Ding—
With a soft chime, the concealed hydraulic elevator carried Caspian and Elena, plunging toward the abyss of the eightieth floor underground.
As the red numbers on the floor indicator frantically blurred, the temperature inside the cabin suffered a physics-defying, cliff-like drop. The suffocating heat and decadent thumping of the Crimson Club above were entirely sealed away, replaced by an absolute, abyssal zero that felt capable of freezing the soul itself.
"Sir, the ambient magnetic field is in severe disarray," Elena frowned, looking at the high-dimensional scanner in her hands, which was flashing wildly, on the verge of crashing. "This isn't a normal physical temperature drop. It's a high-purity Law leakage... my equipment can't handle it."
Just as her words fell, a bizarre, ethereal blue frost began to creep across the specialized titanium walls of the elevator at a visible rate.
Yet, standing in the dead center of this bone-chilling cold, Caspian uncharacteristically closed his eyes. A long-lost sense of "comfort" rippled through the depths of his dark golden irises.
He slowly peeled the pure black leather glove off his right hand. Just moments ago, when he crushed the Tier 5 Holy Spear, the dark-purple toxic veins on his wrist—the physical manifestation of his [Destruction Toxin] bordering on overload—had surged, threatening to tear through his skin.
But now, the moment those frantic veins made contact with the pure, ethereal blue chill, they reacted as if encountering their natural predator—or rather, a beast encountering an oasis after a long drought. The violent purple lines tamed instantly, receding docilely beneath his pale skin.
"Found it." Caspian pulled his glove back on, his voice low and laced with a dark satisfaction. "One of the ten core Laws stripped from my Genesis Core by those traitors in my past life—the [Law of Stasis]. This is exactly the 'coolant' my ruined flesh needs right now."
BOOM—!
The elevator let out a dull roar as it finally locked into place on the eightieth floor. As the heavy metal doors slowly parted, a hurricane of exceptionally pure, yet disturbingly tainted Law energy rushed over them.
Revealed before them was a colossal, underground containment vault, gleaming with cold metallic textures and the faint glow of magical arrays.
There were no pointless words, no deafening alarms. The instant the doors opened, the four white-robed, expressionless [Tier 4: Transcendent] Inquisitor Guards stationed outside didn't even have the chance to draw their holy swords half an inch from their scabbards.
Caspian merely snapped his fingers.
He didn't tap into his own origin power. Instead, utilizing the supreme absolute authority of a high-dimensional Sovereign, he forcibly hijacked the ambient Frost Laws lingering in the air around the four guards.
Crack... crack... crack...
Four Tier 4 powerhouses—figures who could establish their own sects in the secular world—were instantly frozen from their internal organs to their skin, turning into four lifelike, ethereal blue ice sculptures without so much as a scream. A second later, caught in the faint subterranean draft, the sculptures silently collapsed, crumbling into a pile of fine diamond dust that scattered in the freezing wind.
Crushing dominance. An effortless, absolute subjugation.
Caspian stepped over the ice dust, casually strolling into the deepest core of the containment vault.
In the dead center of the room hovered a massive, cylindrical cultivation tank constructed from hyper-pressurized glass and densely packed Law runes.
There, suspended within the faintly glowing blue stasis fluid, was a girl as flawless as a solitary masterpiece crafted by the gods.
Her hair, the pure, unadulterated silver of arctic snow, fanned out exquisitely in the liquid like silk. It cascaded smoothly past her impossibly narrow waist like a holy, silver waterfall, eventually coiling affectionately around her smooth, slender ankles.
Her skin was pale to a sickly, near-translucent degree. Under the blue halo of the fluid, one could clearly trace the faint, winding blue veins—like delicate ice fissures—just beneath the surface of her fragile inner wrists and elegant swan neck.
The girl's eyes were tightly shut. Her long, thick silver eyelashes cast fragile, tragic shadows over her premium, porcelain-like cheeks. Her brow was slightly furrowed in extreme agony, and her pale pink lips were parted just a fraction, as if frozen in the silent wail of a soul being torn apart. This cold, holy aura made her look like a peerless ice sculpture that could shatter at the slightest touch.
However, what thoroughly ripped apart this "angelic" divinity and twisted it into an extreme, physiological discomfort and taboo sexual tension, was the violent mechanical integration into her hyper-mature, devilishly seductive body.
The girl floated defenselessly naked in the stasis fluid. The breathtakingly full and heavy curves of her snow-white breasts were lifted by the fluid's buoyancy, showcasing a staggering, voluptuous volume.
The most visually stimulating and psychologically abhorrent sight was the thick, freezing black metal conduits that ruthlessly pierced her nearly translucent skin. They brutally clamped down on the very edges of those soft, impossibly full twin peaks that looked as though they would bruise at the slightest touch! The cold, hard machinery biting into the holy, voluptuous flesh formed the ultimate extreme of sadistic defilement.
Following the seductive dip of her spine downward revealed a blood-pumping, ultimate waist-to-hip ratio. The fluid's buoyancy arched her impossibly slender waist, accentuating the breathtaking, perfectly rounded curves of her hips.
Her long, perfectly proportioned, flawless snow-white legs were pressed slightly together out of subconscious fear. The tightly touching inner thighs exuded the most fatal hormonal allure of a mature woman.
Yet this flawless succubus—capable of driving every mortal man in the secular world insane, a perfection rare even in higher dimensions—was pinned like a crucified butterfly. Dozens of freezing metal conduits were brutally driven into her shoulder blades, her joints, and every vital meridian!
There was no bleeding where the flesh tore open. Instead, hideous flesh buds, forced to heal by the array, gripped the metal like chains, anchoring her to the center of the tank.
