[HOST INTEGRITY: 35%] [LOCATION: MAINTENANCE TUNNEL 04 - BELOW SECTOR 9] [TIME: 11:45 PM]
The underbelly of Sector 9 smelled of ozone, rotting algae, and fifty years of neglected rust.
Ankle-deep, freezing black water sloshed against Ren Wu's leather shoes. He walked down the center of the dark, arched concrete tunnel. A faint, oppressive golden halo radiated from his skin, casting long, jumping shadows against the wet walls. It was the only light down here.
Behind him marched fifty Iron-Husked Myrmidons. They carried massive steel chains and rusted iron logging hooks over their shoulders. Every step they took displaced gallons of water.
Splash. Clang. Splash. Clang.
Jian shivered, walking close to Ren's golden light. He held a modified scanner wrapped in a plastic grocery bag to protect it from the dripping ceiling.
"Ren," Jian whispered, his teeth chattering. "The main junction is thirty meters ahead. The Consortium uses the old Ley Lines to power the spatial gates and the Ivory Tower. It's not a wire. It's a massive, high-voltage river of raw Qi. If you touch it, a million volts will fry your soul into ash."
Ren didn't stop walking.
"I am not going to touch it, Jian."
They turned the corner.
The tunnel opened into a massive, cavernous chamber. In the center of the room stood a reinforced concrete pillar the size of a redwood tree.
It was throbbing.
A sickly, blinding blue light pulsed through deep cracks in the concrete. The sound was deafening—a low, mechanical bass that vibrated directly in the molars. This was the Consortium's proprietary spiritual energy, sucked from the earth and funneled straight to the Upper Layer.
The concrete pillar was plastered with glowing red warning wards.
[PROPERTY OF ALCHEMIST CONSORTIUM] [LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED] [DO NOT TAMPER]
Ren stopped at the edge of the water. He didn't bother looking at the wards. He didn't look for a control panel to hack.
He tilted his head toward the massive iron soldier standing at his right.
"Red Dog. Open the wall."
Red Dog stepped forward. He didn't wind up. He didn't cast a spell. He just drove his matte-black iron fist directly into the reinforced concrete.
BOOM.
Dust and pulverized stone exploded into the air. The red warning wards flashed violently, discharging a web of lethal red lightning over Red Dog's armor. The electricity sparked, popped, and grounded out harmlessly into the ankle-deep water.
Red Dog grabbed the edge of the cracked concrete and ripped it backward.
Rebar snapped. Stone crumbled.
The pillar opened, exposing the blinding, thrashing blue Ley Line buried inside. It looked like a column of liquid lightning, thick as a tree trunk, flowing upward toward the Ivory Tower.
The Emperor's Scalpel
Ren stepped up to the exposed vein of the city.
The heat radiating off the blue energy scorched the air. The water at Ren's feet began to boil, sending thick plumes of white steam toward the ceiling.
He didn't pull out the Tiger Seal yet. He raised his right hand.
Deep within his vessel, the massive reservoir of Faith he had just absorbed from the kneeling citizens flared to life.
[SYSTEM ALERT] [ACTIVATE: LEY LINE SURGERY] [COST: 5% INTEGRITY] [COST MITIGATED BY FAITH RESERVOIR. CURRENT INTEGRITY: 35%]
A weapon materialized in Ren's grip.
It wasn't a sword. It wasn't a spear. It was a massive, rectangular slab of spectral gold. It was a Guillotine Blade—the heavy, brutal tool used in the First Court to sever the lifelines of corrupt gods.
Ren gripped the golden steel. He didn't hesitate.
He swung the heavy blade directly into the blinding blue pillar of lightning.
SNAP.
The sound didn't echo. It was a sharp, teeth-rattling crack, like a suspension bridge cable snapping under maximum tension.
The blue light stuttered.
Then, the bottom half of the Ley Line tore loose.
The Splicing
"Restrain it!" Ye Lingshan roared over the boiling water.
The severed bottom half of the Ley Line whipped out of the concrete pillar. It thrashed like a dying, high-voltage snake, spraying arcs of blue fire that gouged deep scorch marks into the cavern walls. If it grounded out against the ceiling, the resulting explosion would vaporize the entire city block above them.
The Iron Legion moved.
Fifty Myrmidons lunged forward into the boiling water. They didn't use defensive magic. They used raw, terrifying density.
