Volume 2, Chapter 19: The Phoenix Forge
The walk back to the Academy was quiet and heavy. The excitement from the fight had completely faded, leaving Tang Ya pale and shivering with exhaustion. Every few steps, faint emerald vines would appear around her feet for a moment before fading away like soap bubbles. Her soul power wasn't just low — it felt unstable, like it was shaking inside her body.
"Take it easy, Ya'er," Ma Xiaotao said gently, supporting most of the girl's weight on her shoulder. "We're almost back."
Yuhao walked on Tang Ya's other side. His eyes still flashed violet now and then. There was a strange tight feeling in his left hand, the one that had touched the new marking during the fight. It felt like his skin was stretching too thin over his muscles.
"You're feeling the after-effects," Electrolux said quietly in his mind. "She reached a very deep level of power. Being close to something like that is like standing too near a blazing fire. Your Library is trying to understand it, but your body is still just flesh and bone."
They didn't head to the regular infirmary. Before they even reached the main gate, Professor Lakas and Xian Lin'er were already waiting for them. Lakas looked more serious than usual, while Lin'er's leather apron was still smoking slightly from whatever she had been working on.
"To the Forge. Right now," Lin'er said firmly. She didn't ask for explanations. One look at the blackened, damaged wrist guards on Tang Ya told her everything she needed to know.
The Phoenix Forge sat in the heart of the Hall of the Origin. It wasn't a dark, smoky blacksmith workshop. It was a bright, towering hall of white stone with streams of glowing lava flowing through clear pipes along the walls. The lava provided steady heat for working with special crystalline metals.
In the center of the room stood a massive anvil made of star iron, covered with a large, glowing ᜐ (Sa) marking.
"Lay her down on the resonance slab," Lakas instructed, pointing to a flat jade-colored stone beside the anvil.
Tang Ya groaned softly as they helped her lie down. Her Blue Silver Grass kept flickering around her, glowing bright green before the edges turned black again.
"The new marking she used is very deep," Lakas explained as he walked around the slab. He no longer looked like a clumsy professor — he moved with calm focus. "Her old wrist guards were only made for basic purification work. They're like trying to hold back a river with a small bucket. If we don't give that power a proper place to settle, her meridians could collapse."
"I have the refined spirit steel ready," Xian Lin'er said, dropping a heavy bar of pearlescent metal onto the anvil with a loud clang. "But I can't engrave the new marking properly. It's too complex for my current skill."
Lakas turned to Yuhao. "Kid, you saw it clearly in the forest, didn't you? Your Library caught the shape of that marking."
Yuhao nodded slowly. "I… I think I remember it."
"Then take the stylus," Lakas said, his voice steady and serious. "Lin'er will handle the heating and shaping. I'll keep her core stable. You… you do the engraving. Don't focus on drawing it perfectly. Focus on what it means — the feeling behind it."
Yuhao picked up the heavy engraving tool. He noticed something unusual: Professor Lakas was sweating. Not from hard work, but from real worry. For the first time, the playful professor looked genuinely concerned for a student.
Inside the biological shell, Lakan looked at Tang Ya's pale face. For a brief moment, he didn't see a talented Enforcer. He saw a brave young girl who reminded him of his own little sister back on Earth — someone who always rushed forward because she was too courageous for her own good.
'I shouldn't have let them face that alone,' Lakan thought, a pang of guilt hitting him. 'I'm playing games with people's lives.'
He pushed the guilt aside. There was no time for it now. He placed both hands over Tang Ya's chest. A soft violet light flowed from his fingers, acting like a gentle stabilizer to absorb the dangerous excess energy threatening to burn her from the inside.
"Now, Yuhao!" Lakas called.
Lin'er brought her hammer down hard on the spirit steel. Clang! The sound rang through the forge like a clear bell. Yuhao stepped forward and pressed the stylus onto the glowing metal. He didn't see just metal — he remembered the living emerald grass from the forest.
He traced the ᜇ (Da) marking with careful, focused strokes. The metal screamed as it accepted the new pattern, shifting from pearlescent white into a deep, living green color.
••••••
Miles away, in the cold darkness beneath the ruins of Slaughter City, Chen Feng was going through his own painful kind of refinement.
He was screaming.
He sat inside a circle of black, rusted iron spikes. His scythe was planted in the ground before him. His corrupted system flashed chaotic red warnings across his vision.
