The thick marble floor of the Black Prison's Upper Hall detonated from within. A geyser of shattered stone and dark-gold flames erupted, tearing through the clinical silence of the administrative sector.
Gu Hanzhou leapt from the billowing smoke, his silhouette a dark omen against the white-hot glare. He carried Gu Qingshan on his back, his arm locked around Su Qingyue's waist as they soared through the air. His black garments had been reduced to tatters by the explosion, revealing a back etched with dark-gold "Order-Runes" that pulsed and writhed like living creatures under his skin.
The moment he landed, his boots plowed deep furrows into the polished floor. He held [Black Order] in a reverse grip, the tip of the blade pointing diagonally at the earth, still dripping with molten alloy.
"Target identified! Over there!"
A cold, mechanical roar echoed through the hall.
From every corner of the vast chamber, the Inquisition Praetorians—an elite vanguard—closed in like a rising tide of steel. These were not the common thugs of the mining pits; every one of them was a middle-stage Blood-Ignition expert clad in "Anti-Mage Heavy Plate," a specialized armor designed to nullify and disperse energy shocks.
High above, a massive hexagonal array on the ceiling began to rotate with a low, ominous hum. It unleashed a curtain of crimson light: [Heavy Suppression Array: Gravity Shackle].
Gu Hanzhou felt his shoulders slump under a sudden, crushing weight. It felt as if a mountain had been dropped onto his spine. Gu Qingshan let out a pained groan behind him, and Su Qingyue's face turned paper-white, her breath hitching as the ten-fold gravity attempted to grind her bones into the marble.
"Where is Mordent?"
Gu Hanzhou slowly lifted his head. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a piercing, murderous intent that cut through the mechanical noise of the hall. His dark-gold pupils scanned the room, and for a fleeting moment, the battle-hardened Praetorians felt a chill crawl up their spines—the primal instinct of a prey being watched by an apex predator.
"Lord Mordent is watching you rot from the Zenith of Judgment!"
A Praetorian Captain stepped forward, his two-meter-long halberd crackling with arcs of electricity. He swung the weapon in a devastating arc toward Gu Hanzhou's head. "Traitor! Kneel!"
Gu Hanzhou didn't dodge.
In that fraction of a second, the "Ancient Shadow" he had seen in his vision seemed to overlap with his own body. His breathing slowed until it was nearly imperceptible. The Imperial Gold blood in his veins stopped acting like a raging flood; instead, it condensed into a substance as heavy and lethal as liquid mercury.
"The ones kneeling..." Gu Hanzhou whispered. "...should be you."
SHRING—!
The sound of [Black Order] leaving its sheath was no longer a metallic ring. It was a low, guttural dragon's roar.
Gu Hanzhou moved. Even under the crushing weight of ten-fold gravity, his speed didn't just remain constant—it accelerated. He wasn't just running; he was using the pressure of the gravity field to compress his energy, turning his own body into a coiled spring that snapped with explosive violence.
[Dark Order · Instant Prison Slash]!
A thin, dark-gold line traced a horizontal path across the center of the hall.
The Captain's halberd snapped in mid-air. It wasn't just the weapon—his vaunted Anti-Mage armor and the body within it were cleaved in two with a surgical, terrifyingly clean cut.
"Kill him! Open fire! Ranged suppression!"
The surrounding Praetorians, momentarily paralyzed by the brutality of the kill, scrambled backward. Hundreds of Order-Rifles barked in unison. Crimson energy bolts rained down like a monsoon of fire, turning the spot where Gu Hanzhou stood into a crater of melting stone.
Yet, through the gaps in the explosions, Gu Hanzhou moved like an intangible ghost. With two people on his back, he flickered through the fire and shadow, his movements defying the very laws of physics.
He didn't retreat. He chose the most violent path: a frontal assault.
Every step he took shattered the floor tiles beneath him. A front-line of shield-bearers stepped forward, locking their massive tower shields to form an impenetrable wall of steel.
"BREAK!"
Gu Hanzhou let out a primal roar. [Black Order] slammed into the center of the shield wall. The reforged blade unleashed its most terrifying trait: [Rule-Rending]. The shields, designed to withstand the impact of a main battle tank, shattered like cheap plywood. Gu Hanzhou didn't just cut the shields; he tore through the men behind them with sheer, brute force.
Blood sprayed across Gu Hanzhou's cold, calm face, yet his eyes grew even more serene. He wasn't just killing; he was practicing. Through the carnage, he was refining the "Ancient Court War-Techniques" he had glimpsed in his vision.
"Left three! Forward five! Strike!"
Su Qingyue clung to his shoulder, fighting through the pressure to call out the weak points in the Praetorian formation.
Gu Hanzhou spun in a fluid motion, his blade carving a perfect dark-gold circle. The ring of soldiers surrounding him froze simultaneously. A heartbeat later, fountains of blood erupted from their throats in a grotesque, synchronized display.
The hall was soon thick with the copper tang of blood. Gu Hanzhou was like a black drill, relentlessly boring a path through the iron-clad formation, treading upon a road paved with the corpses of the elite.
"Monster... he's a monster!"
The remaining Praetorians began to break. They had fought rebels, monsters, and heretics, but they had never seen a man carry two people through a high-gravity suppression field and kill as if he were taking a morning stroll.
The tip of [Black Order] dripped with thick, violet-black blood. Gu Hanzhou stood at the base of the grand staircase leading to the upper administrative levels. Behind him, dozens of armored bodies lay in heaps.
He slowly turned his head toward a massive surveillance camera at the far end of the hall. His voice was as cold as the steel in his hand.
"Mordent. Nine hundred left. I'm coming for you."
Before the words could even finish echoing, he swung his blade toward the ceiling. A wave of destructive energy surged upward, striking the hexagonal gravity array and blowing it into a thousand glittering shards.
As the pressure vanished, Gu Hanzhou's aura soared once more, pushing toward the absolute limit of the Blood-Ignition Phase. He hoisted his father, gripped the shivering girl, and stepped onto the stairs—stepping toward the heavens on a staircase made of his enemies' blood.