The swamp mist peeled away as Feng Jian strode into the next trial. The portal's glow faded behind him, leaving only a shallow lake that stretched wide beneath a curtain of fog. Twisted Took Trees clawed upward from the water, their roots sinking into the unseen depths.
The silence didn't last. Ripples surged across the lake's surface. A shadow slid beneath him, then another—massive, armored shapes prowling the waters.
Four of them… and they're waiting to drag me under.
A tail snapped from below, the force sending a spray of water skyward. Feng dissolved into shadow, his form slipping between lily pads before reappearing directly behind the lead alligator. The beast twisted, jaws snapping shut with a sound like stone grinding.
But Feng was already there—dagger raised. Poison Fang plunged into its eye, venom hissing as it spread inward. The gator writhed, roaring beneath the surface.
Another lunged from below. He darted sideways, shadows parting water like blades. His body flowed, each movement sharper, faster, until his daggers flashed in the fog-choked waters like streaks of black lightning. When silence returned, four titans drifted lifelessly beneath the lilies.
The portal shimmered open. Feng's boots splashed against stone as he pressed forward.
The river channel of Floor 24 greeted him with a stench of rot and wet vines. Branches hung heavy above the water, their roots coiled into concealed traps. A low rumble vibrated through the current.
The King Crocodile rose, scales glistening with Water Qi, its massive jaw lined with razors. Five more circled around it.
Feng crouched, blades humming. That jaw could crush me whole. Let's test it.
A shadow blurred across the bank as he leapt onto a hanging root. The King's tail swung up, smashing through stone—but Feng had already vanished mid-arc, reappearing atop the creature's back. Its body twisted violently, trying to dislodge him.
The Guard Fang dagger flared, absorbing the force of a snapping bite, sparks flying as steel met bone. Feng slid beneath the beast, water collapsing around him, and drove his second blade upward into the softer scales of its underbelly.
The King spasmed once, then fell silent. Its pack broke in fear, only to meet venom and shadow at every turn.
When the river finally stilled, Feng stood at its heart, water dripping from his blades like strands of liquid night.
Floor 25 was pure darkness.
The cavern stretched vast and echoing, filled with stalactites and eerie fungi glowing faint blue. The air quivered with a sound—sharp, piercing. Echolocation screeches bounced from wall to wall.
Bats. A whole swarm of them.
From the ceiling, shadows stirred. Twenty pairs of crimson eyes opened at once.
The first bat dove. Feng didn't move until the last instant. Guard Fang whirled, a shimmering shield of Qi diverting the sonic wave mid-scream. Then Poison Fang arced upward, piercing its chest.
He dropped from a ledge like a falling shadow, crashing straight into the center of the swarm. His blades carved circles, venom painting their wings as bodies tumbled. With a flick, he hurled a dagger through the cavern—its arc cutting through three bats before the blade returned to his grip as if dragged back by the dark.
Screeches rose, then fell. Within minutes, silence reclaimed the cavern.
By the time Feng stepped into Floor 26, the air had shifted—open and crisp, the sky stretching over rolling hills dotted with ancient pillars. From the shadows of brambles, green-furred hulks emerged, horns curving like lances.
Horn Bears.
One roared, the earth trembling. It charged, stone pillars cracking beneath its weight. Feng Shadow Stepped beneath its legs, reappearing behind a pillar. The beast's skull smashed into stone, disorienting it.
Venom found its flank in the same breath. Another bear swung wide, claws trailing seismic force. Guard Fang absorbed the shock, redirecting it into the ground as Feng's body flowed along the momentum.
One by one, the giants fell. Within ten minutes, the highlands lay silent, the grass soaked in black ichor.
The gauntlet didn't stop.
Floor 27 opened into twin valleys, thunderclouds swirling overhead. Two herds of Horn Bears charged toward one another across the ridge, and Feng walked straight into their path.
The ground shook as the Queen Bear unleashed her Earthquake Roar. The ridge split, stones flying. Feng's Guard Fang hummed, his body steady against the quake as shadows whipped forward to bind the lead beasts.
He sprinted along the narrow edge, striking through the first herd with surgical precision. When the Queen barreled toward him, he pivoted into a pass too narrow for her size. Venom fangs struck her knees, and she toppled in a thunderous crash.
The second herd faltered, scattered by the fall of their leader.
The ridge belonged to him.
By Floor 28, the ground no longer mattered.
Clifftop ruins opened to the sky, where hawks of storm and lightning circled above. Their shrieks were carried by the wind as their wings charged with crackling Qi.
The Elder Stormhawk descended, talons wreathed in lightning.
"Perfect," Feng murmured.
The storm fell upon him. Lightning carved the air, gusts tearing stone balconies into shards. Feng blurred into their wake, reappearing in bursts of shadow, blades trailing static. Poison Fang cut tendons, Guard Fang deflected bolts of light.
When the Elder called its Lightning Dive, the sky split open. Feng crossed his blades, shadows and wind spiraling into one vortex.
"Gale-Shadow Crescendo."
The cyclone shredded feathers, the lightning unraveling into nothingness. The Elder fell, its body crashing through the ruins.
The final portal of the gauntlet carried Feng into an arena unlike any before.
Floor 29 was alive with storms. Lightning veins cracked across the stone floor, glowing with raw Qi. Above, a bird of pure thunder wheeled through the sky, wings stretching like stormfronts.
Its scream tore the air as black clouds surged at its call.
"Stormcall," Feng muttered, watching the sky darken.
The Lightning Bird dove, talons blazing white-hot. Feng Shadow Stepped beneath the strike, the ground detonating behind him. He surged upward, blades gleaming. Poison Fang tore across a talon, severing it mid-air.
The beast shrieked, storm intensifying, bolts raining in every direction. Feng spun, wind and shadow folding into his strikes, lightning licking across his blades as though the storm itself bent to his will.
The final clash was a blur of light and shadow, thunder crashing with every heartbeat.
Feng's voice was calm amid the chaos. "Time to dance with thunder."
He vanished into the storm, reappeared in the bird's shadow, and crossed his daggers through its chest. Lightning burst outward in one last desperate arc before fading into silence.
The colossal body hit the ground, sparks crawling across the arena before dying out.
Feng Jian stood alone, blades glinting with stormlight.
End of Chapter 18