Influence points: 560,000......570,000

  The attacks came.

  Bang. Bam. Boom.

  Explosions shook the platform.

  Blades, flames, force. But all they struck was the cold, solid ground, stirring up waves of chaotic Qi that rippled outward in a frenzied storm.

  Then, Mist bloomed.

  Thick, silver mist unfurled in an instant, rolling over the field like a ghost tide. It curled and twisted with a will of its own, drowning the air in shimmering silence.

  "Where—!"

  "What is this?!" a voice called out, high with panic.

  "Where’d he go?!"

  Shocked exclamations rang out as the cultivators huddled closer, instinctively forming a tight, defensive circle. Their blades raised, backs pressed together, but it was futile, the mist devoured all sight. Even their spiritual senses fractured within it, muddled and directionless.

  They couldn’t see.

  They couldn’t feel.

  "Stop your useless struggle! You won’t escape!" The unholy cultivator growled, his eyes shut tight, ears strained for the faintest clue.

  "Oh?"

  The voice that answered was low. Cold.

  Too close.

  He spun and struck —

  Boom!

  But his blade tore through empty air.

  Then—Squelch.

  A wet, gory sound echoed.

  A bloodied hand protruded from his back. He froze. Eyes wide.

  Around him, the others turned in alarm. Barriers shimmered into existence in a panic: shields of light, of fire, of stone.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  Gurgle.

  A choking gasp.

  A thin red line traced itself across the Red-robed female cultivator’s neck. Her spear clattered to the ground, the sound heavier than it should’ve been. She clutched her throat, eyes bulging as she gargled for air, then collapsed.

  "Raise your defense! Don’t let him break through!" a voice shouted, urgent and strained.

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  "You’re too loud." came the reply, quiet, but laced with something inhuman. Something wrong.

  The mist glowed with bursts of light as cultivators unleashed their full strength. Talismans burned. Auras surged. Fear drove them to their limits. Their hearts thundered like war drums.

  And then the mist shifted, only slightly, and for a fleeting second, a figure appeared.

  Not clearly.

  But the deep crimson of his eyes pierced the fog like twin moons of blood.

  And then he was gone.

  "Too loud." his voice whispered again, echoing from nowhere, from everywhere.

  Crack.

  Snap.

  Two sounds, nearly simultaneous.

  Thud. Thud.

  Bodies dropped.

  "Don’t wait! Attack now!" someone screamed, the thread of sanity snapping.

  BOOM! BAM! CRASH!

  Panic turned into chaos. Blades flew wild. Halberds slashed through the mist. Chains whipped and tangled. A fire talisman ignited, bursting through the silver haze like a comet.

  But none of it struck the target.

  Instead:

  Crack! BAM!

  A solid kick struck the bald cultivator's back. His spine gave with a sickening snap. He was flung from the mist like a broken doll, landing near Alpha, who crushed his skull underfoot without hesitation.

  "This won’t work, we need to get out!"

  One of them shouted, bolting from the mist. The others followed instantly.

  But Only three made it out

  The fourth person, a green-robed girl collided hard into Jin Yu’s chest.

  "Ah!"

  She stumbled back in horror, falling onto her hands.

  An inexplicable sense of horror washed over her as she met his Red eyes that seemed to hold nothing but madness, but this kind of madness was so calm, eerily so, that it sends shiver into one's spine.

  Jin Yu looked at her, his face devoid of it's usual grin, mocking smile. Instead, it was calm, cold, like a block of ice.

  He stepped towards her, each movement measured, like a predator savoring the final steps before the kill.

  His eyes never blinked. They fixed on her with an unnatural stillness, the deep crimson in them glowing faintly like embers beneath ice.

  But then, A deep, sonorous ding that resounded at the depth of his mind brought him to an halt.

  DING!

  NEXT BREAKTHROUGH AVAILABLE.

  It was so loud that he froze, his eyes lost focus for a moment, the Red blee dimmed in shade, taking on a hue instead.

  A sharp pain in his chest snapped him back to conscience.

  Slowly, he looked down at his chest.

  A blade lay there, deep inside him, the steel trembling faintly from the force of impact. Blood seeped from the wound in thin, dark rivulets, trailing down his robe in graceful lines, painting crimson over crimson.

  The green-robed girl had already leapt back, her body twisted in retreat, but she would never escape.

  Jin Yu’s form shimmered.

  And in the next breath, he was in front of her.

  She barely gasped before his hand closed around her neck firmly.

  Her legs kicked weakly beneath her robes as panic flooded her expression.

  Another knife appeared in her hands and she stabbed at him again.

  But the blade merely scraped against his side, too shallow to matter.

  Then— Crack.

  The sound was soft. Almost kind.

  Her body slumped.

  The light faded from her eyes like a candle snuffed in still air.

  Thud.

  He released her, and she collapsed wordlessly at his feet.

  For a long moment, Jin Yu didn’t move.

  Then, slowly, he looked at his hand.

  A single Red thread curled from the tip of his finger, It slithered across his palm, through his wrist, branching into tendrils that wrapped around his forearm, then webbing across his body like a living vein.

  It wasn't on his skin, but within it and it was rooted deep, like it had always been there.

  Jin Yu stared at it, unmoving, a strange light glinting behind his gaze.

  He knew this thread.

  He’d seen it before.

  But he could no longer remember where.

  ---

  Outside the mist, the three who escaped stood trembling, eyes fixed on the silver haze. Their hearts pounded so hard it felt like pain.

  "Did you kill him?" the girl called from the battlefield, her voice hoarse as she fought alongside the unholy cultivator. Alpha remained before them, tireless, unrelenting. The third, a green-robed lady lay wounded nearby, a deep claw mark across her chest.

  The three glanced at each other.

  Kill?

  The thought chilled them.

  They were lucky to be alive.

  The girl and her companion exchanged grave looks, eyes flickering back toward the mist that still swirled behind Alpha like a living maw.

  They decided to end the beast faster.

  BAM!

  A heavy strike landed on the beast’s knee, forcing it to bend.

  GROOOOWL!

  Alpha snarled, snapping its fangs at the girl, more out of fury than pain.

  Another palm strike slammed into its head.

  BAM!

  It staggered, but didn’t fall.

  They gave it no room to breathe.

  BAM! BAM! BAM!

  Blows rained down again and again, echoing across the battlefield.

  Alpha endured them all.

  But something was changing.

  The more they hit him, the more the Red miasma on its body decreased.

  To them, It seemed like it was growing thin, but unknown to them, when their body came in contact with his, the miasma latched onto them and seep quietly into their body, laying silent and still.

  Growing into something far beyond their control.