The side door of the Miteer Auction House opened quietly.
Su Chen's figure, like a drop of water joining a stream, blended into the lazy afternoon crowds on West Street without hurry.
He did not head straight back to that dilapidated little courtyard.
His meeting with Ya Fei had secured the most important part of his future plans. He had successfully established a connection with the Aoba Clan. And the Jialie Clan had become a sword hanging over his head, ready to fall at any moment.
He needed time to think, to sort out the tangled threads in his mind once and for all.
To avoid the bustle of the main road and shake off any possible tails, he skillfully turned into a quiet alley where few people ever ventured.
It was a dead end.
Damp moss, like diseased skin, covered the towering walls on either side. The air was thick with the stale smell of mildew and the foul stench of the gutter.
Just as he reached the middle of the alley,
several burly figures suddenly blocked the way ahead.
Su Chen stopped.
He did not turn around at once.
Because behind him came the unhurried sound of footsteps, cutting off his retreat as well.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
The crisp clack of boots against the flagstones rang especially harshly in the silent alley.
Su Chen slowly turned around.
Several figures blocked the light at the alley's entrance, casting a broad swath of shadow.
At their head stood a haughty young man in luxurious clothes. He folded his arms with a mocking grin and stared coldly at Su Chen as if he were a trapped beast in a cage.
Jialie Ao.
The Jialie Clan's young clan leader.
"Troublesome."
The thought flashed through Su Chen's mind.
Beneath his bamboo hat, his brow furrowed slightly.
Jialie Ao advanced at a leisurely pace, and the guards behind him closed in too, forming a semicircle that completely sealed off every avenue of escape.
He stopped three paces from Su Chen and looked him up and down as if inspecting merchandise.
"Kid, you're pretty good at hiding."
Jialie Ao's lips spread into a cruel sneer.
"You made this young master work hard to find you."
Su Chen said nothing.
He merely leaned back a little until his back touched the cold, slick wall, adopting a purely defensive stance.
"What's wrong? Lost your tongue?"
The mockery on Jialie Ao's face deepened. He relished the feeling of having his prey cornered.
"Stop pretending. I know who you are."
"You're the mysterious person who sold the 'Rock Fire Seed,' right?"
Beneath his bamboo hat, Su Chen's body seemed to stiffen.
That tiny reaction fell under Jialie Ao's gaze, and the last trace of doubt in his mind vanished completely.
His smile grew more triumphant.
"Kid, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll give you a chance to live."
He raised a finger and pointed at Su Chen's chest from a distance.
"Tell me where that 'Kindling' came from—or, more to the point, how you made it."
"Then get on your knees and kowtow to me three times."
"Maybe I'll consider breaking only one of your legs."
The guards behind him let out a low, coordinated laugh. They looked at Su Chen with the pity and cruelty of cats playing with a mouse.
These seven or eight guards were all at least Seven-Star Dou Zhe, and the two at the front were genuine Dou Shi.
As for the kid in front of them, he showed not the slightest trace of Dou Qi.
To them, he was no different from a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
Su Chen seemed to be frightened by the show of force. He retreated another two steps, pressing his back tightly against the cold wall.
There was nowhere left to go.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about."
A hoarse voice, carrying just the right touch of panic, came from beneath the bamboo hat.
"I'm just an ordinary person."
"An ordinary person?"
Jialie Ao laughed loudly, as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
"An 'ordinary person' who gets personally received by Miss Ya Fei and treated like an honored guest by that old fox of the Aoba Clan?"
His laughter cut off abruptly.
His face twisted in an instant.
"Looks like you won't tell the truth until you've had a taste of pain!"
He whipped a hand toward the guards beside him.
"Get him!"
"Break his legs first!"
"Let's see how tough his bones really are!"
The two Dou Shi guards with the strongest auras grinned as they cracked their knuckles and advanced step by step.
Robust Dou Qi surged around them, rising in two waves of pressure so heavy that the air in the alley seemed to freeze.
Su Chen appeared genuinely afraid.
Leaning against the wall, he waved his hands repeatedly, his movements flustered and helpless.
"D-don't come any closer!"
"We can talk this out! Whatever you want, I... I'm willing to negotiate!"
His voice brimmed with fear and surrender.
Seeing this, Jialie Ao's face showed a satisfied grin.
He loved seeing people afraid, especially "clever" people who thought too highly of themselves.
He raised a hand, signaling the guards to stop for now.
He wanted to savor the humiliating sight of the man who had toyed with his entire family, groveling before him.
