"The middle."
Hecatos raised a hand and pointed at the gap.
"That's where it's weakest."
Bai Zhu made a couple of practice swings, but the Guan Dao never came down.
He released his left hand and held his palm forward.
His Reiatsu passed through three nodes and gathered in his palm.
"Hadō #1: Thrust!"
A burst of force shot from his hand and struck the gap in the steel cable.
Grooves carved into the cable lit up. The impact failed to break it and instead ran along the grooves.
The ground trembled beneath Bai Zhu's feet.
He used Shunpo at once, shifting several meters sideways.
Boom!
The stone slab where he had stood flipped up from below, tumbled twice, and crashed into a pile of bones. More than a dozen skeletons were crushed beneath it, scattering metal rings everywhere.
Bai Zhu landed at the edge of the street and glanced down at the lines beneath his feet.
The force had entered the altar through the cable, traveled halfway around beneath the city, then returned to where the attacker had stood.
The cable had a mechanism that struck back against anyone trying to undo the seal.
If he cut it with his blade, all the force of the Guan Dao would come crashing back onto him.
Hecatos had been leading him along from the moment it opened its beak.
First it had talked about Zhang Ye killing people, then shown him the entire city to make him doubt the seal. Once he accepted that story, the offer would follow naturally.
The promised power was nothing but bait.
Hecatos had been hunting him all along.
"Why did you stop?"
Hecatos's long beak opened and closed.
"Sever it, and you will receive my gift."
Bai Zhu turned the Guan Dao and rested it