Zhen Shi could only laugh uncomfortably at this undue praise.

But wishing to clear up this matter as fast as possible, he spoke out loudly with a forced grin, "Alright everyone! Thank you for your praise, it definitely motivates me to work harder. But," and pointing at the rising, "it's the early morning, isn't it? 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 early in the morning was simply asking to be fired.

But even if their jobs and livelihoods were at risk, they were reluctant to leave with the prospect of never being able to listen to this master musician's divine music again!

Leaving these soon to be jobless people aside for the moment, Zhen Shi was suddenly greeted with a series of familiar sounds.

Ding!

Congratulations to the user for gaining 40 OP!

Ding!

Congratulations to the user for gaining 30 OP!

Ding!

Congratulations to the user for gaining 20 OP!

Zhen Shi's awkward smile was instantly replaced with a genuine and brilliant smile!

He wasn't particularly happy about being praised for Odin's skill in making divine music playing boomboxes, but he was more than happy with earning points!

Especially since he had basically made up for the stupid losses with that jar of perverted used bathwater!

In an instant, a pauper with barely 6 OP, went up to a whopping 96 OP! He would've started to play some music much sooner if he had known it was this lucrative!

So with a truly genuine smile, he spoke, "Fine, my fellow friends... As much as I would prefer not to gain fame, I am unable to refuse your humble offer. Thus, I promise to put on some music tonight as well."

The entire mob cheered with words of happiness and joy, before peacefully dispersing as decent employed people. But of course, they noted Zhen Shi's 'genuine smile' which raised their opinions of this 'divine musician', who greeted even lowly commoners like themselves with familiarity and genuine kindness, despite his obvious talent...

Zhen Shi grinned happily, even throwing in a friendly wave of goodbye, and turned around beginning to walk back 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, something or someone tapped him on his shoulder.

Zhen Shi hurriedly turned around, like a breeze in the wind instinctively using . His quick reaction was rather unnecessary, but this was because he had been 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 aspect of him were his clothes. He was dressed elegantly in expensive silk clothes; a scarlet red shirt, scarlet red pants, scarlet red shoes, and a scarlet red hat. Everything on him was scarlet red!

He was smiling rather elegantly while holding on to the handles of two swords hung on his hip and sheathed in their scabbards. And yes... they were also scarlet red.

Zhen Shi grimaced at this noble fellow whose sense of fashion 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 arrived at the market hall early today, to carry out a rather annoying errand. But... that gave me the opportunity to witness your amazing music. It was simply divine! My annoyance was truly rewarded!"

'Uhh... Another fan? I played music once. Just once! Why is it becoming so annoying now?'

Still, Zhen Shi grinned forcefully as he put his right hand forwards and shook the noble's hand politely. The noble young mad grinned 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 Zhen Shi's 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 to be polite so obviously? Or are you trying to mock my humble praise?" with rising anger.

Zhen Shi frowned as well. But with the intention of not making an enemy out a fairly friendly fellow, especially so early in the morning, he spoke out, "Fellow Daoist, I apologize if I offended you. But 'that music' is not something that I am proud of... So I found it rather difficult to listen to your praise."

But his words had the opposite effect, as they caused the scarlet-clothed noble 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 praise from others? And you even say that you aren't proud of that divine music? Are you trying to insult me by hinting that my own talents are sub-par? Don't think that I, William O'Dale, will let you off just because you can play some good music!"

Zhen Shi was speechless, 'FUCK! Is there something up this guy's ass? I was just saying the truth! Is this what I am rewarded with for being honest?'

Even Zhen Shi was beginning to be annoyed right 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.

Either way, to hopefully defuse this hostile situation, he spoke out seriously, "Fellow Daoist William, calm down! I don't think rash action is suited to your noble stature or wise... I'll have you know that I was in a 1 vs 100 fight once!"

William paused in surprise. mostly because Zhen Shi's words rang true, but also because he was curious about the sudden story being told by this strange divine musician.

Zhen Shi proudly continued, "It was a hard-fought battle. I was forced to go all out and use all my martial art skills and hidden aces! It was a true battle of life and death!"

And so, Zhen Shi continued to narrate an epic battle that completely caught William's attention filling him with awe.

Zhen Shi grinned lightly as he finally wrapped up his epic tale with a simple sentence, "And in the end, the 100 of us were just barely able to beat that one guy up!" struggling to hold his laughter at his own joke.

William was confused for a moment, but soon realized Zhen Shi's joke. He burst into laughter saying, "Fellow Daoist I find that you're very funny! Your humility speaks to your true nature and 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 glistening scarlet sword and said with a smile, "But since fellow daoist is unsatisfied with your music, let me generously test out your combat skills instead!" almost as if he was expecting Zhen Shi to thank him.

