The streets of Sol Vang were bathed in the warm orange glow of the lamps as evening settled over the caldera. Steam rose from the canals and then curled around the black iron towers like spirits dancing in the mist.

  Li Yu walked slowly with his hands tucked into his sleeves. He was thinking about the push towards Divine Transformation and how the demonic core was his foundation for that push.

  ‘That’s a lot of bad energy,’ Li Yu thought with a flicker of doubt crossing his mind.

  He had absorbed cores before via his Koi Martial Spirit. But he had never attempted to process a stockpile of this magnitude. The demonic Qi inside these cores was raw, unfiltered and maddening. For most humans they couldn’t absorb any of it at all. They might suffer qi deviation or simply go mad.

  ‘And I'm planning to binge on them.’ Li Yu mused. ‘Is there a limit? Will the demonic Qi taint me? Will I transform into a demon? Become more demon than human?’

  After a bit of pondering and thinking Li Yu decided to have trust and confidence in his martial spirit. The thing that kick started his journey into the cultivation world.

  ‘If it can absorb it before without any issues. It should be able to do it again, even if the quantities are insane this time around. I believe in it.’ Li Yu concluded as he continued to walk.

  He pushed the worry to the back of his mind. He had a foundation to build and he needed to be confident in his path. His heart was firm and his resolve was steel. He had to get stronger to meet his enemies head on.

  Li Yu arrived at the address Magnar had given him. It wasn't a delicate teahouse or a stiff formal dining hall. It was The Magma Hearth, a massive stone structure built directly into the side of a vent. The tables were slabs of polished rock and the heat from the floor was enough to keep the food warm indefinitely on the table.

  The noise hit him the moment he opened the door. Roaring laughter, clanking tankards and the sizzle of meat on open flames.

  "Over here, Crab!"

  Li Yu spotted them in a private alcove on the 3rd floor. Sect Master Magnar waved his new arm vigorously. Next to him sat Elder Torsten who was looking much healthier than he had in the valley.

  But they weren't alone. Two other men sat at the table.

  One was a short, broad-shouldered man with a shaved head and tattoos of mountains running down his arms. This was Elder Hrolf, a 2nd Stage Soul Formation expert of the Thunder Echo Sect known for his earth arts.

  The other was lean, with long grey hair tied back in a warrior's knot. He was meticulously sharpening a small dagger at the table. This was Elder Stig, also 2nd Stage, the sect's master of wind.

  They were the two elders that were knocked out during the fight in the valley. These four, a few other disciples and lower elders that were away from the sect at the time were all that was left from the once renown Thunder Echo Sect.

  And at the head of the table and occupying a chair that groaned under his weight was Vorgnir. The Death Seeker looked... better. The bandages on his chest were gone and were replaced by a fresh tunic.

  His skin still bore the angry red lines of freshly knit scars. He was currently holding an entire roasted leg of some unfortunate beast in one hand and tearing into it with savage efficiency.

  "You made it," Magnar grinned as Li Yu approached. "We thought you might have gotten lost in the vaults. Rumor has it Olaf the Quartermaster tried to adopt you as well."

  "He certainly tried," Li Yu laughed at the joke. Word really does travel fast around here. It seems like his weird preference for demonic cores was still a topic of conversation. Li Yu then quickly took the empty seat between Torsten and Vorgnir. "I think I might be his favorite person in the Dominion right now."

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  "You cleared the shelves of his unwanted trash." Vorgnir grunted around a mouthful of meat. "Good. Those demonic cores were gathering dust. Useless trash for most of us, dangerous to handle. Glad someone found a use for them."

  "One man's trash is another man's treasure," Li Yu said. He then went to pour himself a cup of the dark heavy ale. He nodded to the two new faces who he had already been introduced to while they were knocked out. "Elder Hrolf. Elder Stig. Good to see you awake."

  "Good to be awake," Elder Hrolf rumbled back. His voice was like rocks grinding together. "Torsten told us what you did. Killing off seventeen of those nightmares? You have my respect, boy."

