Azure Barrier

The night was thick as congealed asphalt. The Sea Serpent, a steel behemoth, brutally tore through the ink-black Pacific Ocean. The waves plowed up by its bow gleamed with deathly silver beneath the pale moonlight before being swallowed whole by the boundless darkness. On the stern deck, beside the roaring vortex churned up by the propellers, a rusted ventilation grate was silently peeled away, revealing a bottomless duct barely wide enough for a gaunt body to squeeze through. The salty, fishy sea wind carried the heat of engine oil from the engine room and the stench of decaying rust as it rushed in.

A dark red figure slipped silently into the duct like melted wax seeping through a crack. A Ke pressed her back against the icy, slick metal wall, twisting her body with inhuman flexibility. Every movement precisely avoided protruding rivets and cold droplets of condensed water. The air inside was foul and sticky. There was only the heavy vibration of the engines below, like the heartbeat of a giant beast, and the pounding rhythm of her own blood against her temples. Behind her fanged demon mask, her eyes were tempered by eternal black ice, utterly still. Only absolute focus remained, etching the route mapped by Guiguzi into the murderous instincts buried deep in her bones.

Downward, farther downward.

The air in the duct began to grow hot. The rancid stink of mixed engine oil, the fermented reek of sweat, and an indescribable acrid odor like chemical solvents burning her throat grew stronger. Ahead, pale light spread from around a corner, accompanied by muffled voices like whispers through water—it was a guard смена point!

A Ke froze instantly, as though she had become another fold in the duct itself. Her breath died in her throat, her heartbeat forcibly pressed into a mire by sheer will. Two guards in grease-stained navy work uniforms, their waists bulging with obvious firearms, leaned against the metal platform beyond the corner and smoked. Their thick Russian voices carried curses about the long voyage and complaints about the bone-piercing chill emanating from that "damned thing" in Cabin 7.

An opportunity.

The instant one guard crushed out his cigarette and lifted his heel to turn toward his patrol route—

Crackle!

A dark blue arc suddenly exploded out of thin air less than half a meter in front of A Ke! Then a second, a third... Countless fine blue electric snakes, like thorny vines growing from the void, instantly twisted together and wove into a gigantic azure net covering the entire cross-section of the duct! The light was bleak, accompanied by a teeth-grating high-frequency hum! Goosebumps erupted across A Ke's exposed skin, and the tingling sting of static clinging to her body was sharp as needles!

An energy barrier!

Guiguzi's Xuan Weizi perception had only outlined the icy structure and the guards' positions. It could not penetrate this pure energy barrier at all! The Ten Rings Syndicate's trump card ran deeper than expected!

The turning guard seemed to notice the faint hum of the barrier activating behind him. He tilted his head and glanced doubtfully at the azure curtain of light, then spat. "Fuck, it's glitching again? This piece of shit..." He muttered without looking further and staggered away.

Behind her mask, A Ke's icy pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints. Not the guards! It was automatic detection! Like a living creature, the barrier instinctively sought to tear apart any unauthorized flesh and blood! Forcing her way through would definitely trigger the alarm!

Time seemed stretched taut. The monotonous pounding of the engines, the fading clicks of the guards' boots, the barrier's high-frequency hum, and... the faint chill seeping upward from the depths of Cabin 7, piercing straight into the marrow of her soul, all wrapped around her like invisible icy tentacles.

A Ke's gaze, as precise as a probe, instantly fixed on a spot along the right side of the barrier, pressed close to the wall. The arcs there seemed slightly thinner than elsewhere, and the glow half a shade dimmer, like a loosened knot in a great energy net! No weighing options. No testing. Her killing instinct made the only choice in less than a thousandth of a second!

"Flashstep!"

Her figure abruptly phased where she stood! She did not vanish. Instead, she instantly collapsed and stretched into a dark red thread nearly invisible to the naked eye! Her target was that energy node! The blood-red twin daggers in her hands crossed before her at the peak of her charge, their tips gathering an ultimate glint of scarlet-black frost, like a venomous snake baring poisoned fangs!

Crack—!

