Moments earlier, in the sky northeast of Heaven Gate City.
Huo Yuhao looked straight into Kong Deming's and Wang Yiheng's eyes and let out a long breath.
"Elder Kong," he said meaningfully, "Commander Wang, I trust you've been well since we last met."
The sense of familiarity in Kong Deming's heart grew stronger. "Azure Dragon King, there is not the slightest history of friendship between the three of us. I truly cannot accept such a greeting."
Wang Yiheng stood behind Kong Deming to one side.
He kept his gaze locked on Huo Yuhao's slightest movements, equally puzzled.
The man before him was suffocatingly powerful, but that familiarity in his tone... should never have been there!
Huo Yuhao looked at the two men, then swept aside his robe, cupped his fist, and bowed.
"Thanks to your guidance in the past, I learned the essence of Sun Moon soul guidance."
"Today, I, Huo Yuhao, will repay that kindness not with my cultivation, but solely with everything I have learned about soul guidance and spirit tools."
As his words fell, a small, spinning furnace suddenly appeared in Huo Yuhao's hand.
The furnace swelled in the wind, growing three hundred meters tall in an instant.
It hovered above Heaven Gate City, breathing red and blue flames as though it could burn everything in the world to ash.
"The Icefire Creation Furnace?!"
Kong Deming and Wang Yiheng were shaken to their cores.
This was unmistakably the unique martial soul of Lin Yi, the Sun Moon Empire's long-dead genius!
They finally understood where that familiarity came from.
"Lin Yi... it's you?!"
"Impossible!"
Wang Yiheng shouted fiercely, "Lin Yi died at the coronation, without even his bones remaining! Just who are you..."
Huo Yuhao held the divine furnace aloft with one hand. Towering flames and freezing ice