourself to protect the school.”

Dongfang Ming muttered to himself underneath his breath, the sneer was still there on his face as if to mock the Late-stage Soul Emperor.

“……”

From the skies above the northern peak, a shriveled crimson-robed stared down at the battlefield beneath him. He looked a little contemplative, and his face was tinted with a shade of nostalgia and melancholic sadness.

He was Chu Yintian, an older figure of the Crafting School and a teacher when Zi Jin was still a student. That meant he was already two-hundred years old.

About a hundred years ago, Chu Yintian secluded himself into the northern peak to protect the Crafting School from the shadows. Thirty years after that, he decided to use the rest of his time to seek the path into the realm of the most powerful. For that goal, Chu Yintian ignored the outside world even when the Crafting School fell into trouble thirty years ago. 

Only when Kou Changkong broke that strange soul armament did Chu Yintian to break his meditation.

The path of cultivation is an arduous one. Many people could have their own insights on cultivation, but just as many could be stuck for ages at a certain bottleneck. For dozens of years, Chu Yintian was stuck in such a state without ever seeing a path to the realm of Saints. The passage of time was slow to him when he meditated, but he was still close to the end of his natural lifespan. As he was now, it was possible he’d die within the decade if nothing was solved.

As strong as he was as a Late-stage Soul Emperor, breaking the meditation at his current point in life meant half of his time spent meditating was for naught.

“Intruders of my Crafting School…will die!!”

Chu Yintian’s eyes were focused entirely on Dongfang Ming, Huo Zhenting, and the others from the Wind Lightning School. One shout later and he was gone from sight.

“Roar!!”

The flames he once stood within let out a draconic cry before a dragon formed from the flames!