Heaven's Only Men Cultivator

Chapter 7 - Shattering the Lunar Crystal

"Don't do it!" Ying Yue screamed, her voice a sharp whip crack that echoed through the narrow alleyway.

She lunged forward, her palm slamming against Li Feng’s chest with desperate force, physically shoving his hand down. The golden light that had begun to seep through his skin was abruptly smothered by a veil of her violet Qi. She spun around to face the scavengers, her eyes burning with a lethal lavender hue.

"Back off, you vultures!" she roared, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade. "Do you want to explain to the Black Market why you're harassing a Raven Pavilion agent in the middle of the street?"

The woman with the jagged scar faltered. She looked at Ying Yue’s high-quality silks, then at the grey, sallow-looking male standing behind her. "A Pavilion agent? Carrying a stray? That’s a bold claim, little girl."

"Believe it or not," Ying Yue hissed, her voice dropping to a dangerous, predatory whisper. "But if you don't clear this alley in three seconds, I'll carve the proof of my status into your skulls. I’m in a foul mood, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to bleed someone."

The leader spit on the ground, her eyes darting between Ying Yue’s sword and the shadows of the surrounding buildings. She signaled her crew to retreat with a sharp whistle. "Fine. But we'll be watching. No one keeps a pet that pretty in Azure Port for long without paying the tax. Remember that."

As the scavengers vanished into the gloom, Ying Yue grabbed Li Feng by the arm, her grip like iron. She dragged him toward a heavy, iron-studded door across the street.

"What was that?" he gasped, his heart still hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. "I could have taken them, Ying Yue. I felt the power. I could have ended it."

"You would have lit up the sky like a second moon!" she snapped, not looking back. "Look around you. This isn't a tomb in the mountains. There are eyes in every window and ears in every crack. If you want to survive the hour, we need to get you a mask that actually works."

"A mask? For a slave?"

"For a Bodyguard," she corrected, putting her shoulder into the heavy doors and shoving them open.

The air inside the Iron Rose Guild was a suffocating cocktail of stale ale, wet leather, and the sharp, metallic tang of sharpened steel. It was a massive, high-ceilinged hall, lit by sputtering torches and filled with the rowdy shouts of mercenary women. A few men moved through the crowd, mostly carrying heavy trays or scrubbing the blood-stained floorboards, their heads perpetually bowed in the practiced posture of the broken.

Ying Yue led him through the throng toward a long, scarred wooden counter at the back of the hall. A line of thirty people stood ahead of them, waiting to speak to the guild registrars.

"Stay quiet," Ying Yue whispered, leaning close to his ear. The scent of rime and dark lotus clung to her. "Let me do the talking. If they ask for your name, say 'Feng'. Just 'Feng'. Do not mention the valley. Do not mention the Core."

"Feng," he repeated, the name feeling small in his mouth. He looked at the women in the room. They weren't like the refined, elegant disciples of the Silk Cloud Sect. These were warriors of the dirt—covered in scars, wearing mismatched armor, their auras raw, loud, and undisciplined.

"Next!" a bored, raspy voice shouted from the front.

They shuffled forward. The heat in the room was making Li Feng’s Core restless. It was picking up the ambient Yin energy from the dozens of cultivators around him, humming in response like a tuning fork. It felt like a low fever was spreading through his veins.

"Mistress, I feel... strange," Li Feng murmured, his forehead breaking into a sweat.

"Hold it together," she hissed, her eyes darting nervously around the hall. "We’re almost there. Just one signature and a resonance test."

Ten minutes later, they reached the registrar—a woman with graying hair and a permanent scowl etched into her face. She didn't even look up from her massive parchment ledger.

"Registration or bounty?" she asked, her quill scratching loudly.

"Bodyguard registration," Ying Yue said, sliding a small pouch of silver across the wood. "For my servant here."

The registrar finally looked up, her eyes flicking over Li Feng with deep, unfiltered skepticism. "A male bodyguard? You’re joking. He looks like he’d trip over a butter knife and apologize to the floor."

"He’s sturdy enough," Ying Yue lied smoothly, her voice cool. "And he’s loyal. I need the papers for the city guards so they stop hounding us at the gates."

"Fine. It’s your silver," the registrar sighed. She reached under the counter and pulled out a spherical crystal, about the size of a human head. It was milky white and pulsed with a faint, rhythmic blue light. "Standard procedure for unranked hires. Touch the Lunar Crystal. We need to verify he has no Qi. If he’s a failed cultivator from a minor sect, the f*e doubles for the risk of meridian instability."

Li Feng stared at the orb. 'Verify he has no Qi?'

"Touch it, Feng," Ying Yue urged, her voice tight with a silent warning. "Just for a second. It's just a sensor."

'It’s a Yin sensor,' the voice of the Ancient Soul suddenly boomed in his head. 'It looks for the pull of the moon. If the sun touches it, the reaction will be... violent.'

"I don't think this is a good idea," Li Feng said, his hand trembling.

"Do it!" a woman from the line behind them shouted, shoving forward. "Some of us have actual contracts to sign!"

Li Feng looked at the registrar, then at Ying Yue’s pleading eyes. He had no choice. He reached out his right hand. The moment his fingertips brushed the cold, polished surface of the crystal, the atmosphere in the room shifted.

The milky white interior of the orb suddenly turned pitch black.

"What the—?" the registrar started, her eyes widening.

The blackness didn't stay. A single, needle-thin point of golden light appeared in the dead center of the orb. It grew at an impossible speed, devouring the shadows. The crystal began to vibrate, a low, tectonic hum that rattled the glasses on the nearby tables and made the floorboards groan.

"Feng, let go!" Ying Yue screamed, reaching for his arm.

