30 Will O'Dale

Zhen Shi laughed uncomfortably at this undue praise. But with the intention to clear up this matter he spoke out loudly with a forced grin, "Alright everyone. Thank you for your praise. But," and looking at the rising sun, "it's early morning. Don't you have work to do?"

The entire mob was caught speechless. All of them were employees of the Lyon and Turnbull Market Hall and not being at their posts early in the morning would indeed be problematic. But still, they were slightly reluctant to leave with the prospect of never being able to listen to this master musician's divine music again!

But leaving them aside for a moment, Zhen Shi was greeted with a familiar sound.

Ding!

The user has gained a total of 50 OP!

Zhen Shi's face broke out into a genuine smile. He wasn't too happy with being praised for Odin's skill in making divine music playing devices, but he was happy with earning points! So with a genuine smile, he spoke out, "Fine. My fellow fans, I promise I'll put on the music tonight as well."

Why was he ready to play more music now? That is because the more music he played, the more points he could get!

The entire mob cheered with words of happiness and joy as they slowly dispersed back to their morning jobs. But of course, they noted Zhen Shi's 'genuine' smile which raised their opinions of this 'divine musician' who greeted them with familiarity despite his obvious talent.

Zhen Shi grinned happily and turned around beginning to walk into the pavilion. He was thinking that he should get to work on figuring out a way to better control the furnace spirits. Maybe Myne might have some ideas?

But just as he was about to close the door behind him, something tapped him on his shoulder.

Zhen Shi hurriedly turned around like a breeze in the wind. His quick reaction was rather unnecessary, but that was because he was surprised and had been unable to sense a presence behind him. As a result, he was slightly on guard but... wasn't too worried. After all, someone who wished him harm wouldn't warn him by tapping on his shoulder beforehand, now would they?

Once he turned around what awaited him was a rather young looking nobleman. He had well-combed brown hair and ordinary brown eyes. But the most eye-catching part of him was his clothes. He was dressed elegantly in expensive silk clothes; a crimson red shirt, crimson red pants, crimson red shoes, and a crimson red hat. Everything on him was crimson red!

He was smiling rather elegantly while holding on to two swords on his hip sheathed in their scabbards. And yes... they were also crimson red.

Zhen Shi grimaced at this noble fellow whose fashion sense was simply eye-blinding! Especially with the morning sunlight falling on to his body and worsening the brightness of his clothes.

This noble grinned calmly and extended his right hand while saying, "Good morning fellow daoist. I came early this morning to carry out a rather annoying errand. But that gave me the chance to listen to your amazing music. It was simply divine. My annoyance was truly rewarded!"

Uhh... Another fan? I played music once. Just once! Why has it becomes so annoying now?

Still, Zhen Shi grinned forcefully as he put his right hand forwards and shook hands with this red-clothed noble. The noble proceeded to grin further as he spoke, "My brother, Alan, is well-known for being a skilled musician. But even he is nothing in the face of your divine music!"

Zhen Shi continued to grin forcefully at his words. He was beginning to grow sick of this... But this red-clothed noble seemed to notice his forced grin and lack of speech. Immediately he frowned and said, "What? Fellow Daoist do you dislike my company? Do you have to force yourself so obviously? Or are you trying to mock my praise?" with rising anger.

Zhen Shi frowned as well but spoke out with the intention of preventing a fight early in the morning, "Fellow daoist, I apologize if I offended you. But that music is not something that I pride myself on. So I found it rather difficult to listen to your praise!"

But his words had the opposite effect as they caused Will Scarlet to frown even more. He shouted while gripping on to his dual swords, "Difficult? Then what was with your happy smile in the face of the praise of others? And you say that you are not proud of your music skills! Are you trying to insult me by hinting that my talents are sub-par? Don't think that I, William O'Dale, will let you off just because you play good music!"

FUCK! I was saying the truth. Is this what I am rewarded with for my honesty?

Even Zhen Shi was being annoyed now. But he wasn't particularly worried since this noble was only of the Soul Formation stage just like him and was only an ordinary warrior. So to hopefully defuse this situation he spoke out jokingly, "Fellow Daoist William, please calm down. I don't think your rash actions are neither suited to your noble stature nor wise. I'll have you know that I was in a 1 vs 50 fight once!"

William paused since Zhen Shi's words rang true but also because he was curious about the sudden story being told by this divine musician. Zhen Shi continued to speak in a serious tone, "It was a hard-fought battle and I even had to go all out and use all my martial art skills. I was very close to losing my life. It was a battle with your life on the edge..." He continued to narrate an epic battle that completely caught William's attention filling him with awe.

Zhen Shi grinned lightly as he finished his tale with a simple sentence, "And, in the end, the 50 of us that were still living were able to barely beat that one guy up!" while struggling to hold his laughter.

William was confused for a moment but soon realized Zhen Shi's joke. And he burst out into laughter saying, "Fellow daoist I find that you're very funny! Your humility speaks of your true nature and your innocence. Thus I apologize for my earlier outburst."

Zhen Shi heaved a sigh of relief while laughing himself. However, to his surprise, William unsheathed one sword and said with a smile, "But since you are not satisfied with your music, let me generously test out your combat skills!" almost expecting Zhen Shi to thank him.

