I. The Gate of a Thousand Gears
The Bronze Citadel was not just a fortification; it was a living machine.
As the Morningstar group approached the colossal gates, the hum they had heard from the hill broke down into an industrial cacophony. It wasn't the song of birds or the roar of beasts, but the grinding of metal against metal, the hiss of steam escaping from pressure valves, and the murmur of thousands of human voices.
The walls, twenty meters high, were clad in bronze and copper plates that shimmered under the last rays of the sun, etched with defensive arrays that pulsed with a slow, heavy rhythm. Kael, with his perception sharpened by blood, could feel the flow of Qi within the walls: an artificial circulation, cold and calculated, vastly different from the wild, organic Qi of the swamp.
The queue to enter was long. Merchants with carts full of grain, beast hunters with pelts over their shoulders, and wandering cultivators with impatient expressions formed a snaking line.
—"Hoods down when we reach the inspector," Elara whispered, adjusting the strap of her bag. —"They're looking for wanted criminals, spies from other sects, and above all, people who can't pay the entry tax."
—"Do we have enough to pay?" Eris asked in a low voice. She leaned on Kael's arm, pretending to be a delicate wife or an ailing sister to justify her physical weakness without raising suspicions about her Qi depletion.
—"I have some low-quality spirit stones I 'borrowed' from those bandits," Kael replied, touching the pouch at his waist. —"It should be enough."
When their turn came, they stood before two guards dressed in full plate armor of a dark bronze hue. They carried halberds that crackled with static electricity. Behind them, an official in a gray robe sat at a desk, scribbling on a scroll with a quill that floated on its own.
—"Names and purpose," barked the guard on the left, without raising his visor.
—"Kael, Elara, Eris, and Vio," Kael said, using their real names but omitting surnames or titles. In this world, common names were as abundant as grass. —"We are gatherers. We come from the edge of the Mist Forest. We're here to sell and rest."
The guard scanned them visually. His gaze lingered on the grime of their clothes and the dried swamp mud still staining their boots.
—"Looks like you've been swimming in sh*t," the guard commented with disdain. —"The tax is five spirit stones per head. Twenty in total. And a contamination inspection."
—"Contamination?" Kael asked, tensing slightly.
—"City regulations," said the official in the gray robe, without looking up. —"There are outbreaks of demonic plagues in the south. Anyone coming from the wilds must pass before the Mirror of Resonance. If you carry demonic energy or an active curse, you don't enter."
Kael exchanged a quick look with Elara. This was a problem. Eris was fine; her fire was pure. Elara used shadow techniques, but they were orthodox. Kael, however, cultivated Blood—a path often confused with demonic arts. And Violeta... Violeta was an enigma of the Void.
—"Step one by one in front of the mirror," the guard ordered, pointing to an oval metal frame to the side, containing a surface of swirling liquid mercury.
Elara was first. She stood before the mirror. The surface rippled and showed a clear reflection, with a faint gray aura around her silhouette.
—"Clear. Next."
Eris stepped forward, letting go of Kael for a moment. The mirror showed her reflection wrapped in a red and gold aura, bright but stable.
—"Fire cultivator. Fine. Next."
It was Violeta's turn.
Kael felt his heart hammering against his ribs. If the mirror reacted to the Void, if it showed the darkness she carried inside, they would be attacked right then and there.
Violeta stood before the mercury. Her blue eyes stared fixedly at her own reflection.
The surface of the mirror went still. Completely still. There was no ripple. Violeta's reflection appeared, but she had no aura. It was as if they were reflecting an inert stone statue.
The official looked up, frowning. —"The mirror isn't detecting any Qi flow. Is she a mortal?"
Kael reacted quickly. —"My sister suffered a meridian blockage at birth. She's a cultivation invalid. That's why we take her with us; she can't fend for herself."
Violeta, catching the lie on the fly, let her shoulders slump and adopted a blank, submissive expression.
The official snorted, losing interest. —"Useless baggage. Fine, she's clear. You, the big guy."