A scalp-numbing sharp sound, like a rusted iron chain snapping taut, burst through the narrow duct! Scarlet blade light drove viciously into the azure energy node! An overwhelming recoil, like a battering ram, slammed back through the twin daggers! A Ke's tiger's mouths split open at once, warm blood seeping out as the daggers nearly flew from her grip! There was no roaring explosion, only the silent howl of annihilating energy colliding! The azure electric snakes writhed and bit like enraged deep-sea eels, trying to grind the intruder into pieces! Yet the scarlet blade light remained embedded with the resolve to perish together, cutting and tearing wildly!

A deadlock! A flash of lightning!

The dark red thread forced its way through! Like tough beast hide torn open by brute force, the energy barrier flickered violently several times before abruptly dying! Residual arcs lashed the duct walls like dying venomous snakes, leaving scorched, acrid marks! Yet at the instant the barrier collapsed, a shrill alarm like a ghost's scream ripped through the entire duct system! Scarlet light splashed everywhere!

Exposed!

The instant A Ke landed beyond the barrier, she sprang forward! Like a predator awakened by blood, before the alarm had finished screaming and the red light had fully swallowed her vision, she had already become a bloody storm carrying death, pouncing on the guard who had turned in stunned alarm and only just placed his fingers on his holster!

Fast! Beyond the eye's ability to follow!

The guard's muddy pupils only had time to reflect a blurred dark red afterimage and two icy stars suddenly swelling before his eyes! He never saw the intruder's outline. He only felt a faint chill brush his throat, like being lightly kissed by an icy thread.

Splurt!

The faint sound of steel cutting flesh was completely swallowed by the wailing alarm. The guard's body jolted stiffly, his pupils instantly turning ashen and unfocused. All his shock and terror froze upon his rough face. He futilely clutched the warm stream spraying from his neck, producing broken bellows-like sounds from his throat as he collapsed like mud. The other guard, who had only taken a few steps, heard the disturbance and spun around in horror. He caught only the afterimage of his companion falling and a blood-red Arc Light rushing at him, swift enough to sever thought itself!

"Arc Light!"

A Ke's figure refracted like a ghost through the confined space! Her blood-red twin daggers traced two exquisitely tragic, interwoven paths of death through the foul air!

Slash! Crack!

Two demonic blossoms of blood burst from the guard's chest and throat almost simultaneously! He never even reached the trigger before the terror in his eyes froze forever. His body crashed heavily down.

The alarm still howled like a malicious ghost, and red light spilled everywhere, turning the duct walls and the sticky blood on the ground into a hellish blood pool. A Ke did not spare the corpses a single glance. Her cold gaze pierced through the spreading stench of blood and the blinding red light, locking onto the heavy isolation door at the end of the passage! On its plaque, a crimson "7" looked as though it had been painted in blood.

The door was tightly shut. Beside it, an electronic lock panel flashed with a cold azure glow.

No key. No password.

A Ke's icy pupils did not ripple. Her figure collapsed again—"Flashstep!"

Her target was not the lock, but the seam between the isolation door and the top of the duct! Several bundles of cables as thick as wrists coiled there!

The blood-red twin daggers slashed down upon the cable bundles with a shriek like tearing cloth! Blinding electric sparks burst outward! The thick cables snapped like decapitated giant pythons! The emergency light above the isolation door flickered frantically! The heavy door gave a dull, sluggish click of machinery, and the azure indicator on the electronic lock panel abruptly went dark!

The mechanical hydraulics had failed! The physical lock had been released!

A Ke landed, the muscles of her right leg instantly tightening like steel cables. Gathering all her explosive strength, she delivered a savage side kick to the center of the isolation door!

Boom—!

The heavy metal door blasted inward! A terrifying chill, a hundred times colder than that in the duct and seemingly capable of freezing the very source of one's soul, mixed with the pungent stink of disinfectant and the strange bloody scent of cold metal. Like an underworld river frozen for ten thousand years bursting its banks, it roared outward!

Cabin 7!

