The cavern smelled of sulfur and unwashed bodies.
Rylan crouched behind a stalagmite near the entrance, watching the Crimson Lotus disciple—Kaida—whip an Earth-Kin miner who had collapsed under the weight of a spirit-ore basket. The lash of liquid fire cracked against the creature's rocky skin, leaving a glowing, molten scar.
"Work, filth!" Kaida shrieked. "The Sect needs this shipment by moonrise!"
Beside Rylan, Mei was shaking so hard her tools rattled softly against her chest plate. She held three modified alchemical spheres. They were painted with a crude red rune.
"The detonators are unstable," Mei whispered, her voice barely audible over the cracks of the whip. "If I throw them, they mimic the Blood-Burst signature of the Crimson Lotus. But Master... if we use these, we aren't framing the Jade Empire. We are framing ourselves as them."
"Exactly," Rylan murmured. He checked the bandage on his shoulder. The wound throbbed in time with his heartbeat, a dull, grinding ache. "The Jade Empire is proud. If they see Crimson Lotus signals, they attack. If the Crimson Lotus sees us using their signals, they hesitate. Confusion is the only armor we have right now."
He gripped his sword with his good hand. His spiritual energy was stable thanks to Lena, but his reserves were only at half capacity. He couldn't afford a drawn-out duel with a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"When I engage her," Rylan ordered, "throw the first sphere at the miners. Blind them. Then seal the entrance behind us."
"Seal it?" Mei's eyes widened. "But then we can't get out."
"Neither can she," Rylan said.
He stood up.
Kaida spun around instantly, her senses sharp. She saw Rylan standing in the tunnel light—a man in tattered, bloodied robes with a cold, predatory gaze.
"Who are you?" Kaida demanded, her whip coiling around her arm like a living snake. "This is Crimson Lotus territory. Leave or bleed."
Rylan didn't speak. He channeled his Qi into his legs and surged forward.
Kaida sneered. "A fool."
She lashed out. The fire whip extended, snapping toward Rylan's neck with supersonic speed. The heat radiating from it instantly withered the moss on the cave walls.
Rylan activated Structural Vision.
Time seemed to slow. He saw the whip not as a blur of motion, but as a construct of thermal energy. He saw the weak point in the arc—the moment the momentum shifted.
He didn't dodge away; he stepped into the arc.
The whip cracked past his ear, singeing his hair, but missing his flesh by an inch.
"Mei!" Rylan roared.
Mei stepped out and hurled the first red sphere. It struck the ground in the center of the Earth-Kin miners.
FOOM.
A cloud of crimson smoke exploded outward, accompanied by a flash of red light that mimicked the Crimson Lotus's signature blood magic.
The Earth-Kin, conditioned to fear that color, dropped their pickaxes and curled into balls, shielding their heads. They didn't attack. They cowered.
Kaida blinked, momentarily confused by the familiar color of her own sect's magic. "What—?"
That second of hesitation cost her.
Rylan was inside her guard. He didn't use a flashy technique. He drove his steel sword upward, aiming for her ribs.
Kaida's combat instincts saved her. She twisted unnaturally, her body fluid like the fire she wielded. The sword grazed her side, slicing through silk and skin, but missing the vital organs.
She screamed in rage, not pain. "You dare touch me!"
Her tattoos flared black. A shockwave of heat blasted Rylan backward. He skidded across the stone floor, his boots carving grooves in the rock. His injured shoulder screamed in protest, threatening to reopen.
Kaida didn't let up. She abandoned the whip and thrust her palms forward.
"Blood Boil Palm!"
Two projectiles of boiling, pressurized blood shot from her hands.
Rylan couldn't dodge both. He deflected one with his sword, the steel hissing as the blood acid pitted the metal. The other struck him in the chest.
His Azure Dragon Scale technique flared automatically—green scales materializing over his skin just in time to absorb the impact. The force still knocked the wind out of him, cracking a rib.
He hit the cave wall and slid down.
Kaida stalked toward him, her hands glowing. "You have decent defense for a rat. But my fire eats wood."
She prepared a finishing strike, a massive ball of blood-fire gathering between her hands.