Kael stepped before the mirror. He knew he couldn't hide his power, but he had to disguise its nature. He concentrated his Qi. Instead of letting the Blood flow freely, he compressed it into his muscles, simulating the Iron Body technique, a common skill among physical cultivators. He pushed his aura outward but tinted it with the raw aggression of physical strength, hiding the vampiric nature of his absorption.
The mirror rippled violently. Kael's reflection appeared surrounded by a deep, dense, and heavy crimson aura.
—"Oh!" the guard exclaimed, taking a step back. —"Body Cultivator. Aggressive aura."
The official adjusted his glasses. —"It's not demonic energy... it's pure vitality and brutality. A Berserker, I assume."
—"Something like that," Kael said, keeping a poker face.
—"Fine. Pay and enter. Don't cause trouble. The city guard has zero tolerance for street fights outside designated arenas."
Kael handed over the twenty spirit stones. They were small, irregular, and dim, but valid currency nonetheless. The gates opened with a hydraulic groan, and the Morningstars entered the Citadel.
II. The Symphony of Steam and Greed
The interior of the city was an assault on the senses.
The streets were narrow and paved with metal and stone cobbles. Three and four-story buildings rose on both sides, connected by sky-bridges, copper pipes dripping condensation, and cables hanging spiritual oil lamps that began to flicker to life at twilight.
There were people everywhere. Humans, semi-humans with animal traits, burly dwarves carrying toolboxes... The air smelled of coal, exotic spices, hot metal, and sweat.
—"It's... noisy," Violeta whispered, covering her ears with her hands. Her eyes moved frantically, scanning the structures. —"The lines... there are too many lines."
—"Lines?" Elara asked, staying close to her to prevent the crowd from pushing her.
—"The city is woven," Violeta explained, pointing upward to where an invisible dome of energy protected the citadel. —"There is a net over us. A cage of energy. And the houses... the houses vibrate. The people... their auras overlap. It's chaos."
Kael understood. For someone with Violeta's newly awakened spatial sensitivity, a densely populated city protected by arrays must look like a tangled ball of yarn.
—"Focus on my back, Vio," Kael instructed her. —"Ignore the rest. Just look at my back."
They walked down the main avenue, dodging street vendors offering everything from "Vigor Pills" to treasure maps of doubtful origin.
—"We need an inn," Eris said, her act of weakness becoming real. The noise and the crowd were making her dizzy. —"A place with clean beds and hot wine."
—"Elara, you have the instinct for this," Kael said. —"Find something discrete."
Elara scanned the signs. She discarded "The Jade Palace" (too expensive and flashy) and "The Drunken Goblin Tavern" (too dangerous and filthy). Finally, she pointed to a two-story building with a dark wood facade and a bronze sign that creaked in the wind.
—"The Silent Gear," Elara read. —"It looks respectable but not luxurious. It's near the commercial district but on a side street. Perfect for staying under the radar."
III. The Silent Gear
The interior of the inn was warm and smelled of beef stew and pine wood. The common room was half-full: a couple of merchants discussing prices in a corner, a group of mercenaries playing dice near the fireplace, and a bard tuning a lute on the empty stage.
The innkeeper was a burly man with a mechanical bronze arm that moved clunkily. He looked at them with a critical eye as they approached the bar.
—"Two rooms," Kael said, placing three spirit stones on the wood. —"One night, for now. And dinner in the room."
The innkeeper bit one of the stones to verify its authenticity.
—"Third floor, at the back. Hot water costs extra. Food will be up in half an hour." He tossed them two heavy iron keys. —"No dueling inside. If you break the furniture, you pay double. If you stain the sheets with blood, you pay triple."
—"Understood," Kael said.
The rooms were small but clean. Kael and Eris took one, while Elara and Violeta took the adjoining one. They gathered in the girls' room to eat the stew brought up to them. For the first time in weeks, they ate real food. Tender meat, potatoes, freshly baked bread. Eris devoured her plate with a ferocity that made Kael smile. Color was returning to her cheeks.
