The aftershocks of the explosions above the mine shaft continued to ripple through the earth. Muffled vibrations traveled through the rock strata like the labored, rhythmic gasps of the iron city itself, a giant in the throes of death.
Lin Xiu led his team's evacuation with a practiced, casual elegance. In his mind, Gu Hanzhou was no longer a variable. No mine-slave, regardless of a fluke Awakening, could survive the cleansing fire of the Legion's demolition charges. Gu Hanzhou was less than ash now; he was a footnote. Lin Xiu was already contemplating which vintage of red wine he would open in the Upper District to celebrate the successful "purification" of the site.
"You four," Lin Xiu said, pointing to a group of Adjudicators at the rear. His voice was flat, indifferent. "Stay behind and perform a final sweep. Burn every scrap of mutated tissue you find. I want this place sanitized."
He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly behind his visor. "Leave no traces. You know the rules of the Inquisition."
"Yes, My Lord!"
The four warriors responded in unison, their voices echoing with military precision. They were encased in standard-issue grey-black light power armor, armed with high-frequency chain-sabers and short-range Order-Pistols—the most lethal weapons for close-quarters subterranean combat.
Lin Xiu nodded, turned on his heel, and led the rest of the squad toward the massive industrial elevator. As he turned, he failed to notice a pair of icy, predatory eyes locking onto the throats of his men from the swirling dust and smoke at the far end of the tunnel.
Gu Hanzhou was no longer a man; he was a wraith crawling out of the abyss. He clung to the jagged ceiling of the mine shaft, his body defying gravity as he moved in total silence.
Inside him, his Order Blood—now fused with the ancient dark-gold essence—was in a state of high-frequency vibration. It was a paradox: his heart beat with a slow, agonizing thud, yet every pulse felt like a coiled spring ready to snap with explosive violence.
The four warriors fanned out.
They moved in pairs, holding flamethrowers and Order-Detectors, scanning the scorched rubble for signs of life.
"This is a waste of time," one of the soldiers grumbled, kicking a piece of charred rock. "What could possibly survive that blast? That slave was lucky Lord Lin even gave him a serum, only to end up as a grease spot under ten tons of rubble."
"Shut it and keep your eyes open," the other replied, glancing at his flickering handheld monitor. "The pollution levels here are spiking. Let's finish the job and get out before we start growing extra limbs."
In that exact heartbeat, Gu Hanzhou moved.
He didn't strike from the front. Like a dead leaf falling in a storm, he let go of the ceiling, using the lingering haze of the explosion as a vertical shroud.
[Black Order] cleared its sheath in mid-air.
The obsidian blade reflected no light. Its emergence didn't even disturb the air. It was a vacuum in the shape of a sword.
Puchi!
Before the first soldier could even register a shadow above him, the cold tip of the Tang Dao had transfixed his skull. The blade entered through the crown of his helmet and erupted from beneath his jaw. Gu Hanzhou's left hand instantly clamped over the man's vox-grille, stifling the scream. When his boots hit the floor, the sound was no louder than a cat's footfall.
Hot, pressurized blood sprayed across the blade's fuller, only to be instantly inhaled by the steel of [Black Order].
Gu Hanzhou didn't linger. Before the first body could even slump to its knees, he kicked off the floor with a violent burst of speed. He glided horizontally along the rock wall, his body tilted at an impossible angle, the Tang Dao tracing a silent, black line through the dark.
"Who's there?!"
The second soldier caught the faint, metallic scent of fresh blood. He spun around in terror, his Order-Pistol snapping upward.
A flash of cold light.
His hands, still gripping the pistol, were severed cleanly at the wrists.
Before the shriek could leave his throat, Gu Hanzhou's silhouette had already flickered past him. The blade had traced a delicate, shallow arc across his carotid artery.
Blood erupted like a geyser. Gu Hanzhou's expression remained as impassive as a block of ice.
"Third Brother? Report!"
Further down the tunnel, the remaining two soldiers heard the muffled thud of equipment hitting the ground. They flicked their safety switches, raising their weapons and closing in on the position.
Standing in the shadows, Gu Hanzhou caught the second soldier's falling body and hurled it forward with a burst of mutated strength.
"Target spotted! Fire!"
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
A hail of high-velocity Order-rounds tore through the air, shredding the corpse into a mess of meat and metal.
In the brief window while the soldiers were cycling their firing pins, Gu Hanzhou erupted from the side shadows. The dark-gold blood in his veins ignited.
In Gu Hanzhou's vision, the world distorted. The tracers of the bullets became slow-moving streaks of light, like fireflies in a jar. He twisted his torso with a frequency that defied physical laws, weaving through the lead curtain in a grotesque, beautiful dance. With every step, the rock beneath his feet was ground into fine powder by the sheer force of his output, creating a localized shroud of dust.
Three steps. He covered fifteen meters in less than a second, appearing in the blind spot of the two soldiers.
"Where is he?! Where did he—"
One soldier swung his rifle wildly, the darkness of the cave suddenly feeling like a living mouth closing around him.
"Behind you."
The boy's voice was a raspy, frost-bitten whisper.
The soldier's pupils shrank. Before he could pull the trigger, a bone-chilling coldness bloomed in his right shoulder.
Gu Hanzhou didn't use a wide, telegraphed swing. He utilized a signature move of the Tang Dao: a precision "Stab-and-Press" technique. The tip of [Black Order] bit into the seam of the armor, and then, with a sharp downward tilt, he used the blade as a lever, shearing the soldier's entire arm and shoulder off at the root.
The last soldier went insane with fear. He discarded his useless gun and roared, drawing the heavy Chain-Saber from his back.
It was a heavy-duty weapon. The serrated teeth spun at thousands of rotations per minute, driven by an Order-core, emitting a teeth-grinding whine. He brought the buzzing blade down in a desperate, overhead strike.
Gu Hanzhou didn't dodge.
His eyes narrowed, and [Black Order] let out a clear, crystalline chime. He flicked his wrist upward, parrying the chainsaw's drive-bearing with the spine of his blade. A surge of dark-gold Order energy exploded along the length of the steel.
CLANG—!
In a shower of sparks and shattered gears, the heavy Chain-Saber was snapped clean in half by the sheer density of Gu Hanzhou's energy.
Under the soldier's horrified, hopeless gaze, Gu Hanzhou reversed his grip on the blade and spun in a fluid, lethal pirouette.
The edge whispered across the man's throat.
The body hit the floor with a heavy, final thud.
Gu Hanzhou stood amidst the bloodbath. [Black Order], now gorged on the blood of four elite Adjudicators, glowed with an eerie, dark-gold luminescence. A stream of refined, potent energy flowed back into his body, nourishing his marrow and knitting his injuries.
He felt no fatigue. On the contrary, the power within him was screaming for more.
He leaned down, tore a strip of clean fabric from a dead man's cloak, and slowly, meticulously wiped the black ichor from his blade.
"Four."
He whispered to himself, his gaze drifting toward the industrial elevator.
By now, the lift was already ascending. Lin Xiu was on it. Gu Hanzhou knew that even with his current power, taking on a "Blood-Ignition" peak-tier officer like Lin Xiu in a direct confrontation was still a gamble.
He turned toward the other darkness—the shortcut leading to the Legion's Armory. Lin Xiu believed him dead; that was his greatest asset.
"Lin Xiu... your life stays with you for now."
Gu Hanzhou's silhouette vanished into the pitch-black tunnel.
"But before I come to collect the interest on my debt, you had better enjoy your sleep."
The mine shaft returned to its tomb-like silence. Only the cooling corpses of the Adjudicators remained, their blood slowly staining the ancient rock.