Morning arrived quietly, and Lin Shu was cultivating in his place. He was now using the passive state of his art to test how much infernal force he stores from it and how it compares to when he uses the technique fully.
Qi seeped into his body on its own, drawn in not by conscious cultivation but by the furnace-like transformation of his marrow. The refinement was slow compared to active use, yet it was constant and unavoidable. In this state, his cultivation speed sat somewhere between a rank-one and rank-two talent—not fast enough to be alarming, but far from negligible.
"I'm not actively cultivating," he thought. "I'm not using my innate talent either. This is just the crucible doing its work."
Infernal Force began to accumulate inside his bones, faint at first, then gradually denser as time passed. Unlike when he actively pushed the technique, this buildup was subtle, and far more manageable.
Still, it was not without limits.
"In passive mode, it takes hours to reach a dangerous threshold," Lin Shu reasoned. "But once it does, I'll have to release it."
He flexed his fingers slightly as he walked, feeling the faint warmth buried deep within his skeleton.
"If I let it accumulate for too long, my bones will fracture."
The Infernal Marrow Crucible did not forgive neglect. Even when restrained, it demanded balance.
The next two days passed in focused isolation. Lin Shu devoted every moment to cultivation, experimenting relentlessly to shape his infernal force into a usable technique. As dusk fell on the second day, Yanqi found him, somehow knowing exactly where he was.
Lin Shu joked, "If you care so much, you should have given me something to help."
Yanqi ignored him he inspected the room and saw it's destruction as he Yanqi said, "Aoyan and Kai kept annoying me about whether you were okay or not. They haven't seen you in two days." Lin Shu then said"I've been busy as you can see." Yanqi walked closer as he said"So how did you do it?" Yanqi asked.
"I found a way to release the heat and energy stored in my body without damaging myself," Lin Shu said.
Yanqi didn't press for details. He sat down. "You're quite secretive about your abilities, aren't you?" Lin Shu remained silent. "Don't worry, I'm not forcing you to tell me. We all have our secrets. But that's not fully why I'm here today."
Suddenly, flames erupted, encircling the room until it felt like the heart of the sun. Lin Shu immediately formed his steel coated ivory armor and moved back. Yanqi appeared beside him in an instant, placing a hand on his shoulder. Fire pulsed, and the armor cracked to pieces in seconds. "Sit down, boy," Yanqi said.
Lin Shu immediately adjusted his position, his heart hammering. "I'm sorry. It was a reflex." He had almost seen his life flash before his eyes, convinced Yanqi was about to kill him. Running was pointless against someone who could disintegrate his armor without effort.
Yanqi sat across from him. "This is to make sure no one can hear us. Now, as I was about to say, I am here for a very important reason. Otherwise, I would have just sent Kai and Aoyan. Remember the person I told you about, Zun? The one who gave me the information on the arena fighters?" Lin Shu nodded. "Well, he gave me something else. He told me about a few individuals coming into the arena soon. These are not people I am fond of, Li, for many reasons that specifically involve Aoyan."
Lin Shu looked at him, curious and cautious not to say anything wrong since yanqi didn't look like he was in a good mood. Aoyan's position in the clan was something he had wondered about, considering his own plans. "What did they do?"
Yanqi was surprised by the question; he'd expected the boy to just listen. He looked at him deeply. "Just know that she hates them, and so do I. Their names are Chi Ran, Chi Kun, and Chi Su. You've already met Chi Ran. As for Chi Su and Kun, those two are her main competition in the heir race. Once they're here, they'll start targeting Aoyan, attacking her. They might even try to cripple her."
Lin Shu frowned. "But wouldn't they need to reach our rank first? They'll be at Bronze, while we're not far from Gold."
Yanqi shook his head. "Aoyan told you about the arena higher-ups' plans to change the rules?" Lin Shu nodded. "Well, they're adding a faster, deadlier way to rank up: a death hunt every four months. Each fighter gets a token based on their rank. You rank up if you get a token of a higher rank, whether you kill the holder or not. The hunt will mix Bronze, Silver, and Gold fighters. Killing lower ranks won't help a higher rank advance directly, but there will be points for every kill though, they will vary depending on the rank of the token and they will be recorded on a leaderboard and after the event ends rewards will be given to the best fighters based on their points, To add to that participation is mandatory; refusal means losing your rank or being expelled from the arena if you're at the lowest rank."
Lin Shu felt a mix of eagerness and wariness.
"You see, Li, this event is extremely dangerous. Those three will certainly target Aoyan there. I want you to protect her. Aoyan isn't as powerful as her half-siblings yet. Chi Su and Kun are both peak-stage cultivators; their strength equals yours. But because of your defensive technique, I know they won't be able to kill you or damage you without paying a heavy price. Aoyan is much weaker. She's not even half your strength. She can't touch or hurt them... yet." Yanqi's gaze was intense. "So listen carefully, Li. I will not accept anything happening to Aoyan. You're here to help her until she can fend for herself. I want you to protect her there and kill anyone who moves her way i don't want you to let anyone who stands in her way alive."
Lin Shu stayed silent, he could tell yanqi was not happy about those people coming and wanted them dead alongside anyone who helped them.