The "lust and lifespan" extracted from the secular tycoons in the club above manifested as a viscous, dark-red mist. Driven by the cruel gurgle-gurgle of mechanical pumps, it was relentlessly forced down these filthy tubes, violently pumped into a body that should have remained entirely unblemished!
"They are using the filthiest secular lust to forcibly ripen the fragment of the Frost Law inside her." Elena looked at the scene, a flash of undeniable physiological nausea in her eyes. "They took a living, incredibly pure, and beautiful girl, and turned her into an alchemical furnace and an open sewer for refining godhood."
Caspian's eyes went utterly glacial. Within his dark golden, slit-like pupils, a tyrannical fury capable of incinerating dimensions finally ignited.
Using his subjects as fuel. Using his Law fragments as an engine. Defiling and force-feeding a "Flawless Receptacle" just to auction her off on the black market. This absolute desecration of the Sovereign's property finally allowed the high-dimensional tyrant to experience a long-lost, substantive urge to kill.
He stepped forward, preparing to shatter the tank and rip those filthy tubes out of his "Law Carrier."
However, the instant his leather shoe stepped within a three-meter radius of the tank—
VMMMM—!!!
The super-alloy floor beneath his feet erupted with a blinding, piercing golden light. An immensely complex array, densely packed with ancient divine text, activated instantly. Like an inescapable golden net, it locked the entire cultivation tank dead in its center.
Caspian halted his steps. The [Genesis Core] within him provided a freezing, calculative feedback in a thousandth of a second:
[WARNING: Tier 6 Absolute Taboo Array Detected — Divine Lock. This array is physically bound to the underground leylines of the entire city of Sancta Lodo.]
"Sir," Elena swiftly hacked into the remote terminal, her face draining of color. "This array is a dead end. It isn't just connected to the city's leylines; it is directly wired to that girl's heart and the fragment of your past life. If we force it open with external power..."
"...The fragment will trigger a void implosion, vaporizing this receptacle into ash," Caspian finished her sentence without a ripple of emotion.
His dark golden eyes stared at the glowing golden runes at his feet, his brain executing an incredibly cold calculation of risk and reward.
He could, of course, smash this so-called Tier 6 Taboo with a single punch. But the price was that he would have to instantaneously erupt with more than 15% of his origin power. The moment he crossed that red line, his Stage 1 mortal flesh would fail to withstand the high-dimensional backlash and spontaneously combust at an atomic level.
Sacrificing his reborn body for a half-finished, unripened "cure"?
High-dimensional predators never act on impulse.
"Check the Temple's operational logs." Caspian took a half-step back, exiting the array's trigger zone.
"Right away." Elena's fingers flew across the terminal. "Found it! In half a month, at the [Scarlet Auction], the Temple's Supreme Tribunal will activate the 'Decryption Key.' They will extract her from the leyline taboo and load her into a specialized insulation vault to transport her to the auction house."
That was the single moment the Absolute Taboo would be lifted. It was the moment she—and the highest echelons of the Temple—would be at their most vulnerable.
"Then let them continue feeding this exquisite cure for me."
Caspian gazed at the pale, breathtakingly beautiful, yet agonizingly pained face suspended in the fluid. His eyes swept over that insanely seductive body as he made the absolute, rational decree of a tyrant.
He could not take her by brute force today. But that did not mean he would allow his prey to be casually touched by the filthy hands of others.
He slowly pulled off his leather glove. From his fingertip, he forced out a single drop of dark-purple True Blood, heavily condensed with [Destruction Toxin].
"Go."
Caspian flicked his finger. With a bizarre trajectory that transcended physical dimensions, the drop of True Blood phased directly through the Tier 6 Taboo array and the high-pressure glass. It sank silently into the stasis fluid and landed precisely between Seraphina's bloodless brows, blooming into a microscopic, dark-purple insignia of a thorny rose.
The instant the mark formed, Seraphina—who had been entirely unconscious in the fluid—seemed to sense a terrifying pressure and a bizarre sense of solace from the very depths of her soul. The dark-red mist tormenting her was violently purified the moment it neared the mark on her brow.
Her icy blue eyes actually fluttered open a fraction of an inch in the liquid. Through the freezing glass, she met the Sovereign's eyes outside the array, completing a fated, cross-dimensional gaze.
That mark was not just a declaration of ownership over his prey; it was an absolute defense. It would guard the core of her soul, ensuring the filthy red mist could only nourish the Law, but never taint her mind.
"Sleep."
Caspian pulled his glove back on and turned around, leaving the cultivation tank with an utterly merciless silhouette.
"At the Scarlet Auction in half a month, I will attend in person. When those mortals believe they have bought a god with their coin, I will bury them, and their entire theocratic system, along with you."
...
Half an hour later, Caspian and Elena returned to the VIP box above, which had returned to a deathly silence.
Old Thorne's mummified corpse had been cleaned up. Victoria had changed into a black evening gown she found in the dressing room. Having washed the grime from her face, she kneeled at the door of the box like the most loyal of hounds.
"Master, the club's security network and the lower-level defense logs have been completely overwritten," Victoria bowed her head respectfully. "For the short term, the Temple will solely believe Old Thorne died in a violent family power struggle."
"Well done. Now, it is time to prepare the chips we need to flip the entire table."
Caspian walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the emptied stage below. He turned around and tossed a black-gold card containing the Thorne family's highest supreme clearance in front of Victoria.
"Before sunrise tomorrow, I want all of the Thorne family's surface assets and underground syndicates in Sancta Lodo to appear on the Federation's conglomerate registry under a brand-new name. If any old fools refuse to submit, execute them without mercy."
The dark golden eyes of the tyrant glinted with the eerie light of the eve of a hunt.
"Our game in this secular world has officially begun."