The oppressive darkness of the Sector D-12 structural tunnels was immediately eclipsed by a visceral cacophony of sound and energy. Lin Xuan stood at the perimeter of the primary excavation zone, concealed by his Qi-Concealing Veil, but every particle of his being registered the escalating chaos. The air, thick with the smell of ozone, hot lubricant, and damp earth, vibrated with the continuous, punishing impact of the Black Steel Group's drilling platform. It was a rhythmic, destructive heartbeat that threatened to collapse the geological fault lines holding the entire area together.
More critical than the noise was the energy. The enormous pressure exerted by the drill upon the five-layered polymer seal was violently agitating the dense, volatile contents within—the Liquefied Earth Vein Essence. The sheer spiritual force was so intense that it was being vented through the seal's micro-fractures in invisible, yet physically crushing, shockwaves of chaotic Qi.
Lin Xuan was instantly caught in one of these spiritual pressure fronts. His Qi Condensation Stage Two Dantian, which he had so meticulously stabilized, felt like a small balloon suddenly plunged into an abyss of pressurized water. It was an overwhelming, external force, and it slammed into his spiritual core with the weight of a dying star.
He didn't panic. He was the Heavenly Emperor. This was not chaos; this was an unexpected catalyst.
In his previous life, cultivating a breakthrough required months of secluded meditation, perfect environmental alignment, and the consumption of high-grade spiritual pills. Now, in this desolate, industrial ruin, his breakthrough was being forced upon him by the avarice of a mortal corporation. It was brutally poetic.
Lin Xuan commanded the Grand Imperial Scripture of the Nine Heavens to activate its emergency assimilation protocols. He used his immense Divine Will—the true seat of his power—to seize control of the surrounding chaotic Qi. He forced the raw, high-grade energy to enter his meridians, not through gentle absorption, but through a violent, commanded torrent. He was intentionally overloading his system, using the external threat as a spiritual forge.
The pain was immediate and absolute. It felt as if molten metal were being poured through his nerve endings. Every meridian pathway screamed in protest, stretching and reinforcing themselves instantly under the threat of rupture. His skin flushed crimson, and fine plumes of smoke, instantly dissipated by the damp tunnel air, rose from his hair. He was purging the final, stubborn impurities of his weak mortal coil.
The single, stable droplet of Immortal Qi in his Dantian began to vibrate with such fury that it threatened to annihilate itself. It reached the point of maximum saturation—a limit set not by this life, but by the physical limitations of the mortal vessel he inhabited.
Compress! Lin Xuan's Divine Will screamed into the maelstrom. The Essence cannot be wasted!
Under the command of an Emperor's will, the droplet did the impossible: it resisted annihilation and began to fracture. The separation was not violent, but surgical. The original droplet split into two smaller, more geometrically perfect, and exponentially denser droplets. The division instantly created the necessary space and structure to contain the massive external energy, stabilizing the breakthrough in a flash of internal, incandescent light.
The spiritual pressure that had almost crushed him vanished, replaced by a surge of overwhelming, serene power. His perception of the world—the sounds, the sights, the subtle flow of residual spiritual energy—expanded by thirty percent.
[Cultivation State: Qi Condensation Stage Three (Minor Breakthrough Achieved)]
The Minor Breakthrough was complete. Lin Xuan was now operating at a level that dwarfed any known martial artist on Earth. He possessed the refined Stage Three Qi—stable, controlled, and ready for advanced, focused techniques.
But the drill still roared, and the containment seal was now visibly weeping the volatile spiritual fluid. Time was still his enemy.
Lin Xuan stepped out from the shadows, his movements now so smooth they seemed to defy friction. He assessed the situation. The drill had to be stopped immediately, and the method must not cause the unstable structural ceiling to collapse.
He focused his immense new power on the massive drilling platform. He needed a pin-point precise disabling strike, not a clumsy explosion. He channeled his refined Stage Three Qi into his right index finger, forming an invisible, dense filament of pure kinetic force—the Shattering Finger Technique—a move requiring absolute control to prevent collateral damage.
