The spectral sword, fifty meters of condensed ruin, descended. The air pressure alone cracked the concrete foundations of the newly built blast doors. Inside the canyon, the rebel guards dropped their weapons, paralyzed by the sheer, crushing aura of a Golden Core master.
They were insects facing a boot.
But deep inside the mountain, in a chamber reinforced with lead and steel, Jiang Chen did not look up. He looked at a monitor displaying a charge bar.
[CAPACITOR BANK: 100%][COOLANT SYSTEM: CRITICAL][PROJECTILE: 2kg Mythril-Tungsten Sabot.][MAGNETIC RAILS: ALIGNED.]
"The G.E.F. Thunderbolt Prototype," Jiang Chen whispered. It was a crude beast—a twenty-meter long barrel wrapped in copper coils thick as a man's thigh, hooked directly into the Spirit Vein. It wasn't efficient. It was melting its own housing just by existing.
"Physics," Jiang Chen said, his hand hovering over the manual release, "doesn't care about your Dao."
He slammed the button.
VRRR-CRACK!
There was no explosion of gunpowder. There was only the sound of the atmosphere being torn apart.
Inside the barrel, the Spirit Vein dumped fifty thousand Energy Units in a fraction of a second. The magnetic fields surged, creating a Lorentz Force strong enough to launch a satellite.
The 2kg Mythril rod accelerated from zero to Mach 7 in ten meters.
It exited the mountain.
Elder Mo stood in the sky, his hand lowered, guiding the Qi sword. He saw a flash of blue light from the cave mouth.
He didn't have time to blink. He didn't have time to think.
At Mach 7, the projectile moved faster than the nerve impulses from his eyes to his brain.
BOOM.
The Mythril rod struck the tip of the giant Qi sword.
Under normal circumstances, Qi is intangible. But Mythril conducts energy. The rod acted like a lightning rod, channeling the kinetic energy directly into the matrix of the spell.
The giant sword didn't just break; it shattered. It exploded into a million shards of harmless blue light, raining down like glitter over the canyon.
"What—?!"
The shockwave of the collision hit Elder Mo a split second later.
The rod, having obliterated the sword, lost 40% of its velocity, but it was still traveling at hypersonic speed. It continued its trajectory—straight for the Elder's chest.
Mo's survival instincts screamed. The Golden Core in his dantian spun wildly, flooding his body with golden protective light.
CLANG.
The rod hit his chest.
The sound was like a church bell being struck by a meteor.
Elder Mo was launched backward. He flew through the air, crashing into the limestone cliff face behind him.
CRASH.
The cliff exploded. Rocks, snow, and dust billowed out, burying the Immortal.
Silence returned to the canyon.
The rebel guards slowly uncovered their heads. The giant sword was gone. The Immortal was gone.
"Did... did we win?" Li whispered, clutching his rifle.
Inside the bunker, the warning alarms were screaming.
[RAILGUN STATUS: CATASTROPHIC FAILURE.][Coils: Fused. Barrel: Warped.][Energy Reserve: Drained to 15%.]
Jiang Chen stared at the target monitor. The thermal scan of the cliffside debris.
"Come on," he hissed. "Show me the body."
The dust swirled. The thermal signature flickered. It didn't fade. It grew hotter.
[WARNING. HIGH-ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED.][Target Status: CRITICAL... BUT FUNCTIONAL.]
A hand burst out of the rubble.
It was covered in blood, but it gripped the rock with crushing force.
Elder Mo pulled himself out of the crater.
He was a ruin. His pristine white robes were gone, burned away by the friction heat. His chest was a mess of mangled flesh—the Mythril rod was embedded three inches deep into his sternum, stopped only by his ribs and the desperate density of his Golden Core energy.
He coughed, and a mouthful of gold-flecked blood splattered onto the snow.
"You..." Mo wheezed. He looked down at the metal rod sticking out of his chest. He gripped it with trembling hands.
Squelch.
He ripped it out. He didn't scream. He dropped the bloody metal onto the rocks.
"You hurt me."
The air in the canyon began to vibrate. The snow on the ground started to rise, defying gravity.
Elder Mo's eyes were no longer indifferent. They were entirely black. The pupil, the iris, the sclera—all swallowed by a void of rage.
A Golden Core cultivator could regenerate. The wound on his chest was already steaming, the flesh knitting itself back together, though the scar would remain.
"I was going to give you a quick death," Mo said. His voice was no longer loud. It was a whisper that every single person felt in their bones. "I was going to crush you and take the ruin."
He floated up, shaky but rising. The golden light around him turned a dark, blood-red.
"Now... I am going to peel the skin from your bodies. I am going to extract your souls and burn them in a lantern for a hundred years."
Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair. His trump card lay smoking and ruined in the next room. The Spirit Vein was recharging too slowly.
"He tanked a railgun," Jiang Chen said, his voice void of emotion. "Analysis."
[Target Analysis: Biological integrity at 60%. Energy reserves at 40%.][Psychological State: BERSERK.][Conclusion: Tactical Retreat Impossible. Base defense compromised.]
"Old Wu," Jiang Chen keyed the intercom.
"Y-Yes, Master?" Old Wu sounded like he was crying.
"Evacuate the civilians to the deep tunnels. Seal the blast doors."
"What about you?"
Jiang Chen stood up. He walked to the Bio-Lab. Inside, a new suit of armor was waiting. It wasn't the stealth suit. It was bulky, ugly, and made of the same heavy steel plates as the mining drones.
"I need to buy time," Jiang Chen said. "System. Engage the Overclock Protocol."
[Warning: Overclocking the Spirit Vein will cause permanent geological instability.]
"Do it."
Outside, Elder Mo raised both hands. The sky turned black. Clouds swirled, forming a vortex directly above the canyon. Lightning—red, demonic lightning—began to crackle.
This wasn't a sword strike. This was a Tribulation Spell. He intended to erase the mountain itself.