The night air of Clearwater City carried the faint scent of impending rain.
Jin Hao moved through the narrow alleyways of the lower merchant district, keeping his back pressed against the cold stone walls. He wore a hooded cloak he had stolen from a clothesline an hour earlier, his steps completely silent.
The sheer power of a Late Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator flowed through his legs, allowing him to glide over the uneven cobblestones without disturbing a single pebble.
In his right hand, he clutched a folded piece of parchment. It was the map Su Lian had given him.
He brought the parchment close to his face, inhaling deeply. Beneath the scent of old paper and ink, he could detect a faint trace of jasmine. Her scent.
"She touched this," Jin Hao whispered to the empty alley. An infatuated smile stretched across his face. "She drew this for me. She risked her own safety, defying her family, defying that Jin Family, just to help me."
He unrolled the map, squinting at the delicate brushstrokes in the dim moonlight.
It detailed the sewage and ventilation networks beneath the Jin Family Estate, specifically highlighting a route that bypassed the main defensive formations and led directly into the subterranean water prison.
"She is perfect," he murmured, his imagination running wild.
He pictured her standing in the moonlight, her pale green dress fluttering, waiting for his triumphant return. He pictured the admiration in her eyes when he brought his father back alive.
"Her family treats her like a political tool. But I see her. I see her true worth. Once I crush the Jin Family, I will make her my Empress."
He looked at the parchment one last time, carefully folding it and tucking it into a secure inner pocket of his robes.
"System," Jin Hao commanded in his mind.
[Awaiting input.]
"Activate Treasure Scan. Overlay the results with the structural layout of the Jin Estate."
[Command Acknowledged. Initiating wide area scan. Mapping structural anomalies and energy signatures...]
A three dimensional blueprint of the Jin Family Estate materialized in his vision. The grand pavilions, the training yards, the high walls… all rendered in glowing blue lines. Below the surface, a complex network of tunnels, cellars and dungeons appeared.
[Target destination identified: Subterranean Holding Facility. Depth: Forty meters. Hostile presence detected in the vicinity.]
"Show me the entry point," Jin Hao said.
A glowing green line appeared on the map, tracing a path through the city's sewage system to a heavy iron grate located on the western edge of the Jin Estate perimeter.
He navigated the slums with the speed of a phantom. He reached the designated location, a stagnant drainage canal that emptied into the city's main river. The smell was atrocious… a rotting mixture of human waste, stagnant water and decaying garbage.
He waded into the muck, the foul water reaching his knees. He didn't care. The physical discomfort was nothing compared to the burning anticipation in his gut. He reached the heavy iron grate set into the stone foundation of the estate wall.
"System. Can I devour this?"
[Scanning... Object Identified: Rusted Iron Grate. No spiritual value. Devour Protocol inapplicable.]
"Fine."
Jin Hao gripped the thick iron bars. He channeled his Late Stage Foundation Establishment Qi into his arms. His muscles bulged, the fabric of his stolen cloak groaning under the sudden expansion.
He pulled.
The stone around the grate cracked and splintered. The rusted iron shrieked in protest. With a grating screech, Jin Hao tore the entire fixture out of the wall, tossing it silently into the muck behind him.
He ducked into the dark tunnel.
He activated Night Vision, it was a basic application of Qi to the optic nerves. The pitch black tunnel illuminated in shades of pale green.
He crawled forward, the tunnel sloping downward. The walls were slick with moss and slime. He followed the green guiding line of the System's map, taking left and right turns through the labyrinthine sewer network.
"How many guards in the prison block?" Jin Hao asked.
[Scanning... Seven distinct auras detected in the primary holding area. Cultivation ranges: Five at Middle Stage Qi Condensation, two at Late Stage Qi Condensation. One aura detected inside Cell Block C. Cultivation: Severely depleted. Life signs are weak.]
He continued crawling. According to the map, he was now directly beneath the central courtyards of the estate.
Suddenly, the System interface flashed yellow.
[Alert: Dense concentration of volatile spiritual energy detected. Deviation from current path: Fifteen meters East.]
Jin Hao paused in the damp tunnel. "Volatile energy? Is it a treasure vault?"
[Negative. The energy signatures lack the purity of refined medicinal pills or natural treasures. The resonance is highly unstable. Elemental composition: 80% Fire, 20% Metal. Analysis indicates a stockpile of destructive armaments.]
"An armory?" Jin Hao's eyes narrowed. "Why would they keep an armory down in the sewers?"
