The black fire from the Exordium ship was very close. It came down from the grey sky like a giant, falling wall of dark ink. It did not smell like a normal fire. It did not smell like dry wood burning. It smelled like burning hair, wet rust, and the cold metal of a grave. But the black fire did not hit the dirt. It hit the song.In the Great Training Square, the fifty outer disciples were still humming. Su Yan was standing by the broken stone wall, her throat dry, her lips bleeding, but she did not stop. She held her hands flat against the rock.Hmmmmmm... hmmmmmm... hmmmmmm... The hundred voices had turned into a solid shield. It was a shield of gold-grey light that hung thirty feet above their heads. When the black fire hit the shield, there was a loud, wet rushing sound, like water hitting a hot iron pan.Sssssssssss! The sky was split. The black fire ran down the sides of the gold-grey shield, falling into the deep ravines around the square, turning the ancient pine trees into b

"I am not a human body," Han Feng said. He took a step forward. Thud. His silver boot hit the ground, and a small crack appeared in the marble dust under his heel, running straight toward the Sect Leader."I am the Watchman," Han Feng said. "I am the mountain. You can shatter a man, Sect Leader. But you cannot shatter the earth."The Sect Leader backed away two steps. He looked at Han Feng’s silver-black knuckles. He looked at the choir of children who were still humming, their voices holding the black fire of the ship. He looked at the giant silver ship above, which was still shaking, its blue alchemical light flickering frantically under the pressure of the song.The Sect Leader realized the truth. He could not win this fight with simple techniques. He could not win by being fast. This boy was not just a cultivator. He was a living metamorphosis. He was a weapon that could rebuild itself in real-time."You..." the Sect Leader growled, his face twisted in a mask of manic fury. "You

Han Feng’s mind was working very fast. He knew he could not block this weapon with his silver-obsidian arms. The white steel of the sword was vibrating at the exact frequency that broke the molecular bonds of rock. If he raised his arms, the blade would slice through them like a hot knife through lard. He had to use the mountain.He was deep in the Sovereign Gate now, closer to the mountain’s heart than he had ever been. The connection to the bedrock was not a small vein anymore; it was a giant, roaring river of kinetic energy. He did not look for stones. He did not try to lift the bronze floor. He drew the vibration of the entire mountain.He pulled the raw, heavy hum of the earth up through his silver boots, into his legs, and into his chest. His metallic veins glowed with a bright, blinding white light as the power rushed through him. He pushed his palms forward. "Stop," he said.He did not say it to the Sect Leader. He said it to the air. He pushed the mountain’s vibration out

The fall did not end in the dark. Han Feng did not let the abyss swallow them. As the giant bronze platform of the Sovereign Gate shattered beneath his feet, he reached out with his mind. He did not look for the gears. He looked for the solid rock of the upper terraces.He found a massive stone bridge. It was the ancient bridge of the Inner Plaza, now half-collapsed and hanging over the chasm like a broken branch. He grabbed the bridge with his resonance.He did not use his hands. He used his silver feet to catch the stone, his weight locking him to the bridge. He reached out with his right arm and grabbed Su Yan as she fell past. His silver fingers closed gently around her waist, pulling her onto the shaking stone. They were back on the surface, but the surface was no longer safe.The giant silver ship of the Exordium had crashed into the library ruins. Its heavy, metallic body was wedged between the stone towers, its engines still whirring with a hot, angry red light. Red sparks and

The fall had ended, and the great bronze gears of the Sovereign Gate were quiet.They were deep, deep in the belly of the mountain, trapped in a giant cavern of stone and brass. Above them, the giant silver ship of the Exordium was wedged tightly in the chasm, its massive iron plates forming a new, unstable ceiling that shut out the morning sky.The air in the cavern was thick. It smelled of old copper, wet dust, and the sweet, hot smell of blue alchemical oil that was leaking from the broken ship. The oil looked like glowing blue syrup, dripping slowly from the iron plates and falling into the dark.Han Feng stood on a massive bronze gear. He was whole. His right shoulder, which had been burned by the white-hot alchemical fire, was no longer smoking. The fire had cooled, and his liquid steel blood had done its work. The skin on his shoulder was now a dark, smooth grey, like a piece of basalt that had been polished by a river for a hundred years. The silver veins beneath his skin