Chapter 24: The Red Fog
Time: Midnight.
Location: The West District Alleys.
The moon was hidden behind thick clouds, turning the sprawling slums of the West District into a maze of ink-black shadows.
Luo Feng moved quickly, his black cloak billowing silently in the wind. He had left the Battle Hall with a heavy pouch of Spirit Stones and his life intact, but the adrenaline from his fight with the Butcher had long faded, replaced by a cold, prickling sensation on the back of his neck.
Paranoia.
He didn't head straight for the Green Willow residential district. That would lead any potential tail right to his doorstep, right to Luo Xia and the baby.
Instead, he took a detour.
He turned left, diving into the labyrinth of abandoned warehouses and crumbling shacks that bordered the city wall. He moved in a chaotic zig-zag pattern, doubling back on his own tracks, jumping over rotted fences, and slipping through narrow gaps in the stone.
He stopped in the shadow of a collapsed chimney, holding his breath.
Silence.
For a moment, he thought he was safe.
Then, a voice drifted out from the darkness, calm and amused.
"You run like a rat, little rookie. But you can't hide your scent."
Luo Feng stiffened. He turned slowly.
At the end of the alley, blocking the only exit, stood a figure. He was tall, thin, and wore the gray robes of a loose cultivator. He didn't have a weapon drawn. He didn't need one.
The pressure radiating from him was heavy, suffocating, and far stronger than the Butcher's.
[System Scan]
[Target: Unknown Cultivator.]
[Cultivation: Qi Refining Layer 5 (Early Stage).]
[Threat: Lethal.]
Luo Feng's heart skipped a beat. Layer 5.
This was the threshold.
Layer 1-3 was the Body Forging stage.
Layer 4 was the transition.
Layer 5 was the awakening of Spirit Sense.
A Layer 5 cultivator didn't just see with their eyes. They had a mental radar. They could sense Qi fluctuations, track movements in the dark, and even predict attacks before they happened.
"Iron Mask," the man smiled, his teeth white in the gloom. "Or should I say, the walking treasure chest? You tossed around high-grade Spirit Wine like it was water. Did you really think no one would follow you?"
"I gave the wine to the Battle Hall," Luo Feng said, his voice deepened by Qi. "I have nothing."
"Liar," the man stepped forward. "You have the Butcher's purse. And more importantly... you have the source of that wine. Hand over your storage ring. Tell me where you brew it. And I might leave you with one arm."
Luo Feng realized there was no negotiation. This man had followed him to a secluded place where no guards patrolled. He was happy. He thought he had cornered a fat sheep in a dead end.
"You want it?" Luo Feng reached into his pouch. "Come and get it."
The Failed Test.
Luo Feng moved first.
He whipped his hand forward. A single, glowing red object flew through the air, aimed straight at the man's face.
It was a whole Blast Chili.
Luo Feng threw it with all his strength. In the dark alley, it was a blur of motion. Against a Layer 4 opponent, this would have been a surprise attack.
But the Gray-Robed Man didn't even blink.
He didn't raise his hands to block. He simply tilted his head to the left.
Whoosh.
The chili sailed harmlessly past his ear and exploded against the brick wall behind him.
BOOM.
Fire and dust erupted, but the man stood untouched in the center of the alley, a mocking sneer on his face.
"Pathetic," the man laughed. "Do you think I use my eyes in the dark? My Spirit Sense locked onto that object the moment your muscles tensed. I saw the Qi spike inside the fruit. I knew the trajectory before it left your hand."
He took another step forward, his aura flaring.
"You can't surprise a Layer 5 Master, boy. I can see everything. Every twitch of your finger. Every flow of your Qi. You are naked before me."
Luo Feng backed up until his back hit the cold stone of the dead-end wall.
He wasn't panicking. Beneath the iron mask, his face was cold and calculating.
'He's right,' Luo Feng thought. 'Spirit Sense is a wallhack. He can see the attack coming. He can see the energy inside the weapon.'
The single chili failed because it was a discrete object. A single point of data. The Spirit Sense tracked it easily.
"So," Luo Feng muttered, his hand diving back into his storage pouch. "You can see Qi spikes?"
"I can," the man raised a hand, forming a blade of blue wind Qi. "And now I see your death."
"Then look at this," Luo Feng whispered.
The Red Fog.
Luo Feng didn't pull out a weapon. He pulled out a fragile paper sack.
It wasn't heavy. It was filled with a fine, dry powder.
Back in the farm, Luo Feng had taken 50 dried Blast Chilies—the equivalent of a massive bomb—and ground them into a microscopic dust. He had mixed this dust with Iron-Skin Yam starch to make it heavy enough to hang in the air.
He didn't throw it at the man.
He threw it up.
He smashed the bag against the ground at his own feet, simultaneously blasting it with a palm strike of wind.
