All Chapters of Ashbone: The Record of Burning Heaven: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
210 chapters
Chapter 21: The Sword that Rots
"Lin... Lin Jin?" The whisper started from a minor noble in the back and spread like wildfire. "That’s the cripple? The one who died?" "Look at his eyes! That’s no human!" "Is he a ghost? A zombie?" Patriarch Lin Xiao stood frozen, his mind racing. The plan was ruined. The image of the perfect family was shattered. There was only one way to salvage this: Denial. "LIES!" Lin Xiao roared, his voice shaking the banners. He pointed a trembling finger at Lin Jin. "That is not my son! My son died of illness weeks ago! This is a demon possessing his corpse! A vile creature from the swamp trying to slander our noble house!" The crowd murmured. It was a plausible lie. Lin Jin looked monstrous, with his grey skin and metallic eyes. "Elder Zhang!" Lin Xiao turned to the Heavenly Sword Sect expert, pleading. "This creature desecrates my ancestors! Please, slay this evil!" Elder Zhang narrowed his eyes. He sensed no normal Spirit Qi from Lin Jin—only a dense, cold void that felt like deat
Chapter 22: The Extraction
"I am your father!" Lin Xiao’s scream was thin and pathetic, like a rabbit cornered by a wolf. He held the dagger with shaking hands, pointing it not at Lin Jin, but threateningly over Lin Feng’s body—a desperate, nonsensical bluff born of pure panic. "If you take another step, I will... I will destroy the marrow! I’ll kill him myself!" Lin Xiao shrieked. "If I can't have a genius son, no one can!" The crowd watched in stunned silence. The noble Patriarch Lin, willing to butcher his favorite son just to spite the rejected one? The mask of the Lin Family had completely fallen off. Lin Jin stopped. He looked at the dagger. He laughed. It was a dry, rattling sound. "You think you can destroy my bone with a piece of scrap metal?" Lin Jin moved. He didn't charge. He simply flickered. The Shroud of Silent Dust blurred his silhouette. Snap. Lin Xiao felt a breeze. Then he felt a lack of weight in his hand. He looked down. His hand was empty. The dagger was gone. Lin Jin stood ne
Chapter 23: The Red Beacon
The wind screamed in Lin Jin’s ears, but it wasn't loud enough to drown out the pulsing alarm in his soul. Above his head, the Mark of the Heavenly Sword—a twenty-foot-tall projection of a glowing red sword—pierced the sky. It was visible for miles. It was a lighthouse, and he was the ship trying to hide in a storm. Lin Jin leaped from the city walls of Jiang City, landing in the rice paddies outside with a heavy thud. The mud exploded outward. "Three of them," the Entity warned, its voice tight. "Twelve o'clock high. Coming in hot." Lin Jin didn't look back. He burst into a sprint. His new Stage 4: Black-Steel Ashbone body was a marvel of biomechanics. Every step he took shattered the ground, propelling him forward at speeds that blurred the landscape. He wasn't running; he was tearing through the air. WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! Three streaks of light—one azure, one gold, one crimson—tore through the clouds behind h
Chapter 24: The Abyssal Nest
Gravity was a cruel mistress, but the wind was a butcher. As Lin Jin plummeted into the darkness of the Iron-Wind Canyon, the air pressure didn't just push against him; it sliced. The "Iron Wind" lived up to its name—it was filled with microscopic particles of magnetic sand, essentially turning the gale into a giant, invisible sandpaper belt. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. Sparks flew from the Shroud of Silent Dust as it hardened to diamond-density, shielding Lin Jin’s skin. "Stabilize yourself!" the Entity barked. "If you hit the bottom at terminal velocity, even your Black-Steel bones will shatter!" "I know!" Lin Jin roared over the howling wind. He twisted his body mid-air, scanning the canyon walls. They were jagged, composed of dark, magnetic ore. He swung the Blackbone Greatsword with both hands. "Anchor!" CLANG-SCREEEEEEEEE! He slammed the massive blade into the cliff face.