This was no cargo hold. It was a cold, efficient temporary Fortress steeped in the aura of death. Harsh white shadowless lamps illuminated every inch of space with blinding pallor, revealing every speck of dust in a lifeless chill. The walls were covered in thick lead-gray insulation, and the floor consisted of alloy steel plates gleaming with frost. At the center stood a massive cylindrical container made from transparent, ultra-strength material. Its surface was covered in a flowing azure energy barrier, denser and heavier than the one in the duct, like tangible liquid metal! Inside the container, white, frigid vapor churned violently like living fog, vaguely revealing a long shape encased in thick frost.

Beside the base of this colossal container stood a waist-high metal platform. Floating above it was a palm-sized silver-white metal fragment with edges as sharp as a broken blade! It was crystalline and translucent, radiating restrained yet vast energy. Merely looking at it stirred instinctive dread and rejection deep within the soul! Above the fragment was projected a hologram so clear it sent chills through her—a stern Eastern man in a dark golden robe, his face cold and hard as carved stone, his gaze as deep as an ancient well swallowing all starlight! Five antique metal rings, each carrying an ominous cold gleam, encircled each of his wrists! The ten rings slowly floated and revolved around him, releasing suffocating pressure as ancient and heavy as primordial chaos, freezing even the air!

The man in the image seemed to see through the barrier of time and space. His cold gaze became almost tangible as it pinned the intruder in place. A terrifying pressure descended with a crash, like mountains collapsing upon her soul! A Ke's thoughts instantly sank into a mire! A deep voice, carrying the cold rasp of metal scraping and a strange echo, exploded directly within her skull, every word clear enough to freeze her marrow:

"Those who covet what is mine shall suffer the Ten Rings' soul-devouring torment."

"Xu Wenwu awaits you here."

Xu Wenwu! Master of the Ten Rings!

The name crashed into the core of A Ke's consciousness like a curse wrapped around a soul-crushing hammer! Behind her demon mask, her icy pupils showed an almost imperceptible crack for the first time! But it lasted only an instant! A deeper tide of killing intent, cold enough to freeze all things, immediately swallowed that flicker!

Target—the metal fragment on the base! That energy core that made her soul tremble was the key to the antidote! (Xuan Weizi perception: Detected ultra-high-density rare Vibranium energy containing unusual life-harmonizing properties?)

Woooo—Woooo—Woooo—!

The alarm within Cabin 7 rose sharply, scraping against the ears like steel needles on glass! Hidden automatic weapon platforms sprang out from the four corners of the chamber! Their thick barrels gleamed with the metallic chill of death, and several crimson infrared targeting beams, like snakes flicking their tongues, instantly locked onto A Ke at the doorway!

At the same time, the flowing azure energy barrier on the enormous transparent container flared brilliantly! An invisible pressure, thick and sticky as deep-sea sludge, instantly filled the entire chamber! A Ke felt her body suddenly sink, her movements as though dragged into solidifying concrete, slowed several times over! The air became as heavy as mercury! Every exertion of strength made her muscles struggle against invisible chains, and her joints gave faint groans under the strain!

"Phantom Dance!"

A Ke's figure abruptly disappeared from where she stood! It was not invisibility, but speed burning to its limit in an instant, leaving behind a blood-red afterimage solid enough to seem real!

Ratatatatata—!

A scorching metal storm instantly tore that afterimage to pieces! Bullets gouged the alloy floor, scattering blinding sparks! A Ke's true body had already appeared like a death-seeking wraith in the blind spot of one weapon platform! Her blood-red twin daggers shrieked through the air and drove viciously into the energy conduit connection at the weapon base!

Boom! Crackle—!

A shrill cry of short-circuiting erupted from within the weapon platform, and the foul smell of burnt circuitry spread through the air! The platform burst into blue-white sparks and instantly went limp!

But more gun barrels had already swung toward her! The dense barrage wove a net of destruction! The sticky pressure gripped every inch of her body like an invisible giant hand!

A Ke flickered and shifted like a ghost through the rain of bullets! Flashstep and Phantom Dance were forced to their limits at the edge of life and death! Every reappearance was followed by the explosive paralysis of another weapon platform and a fatal blossom of electric sparks! She was like bloody lightning dancing wildly through a storm of steel and flame, dismantling deadly traps with inhuman precision and speed!

