The sirens of the Cloud-Galleon weren't just a warning—they were a frequency of submission.
As the wail echoed across Oakhaven, the villagers who hadn't been crushed by Vane's gravity began to weep. They knew that sound. It was the sound of the "Harvest." Every ten years, the High Sects came to take the strongest children and the purest Qi.
This time, they were coming for a monster.
[SYSTEM ALERT: MULTIPLE HIGH-LEVEL SIGNATURES DETECTED]
[THREAT LEVEL: ANNIHILATION]
Four pods drifted down from the ship's belly, slamming into the earth around Zayn's crater. The steam cleared to reveal the Harvester Guard. They wore interlocking plates of spirit-iron, their faces hidden behind masks carved into the likeness of weeping saints.
They didn't carry swords. They carried Soul-Hooks—long, jagged chains glowing with a sickly violet light.
"The target is unstable," the lead Guard spoke, his voice modulated by his mask. "Execute 'Containment Protocol Gamma.' Strip the core. Leave the meat."
The chains hissed through the air like vipers.
Zayn didn't move. He stood in the center of the crater, his skin still leaking the orange light of the Seismic Pulse. He felt the planet beneath him shudder in fear. Or maybe... it was anticipation.
"You're late," Zayn whispered, his eyes locking onto the lead Guard.
He didn't wait for the hooks to land. He slammed both palms into the ground.
[TECHNIQUE: SEISMIC PULSE - OVERCLOCK]
The crater floor didn't just vibrate—it liquefied. A wall of molten rock and glass surged upward like a tidal wave, meeting the violet chains mid-air and melting them into slag.
The lead Guard paused. "Impossible. A gutter-born shouldn't have access to Mantle-Heat."
"I'm not just a gutter-born," Zayn growled, stepping through the wall of fire, his silhouette jagged and terrifying. "I'm the one who's going to bury you in it."
The lead Guard didn't panic. He raised a hand, and the other three guards instantly moved into a diamond formation around the crater.
"Form the Seal," the leader commanded.
The silver-masked warriors slammed their Soul-Hooks into the ground. A lattice of violet energy erupted between them, creating a Ghost-Wire Cage. It was a specialized containment field designed to sever a cultivator's connection to the earth.
Zayn felt the hum in his feet die out. The rhythmic thumping of the planet's heart, which had been his lifeline, was suddenly muffled—as if someone had stuffed his ears with cotton.
[WARNING: PLANETARY SYNC DROPPING...]
[40%... 30%... CONNECTION INTERRUPTED]
"You think your power comes from your Rage?" The lead Guard stepped onto the edge of the violet cage, looking down at Zayn. "It comes from the dirt. And we have disconnected the line. You are just a man again, 'Irregular.' And a man is easily broken."
Zayn's knees buckled. Without the Earth-Qi flowing through him, the weight of his own Internal Burn began to cook his insides. Smoke started pouring out of his mouth.
"Is that... all?" Zayn gasped. He looked at his hands; the amber light was fading, turning into a dull, painful grey.
"It is enough," the Guard said. Two of the warriors lunged, their violet-glowing chains spinning like sawblades, aiming for Zayn's collarbones.
But Zayn wasn't looking at the guards. He was looking at the ground. He realized the violet seal wasn't blocking the Earth—it was just sitting on top of it. It was a blanket. And blankets can be ripped.
If I can't reach the Earth, Zayn thought, the Rage turning from a fire into a cold, sharp needle, I'll bring the Earth to me.
[NEW SUB-TECHNIQUE DETECTED: POINT-RESONANCE]
Instead of trying to sync with the whole planet, Zayn focused every single ounce of his remaining Qi into one tiny point: The tip of his middle finger.
As the chains were inches from his skin, Zayn snapped his finger against the violet energy floor.
BOOM.
It wasn't a wide explosion. It was a "Sonic Spike."
By focusing the Seismic Pulse into a space the size of a needle, the pressure was infinite. The violet seal didn't just break; it shattered like glass under a hammer. The feedback loop traveled back up the Soul-Hooks, exploding the arms of the two attacking guards in a shower of sparks and spirit-armor fragments.
The connection was back.
[PLANETARY SYNC: 100%]
[STATUS: OVERLOADED]
The Earth didn't just hum this time. It screamed.
Zayn rose from the smoke, his hair standing on end, his eyes now glowing with such intensity that the guards had to shield their masks. He wasn't just standing on the ground—the ground was rising to meet him, stones floating and swirling around him like a miniature asteroid belt.
"My turn," Zayn said.
He didn't use a punch. He used a Seismic Clap.
He slammed his hands together in front of him. The air pressure between his palms compressed until it turned white-hot. A cone of pure kinetic force erupted, hitting the lead Guard dead-center.
The Guard's "Saint Mask" disintegrated. His heavy spirit-iron chest plate folded inward like a soda can. He was launched backward, clearing the village walls and vanishing into the dark forest a mile away.
Zayn turned to the remaining three guards, who were clutching their broken arms and trembling.
"Tell your captain," Zayn growled, his voice echoing with the weight of a mountain, "that the Harvest is cancelled. Permanently."
He didn't wait for a response. He looked up at the Cloud-Galleon. The massive ship was already beginning to tilt, its stabilizer engines struggling to stay level against the localized gravity Zayn was unintentionally radiating.
Zayn crouched low, the ground beneath him turning to powder. He wasn't going to wait for them to send more pods.
He was going to jump.