—"This is the life," Eris sighed, wiping her plate with a piece of bread. —"I almost forgot the world could taste like something other than mud and fear."
—"Don't get too comfortable," Elara warned, though she herself seemed relaxed. —"We have work tomorrow."
Kael sat on the edge of the bed, looking out the window at the dark street.
—"We're twenty stones down," he said. —"We have about thirty left from what we stole from the bandits. That gives us a couple of days here, food, and maybe basic supplies. But if we want to buy recovery pills for Eris or materials for me to refine my blood... we need money. A lot of money."
—"I could steal," Elara suggested casually.
—"No," Kael cut in. —"We don't want to attract the guard. We're in a new city; we don't know who controls the underworld."
—"We can sell things," Violeta said. She was sitting on the floor, playing with the threads of a frayed blanket. —"In the swamp... you picked things up."
Kael nodded. He pulled out his dimensional pouch—a small, worn leather bag he had taken from a dead cultivator long ago. He emptied the contents onto the bed. There were several low-level beast cores, some rare herbs that had survived the trip, and one particular object Kael had torn from the corpse of one of the Dream Hounds before it dissolved: a fragment of Dream Bone.
It was small, the size of a finger, but it pulsed with a faint purple light.
—"That's rare," Elara said, leaning in. —"Materials with affinity for dreams or illusions are coveted by alchemists. It could be worth fifty stones. Or a hundred, if we find the right buyer."
—"But selling it is dangerous," Kael pointed out. —"It gives away where we came from. If someone knows we were in the Womb of the King and made it out alive, they'll think we have greater treasures."
—"We'll sell it as a fortuitous find at the edge of the forest," Elara proposed. —"We'll say we found a lost hound and killed it together. A believable story for a group of our apparent level."
IV. The Alchemy Market
The next morning, leaving Violeta resting under the protection of Eris (who could now summon small flames for defense), Kael and Elara headed to the commercial district.
The Alchemy Market of the Bronze Citadel was a fascinating and dangerous place. The stalls weren't simple tables, but small open laboratories. Bubbling alembics, jars with eyes floating in formaldehyde, beast pelts drying in the sun.
Kael pulled his hood over his head. His imposing physique made people move aside. Elara walked beside him, her eyes analyzing every face, every exit, every possible threat. They entered a shop called "The Crucible of Truth." The interior was filled with dusty shelves. Behind the counter, an old man with multi-lensed glasses examined a blue mushroom.
—"Buying or selling?" the old man asked without looking at them.
—"Selling," Kael said, placing the fragment of Dream Bone on the counter.
The old man stopped. He adjusted his glasses, spinning the different magnifying lenses until he found the correct one. He leaned over the bone.
—"Interesting..." he murmured. —"Mental resonance. Semi-solid texture. This is bone from a dream construct. Rare around here. Where did you get it?"
—"That isn't for sale," Kael said coldly. —"The bone is. How much?"
The old man looked up. His eyes, magnified by the lenses, looked huge and watery. He smiled, showing potion-stained teeth.
—"I'll give you forty spirit stones."
—"Eighty," Elara countered instantly.
—"Fifty. It's a volatile material. It could vanish before I even use it."
—"Seventy," Kael said, letting a thread of his killing intent leak out. Not Qi, just the pure promise of violence he had perfected killing beasts. —"And we don't ask questions about what you'll do with it."
The old man swallowed hard. He felt the chill in the air. This big youth wasn't just a porter; he had the look of someone who had killed recently.
—"Sixty-five. My final offer. And I'll throw in a jar of Qi-burn ointment; it looks like your companion needs it," he said, pointing to Elara's hands, which had small, old scars.
—"Done," Kael said.
V. Shadows in the Bronze
They left the shop with a pouch of clinking spirit stones and a jar of greenish ointment.
—"That was easy," Elara said, though she was frowning. —"Too easy. That old man knew what it was. It's probably worth double."
—"We need the money fast, not the best price," Kael responded. —"Now let's go for Eris's medicines and..." Kael stopped dead in the middle of the street. —"Keep walking," he whispered, grabbing Elara's arm. —"Don't look back."
