The air in the Forest of Blades didn't just turn cold; it turned wrong. The humidity of the morning was replaced by a dry, metallic stench that made Xiao Yan's nose bleed.
"Ugh, smells like someone left a pile of meat in the sun for a week," Xiao Yan muttered, wiping his face. He felt the hair on his arms stand up.
Beside him, Yanlin wasn't joking around anymore. He slammed his Earthbreaker Shield into the mud, his breathing heavy. "Boss, the ground... it's dying. I can't feel the mountain's heartbeat under my feet. Something is eating it."
High above in the canopy, Qingya let out a sharp whistle. "Eyes up! We've got company, and they aren't here for the ranking!"
Out of the grey mist stepped Zhao Kui. He had been a senior, someone the 32nd Gate students feared for his skill. Now, he looked like a puppet with broken strings. His skin was a bruised, translucent purple, and a black liquid leaked from his eyes, sizzling as it hit his own boots.
"The... Var-variable..." Zhao Kui's voice sounded like a throat full of broken glass. "Hand... over... the core."
"Zhao Kui? Is that you in there?" Xiao Yan shouted, his heart thumping against his ribs. He hated this. He hated the way the man's jaw was unhinged, hanging at a sickening angle. This wasn't a duel; it was a horror show.
[Master, stop trying to talk to him,] Michael's voice was sharp in his head. [There is no Zhao Kui left. He's just a skin-suit for a Void-larva colony. If that black ichor touches your skin, you're looking at an amputation.]
"Yanlin, stay back! Don't let that stuff touch the shield!" Xiao Yan yelled.
"I'm not leaving you, Xiao Yan!" Yanlin roared, his skin turning to dark, jagged obsidian. "I'm your roommate, remember? We share the rent, we share the hits!"
Zhao Kui lunged. He didn't run like a human; he moved in a series of bone-snapping twitches. His iron saber, now dripping with shadow-rot, slammed into Yanlin's shield.
CLANG!
The sound was dull and wet. Yanlin let out a choked scream as his feet sank six inches into the dirt. The black liquid began to hiss against the divine metal of the shield, eating through the granite aura.
"It burns!" Yanlin wheezed, his teeth bared in pain. "Boss, it's eating through my physique!"
Xiao Yan felt a surge of pure, hot panic. He couldn't lose the only person who'd called him "brother" in years. He reached for his sword, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. The shadow-rot would just travel up the blade.
He needed to be heavier. He needed to be the hammer that broke the world.
"Michael... give it to me. Now!"
[Your arm is going to break, Master. Your Divine Stage 1 body isn't ready for the weight.]
"I don't care! Give it to me!"
Xiao Yan reached into the air behind his head. A jagged rift in reality tore open, smelling of ozone and ancient stone. A bolt of violet lightning struck his hand, so loud it deafened him for a second.
When the light cleared, Xiao Yan was holding Sky Mjolnir. It was a massive, brutal block of dark iron, humming with a frequency that made his teeth ache. The moment his fingers closed around the handle, his feet sank into the earth. The gravity in the area tripled instantly, snapping the trees around them like dry twigs.
Xiao Yan's muscles bulged, his veins turning a glowing violet. He felt his humerus groan under the weight.
"GET. AWAY. FROM. HIM!"
He swung. It wasn't an elegant sword strike; it was a desperate, heavy arc. The hammer didn't even need to touch Zhao Kui. The sheer displacement of air—the weight of the lightning laws—smashed into the demon-senior. Zhao Kui was launched backward, his body tumbling through the mechanical traps like a ragdoll.
Xiao Yan stood over Yanlin, the head of the hammer resting on the ground. Every time he breathed, a puff of violet static escaped his lips. His right arm was trembling uncontrollably, blood seeping through the pores of his skin from the sheer recoil.
"You... you still alive, man?" Xiao Yan gasped, his voice raspy.
Yanlin looked up from the dirt, eyes wide with shock. "What is that thing? It feels like the sky just sat on my head."
"It's a hammer," Xiao Yan wheezed, trying to manage a grin. "My dad's... old tool."
"Watch out!" Qingya's voice shrieked from above.
Zhao Kui was standing up again. His limbs were twisted at right angles, his chest caved in, but the black threads inside him were stitching him back together. Behind him, four more possessed seniors arrived, their bodies melting together into a singular, pulsating mass of shadow.
"They're going to blow," Qingya cried, her voice cracking with fear. "That's a suicide array! If that thing detonates, the 32nd Gate is gone!"
Xiao Yan looked at the dark mass. He looked at Yanlin, who was still struggling to stand, and Qingya, who looked terrified on her branch. He looked up at the floating Immortal Hall, where he knew Bingxue was watching.
He was tired of being the underdog. He was tired of people he cared about getting hurt because he was "trash."
"Yanlin, Qingya... cover your ears. And close your eyes," Xiao Yan said softly.
He hoisted Sky Mjolnir over his head with both hands. His Thunder-Bone was glowing so brightly it was visible through his shirt. The Azure Dragon Emperor in his soul let out a roar that synchronized with the hammer's vibration.
"Judgment... First Form," he whispered.
He didn't hit the demons. He slammed the hammer directly into the World Anchor Point—the very heart of the gate's gravity—beneath his feet.
"THUNDER BURIAL!"
The world didn't just shake; it inverted. A dome of violet lightning exploded outward, moving with the weight of a mountain. The shadow-array didn't even have time to pop; it was simply crushed into nothingness by the sheer physical pressure. The black liquid, the larvae, the corrupted seniors—everything was turned to dust in a heartbeat.
When the light died down, a mile-wide crater sat in the center of the forest. Xiao Yan stood in the middle of it, his robes shredded and his skin scorched. The hammer vanished back into the rift, leaving his right arm hanging limp at his side.
He coughed, spitting out a mouthful of dirt and blood. "That... really sucked."
Ma Qingya landed beside him, her hands shaking as she grabbed his good arm. Yanlin stood up, leaning on his broken shield, his face pale.
"Boss," Yanlin said, his voice barely a whisper. "You just... you just deleted the 32nd Gate."
High above in the Immortal Hall, Yan Bingxue stood at her balcony, her heart racing. She saw the violet mushroom cloud. She saw the boy in the center of the destruction.
"The Sky Mjolnir," she whispered, her eyes filled with a mix of awe and terror. "He's not just a variable. He's the storm."
As the three of them limped toward the exit of the forest, they were met by a wall of Internal Enforcement Disciples, swords drawn. At the front was Ling Feng, his face twisted in a sneer.
"Xiao Yan Long," Ling Feng shouted. "You're under arrest for using forbidden artifacts and destroying Academy grounds. Drop to your knees, or we'll kill you where you stand."
Xiao Yan looked at the "geniuses" in their clean robes. He looked at his own bleeding arm and his exhausted friends. He didn't drop to his knees. He took a step forward, his eyes still glowing with a faint, dangerous violet light.
"I'm not in the mood, Ling Feng," Xiao Yan said, his voice low and cold. "Move. Or I'll show you what a 'forbidden artifact' really feels like."