The subterranean tunnel descending beneath the Blood-Mist Lake was a narrow, suffocating stone vein carved directly into ancient basalt. The air here was so thick with red moisture that every breath felt like inhaling warm, liquid copper. Droplets of crimson condensation fell steadily from the jagged ceiling, sizzling violently as they hit the freezing aura radiating from Su Chen's body. Railin moved in the lead, his leather boots striking the black stone without making a sound, his refined spirit sense spread out like an invisible spider's web over a fifty-yard radius to detect any spiritual traps or hidden array runes.
As the two of them descended deeper into the roots of the lake basin, the ambient temperature spiked dramatically. The damp, frosty chill of the lake shore melted away, replaced by a violent, furnace-like heat infused with dense, volatile fire and blood spirit qi.
THUMP.
THUMP.
A deep, rhythmic vibration reverberated through the basalt walls, echoing through the subterranean passage like the slow, heavy heartbeat of a sleeping primordial beast. With every pulse of energy, the red mist floating in the tunnel flared with tiny, flickering crimson sparks.
Railin abruptly halted at the mouth of the tunnel exit, crouching low behind a massive cluster of blood-red crystals that grew from the rock floor. Su Chen melted into the shadows right beside him, her long translucent ice rapier held low, her breathing completely suppressed to prevent any spirit qi leaks that might betray their position.
Ahead of them opened the vast subterranean chamber known as the Crimson Core Cavern.
The cavern was staggering in scale, spanning over two hundred paces across. Its arched ceiling was lost in swirling clouds of scalding red steam, while the floor was dominated by a massive, naturally formed pool of boiling, crimson liquid spirit essence. At the very center of this boiling lake sat Senior Disciple Lu, cross-legged atop a floating lotus pedestal carved from pitch-black obsidian stone.
Lu was stripped to the waist, his broad, muscular torso covered in glowing golden arrays that pulsed in sync with his breathing. Heavy streams of red liquid spirit essence were being pulled directly from the boiling pool beneath him, surging up through the air like liquid serpents and entering his pores. His long black hair drifted wildly in the rising thermal currents, and his skin had taken on a translucent, crystalline metallic sheen. The spirit aura radiating from his body was wildly unstable—surging back and forth between the absolute peak of Half-Step and the overwhelming, sky-crushing pressure of a True Foundation Establishment Realm master.
Guarding the stone perimeter of the boiling pool were six remaining high-ranking disciples of the Imperial Dragon Peak. Unlike the outer guards slain on the shoreline, these six were the absolute elite of the noble faction—all of them possessing Half-Step Foundation Establishment or Peak Ninth Level cultivation bases. They were clad in heavy defensive spirit armor forged of red dragon-scale steel, holding glowing flame sabers and long spears.
"Senior Brother Lu has successfully entered the final stage of core condensation!" one of the guards declared, his voice filled with fanatical excitement as he watched the glowing obsidian pedestal. "Look at the spirit light absorbing into his meridians! Within half an hour, his lower dantian will completely liquefy and transform into a true, immortal Spirit Sea! No commoner trash or inner disciple will ever dare to challenge our noble faction again!"
"Keep your eyes locked on the entrance," their commander—a scarred youth holding twin golden scimitars—warned sternly, his gaze sweeping across the steaming cavern walls. "Zhao Kang and the outside array guards should have eliminated any commoner intruders by now, but we cannot afford a single disturbance while Senior Brother Lu consolidates his foundation."
"They won't be disturbing anyone anymore," Railin's voice echoed softly through the cavern.
The sound was not loud, yet it cut through the deafening roar of the boiling spirit pool with horrifying clarity. Before the echo could even bounce off the basalt walls, Railin and Su Chen struck simultaneously with lethal precision.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Su Chen unleashed her absolute maximum range of frost power. "Ice Realm — Glacial Age!"
A blinding wave of translucent, light-blue glacial frost rushed across the stone floor and over the surface of the boiling crimson pool. Though the intense heat evaporated much of the ice into thick clouds of scalding white steam, the instant, violent drop in temperature froze the leather boots of four guards straight to the stone floor, delaying their battle reactions by a crucial second!
"Intruders! Kill them where they stand!" the scarred commander roared, igniting his twin scimitars with brilliant golden flames.
Swoosh.
Railin did not target the commander. He blurred straight past the flaming scimitars, appearing like a dark phantom directly in front of the two frozen disciples on the far left flank.
The Eclipse Soul Scripture — Concentrated Twin Soul Needles!
