[LOCATION: IRON-BLOOD FORTRESS — SECTOR 9]
[TIME: 08:00 PM]
The fortress was ugly.
It wasn't a high-tech bunker. It was a rotting carcass of the industrial age—a hollowed-out Spirit-Iron Foundry patched together with rusted sheets of metal, barbed wire, and the bleached ribcages of giant beasts. It smelled of sulfur, furnace slag, and dried blood.
Inside the main hall, Warlord Kui sat on a throne made of welded scrap iron and skulls.
He was reading the letter Ren Wu had sent.
[NOTICE OF INTENT TO AUDIT]
[PENALTY: LIQUIDATION]
Kui laughed. It was a wet, guttural sound. He crumpled the pristine white paper in his massive red fist.
"A lawsuit," Kui roared. He threw the paper ball into a fire barrel. "The corporate trash sent me a lawsuit."
His lieutenants laughed with him. There were fifty of them in the hall. Tier-D veterans. Killers. They were sharpening cleavers and loading salt-rounds into heavy machine guns.
"He thinks this is a courtroom," Kui sneered. "Tonight, we march on Nether-Core Tower. We will peel the skin from his bones and hang it from his own sign. Let's see if he can sue us then."
"Warlord!" A scout burst through the side door. "Movement on the perimeter!"
Kui grabbed his heavy iron club. "Is it the Golems? Is he fortifying the Tower?"
"No, sir," the scout stammered. "He's not at the Tower."
BOOM.
The main gates of the foundry—reinforced with three inches of black iron—didn't open. They imploded.
A cloud of dust and twisted metal blasted into the hall. Through the smoke, two silhouettes marched in.
Sync-steps.
The Spirit-Iron Golems.
And walking between them, checking his pocket watch, was a man in a charcoal suit.
"He's here," the scout whispered.
[LOCATION: THE FORTRESS YARD]
Ren Wu stepped over the twisted remains of the gate. He looked around the courtyard. It was filthy. Rusted chains hanging from the ceiling. Piles of unrefined ore blocking the exits. Unorganized inventory.
"Disappointing," Ren said. "The Feng Shui here is atrocious. This property value is practically zero."
"Kill him!" Kui screamed from the balcony above. "Open fire!"
The fifty bandits stood on rusted gantries and overhead walkways that lined the upper walls of the foundry. They unleashed hell. Machine guns roared. Spirit-arrows rained down like hail.
Ren didn't dodge. He didn't cast a shield.
He simply snapped his fingers. "Lingshan. Manage the liability."
A blur of black shadow moved in front of him. Lingshan. She didn't block the bullets. She deflected them. Her sword moved so fast it hummed like a tuning fork. Ping-ping-ping. Sparks flew as she created a wall of steel in front of her boss.
The Golems weren't so defensive. They charged.
One Golem punched the rusted support pillar holding up the eastern walkway. CRUNCH. The metal groaned, then snapped. The entire overhead gantry collapsed. Ten bandits fell screaming thirty feet to the concrete floor.
The second Golem grabbed a bandit by the leg and used him as a flail to hit three other bandits.
It wasn't a battle. It was a meat grinder.
Ren walked through the chaos. He didn't look at the violence. He was looking at the structure of the building.
"Mr. Han," Ren spoke into his earpiece.
"Y-Yes, sir? I'm monitoring from the Tower."
"Draft a renovation plan. We'll need to tear down the east wall. It blocks the flow of Qi. And we need a lot of bleach."
BANG.
A bandit jumped from a shadow, a serrated knife aiming for Ren's throat. "Die!"
Ren didn't even turn his head. He raised his left hand. The Black Ledger materialized.
[AUDIT: FREEZE]
The bandit stopped in mid-air. Gravity seemed to catch him. His soul locked up. Ren casually stepped aside. The bandit crashed face-first into the concrete where Ren had been standing a second ago.
CRUNCH.
Ren stepped on the bandit's head as he kept walking. He didn't look down; he was squinting at the gloom above.
"And install better lighting," Ren sighed, adjusting his cuff. "It's depressing in here. How are your employees supposed to be productive in this darkness?"
[LOCATION: THE MAIN HALL]
Warlord Kui watched his army disintegrate.
"Impossible," he growled. "He's just a businessman! He has no cultivation pressure!"
Kui jumped from the balcony. CRASH. He landed in front of Ren. The floor cracked under his weight. Kui stood seven feet tall. His skin was crimson, pulsing with Blood-Qi.
He was a Tier-C+ Warlord.
"You have guts, little man," Kui spat. "Walking into my house."
Ren stopped. He adjusted his tie.
"Your house?" Ren asked.
He looked at the crumpled "Notice of Intent" lying near the fire barrel.
"You failed to respond to the eviction notice, Mr. Kui. According to Sector 9 Property Law, failure to contest a claim results in a default judgment."
Ren opened the Black Ledger. His eyes began to glow. Not the soft blue of a cultivator, but the burning gold of a King.
"This is no longer your house," Ren said. "I have acquired the deed."
Kui roared. "I am the law here!" He raised his iron club. It glowed red. He channeled all his Blood-Qi into a single, crushing strike.
"Die!"
Ren didn't move. He spoke a single, terrifying phrase.
[SOVEREIGN DECREE: EMINENT DOMAIN]
HUMMMMM.
A shockwave of gold light exploded from Ren. It didn't push Kui back. It washed over the entire building.
[TERRITORY CLAIMED]
[STATUS: PRIVATE PROPERTY]
[UNAUTHORIZED WEAPONS DETECTED]
Kui's club stopped in mid-swing. It wasn't blocked. It just... stopped. It became heavy. Impossibly heavy. Like the mountain itself was pulling it down.
"What..." Kui strained, his veins popping. "What did you do?!"
"Eminent Domain," Ren said calmly. "On my property, I control the assets. That club? It's mine now. You are just holding it for me."
Ren flicked his finger down.
CLANG.
The club ripped itself out of Kui's hands and smashed into the floor, burying itself halfway into the concrete. Simultaneously, every gun, knife, and sword in the room was yanked from the bandits' hands and pinned to the floor by an invisible weight.
The bandits stared at their empty hands. Then they looked at Ren.
"Now," Ren said, stepping closer to the unarmed Warlord. "Let's discuss the terms of your surrender."
Kui looked at his weapon, then at Ren. Fear—cold and sharp—finally pierced his blood-rage.
This wasn't a fight. It was a foreclosure.
[SYSTEM STATUS]
[ASSET SEIZED: IRON-BLOOD FOUNDRY]
[ENEMY MORALE: BROKEN]
[BOSS FIGHT: INITIATED]
Author's Note:Ren doesn't just steal your lunch money. He steals the gravity you use to hold it.Next Chapter: The Merger. Warlord Kui learns that death is not the worst option. Employment is.Add to Library for the hostile takeover!