2026-10-14 04:21:52
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Chapter 71: The Crimson Pillar and the Astral King
The wind howling over the northern ramparts of Cloud Mist City smelled of copper, sulfur, and ancient char. High above the battlements, suspended between the jagged crenellations and low-hanging grey thunderheads, the crimson pillar burned like a spear thrust into the throat of the night. Within that pillar drifted Elder Xue. He was not an old man in the mortal sense; an Astral King did not wither like autumn leaves. His flesh was pale as polished tallow, stretched taut over high cheekbones, and his long hair was dyed an unnatural, mottled carmine that drifted weightlessly upon waves of undulating astral pressure. Behind his shoulder blades hovered a rotating ring of blood-tinted talismans, each one carved from the marrow of third-rank stellar beasts and humming with the cruel resonance of the third Astral River.Beneath him, the garrison of Cloud Mist City stood paralyzed. Three hundred armored city guards, equipped with spirit-iron pikes and heavy
Chapter 70: The Black Water River
Beneath the shimmering dome of the Cloud Mist Grand Array, thirty feet of solid bedrock separated the chaotic streets above from the pitch-black tunnels of the Black Water River.The underground canal was an ancient engineering marvel carved from dark granite, wide enough to sail three large river barges side by side. Stagnant black water, tainted by centuries of mineral runoff from the spirit-ore refineries, flowed in a slow, endless current toward the western marshlands beyond the mountain walls. Phosphorescent mold clung to the ceiling vaults, casting a pale, ghostly blue luminescence across the wet stone and reflecting off the oily sheen of the surface ripples.Chu Yuan waded through the knee-deep water at the front of the procession, the glow of his eight desolate stars dimmed to a faint ember beneath his skin. His eyes pierced the darkness effortlessly, mapping every fork, culvert, and iron grate along the canal using the stolen administrative map. The fivefold gravity of the Up
Chapter 69: Shadows of Cloud Mist Alley
Night had settled fully over Cloud Mist City, but the streets were brighter than midday.Beacons of crimson and azure light flared atop the soaring watchtowers, casting sweeping columns of radiance across the rooftops. The city’s great atmospheric ward, the Cloud Mist Grand Array, had begun to contract, settling like a heavy, shimmering dome of frosted glass over the entire metropolis. The ambient pressure in the air increased by another fold, designed to ground flying artifacts and suppress rapid spatial movement within the city walls.Gong strikes and the deep baying of astral tracking hounds echoed from the main thoroughfares, punctuated by the rhythmic thumping of armored boots.Through the narrow, winding alleys of the Eastern Merchant Quarter, Chu Yuan moved with absolute silence. His dark traveling coat blended into the deep shadows cast by the high stone walls of three-story apothecary storehouses. Behind him, Luo Ningxue maintained a constant, freezing perimeter of frost Qi t
Chapter 68: Shattering the Golden Cage
The bronze alarm bells mounted atop the seven tiers of the Myriad Treasure Tower pealed with deafening urgency, their discordant chimes rolling across the white jade avenues of Cloud Mist City like rolling thunder.Inside the subterranean corridor leading up from Auction Room Nine, the stone walls vibrated with hums of celestial power. Interlocking golden defensive runes flared across the vaulted ceilings, projecting a web of spirit-suppressing light beams designed to trap anyone fleeing the lower levels.Chu Yuan walked at the head of the procession, his stride calm, rhythmic, and unhurried. Behind him, Luo Ningxue guided the thirty-two freed ascenders. Though still weak from their ordeal and bearing bloody punctures from the extracted spirit nails, the captives had armed themselves with the curved sabers and spirit-mail stripped from the fallen Nether Blood enforcers. Seeing Chu Yuan’s solitary back moving ahead of them like an immovable mountain p
Chapter 67: Blood in Auction Room Nine
The air beneath the heavy crimson curtain of Auction Room Nine was stagnant, heavy with the iron scent of dried blood, damp limestone, and burnt incense used to mask decay.Carved into the subterranean bedrock beneath the Myriad Treasure Tower, the amphitheater was designed with tiered circular seating made of cold black basalt. Roughly fifty wealthy patrons—clan elders, rogue cultivators with bloodshot eyes, and representatives of minor trading houses—sat in the shadowed upper rows, their faces concealed beneath silk veils or hooded cloaks. In the center of the pit stood an elevated iron cage surrounded by eight bronze braziers burning with eerie, violet ghost-fire.Inside the iron cage, thirty-two cultivators knelt on the damp stone floor. Their bodies were emaciated, their clothes reduced to blood-stained rags. Black iron nails—each inscribed with foul, spirit-suppressing runes—had been driven through their collarbones and dantians, pinning their spiritual energy completely and le
Chapter 66: The Gates of Cloud Mist City
Cloud Mist City loomed before them like a sleeping dragon of white jade and black basalt, nestled in the broad valley between two colossal, snow-crested mountain peaks.The outer walls rose over two hundred feet into the air, constructed from massive blocks of spirit-veined stone carved with interlocking defensive runes that cast a perpetual, shimmering azure barrier over the ramparts. Floating patrol platforms shaped like octagonal lotus leaves drifted along the perimeter, manned by armored guards carrying heavy astral crossbows. Above the city’s vast expanse, sleek flying vessels and wooden spirit-galleons with embroidered sails cut through the mountain mists, entering through celestial sky-channels reserved for noble clans and prominent merchant guilds.Down below, the southern gate was a bustling vortex of mortal and immortal commerce.A wide stone concourse stretched for half a mile outside the arched gates, packed with trading caravans, mounted
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