As the two monsters clashed outside the mine and crashed into the forest, the battlefield was thrown into chaos. The Jiang clansmen surged toward the mine like a tide. Tao Mu, still frozen by what he'd just seen, took a moment to respond. The technique... it was real.
"A transformation technique... incomplete, but no doubt—it's real," Tao Mu muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing. "So the rumors were true after all. Even the Dean never confirmed it, but now I've seen it with my own eyes."
Blood beasts were stronger than humans—faster, tougher, overflowing with raw Qi—but they lacked a human's mind. Cultivation techniques were crafted for one reason: to merge the strengths of both worlds. Ku Heng now wielded the might of a Rank 2 beast and the cunning of a seasoned cultivator. It was unnatural. Dangerous.
Tao Mu was snapped out of his thoughts by the thunder of approaching footsteps.
"DO NOT LET THEM DRIVE US INTO THE MINE! ATTACK!"
Wind howled to life around him as his Qi surged. Tao Mu launched forward like a cannonball, wind screaming behind him. But before he could reach the Jiang troops, a figure stepped into his path—calm, grinning, expectant.
"I knew I'd find you here, Yunfan," Tao Mu growled.
Yunfan's eyes gleamed. "You and that boy humiliated me. I'll melt your guts into slag—starting with you."
Tao Mu snickered. "Try it."
They clashed instantly—fists ringing like hammers, blades scraping with explosive bursts of Qi.
Meanwhile, on the fringe of the chaos, two hunched figures slipped among the trees—backs low, steps careful.
"We don't need to search anymore, do we?" Yan Hei whispered.
"Didn't expect we'd jump into a fight like this," Yan Bai muttered back. "We make for the mine. If the vice-dean returns, we run. Deal?"
His brother nodded. In unison, the twins began moving—quiet, fast, unnoticed.
---
Inside the mine's entrance, Lin Shu, Yan Qing, and Ren Hao were being held back by none other than Qin Yue—the tracking instructor. Despite being only at Peak Stage Rank 1, her strength was formidable due to her superior tracking techniques, though her combat ones were low-tier. She stood firm, flanked by students—including Xu Jin—guarding the path inward.
Lin Shu, Yan Qing, and Ren Hao pretended to be engaged in chaotic battle, clashing with low-ranked Jiang clansmen, but holding back enough not to kill. Their blows were wild, dramatic, but controlled.
Suddenly, Yan Qing smashed his opponent across the jaw and sent him sprawling.
"Screw this," Yan Qing spat. "If we don't go now while the real monsters are distracted, we'll never steal those crystals."
Ren Hao nodded.
Lin Shu's Qi surged. Ivory Monolith shimmered across his body as arcs of lightning danced over his arms.
"I'll take Qin Yue. You two—Xu Jin and the other one," he ordered.
Without waiting, Lin Shu vanished with a snap of thunder, launching through the air like a spear. Before the nearby students could react, he crashed into Qin Yue like a bolt of lightning, driving a fist into her gut. She doubled over with a gasp.
"What the hell are you—!?"
Another fist crackled to life. "Thunderbolt Fist," Lin Shu muttered.
The moment his knuckles connected with her face, a violent explosion of lightning detonated at point-blank range. The sound cracked through the mine like a war drum. Qin Yue's body slammed against the wall. Half her face was gone, one eye hanging out, her jaw shattered, her limbs twitching in the dust.
Across the cave, Ren Hao stood over his opponent, throat slit clean. He flicked the blood off his blade.
Yan Qing, meanwhile, was hammering Xu Jin into the ground, fists slamming into his thick skull. Xu Jin screamed out, "yan Qing! What the hell are you doing!?" as broke free from the beating and tried to balance himself.
Before he could regain his footing, Lin Shu reappeared and drove a spinning kick into his temple, sending him flying like a sack of meat.
Hidden nearby, Xie Lang stared in disbelief—frozen until that moment. Then—
"XU JIN!!"
Xie Lang roared and sprinted forward.
Lin Shu clicked his tongue, annoyed. "Let's move! Collapse the damn entrance!"
