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At dawn, Amberlight City was alive with the sounds of rebuilding—but beneath the hammers and hopeful voices, an invisible tension threaded through the streets. Su Yang stood atop the southern watchtower, wind brushing his hair as he stared at the steep mountain slope beyond the city's rear gate.
That mountain had long been forbidden to the public.
On the surface, it was just rocky terrain with occasional herb patches.
But last night, the jade scroll in Su Yang's robes had glowed faintly—reacting only when he faced this very direction.
> "If there's a secret hidden in this city, it's buried in that mountain."
---
An hour later, with Max perched silently on his shoulder , Su Yang slipped past the gates and moved into the forested paths of the lower mountain.
He didn't take a road. He took the air.
Stepping onto a mid-tier wind talisman he'd purchased back at the sect, Su Yang leapt from tree to tree, his movements smooth and calculated. Birds scattered. Mist swirled. His instincts told him to be quiet, but his spiritual sense guided him—like a soft pull from the jade scroll inside his robes.
Eventually, Su Yang landed atop a moss-covered cliff, staring down at a seemingly abandoned mine entrance.
Rusting carts. Broken tracks. No spirit energy in the air.
But the jade scroll pulsed again.
Max hissed quietly, fur bristling.
> "Looks dead. But it's not."
Su Yang took out a golden needle—a refined detection tool—and dropped it into the mine shaft.
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then—fzzzt!
The needle was disintegrated in mid-air by a sharp burst of dark spiritual energy.
Su Yang's eyes narrowed.
"Corrupted qi. Sealed by an illusion."
---
Back in the city, City Lord Yin was preparing rations for a merchant caravan when Su Yang reappeared silently in his study.
"You're back fast," Yin said. "Did you find something?"
Su Yang tossed a map onto the table. It was a detailed sketch of the old mine, with glowing red marks near the lower levels.
"Your forbidden mine is a lie. Someone's using it. There's corrupted qi gathering inside."
Yin's face turned pale. "The Zhao Clan owns the land around it."
Su Yang nodded. "They've likely been digging for years—and now they've found something. Perhaps a corrupted spirit vein… or worse."
The city lord clenched his fists. "We must act immediately."
"No," Su Yang said quickly. "If we alert them, they'll vanish again—just like the bandits did. Let me go in first. Alone."
Yin hesitated, but then nodded slowly. "Be careful. If what you say is true, we're dealing with a corruption beyond mortal greed."
---
That night, cloaked in a qi-suppression talisman, Su Yang re-entered the mine—this time from a hidden tunnel the jade scroll revealed when he infused it with his Karma Fire.
The tunnel led deep—far deeper than expected.
He passed through three sealed doors, each embedded with dark runes. But the Karma Fire within him pulsed, resisting the pressure.
At last, he entered a cavern… and stopped.
A massive black crystal floated at the center—anchored to the earth by corrupted qi veins that pulsed like living arteries. Around it stood four Zhao Clan cultivators in black robes, drawing qi from the stone using a strange formation.
Su Yang remained in the shadows, but his eyes sharpened.
> "So this is the source. A corrupted Heart Crystal. Likely dug up from a ruined battlefield or old demonic ruin. It's poisoning the land… and empowering them in secret."
Suddenly, one of the Zhao men turned.
"I sense someone."
Su Yang didn't panic.
Instead, he flicked a finger—and the snake spirit beast slithered silently across the ground, coiling around the outermost formation sigil.
Snap!
The formation trembled.
Su Yang emerged from the shadows, Karma Fire erupting in his palm.
The Zhao guards shouted, forming a defensive wall. But they were too slow.
"True Flame Blossom: First Petal!"
A single, radiant flame exploded from his palm, bypassing the barrier and slamming into the crystal itself.
BOOM!
Corrupted qi erupted like a geyser—swallowing the cavern in red-black mist. The formation shattered. Cultivators screamed. One tried to counterattack, but Max blinked and reappeared behind him—teleporting in a blur—and bit down on his neck, disrupting his qi flow.
Su Yang moved like a blade, his flame cutting through the shadows.
By the time the mist cleared, three Zhao cultivators lay unconscious—bound by spiritual thread.
Only one remained: the leader of the operation. A Zhao elder, late Vein Tempering, eyes gleaming with dark madness.
"You… ruined everything!" he roared, unleashing a torrent of black fire at Su Yang.
Su Yang frowned. "That's not fire. That's soul corruption."
He countered by releasing his Karma Flame at full strength.
The two flames clashed—black vs gold.
But Karma Fire had purity and law. The black fire had madness and stolen essence.
It wasn't a fair match.
With a crack, the Zhao elder screamed as the flame consumed him from within, purifying the darkness in his veins. In seconds, he collapsed.
Su Yang stood in the silence that followed, his chest heaving lightly.
> "This mine… it was more dangerous than I expected. But now… the corruption can't spread."
---
The next morning, City Lord Yin stood at the destroyed mine entrance as his guards sealed it off for good.
Su Yang handed over a jade slip with all he'd learned—locations, names, the use of the corrupted crystal, and even the runic formations.
"You should present this to the sect investigation elders," he said. "The Zhao Clan won't be able to deny this. Their influence ends now."
Yin nodded with deep gratitude. "You saved this city more than once, Su Yang. What can I offer you in return?"
Su Yang smiled faintly. "Just keep protecting your people."
Then he turned away—Max riding on his shoulder, vanished into the misty road that led back to the Seven Valley Sect.
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