The Miasma-Beast lunged, its massive paws cracking the parched earth of the roadway. But the Clockwork Ghoul atop its back was the true threat. As the beast mid-air, the Ghoul's silver-geared jaw clicked with a sickening metallic screech.
"Alchemical Art: Mercury Hail!"
The Ghoul raised a withered hand, and a spray of liquid silver droplets shot toward Han Feng. Each drop was a concentrated ball of "Heavy-Metal Taint," designed to sink into a cultivator's pores and turn their blood into lead.
Han Feng didn't retreat. He reached into the storage pouch at his waist—a gift from the Mad Alchemist—and pulled out a blackened, heavy object that looked like a cluster of tangled iron vines.
This was the Vines of the Verdant Warden. In the hands of any other cultivator, it was a "Cursed Relic" that drained the user's life force. But as Han Feng gripped it, he funneled a burst of his purified Crystalline Qi into the hilt.
CLANK.
The iron vines didn't just move; they grew. They uncoiled like a nest of hungry vipers, forming a rotating shield in front of Han Feng. The Mercury Hail hit the vines and was instantly absorbed—not by the Mirror, but by the artifact itself, which thrived on "Consuming" the energy Han Feng filtered for it.
"A Tier 3 Earth-Treasure?" The Ghoul's clicking jaw slowed. "How can a Stage 4 brat provide enough 'Clean Essence' to feed a Warden's thirst?"
"I don't feed it," Han Feng grunted, his feet sliding back an inch from the impact. "I just keep it from eating me."
Han Feng felt the Purification Mirror against his chest heat up. It was trying to help, but the crack in its surface acted like a leak. If he used the Mirror's "Great Noon Refinement" now, it might shatter completely. He had to rely on his new secondary tools and his own growing mastery of the Void-Filter Heart.
"Lin Xiruo! The beast's eyes!" Han Feng shouted.
The Sword-Saintess didn't hesitate. She blurred into a streak of silver light, her rapier dancing through the black needles of the wolf's fur.
SLASH.
The Miasma-Beast roared as silver sword-intent carved a path across its face. But the beast was a creature of the Empire; its wounds didn't bleed red, they bled green gas that healed the flesh as quickly as it was cut.
"It's no use!" Su Yue yelled from behind a wagon, her hands shaking as she held a bag of purification salts. "The beast is tethered to the Ghoul's life force! You have to break the Alchemist first!"
The Clockwork Ghoul laughed, a sound like grinding metal. "Correct, little girl! But to reach me, you must survive the Bell of Seven Sorrows!"
From within its tattered robes, the Ghoul produced a small, rusted bell. When he rang it, the sound didn't travel through the air; it traveled through the soul.
TONG...
The sound wave was a visible ripple of purple agony. The merchant workers collapsed instantly, clutching their ears as their own "Tainted Qi" began to vibrate violently inside their veins. Even Lin Xiruo stumbled, her sword-intent flickering as the bell forced her to relive the moment the Cloud-Mist Sect fell.
Han Feng felt the sorrow hit him like a physical blow. He saw the faces of the villagers he couldn't save; he felt the cold rejection of the Elders.
But then, he felt the Void-Filter Heart.
The sorrow wasn't an emotion; it was a frequency of Tainted Qi.
Han Feng dropped the Vines of the Verdant Warden and reached for his third artifact—a simple, unadorned White-Jade Flute he had taken from the Jade Spring's obsidian chest. It had no carvings, no runes. It was a "Blank" artifact, meant to be "Written" upon by the user's soul.
He didn't play a melody. He simply blew a single, pure note into the flute while channeling the Mirror's resonance through his breath.
FIIII—
The sound of the flute was thin and clear, like a bird chirping after a storm. It met the purple wave of the bell and... neutralized it. The two frequencies cancelled each other out, leaving a pocket of absolute silence in the middle of the battlefield.
"Impossible!" the Ghoul shrieked. "A mortal flute cannot stop a Tier 4 Soul-Bell!"
"It's not the flute," Han Feng said, his eyes now glowing with a calm, white light. "It's the breath."
With the Ghoul distracted by the failure of his bell, Han Feng lunged. He didn't use the flute or the vines. He drew the Azure Phoenix Wing.
Instead of a wide, flashy slash, Han Feng performed a Thrust of Stillness.
He focused all his Stage 4 Qi into a point the size of a needle at the tip of his blade. He wasn't trying to cut the Ghoul; he was trying to "Inject" purity into the Ghoul's corrupted clockwork system.
The Ghoul tried to parry with its silver-geared arms, but the Azure Phoenix Wing, backed by the Heaven-Shatter Scabbard's suppressed force, punched straight through the metal.
CRUNCH.
The sword pierced the Ghoul's chest, right where a human heart should be. But instead of a heart, there was a complex arrangement of gears and a glowing green Core.
"Refine," Han Feng whispered.
A surge of white light traveled down the blade and into the Ghoul's internal machinery. The silver gears, which had been clicking for decades, suddenly turned gold, then white, then... they seized.
The "Purity" acted like sand in the gears of the Ghoul's life. The Alchemist's purple skin turned to grey ash. The Miasma-Beast beneath him let out a final, mournful howl and dissolved into a puddle of black ink.
The Ghoul looked down at the sword in its chest, its silver jaw clicking one last time. "The... the Emperor... will... polish... your bones..."
SHATTER.
The Ghoul exploded into a cloud of harmless, white steam.
As the steam cleared, the road was silent. The merchant workers began to sit up, rubbing their heads, feeling strangely refreshed. Master Zhou crawled out from under a wagon, his eyes wide.
"You... you just killed a Palace Ghoul," Zhou stammered. "If the Imperial Guards find out—"
"They won't," Han Feng said, sheathing his blade. He picked up the rusted Bell of Seven Sorrows from the dust. He touched it with his thumb, and the rust fell away, revealing a beautiful, silver bell that emitted a soft, calming chime.
[Artifact Acquired: The Bell of Seven Joys (Purified).]
[Trait: Soothes the Soul; Increases Cultivation Speed of Allies by 10%.]
"We have the 'Pure-Seed' and now we have their own tools turned against them," Han Feng said, looking at Lin Xiruo. "Master Zhou, hide us in the wagons. We enter the Capital tonight."
As the caravan began to move again, Han Feng sat in the back of a wagon, surrounded by crates of dried fish. He looked at his three tools: the Vines, the Flute, and the Bell. They were powerful, but they were like satellites orbiting a planet.
He touched the crack in the Purification Mirror over his heart.
Soon, he thought. I'll fix you. And then, we'll see if the Emperor's 'Laws' can survive a real cleaning.