Zhen Shi grimaced and shouted, "What? No! I joked so that we won't--" but his words fell on deaf ears as William dashed towards him with his crimson sword glinting under the early dawn sunlight.

He lunged the sword at Zhen Shi's face at a very fast speed. An ordinary soul formation cultivator perhaps might have been in trouble. But Zhen Shi had a rudimentary understanding of wind aether and had the 2x increase to action and reaction speed!

But since he was still in the doorway he wouldn't be able to dodge to the sides. So he bent his torso backward while manifesting just enough to cover the inside of his palms with dragon scales and feathers. With a devilish grin, he clapped his hands on to the incoming blade...

CLAP!

The sound of his clap resonated and a powerful wind blew around as the lunging sword was stopped mere millimeters away from his chest. Zhen Shi's eyes showed the faintest hint of a bestial nature as he realized that despite his successful block, the sword had still hurt his palms through the scales and was now bleeding.

He calmed himself as he threw his palms forwards along with William back to the outside of the pavilion. Zhen Shi proceeded to have the Vermillion flames secretively heal his wounds.

William was rather surprised that his surprise lunge had been blocked successfully by Zhen Shi. Still, he grinned as he spoke, "You are skilled! But I fail to see how your combat abilities are better than your music. I guess we'll have to continue to find out."

Zhen Shi said nothing as he wasn't going to back down now either. He was pissed and wanted to teach this guy a lesson for starting a fight for no reason. He flicked his hand bringing out the eery . William's eyes narrowed but he grinned, as he was getting into the battle as well, and said, "Aren't you an archer? Shoot some arrows will you?"

Zhen Shi sneered and spouted out in the heat of his anger, "Maybe later, Little Red Riding Hood..." William frowned, he didn't understand the true meaning but he could sense Zhen Shi's insulting tone. He roared in blazing anger while unsheathing his second sword, "Don't insult the majestic color of Red!" almost as if Zhen Shi had murdered his wife.

He dashed forwards once more but this time his dashing figure was suddenly enshrouded in a cloud of qi. Zhen Shi had been planning on hurling the but William had completely disappeared by the time the smoke cleared.

And just like when he had been tapped on the shoulder, Zhen Shi was once again unable to sense his presence. Realizing this, he decided to take this a bit more seriously, since he wasn't planning on being stabbed early in the morning just for playing some music.

Zhen Shi frowned while instantly materializing his bow on to his free hand. Despite his senses being useless, he could feel a vague sense of danger from the aether surrounding him. But even with the bow in his hand strengthened by , the aether continued to give him a sense of growing dread. SHIT! Who is this guy?

To make things worse, he couldn't use out in the open and there was the chance that he might even go berserk, which was the least ideal choice. So he decided to use his newfound skills to the test. He manifested the flames into formation talismans and formed the strengthened unorthodox defense formation. At the same time, he prepped his bow to shoot.

With the sense of danger and dread growing worse, he hurriedly activated the defense formation, with the full force of his empowered qi, spreading it out to cover the front of the doorway.

CRACK!

The sound of splintering rang out as a large crack formed on the black defense formation at a spot very close to Zhen Shi's neck, causing him to take back several steps into the pavilion in surprise. Fortunately, the formation had held out...

Zhen Shi gulped at how close that had been. He was totally incapable of sensing William's presence and had it not been for the divine formation sealing the front he would be in a very precarious situation. He threw aside all thoughts of holding back as he readied himself to do whatever necessary to win this battle.

Instantly he shot his bow at his general estimate of William's location, and the arrow dashed with powerful force through his formation but hit nothing... SHIT! How can this guy be this crazy! I had an easier time with the Law Holding Vivienne!

He activated as much as he could over his chest and torso for extra protection, while leaving the scales and feathers hidden under his clothing. He used up earthen aether to further strengthen his defense.

Surprisingly William's voice rang out, "Since you don't take kindly to praise maybe you'll be happier with insults. Your fighting ability is sub-par. You're completely clueless about what to do without seeing the target... But don't worry I won't kill you... I'll just beat your inflated ego!"

Zhen Shi growled, "Great words from Little Red Riding Hood. You just hide and keep striking from your hidey-hole." But he didn't say elaborate much either, as he was completely focused on the battle. Besides, the means were secondary, in the end, the spoils went to the victor.

Crack!

Another crack streaked across the defensive formation causing it to shatter apart. Zhen Shi readied himself to defend from the front while taking a few more steps back. But surprisingly no attack came... Zhen Shi remained fully alert and unknowingly he had reached the part of the pavilion with the central garden. He only barely registered his foot lightly touching the pitch-black cauldron.

Suddenly his spiritual senses went haywire. He was being attacked from the back! The second attack on the defensive formation had been a distraction. William had somehow made his way into the pavilion possibly from the open roof on top of the central garden. Either way, like a moth to the flame, Zhen Shi had walked right into that trap. To make things worse the wind was completely still and unaffected by William's attack, making it that much difficult to locate.