—"What is it?" she asked, tensing but obeying and keeping the pace.
—"Blood," Kael said, his voice barely audible. —"I smell bloodlust directed at us. Someone has been following us since we left the inn."
They turned a corner, entering a narrower alley filled with steam from the city's heating pipes.
—"How many?" Elara asked, her hand going discretely to the dagger in her boot.
—"Two. One on the rooftops, another behind us in the crowd. They're good. They're hiding their Qi, but they can't hide their heart rates as they prepare to strike."
Kael evaluated the surroundings. The alley had an exit about fifty meters away leading to an open plaza. If they were attacked here, they would be at a disadvantage due to the narrow terrain.
—"Let's head to the plaza," Kael said. —"There are witnesses there."
They quickened their pace. Suddenly, a figure dropped from the rooftop in front of them, landing with a heavy metallic sound. He blocked the path. He was a man dressed in a tight black leather and bronze suit, with a mask covering the lower half of his face. In his hands, he held two hooks joined by chains.
At the same time, the pursuer from behind emerged from the steam. A woman with a loaded crossbow aimed at Kael's back.
—"You're far from home, country folk," said the man with the hooks. His voice was raspy. —"That bone you sold... it was nice. We wonder what else you have in those bags."
—"Thieves?" Kael asked, turning slightly to keep both enemies in his peripheral vision.
—"Informal tax collectors," the woman with the crossbow corrected. —"The Iron Vipers gang controls this district. No one sells rare merchandise without giving us a cut."
Kael sighed.
—"We just got here," Kael said, sounding tired. —"I really wanted one quiet day. Just one."
Elara pressed against his back, covering his rear. —"Kael, these aren't strong cultivators. Early Foundation, at most. But the noise will attract the guard."
—"Then let's make it quick and quiet," Kael said.
The man with the hooks laughed. —"Arrogant! I'm going to open you up like a fish!" He threw one of the hooks toward Kael's head.
Time seemed to slow down. Kael didn't unsheathe his sword; it was too flashy. Instead, he channeled his blood into his left hand. The skin hardened, turning a dark red, almost black.
Blood Art: Tyrant's Palm.
Kael caught the hook mid-air with his bare hand. The metal screeched, but it didn't cut his reinforced skin. The bandit's eyes widened in surprise. —"What...?"
Kael yanked the chain. With his monstrous physical strength, he dragged the man through the air toward him.
—"Get over here!"
As the bandit flew toward him, Kael cocked his right fist.
—"Shoot!" the man screamed.
The woman fired the crossbow. The bolt hissed toward Kael's back. Elara moved like a shadow. She intercepted the bolt with her dagger, deflecting it with a metallic spark, and in the same motion, threw a throwing knife that buried itself in the woman's shoulder.
The woman screamed and dropped the weapon. Kael met the man with the hooks with a direct punch to the stomach. He didn't use explosive Qi to avoid making noise; he used blunt force. The air left the bandit's lungs with a wet sound, and he doubled over, unconscious before hitting the ground.
Kael let him go and looked at the wounded woman. She was retreating, pale, clutching her shoulder.
—"Tell your Iron Vipers to look for easier prey," Kael said, his voice low and vibrating. —"Next time, I won't be kind enough to let you keep breathing."
The woman nodded frantically and fled, leaving her companion lying in the alley. Kael shook his hand. The red skin faded, returning to its normal tone.
—"Let's go before someone calls the real guards," Kael said.
Elara picked up her knife and looked at the unconscious bandit. —"We've made enemies on day one. Good record."
—"Welcome to civilization," Kael responded, adjusting his hood. —"Where monsters don't have claws, they have guilds."
They returned to the inn with sixty-five stones in their pockets and the certainty that the Bronze Citadel was not a refuge, but a new battlefield. In the darkness of his mind, Kael began to plan how to conquer this field—not with brute force, but with the cunning of a reincarnated emperor beginning to remember how to play the game of power.
[End of Chapter 99]