The trio darted into the mine. Ren Hao turned and threw a wide arc of flame at the walls. Yan Qing followed, unleashing a light crescent slash that carved deep into the stone. Lin Shu extended both hands, shouting—
"Thunderbolt Arc!"
Twin arcs of lightning tore through the supports and walls, collapsing the entrance behind them in a storm of dust and rubble.
Xie Lang skidded to a halt, barely too late. Xu Jin stirred at his feet, at first he looked dead but then xie lang caught his breathing .
"You fat weasel," Xie Lang muttered, grabbing him by the collar.
Xu Jin grunted. "Want me to get killed by that crazy bastard? Nah. Better a act like a fake corpse than be turned into a real one."
Xie Lang snorted, helping him up just as Han Yi, Zeng Shiyang, Yun Qiu, and Wu Jian arrived.
Han Yi's eyes widened. "What happened!?"
Xu Jin, still panting, replied, "I don't know… We were guarding the mine, like Instructor Tao Mu said. Then Lin Shu, Ren Hao, and Yan Qing just—attacked. They killed Instructor Qin Yue. I barely survived because they ran when Xie Lang showed up."
They stood frozen. The weight of what had happened was just now starting to settle.
"What… What should we do?" wu jian asked.
A voice interrupted.
"Follow them."
They all turned. Instructor Wei Shan stood behind them—bloodied, clothes torn, but upright.
"They're not acting on impulse. They're planning something," he said darkly. "If they're traitors… they could be rigging the mine, or worse. I can't go. I have to stop the Jiang elders. But you—go after them. Stop them."
Han Yi nodded grimly. "Understood."
As Wei Shan turned back to the battlefield—now pushed far from the mine—he gave a faint, unreadable smile.
Xie Lang cracked his knuckles. "Zeng Shiyang, help me. We'll blast the rubble. I'll use Stone Wall to reinforce the supports so the whole mine doesn't cave in."
They got to work immediately. Yun Qiu and Wu Jian remained silent, their eyes burning.
"Didn't you say that guy was a coward?" Wu Jian muttered.
"I did," Yun Qiu replied, voice sharp. "But maybe he was acting. Doesn't matter. He crossed the line when he insulted our clans. He'll die down there—I'll make sure of it."
The others followed closely behind, unaware of what awaited them in the depths of the mine.
It took the group a little over six minutes to clear the rubble and reinforce the entrance. Dust still hung in the air, but the way forward was stable—for now.
"All right, let's get in," Han Yi ordered. "We don't have much time."
One by one, the group slipped into the darkness of the mine, torches flaring to life as they descended into the echoing silence.
But just behind them, two figures slithered through the gap like shadows.
Yan Bai and Yan Hei.
They were dressed in their old Stone Path Hall uniforms, still stained and dusty from the previous days, though now artfully splashed with fresh blood—not theirs. The injuries were fake. The blood was real. Just not from them.
Thanks to their familiar attire, none of the students outside questioned their presence.
Inside the tunnel, Yan Bai leaned close to his brother and whispered, "All right, let's move. But we need to be careful… the last thing we want is to run into Xie Lang and the others."
Yan Hei gave a slight nod, and the twins melted deeper into the mine's twisting paths unnoticed.
Somewhere not too far from the mine, the earth trembled with every blow exchanged.
Jiang Wuyu dashed backward, kicking off a shattered boulder as Lu Heng tore through it with a twisted grin, his body growing more grotesquely beast-like with each passing breath. His skin rippled with Qi, and his hair had begun to thicken and lengthen—wild strands now framing his face like the golden mane of a lion.
"I think I know what this beast his technique is based upon…" Wuyu muttered, eyes narrowing. "The Golden Carnage."
A brutal predator among Rank 2 beasts—rare, violent, and feared. In their prime, they reached the peak stage, and those few that broke through to Emberwake Realm were crowned as the Kings of Massacres. No territory. No nests. No lairs. They wandered the world leaving nothing but ruin in their wake, their entire existence an ode to slaughter.
But Wuyu was no stranger to monsters.
