Chapter 29: A Line That Could Never Be Crossed
Mistforge was no longer merely under attack.
It was breaking apart.
The beast tide outside the walls had reached its fiercest point.
Hundreds of Foundation Establishment beasts battered against the city defenses, forcing the Frost Wolf Cavalry into desperate fighting.
From atop the watchtower, Yun Che could see flashes of blue and silver Ki exploding across the battlefield.
Captain Han was everywhere.
One moment he was cutting down a monstrous Ice Bear.
The next he was rescuing wounded soldiers before disappearing again into the chaos.
The battle had reached the point where every warrior mattered.
Yun Che checked the leather pouch at his waist.
Only four bullets remained.
He frowned.
"...Not enough."
His rifle had become one of the city's strongest long-range weapons.
Without ammunition...
It was little more than an expensive club.
Then he remembered.
Lin Xia.
She had helped him inscribe every one of his rune bullets.
If anyone still possessed spare components or unfinished ammunition...
It would be her.
Without wasting another second, Yun Che climbed down from the tower.
"I'll be back!"
One of the guards nodded.
"Be careful!"
The rooftops became his road.
With Body Enhancement strengthening his legs, Yun Che leapt from house to house.
The city below no longer resembled the peaceful mountain town he loved.
Smoke rose between buildings.
Citizens hurried toward shelters.
City guards sprinted through the streets.
Then...
Something caught his eye.
Several unfamiliar figures moved quietly through narrow alleys.
They wore ordinary clothing.
But they moved with far too much purpose.
Too coordinated.
Too calm.
Outsiders.
Yun Che slowed for a brief moment.
His instincts told him something was wrong.
Yet...
He had no proof.
The city was already full of merchants stranded by the closed gates.
He couldn't simply attack strangers.
Not yet.
He clenched his jaw.
"...Later."
Then continued toward Lin Xia's home.
He landed atop a neighboring roof.
And froze.
The tailor shop had become a battlefield.
The front doors had been smashed apart.
Several city guards lay wounded across the floor.
Lin Xia's father desperately fought two men dressed in dark leather armor.
Both radiated the aura of Peak Mortal Realm cultivators.
The guards opposing them were only Eighth Stage.
Completely outmatched.
Yun Che's stomach sank.
"...Bandits."
Now he understood.
The beast tide had never been the only attack.
While every capable warrior defended the walls...
The real enemy had slipped inside the city.
Throughout Mistforge...
Similar scenes unfolded.
Small groups of bandits moved from district to district.
Some planted explosive formations beneath bridges.
Others marked buildings with strange symbols.
Others...
Simply stole.
Gold.
Artifacts.
Food.
Anything valuable.
And when they found people worth taking...
They took them too.
Women.
Children.
Craftsmen.
Rune masters.
Anyone who could be sold.
Anyone useful.
Yun Che's heartbeat quickened.
Then...
He saw her.
Lin Xia struggled violently in the grip of one of the bandits.
The man laughed while dragging her backward.
She fought fiercely.
Far fiercer than most would have expected.
A dagger suddenly appeared in her hand.
Runes flashed.
Lightning burst from its blade.
She stabbed toward his ribs.
The electricity exploded across his body.
The bandit cried out in surprise.
Smoke rose from his clothes.
For one hopeful second...
Yun Che thought she had escaped.
Instead...
The man's expression twisted into pure hatred.
His open hand struck her face.
SMACK!
Lin Xia crashed onto the floor.
Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"You little—"
The bandit spat onto the ground.
"I was going to treat you nicely."
His smile became something monstrous.
"But now..."
He grabbed her hair, forcing her to look toward her parents.
"I'll have you right here."
"So they can watch."
"Then..."
"I'll kill them."
"They'll die remembering every scream."
The tailor shop fell silent.
Lin Xia struggled desperately.
Her father roared.
The guards tried to reach her.
The other bandit casually blocked every attempt.
They were playing.
Enjoying it.
High above...
Yun Che stood perfectly still.
The rifle rested in his hands.
His breathing became uneven.
His palms were soaked with sweat.
These weren't monsters.
They were people.
Human beings.
If he pulled the trigger...
He would kill them.
Really kill them.
Not imagine it.
Not practice it.
Not hunt a beast.
A human.
His finger trembled against the trigger.
Then...
He looked at Lin Xia.
He saw the terror in her eyes.
