The explosion tore through the silence, blasting the reinforced doors inward. Smoke and metal shards filled the air, but Lin Xiyue didn't flinch. She had expected this.
Beyond the smoke, figures in black combat robes surged forward, their energy rifles humming with compressed spiritual force. Government enforcers—elite cultivators trained to eliminate illegal tech—advanced with military precision. Their leader, a tall man with a scarred face and sharp, calculating eyes, stepped into the ruined entrance.
Commander Yan Zhen. Lin Xiyue had seen his name in classified files before. Ruthless. Precise. The kind of man who never left loose ends.
"Lin Xiyue," he called out, his voice calm yet heavy with authority. "You have violated multiple federal cultivation laws. Surrender now."
She scoffed. "You already planned to kill me. Why would I make it easy?"
Yan Zhen tilted his head slightly. "Fair point." He gave a subtle signal, and the enforcers opened fire.
At first, Lin Xiyue remained still. Then, something shifted within her. A pulse of golden light surged through her veins, and in that instant, time seemed to slow—not because time itself decelerated, but because she was processing everything faster, moving with uncanny speed. Every bullet's trajectory, every enemy motion, was clear in her mind.
She twisted, sidestepping the first shot with eerie precision. Another came for her head—she dropped low, moving with a speed and grace she had never possessed before. Her fingers curled into a fist as power crackled under her skin. The bond was doing this.
She glanced at Shen Luan, who still stood beside her, eerily still—watching. "This is our bond?" she asked evenly.
He nodded. "A fraction of it."
One of the enforcers lunged, a flame-forged saber igniting in his grip as he slashed at Shen Luan, his aura flaring. In that moment, Shen Luan moved with no wasted motion or hesitation. With a single step, he was behind the attacker, his hand flicking out once. The enforcer froze, and then a burst of golden energy shattered his cultivation from within. His spiritual core ruptured, and he collapsed, as if his very existence had been severed.
Lin Xiyue stared in disbelief. That wasn't possible. That wasn't even a recognized technique. The remaining enforcers hesitated, their weapons tightening in their grasp. She smirked. "Scared?"
Yan Zhen's eyes narrowed. He had seen many anomalies in his time, but this was different. Lin Xiyue was known as a skilled hacker, not a combatant, and Shen Luan wasn't behaving like any machine the government had documented.
Footsteps echoed from the corridor—reinforcements were coming. Time was short. "Shen Luan," she said, "can you break through the security barriers?"
"Yes."
A ripple of power emanated from him. The entire lab shuddered as digital firewalls collapsed like fragile glass. Lin Xiyue felt his presence surge through their bond, rewriting the system itself. In that moment, the security doors slammed open.
Yan Zhen clenched his jaw—he had underestimated them. "Let's go," Lin Xiyue ordered. Without waiting another second, she sprinted into the open night air with Shen Luan right beside her. Sirens howled in the distance, but they pressed on.
High above the city, in a towering fortress, a pair of eyes watched their escape through a glowing interface. "She activated it," murmured a voice.
A second, cold and amused voice replied, "And she bonded with it."
The first figure leaned back, thoughtful. "This just got interesting."