The soundproofing in the basement was terrifyingly effective. As the heavy alloy blast-door hissed shut behind him, the chaotic roar of the explosions above vanished instantly. It was replaced by the low-frequency hum of industrial ventilation fans, their rhythmic thrum echoing through the sterile, cavernous corridor.
The air here was thick, cold, and carried a faint, coppery tang. Rows of reinforced steel shelves lined the walls, each stacked with crates of "Blood-Ignition Serums" bearing the official wax seal of the Inquisition.
Gu Hanzhou did not let his logic be swayed by the sheer fortune sitting in those crates. Gripping the hilt of [Black Order], he maintained a steady, purposeful pace toward the end of the corridor. There, his heightened senses detected a ripple of Order Energy—extraordinarily faint, yet impossibly pure.
It wasn't the violent, artificial roar of a manufactured serum. It felt more like a solitary candle flame flickering in the heart of a blizzard, stubborn and ancient.
As he rounded the final row of shelves, Gu Hanzhou's pupils contracted into sharp needles.
At the center of a reinforced, crystalline containment cell, there were no piles of gold or rare crystals. Instead, there was only a cold alloy bed, and on it sat a woman.
She wore a baggy, coarse grey prisoner's tunic that nearly swallowed her emaciated frame. Her wrists and ankles were bound by specialized "Mana-Binding Shackles." These dark-red chains pulsed with a sinister light, connected directly to the building's subterranean power core, systematically siphoning the Order Blood from her veins.
Most striking of all was her hair—it was as white as fresh snow, cascading down to hide most of her face, leaving only a pair of pale-purple eyes visible. They were as clear as amethyst, yet devoid of any spark of life.
"Who are you?" Gu Hanzhou's blade pointed toward the crystal wall, his voice as cold as the steel he held.
The woman slowly lifted her head. Her gaze lingered on Gu Hanzhou's eyes behind his mask for a long, silent moment. Her cracked, dry lips parted, and her voice emerged as a fragile whisper, like a low murmur from a forgotten age.
"You… you are not one of Lin Xiu's dogs."
Gu Hanzhou did not lower his sword. "That doesn't matter. What matters is why Lin Xiu would lock a person in a vault meant for his private treasures."
He could feel it now. The quality of the Order Blood within this woman was incredibly high. Even in her withered, nearly drained state, she radiated a natural pressure that made the steel of [Black Order] hum with an uneasy resonance.
"Because I am the 'stairway' he uses to climb toward power," the woman remarked, a self-deprecating curl at the corner of her lips. Her eyes dropped to Gu Hanzhou's chest. "The blood in your body… it is strange. It is filthy, yet it is so clean it makes me envious. You have absorbed the embers of the Ancient Court?"
Gu Hanzhou's gaze turned lethally sharp. He thrust his blade forward an inch, the tip clinking against the crystal barrier. "How do you know of the Court?"
That was his deepest secret, his greatest burden.
"Don't be so tense, little monster," she said, her voice dripping with exhaustion. "I can smell that scent—the smell of something rotting yet majestic. If you came here to kill Lin Xiu, your blade is not fast enough. He has been harvesting my 'Primal Blood' for three years. Right now, he has already placed one foot into the 'Inscribed Blood Phase.'"
The Inscribed Blood Phase!
A shock rippled through Gu Hanzhou's mind. He had assumed Lin Xiu was merely at the peak of the Blood-Ignition Phase. He hadn't expected the man to be hiding such depth. In the world of Order, the suppression of a major realm was absolute—it could render any amount of skill or technique utterly moot.
"Save me," the woman's eyes suddenly ignited with a tiny, desperate spark as she stared at Gu Hanzhou. "In exchange, I will tell you how to truly refine that dark-gold blood in your veins. Otherwise, within three days, those fragments of laws that do not belong to you will grind your heart into a bloody pulp."
Gu Hanzhou fell silent.
He despised making deals with mysterious entities, especially a woman who could see through his trump cards at a single glance. But her words struck his weakness—since devouring the remnant blood, he had indeed felt needle-like stabs of pain in his heart during every exertion.
"How can I trust you?"
"You have no choice," she whispered, glancing at the alarm lights outside the cell. "In three minutes, Lin Xiu's personal guard will seal this entire level. If you don't want to die, sever the third power pylon on the left. That is the core of the seal."
Gu Hanzhou looked up and spotted a metallic pillar etched with complex, glowing runic arrays.
Beep— Beep— Beep—
The red emergency lights in the basement began to flash frantically. This was the signal that the outer guards had been neutralized and the internal automated defense systems were engaging.
The [Black Order] in Gu Hanzhou's hand suddenly erupted with a surge of dark-gold light. He hesitated no longer. Since he had decided to turn this place upside down, taking away Lin Xiu's most precious "property" was the ultimate act of vengeance.
"Remember your promise."
Gu Hanzhou's feet exploded with power. He blurred into a black streak, the heavy blade of [Black Order] cleaving through the air with a thunderous whistle. He slammed the edge into the runic pylon.
CRACK!
A blinding cascade of electrical sparks flooded the vault.
With the pylon severed, the dark-red chains binding the woman shattered into dust. The thick crystal wall, deprived of its energy source, became riddled with a web of cracks before collapsing outward.
The woman slumped forward, her strength spent. Gu Hanzhou reached out and caught her.
Upon contact, he was startled by the sheer, unnatural coldness of her skin.
"Take me… to the Black Market…" she whispered into his ear before losing consciousness entirely.
Gu Hanzhou slammed his Tang Dao back into its sheath. With a swift motion, he hoisted the mysterious white-haired woman onto his back. His left hand swept across the nearby shelves, snatching several vials of the highest-purity Blood-Ignition Serum and tucking them into his coat.
"Lin Xiu, I'm taking your stairway."
He unleashed a violent punch, shattering the ventilation duct in the ceiling. Seconds before a swarm of heavily armored guards burst into the vault, Gu Hanzhou leaped upward, vanishing into the deep, dark shaft of the ventilation system.
Behind him, Lin Xiu's enraged roar echoed through the foundation of the building, a sound so primal it threatened to bring the entire Moonlit Bar crashing down.