[Conflict in the stream of power detected.]
[Human emotions are creating too much interference.]
[Recommendation: Remove unnecessary memories and feelings to strengthen the Kamatayan markings.]
"Just… do it," Chen Feng gasped through clenched teeth.
He pressed his hands against the cold stone walls. The rock turned grey and brittle. The lingering resentment of old souls in this place swirled around him, feeding him their cold emptiness.
His body changed. His skin turned dull matte black, swallowing light instead of reflecting it. A numb, devouring power spread through him. He no longer felt the clean stream of soul power others used — only something that consumed everything it touched.
[Removing memory of sunlight…]
[Removing feeling of love…]
[Removing fear of death…]
Memories began disappearing one by one. The warmth of sunlight. The face of his mother. The girl he once liked but never spoke to. All of it was being deleted to make room for more power.
[Removal complete.]
[The Scythe of Decay has evolved into the Eater of Wills.]
[Power has increased greatly.]
When the process finally stopped, Chen Feng stood up. He no longer felt cold, hunger, or even real anger. He felt hollow. Empty. Like a tool with only one purpose left.
"I don't need to save anyone," he whispered in a flat, lifeless voice. "I only need to finish the task. The Sovereign is the biggest error. He must be removed."
He didn't notice the single tear that rolled down his cheek and vanished before it hit the ground. It was the last trace of who he used to be.
••••••
Back in the Phoenix Forge, the intense light finally faded.
Tang Ya lay peacefully asleep on the slab. Her new wrist guards glowed with a steady emerald light. They looked like living vines frozen inside clear glass.
Xian Lin'er wiped sweat from her brow with a dirty rag. "I've never seen metal accept a marking like that before. It's not just a tool anymore. It feels like it's part of her now."
Lakas stood up slowly. His lab coat was covered in soot and sweat. He looked tired. As he turned to leave, Yuhao stepped in front of him.
"Professor," Yuhao said, his violet eyes searching Lakas's face. "The way you stabilized her… that wasn't normal Eight Directional Flow. It felt like the world itself was listening to you."
Lakas paused for a split second, then adjusted his crooked glasses and gave a playful laugh. "It's just experience, kid. When you've dealt with as many weird problems as I have, you learn where to touch the energy to calm it down. Now go get some rest. You look like you got hit by a spirit train."
Yuhao watched him walk away. The All-Seeing Library stayed quiet, but his own instincts were loud.
'He's hiding something,' Yuhao thought.
In the forest clearing where the fight happened, Ye Xishui stood quietly. She knelt down and touched a patch of the healthy emerald grass Tang Ya had created.
"It's Professor Lakas's work," she said quietly. "The girl reached a much deeper level. But the other one… the one who left all this black decay behind…"
She took out a small metallic bird — a communication tool etched with the ᜊ (Ba) marking. "Commander Long. High Proctor Yan. The situation has gotten worse. This is no longer just a problem between students. We have a serious corruption incident near the Star Luo border."
"Understood," Long Xiaoyao's voice came through clearly. "The Shadow Sentinels are moving out. We'll track down the source of that decay."
"Be careful, Long," Ye Xishui replied, her eyes narrowing at the dead grey ground. "This isn't just some rogue soul master. It feels like something that wants to consume everything alive."
••••••
High above on the Phoenix God Star, Lakan sat in his private chamber, soaking his feet in warm scented water while Gu Yuena reviewed the reports beside him.
"You let the boy engrave a deep marking," she said evenly. "That was risky, Lakan. If the Universe Will noticed, it will know you're guiding him."
"The Will already knows," Lakan sighed, leaning his head back. "It's been trying to get rid of me for ten thousand years. But Yuhao is the one who actually did the engraving. As long as he's the one doing the work, the rules are still being followed."
He looked at a floating image of Chen Feng sitting alone in his dark cavern.
"Look at him, Nana," Lakan said softly. "He's deleting pieces of himself just to gain more power. He thinks he's becoming stronger. He doesn't realize he's turning himself into nothing more than a tool for something that doesn't even care about him."
Lakan looked down at his own reflection in the water.
"I'm the lucky one," he whispered. "I still remember the smell of rain and the taste of bad coffee. As long as I remember those simple things, I'm still me. But the moment I start seeing people as nothing but data points… that's when the real problem begins."
He kicked the water lightly, sending a small splash across the pristine floor. A small, childish grin appeared on his face.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 19