Yet the force field grew stronger and stronger! Like a tightening noose! A trace of sluggishness inevitably appeared in her movements!

Splurt!

A stream of searing bullets grazed the outside of her left arm! Her dark red leather combat suit tore apart, and a deep gash exposing bone immediately opened! Terrifying kinetic force ripped through flesh, instantly numbing her left arm and nearly knocking the blood dagger from her hand! Piercing pain surged through her, but it only made the killing intent in those icy eyes burn more violently, more purely!

She could not drag this out any longer! The target was already in sight!

After one extreme Flashstep, A Ke appeared beside the base of the enormous transparent container! Ignoring the death rays locking onto her again and the horrifying force field that nearly crushed her bones and burst her organs, she drove the blood dagger in her right hand toward an energy core beneath the base, where unstable red light flashed frantically—it was the heart sustaining the container's force field and frozen hell!

"Break—!"

The scarlet frost gleam at the dagger's tip fell like a bloody comet with a tail of destruction, piercing violently into the throbbing energy core!

Time seemed to freeze.

Hummm—!

The energy core first collapsed inward and contracted violently, then—

BOOM—!!!!

An indescribable explosion of destruction erupted from the base! Azure and crimson energies, both violent beyond measure, collided like ancient beasts biting each other in their death throes. Their mutual annihilation unleashed a violet-white blast bright enough to blind! The terrifying shockwave carried frigid white vapor—spraying from spiderweb cracks in the container walls and instantly freezing nearby metal fragments into twisted ice sculptures—and scorching metal shards as it spread outward in a destructive ring!

Cabin 7 shook as though struck by the fist of an invisible Titan! Every light went out at once, only to be illuminated in the next second by the crimson blaze of the explosion! The automatic weapon platforms were kneaded into warped scrap by the shockwave! The thick lead-gray walls caved inward and split apart like fragile cardboard! Piercing screams of metal, the destructive roar of the blast, and the shrill howls of runaway energy blended into a symphony of the end!

The instant her blood dagger pierced the core, A Ke's body shot backward on the violent recoil! At the same time, she activated Phantom Dance to its limit! One ten-thousandth of a second before the shockwave struck, her figure became hazy and unreal! The destructive violet-white torrent washed over her phantom form. Most of its power was forcibly deflected, but the remaining force still struck her like a meteor! It felt as though an invisible hand had seized her organs, kneaded them, and shifted them out of place!

"Urgh—Pff!"

A mouthful of scalding blood mixed with fragments of organs sprayed from beneath her fanged demon mask, instantly staining a broad patch of her dark red combat suit! Like a paper kite shredded by a storm, she was hurled away and slammed back-first into the warped chamber wall behind her, which protruded like a monster's fangs! Pain consumed everything in an instant, and blood gushed wildly from her left arm! Yet her right hand gripped one object like iron tongs—the silver-white metal fragment, sharp-edged as a blade, which had been blasted free by the turbulent explosion! It was icy enough to pierce bone, and the energy within pulsed wildly in her palm like a living heart!

Amid the explosion's aftermath, the alarm became a broken, dying whimper. Scarlet light and leaping flames danced madly through the shattered chamber. The heavy stink of burning and metallic dust filled the air. Within the lingering turbulence of the force field remained a faint trace of Xu Wenwu's icy, bone-deep will.

A Ke struggled upright from the metal wreckage. Every slight motion tore at her with splitting agony, and her body convulsed uncontrollably from internal injuries, but the hand gripping the fragment remained as steady as stone. Her icy eyes swept across this hellscape, as though scoured by infernal flames, over the immense wreckage covered in cracks and leaking white vapor, before finally falling upon the fragment in her palm, soaked in blood and life.

No lingering attachment. No hesitation.

"Phantom Dance!"

Her figure blurred again, merging into the spreading smoke and broken, twisted shadows as she shot toward the isolation-door passage, now blasted open like a monster's maw!

The Sea Serpent's immense steel body convulsed violently in the wake of the explosion. Its shrill alarms spread across the ship like the cries of a dying beast. In the deep shadows beside the ventilation duct on the stern deck, a dark red figure staggered into view like a ghost returned from hell.