Buzz! THWACK! THWACK!
Two pitch-black needles forged of concentrated mental energy shot out from Railin's upper dantian, piercing through the scalding steam and slamming directly into the foreheads of the two guards. The disciples stiffened instantly, their eyes losing all light and going completely dull as their seas of consciousness were shattered into pieces before they could even raise their weapons.
The Ashen Devouring Technique — Twin Devouring Palms!
Railin's hands slammed forward into their chests like iron battering rams. The pitch-black gravitational vortexes erupted from both palms, plunging into their torsos and consuming their blood essence, cultivation bases, and vital life force simultaneously!
VRRRRRR!
"AGHH—!"
The two guards shriveled into dry, withered husks in less than four seconds. Their rich Ninth Level cultivation bases surged directly through Railin's arm meridians and poured into his lower dantian, further stabilizing his Half-Step Foundation base and filling his body with roaring, violent spirit power.
"Demonic monster!" the scarred commander screamed in sheer fury. He leaped high into the air, bringing his twin scimitars down in a devastating cross-slash wrapped in roaring golden dragon flames! "Die, commoner scum!"
"Too slow," Railin muttered flatly.
The Ashen Devouring Technique — Void Wall!
BOOM!
The explosive golden flame blades slammed violently into Railin's black vortex barrier. The impact sent a shockwave that cracked the basalt floor beneath Railin's feet, but his left arm remained completely unyielding, unbending under the massive physical pressure. The black vortex swallowed the golden dragon flames whole, while Railin's right hand whipped out like a striking cobra.
SPLUP!
Railin's fingers, clad in dark blue lightning, stabbed straight through the commander's throat, severing his windpipe and shattering his neck vertebrae in a single strike. Before the commander's body could even begin to fall, Railin activated the devouring technique, reducing the leader to a pile of black dust before his feet hit the ground.
Within ten seconds, three elite guards were completely dead and consumed.
On the opposite side of the cavern, Su Chen's translucent ice rapier danced with deadly efficiency. Wrapped in a raging blizzard of sharp frost needles, she parried the remaining three guards, slicing through their armor joints and leaving two of them bleeding out on the stone floor while freezing the third into a block of solid blue ice.
The subterranean cavern had transformed into a total slaughterhouse in less than two minutes.
BOOM!
A terrifying, mountain-crushing wave of oppressive spirit pressure suddenly erupted from the center of the boiling crimson pool!
The floating obsidian lotus pedestal shattered into millions of glowing fragments. Senior Disciple Lu slowly opened his eyes—his irises glowing with a dangerous, terrifying golden-red flame. The unstable aura around his body settled into a heavy, suffocating weight that forced even Su Chen to take three rapid steps back, her pale face turning dead white as she struggled to breathe.
Lu had forced an incomplete breakthrough. He was not a fully stabilized, peak Foundation Establishment master, but he had successfully crossed the absolute mortal boundary, possessing seventy percent of a true Foundation Establishment cultivator's terrifying, boundless spirit energy!
Lu slowly stood up, floating two feet above the boiling crimson liquid as golden spirit fire crackled around his bare chest, melting the rocks along the edge of the pool into red magma. He looked around the cavern, taking in the sight of his slaughtered guards, the piles of black dust, and the frozen corpses. Finally, his bloodthirsty gaze locked onto Railin, who stood calmly amidst the drifting ash, his dark navy robes swaying lightly in the thermal winds.
"Railin..." Lu spoke, his voice layered with a booming, monstrous echo that made the entire subterranean cavern shake violently. "You low-born, commoner worm. You destroyed my perimeter, slaughtered my elite guards, and dared to interrupt my sacred ascension to the inner core."
Lu took a floating step forward, his golden eyes burning with absolute, murderous arrogance and rage.
"Do you truly believe that reaching the Half-Step realm makes you my equal?" Lu sneered, his voice ringing with pure contempt. "To a true Foundation master, you are still nothing more than dust beneath my boots! I will refine your soul in golden dragon fire for a hundred days!"
Railin did not answer with words. He slowly raised his right hand into the air, dark blue lightning and pitch-black devouring qi twisting around his arm in a terrifying, dual-spiral vortex.
"Your foundation is unstable," Railin said softly, his voice calm, cold, and fixing onto Lu with icy, predatory focus. "You are not a god, Lu. You are just my final breakthrough pill."
BOOM!
Railin stepped off the edge of the stone cavern floor, rushing straight across the boiling pool of red liquid toward Senior Disciple Lu!
See you in next chapter....