Chapter 25: The City of Vermin
The tunnel was damp, dripping with a luminescent green slime that smelled like battery acid. Lin Jin walked in silence, his boots crunching on gravel. The Blackbone Greatsword was sheathed on his back, wrapped in the tatters of his grey robe. "This place..." the Entity sniffed. "It smells of desperation. And old copper." The tunnel opened up. Lin Jin stopped. His silver eyes widened slightly. He wasn't in a cave anymore. He was standing on a balcony overlooking a colossal underground cavern. Below him lay a city. It wasn't a city of stone or wood. It was a sprawling, chaotic shantytown built entirely from the wreckage of the Ancient War. Houses made of crushed chariot hulls. Bridges made of giant, rusted sword blades. Towers constructed from the ribcages of dead behemoths. The entire cavern was lit by the pulsating Green Light he had seen earlier—massive clusters of "Corpse-Fire Crystals" growing on the
Chapter 26: The Ticket of Flesh
The map in the cracked mirror flickered and died, but the image was burned into Lin Jin’s mind. The Titan Core was located in Sector 9, also known as "Deep Rust." It was the lowest point of the city, located directly inside the chest cavity of the ancient Golem. "Ironhead," Lin Jin called out. The metal-faced brute, who was guarding the door like a statue, scrambled inside instantly. "Yes, Boss? You hungry? I can find some rat-skewers. Best in the district." "I need to go to Sector 9," Lin Jin said, standing up. The Shroud of Silent Dust flowed around him like liquid shadow. Ironhead froze. The color drained from the fleshy part of his face. "Sector 9? Deep Rust?" Ironhead swallowed hard. "Boss, you can't just walk in there. That’s the Gear King’s territory. The air down there is so toxic it melts skin. And the guards... they wear Powered Armor salvaged from the War Era." "Powered Armor," Lin Jin repeated. His sil
Chapter 27: The Meat Grinder
The gates of the arena ground open with a screech of rusted metal. Lin Jin stepped out into the blinding glare of the Corpse-Fire Crystals. The noise was a physical wall—thousands of mutants, scavengers, and criminals screaming for blood. "AND IN THE RED CORNER!" the announcer’s voice boomed from loudspeakers grafted onto the arena walls. "THE REIGNING NIGHTMARE! THE MAN WHO TURNED FIFTY FIGHTERS INTO HAMBURGER MEAT! GIVE IT UP FOR... THE GRINDER!" BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. The ground shook. From the opposite gate, a monstrosity emerged. It was barely human. It was a ten-foot-tall hulk of welded scrap metal. Its legs were hydraulic pistons. Its head was encased in a diver's helmet covered in spikes. But its most terrifying features were its arms. They weren't hands. They were massive, industrial tunnel-boring drills, spinning with a high-pitched whine that set teeth on edge. "MEAT!" The Grinder roared, his voice amplified b
Chapter 28: The Fast Track
The crowd was screaming for blood, waiting for the next victim to enter the ring. But the gates didn't open. Instead, the lights in the arena flickered and turned a deep, ominous red. WHIRRRRR. A heavy industrial drone, dripping with oil and hanging from four rotor blades, descended from the ceiling. It hovered in front of Lin Jin, its camera lens zooming in on his hooded face. "Attention, gladiator," a smooth, mechanical voice projected from the drone. It was the Gear King speaking directly. "The tournament is suspended." The crowd booed. They wanted violence. "Silence!" The voice boomed, shaking the dust from the rafters. The crowd instantly shut up. In the Rust Pit, disobeying the King meant being recycled into rations. The drone turned back to Lin Jin. "You have passed the audition, Mr. Landlord. There is no need for you to waste time playing with trash. Come. The elevator to Deep Rust is unlocked."<
Chapter 29: The King of Gears
The four Centurions moved with perfect, calculated synchronization. HMMMM-SNAP. Four plasma blades ignited simultaneously, casting a harsh violet light over the white porcelain throne room. These weren't clumsy brawlers like the Grinder; these were ancient war machines, programmed with martial arts data from the Golden Era. "Dissect," the Gear King commanded lazily, leaning back on his throne. The Centurions blurred. Two attacked low, sweeping at Lin Jin’s legs. Two attacked high, aiming to decapitate. There was no room to dodge. Lin Jin didn't try. CLANG! HISS! He slammed the Blackbone Greatsword vertically into the ground, using it as a shield. The two lower blades struck the obsidian slab. The heat was intense enough to melt steel, but the black bone merely smoked, absorbing the thermal energy. For the high attacks, Lin Jin raised his left arm. The Shroud of Silent Dust rippled, ha
Chapter 30: The Titan's Blood
The heat was absolute. As Lin Jin sailed through the air, the radiation from the Titan Heart stripped the moisture from his eyes. The Shroud of Silent Dust tightened around him, turning rigid as iron to protect its master from being vaporized. THUD. Lin Jin landed on one of the massive anchor chains suspending the Core. The link was the size of a carriage. It burned his boots, hissing as the Ashbone density fought the thermal energy. Below him lay the abyss of green fog. Above him, the shattered window of the Gear King’s palace. And directly in front of him was the Heart. A sphere of pulsing blue star-metal, cracked with veins of blinding light. The thump-thump sound was deafening here, vibrating his very teeth. "Open it," the Entity commanded, its voice trembling with a hunger that bordered on madness. "Crack the egg." Lin Jin drew the Blackbone Greatsword. The obsidian blade, usually cold and hungry, screamed as it sensed the energy in front of it. "This is going to be loud