"Seems like they got the news. They branded you a heretic and put a city-smashing price on your head. Time is up."

​

The buzzing attention of the crowd solidified instantly into aggressive intent.

Vahn's highly sensitive Spirit Sense registered a dozen converging auras. small, greedy teams of bounty hunters, mainly Foundation Establishment level with a few Golden Core experts, closing in through the crowded streets.

​"Instructor, let's teach them the price of their greed," Vahn commanded, his face hardening into the ruthless mask of a survivor.

Lilith gave a curt nod.

​Vahn and Lilith didn't run; they fought their way out.

​The fight that erupted in the crowded streets of Fire Cloud City was brief, brutal, and utterly one-sided. Dozens of bounty hunters, eager for the massive prize, found themselves facing two shadows of overwhelming power.

​The bounty hunters, relying on numbers and surprise, were swiftly decimated. Lilith was the one who did the most killings, her movements a graceful, terrifying dance of absolute darkness. Against Golden Core Cultivators, her power was essential. She made no sound and left no corpse intact, reducing the experienced hunters to piles of ash or dust with surgical precision.

​But Vahn wasn't so weak to hide behind a woman. He helped her in every way he could, utilizing his new arsenal to sow chaos and confusion.

​He activated his Shadow Transformation Art (Heaven), turning his body into a mere ripple of shadow that slipped through the crowd, avoiding attacks meant to vaporize him. He used his saber not for direct confrontation, but for precise, crippling strikes against the enemy's formation leaders. When a hunter tried to use a spiritual array, Vahn used his Dream Manipulation Art (Forbidden) on the caster, inflicting momentary paralysis or crippling confusion, leaving them vulnerable to Lilith's dark embrace.

​The message was clear: If they want to hunt, they need to be ready for getting hunted as well.

​Within minutes, the main thoroughfare was a scene of chaos. Scattered weapons, smoking debris, and the eerie, bloodless aftermath of Lilith's attacks. The sheer number of dead or incapacitated hunters finally caught the attention of the municipal authority.

​With a rumbling spiritual pressure, the City Guard arrived, appearing like a Legion of Holy Warriors, fully armored and organized, ready to capture the heretic.

​"We have more company," Lilith warned, her voice devoid of urgency.

​Vahn nodded. They had bought enough time.

​At that moment, they both executed their escape. Vahn fully activated his Shadow Transformation Art, his form instantly collapsing into a low, rippling shadow on the ground. Lilith did the same, using her own Darkness Arts.

Whoosh!

​Two faint, dark streaks flowed across the cobblestone street and disappeared down a narrow alley, merging into the deeper shadows of the city's ancient foundations.

They left the enraged City Guard and the staggering reward behind, vanishing completely from the reach of the hunters.

​Vahn and Lilith had successfully escaped the initial trap. Now, deep within the hostile territory of Fire Cloud City, they were ghosts.

After flowing through the narrow, twisting alleyways of Fire Cloud City, Vahn and Lilith emerged in a small, abandoned corner, hidden behind overflowing refuse bins and thick shadows. They instantly resumed their human forms.

​Lilith's eyes, sharp and clear again, fixed immediately on Vahn.

​"What's the Dark Art you just used?" she asked, her voice laced with suspicion. "Why did it look almost similar to mine?"

​She was referring to the Shadow Transformation Art, a Heaven-grade skill Vahn had just acquired from the System. It mirrored her own innate mastery over darkness far too closely for coincidence.

​Vahn, though tensed inwardly, didn't flinch. He shrugged it off with a straight face, the lie already practiced in his mind.

"It's just a small technique, which I improved after observing yours, Instructor. You know how powerful your aura is. I merely tried to imitate the flow for better stealth."

​He lied with a straight face, completely unaware that this simple statement caused another wave of ripple in her already cracked heart.

How can someone merely imitate another person's Secret Art just by observing?

In a world where Secret Cultivation Arts are bound by specific lineage, restrictions, and immense difficulty, simply imitating one by observation would indeed be nearly impossible. The laws of cultivation are not so lax as to allow anyone to replicate something as unique and dangerous as a Secret Art just by watching.

For a Secret Art to be passed on or learned, it requires a deep understanding, a profound connection with the user's Qi, and sometimes a special lineage or bloodline compatibility. These techniques often have hidden prerequisites that prevent anyone from learning them, even if they have seen the movements or heard the incantations

If everyone could do so like Vahn, wouldn't there be no Secret Arts at all?

​"Anyways, where should we go from here?"

Vahn quickly changed the subject, pulling out the crumpled bounty poster and torching it with a faint spark of Lightning Qi.

"I am sure, the City is going to be locked down soon."

Lilith came out of her daze and nodded curtly.

​"I have one place in my mind where we can temporarily shelter," she said smoothly.

​Vahn's brow furrowed. "Where is it?"

​"The Infernal Clan," she answered.

Vahn blinked, certain he hadn't heard correctly. "The Infernal Clan? The people whose Patriarch we just humiliated and whose son I killed?"

Lilith gave a slight, chilling smile beneath her veil, her eyes gleaming with cold cunning.

"Precisely. The safest place to hide from the hunters is within their own den. No one will dare search the Infernal Clan's fortified estate without a direct decree from the City Lord or the Holy Lands themselves."

And that's how Vahn and Lilith headed toward the Infernal Clan estate.

​The Clan estate was a massive, ancient structure carved from fortified stone, its perimeter laced with visible enchantments that shimmered faintly in the city light.

Just before Twilight, Maids and guards moved about on their work.

​Vahn and Lilith moved with synchronized stealth, the darkness of their attire and their shared dark affinity making them nearly invisible. Lilith neutralized the outer sentries' detection arrays with imperceptible pulses of her own overwhelming power, allowing them to breach the outer walls.

​Inside the estate, the atmosphere was a somber silence.

​They moved silently through the inner courtyard toward the main residential hall, drawn by the strongest convergence of spiritual energy and distress.

​

​Vahn and Lilith found their target in a lavishly decorated, yet heavily darkened room.

Patriarch Dalian and his beautiful wife stood kneeling before their son's body, which lay laid out on a silk sheet, its chest wrapped to conceal the fatal saber wound.

Sorrow and rage clouded their eyes.

​Dalian's beautiful wife's contorted with grief as she slammed her fist on the floor.

​"Husband, where is our son's killer? Why have you come back empty-handed like a coward? How can you fail to protect your own son?" she demanded, her voice thick with anguish.

​Patriarch Dalian looked utterly defeated, his face wearing only confusion. The forceful memory-wipe Lilith had performed was still effective, leaving him with an inescapable sense of failure but no target for his vengeance.

​"I—I don't know, my dear," Dalian confessed, his voice shaking. "I sensed the power that shattered the Rock Giant, and I followed the trail. But... when I reached the scene, the killer was gone. I remember nothing, I felt nothing, only a profound terror that made me flee."

​Lilith gave Vahn a cold, approving nod. Her Dark Art had been successful.

​Vahn watched the display of grief from his vantage point behind a support column. The sight of the grieving parents was a momentary distraction, but Vahn immediately suppressed any flicker of empathy. His life was on the line, and this was an unparalleled opportunity.

​He needed more than just a fleeting Shadow form; he needed a disguise that would grant him free movement inside the estate. And Lilith, ever the master strategist, had already proposed the most audacious and secure disguise.

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