I Don’t Want To Court Death!

"You three, stay behind and don't go anywhere." 

Yang Yang waved his hand and sent eight balls of fire at the dark figure. Red lightning flashed under the dark figure's feet and he dodged the Will O' Wisp spell. The red heavy-sword slashed the balls of fire into nothingness and absorbed the magical energy inside the spell. 

The dark figure bolted toward Yang Yang and slashed down. Red lightning coated the red heavy-sword, making it looked as though a bolt of lightning was about to strike him. 

Yang Yang held our the Immortal Khakkhura and intercepted the attack. The dark figure somersaulted backward and summoned a spell circle that shot out many bolts of red lightning. 

"Life Magic: Palm of the Guardian." Green light projected in front of Yang Yang and formed a palm created from life force. The red lightning bolts could not pierce through the palm. Now that he had a closer look at the lightning, he was slightly surprised. 

"This is Slaughter Lightning, one of the three strongest lightning in existence. Besides Tribulation Lightning and Origin Lightning, nothing is its equal; the only thing better than it is the Divine Essence of Lightning. However, to manifest this divine lightning, he must at least have a Rank 6 or higher grimoire and killed hundreds, maybe thousands, of people." 

The Palm of the Guardian moved forward and knocked into the dark figure. The lightning spell was disabled. Pressing his hand together, Yang Yang once again cast the Will O' Wisp spell and burned the dark figure. Although the latter appeared unfazed, Yang Yang could hear slight muffles and grunts. 

"Pure Flame Magic: Golden Restoration." The Flame of Purity around the dark figure burned with golden majesty like the sun. Sensing great danger, the dark figure flashed away in a bolt of Slaughter Lightning. 

"Not happening! Once again, Pure Flame Magic: Golden Restoration!" The golden flames burned even brighter until the cave itself became golden. The magical power of the Flame of Purity was even sapped by the Arcane Abyss and gave a small golden hue to the Arcane Sapphires. 

"Why the hell is he not on his knees yet?" The angelic magic-aspect flew out and reached the dark figure before he did. Just when the angelic magic-aspect was about to send a spiritual attack, the dark figure summoned a magic-aspect as well. 

It was a humanoid magic-aspect that wore a red ogre mask, a set of black robes, a head of long black hair, a red heavy-sword in one hand, and a black wine gourd in the other hand. The demonic magic-aspect roared and attacked the angelic magic-aspect.

Golden flames clashed with red lighting; creation versus destruction; angel battling demon. Despite Yang Yang's magic-aspect being enhanced by a sliver of his divine soul and produced by a Rank 9 grimoire, the demonic magic-aspect did not lose out in any way. In fact, it was even pushing the angelic magic-aspect away.

Although manifested magic-aspects were usually stronger than virtual magic-aspects, Yang Yang was sure that no one at the Manifest Aspect level could have a magic-aspect stronger than his own. Yet, he had met his match today. 

The demonic magic-aspect would launch spiritual attack at the angelic magic-aspect and physical attack at Yang Yang. Eventually, the dark figure fled and the demonic magic-aspect faded, along with the barrages of attack. 

Yang Yang returned to the warships. "That person is gone. Follow that warship from earlier." 

He began replenishing his magical power with medicinal pills while sitting in a circle of the Flame of Purity. The Bone Squad nodded, and steered the two warships to follow the legacy student's warship. 

"Damn it. Two Golden Restorations should have healed that person entirely, but also purge away any wickedness inside his heart. The pain of the Flame of Purity correlates with internal wickedness, yet, this madman didn't even flinched. How could this be? That person must have killed many people to cultivate the Slaughter Lightning to that degree." 

"Slaughter Lightning. I can only think of twelve grimoires that could produce such a lightning. Moreover, this person managed to cultivate it as early as Manifest Aspect. He must have the Rank 7 Slaughter Lightning Grimoire. That's the most likely explanation, but his demonic magic-aspect had several key features that doesn't align with a lighting-type magic-aspect. He could also possibly have a Rank 8 grimoire. But which one? I only ever seen three such grimoires and somewhat heard of the other seven."  

"Whatever. I'll probably meet that guy again. First, I need to deal with those damn kids that forced me to meddle into their business. I'll leave a tracker spell on them before I leave to deal with the Sacred Cult." 

Yang Yang quietly meditated while the warships zoomed pass the Fourth Layer into the Fifth Layer, where the legacy students were quickly passing through to escape as far as possible from the dark figure, completely unaware that the people who they used as distraction had survived. 

......

Deep within the Fourth Layer, the dark figure nimbly moved through the cave labyrinth and found a rare, but remote corner to hide in. The Flame of Purity was still burning around the dark figure, but the Slaughter Lightning appeared and suppressed the Flame of Purity. 

The dark figure drew heavy breathes before calming down. He lifted up his hood, revealing a head of black hair and a face covered by an red ogre mask. Ruby eyes pierce through the mask like the eyes of a Blood Demon. He stabbed his heavy-sword into the ground and leaned on the cave wall.

The crackling sound of the Slaughter Lightning disappeared, leaving only a small spark of the golden flame. Instead of extinguishing it, the dark figure grabbed it. The flame still hurt him, but it did not cinder his clothing or body. He curiously played with it. 

Then, he pressed it close to him, letting it warm his chest. Soon, the Flame of Purity disappeared from a lack of magical power. The masked person wanted to continue letting it burn, but it vanished before he could react. He sighed in disappointment. 

"How long has it been... since I've been remembered this feeling?" The masked person pulled out a white marble coffin from his interspacial ring and placed his head on the lid. 

Inhaling and exhaling a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began sleeping. The soft blue light of the Arcane Sapphires reflected off him and the coffin. A sphere of melancholy surrounded them. Man and coffin in unison. Through the mask, a soft smile was planted on the person's face, who dreamed of sweet dreams.