The Shattered Vortex

Chapter 34 The Toll of the White Pillar

‎The pillar of solid white light that pierced the grand plaza didn't just cast a glare; it burned with a pure, agonizing heat that smelled of ozone and sun-dried bones. The liquefied marble of the imperial square instantly vaporized under its weight, turning into a thick, choking cloud of white limestone dust.

‎Inside the inner throne room, the black jade pillars groaned as the mountain foundations settled. Lu Chen stepped through the ruined golden doorways, his boots crunching over the metallic shrapnel. Behind him, Lin Xue held her wind-inscribed daggers in a reverse grip, her emerald hair flat against her skull as the raw, suffocating pressure from the plaza pushed against her lungs.

‎"That isn't a Core Formation base," she whispered, her green eyes wide with a cold, defensive panic. "The gravity... it’s completely wrong. It feels like the sky is actively trying to push us into the dirt."

‎"It is a Soul Severing master," Elder Song rasped from the shadows of the doorway, his ancient hands clutching his ribs. "The central kingdoms have sent an executioner from the Sovereign Holy Land of the Primordial Eclipse. They don't fight with the elements, child. They slice through the very thread of your mortal identity."

‎Lu Chen didn't slow his pace. He walked down the blood-slicked obsidian steps, his bare, marble-hard chest catching the harsh white glare of the pillar. Deep within his belly, the Golden-Crimson Cosmic Core was spinning with a slow, heavy density, its multi-sided crystalline prism flashing with a predatory amber light. He had firmly locked his anchor at the absolute Peak of the Core Formation Realm, but as the foreign pressure slammed into his shoulders, his widened, reinforced meridians gave a tight, warning hum.

‎The white pillar of light slowly dissolved, leaving behind a deep, smoking crater in the center of the square.

‎Standing at the base of the crater was a lone man. He wore simple, ash-gray robes that seemed to actively distort the air around his silhouette, and his face was hidden behind a smooth, featureless mask of polished white bone. In his right hand, he carried a long, thin rod of black iron—the Soul-Sinking Cane. He didn't radiate an aura; instead, his presence felt like an absolute absence of life, a void that was entirely distinct from Lu Chen's cosmic gravity.

‎This was the High Land Messenger, Executioner Wu, a First Layer master of the Soul Severing Realm.

‎"The outer rim is nothing but the porch of the continent," Wu spoke. His voice didn't carry across the plaza; it sounded directly within Lu Chen’s skull, cold, hollow, and entirely devoid of human emotion. "You have slaughtered the cattle, Lu Chen. You have broken the fence. But a dog that bites its master must have its teeth pulled."

‎Executioner Wu didn't adopt a martial stance. He simply raised the black iron rod and tapped it once against the shattered stone floor.

‎Thrum.

‎An invisible, radial ripple of pure, colorless energy expanded from the cane. Space itself didn't warp or bend; instead, the very concept of spiritual energy within a hundred yards of the messenger instantly died. The ambient Qi of the plaza collapsed into an absolute dead state. Lin Xue and Elder Song instantly fell to their knees, vomiting dark blood as their internal meridians violently locked up, their connection to the heavens completely severed by a localized law.

‎The invisible ripple slammed into Lu Chen’s chest.

‎CRACK.

‎Inside his soul space, the Golden-Crimson Cosmic Core gave a violent, agonizing lurch. The soul-severing law of the high kingdoms was like a cold, iron blade trying to slice through the connection between his mind and his vortex. A thick stream of crimson blood spilled past Lu Chen's lips, his knees popping under the sudden, immense internal friction.

‎"Your vortex is wide, rogue," Executioner Wu said, taking a slow, unhurried step up the obsidian stairs. "But it is still bound by the laws of the lower realms. To a Soul Severing master, your core is just a fruit waiting to be plucked from the branch."

‎"Then try to reach your hand into the fire, Wu," Lu Chen growled, his jaw locking so tight his teeth creaked.

‎He refused to take a step back. Instead of trying to shield his core from the severing law, he executed the ultimate reverse command of the Shattered Mirror Technique. He intentionally forced the Golden-Crimson Cosmic Core inside his belly to shatter its own outer prism once more.

‎BOOM!

‎The localized detonation of his own peak-tier core inside his body was catastrophic. Fresh blood sprayed from his eyes, ears, and fingernails, but the self-inflicted destruction triggered the exact survival vacuum that defied the natural order. The ten thousand microscopic needles of his shattered core didn't dissolve; they spun into an absolute, ravenous black hole directly within his chest.

‎The Devouring Maw opened to its absolute, historical peak.

‎The invisible, soul-severing field projected by the messenger's cane was suddenly seized by the vacuum. The colorless energy didn't cut Lu Chen’s consciousness; it was forcefully bent, stretched, and violently dragged straight down into his open palms. The absolute gravity of his cosmic vortex began to aggressively grind the messenger's high-tier law, stripping its soul signatures and forcing it to fuse with the Primordial Soul-Shard tucked inside his animal-skin tunic.

‎"What?! You... you are devouring a Soul Severing law?!" Executioner Wu’s hollow voice finally cracked into a sharp, human panic.

‎He frantically raised his black iron rod to strike, but the absolute gravity of Lu Chen’s vacuum had already locked onto his frame. The space between them collapsed into a state of absolute suction. Wu's ash-gray robes were violently ripped to shreds, his polished bone mask fracturing down the center as his own refined, golden soul-energy was forcefully yanked out of his flesh, flowing like a river of liquid gold straight into the beggar's maw.

‎"You call me a dog, Wu," Lu Chen whispered, his voice carrying the terrifying, layered resonance of a dying star crushing reality. He closed the ten-yard gap in a single, blind heartbeat, his bare, marble-hard hand clamping directly onto the messenger's throat. "But you forgot that a starved dog will eat the master."

‎With a final, catastrophic surge of his cosmic core, Lu Chen completely drained the executioner’s soul-base. He balled his right hand into a fist, his knuckles crackling with a dense, visible sphere of pure emerald-crimson force, and drove it straight through the messenger's face.

‎CRUNCH.

‎The punch shattered the bone mask and the skull beneath it into fine gray dust, completely liquidating the messenger's consciousness and scattering his soul fragments into the wind. Executioner Wu’s hollowed-out husk collapsed onto the obsidian steps, completely empty of life.

‎Lu Chen stood at the precipice of the grand palace, his chest heaving, his body covered in a mixture of his own blood and golden soul-vapor. Inside his belly, the shattered needles of his core reassembled into a terrifying new manifestation—a solid, multi-layered Cosmic Eye that glowed with a deep, suffocating golden-crimson light.

‎He had not just survived the executioner; the sheer volume of a Soul Severing master’s energy, combined with the primordial shard, had forced his core to compress past its mortal limits. He had stepped directly into the First Layer of the Soul Severing Realm. His presence was no longer just an aura; it was an absolute, localized law that dictated life and death within his perimeter.

‎He turned his dead eyes toward the Iron Sovereign, where Lin Xue was staring at him with an absolute, terrified reverence.

‎"The messenger is dead, Lin Xue," Lu Chen said, his voice smooth and carrying an icy, razor-sharp resonance that caused the remaining stones of the palace to instantly fracture. "The fence is completely gone. Set the coordinates for the Slate Border Lands. The real hunt begins now."

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