Even if Lu Heng had somehow mastered the second stage of that ancient, near-extinct transformation technique, Wuyu did not falter. His expression was calm, his fingers twitching as a purplish haze began to radiate from his sleeves.
Lu Heng slammed a fist into the ground.
RUMBLING FIST.
The earth roared. The shockwave cracked outward in a 20-meter radius, turning solid stone into fragmented dust, sending deep tremors through the nearby cliffs.
"You can't stop running, rat!" Lu Heng's voice now echoed with guttural distortion. It wasn't just rage—it was glee. The kind of glee born from bloodlust. A true echo of the Golden Carnage.
Wuyu twisted his body, narrowly avoiding a chunk of flying debris as he spun mid-air and flung out his palm.
"Rank 2 low tier technique : Venom Shroud."
A thick green mist burst outward, coating the battlefield in a poisonous haze. Anything organic it touched began to corrode—grass shriveled, insects dropped mid-flight, and a nearby tree trunk hissed as it blackened from the inside.
But Lu Heng didn't stop.
He emerged from the cloud with his claws extended—no, not claws. Fingers coated with hardened Qi shaped into jagged golden talons.
CARNAGE CLAW.
With a wild sweep, he shredded the landscape in a ten-meter arc, carving clean through rock and soil, sending chunks flying. One massive stone spun toward Wuyu—who simply exhaled.
"Rank 2 low tier technique " Rotting Wind Step."
With one ghostlike step, he vanished—his Qi taking the form of dissolving wind behind him. The rock passed through empty air.
He reappeared behind Lu Heng, both palms glowing faintly blue with deadly stillness. He struck.
"Rank 2 low tier technique: Silken Heart Palm.
A technique designed not for breaking bones—but for breaking organs. The moment the palm struck Lu Heng's back, the force penetrated through the flesh and rattled his lungs. But the beast-man only staggered for half a step.
Lu Heng roared and spun, his foot sweeping low—
BEASTLY KICK.
Wuyu blocked with both forearms, skidding backwards from the force, but even then, the kick left a dent in the earth from where it landed. Blood trailed from the edge of Wuyu's mouth, but his gaze remained steel-cold,every attack from lu heng was a equivalent to a rank 2 technique and that's the thing he didn't even use any Technique these were all the benefits of the transformation technique it gave some if not most in some rare cases all of the beasts abilities.
He reached into his sleeve and crushed a pill with one hand—activating the venomous Qi locked inside it.
He then raised his hand high and called out in a quiet, wrathful tone:
"Rank 1 peak tier technique : Blight Serpent Rise."
From the venom gathered in the soil, a serpent-shaped gas coiled upward, its fangs dripping green mist. The snake hissed once—and shot straight at Lu Heng's chest with uncanny speed.
Lu Heng's golden claws slammed together, bursting the construct into a wave of poisonous fog—but as the mist parted, he blinked—Wuyu was no longer there.
From above—Wuyu dropped like a hawk, two fingers aimed at Lu Heng's nape.
"rank 2 low tier technique : Dead Vein Pierce."
A forbidden pressure point strike—meant to disrupt the blood flow and Qi channels of even Rank 2 cultivators.
Crack.
The strike landed. Lu Heng staggered forward, knees shaking. For the first time, his breath hitched.
But instead of collapsing… he laughed.
"Heh… You really think… a little pain can stop me?"
Wuyu watched as his muscles tore and reformed, his Qi rising again like a tide he hair grew long his muscles bigger he was now at the height of three meters tall .
"He's… accelerating the transformation," Wuyu realized. " could it be that he truly has a technique that's complete, he might truly have the second phase of the art the true transformation, If he reaches the second stage, he might awaken the demonic beast and I'll lose precious time and might leave evidence for the empire to come after me that is if i can defeat him without eing injured enough to fight a demonic beast but that depend if that transformation let's him keep his sanity or truly make him a beast of carnage with no sanity."
And even knowing that, he didn't retreat.
Instead, Wuyu narrowed his eyes and pulled out a vial from his robe—a translucent liquid swirling inside.
"Then I'll just have to end this before that happens ."