  Elder Stig nodded silently as he raised his cup. "And mine. I remember the pressure hitting us in the ambush... and then nothing. Waking up alive was a pleasant surprise."

  "To being alive!" Magnar roared with gusto and raising his tankard.

  "To being alive," the table chorused.

  They drank. The ale was thick, bitter and incredibly strong. It burned all the way down and settled in the stomach like a warm stone. There were all other kinds of drinks on the table as well. It would seem these men liked to enjoy a good drink.

  "So," Li Yu said as he was setting his cup down and looking at Vorgnir. "I didn't expect to see you here. I thought you'd be halfway to another battle by now."

  "I was leaving," Vorgnir admitted. He wiped grease from his chin. "Gave my report to the Council. Got patched up by the healers here who, by the way, are getting softer. In my day, they used salt and fire, not this glowing green light nonsense."

  "It's called progress, you old fossil," Magnar teased.

  Vorgnir ignored him. "But then Sparky here said he was buying dinner. And since he owes me for saving his miserable hide again before you showed up, I figured I'd eat my fill before leaving."

  Li Yu raised an eyebrow. It was the second time he had heard Vorgnir call the Thunder King, Sparky. "Sparky?"

  Magnar groaned and already had his face buried in his hands. "Don't."

  Elder Hrolf chuckled, a low wheezing sound. "He hasn't called you that in a while, Sect Master."

  "Sparky," Li Yu tested the name. It felt wrong on the lips when looking at the Thunder King, a man who commanded lightning in an impressive way. "Why Sparky?"

  Vorgnir leaned back and the chair creaked ominously. A grin spread across his scarred face, revealing teeth that had seen too many battles.

  "Because when I first met him," Vorgnir pointed a bone at Magnar, "he was a scrawny little Core Formation brat. He had power, sure, but the moment a fight started? Complete chaos."

  Vorgnir mimed a chaotic explosion with his hands.

  "Every time he got into a scrap, his lightning would arc everywhere except the enemy. He fried my dinner three times in one week. We were ambushed by Ice Cats once and instead of hitting the cats, he panicked and blew up our supplies."

  "I was younger then!" Magnar defended himself but his face was flushing red. "And I hadn't mastered my cultivation technique yet! The adrenaline made my Qi unstable!"

  "Exactly," Vorgnir nodded. "Unstable. Sparky. It stuck."

  Li Yu laughed. The image of the legendary Thunder King as a panicked man blowing up his own supplies was too good. It showed that everyone had to start from somewhere, even if he was Core Formation at that time.

  "Wait," Li Yu said while piecing it together. "You’ve known him for that long?"

  "Of course." Vorgnir snorted. "Boy, I helped train him."

  The table went quiet as it seemed each man was thinking back to those past days. Li Yu looked from the giant to the Sect Master.

  "You... trained the Thunder King?"

  "He wasn't a King then. What a dumb name the people gave him. All because he was decent with some thunder skills." Vorgnir said. "He was a stray back then. Found him wandering the Ice Waste. He had talent but no discipline. So I dragged him around for years. Beat the basics into him."

  "He beat me with a tree trunk," Magnar corrected after taking a long drink. "For years. My 'training' mostly consisted of dodging while he swung a tree at my head."

  "It worked, didn't it?" Vorgnir countered. "You learned to move fast. And look at you now. Sect Master. Big shot. A minor legend. Fancy armor."

  Vorgnir reached over and flicked Magnar’s new shoulder plate. CLANG.

  "Still can't take a hit though," Vorgnir muttered. "Should have used a harder tree."

  "It wasn't just him," Elder Torsten chimed in with his eyes twinkling. "Lord Vorgnir has... a history with many of the high figures in the North."

  "Oh?" Li Yu leaned forward. He wanted to learn more. "Do tell."

  Vorgnir sighed while looking at his empty plate. "I've been around a long time, Li Yu. Hundreds of years means you meet a lot of people. Some of them stick."