Purple...

"I've already examined that man's consciousness. It was as muddled as expected. He obtained a little power from Evil Sin, and Evil Sin used that opportunity to tamper with his memories."

As Shen Bai spoke, he lightly tapped the vacant-eyed man with his scissors.

The abnormal changes on the man's face were spreading extensively now, raising disgusting scales across it like a layer of rotting bark. Having lost his sense of self, he could no longer control his body, and those powers were gradually manifesting in him.

Shen Bai took a neatly arranged bundle of threads from his pocket and unfolded it before Liu Yiyi.

Pinching the end of a thread, Shen Bai shook it gently. The rest of the bundle slowly unraveled, and hazy, indistinct images gradually emerged as the threads spread, like someone's muddled dream.

The images showed utterly blurred, shifting scenes in which even the figures were difficult to distinguish. The rustling sounds did not resemble human voices.

No one present had the ability to see through these obscured memories.

Liu Yiyi watched the chaotic, disjointed images and sighed, then turned to look at the struggling Li Yan.

"Then let's start with her. Let's leave her consciousness alone for now and see whether we can get anything out of her."

Li Yan watched the three turn their gazes toward her as Liu Yiyi finished speaking. Fear seized the upper hand again, and tears instantly flooded her vision, blurring everything before her.

Yet the next instant, she could see clearly again.

So hot.

That was Li Yan's only thought at that moment.

The instant Liu Yiyi looked at Li Yan, unmatched power stirred and roared, and terrifying heat instantly enveloped Li Yan.

It lasted only an instant, but that instant of heat evaporated Li Yan's tears and cooked the surface of her skin.

Agony!!!

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!"

Pain pierced Li Yan's thoughts like an arrow the next moment. This time, her tears came not from fear, but from suffering.

Salt slid down her cooked cheeks with her tears. Li Yan felt as though countless needles were piercing her hair follicles along the tracks of her tears.

Liu Yiyi was already well practiced. The first time she had used her power this way, she had cooked her target through.

Now, however, the heat would only cook her target's skin without taking their life just yet.

"Shut up."

Liu Yiyi's voice came from a short distance away.

Her expression was dark and cold now, utterly different from her lively demeanor when facing Shi Yu and the others during the day. Bright flames revolved in her eyes as she slowly approached Li Yan.

A cold voice devoid of any feeling reached Li Yan's ears:

"From now on, I ask, you answer."

Liu Yiyi slowly crouched down. Li Yan felt as though a volcano were slowly leaning toward her.

Bright crimson eyes watched Li Yan, who endured the agony without daring to make a sound.

"Understood?"

Li Yan nodded frantically. Once again, she experienced that familiar sensation.

The feeling of being dominated by a higher life-form.

She did not dare resist at all. That had been true from the beginning, and it remained true now. She had never changed.

"Who ordered this assassination, and where do you meet them?"

Liu Yiyi asked her question, and Li Yan could hardly wait to offer an answer in exchange for the same "mercy" as back then.

"I don't know who they are. I hear their voice in certain dreams. It's a man! Yes! A man ordered me to do it! I was forced, too..."

Crack.

Li Yan desperately wanted forgiveness, but the instant she tried to explain her difficulties, she heard a sharp crack, followed by excruciating pain and a twisting in her right arm.

Liu Yiyi's expression remained unchanged as she withdrew the hand that had just gripped Li Yan's right arm.

"Answer only what I ask."

"Aaaah, I really was forced! Please, I'm begging you, let me go!!!"

Crack.

This time it was her left leg. From a distance that left little room to generate force, Liu Yiyi shattered her thigh with a kick. Her cooked outer skin and trousers burst open under the blow, and broken bone fragments pierced through her flesh.

This time, Li Yan failed to scream. She gave a muffled groan and passed out.

Liu Yiyi looked at the unconscious Li Yan, stepped back twice, and glanced over her shoulder at Huo Qiuliang.

Huo Qiuliang frowned, then came over and examined Li Yan.

Then he slowly placed his hand before Li Yan's closed eyes, gently covering them.

As Huo Qiuliang moved, Li Yan's eyelids began to tremble. Then her eyes abruptly opened.

Huo Qiuliang had influenced her cognition and slightly increased her tolerance for pain. Now she opened her eyes, exceptionally lucid, and would no longer pass out so easily from pain.