In a terrifying blur, Lin Xuan closed the thirty-meter distance, the heavily armed guards registering nothing but a sudden displacement of air. He struck the secondary hydraulic pump manifold—the massive, complex assembly that controlled the drill's pressure—in three lightning-fast, silent succession.
Pch-Pch-Pch.
Three points of high-pressure rupture occurred simultaneously. The focused kinetic Qi instantly vaporized the metal casing at the points of impact. The entire hydraulic system failed in a violent explosion of scalding, toxic oil and pressurized steam.
The drilling platform shrieked—a high-pitched, agonizing metallic scream—and shuddered to a dead, grinding stop. The immense bore head jammed harmlessly against the containment wall, the catastrophic vibrations ceasing instantly.
The silence returned, broken only by the heavy breathing of the Black Steel crew. The security guards, panicked by the instant, incomprehensible demise of their multi-million dollar asset, scrambled backward. The engineers, covered in hot hydraulic fluid and recognizing the structural peril of the tunnel, made a rapid, frantic retreat, abandoning the entire platform.
Lin Xuan allowed them to flee. Their terror was payment enough, and their abandonment of the high-value equipment was a gift.
He walked to the immobilized drill, his boots crunching on the oil-slicked debris. The bore head, heavy as a small tank, was still jammed against the containment seal. He needed it gone without vibration.
He retrieved the Molecular Phasing Edge. Now powered by Stage Three Qi, the dagger was not merely a cutting tool; it was an extension of his will. He pressed the tungsten tip against the bore head's primary mounting bracket. He channeled his amplified Qi, and the bracket shimmered, its molecular integrity instantly suspended.
The bore head, detached from its mounting, dropped with a heavy, localized thud, harmlessly settling on the tunnel floor, exposing the cracked polymer seal entirely.
The seal was critical. It was actively weeping the precious Earth Vein Essence through its stress fractures. Lin Xuan needed to breach it without a catastrophic pressure release explosion.
He dismissed the Molecular Phasing Edge and focused his Divine Will entirely on the seal. He generated a thread of pure, needle-thin Stage Three Qi from his fingertip—the Qi Micro-Drill technique, requiring surgical precision.
He applied the filament to the seal. The polymer did not explode or fracture; it vaporized molecule by molecule in a tiny, perfect circle, maintaining the surrounding seal integrity. After five minutes of agonizing concentration, a pinhole appeared—a perfect, controlled aperture.
A steady, soft whoosh sounded, and a thick, silver-green fluid began to stream out—the Liquefied Earth Vein Essence. It was raw, potent, and overwhelmingly pure.
Lin Xuan had anticipated this. He pulled out the final piece of his prepared scrap: a specialized industrial battery he had designated for his last-ditch Storage Talisman synthesis.
[Synthesis Query: (Specialized Battery (E) + Stable Earth Qi Essence (D) = ?)][Suggestion: Minor Spiritual Storage Talisman (D+). Cost: 1 Synthesis Point.]
"Execute Synthesis," Lin Xuan commanded. The battery dissolved and reformed instantly into a small, elegant Storage Talisman. He positioned it beneath the streaming Essence, and the precious energy was silently absorbed and contained.
The Earth Vein Essence is secure. The resource for Rank C Synthesis is mine.
His task was nearly complete. He sealed the pinhole with a flick of reinforced Qi and turned his attention to the abandoned spoils of the Black Steel Group. He reached out with a focused, silent Qi Pulse—a refined form of communication only possible after the Stage Three breakthrough—and sent an unbreakable, coded message across the city to his loyal subordinate.
Signal to Zhang Wei: Initiate Final Phase. Target: Abandoned Asset Auction.
Lin Xuan smiled faintly in the darkness. The Emperor's Edict was cast. Now, the mortals would clean up their own mess, and he would claim the spoils of the financial fallout.