It was now too late... Even with his doubled reaction speed, he would be unable to dodge this close-range attack. But it was not utterly hopeless either...

Zhen Shi grinned maliciously as he activated his spiritual connection with the pitch-black cauldron while applying . Instantly the pitch-black smog formed into the oh-so-familiar furnace spirit imps. But strangely enough, they were completely free of their usual mischievous chittering selves-- instead, they seemed more devilish and more serious...

But Zhen Shi paid no attention to that as he put the fate of the entire battle on this gamble. He mentally ordered the imps to go all out in attack in three different directions, focused on his back; One towards the extreme right, another through the very center and the final towards the extreme left. He was hoping that one of them might hit the hiding William and reveal his location.

Fortunately for him, William had not been expecting a sudden attack from furnace spirits, especially so suddenly. One of the imps hit onto something solid, causing it to strike out with its full soul formation power.

BANG!

Zhen Shi's gamble had paid off! With the sense of dread now gone, he turned around victoriously.

Zhen Shi was completely relaxed now. In this entire fight, there hadn't been a shred of killing intent from either of them and the battle had been only a spar, despite the close shaves and insults to each other. In the end, this had caused a sense of slight respect to form in each other's hearts. So Zhen Shi wasn't worried about William not accepting his defeat or of the fight lasting for any longer.

William had fallen on to the floor of the pavilion several meters away from Zhen Shi, possibly due to the sudden collision with the imp, and was now sprawled on the floor with his two swords on the floor even further away from him. Despite being slightly winded he seemed altogether fine and was even smiling at his surprising defeat. After all, William was strangely powerful enough to almost cause even Zhen Shi to lose, and the attack had been landed only by a single soul formation imp.

Zhen Shi was about to walk over to William and help him up. He was free of his previous anger and was looking forward to a conversation with William explaining his prowess...

But suddenly the imps lost their 'strange' obedience as they seemed to grow crazy and howl in a frenzy. They started snarling and growling monstrously and all of them began converging on the fallen William.

Zhen Shi felt a sense of dread and ran forwards while trying to spiritually call off those imps. But they turned a deaf ear to his orders and they seemed to become true devils... as they ripped apart William's red clothes along with his surface skin and flesh dying his body in scarlet red blood.

Not a single scream, word or frown came from William despite the obviously painful attacks. The grin on his face remained... growing eerier by the second...

Even though Zhen Shi was running over to stop the imps while cursing them for fucking up everything... AGAIN! It was now too late.

William roared with his eyes boiling in rage! Powerful scarlet red energy sprang out of his blood instantly causing the spirit formation imps to melt away...

The scraped flesh and blood all over his body seemed to melt into this strange energy, which seemed similar to ordinary qi or aether but... strangely not at the same time, forming a cloak of powerful energy. His eyes and hair gained a tincture of red as his entire body became a simple existence of blood-red...

Zhen Shi stopped throwing away any ideas of fixing this mistake.

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SHIT! It was a simple sparring match. How did it turn to this in mere moments! Fuck Myne and his furnace spirits!

William was causing the qi and aether of nature to give heavy warnings of danger. He threw aside his confused feelings regarding the sudden turn to this situation as he activated to the maximum while still hiding it as much as possible. Any part of his body covered in clothing was covered by a layer of draconic scales and vermillion feathers. Even his exposed skin gave off a light sheen of draconic scales just barely hidden under his external skin. His eyes gave off a threatening glow rivaling even that of William's own aura! But he had to struggle to remain calm under the bloodlust...

But William paid no attention to the growing threat around Zhen Shi. William grinned with bloodied teeth and said, "Red is the world at dawn. You disappointed my expectations, and unlike the music, your actions reek of spite," causing the aura around him to grow even stronger.

Zhen Shi let out a clam breath as lifted the Divine Bow. He put in an arrow and pulled it back with the full strength of his bestial physique. Despite the arising bloodlust, he kept his calm as he applied the wind aether to the arrow to grant speed, along with the water aether to grant ease of travel.

William continued to chant his words while grinning in a bloodlust gradually strengthened by the red energy surrounding him, "Red is the world at dusk. You have angered me and I will have you pay."

Zhen Shi forcefully shrugged off the bloodlust trying to force him to simply give in to the carnal urge of killing as he added earth aether to strengthen the arrow and fire aether to provide an explosive charge.

William spoke out the final words with a murderous grin, "Red is the blood that seeps from the corpse dying under my blade. And pay you shall, twice as what you granted me," and his bloodlust and killing intent was exerted at full force! He silently shifted into an attacking position... like a jaguar poised on its hunt...

Zhen Shi's rationale was lost under the growing bloodlust as well. With a bestial growl and overflowing killing intent, he released his arrow.

William dashed forward leaving a simple streak of crimson that proceeded to wreak havoc on the air which shivered in almost fear. He seemed to hold no fear of the oncoming arrow...

As the arrow dashed forward like a silent assassin while eviscerating the air in its way, Zhen Shi finally lost his control to the bloodlust and growled in an animalistic frenzy. He dashed forwards only a step behind the dashing arrow.

A crimson bloodied jaguar facing a bestial dragon followed by the silent arrow... head towards a collision.