A Ke's back slammed heavily against the icy railing. Every breath was like pulling a broken bellows, dragging at the tearing pain in her chest and abdomen. The wound on her left arm had soaked in seawater until it was pallid and swollen, its flesh grotesquely turned outward. Blood mixed with salty seawater dripped continuously, spreading a dark red stain beneath her feet. The outside of her right leg was blackened and carbonized, while a strange numbness crept up her nerves like cold venom. Her fanged demon mask was covered in cracks, soot, and frozen blood, but the eyes behind its openings remained frozen and dead still. She opened her clenched right hand. The silver-white Vibranium fragment flowed with restrained, eerie light beneath the cold moon, its chill seeping into her marrow.

Suddenly!

A fatal warning sharp enough to pierce bone exploded above her head without warning! A top assassin's survival instincts made every nerve in her body tense to the breaking point!

Whoosh—!

A piercing shriek, sharp enough to tear through the soul, ripped through the air! A condensed dark red beam of destruction, like a spear of judgment fired from hell, shot with flawless precision at the crown of A Ke's head! Its timing was vicious, sealing off every path to survival!

"Flashstep!"

Her body twisted and dodged sideways at an angle beyond the limits of human anatomy! The dark red beam whistled past her ear! Scorching heat and violent energy radiation instantly singed several loose strands of hair at her temples, and searing pain flared along her ear! The beam bored straight into the ship's railing behind her!

Boom-hiss!

The hard alloy railing melted through like a hot knife cutting solid grease, leaving a bowl-sized blackened hole with dark red molten metal flowing around its edges! Hissing steam mixed with the stench of burning metal rose into the air!

The instant A Ke landed from her sidestep, she did not pause. She became another wavering, blood-scented afterimage and raced desperately along the heavy shadow cast by the railing toward the very edge of the stern! Her injuries made her movements sluggish and dragging, but her speed was still chillingly fast!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three more lethal dark red beams followed her like shadows! Like maggots clinging to bone, they precisely sealed every possible path of escape! Every strike carried absolute destructive intent!

A Ke crazily turned, rolled, and ducked within this death cage on the stern! The limits of Phantom Dance were forcibly torn open by the threat of death! Each destructive beam narrowly grazed past her afterimage! Scorching air and splashing molten fragments exploded around her without cease!

Sizzle!

A beam grazed the outside of her right leg! It did not strike directly, but its terrifying residual energy scorched across her like a red-hot branding iron, instantly tearing open a bone-deep burn with blackened, curled edges! The coldly numbing poison-like sensation shot up from the burned nerves toward the root of her thigh like an ice spike! The agony made her stagger, nearly falling!

The edge of the stern was beneath her feet! Below lay the pitch-black Pacific abyss, rolling with the aura of death!

There was no hesitation in A Ke's eyes. Just as the fourth life-ending dark red beam was about to pierce her heart from behind, she lunged forward! Her body became a poisoned arrow loosed from its bow, leaping over the railing with tragic resolve! In the instant before she fell into the boundless darkness, her frozen eyes looked back one last time toward the bridge—there, a vague sniper silhouette stood at the high point, and the muzzle of the savage long rifle in his hands still held a faint ember of blood-red light!

Splash!

Icy seawater, sharp as countless steel needles, instantly swallowed her whole! The tremendous impact sent heart-rending pain through every injury! Salty, bitter water flooded wildly into her nose and mouth as suffocation and darkness surged in like a tide. She clenched her teeth. Her left hand clamped around the burning, numb wound on her right leg like an iron hoop, while her right hand held the Vibranium fragment as tightly as though it were the only token brought back from hell. Using her last strength, she swam desperately into the boundless darkness away from the Sea Serpent, that steel tomb. (Xuan Weizi perception: Several powerful nonhuman life signals are being released from the Sea Serpent's lower hold into the water at high speed!)

Above the bridge, the sniper slowly lowered his barrel. He coldly overlooked the churning black sea below, where only muddy waves stirred by the vessel remained and the target had vanished without a trace. He pressed his earpiece, his voice hard as black ice from the deep sea. "Target fell into the sea carrying the Vibranium fragment. Request deployment of hunting hounds. Seal off the waters and conduct a thorough search."