He saw her father bleeding.
Her mother crying.
The guards desperately trying to stand again.
He heard the bandit's laughter.
Something inside him quietly settled.
The hesitation disappeared.
"They're not people..."
he whispered.
"They're beasts."
"No."
"Worse."
"They chose to be cruel."
His breathing slowed.
His heartbeat steadied.
The world became silent.
The rifle no longer felt heavy.
His vision narrowed until only two targets remained.
Within that perfect stillness...
His thoughts became astonishingly clear.
If I possess the strength to stop evil...
...then I cannot turn away.
Not just for Lin Xia.
For anyone who deserves protection.
And those who choose cruelty...
Those who cannot be forgiven...
I will destroy them.
At that instant...
The final barrier within his body shattered.
His Ki erupted like a rising tide.
Foundation Establishment.
For the first time...
His Ki flowed freely beyond his body.
Into the rifle.
Into the bullet.
The runes ignited brilliantly.
The Mountain Piercer screamed.
BOOM!
The recoil alone shattered the stock.
Cracks raced across the barrel.
A second shot followed before the first had fully echoed.
BOOM!
The rifle broke apart in Yun Che's hands.
The bullets became streaks of blue light.
Far faster than anything he had ever fired.
Beyond the realm of sound.
Neither bandit reacted.
Neither even understood what had happened.
The first disappeared.
Reduced instantly to crimson mist.
The second suffered the same fate a heartbeat later.
Nothing remained except fragments of clothing drifting slowly through the air.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Yun Che stared for only a fraction of a second.
Then dropped the ruined rifle.
He sprinted forward.
Leaping from the rooftop.
Landing beside Lin Xia.
Without thinking...
He pulled her into a tight embrace.
She trembled violently.
"I thought..."
His voice caught.
"...I thought I was too late."
Lin Xia buried her face against his shoulder.
Neither of them noticed the stunned expressions of her parents.
Nor the guards.
Yun Che kept his eyes tightly shut.
He refused to look toward the place where the bandits had stood.
He knew what he had done.
He knew those two men no longer existed.
He did not regret saving Lin Xia.
But neither could he celebrate taking a human life.
The smell of blood reached him.
His stomach churned.
He wasn't a natural killer.
He never wanted to become one.
And yet...
As the sounds of battle echoed throughout Mistforge...
Yun Che understood that the road he had chosen would demand such decisions again.
He only prayed...
That he would never stop feeling sick afterward.
----------------------
Lin Xia clung to Yun Che as though letting go would mean falling into darkness.
Her whole body shook.
The brave girl who had argued with customers, studied runes late into the night, and dreamed of building the greatest tailor's brand in the Land of Clouds...
Had almost lost everything.
Yun Che gently rested a hand upon her back.
"It's over."
"You're safe."
His own voice sounded steadier than he felt.
Inside...
His heart still pounded violently.
Slowly...
Lin Xia's breathing became calmer.
Only then did Yun Che finally look toward the place where the two bandits had stood.
Nothing remained.
No bodies.
No broken armor.
Only crimson mist drifting through the ruined shop.
His stomach tightened.
"...So that's what happens."
He had expected blood.
Broken bones.
Death.
Not...
Erasure.
The breakthrough into Foundation Establishment had transformed more than his own Ki.
The Mountain Piercer had also become something entirely different.
The bullet's speed...
Its penetrating force...
Had become so overwhelming that a Peak Mortal Realm cultivator who wasn't defending himself had simply ceased to exist.
It was horrifying.
Powerful...
And horrifying.
Yun Che silently promised himself that such a weapon would only ever be used when there was no other choice.
Lin Xia finally released him.
Her eyes were still red.
"I..."
She swallowed hard.
"...I still have your bullets."
Yun Che immediately looked up.
"How many?"
She hurried inside the workshop.
Moments later she returned carrying a small wooden case.
"I finished these yesterday."
"There are twenty."
"They're the last ones."
Yun Che accepted the box carefully.
"Thank you."
Lin Xia managed a weak smile.
"...Just be careful."
"I'll try."
He immediately turned to leave.
His dragon armor was still being repaired.
His sword had nearly shattered after the battle with the Frost Komodo Dragon.
He needed replacements.
Immediately.
Running across the rooftops once again, he stopped before a familiar blacksmith's equipment store.
The elderly owner looked up in surprise.