Zhen Shi grimaced and shouted shamelessly, "What? No! I joked so that we WON'T fight! Besides I'm a peace-loving fellow! I've never even harmed a fly--"

But his words fell on deaf ears as William dashed forwards with his scarlet sword glinting dangerously in the early dawn sunlight.

He lunged the sword at Zhen Shi's face at an immense speed almost on par with the first draconic wind step...

An ordinary soul formation cultivation perhaps might've been in trouble, but Zhen Shi definitely wasn't one... He had a rudimentary understanding of wind aether, a 2x increase to his action and reaction speed, and even good old !

However, since he was still in the doorway he wouldn't be able to dodge to the sides. As such, he instantly bent his torso backward while manifesting to the maximum on his two palms. 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 was surprised to find out that the blade was covered in a thin layer of extremely sharp intent, way beyond his own weapon intent, and despite his successful block it had cut through the draconic scales and his palms were now bleeding.

Nevertheless, 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 stealthily heal his light wounds.

William was rather surprised. He had been preparing to hold back after drawing some blood but had definitely not been expecting Zhen Shi to successfully block it. 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 was pissed, 'What the fuck is wrong with this fellow!?' He wasn't going to back down after being angered and definitely wanted to teach this guy a lesson for starting a fight for no good reason.

As such, he flicked his own hand bringing out the eery .

William's eyes narrowed but he grinned as he was getting into the battle as well, "Why the hell are you playing with fire? Aren't you an archer? Shoot some arrows will you?"

Zhen Shi sneered and replied back in the heat of his anger, "Maybe later, Little Red Riding Hood..."

William frowned, he didn't understand the true meaning but could sense Zhen Shi's insulting tone. He roared in blazing rage 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 a friendly ball of , 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 that things were getting truly dangerous, Zhen Shi decided to take this a bit more seriously. He wasn't planning on being stabbed in the early morning just for playing some music.

Zhen Shi frowned while bringing out his bow into his free hand. Despite his senses being useless, he could still feel a vague sense of danger from the aether surrounding him. But even with the divine bow in his hand, he wasn't confident of blocking a pair of invisible swords.

Even the aether continued to give a sense of growing dread. 'SHIT! Who is this guy? I actually had an easier time with the Law Tier Vivienne!'

To make things worse, he couldn't even use out in the open, especially when there was a chance that he might go berserk, which was the least ideal result.

So Zhen Shi decided to use his most recent skill gains to the test. He quickly manifested the Hel fire into formation talismans and instantly set up his dual-purpose unorthodox formation. At the same time, he prepped his bow preparing to shoot.

With the sense of danger and dread growing worse, Zhen Shi hurriedly activated the unorthodox defense formation with the full force of his qi and spread it out to cover the entire doorway.

CRACK!

But the instant he did, the sound of splintering rang out. A large crack had formed on the hellish black defense formation at a spot very close to Zhen Shi's neck, causing him to take several steps back into the pavilion out of sheer surprise. That attack had gathered an entire streak of {Awakened Sword Intent}!

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.

At the same time, he was gradually becoming extremely enraged... He had done his best to pacify the situation, he was doing his best to hold back, but this guy wasn't giving up...

As such, he threw all thoughts of being the 'bigger person' and readied himself to do whatever was necessary to win this battle.

Realizing his stupidity, he quickly activated hoping to instantly spot William's location. But rather strangely, he still remained invisible... However, he could now easily spot the areas where the aether had been dispersed unnaturally.

Instantly, he gathered several strands of arrow intent and shot several arrows at the general estimates of William's location, through the crack in his formation.

TWANG! TWANG!

The arrows shot forwards with powerful force but neither of them hit anything and uselessly hit the ground...

'SHIT! This guy's stealth is really annoying!'

Zhen Shi decided to accept the risk of the bestial killing intent, as he cranked up to 30% and covered his chest and torso for extra protection, leaving the scales covered by his clothing.

He even used up some earthen aether to strengthen his external defense and also cover up his bestial appearance a bit.

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. Your weapon intent isn't even {Awakened} yet. You're completely clueless as to what to do without seeing the target... But don't worry, I won't kill you... I'll just beat up your inflated ego!"

Zhen Shi growled back, with bestial eyes, "Great words from little red riding hood. You just keep hiding and striking like a coward from your hidey-hole." But he didn't elaborate any more 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 as it finally shattered apart. Zhen Shi hurriedly readied himself to defend from the front while taking a few more steps back. But surprisingly no attack came...

Even so, Zhen Shi remained fully alert as he scanned the surroundings with his golden eye for aether disturbances while slowly retreating. Unknowingly he reached the part of the pavilion with the central garden, and only barely registered his foot lightly touching the pitch-black blacksmithing furnace.

But suddenly the aether went haywire warning him of danger! He was being attacked from the back!

