Chapter 27: The Ghost-Saber Technique
The Hounds moved with the precision of a single mind. They leaped simultaneously, their Neuro-Lances weaving a web of violet energy meant to cage Carson's Qi.
Carson didn't draw the Star-Shedder. Instead, he gripped the hilt of the First Blade and activated a technique he had envisioned while sitting in the Icelandic magma: The Ghost-Saber.
He didn't manifest a physical blade. Instead, he projected his "Intent" through the 31st strand. To the Hounds, it looked like Carson was swinging a hilt of empty air. But to the reality of the bridge, he was swinging a "Conceptual Edge" that ignored physical armor.
VROOOM.
The first Hound's Neuro-Lance didn't break; it simply ceased to exist as the Ghost-Saber passed through it. The Hound gasped, his cloaking field shattering. Before he could retreat, Carson's hand blurred. A palm strike, infused with a microscopic drop of Primordial Qi, hit the Hound's chest.
The assassin didn't fly backward. He imploded. His "Wraith-Silicon" suit, designed to absorb Level 14 strikes, couldn't handle the "Density" of the 31st strand. He collapsed into a marble-sized sphere of crushed metal and flesh.
"Formation Delta!" the lead Hound roared, his voice trembling for the first time. "He's using Origin-Energy! Overload the Null-Field!"
The remaining four Hounds slammed their lances into the bridge's pavement. A massive black dome of "Anti-Qi" erupted, designed to drain the energy of any cultivator within its radius. The streetlights exploded. The rain turned into black soot.
Inside the dome, Carson felt the "Ten-Unit Hunger" trying to claw at his soul again. The Null-Field was designed to remind a Sovereign of what it felt like to be mortal—to be weak.
"You think this darkness is your ally?" Carson's voice boomed, now layered with the ancient resonance of the First Blade. "I lived in this darkness for thirteen years. I was born in the cold you're trying to use against me."
Carson drove the hilt of the First Blade into the bridge.
"Sovereign Domain: The Unbroken Light."
A pillar of pure, white radiance erupted from the bridge, punching through the Null-Field like it was wet paper. The four Hounds were tossed back like autumn leaves in a gale. Their armor caught fire—not from heat, but from the sheer "Purity" of the light.