The sky didn't just turn red; it turned into the color of oxidizing blood. The Iron Gate above the Jade Sea wasn't a rift of energy; it was a physical structure of black, rusted metal, miles across, held together by chains thick enough to bind a continent.A low, mechanical hum vibrated through the air, so intense that the weaker Lotus disciples began to bleed from their eyes."They aren't here to talk, Drake," Sovereign Ling whispered, her golden eyes reflecting the encroaching darkness. "The Iron Blood Sect are the 'Janitors' of the Nine Heavens. To them, a broken Harvest is a 'Contamination.' They don't reclaim... they incinerate."From the Iron Gate, a single beam of grey, colorless light shot down. It didn't strike the Pagoda. It hit the Jade Sea.The water didn't splash. It simply ceased to exist. In an instant, a mile-wide hole was carved into the floating ocean, revealing the void of space beneath the Second Heaven. The floating lilies, the fish, and the disciples caught in th

The Jade Sea was no longer a place of silent meditation. The sky was filled with the smoke of ruined pagodas, and the water was stained with the black oil of the Third Heaven’s failed executioner.Drake stood at the highest point of the Asura Gate, looking out over the floating islands of the Second Heaven. Behind him, Sovereign Ling stood in silence. Her power was fractured, her "Lotus Source" nearly drained from holding the barrier, but her eyes remained sharp."The other three Sects are coming," Ling said, her voice a ghost of its former authority. "The Thunder-Clap Sect, the Blazing Heart, and the Void-Walkers. They saw the Iron Gate. They know the Harvest is broken. They won't come to thank you for 'saving' them. They’ll come to scavenge what’s left of my territory.""Let them come," Drake said. He turned to Shadow. "Status of the 'Mortal Bridge'?""The frequency is stabilized, Marshal," Shadow replied, tapping a holographic display. "Since you shattered the Mirror, the 'Pressure

The golden coin sat spinning on the marble table between Drake and the holographic projection of The Broker. Outside, the sky of the Second Heaven was being stitched shut by the black, metallic webs of the Iron Blood Blockade."The Asura Sword," The Broker said, swirling a glass of translucent liquid. "You call it a weapon. A tool of revenge. But in the records of the Fourth Heaven’s Great Bank, it is listed as a 'Cosmic Audit Key.'"Drake leaned forward, his white eyes fixed on the hologram. "Explain. I didn’t find it in a bank. I found it in a grave.""Exactly," The Broker smiled. "The 'Asura' wasn't a demon or a rebel. He was an officer of the Tenth Heaven—a realm that no longer exists. His job was to prune the 'Branches' of reality that grew too greedy. When a Heaven starts harvesting its lower realms too aggressively, it creates a 'Spiritual Deficit.' The Asura was sent to... liquidate the debt.""So the sword isn't powered by my rage?" Drake asked, looking at the black hilt."Yo

The moment the Asura’s Heart fused with Drake’s Void Core, the "Credit-Score" display above his head didn't just drop to zero—it shattered. The holographic numbers glitched into ancient, blood-red runes.Across the Gilded Market, every terminal screamed."Warning! Systemic Risk detected!" a thousand mechanical voices chimed in unison. "Asset 'Drake Vance' has committed a Total Default on the Laws of Reality. Initiating The Great Liquidation."The Broker fell to his knees, his "Phase-Silk" suit losing its luster as his own bank accounts were frozen by the city's self-defense protocol. "You... you didn't just steal the heart," he wheezed, looking up at Drake. "You've inverted the Debt. The city is trying to 'Delete' you to balance the books!""Let it try," Drake said.His voice was different now. It sounded like the tectonic shift of a dying world. The "Asura’s Heart" was pumping a new kind of Qi through his veins—Audit Qi. It didn't feel like fire or lightning; it felt like the cold, h

If the exterior of the Third Heaven was a furnace, the interior was a slaughterhouse of the spirit.Drake, Rin, and the Broker moved through the sub-levels of Factory 0-Alpha, shielded by a cloak of "Void-Dampening" Qi. They weren't walking on floors; they were walking on miles of transparent pipes filled with a glowing, viscous silver liquid that pulsed in time with a distant, mechanical heartbeat."That’s not liquid Qi," Rin whispered, her mercury eyes vibrating with a sudden, sharp nausea. "I can hear it. It’s... screaming.""It’s Soul-Slurry," The Broker said, his usual wit replaced by a cold, professional dread. "The Third Heaven doesn't just mine minerals. They mine the 'residue' of the lower realms. Every cultivator who failed their ascension, every soul that was 'Sanitized'... they end up here."The Soul-Binding EquationThey reached the central chamber: the Crucible of Re-Formation.In the center of the room, massive "Soul-Welders"—mechanical spiders with needle-thin legs—wer