Yuanen Zhentian stared in shock as Juggler strolled out of the Gate of Demons and, with a backhanded swing, shattered it. Beside him was Lan Kai, who had just reverted from his transformed state to the appearance of a little boy. Yuanen Zhentian let out a deep sigh.
This powerhouse from the Spirit Pagoda was indeed unfathomably strong. They had handled the demons with such ease—even though they were the kind that would have taken Yuanen Zhentian some effort to wipe out—and had destroyed the Gate of Demons just as effortlessly.
If Yuanen Zhentian had been in their place, leading the entire Yuanen Clan, even a group of demons that had escaped through the Gate of Demons would have forced them to pay a price in lives to close it again.
At that thought, he immediately walked over to Juggler, hoping to offer him the Yuanen Clan's most heartfelt thanks.
Juggler, however, only beckoned to Lan Kai. The two of them then went over to Yehui, who was still unconscious.
Yehui had returned to her original appearance, but she seemed to be in poor mental shape. Even while unconscious, she appeared to be afraid of something.
Juggler turned and gave Lan Kai a meaningful look. Lan Kai immediately took out a card and pressed it to Yehui's forehead.
As a dark aura flowed into the card, Yehui's expression eased considerably, and the image on the card grew more distinct.
Lan Kai's expression changed. He quickly put the card away, then stole a glance at Juggler.
That was because, just moments ago, several monster cards had somehow appeared in his card case.
"So it's the usual three and the Five Useless Ones... Looks like Teacher Juggler might get a chance to transform on Douluo Continent..."
"Quack! Getting to see Juggler transform into Ultraman Juggler? Now that's worth the price of admission, quack!"
Juggler didn't say much. He exchanged a few simple words with Yuanen Tiandang and Yuanen Zhentian, then very reluctantly handed each of them a business card. After that, he took Lan Kai straight back to the Soul Guidance Fighter. Cradling his Tree of Life bonsai, he immediately piloted the fighter back to Eastsea City.
As for the matter of the Yuanen Clan pledging allegiance to the Spirit Pagoda, Juggler didn't bring it up. He only told Yuanen Zhentian to contact Leng Yaozhu, the Spirit Pagoda's vice pagoda master.
Lan Kai noticed that the bonsai seemed to have grown a little. Its leaves looked livelier, too.
"Teacher Juggler, did something happen? Was it another fragment of Ultraman Belial?"
Once the plane had taken off, Lan Kai couldn't help asking.
For Juggler to wear that exasperated expression—"Oh, you again?"—it had to be something that appeared often but wasn't particularly dangerous.
And in the Ultraman series, the thing that fit that description was the bits of skin tissue that Ultraman Taro had once blasted off Belial with his beam.
Come to think of it, without Ultraman Taro's beam, there wouldn't have been all the trouble with the New Generation Ultramen. Did that mean Ultraman Taro was guilty of the gravest crimes?
Considering that Zoffy could have been the one to devise the plan to wipe out the Ultra Brothers, this hot take didn't seem all that outrageous.
"Yeah. I didn't expect that, besides the Dark Ring, this troublesome thing would come looking for us on its own, too.
"According to that demon lord named Wu Jie, all five Demon Lords have one of these things, which has made their dark power even stronger."
Juggler sighed. Even though Lan Kai couldn't see his face, he could imagine the look of an overworked office drone forced to work overtime.
"No wonder the Ultraman Belial card has become so much clearer, while the card for... Sha—Zoffy hasn't changed much.
"But those more numerous demons don't seem any tougher to beat. Does the Belial fragment only affect the Demon Lords?"
"That's right. But I've already reclaimed the Belial fragment inside Wu Jie, and the Tree of Life has absorbed some of that world's origin power, too.
"I figure that by the time the little girl you know becomes a Titled Douluo and opens the Gate of Demons again, I'll be able to destroy that world completely."
Juggler answered Lan Kai calmly, casually saying something truly astonishing.
Perhaps the overwhelming majority of Warriors of Light would unanimously object to Juggler speaking so offhandedly about destroying an entire world.
But Lan Kai wouldn't. Unless the Demon Plane could one day produce a demon named Sparda, along with his half-human sons, Dante and Vergil, it would be better to destroy a place like that—one that only thought of invading other worlds and seizing their origin power.
Even Alien Empera wouldn't take in a Demon Plane like that. He'd destroy it outright.
"No problem, Teacher Juggler. I'll work harder, too. Next time, I'll fight my way through the Demon Plane alongside you."
Hearing Lan Kai's reply, Juggler couldn't help laughing. But just as he was about to say something, the smile vanished from his face, replaced by a headache.
Lan Kai had settled into a relaxed rest, and now he had started humming. Worse, it was the song Kurenai Gai often played on his harmonica.
"You little rascal..." Juggler smiled helplessly and continued piloting the fighter toward Eastsea City.
Neither Juggler nor Lan Kai noticed that the card case, which Lan Kai didn't usually carry at his waist, had appeared again. Inside it, the Ultraman Belial card was glowing faintly.
In a distant corner of the universe, a young man who still looked boyish suddenly sensed something. He set down the instant noodles bearing the "Wanderer" brand in his hands and hurried over to a giant screen.
"Those fragments again... This time, they're in..."
After returning to Eastsea City, Lan Kai spent the rest of his vacation alternating between intense training with Juggler and blacksmithing practice at the Eastsea City Blacksmith's Association.
Mu Xi was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. This time, Lan Kai hadn't tried to break through to Fusion Forging or Soul Forging. It looked like he was still standing still.
As for the fact that he could control fire better than even her, a Soul Master with a fire attribute, and that his forging efficiency kept increasing, Mu Xi had already grown so oversensitive from Lan Kai that it didn't even register as a problem anymore.
She didn't think much of the new disciple Mu Chen had taken in, either—a boy named Tang Wulin, who was in the same class as Lan Kai.
So what if he was a little better than her?
Could he perform Spirit Refinement?
No!
Could he teach her how to control the heat?
No!
Well, there you had it.
Before you continue