"Yun Che?"
Then...
His eyes widened.
"You broke through."
Yun Che simply nodded.
"I need equipment."
"My weapons can't handle my Ki anymore."
The old blacksmith didn't hesitate.
"Take them."
He disappeared into the back of the shop.
Returning moments later with two items.
A heavy dark-brown armor.
And a long crimson sword.
"The armor carries Earth Runes."
"Excellent defense."
"It will withstand your new strength."
He handed over the sword.
"Flame Rune."
"When supplied with Ki..."
"The blade becomes hot enough to cut through steel and burn ordinary metal."
Yun Che drew it halfway.
Orange light danced along its edge.
Perfect.
"I'll return them."
"You'd better."
The old man snorted.
"They're expensive."
Despite the situation...
Both men smiled.
The city had descended further into chaos.
Bandits had abandoned subtlety.
They openly attacked isolated civilians and wounded guards.
Yun Che no longer hesitated.
Not after Lin Xia.
One bandit rounded a corner.
Before he even noticed Yun Che—
A dagger flashed.
Wrapped in Foundation Establishment Ki.
The blade pierced cleanly through his throat.
The man collapsed without understanding what had happened.
Another appeared moments later.
A second dagger.
Another body.
No speeches.
No hesitation.
Yun Che kept moving.
He finally reached home.
The spare Mountain Piercer remained exactly where he had hidden it.
He quickly slung it across his back.
Loaded fresh ammunition.
Twenty bullets.
Twenty chances.
Then...
Everything changed.
His body froze.
An instinct older than thought screamed inside him.
The sunlight dimmed.
Not because clouds covered the sky.
Because something...
Was swallowing the light.
Yun Che slowly looked toward the center of Mistforge.
His pupils contracted.
Runes.
Thousands of them.
Hidden beneath the streets.
Beneath buildings.
Beneath the very foundations of the city.
They awakened together.
Dark crimson lines spread across the ground like veins.
Connecting every district.
Every wall.
Every place where blood had been spilled.
The entire city...
Had become a formation.
"No..."
Yun Che whispered.
"It was here all along..."
The bandits had never intended simple robbery.
Nor ordinary destruction.
The beast tide...
Had only been the distraction.
The true purpose...
Was blood.
Enough blood...
To open a gate.
The crimson formation pulsed.
Every drop of blood shed during the battle answered its call.
Beast blood.
Human blood.
Everything.
The crimson light gathered toward the center of the city.
Then...
The earth split open.
Darkness poured upward.
Not shadow.
Not smoke.
Something thicker.
Heavier.
It carried despair itself.
A hole opened where no hole should exist.
The Abyss.
For one terrible moment...
Mistforge touched another world.
Fortunately...
The ritual remained incomplete.
Very few humans had died.
Most of the blood belonged to beasts.
The gate lacked sufficient sacrifice.
Instead of a true horror...
Only something lesser emerged.
Lesser...
By Abyssal standards.
The creature slowly floated into the air.
It resembled a gigantic black sphere nearly two meters across.
Its surface constantly shifted like liquid tar.
Countless crimson cracks pulsed beneath its skin.
Then...
The sphere unfolded.
A gigantic mouth split its body from top to bottom.
Rows of jagged teeth stretched endlessly into darkness.
Around its body writhed dozens of black tentacles.
Each tentacle had multiple eyes on it.
One.
Five.
Twenty.
Fifty.
More.
They blinked independently.
Looking in every direction at once.
Watching.
Searching.
Judging.
Yun Che's face turned pale.
Recognition struck immediately.
"...A Hundred-Eyed Hollow."
He had read about them.
One of the lower-ranking Abyss creatures.
"Lower-ranking..."
he repeated bitterly.
The pressure pouring from it exceeded anything he had ever felt from a Peak Mortal Realm beast.
Miasma rolled from its body like poisonous fog.
The nearby buildings blackened merely from existing too close.
The creature slowly opened every eye.
Silence filled the city.
Then...
Every eye glowed crimson.
"Oh no..."
Yun Che whispered.
The Hundred-Eyed Hollow fired.
Dozens of black beams erupted simultaneously.
They screamed across the city in every direction.
Where they struck...
Stone dissolved.
Wood rotted instantly.
The very air seemed to cry out beneath the curse.
Mistforge's true battle...
Had finally begun.