Void Veins: The Forbidden Ascension

Chapter 58: Blood Upon Jasmine Tea

The Thousand Faces Tea House erupted into a slaughter ground in seconds. The young man in crimson silk signalled, and ten assassins burst through the doorway—their short swords glowing with sickly green poisoned qi, casting unnatural light over the wooden walls.

“Protect Old Rat!” Ratna shouted, firing two crackling energy bolts straight at the lead attackers. They exploded mid-air, blossoming into a thick, disorienting smoke screen that swallowed half the room.

Goran needed no further command. He spun, hammer crashing into the floorboards, sending a concussive wave that lifted three men off their feet and hurled them backward. Wood splintered, dust billowed, and the tea house shuddered. Beside him, Krog met the charge with raw, unbridled fury—seized two assassins in his path, and crushed bone and sinew with bare-handed strikes. Blood sprayed across the tables, staining porcelain cups and mingling with the jasmine tea, turning the fragrant amber liquid dark and thick.

Elara moved through the chaos like a dancer of death. Her dagger found the gaps in leather and light armour—slicing tendons, severing arteries, precise and cold. She did not kill every foe; she crippled them, fast and ruthlessly, so they could not rise to give chase.

The bandaged leader, revealed to be a Foundation Establishment cultivator, came straight for Ratna. His iron fan whirled, launching razor-sharp wind blades capable of shearing through steel. Ratna ducked and weaved, one grazing cut slicing through her sleeve to score her forearm—shallow, but stinging.

“You think you can vanish from the Red Clan?” he jeered, pressing forward with a flurry of kicks and fan strikes.

Ratna said nothing. She focused—calming her breath, watching the rhythm of his movement. She remembered Lin Ye’s voice, clear as if spoken beside her: “Meet rage with stillness. Meet speed with certainty.”

As he raised the fan for the killing stroke, Ratna did not retreat. She stepped inward, closing the gap, pressed the muzzle of her pistol firm beneath his chin, and held it steady.

“Game over,” she whispered.

He froze, eyes wide, terror flooding his face. The fan clattered to the floor.

“Leave us,” Ratna commanded, never wavering. “And tell your master—next time, I will not aim at the sky.”

Trembling, he gestured to his groaning, bleeding men to retreat. They dragged their wounded out the door, leaving a dark, glistening trail across the wood.

Old Rat, who had sat sipping his tea calmly through the entire fight, finally spoke. “Impressive. But you have just declared open war on one of Fengshui’s largest criminal clans. They will not let this lie.”

“We have no time to worry about that,” Ratna said, wiping blood from her arm. “Where do we go?”

Old Rat stood, leaning on his carved wooden cane. “There is sanctuary. For now. The Ancient Temple in the Northern District. Warded by formations older than the city itself—ones even the Red Clan dare not disturb. There we can lay out the full rite of the Soul-Reversal Art. But understand… one of you must be willing to pay the price. And that choice must be made before we face Valerius.”

They slipped out through back alleys, avoiding patrols, moving in shadows. Above, the sky turned bruised and heavy—storm clouds gathering low. Deep within his prison of flesh, Lin Ye felt Ratna’s quiet despair. He knew what was being asked. And he knew his friends would give it without hesitation.

“Don’t,” Lin Ye cried out in the silence of his mind. “Don’t do this for me. I am not worth the cost of your humanity.”

But Ratna could not hear him. She knew only one truth: she would save him. No matter the price. Even if that price was her own soul.