The metallic scrape of the iron deadbolt sliding back echoed through the quiet stone chamber, drowning out the ambient hum of the distant furnace fires.
As the heavy oak door swung inward, the oppressive heat and acrid coal smoke of the gorge flooded into the room, accompanied by three imposing figures clad in the official silver-trimmed, dark-purple robes of the Outer Enforcement Hall.
Standing at the front was Senior Disciple Lu. He was a tall, lean man in his mid-twenties, his face sharp and hawkish, eyes gleaming with a cold, condescending arrogance born from absolute authority. Suspended at his waist was a heavy steel broadsword whose scabbard was carved with intricate lightning patterns, and hovering above his left palm was a glowing, purple crystal orb—a Soul-Mirror Artifact used by enforcement elders to detect recent blood essence signatures and track chaotic energy remnants.
Flanking Senior Disciple Lu were two junior enforcement guards, both holding long spears tipped with cold refined iron, their faces set in hardened, unyielding sneers.
When the door opened, Senior Disciple Lu did not see the bloated, sweating form of Supervisor Ba bowing obsequiously as he had expected. Instead, he found himself staring into the impassive face of a tall youth clad in pristine, navy-blue outer disciple robes, standing with his hands casually folded inside his sleeves.
Senior Disciple Lu's eyes narrowed instantly, his brow furrowing into a dangerous scowl.
"Who are you?" Lu's voice cut through the air, sharp and heavy with authority, backed by the pressure of a Sixth Level Spirit Refining cultivation base. "Where is Supervisor Ba? Why is an outer disciple holed up inside the administrative quarters of the furnace servant pits?"
Railin did not bow. He did not yield to the heavy pressure radiating from the Sixth Level cultivator. He stood perfectly upright, his dark eyes meeting Lu's gaze with a terrifying, absolute stillness that made the surrounding air feel strangely heavy.
"Supervisor Ba was exhausted from his duties," Railin replied smoothly, his tone low and composed. "He is currently resting in the inner alcove. I was assigned by the outer administrative desk to oversee the evening coal quota."
"Nonsense!" one of the spear-bearing enforcement guards barked, taking an aggressive step forward. "The furnace quarters have no such rotation! State your name and produce your identification token immediately!"
Railin calmly unclipped the copper merit token from his sash—the token he had taken from the dead patrol disciple in the forest—and offered it forward on his open palm.
Senior Disciple Lu raised his left hand, sweeping the glowing purple Soul-Mirror Artifact over the copper token.
BZZZZ!
The purple crystal pulsed once, reflecting the registered name of the dead disciple: Disciple Lin of the Third Outer House.
For a fraction of a second, the artifact registered no discrepancy. But as the purple light washed over Railin's hand, the crystal suddenly shuddered violently, its inner glow shifting from a calm violet to a harsh, blood-red crimson.
CRACKLE!
"Blood essence mismatch!" Senior Disciple Lu snapped, his eyes flaring with instant, lethal fury. He thrust his hand forward, pointing the pulsing red artifact directly at Railin's chest. "This token belongs to Disciple Lin, but your physical soul imprint does not match the registry! Furthermore, this artifact registers fresh, heavy blood aura lingering on your clothes—the exact blood signature of the missing northern patrol!"
The two junior guards immediately lowered their longspears, the iron tips humming with pale-blue spirit qi as they locked their focus onto Railin's vital points.
"You killed them," Senior Disciple Lu spat, his voice dropping into a cold, murderous sneer. "A servant or an imposter wearing stolen robes... you murdered two outer disciples and dared to creep back into the academy's lower quarters!"
Railin did not panic. He slowly withdrew his hand, letting the copper token fall to the stone floor with a soft CLINK.
A dark, cold smile touched his lips—a smile so devoid of human warmth that both spear guards felt an involuntary shiver run down their spines.
"Your artifact is quite accurate," Railin murmured softly, his pitch-black eyes gleaming in the dim torchlight. "They were rude, so I erased them. And now, you have brought your arrogance into my sanctuary."
"Arrogant scum! Die!"
The junior guard on the right lost his patience. Channeling his Fourth Level Spirit Refining energy, he lunged forward with explosive speed, his iron-tipped spear whistling through the air in a straight, lethal thrust aimed directly at Railin's throat!
To an ordinary cultivator, the lunge was a lightning-fast execution move.
To Railin, who had just broken into the Fifth Level of Spirit Refining and mastered the spatial mechanics of The Seven Void-Severing Steps, the attack was pathetically slow.
SWISH.
Railin's physical form blurred into a translucent ghost. He executed the first stance of the spatial technique—his body folding through the air without making a sound or disrupting the atmospheric pressure.
The iron spear tip stabbed through empty air, piercing only the residual dark afterimage Railin had left behind!
"What?!" the striking guard gasped, his eyes widening as his momentum carried him forward into empty space.
Before the guard could recover his balance or pull his weapon back, Railin materialized like a nightmare directly at his right flank.
Railin didn't draw a blade. He drove his bare palm upward, his hand wrapped in a roaring, dense shroud of pitch-black Ashen Devouring Qi.
BANG!
Railin's palm slammed squarely into the side of the guard's ribs. The dark energy erupted instantly, acting like a corrosive tidal wave that shattered bone, dissolved flesh, and plunged straight into the man's dantian.
"DEVOUR!" Railin commanded coldly.
BZZZZZZZZT!
The guard let out a muffled, agonizing gurgle as his Fourth Level spirit qi, blood vitality, and physical life force were violently extracted in less than two seconds. His body shriveled like a dried leaf under the scorching sun, collapsing into a hollow, brittle husk of bone and parchment-skin before his spear even hit the ground.
HAHH...
Railin exhaled a long trail of dark mist, the stolen energy surging into his dark core, instantly solidifying his Fifth Level cultivation base even further.