[Structural analysis indicates the adjacent room is a sealed subterranean bunker, likely used for storing hazardous or illicit materials away from the main family living quarters.]
Jin Hao smiled. "A secret stash of explosives. My 'Uncle' Bolin is hoarding bombs under his own house. How convenient."
He altered his course, taking a narrow side tunnel that sloped slightly upward. He reached a dead end… a solid wall of reinforced bricks.
[The wall is fifty centimeters thick. Reinforced with minor kinetic dampening runes. Host's current physical output is sufficient to breach, but doing so will generate excessive noise.]
"Show me the weak points," Jin Hao thought.
The system highlighted several microscopic cracks in the mortar holding the bricks together.
Jin Hao drew the high quality spirit sword he had looted from the dead Guard Captain earlier that day. He channeled a thin stream of Qi into the blade and slid it into the highlighted cracks. He worked methodically, carving out a rectangular section of the brickwork without making a single loud sound.
He placed his hands flat against the carved section and pushed steadily. The heavy block of bricks slid inward, falling onto a wooden floor inside with a muffled thud.
Jin Hao squeezed through the opening and dropped into the room.
It was a large bunker. The air was heavy with the acidic scent of sulfur and crushed fire crystals. Stacked neatly on heavy wooden pallets were dozens of black iron barrels, each inscribed with glowing red warning runes.
On shelves lining the walls sat hundreds of palm sized metal spheres, identical to the Thunder Fire Annihilation Orb he had found in the slums.
"Look at this," Jin Hao whispered, walking over to a shelf and picking up one of the spheres. It hummed in his hand, radiating a warm vibration. "They have enough firepower in here to level half the estate."
[Item Identified: Dragon Breath Powder Casks. Highly combustible. Used for mining and large scale demolitions. A single spark will trigger a chain reaction.]
Jin Hao's grin turned entirely malicious. "Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."
He grabbed a heavy burlap sack from a corner and began tossing the Thunder Fire Orbs into it. He took twenty of them, feeling the heavy weight slung over his shoulder.
He approached one of the large Dragon Breath barrels. He drew his sword and carefully pried the lid off. The black powder inside shimmered with a fiery aura. He tipped the barrel over, letting the powder spill out onto the floor.
He kicked the barrel, spreading the black sand across the stone, creating a thick carpet. He repeated this with three more barrels, ensuring the entire center of the room was covered in the explosive powder.
"Let's see Patriarch Bolin sleep through this," Jin Hao sneered.
He climbed back through the hole in the wall, pulling the heavy brick block back into place behind him to conceal the breach.
He crawled faster now. The anticipation of violence, of making his family bleed, fueled his limbs. The tunnel grew wetter, the air growing colder. He reached a heavy iron grate set into the floor. Below it, he could see the flickering light of torches.
He peered through the rusted iron bars.
He was looking down into a large stone chamber. A trench of stagnant water ringed the edge of the room. In the center was a raised stone platform.
Standing on the platform were seven guards wearing the dark blue armor of the Jin Family dungeon keepers. They were gathered around a small wooden table, throwing bone dice and passing around a clay jug of cheap wine.
"Come on, you cheapskate, roll the dice!" one of the guards laughed, slamming a copper coin onto the table.
"Keep your voice down," another grumbled, gesturing toward the back of the room with his cup. "If you wake him up again, the Captain will make us do the whipping. I'm tired of getting blood on my boots."
Jin Hao's eyes tracked to where the guard pointed.
At the far end of the stone platform, suspended over the stagnant water by heavy iron chains bolted to the ceiling, was a man.
Jin Hao's breath caught in his throat.
It was Jin Ren. His father.
The man was stripped to the waist. His torso was a horrific canvas of lacerations, burns and deep bruises. The skin of his back was practically flayed open. His head hung limp, his chin resting on his bloody chest.
Jin Hao gripped the iron grate beneath him. The metal groaned under his fingers.
A burning pressure seized his chest. It was a raw fury that bypassed all logic and reason. He had hated his father sometimes, hated him for being weak, for being a branch family nobody who couldn't give him the resources he deserved.
But he was still his father. He was the man who had bought him his first wooden training sword. The man who had bowed his head to the dirt in front of Jin Bolin to secure Jin Hao a place in the main estate.
"Bolin," Jin Hao whispered, the name tearing from his throat like a curse. "You dead man. You are a dead man."
He looked at the guards laughing and throwing dice. They were the instruments of that torture. They were the ones who complained about getting his father's blood on their boots.