Yanqi observed him as he stood up slowly. "One reason I've kept our team small is to avoid betrayal. I chose Kai because he wouldn't dare do it and they wouldn't even think of going to him since he has a terrible history with our clan and most of the heirs. But you they don't know you, so I'm guessing they'll try to buy you and i have nothing about you that tells me you wouldn't take their deal in fact i believe if the price is good enough you might choose to put aoyan in some form of accident to get payed since i know you're smart enough to think that way and not go against me openly. So I'll tell you this, Li. I've been forgiving. You've been using Aoyan to get free things from me for a while, but I've laughed it off. You know why? Aoyan thinks of you as her friend. That's why she helps you. That's why she was worried and asked me to take back the technique I gave you, fearing it might hurt you because she thinks of you as her friend for helping her, unfortunately it looks as if she forgot that i payed you and recruited you for that very reason but I can't force her to change her view of you as her friend so I hoping you don't become stupid enough to change it yourself."
Lin Shu was surprised; he hadn't realized his actions had built such genuine concern from aoyan's side.
Yanqi continued shifting the talk from aoyan to his clan as he looked pained by the fear of losing his disciple whenever he said her name, "They'll try to pay you well after all several elders want my disciple gone for their own gain. So i am gonna tell you this Li, on my side, you have me and i assure you, I am more than enough to rival all the elders of that clan combined. But without me, if you ever accept their deal, remember: they would never want to expose their involvement. They'll kill you immediately after you do anything to my disciple. And like I said I don't know your past, Li. I've tried digging and found nothing about your motives your family or anything that can convince me that you're not gonna betray me. But I'll tell you this." With a flick of his hand, Yanqi ripped Lin Shu's mask away and burned it to ash, seeing his face for the first time. "I know your face , Li. So don't ever be foolish enough to betray me."
Lin Shu's heart pounded wildly. The room scorched, sweat poured down his forehead, and Yanqi's overwhelming presence felt like the ground was swallowing him. "I understand," Lin Shu forced out.
The pressure vanished. Yanqi stood and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Don't take this to heart, Li, but I must ensure my disciple's safety above all else. Engrave that in your mind. Don't make me come to the hunt. I'd lose my arena position for disrupting the event, but trust me, I would go against Kuang Baotu himself if I had to." Lin Shu nodded, thinking, I guess being greedy and making another contract has put me in the middle of a clan's inner war for power.
Yanqi tossed him a pill. "You look terrible with those wounds." He pointed at Lin Shu's skinned arms, where muscle showed through in patches. "This will heal you. I need you in full shape in the coming weeks; that's when the event starts." Lin Shu took the pill. "I'll give you information on your possible targets—the ones you must protect Aoyan from, and kill if you get the chance. Also, you'll move into my lodging within a week. They might target you, too if you don't, after you OF COURSE refuse their deal if they ever try to make one."
Yanqi left. Lin Shu let himself collapse on the ground, limbs shaking as he breathed slowly." I felt my skin melting and my armor breaking under that fire. The place felt like I was being cooked alive." He swallowed the pill and resumed cultivating. He wasn't angry at Yanqi's threat; he didn't have the luxury to be angry when he's several times weaker. His displeasure came from being an ant to be ordered around, but he had no one to blame but his own weakness. That was how the world worked. Soon, displeasure faded, replaced by greed. "Maybe I should have asked him for something. I could have said it was to protect Aoyan. It might have worked. If not, I could treat it as a joke. I'll try that later."but it looked like even in the face of death Lin shu was still as greedy and opportunistic as ever.
Days passed. Lin Shu now stood in the middle of a rented training room, the ground around him shattered and broken. I've been progressing well. I've created something strong enough to equal a peak-tier technique.
He activated his Crucible. It drew qi into his marrow, refining it. Every excess bit of energy lost during refinement was trapped and stored within his power core and within the ivory armor beneath his clothes. This energy was a unstable mix of thermal and kinetic potential. Once it left his bones, he felt it expanding violently. The high-pressure energy created a concussive blast wave—a shattering, bone-breaking force that pulverized stone and threw bodies backward. Immediately after, it combusted into a white-flaming explosion. The first time, he'd been blasted backward and hadn't seen it clearly, too busy protecting his face.
Lin Shu walked to a wall, cocked his arm back. His gauntlet, forged through countless designs, now had reinforced knuckles and plating on the back of his fingers, allowing him to release the infernal force without breaking his hand. He smashed his fist into the wall. A shockwave blasted through it, followed by the released energy exploding into white flames that burned and destroyed the stone.
He stood there, smiling. "What should I call it? It's powerful enough to break my ivory armor if I took a full hit, unless I coated it with steel. 'Ivory Detonation' sounds about right. He looked at his bone gauntlet, now sheathed in steel. Which brings me to my next discovery."
He extended a finger. A bone spike formed and was instantly coated in steel. Focusing, he released a controlled burst of infernal force. The steel-coated ivory spike shot forth with tremendous speed, punching a clean hole through a distant wall, leaving only small cracks around the edges. "I'll name this one 'Scorch Piercer.' "He was immensely pleased. This was perfect for assassination from a distance—fast, powerful, and precise, with controlled force that wouldn't destroy the projectile in his own hand.