"JUNIOR BROTHER CHEN!" the second guard shrieked in absolute horror, stumbling back two paces as he watched his companion vanish into a shriveled husk in the blink of an eye.
Senior Disciple Lu's face went completely pale, his arrogant demeanor instantly replaced by severe shock and mounting dread. He had witnessed countless ruthless techniques in his years with the Enforcement Hall, but he had never seen a cultivation art so horrific, so fast, and so ravenously absolute.
"Demonic practitioner!" Lu roared, reaching for the hilt of his lightning-carved broadsword. "You dare practice taboos inside the Sun-Moon Academy?!"
CLANG!
Senior Disciple Lu drew his broadsword with a deafening metallic screech. The steel blade exploded into crackling arcs of purple lightning, powered by his formidable Sixth Level Spirit Refining cultivation base. He stepped forward, sweeping the lightning blade in a broad, horizontal arc meant to cleave the entire doorway—and Railin—in half!
"Thunder-Severing Slash!" Lu yelled, the lightning pressure echoing off the basalt walls.
The purple electricity sizzled through the air, capable of frying internal organs and vaporizing stone.
Railin didn't retreat into the room. He advanced directly into the storm of lightning.
SWISH!
Activating the spatial shifts of The Seven Void-Severing Steps, Railin's body flickered twice in rapid succession, leaving behind two dark afterimages that drew the lightning slash away from his true path. He reappeared directly inside Lu's inner guard, well within the reach of the long broadsword.
Senior Disciple Lu's eyes bulged with horror as he felt a freezing, suffocating pressure lock onto his chest. He tried to pull his broadsword back to block, but it was already too late.
Railin's bare left hand shot out like a dark iron claw, clamping directly onto Lu's throat!
PAK!
The crackling purple lightning dancing along Lu's armor flickered violently and died as Railin's Ashen Devouring Qi instantly flooded Lu's nervous system, paralyzing his muscles and choking off his spirit circulation.
"Y-You..." Lu choked, his broadsword slipping from his trembling fingers and crashing to the stone floor. He clawed frantically at Railin's wrist, but Railin's grip was like an unbreakable mountain vise. "I am... a Senior Disciple... of the Enforcement Hall! The Elders... will hunt you to the ends of the earth...!"
Railin lifted the tall Sixth Level cultivator off his feet with one hand, holding him suspended in mid-air. He looked into Lu's bloodshot, panic-stricken eyes with an expression of cold, sovereign absolute indifference.
"Let them come," Railin whispered softly into Lu's ear. "They will only serve to feed my foundation."
"Devour."
BZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
A massive, violent vortex of dark energy erupted from Railin's arm, surging through Lu's throat and flooding every single meridian in his body.
Senior Disciple Lu let out a horrifying, silent scream as his Sixth Level spirit qi—far richer and denser than anything Railin had devoured so far—was forcibly ripped from his dantian. The dark core in Railin's chest roared with delight, spinning like a black sun as it drank in the high-grade essence, refining it into pure, destructive Ashen Devouring Qi.
Lu's body thrashed violently for five seconds before his limbs went limp. His muscle mass withered, his skin turned grey and paper-thin, and his vibrant spiritual foundation was drained down to the absolute bone.
CRACK.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Railin snapped the withered neck of Senior Disciple Lu and tossed the dried husk onto the floor alongside the first guard.
The remaining junior guard stood frozen near the threshold, his spear trembling so violently it rattled against his iron ring. His face was completely devoid of color, tears of absolute, primal terror streaming down his cheeks. He dropped his weapon, fell to his knees, and began banging his forehead against the sharp stone floor.
"Mercy! Senior! Demon Lord! Spare me! I saw nothing! I know nothing!" the guard wept hysterically, his forehead bleeding against the stone.
Railin turned his dark eyes toward the kneeling guard. He didn't speak. He took a single step forward, his shadow engulfing the whimpering youth.
SWISH.
A single thread of black Qi shot from Railin's index finger, piercing straight through the guard's forehead between his eyes. The guard's crying ceased instantly, his body slumping forward onto the stone floor without another sound.
Railin stood amidst the three withered husks of the enforcement disciples, taking a long, deep breath.
The rich energy absorbed from Senior Disciple Lu's Sixth Level cultivation base was currently circulating through his meridians, filling his dantian to absolute maximum capacity. The black core at his center hummed with immense density, vibrating on the very precipice of another major breakthrough.
Spirit Refining Realm — Fifth Level Peak!
Railin looked down at the floor. He casually picked up Senior Disciple Lu's lightning-carved broadsword, inspecting the quality of the steel before tossing it into his dark steel spatial ring alongside their storage pouches and merit tokens.
Then, with a casual sweep of his hand, he unleashed a wave of dark Qi that dissolved the three dried husks into fine grey dust, which he scattered into the thermal vents beneath the floorboards.
Outside, the furnace caverns were still roaring, but the news of the Enforcement Hall's lockdown would soon spread throughout the entire lower gorge.
Railin stepped out of the chamber, his navy-blue outer robes swaying softly as he adjusted his sash.
The outer academy enforcement was compromised, their search party wiped out without a single survivor to report back. Railin knew he had a small window of time before the higher Elders realized Senior Disciple Lu had vanished.
He turned his gaze up the steep stone trail leading toward the outer disciple dormitories and the central martial grounds.
The Outer Academy Competition was projected to begin in just a few days—a grand arena where hundreds of outer disciples fought for glory, resources, and promotion to the inner sect.
Railin's dark eyes gleamed with a chilling, predatory light in the cavern shadows.
"An arena full of ambitious outer disciples," Railin whispered into the dark air, a sinister smile spreading across his face. "What a grand feast it will be.
See you in next chapter...