The second attack on the defensive formation must've been a distraction... William had somehow made his way into the pavilion, possibly from the open roof above the central garden and stealthily sneaked right next to Zhen Shi. And like a moth to a flame, Zhen Shi had walked right into this trap.

To make things worse, he was facing the front and was unable to use his golden eye to pinpoint the location of the attack. Not even the wind was affected by William's silent sword attack, making it that much difficult to locate.

It was now too late...

While was powerful, his mastery was nowhere close to perfection, and he was still in the first step! Even with his doubled speed and reaction boost, he would be unable to dodge this instantaneous point-blank sword stab.

But it wasn't utterly hopeless either...

Zhen Shi grinned maliciously as he activated his spiritual connection with the pitch-black cauldron at his foot while instantly applying . After all, the mind was faster than any weapon.

Instantly, the pitch-black smog formed into the oh-so-familiar furnace spirit imps. Strangely enough, they were completely free of their mischievous chittering selves-- instead, they seemed to be more devilish and more serious...

But Zhen Shi paid no attention to that as he put the fate of the entire battle on his gamble. He mentally ordered the imps to go all out and attack four different directions focused on his back; one towards the extreme right, two along the middle, and the final one towards the extreme left.

Zhen Shi was betting the entire battle on the fact that at least one of them would hit the hiding William and reveal his location.

Fortunately for him, William had not been expecting a sudden attack from the 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 with a smug grin on his face.

Looking back, in this entire fight there hadn't been a shred of genuine killing intent from either of them. Despite the close shaves and insults to each other, the battle had only been a spar. Both of them had held back from using their complete power and hidden aces... Zhen Shi in particular.

In the end, this had caused a slight sense of respect to form in each other's hearts. And most importantly, Zhen Shi's anger had washed away the moment William was floored by a little demonic imp.

As such, Zhen Shi was preparing to end the matter here and was also sure that William would agree.

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 powerful enough to almost defeat Zhen Shi, and that attack had only been from a single soul formation imp.

Zhen Shi was about to walk over with a grin and help William up. He was actually looking forward to a conversation with William explaining his strange prowess...

But things don't always go as planned.

Because suddenly, the furnace imps lost their 'strange' obedience as they went utterly crazy and began to howl in a frenzy. They were snarling and growling monstrously and all four of them began to converge on the fallen William.

Zhen Shi who had a bad premonition hurriedly dashed forwards with a while spiritually calling off those imps. But they turned a deaf ear to his orders, they seemed to have become true devils... as they ripped apart William's scarlet clothes along with patches of his skin and flesh, dying his body in truly scarlet red blood.

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

Even though Zhen Shi had dashed forwards 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 dissipate...

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... at the same time, strangely not. The red energy quickly gathered forming a cloak of powerful pure scarlet energy.

His eyes and hair gained a tincture of scarlet as his entire body became a simple existence of blood-red...

Zhen Shi halted his step and threw away any possibilities of fixing this matter. After all, William was already emanating an aura far beyond Soul Destruction...

'SHIT! It was just a simple sparring match! How did it turn into this in a few moments? Fuck Myne and his furnace spirits!'

Zhen Shi threw aside his confused feelings regarding this sudden situation as he activated up to a whopping 80% while doing his best to hide it as much as possible. Any part of his body covered in clothing was covered in a layer of azure draconic scales. Even his exposed skin gave off a light sheen of draconic scales barely hidden under his external skin.

His eyes gave off a threatening glow rivaling even that of William's aura! But he definitely had to struggle to remain calm under the rising bestial bloodlust...

William paid no attention to this, as he grinned with bloodied teeth and said, "Red is the world at dawn. You disappointed my expectations and like your music, you reek of spite," causing the scarlet around him to intensify.

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

William continued to chant his words while grinning in rage, "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 earthen 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 out of 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...

On the other hand, Zhen Shi's desire to battle fueled his bestial bloodlust causing his conscience to slowly collapse and truly become beast-like. Even so, with a bestial growl and overflowing killing intent, he released his arrow.

At the same time, William dashed forward leaving behind a simple streak of crimson that's proceeded to wreak havoc on the air which shivered almost in fear. He seemed to hold no fear... only pure rage...

As the arrow covered in strands of {Arrow Intent} dashed forwards, Zhen Shi's simple bestial mind was unconsciously reminded of the way that he had combined Arrow and Bow intent; back when he fought Batsy, and yesterday when he completed the Bridge trial and gained the 'divine blessing'.

So almost out of pure instinct, he imitated those instances and partially combined the two intents; Bow and Arrow, becoming an almost single entity... At that point, the {Strands of intent} flared as it reached a level that was equivalent to {Awakened Intent}!

As this single arrow dashed forward carrying devastating power, Zhen Shi growled in an animalistic frenzy as he dashed forwards, only a step behind it.

A crimson bloodied jaguar facing a bestial dragon and single arrow... head towards a collision.