The Xiang family study.

The air had solidified like poured lead, so heavy it was hard to breathe. The Lanling King's aura was as faint as a candle flame in the wind. Every labored breath made the pale golden glow of the seal shudder violently. Guiguzi's withered hands trembled like sieves. The pale golden light sustaining the seal had become thin and dim, as though it would go out completely at any moment. Xiang Yi stood rigid before the desk, his small body drawn tight like a hardened bow pulled to its limit, ready to snap at any time. His face was as pale as a corpse, and sweat-soaked hair stuck to his skin. His psychic power had long been drained dry, yet he was still frantically squeezing out the final sliver of origin from the depths of his soul, desperately maintaining the faint mental link between himself and A Ke, as fragile and vital as an umbilical cord. From the other end came waves of sensation crashing into him—the pain of a body being torn apart, killing intent cold enough to freeze the soul, the shock of destruction, the icy despair of suffocating in the deep sea... and the searing aura of death from that hellish beam grazing past her ear!

Suddenly!

The tightly closed carved wooden window silently slid open a crack! Cold night wind, carrying the heavy fishy stink of the sea and the scent of... rusty blood, surged in!

A drenched dark red figure rolled in through the window like a broken doll thrown ashore by giant waves, landing heavily upon the thick carpet with a dull thud. A Ke! Her combat suit was torn and ragged in many places. The terrible wound on her left arm had soaked in seawater until it was pale and swollen, its flesh grotesquely turned outward like rotten cotton. The outside of her right leg was blackened and carbonized, and the skin around it bore the bluish-gray color of a corpse, numb with death. Dark red blood still stained the corner of her mouth. Her fanged demon mask had slipped crookedly halfway off, exposing part of a face pale as paper yet still hard and cold as ice-covered rock. Her cracked lips were bloodless. Her tightly clenched right hand had twisted knuckles from exertion, pallid from blood loss and trembling uncontrollably.

She struggled, using her final strength to lift her head. Her frozen, deathly eyes pierced through the dim yellow light of the study and locked onto Xiang Yi. Her right hand, stained with seawater, blood, and oil, trembled yet stretched forward with the steadfastness of stone.

Her filthy palm slowly opened.

A sharp-edged metal fragment flowed with restrained silver-white radiance as it lay quietly there. Beneath the study's warm yellow light, it radiated a faint cold glow utterly out of place, along with a chill that seemed to seep into the marrow from the abyss of the underworld.

Xiang Yi rushed forward and carefully raised the bone-piercing fragment in both hands, as though holding ten-thousand-year black ice. It felt exceptionally heavy. Strange energy, faintly soothing yet carrying a hidden sharpness that seemed capable of tearing things apart, flowed up through the meridians of his arms. His exhausted, splitting mind jolted as though drought-stricken earth had suddenly received rain! Almost at the same instant, he—and Guiguzi behind him, pouring out all his strength—both faintly sensed that the fragment's cold energy fluctuation was producing an extremely subtle yet incomparably fierce repulsion against the sealed Ten Rings poison within the Lanling King's heart! It felt like a shard of absolute ice suddenly piercing boiling lava!

Xiang Yi's gaze passed over the broken body on the floor that had nearly lost all signs of life yet completed an impossible mission, then to the Lanling King struggling on the brink of death on the bed, and finally returned to the antidote in his hand, steeped in blood, death, and faint hope. The agony of the destructive explosion and the icy despair of suffocating in the deep sea, transmitted through their mental link, surged over him again like a tsunami and smashed into his consciousness. His stomach churned violently.

His bloodstained fingertips trembled uncontrollably from the exhilaration of surviving catastrophe, the crushing burden suddenly pressing down on his shoulders, and the indescribable weight in his heart. Beyond the window, at the torn edge between the distant horizon and the heavy night, a gray-white, deathly dawn struggled through the darkness and silently seeped in.

Bloody dawn had finally crushed the night. Yet the storm that would devour everything had only just revealed its savage fangs beneath the deathly morning light.