"Oh? Ready to talk now?"
Jialie Ao strolled up to Su Chen and looked down at him, his eyes full of condescension.
"Fine."
"Take off your bamboo hat first. Let this young master see what sort you are."
Su Chen did not move.
"What? Don't dare?"
Jialie Ao's patience was wearing thin.
"I... I just..."
Su Chen's voice continued to stall, full of hesitation.
And at that very moment,
in the unseen space of his consciousness, the dormant Stone Platform suddenly flashed with light!
His intent had already become an invisible, icy probe. The instant he began pleading, it locked onto its target.
Not the Dou Shi in front of him.
But...
the fist-sized Top-Grade Fire Attribute Warm Jade worth hundreds of gold coins, which Jialie Ao wore at his waist to show off his status!
After years of being worn, the jade had been thoroughly steeped in Jialie Ao's Fire Attribute Dou Qi. It contained a pure, stable energy.
Stable?
Only to the outside world.
To Su Chen, the jade was a bundle of compressed fuel, ready to be ignited at any moment... a bomb!
"Lock on."
"Guide the energy."
"Heat it up!"
"Compress it!"
"Detonate!"
A string of silent commands fired through the invisible probe of mental energy in a fraction of an instant!
Outside,
Jialie Ao was smugly enjoying Su Chen's "fear."
He was about to speak again, ready to crush his opponent's spirit with even more vicious words.
Suddenly—
Bang!
An impossibly sharp explosion erupted without warning at his waist!
"Ah—!"
A shriek, more beast than human, instantly shattered the alley's silence!
Jialie Ao sprang up as if a scorpion had stung him on the backside, his body convulsing violently from the pain.
The priceless warm jade at his waist had exploded on its own!
Dozens of fragments, heated in an instant until they glowed like red-hot iron, plunged deep into his flesh amid a scorching blast of air!
An unbearable burning pain twisted his face, and cold sweat streamed down him!
The sudden turn of events stunned everyone.
The guards who had been about to attack instinctively stepped back, staring in shock at their howling young master.
What was going on?
Had the jade pendant... exploded on its own?
What on earth had happened?
In that moment of chaos, when everyone's mind had gone blank,
the thin figure who had been cowering in the corner moved.
Like a loach pinned under a rock, he slipped at an impossible angle through the gap, barely half a foot wide, that the two Dou Shi guards had left in their shock!
His movements were as swift as a phantom!
There was not a trace of Dou Qi, yet he moved with the fluid, uncanny grace of an antelope leaping between rocks!
By the time the two Dou Shi guards came to their senses and roared after him,
Su Chen had already vanished in a few flashes at the far end of the alley, leaving no trace.
***
Only Jialie Ao's pig-like screams remained in the alley, along with a cluster of guards staring at one another in terror.
"Young master! Are you all right?"
"Quick! Get the wound medicine!"
Several guards hurried over in a panic, trying to support Jialie Ao.
"Get away!"
Jialie Ao shoved them aside. He gritted his teeth against the pain and looked down at the bloody mess on his waist.
His clothes there had been burned black. His flesh was torn open, and several pieces of scalding jade were still embedded in it, giving off wisps of heat.
He looked up again at the shattered jade on the ground, which was steaming just as much.
An indescribable chill ran from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!
That kid...
He hadn't moved a muscle from beginning to end!
He hadn't even stirred a trace of Dou Qi!
So why had his warm jade exploded?
What kind of sorcery was this?!
One of the Dou Shi guards forced himself to calm down and spoke in a hoarse voice. "Young master, that kid... he must be a master hiding his true strength! He must have used some kind of fire-controlling Dou Technique we can't understand to detonate your warm jade without a sound!"
"Bullshit!"
Another guard immediately contradicted him, his face full of terror.
"What Dou Technique could do something like that? Detonate it from a distance? Without even releasing Dou Qi? Th-this is unheard of! Even the elders of the Alchemist Guild couldn't do that!"
"Then what do you think it was? Are you saying the pendant just exploded by itself?!"
"I..."
Their argument could not conceal the fear in everyone's hearts.
The unknown was the most terrifying thing of all.
As Jialie Ao listened to his men argue, his face turned pale, then flushed.
He replayed the scene in his mind: the bamboo-hatted man's calm from beginning to end, and his panicked plea to "talk this out."
That hadn't been fear!
He'd been putting on an act! Buying time!
From the very beginning, he hadn't taken any of them seriously!
A fear far more humiliating and chilling than the burning pain seized his heart.
What kind of monster had he provoked?
Before you continue