The Shattered Vortex

Chapter 21 The Engine of Flesh

The iron hatches of the Iron Sovereign slammed open as fifty elite naval legionnaires flooded onto the splintered wood of the main deck. Their inscribed cutlasses gleamed with a cold, blue water-Qi, and their repeating fire-spears hummed with a volatile, orange spark [1.1].

"Form a kill ring!" the ship’s first mate bellowed, raising a heavy steel crossbow. "Drive them back into the sea!"

Lin Xue didn't wait to be surrounded. Her wind-affinity spiritual root flared to life [1.1], her fierce emerald hair whipping wildly as she thrust her palms forward [1.1]. A localized hurricane erupted from her sleeves—the Jade Lotus Cyclone—violently throwing the first row of charging legionnaires off their feet and sending them crashing over the iron railings into the black, churning waters below [1.1].

"The aft hatch is clear, Lu Chen!" she shouted, her voice cutting through the roar of the sea wind [1.1]. "Go! I’ll hold the deck!"

Lu Chen didn't look back [1.1]. He blurred into a red streak of movement [1.1], his midnight-black hide boots skittering across the slick timber as he lunged straight through the open metal hatchways leading into the bowels of the warship [1.1].

As he descended the narrow, vertical iron ladders, the air changed instantly. The crisp, salty ocean breeze vanished, replaced by a suffocating, blistering heat that smelled of molten iron, pressurized oil, and a strange, coppery stench that smelled distinctively of human blood. The walls of the lower decks vibrated violently, echoing with a massive, rhythmic pounding that sounded like the frantic heartbeat of a colossus.

When Lu Chen's bare feet finally hit the bottom floor, he stepped into a cavernous chamber of nightmarish scale: the Primary Engine Room.

The room was dominated by a colossal, iron-reinforced furnace towering nearly forty feet high. But this wasn't a standard spirit-stone engine. Wrapped around the iron cylinder were hundreds of pulsating, gray organic veins that pumped a glowing, blue spiritual liquid through a network of rusted copper pipes. Inside the glass observation ports of the engine, the screaming, spectral faces of thousands of enslaved southern cultivators could be seen, their lifeforce and spiritual roots actively being liquefied to power the battleship's massive propulsion gears.

Standing directly in front of this horrific engine was Chief Engineer Boros. He was a grotesque, towering man whose entire right arm and chest had been replaced by complex, clicking steam-powered iron prosthetics. His left eye was a whirring brass lens, and in his flesh hand, he held a massive, three-hundred-pound wrench that glowed with a volatile, white-hot heat-Qi.

"A rat from the southern dirt thinks he can chew on my engine," Boros rumbled, his voice amplified by the grinding gears of the room. He spat a glob of black grease onto the floor. "I am a Third Layer True Foundation master, boy. I built the Iron Sovereign. If you think you can touch this core, I will turn your bones into the next fuel harvest."

Boros lunged. Despite his massive size, his steam-powered leg prosthetics hissed with a sudden, violent release of pressure, launching him forward like a fired cannonball. He swung the massive, white-hot wrench in a devastating vertical arc meant to split Lu Chen from skull to groin [1.1].

Lu Chen didn't try to dodge [1.1]. He took a heavy step forward into the blistering heat [1.1].

Vrrr—!

Deep within his belly, the Golden-Crimson Cosmic Vortex erupted into a manic, blinding velocity [1.1]. The solid, crystalline emerald needle at the absolute center of his foundation spun so fast it generated a localized gravitational vacuum around his upper torso [1.1]. He raised his left hand bare-faced, his index finger extending like an iron rod [1.1].

The solid blade of emerald-crimson Qi extending from his knuckles met the three-hundred-pound white-hot wrench dead-on [1.1].

BANG!

The impact generated a blinding shockwave of sparks and pressurized steam that shattered the glass observation ports along the side walls. The master-crafted steel wrench didn't just stop; under the piercing solid force of Lu Chen’s needle Qi, the heavy iron tool violently cracked right down the middle, splitting into two useless, melting chunks [1.1].

Boros’s brass eye whirled frantically in absolute horror as the residual force traveled up his prosthetic arm, causing the brass gears and iron pneumatic cylinders to violently buckle and explode in a shower of loose springs.

"What... what kind of monster are you?!" Boros shrieked, backing away toward the pulsing engine wall.

"I am the harvest you didn't expect," Lu Chen said, his flat, layered voice easily absorbing the deafening roar of the machine [1.1].

He closed the distance before the engineer could reset his steam valves. Lu Chen’s left hand shot forward like a viper, clamping directly onto Boros's fleshy neck, slamming his massive frame hard against the iron wall of the burning engine [1.1].

The Devouring Maw opened to its absolute, devastating limits [1.1].

Screeech!

A violent, crushing vacuum hissed through Lu Chen’s palms [1.1]. Chief Engineer Boros gasped as a massive torrent of his Third Layer True Foundation energy was forcefully yanked out of his body. But the vortex didn't stop there. The immense gravitational pull of Lu Chen’s internal galaxy reached right through Boros’s body, locking onto the massive, glowing blue reservoir of the ship's engine core behind the wall.

The thousands of screaming, trapped souls inside the furnace provided a catastrophic, volatile influx of pure, raw spiritual energy. The golden-crimson cyclone inside Lu Chen's belly roared with a predatory delight, seizing the massive wave of stolen lifeforce and aggressively grinding it down, crushing the impurities, and forcing it to fuse with his emerald needle.

"No! Stop! The engine will destabilize!" Boros wailed, his skin rapidly shriveling into a brittle, paper-like texture as his flesh and soul were drained simultaneously.

Lu Chen ignored the warnings. He welcomed the blinding, agonizing heat of the harvest, his wide, reinforced meridians pulsing with a brilliant golden-crimson light that visibly shone through his skin. With a final, crushing surge of willpower, he completely drained both the engineer and the primary engine core.

Boros’s hollowed-out husk collapsed into a pile of gray dust at his feet. Behind him, the massive organic veins wrapped around the furnace instantly shriveled and died, the gray tissue turning brittle and flaking away. The screaming faces inside the observation ports faded into a peaceful, quiet white mist as their souls were finally freed from the imperial machine.

The massive, rhythmic pounding of the warship died down into a complete, absolute silence. The Iron Sovereign gave a heavy, listless lurch in the water as its primary propulsion lines went completely dark, its power now entirely residing inside the miniature galaxy spinning in Lu Chen's chest.

He stood tall in the cooling engine room, his body covered in a faint, metallic sheen, his presence so cold and dense that the remaining steam in the air instantly condensed into water droplets and fell like rain around him. He had not just stabilized his True Foundation; the sheer volume of the engine's harvest had pushed his core to the very absolute peak of the Third Layer of the True Foundation Realm.

He turned his eyes toward the iron ladder, hearing the muffled sound of explosions still echoing from the main deck.

"The engine is mine, Lin Xue," Lu Chen whispered, a dark, predatory smile breaking through the coal dust on his face [1.1]. "Let's go show the rest of their fleet how a real star moves."