Chapter 242: Fionel’s Rise Was Vulkara’s Fall
Damian’s shout echoed throughout the forging room.
Vulkara’s face darkened as she gave a slow nod. "Yeah. That was pretty much my reaction too."
Damian rubbed his forehead, trying to process the ridiculous news, when he suddenly froze. "Wait a minute."
Vulkara frowned. "What now?"
Damian slowly turned toward her. "How did Violetta even know about this?"
Vulkara blinked at the strange question. "She told me through a message."
Damian’s expression stiffened.
A moment later, his eyes widened again. "Wait a damn minute... you’ve been messaging her?"
Vulkara nodded naturally. "Yeah."
Damian immediately pointed at himself. "Then why the hell hasn’t she sent me a single message?"
Vulkara stared at him for a few seconds before answering bluntly, "I don’t know. Maybe because you’re a pervert."
Damian’s mouth twitched. "If it were you, I could understand."
Vulkara’s brow immediately jumped. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Damian completely ignored her and continued with a serious expression, "But Violetta? No. She wouldn’t just ignore her handsome master for no reason."
crossed her arms. "Maybe she finally became smart."
Damian’s face darkened. "Impossible."
A few breaths later, realization suddenly appeared in his eyes. "Then... it must be Master."
Vulkara paused. "Elder Selvara?"
Damian nodded with a grave expression, as though he had just uncovered some enormous conspiracy.
"Yes. Master must have warned Violetta not to disturb me while I was training... or almost dying somewhere."
Vulkara stared at him strangely. "You really make ’almost dying’ sound like an ordinary part of your day."
Damian waved his hand dismissively. "Details."
He released a helpless sigh. "Damn... alright, alright. I’ll forget about that for now."
His expression gradually grew serious again as his thoughts returned to the more pressing matter. "So, Violetta was the one who got the news?"
Vulkara nodded. "Yeah."
Damian looked confused for a moment. "But from where?"
Vulkara’s eyes turned cold. "Darius, the Sect Master of the Great Flame Sect, was actually one of the Heavenly Palace’s loyal customers."
Damian paused briefly before slowly nodding. "I see. That explains a lot."
Heavenly Palace was a terrifying courtesan faction that used its courtesans to gather vast amounts of information from their customers.
Selvara had brought Violetta there to train under Elder Vivian and become stronger, as Violetta’s talents leaned more toward those of a musical cultivator, making her particularly well suited to the courtesan arts.
If Darius had been a regular customer, Violetta naturally would have had ways to learn about any important developments concerning him and his disciples.
Damian rubbed his chin as another problem quickly bothered him. "But even then..."
His eyebrows pulled together. "How the hell did Fionel reach the Golden Core Realm so quickly?"
The difference between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core was not something a cultivator casually crossed overnight.
Damian’s gaze sharpened. "Just what the hell happened to her?"
Vulkara became silent.
Her earlier anger gradually faded into something more complicated as she looked toward the blazing furnace.
A few moments passed before she finally released a heavy sigh. "Fine."
She tightened her grip around her hammer and turned back toward Damian. "I’ll tell you the whole story."
---
Vulkara stared at the furnace for a while before finally speaking again. "Fionel always hated my guts because I refused to bow my head to her."
Damian stayed quiet and listened.
That part was exactly what he expected from Vulkara.
Too stubborn to lower her head, even when doing so would have made her life much easier.
Vulkara continued, "Because of that, Fionel kept watching me. She wanted to know everything I did so she could find more ways to make my life miserable."
Her voice gradually became colder. "One day, I accidentally stumbled into a hidden area of the Great Flame Sect."
Damian’s eyes shifted slightly. "A hidden area?"
Vulkara nodded. "At first, I had no idea what it was. I only went there because I sensed a strange fluctuation of Qi."
She tightened her grip around the hammer in her hand. "By the time I realized something was wrong, I had already entered some kind of inheritance site."
Damian’s expression became noticeably more serious.
Vulkara gritted her teeth. "Unfortunately, Fionel noticed that I had suddenly disappeared into some hidden place, so that bitch secretly followed me."
A bitter expression crossed her face. "When she arrived and realized it was actually an inheritance site, she was probably even more excited than I was."
Damian’s gaze sharpened. "And she stole it?"
Vulkara’s jaw tightened. "Yeah."
Her voice grew rougher as the memories resurfaced. "The inheritance tested talent. At that time, Fionel’s talent was better than mine, so when both of us were there... the inheritance chose her instead."
Damian clicked his tongue. "Damn."
Vulkara lowered her gaze toward the floor. "The worst part was that the inheritance was connected to a forbidden cultivation art belonging to the Great Flame Sect."
Damian frowned. "Connected how? It contained a hidden part of the sect’s forbidden cultivation art?"
Vulkara nodded firmly. "Exactly. It wasn’t just some ordinary inheritance. What was hidden there was the missing portion needed to complete one of the Great Flame Sect’s most precious forbidden cultivation arts."
Damian immediately understood where this was going, but he simply kept listening.
Hatred burned openly in Vulkara’s eyes now. "After learning that it was a hidden part of the art, she stole the incomplete cultivation technique from the sect and then framed me as the thief."
Damian’s face grew colder.
Vulkara gave a bitter laugh without even a trace of amusement. "I was basically nothing more than an insignificant outer disciple. I had no powerful family, no backing, and nobody important willing to speak for me."
Her fingers clenched tightly enough for her knuckles to whiten. "Fionel, on the other hand, was already a beautiful and talented inner disciple. Between the two of us, who the hell do you think everyone was going to believe?"
Damian said nothing, as there was no need to answer.
Vulkara’s voice trembled slightly, not from fear, but from pure rage. "Now that I had been branded a thief, she immediately made her move. She took back the cultivation art, then ’accidentally’ stumbled upon an inheritance site and completed it."
Her teeth ground together as she continued bitterly. "Because of that, Fionel conveniently became the talented genius disciple who supposedly recovered the cultivation art from me."
The more Damian heard, the uglier his expression became.
Fionel had not merely framed Vulkara... what she had done was far worse.
She had taken the inheritance Vulkara discovered, stolen a forbidden cultivation art from the sect, and then framed Vulkara for the theft in order to bring it out into the open without implicating herself.
Afterward, she conveniently "recovered" the cultivation art, completed it using the inheritance Vulkara had found, and used the entire situation to elevate her own status within the sect while ensuring Vulkara was banished.
Damian slowly exhaled through his nose. "Damn... That bitch really stole your whole fucking destiny."