Rylan looked past her, toward the entrance.
Mei was standing there. She had sealed the entrance with a quick-deploy barrier, trapping them all inside. She was terrified, clutching the second red sphere.
Rylan locked eyes with her. He didn't beg. He simply nodded at the ceiling.
Mei understood. Her Spirit Artificer's Insight had shown her the same thing Rylan had seen earlier: the instability of the cavern roof.
She threw the sphere—not at Kaida, but at a cluster of stalactites directly above the Crimson Lotus disciple.
BOOM.
The explosion shattered the rock.
Kaida looked up, her concentration breaking as tons of stone rained down. She shrieked, diverting her fireball upward to blast the rocks apart.
Dust and debris filled the cavern.
Rylan moved through the cloud. He was the hunter now.
He abandoned defense. He dropped his ruined sword. He channeled every drop of his remaining Qi into his right hand.
Earth-Shattering Hammer.
He leapt through the dust, emerging right in front of Kaida. She was still looking up, debris bouncing off her protective aura.
Rylan punched her directly in the stomach.
The impact was sickening. The heavy, earthen Qi punched through her fire aura, through her robes, and into her soft flesh.
Kaida folded in half, vomiting blood. Her eyes bulged, locking onto Rylan's face.
"Die," Rylan whispered.
He grabbed her head with both hands and twisted.
SNAP.
Kaida went limp, her body falling to the dusty floor like a discarded doll.
[Ding! Threat Neutralized: Crimson Lotus Disciple (Foundation Establishment).] [Reward: Medium Spirit Stone Pouch, Crimson Sect Token.]
Rylan stood over the body, panting heavily. His vision blurred for a moment before stabilizing. He checked his shoulder. It was bleeding again, soaking the bandage, but the arm still worked.
The dust settled.
The Earth-Kin miners uncurled slowly, looking at the dead master, then at the man who had killed her. There were twelve of them. They were strong, holding heavy pickaxes. If they rushed him now, in his weakened state, he would die.
Mei scrambled over the rubble, rushing to Rylan's side. She held a dagger, shaking, ready to defend him.
Rylan put a hand on her shoulder to steady himself, and to stop her.
He looked at the largest Earth-Kin—an elder with moss growing on his back.
"You are free of the whip," Rylan rasped.
The Earth-Kin grunted, eyeing the exit.
"But," Rylan continued, his voice hardening, "if you leave, the Crimson Lotus will hunt you down. They will skin you to make sure no one else rebels."
The Earth-Kin paused. They knew he was right.
"I need stone," Rylan said. "I need iron. Work for me, and I feed you. I protect you. And I never use the whip."
He kicked Kaida's corpse over, revealing the Crimson Lotus token on her belt.
"Or, you can run into the forest and wait for her sisters to find you."
The Elder Earth-Kin looked at Kaida's broken body. He looked at Rylan, who was bleeding but standing tall, radiating a faint, golden Imperial Aura.
The Elder dropped his pickaxe. He bowed, his rocky forehead touching the floor.
One by one, the others followed.
Rylan let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He had the mine. He had the labor.
"Mei," Rylan said quietly. "Strip the body."
Mei blinked. "Master?"
"Take her robes," Rylan ordered. "Take her token. Take her weapon. And then..."
He reached into his inventory and pulled out a jagged, green-tinted dagger he had looted from the Jade Vanguard days ago.
"Plant this in her chest," Rylan said. "Make it look like a sloppy execution."
Mei stared at the dagger, then at the dead woman. A shiver ran through her, but she took the weapon.
"You want the Crimson Lotus to think the Jade Empire killed her," Mei realized.
"I want them to hate each other more than they hate me," Rylan said. He turned to the piles of raw Spirit Ore glowing in the carts.
"Load the carts," he shouted at the Earth-Kin. "We strip this mine bare. By the time the Crimson Lotus investigates, the ore will be behind my walls, and their vengeance will be aimed at the Jade Empire."
The Lustful Emperor had secured his resources. Now, he just had to survive the war he had just invited to his doorstep.
End of Chapter 35