POOF.
The alley wasn't filled with an explosion. It was filled with a cloud.
A massive, thick, suffocating cloud of red dust expanded instantly, filling the narrow space from wall to wall, engulfing both Luo Feng and the Gray-Robed Man.
The man sneered. "Smoke? You think smoke blinds Spirit Sense? Fool! I don't need to see to kill y—"
Suddenly, the man screamed.
"ARGH! MY EYES! MY MIND!"
The White Noise Effect.
The dust wasn't just smoke. Every single microscopic grain of that red powder was charged with volatile Fire Qi.
To the naked eye, it was a red fog.
But to Spirit Sense, it was chaos.
Imagine trying to listen to a whisper in a room where fifty thousand people are screaming at once.
Imagine trying to look at a radar screen that is completely filled with static.
The millions of tiny, exploding Qi particles in the air created a "White Noise" effect. The man's Spirit Sense didn't see darkness; it saw blinding, overwhelming light everywhere. It overloaded his perception. His mental radar turned into a screeching wall of static.
"I CAN'T SEE!" The man flailed wildly, swinging his wind blade at nothing. "WHAT IS THIS?! MY SENSE IS BURNING!"
Not only was his magical sight blinded, but the physical effects kicked in.
The capsaicin dust entered his nose, his mouth, and his open eyes.
Cough! Wheeze!
The man doubled over, tears streaming down his face, snot running from his nose, his lungs burning as if he had inhaled lava.
"You... you devil..." he gagged, falling to his knees, clawing at his throat.
The Execution.
Luo Feng stood in the red fog.
He had closed his eyes tight before smashing the bag. He was holding his breath. He had pre-circulated the Moon Qi to form a thin, cooling barrier over his skin to protect himself from the spice.
He couldn't see the enemy with his eyes.
He didn't have Spirit Sense.
But he could hear.
He heard the coughing. He heard the desperate gagging of a man drowning on dry land.
Luo Feng stepped forward. He moved silently, holding the Spirit Iron Saber.
He didn't rush. He didn't need to. The Layer 5 master, the arrogant predator who boasted about his perception, was now a weeping, blind child rolling in the dirt.
Luo Feng tracked the sound.
Wheeze... cough...
Luo Feng judged the distance. Three steps.
He stepped through the red haze. He felt the heat of the man's body.
The man sensed something—a vague disturbance in the chaos—and lashed out blindly. "DIE!"
The wind blade flew wide, slicing into the brick wall a meter to Luo Feng's left.
Luo Feng swung.
"Heavy Plow."
Schluck.
The heavy saber cut through the neck with a wet, final sound.
The coughing stopped.
The flailing stopped.
The body hit the ground with a heavy thud.
[Qi Depletion: 10%.]
Luo Feng didn't dispel the fog immediately. He stood there, holding his breath, waiting until his lungs screamed for air. He sensed no movement.
He backed away, retreating out of the red cloud into the fresh night air.
He gasped, inhaling the clean oxygen greedily. His own skin was tingling from the spice, his eyes watering slightly despite the protection.
"Layer 5," Luo Feng panted, looking at the red mist swirling in the alley. "He was strong. He could track me. He could dodge bullets. But he relied too much on his Sense."
The Vigilance.
Luo Feng waited for the dust to settle. Then, he wrapped his face in a wet cloth and went back in to loot the body.
He found a storage pouch. He didn't check it there. He grabbed it and ran.
He didn't stop running until he had changed his route five times, switched his cloak inside out, and washed the spice smell off his hands in a public fountain.
When he finally returned to the safety of his walled courtyard, he didn't feel triumphant. He felt cold.
He leaned against the heavy iron-wood door of his bedroom, his heart hammering.
"I got lucky," Luo Feng whispered to himself.
"If that man hadn't been arrogant... if he had attacked from a distance... if he had used a wind talisman to blow the powder away... I would be dead."
The Battle Hall had taught him that he lacked skill.
The Alley had taught him that he lacked vigilance.
"I was careless," Luo Feng realized, stripping off his clothes and burning them in the stove to destroy the evidence. "I thought wearing a mask and walking fast was enough. But in this world, there are predators who can smell a drop of wine from a mile away."
He looked at Luo Xia sleeping peacefully on the bed.
He had almost led a Layer 5 killer right to her.
Luo Feng clenched his fists until his nails dug into his palms.
"Never again," he swore. "From now on, I don't just act strong. I act paranoid. I need countermeasures. I need traps. And I need to reach Layer 5 myself."
He took the loot from the bandit—the storage pouch—and placed it on the table.
He had survived the night. But the lesson was burned into his mind as painfully as the chili powder in the bandit's eyes.
Strength is useless if you are seen. The best killer is the one nobody notices.
[End of Chapter 24]
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