Li Yan opened her eyes and stared in terror at the three people before her. Her lips trembled incessantly. She did not dare speak.

Then Liu Yiyi's voice rang out again:

"Remember the rules this time. Let's start over."

Liu Yiyi looked down at the trembling, broken Li Yan and slowly spoke:

"Describe the one who brought you into the Curtain-Callers."

I can't.

The instant Li Yan heard that question, only this thought remained in her mind.

I absolutely cannot do that!!

Li Yan did not know why, either. Faced with these people who resembled evil spirits, could she not even describe that Evil Sin's appearance? It had never said she could not.

That's right. It never said I couldn't. I'm only trying to stay alive so I can serve it better afterward.

Li Yan's momentary hesitation even suppressed her pain. But she overlooked that point and made up her mind to speak:

"It has purple..."

The moment Li Yan spoke, she suddenly saw the expressions of the three people opposite her change drastically. That madwoman with the braided hair yanked the pretty boy with upturned eyes behind her.

What's wrong? Li Yan wondered.

But she did not want to concern herself with so much. She only wanted to do everything they demanded, then flee far away.

Li Yan continued describing the image in her memory. Soon, she too sensed something wrong.

Why can't I understand my own voice?

Li Yan lowered her head to look at her body, whose terrible pain had stopped at some unknown point, but all she saw was...

Purple.

Purple as glossy as lacquer.

Watching Li Yan suddenly begin to mutate, the crimson in Liu Yiyi's pupils abruptly flared and burned white! Thunderous power spilled out around her!

Behind her, Huo Qiuliang's already pale eyes turned moonlike, faint moonlight suffusing his pupils.

As Li Yan began to speak, several gashes split open across her body without warning. Purple instantly spread from within, transforming the flesh it stained into hard, irregular angles. Pairs of eyes radiating endless malice emerged in those gashes, churning and jostling as they stared at the three.

After Li Yan uttered those few words, her voice also changed into indistinct sounds. They had a peculiar rhythm, their pitch neither male nor female, impossible to identify.

"Foolish."

Then, as Li Yan lowered her head, her body abruptly exploded! Countless masses of purple substance gushed out in an overwhelming torrent. At first, they were soft and elastic, then they hardened into sharp, cutting edges like myriad purple crystal clusters. They shot toward the doorway!!

"It didn't work. It saw through it."

Huo Qiuliang's voice rang out, his expression grave.

At that moment, Liu Yiyi and the other two appeared at the doorway, having long since left their original positions.

But Liu Yiyi showed no intention of running. She glanced back to confirm that Shen Bai and Huo Qiuliang were both behind her, then gave a cold snort.

Facing the countless purple spikes, Liu Yiyi shifted her right foot slightly back and instantly clenched her right fist.

"Get lost!"

With a furious shout, Liu Yiyi stepped forward and unleashed a punch, smashing it viciously toward the purple spikes!

The wind wailed. Even the intangible was hammered and melted down. The wrath of the Furnace of Reforging would tear apart all things that claimed to be unchanging!

Boom!!!!

Violent power abruptly manifested around Liu Yiyi and surged forward! Light and heat suddenly erupted at the edge of the sky where the sun had already set, as though someone had flipped a switch that changed the night here into day.

In a flash, everything before them was utterly destroyed. Only wisps of lingering warmth wandered through the chilly night.

Just one instant.

Li Yan and that man had already been reduced to countless pieces under Liu Yiyi's attack. The purple substance had also been completely shattered, losing all its power.

Under the fierce blow of that unmatched power, the factory wall opened onto the cold late-autumn night, while that indescribably scorching force extended a hundred meters, leaving charred scars outside the factory.

Looking at the scene of instantaneous devastation, Liu Yiyi waved her hand and withdrew all the heat remaining in the air, lest some lingering heat ignite something and start a fire.

Beside her, Shen Bai adjusted his glasses. After confirming that no trace of power remained at the scene, he sighed and began repairing the factory wall.

The old factory had already been precarious. Without some repairs, it would probably collapse before long.

*Note:

The legacy of "Smelting": sixth art: "Casting"

"What is iron shall become water. What is water shall take solid form. All who falsely claim their own form unchanging shall cease to endure beneath this person's hammering."

"What I believe in shall forever be the strength in my hands. I must become a focus as brilliant as fire. For this, I am willing to swallow furnace coal and let the heat cast me into form."