The deafening roar of the exploding sinkhole gave way to the heavy, labored sounds of Yoriichi's ragged breathing. He knelt on the thick mangrove root, his knuckles white as he gripped the hilt of his katana, forcefully expelling the murky swamp water from his burning lungs.
"Ning'er!"
Xiao Yu didn't care about the mud or the freezing water. She splashed across the shallow roots, throwing herself onto her knees beside him. Her hands fluttered over his back, frantically patting him to help clear his airways. Her eyes were wide with residual terror and overwhelming relief.
"I have you," Xiao Yu whispered frantically, her voice trembling as she supported his weight. "Breathe. Just breathe."
Yoriichi took a slow, deep inhalation of the sulfurous air, his Dantian throbbing with the newly formed, dense liquid of his Dou Shi core. The paralysis was gone, replaced by the deep, aching exhaustion of a body pushed far past its mortal limits.
He slowly lifted his head, his crimson eyes focusing on the blade still anchored in the wood.
As the residual water and extreme heat evaporated from the Sun-Steel, Yoriichi noticed something that made his stoic expression tighten imperceptibly.
Faint, hair-thin lines spider-webbed across the lower third of the blade.
'Micro-fractures,' Yoriichi analyzed, gently tracing a calloused thumb over the metal. 'The Sun-Steel was forged to handle extreme Yang heat. By forcefully wrapping it in the high-pressure Yin water sheath of the Eclipsing Torrent, the sudden, extreme temperature differential severely compromised the carbon structure. The technique took a much heavier toll on the weapon than I anticipated.'
If he used that specific variant form again without reforging the blade with stronger, elemental-resistant materials, the katana would undoubtedly shatter mid-swing.
A few yards away, Captain Lin and Vice-Captain Feng stood frozen in a profound stupor.
Lin looked down at the uncrushed crimson signal vial in her hand, then back up at the young man coughing up water. Her mind, honed by years of tactical enforcement, was completely short-circuiting.
'A Black-Water Tyrant Salamander of that size is a strong Rank 3 predator,' Lin thought, her grip on her saber loosening in sheer disbelief. 'Even as Da Dou Shi, I would never engage it alone in its own domain. I would need a full squad to suppress it. Yet this boy... he just broke through to the Dou Shi realm under the water and cleaved it in half. His liquid Dou Qi might be incredibly refined, but how is the kinetic output so impossibly high?'
Beside her, Feng was having an entirely different existential crisis.
'Was that a secret technique?' Feng stared at the dying embers on Yoriichi's fractured blade. 'He used an extreme fire technique, but the resulting shockwave was pure, high-pressure water. I have never heard of this type of elemental fusion. That sword technique was extraordinary. Who exactly is backing these siblings?'
The dark, heavy clouds of the wetlands slowly began to shift, obscuring the faint sunlight. The fog seemed to thicken, taking on a sinister, purplish hue.
The changing atmosphere snapped Captain Lin out of her stupor.
"We need to leave. Right now," Lin commanded, quickly stowing the signal vial and stepping forward. Her voice was laced with urgent authority. "You both need to come with us immediately. The Blistering Haze Wetlands are treacherous during the day, but at night, the thermal vents release highly toxic miasma, and the nocturnal predators are far worse than that python. We cannot linger."
Xiao Yu nodded vigorously. She helped Yoriichi up, wrapping one of his heavy arms over her shoulder to bear his weight.
They slowly waded toward the massive, resting Cinder Crested Falcons. But just as they reached the edge of the shallow water, Yoriichi stopped, gently pulling back from Xiao Yu's grip.
The two Law Enforcers frowned.
"Student Xiao Ning, what are you doing?" Feng asked, his brow furrowing in irritation. "Did you not hear the Captain? We are losing daylight."
"The Salamander," Yoriichi said, his voice raspy but firm. He pointed his sheathed katana toward the massive, bisected corpse slowly sinking into the dark sinkhole. "A beast of that caliber possesses a high-quality water-attribute core. I need to take it for refining."
Lin looked at him, surprised. The core of a high-tier Rank 3 beast was indeed worth a small fortune in the Black-Corner Region, but risking their lives to harvest it while injured seemed foolish.
"Do you practice alchemy?" Lin asked, her tone shifting. Alchemists were highly revered, and if he had the soul perception for it, his insane value to the academy just skyrocketed.
Yoriichi shook his head slightly. "I am a blacksmith."
Lin and Feng exchanged a blank look. A blacksmith? That was a respectable trade, but hardly one that required such desperate measures for a beast core.
Before Yoriichi could force his exhausted body to move, Xiao Yu stepped in front of him.
"I will get it. Rest your legs," Xiao Yu commanded softly, refusing to let her brother overexert himself further.
Without waiting for his protest, she channeled her frost Dou Qi to lighten her steps and leaped gracefully across the shallow roots, landing perfectly on the floating, severed head of the massive Salamander. Kneeling down, she didn't hesitate. She plunged her bare hand directly into the gory, boiling mess of the beast's severed neck cavity.
After a minute of gruesome searching, she felt a hard, perfectly smooth object. With a grunt, she ripped it free.
It was the size of a man's fist, completely transparent, and glowing with a mesmerizing, deep oceanic blue light. The sheer purity of the water energy radiating from it made the surrounding humid air feel instantly crisp.
Xiao Yu leaped back to the roots, her hand coated in thick, beast blood, and handed the glowing core to Yoriichi.
"Thank you," Yoriichi murmured softly, taking the core and securely storing it within his spatial ring. He knew this core was exactly what he needed to synthesize the next stage of his elemental path, or perhaps to forge a new, stronger blade.
Despite his exhaustion, Yoriichi took a slow, deliberate step forward until he was standing at the very edge of the sinkhole. He looked down at the massive, ruined corpse of the apex predator as it slowly succumbed to the dark depths.
He brought his hands together, both the palms, and lowered his head.
'Dust for dust. Ashes for ashes,' Yoriichi spoke internally, his ancient soul offering a solemn, respectful prayer to the fallen beast. 'You fought with the pride of a king in your domain. May your spirit return to the mother earth and find peace in the next cycle.'
He then slowly lifted his gaze to the darkening sky above. Closing his eyes, he extended his quiet reverence to the heavens, offering a final, silent prayer for the souls of every magical beast he had been forced to strike down during their grueling training in the wilderness before returning to the academy.
He sighed softly, a quiet sound of melancholy that carried over the bubbling water. He did not hate the beasts; it was simply the cruel law of this world that one must fall for another to rise.