The room smelled of burnt sugar and iron.
Rylan sat cross-legged on the bed, his back rigid, sweat streaming down his spine. Lena sat facing him, her knees touching his, her hands pressed flat against his bare chest.
It was not an act of passion. It was a medical procedure, performed with souls instead of scalpels.
"Channel it," Lena whispered, her face ashen. A thin line of blood trickled from her nose. "Push it... into me."
Rylan gritted his teeth and obeyed. He visualized the roiling, unstable magma of his Foundation Establishment energy—the chaotic power that was tearing his meridians apart—and shoved it out of his body.
It flooded into Lena.
She convulsed, a sharp cry escaping her throat. Her body arched backward, veins bulging in her neck, glowing with a sickly, feverish gold light. She was a small stream trying to swallow a tsunami.
Rylan watched her with cold, clinical focus. He saw his impurities—the "slag" of his rapid breakthrough—entering her system. Her Yin energy, cool and restorative, wrapped around his chaotic Qi, fighting to cool it, to filter it.
For an hour, the room was filled with the sound of her labored breathing and the low, dangerous hum of spiritual transfer.
Then, the flow reversed.
Energy flowed back into Rylan from her palms. But it was no longer chaotic. It was cool, refined, and stable. It settled into his Dantian like calm water, patching the cracks in his foundation, soothing the burns in his meridians.
His pain vanished. His strength returned, sharper than before.
Lena, however, slumped forward. She collapsed against his chest, her skin grey, her breathing shallow and rattling.
[Ding! Stabilization Complete.] [Foundation Status: 100% Stable.] [Harem Member Status (Lena): Critical. Meridian Damage: Moderate. Spiritual Contamination: High.]
Rylan caught her. She felt feverishly hot. The impurities he had expelled were now trapped in her.
He laid her down on the bed. She didn't wake up. She just lay there, shivering violently.
Rylan stood up. He rolled his shoulder. The physical wound from the dagger was still there, knitting slowly, but the spiritual rot that had threatened to kill him was gone.
He felt powerful again. And he felt absolutely nothing else.
He walked to the door and opened it.
Lyra was standing there. She had been waiting.
She looked past him to the figure shivering on the bed. She saw the blood on Lena's upper lip. She saw the grey pallor of her skin.
Lyra's gaze snapped back to Rylan. Her eyes were filled with a mixture of horror and realization.
"You used her," Lyra said. Her voice was quiet, trembling with suppressed rage. "She isn't a cultivator, Rylan. She's a healer. You poured raw combat Qi into her."
"I survived," Rylan said flatly. He picked up his sword belt from the table.
"She might not!" Lyra stepped into his path, blocking him. "Look at her! You poisoned her to save yourself!"
"If I die, the barrier falls," Rylan said, looking down at Lyra. "If the barrier falls, the Jade Empire burns this village and everyone in it. Including her. Including you."
He leaned closer, his Imperial Aura pressing against Lyra's mental defenses.
"I am the engine of this war, Lyra. Everyone else is fuel. Even you."
Lyra stared at him. For a moment, he thought she might strike him. Her hand drifted toward her pouch of alchemical bombs.
But she didn't draw. She was a pragmatist. She knew he was right. Without him, they were sheep waiting for the butcher.
"You are a monster," Lyra whispered.
"I am an Emperor," Rylan corrected. "Tend to her. Use the best herbs. Just get her functional."
He brushed past her and walked out into the cool night air.
Rylan didn't sleep. He spent the rest of the night on the training grounds, testing his stabilized cultivation.
He drew the Azure Dragon's Breath manual from his mind. This time, when he cycled the energy, there was no pain.
He gathered Wind and Wood Qi into his hand.
"Azure Dragon Scale," he muttered.
Green energy coalesced over his skin, forming overlapping, translucent scales on his forearm. He struck a stone training dummy. The stone shattered. The scales didn't even crack.
Good.
As dawn broke, he summoned Mei.
She arrived looking exhausted, dark circles under her eyes. She held a receiver unit for her sound-orbs.
"Report," Rylan ordered.
"Activity near the mine," Mei said, holding up the device. "Heavy footsteps. Metal on stone. Not animals. Not a single mercenary."
"The Jade Empire?"
"No," Mei shook her head. "The footsteps are... rhythmic. Heavy. Like golems. Or miners."
Rylan frowned. If the Empire hadn't claimed the mine yet, someone else was moving in. Scavengers? Or a rival sect?
"I am going back," Rylan said. "And this time, I am securing it."
"Alone?" Mei asked. "With Elara out..."
"No," Rylan said. "You are coming with me."
Mei froze. "Me? Master, I am an Artificer. I build walls. I don't storm mines."
"You know formations," Rylan said. "You know how to spot traps. And you know the layout of a Spirit Ore mine better than anyone here."
"But I—"
"Get your gear," Rylan interrupted. "And bring tools to dismantle whatever arrays we find. We leave in ten minutes."
Mei hesitated, fear warring with duty. She looked at his shoulder, which was still stiff. She remembered how easily he had crushed her Senior Brother, but also how he had bled yesterday.
She bowed. "Yes, Master."
The return to the Spirit Ore Mine was cautious. Rylan moved with deliberate slowness, his Structural Vision active, scanning every tree and rock for the tell-tale shimmer of a trap.
Mei followed five paces behind him, clutching a rod made of conductive silver—a tool for disrupting spiritual flows.
When they reached the perimeter where Elara had been captured, the mercenary's body was gone. Only a scorched patch of earth remained where Rylan had ordered him burned. The head, however, was missing.
Someone had taken it.
"Careful," Rylan whispered.
They crept toward the mine entrance—a gaping maw in the side of a cliff.
The sound of pickaxes echoed from inside.
Rylan signaled Mei to stop. He crept to the edge of the entrance and peered inside.
It wasn't the Jade Empire.
Inside the cavern, bathed in the light of glow-stones, were a dozen figures. They were short, broad, and heavily muscled. Their skin was grey and rocky, as if carved from granite.
Earth-Kin. A sub-human race of natural miners and earth-cultivators. They were neutral in most human wars, but fiercely territorial about ore.
And standing over them, directing the operation, was a human woman.
She was tall, wearing crimson robes that left her arms and midriff bare, revealing skin covered in black, shifting tattoos. She held a whip made of liquid fire.
[Ding! Target Analysis.] [Target: Unknown Cultivator.] [Affiliation: Crimson Lotus Sect (Rival to Jade Empire).] [Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage).] [Threat Level: High.]
Rylan pulled back. The Crimson Lotus Sect.
They were here. They were stealing the ore right from under the Jade Empire's nose.
This changed everything.
Rylan looked at Mei. She was trembling again, staring at the woman in crimson.
"That's..." Mei mouthed. "That's a Disciple of the Crimson Lotus. They are... they are barbaric. They use blood rituals."
Rylan smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"Perfect," Rylan whispered.
"Master?"
"The Jade Empire wants me dead," Rylan murmured, watching the woman with the fire whip. "They think I am a rogue. But what if they thought I was with the Crimson Lotus?"
He looked at Mei.
"Can you modify your flash-bombs to burn red instead of white?"
Mei blinked. "Yes. It's a simple chemical shift. Why?"
"Because," Rylan said, gripping his sword. "I am going to start a war between them. And while they fight... we take the mine."
End of Chapter 34