But Li Feng couldn't. His hand was glued to the surface by a terrifying magnetic pull. The Ancient Yang Core was roaring in his chest, pouring a thousand years of repressed heat into the sensor. The blue pulse of the Lunar Crystal wasn't just being measured—it was being incinerated.

"The sensor is overloaded!" someone yelled from the crowd.

"Get back! It's going to blow!"

CRACK.

The crystal didn't just break. It detonated.

A shockwave of golden energy and jagged glass shards sprayed outward. The registrar was blown backward over her stool, and the massive wooden counter split down the middle with a sound like a lightning strike. For a split second, the entire hall was illuminated in a blinding, terrifying amber light that made every woman in the room shield her eyes.

The silence that followed was deafening. Dust and white smoke swirled in the torchlight.

Li Feng stood in the center of the wreckage, his hand still outstretched. His slave tunic was torn at the shoulder, and his skin was glowing with a fierce, unmistakable radiance. The grey illusion Ying Yue had placed on him had shattered like glass.

"My crystal..." the registrar groaned, pulling herself up from the floor, her face covered in dust. She looked at the shards, then at Li Feng. Her face went deathly pale. "That was a Grade-A Lunar sensor. It’s designed to handle a Saint-level Yin pulse. How did a man...?"

"He’s a freak!" a mercenary shouted, drawing a heavy falchion.

"Look at his skin! That’s not Qi! That’s forbidden light!"

The hall erupted into chaos. Dozens of women reached for their weapons, the sound of steel unsheathing filling the air. Ying Yue stepped in front of Li Feng, her violet blade singing as it left its scabbard, her aura flaring to protect him.

"Don't move!" she warned the crowd. "It was an accident! The crystal was faulty, we all saw it flicker!"

"Faulty?" a new voice boomed, cutting through the noise like a heavy hammer.

The crowd parted instantly. A woman stepped forward, her presence so overwhelming that the ambient temperature of the room seemed to drop ten degrees. She was tall, with short-cropped black hair and a heavy, jagged scar running from her temple to her chin. She wore a crimson officer’s coat over polished silver armor, and a massive, two-handed broadsword was slung across her back.

"Captain Zhao," the registrar whispered, bowing her head so low it hit the broken counter.

Zhao ignored her. She walked straight toward Li Feng, her heavy boots clicking rhythmically on the stone. She stopped three paces away, her eyes—sharp and amber like a hawk's—scanning every inch of his body.

"An accident?" Zhao asked, her voice a low, dangerous rumble. She reached down and picked up a piece of the shattered crystal. It was still glowing, pulsing with a heat that made her glove smoke. "I’ve seen sensors fail. I’ve seen them crack from age. I’ve never seen one turn into molten slag because a male slave touched it."

"Captain, please," Ying Yue said, her voice trembling despite her stance. "We’re just travelers. My bodyguard has a rare blood condition. It reacts with certain ores. We didn't mean any harm."

Zhao laughed, a dry, mirthless sound that sent shivers down Li Feng's spine. She stepped into his personal space, so close he could smell the scent of cigar smoke and expensive wine on her breath. "A blood condition? That’s the best lie the Raven Pavilion taught you?"

She reached out a gloved hand and gripped Li Feng’s chin, forcing him to look her in the eye. Li Feng felt the Ancient Yang Core surge in response to her touch. It didn't fear this woman; it was intrigued by her power.

"Your eyes," Zhao whispered, her gaze narrowing until it felt like she was looking into his soul. "They aren't the eyes of a slave. They're the eyes of someone who’s been hiding a sun in his pocket for a very long time."

"I'm just a man," Li Feng said, his voice surprisingly steady, even to his own ears.

"A man who just cost me five thousand silver pieces in equipment," Zhao countered. She let go of his chin and turned to the crowd, her hand resting on the hilt of her massive sword. "Everyone back to your tables! The show is over! If I see one more blade out of its sheath, I’ll personally break your arms!"

The mercenaries grumbled, but they obeyed. The Captain’s authority was absolute in Azure Port. Once the room had settled into a tense, whispering murmur, Zhao turned back to Li Feng and Ying Yue.

"You want a Bodyguard ID?" Zhao asked, her eyes unreadable.

"Yes," Ying Yue said quickly. "We'll pay for the crystal. Triple its value."

"I don't give licenses to mysteries," Zhao said. She pointed toward a large, sunken pit in the center of the hall, surrounded by thick iron bars. The arena. "We have a tradition here at the Iron Rose. If you’re a man claiming to be a warrior, you prove it. Not to a crystal, but to me."

"Captain, he’s not a cultivator! He’s not trained for a duel!" Ying Yue protested, stepping between them.

Zhao ignored her. She locked eyes with Li Feng, a predatory, expectant grin spreading across her scarred face. "If you survive three rounds with me in that pit, I’ll give you the ID and forget the crystal ever existed. If you lose... I’ll turn you over to the Saintesses and let them figure out what kind of monster you really are."

Li Feng looked at the dark, blood-stained sand of the arena, then at the golden energy still thrumming beneath his skin. He felt the fear, but beneath it, there was a new, intoxicating sensation. A hunger to stop hiding. A hunger to fight.

"Three rounds," Li Feng said, stepping past Ying Yue.

"Feng, no!" she hissed, grabbing his sleeve.

Li Feng didn't look back. He walked toward the iron gate of the pit.

"I accept," he said, his voice echoing clearly through the silent hall.

Captain Zhao’s grin widened. She unbuckled her crimson coat and tossed it to the terrified registrar. "Good. I’ve been looking for something worth hitting all day. Let's see if you're a sun, boy, or just a very bright firefly."

***