They threw their massive iron bodies onto the thrashing blue energy. Hands forged in molten scrap metal grabbed the lightning.
The cavern filled with the deafening hiss of superheated iron. The Myrmidons did not scream. Their black armor glowed cherry-red from the friction and the heat. They slammed their heavy iron hooks into the energy stream, dragging the thrashing blue line down into the mud and pinning it to the floor.
Fifty tanks, wrestling a river of magic.
"The cable!" Ren shouted.
Above them, a heavy iron grate in the ceiling popped open. Dr. Zhu, waiting in the factory directly overhead, dropped a massive, rusted copper industrial cable down into the cavern. It splashed into the water next to Ren.
Ren grabbed the thick copper cable.
He dragged it over to the pinned, thrashing blue Ley Line. He pressed the dead copper against the screaming blue energy.
Ren reached into his jacket. He pulled out the block of black jade.
He slammed the Tiger Seal directly onto the junction point where the two lines met.
"Change of address."
The Inversion
The Tiger Seal burned gold.
The connection fused. The blinding blue energy of the Alchemist Consortium was forcibly sucked into the rusted copper cable.
But it didn't stay blue.
As the raw Qi passed beneath the absolute Authority of the Minister's seal, it was filtered. The color inverted. The sickly blue light instantly flashed into a warm, blinding Gold.
The energy shot upward, traveling up the copper cable and straight into the basement of the Last Stop Factory.
[LOCATION: SECTOR 9 - THE STREETS]
Fifty thousand ghosts kneeled in the freezing rain. They waited in the dark.
Then, the streetlights popped.
They didn't flicker with the cheap, flickering blue light of the Consortium. They ignited with a steady, burning gold.
Down in the Undermarket, the massive automated water purifiers roared back to life, pumping clean water into the gutters. The heating grates in the alleys hissed, venting warm air into the freezing slums.
The kneeling citizens looked up at the golden streetlights.
They didn't cheer. They just bowed their heads lower. The thin, golden threads of Faith connecting their chests to the factory grew thicker, pulsing with an unbreakable rhythm.
The Minister provided.
The Blackout
[LOCATION: ALCHEMIST CONSORTIUM HQ - PENTHOUSE]
Section Chief Zhao stood in his brilliantly lit office.
He held a crystal glass of imported demon-blood wine. He looked out the floor-to-ceiling window, staring down at Sector 9. He waited to see the fires. He waited to see the starving ghosts tear the Last Stop Factory apart.
BZZT.
The lights in the penthouse died.
The massive holographic tactical monitors on the walls whined, pitched down, and went black. The deep, mechanical hum of the spatial gates floating above the city ground to a complete, sickening halt.
Zhao dropped his wine glass. It shattered on the floor in the pitch black.
Red emergency lights kicked on, bathing the pristine office in a bloody glow.
The heavy oak doors burst open. A senior technician sprinted into the room, hyperventilating, his tie askew.
"Sir!" the tech gasped, leaning against the doorframe. "The grid... it's gone!"
Zhao grabbed the edge of his desk. "What do you mean gone? I ordered you to cut the power to Sector 9!"
"No, Sir!" The technician's voice cracked in pure panic. "They didn't bypass the cut! They physically stole the grid! The main Ley Line is severed! The energy is being diverted straight into that factory!"
Zhao's stomach dropped. The freezing air conditioning in the room died.
"The Ivory Tower..." Zhao choked on the words. "The headquarters..."
"We are running on backup batteries, Sir!" The technician yelled. "We have three hours before the shields fall and life support fails!"
Zhao slowly turned his head.
He looked out the window.
His pristine, billion-coin Ivory Tower was completely dark. The massive neon logos were dead. The spatial gates were frozen.
But down below, cutting through the acidic rain and the green smog, the slums of Sector 9 were bathed in the warm, terrifying golden light of the Sovereign.
[AUTHOR NOTE]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Zhao: "I cut your power! Starve in the dark!" Ren Wu: Unplugs the Consortium. "No, you."
Next Chapter: The Financial Nuke. The physical infrastructure is broken. Now, Ren breaks the money. The Consortium's stock price hits absolute zero. It is time for the final push.
The Grid belongs to the Legion! Drop a Power Stone to keep the golden lights burning! 💡🔥
[END OF CHAPTER 72]