Back to Ray — after transporting all the prisoners out of the prison,Ray started stretching, loosening his muscles and relaxing his nerves while waiting for Sophia to appear. Seconds later, she teleported beside him.
"I'll crank up the confusing property of the mist," Ray said, walking toward the cave's inner exit with a calm face."Since they'll be disoriented, I want you to take control over the mist and make sure no one notices us, at least until we take out all the small fries. Take down anyone who tries to escape."
From the mist's perception, most of the evil masters here were either two- or three-ring masters, with only five at the Soul Emperor level and one Soul Saint.
So Ray decided to strip down the weaker ones first before attacking the stronger ones.
By the time Ray got out of the imprisoning cave, he encountered three soul evil masters under the mist's cover — they thought it was just natural fog. They didn't even see him, let alone sense him.
Ray walked beside them slowly, stabbing the three in quick succession. The moment he passed them, they vanished and reappeared above the altar inside the Evil Devourer Tree. Without realizing what happened, they were warped and dragged into the wall.
And so, while Ray strolled toward the innermost part of the cave, he took down anyone he met. Sometimes, someone would dodge his first attack, but Ray would knock them down before sending them out next.
By the time he reached the end of the first floor, he had already taken care of all the small fries — over a hundred of them, either drunk on cultivation energy, or simply unconscious. It made his work feel like a breeze.
On the first part of the lower floor, Ray found five Soul Emperors. Luckily, they were cultivating inside the chamber guarding the opposite door.
Taking the chance, Ray made quick work of two of them before the others noticed and woke up.
Retreating to a safe distance, Ray monitored them and sent a message to Sophia, asking her to guard the door.
The three remaining evil masters activated their material souls and began using their spiritual power to investigate their surroundings. Surprisingly, their senses were restricted to the same level as their vision.
After several seconds with no results, they began to move. One of them made a signal, and the next moment, he and another took the front while the last activated his skill and dashed toward the door.
The other two were about to activate their soul skills, but thankfully, Ray had been observing them the entire time.
The moment the man ran toward the door, Ray's second ring lit up. Controlling the mist around the other two, he turned it into sealing chains that wrapped invisibly around their ankles.
As they were distracted by the sudden disturbance in their soul power, Ray used Quick Step, appearing beside them and slicing at their sides. A second later, they vanished.
Letting out a sigh, he headed toward the door after the last man. Unsurprisingly, he found Sophia had already sealed him inside a crystal. Nodding to her, she released the crystal, and Ray sent him out as well.
Observing the surroundings for any irregularities, Ray finally sat down to recover. He had finished dealing with all the low-level ones.
Observing the surroundings for any irregularities, Ray sat down to recover, having finally dealt with all the low-level ones.He took the chance to regulate his condition and prepare to fight the last one, since just from his perception, there was no way the final opponent would be an easy fight.
A couple of minutes passed before Ray opened his eyes, stood up, and walked toward the deepest part of the cave."Now to the real part," he said, standing in front of the biggest chamber of all. Judging by the mist, this was the last section of the entire cave system — and it had quite a wide entrance.
"Are you sure you want to fight alone first?" Sophia asked worriedly before entering. She was torn about something — unsure if she should tell him or not.
"Of course. It's not like I can take him down completely. I just want to see my limits first," Ray said, entering as Sophia sighed before disappearing into light particles and fusing back into him.
Ray observed the cavern for a second — and froze after seeing something inside.In this underground space, a large skeleton of what looked like a lion's corpse lay on the far side. In front of it sat a man in a black robe, meditating.The sides of the cavern — from the entrance to the man's position — were covered in all types of treasures: gold, metals, rare gems...
But what stopped Ray in place was a strange sense of familiarity with the man. Worse, just trying to remember who he was gave him a splitting headache.The reason was simple — he had seen this man in the place where he was once held captive. And being unable to recall his identity only confirmed Sophia's suspicions.
What Sophia saw while they were fusing was the full memory of Ray. But later, after being housed in his spiritual sea, she discovered that he actually didn't remember most of what happened in his first years in this world.This meant that the years before he regained his past life's memories were now mostly sealed, leaving him with only the bare minimum about his identity in this world — and that wasn't supposed to happen.
The reason was simply the trauma — both physical and spiritual — that his body and soul suffered before he escaped or awakened his past life's memories. Ray's subconscious had refused to remember, sealing those memories away as a result.That's why Sophia had asked if he really wanted to fight — not because she doubted his strength, but because she feared it might trigger those memories.
Seeing Ray shake his head to ease the headache before preparing to attack, she felt relieved — for now, she focused on supporting him.
As Ray summoned his material soul, a deep voice came from the man's direction."To think a boy not even in his twenties, and only a two-ring Soul Master, could wipe out a fully functioning organization..." the man's voice was deep and screechy, like someone scratching a block of iron.
The man opened his eyes, revealing pupil-less eyes of black, carrying a kind of malicious intent.Ray frowned, noticing something strange on the man's forehead — like all the other Evil Masters, he had a number engraved there, but this one was flickering, appearing and vanishing continuously.
"Hm, so that's the mist," Ray muttered, probing it with his spiritual sense. He realized it was the cause, then looked back at the man — who was now exhaling a crystal-like mist.The man smirked. "Shrewd move. I'll give you that."
Standing up, he released his aura, pushing away the mist and clearing almost a hundred meters around him."Tell me, boy — interested in becoming one of us?" The man studied Ray for a moment. "I could even take you as my student. With the way you worked your way here, your mind fits better in the Evil Master civilization."
"Nah, thanks. I'm good where I am," Ray said, retrieving his gauntlets and putting them on — one of his latest crafts.This pair of gauntlets wasn't just sturdy enough to withstand the full attack of an eight-ring Soul Master, but Ray had also tweaked them to redirect the mist he exhaled straight to his palms.
"Are you sure?" the man added, releasing pressure toward Ray. "I can make sure you reach Title Douluo by the time you turn twenty."
"I can do that myself," Ray replied, unfazed by the man's pressure. He took a moth-shaped mask and put it on. The moment it clicked into place, it automatically extended around his neck and connected to the sides of his shoulder-length gauntlets.
With a deep breath, parts of the mask began to glow, light traveling down through his neck and feeding into the gauntlets.On the sides of the gauntlets, neon lines lit up, extending toward his palms.
"Save your words," Ray said, seeing the man about to speak. The crystal mist started to appear in his palms. "For a man who hunts the innocent, you don't have the right to talk — let alone for me to humor your thoughts. So…"
With quick steps, he appeared in front of the man and sent a palm strike toward his face."die."