The abandoned shack in the Western Slums smelled of centuries of neglect. The wooden beams groaned under the weight of a sagging roof, and the floor was a treacherous landscape of mud and splintered planks.
Jin Hao sat on a crate that felt damp to the touch, his fine robes starkly out of place in the squalor. He chewed on a piece of dried spirit-jerky he had swiped from a street vendor an hour ago, tearing at the tough meat with the ferocity of a wild dog.
"Trash," he muttered, swallowing the flavorless lump. "This whole place is trash. I am a Late Stage Foundation Establishment expert. I should be dining on dragon liver and phoenix marrow. Instead, I'm hiding in a shed like a common criminal."
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes burning with a resentment that had only grown hotter since his escape. He was powerful, yes. He had defied the heavens and leaped realms in a single night. But he was also homeless and hungry.
"System," he hissed, his mental voice sharp with irritation. "Scan the area again. There has to be something better than this hovel."
[Scanning immediate vicinity...]
[No suitable safe houses detected. Patrol density in Sector 4 remains high.]
Jin Hao kicked a pile of rotting straw. "Patrols. They're like cockroaches. Don't they have anything better to do? I only took a few things. A warehouse or two. What is that to the Jin Family? A drop in the bucket! It's pocket change!"
He stood up and began to pace the small space. His aura flared with his mood, causing the dust in the room to swirl violently.
"They act like I murdered the Patriarch," he ranted to the empty air. "I just took what was owed to me! For five years, they treated me like garbage. They fed me scraps. They let the guards mock me. They let my cousins beat me during sparring. That warehouse? That was back pay. That was interest on the debt they owe to my dignity!"
He stopped, his chest heaving. "And now they hunt me? They want to kill me over some ore and pills? It's petty. It's small minded. It just proves they don't deserve their wealth."
A greedy light ignited in his eyes. He looked toward the direction of the Jin Estate.
"I should go back," he whispered, a manic grin stretching his lips. "I should go back and burn the rest of it down. I should eat the main treasury. I should eat the Patriarch's throne. I'll leave them with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Then we'll see who the 'trash' is."
[Alert: Low-grade spiritual fluctuation detected within the structure.]
The system's voice cut through his rant.
Jin Hao froze. "What? Here? In this dump?"
[Affirmative. Beneath the floorboards in the northeast corner. Object concealed in a lead lined box.]
Jin Hao's mood instantly flipped. The greed that defined his soul surged to the forefront. "A hidden treasure? In a slum shack?" He chuckled. "Of course. I am the protagonist. Even when I hide in a toilet, I find gold."
He strode to the corner of the room. The floorboards here were rotted through. He kicked them aside, revealing the damp earth beneath. He dug with his hands, his Foundation Establishment strength making the dirt yield like water.
His fingers brushed against cold metal. He pulled out a small box made of dull gray lead.
"Open it," he muttered.
The lid was rusted shut. He didn't bother with finesse. He gripped the lid and ripped it off with a screech of tearing metal.
Inside was a sphere resting on a bed of decaying velvet. It was about the size of an apple, made of a rough iron that felt warm to the touch. Faint lines of orange light pulsed beneath the rust, beating like a dying heart.
"What is this?" Jin Hao frowned. "It looks like junk."
[Scanning...]
[Item Identified: Thunder-Fire Annihilation Orb (Unstable).]
[Grade: Profound Rank Disposable Artifact.]
[Function: A single-use detonation device containing compressed lightning and fire Qi. Upon activation, it creates a localized explosion capable of severely injuring or killing cultivators below the Golden Core realm.]
Jin Hao's eyes widened. "A bomb?"
[Affirmative. It appears to have been left here by a rogue cultivator decades ago. The containment seals are degrading. It is highly volatile.]
Jin Hao picked it up carefully. The orb hummed in his hand, a vibrating promise of destruction. He couldn't devour it or rather the system advised against devouring something that might explode if he tried to devour it, so it was better not to mess with what was essentially a bomb.
"A Profound Rank bomb," he whispered, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Enough to kill anyone below Golden Core. That means... it could wipe out a squad of those arrogant Jin guards."
He weighed the orb in his hand, his mind already spinning scenarios. He could toss it into the barracks. He could leave it at the gate. He could…
[WARNING. WARNING.]
[Multiple hostile entities detected entering the perimeter.]
[Distance: 50 meters and closing rapidly.]
Jin Hao nearly dropped the orb. "What? Who?"
[Signature Match: Jin Family Patrol Unit. Composition: One Captain (Middle Stage Foundation Establishment), Ten Elites (Peak Qi Condensation). They are utilizing Stealth Talismans.]
"They found me?" Jin Hao gasped, panic seizing his throat. "How? I masked my cultivation! I hid in the slums!"
[Hypothesis: They utilized a grid-search pattern combined with mortal informants. Or sheer probability.]
"They paid the beggars," Jin Hao realized, his face twisting in fury. "Those dirty rats! I should have burned this whole district down!"
[Hostiles are breaching the outer yard. Encirclement imminent.]
"Damn it!" Jin Hao shoved the Thunder-Fire Orb into his pocket. "System, find me a route!"
[All exits covered. Hostile units have established a perimeter formation. Sealing Arrays detected.]
A translucent curtain of light suddenly flared into existence around the shack, cutting off the view of the muddy street outside. A Low leve confinement formationl, but enough to stop a casual escape.
"Jin Hao!" A booming voice echoed from outside, amplified by spiritual energy. "We know you are in there! Come out and surrender, you ungrateful thief! The Patriarch demands justice!"
It was the voice of Captain Zhao, a man who had once whipped Jin Hao for walking too slowly in the training yard.
Jin Hao's fear morphed instantly into a blinding rage. "Justice?" he screamed back, his voice cracking. "You want justice? You starved me for five years! You treated me like a dog! I took what was mine!"
"You stole the foundation of the family!" Zhao roared. "Come out, or we will bring the shack down on your head!"
"Come and get me, you old goat!" Jin Hao yelled.
He kicked the rotting front door. It flew off its hinges, shattering into splinters that rained down on the muddy yard.
Jin Hao stepped out into the sunlight, his Late Stage Foundation Establishment aura exploding outward in a chaotic wave. The pressure was immense, kicking up dust and blowing the debris away from him.
Captain Zhao and his ten elites stood in a semi-circle, weapons drawn. When they felt the weight of Jin Hao's cultivation, their eyes went wide.
"Late Stage?" Zhao choked out, his spear wavering. "The reports were true. You... you monster."
"Monster?" Jin Hao laughed, a manic sound. "I am a dragon! And you are just insects!"
He lunged.
He moved faster than his own mind could process. He covered the distance to the nearest guard in a blink. A Peak Qi Condensation veteran guard tried to raise his sword.
Jin Hao threw a punch. It was clumsy. It was just a wild swing. But it carried the weight of a mountain.
CRACK.
His fist connected with the guard's chest. The breastplate crumpled like paper. The guard was launched backward as if hit by a siege weapon, crashing into the formation barrier with a wet thud.