Mount Everest, Southern Slope, 7,800 meters – Ice Cave Depths
Time froze in the clash of absolute cold and apocalyptic energy.
The Asura warrior, freed from his icy prison, swung his bone blade wreathed in blood-red battle-aura and the chilling corruption of the Nine Hells. His eyes, twin pits of hellfire, burned with contempt for the insignificant human daring to challenge him.
The Thunderclap-Zero mech didn't retreat. Instead, its massive, stone-plated left arm shot forward in a defiant, almost mocking gesture. At its palm, a miniature black hole, a devouring vortex, flared to life!
Devour! The audacity to consume a peak Foundation Establishment expert!
The Asura's lips curled in a sneer. An ant trying to swallow a dragon?
But as the bone blade's edge kissed the grey stone palm…
WHUMMM!
An indescribable pressure erupted from the mech – from the dying human within. Cold, absolute, mechanical. It transcended armor and space, hammering the Asura's very soul!
"H-Hóngméng?!" The roar that tore from the warrior's throat was pure, primal terror. The hellfire in his eyes guttered like dying embers, replaced by soul-deep dread. That presence! The icy, absolute aura of the Hongmeng Overseers – the supreme lawgivers whose shadow even the lords of Nine Hells feared! He'd felt a wisp of it once, in the presence of greatness. How did this insect possess it? Broken, faint, but the essence was undeniable!
That instant of soul-crushing fear, burned into his race's bloodline, made his blade falter. The focused battle-aura churned, disrupted.
Chu Xuan's dark eyes blazed with ravenous hunger, overriding the agony of the Phoenix Elixir and soul-shock.
Devour! His mental command was a guttural snarl.
SHIIIIING!
The Thunderclap-Zero's stone fist exploded with blinding grey-white light! The devouring vortex expanded, spinning violently! The power tore into the faltering bone blade!
The sound wasn't metal on stone. It was the rending of energy itself. The concentrated, savage essence of the Asura's battle-aura was ripped free! A thick, viscous stream of blood-red, annihilation-tainted power surged into the stone hand! A wisp of clinging Nine Hells corruption followed!
ROOOAARRR!!! The Asura's bellow was agony and disbelief. Half his ancestral blade's essence was bitten off! Worse, that terrifying Hongmeng aura latched onto him through the devouring link, paralyzing his will to fight. Fear annihilated his battle-lust.
Escape! NOW!
The massive blue-grey body convulsed. He severed the link to his mutilated blade, exploding backwards. His remaining hand slammed the icy floor.
BOOM!
A cloud of corrosive Nine Hells miasma and lingering frost energy erupted, shrouding the cave! It scrambled sensors and ate at reality.
"Thunder Squad! Seal the exit! Don't let him flee!" Lei Zhan's bellow cut through comms. The three downed mechs struggled up, their rune-cannons glowing.
Too late! The miasma surged. The Asura warrior melted into the foul cloud, crashing towards a solid ice wall at the cave's rear.
Warp! The ice rippled like water. He vanished, leaving only a rapidly closing spatial tear.
"A spatial rift?!" Lei Zhan roared, charging the wall. Nothing remained. Not even an energy echo. The enemy's mastery of space was terrifying.
The miasma dissipated under the Thunder Squad's energy fire.
Thunderclap-Zero landed heavily amidst shattered ice. Inside the cockpit, Chu Xuan shuddered, gasping, each breath fire and ice. His left arm was monstrous. Thick, churning crimson ice encased it, threaded with violent blood-lightning that clashed with expanding grey-white cracks. The aura of blood, sulfur, frost, and annihilation radiating from it made even his guards recoil.
Agony. Worse than before. His arm felt like shattered bone ground by molten saws. The cracks spread towards his shoulder.
[WARNING! Critical Energy Conflict!]
[Target: Chu Xuan… Left Arm…]
[Asura Battle-Aura (High Volatility) vs. Stone Curse (Hongmeng Fragment)!]
[Geopathic Energy, Phoenix Elixir, Devourer Constitution escalating conflict!]
[Energy Equilibrium at 0.8%! Gene Lock Structure Under Catastrophic Stress! Failure Risk: 62.3%!]
[Recommendation: Immediate High-Purity Life Energy or Rule-Based Stabilization Field! Limb Disintegration Imminent!]
The system's warnings screamed. He'd swallowed the feast, but his vessel was cracking. Time was a razor's edge.
Panlong Valley, Kunlun Base – T-Minus 30 Minutes
The cavernous space beneath the half-sealed dome hummed. The massive 'Heart Furnace' matrix, built of luminous spirit crystals, pulsed with gathering power. Soft white light bathed the central platform like a sacred altar.
On the command dais, tension choked the air.
Grandpa Qin gripped the railing, knuckles white. The main screen displayed:
Chu Xuan inside Thunderclap-Zero: Eyes closed, face corpse-grey, left arm a churning mass of crimson ice and lightning. Body spasming.
Arm Energy Scan: Chaotic rivers of battle-aura red, curse grey, geopathic brown, elixir gold – tearing each other apart. Vital signs flatlining.
Global Countdown: 00:27:41. Below it, the global 'Shame/Rage' index was a volcanic eruption. Western feeds screamed: "DEMON ENGINEER'S FINAL MADNESS?" "DOOMSDAY CLOWN'S FAREWELL?"
"Grandpa Qin… Chu Xuan's condition…" Lin Weiwei's voice trembled. Her simulations blared red. "Introducing the global 'Shame Energy' now… it's a death sentence! 75% chance his arm… or half his body… explodes!"
"NO OTHER PATH!" Qin roared, turning, eyes bloodshot. "He clawed back from Everest! This is his gamble! Live or die… HERE!" He stabbed a finger at the volcanic emotion curve. "The kindling BURNS! He IS the spark! Med Team! MAX LIFE SUPPORT! Zhao Qiming!"
"Sir!" Zhao stood ramrod straight.
"Inner Perimeter – YOURS! When it starts, let the sky fall, NOTHING touches that platform! Outer Perimeter – 'Weaver' System! Any signal jamming, any media sabotage… CRUSH IT!" His voice was iron and blood.
"Understood!" Zhao's eyes were flint.
The roar of engines and heavy landing shook the base. Thunderclap-Zero had arrived.
The Path to the Furnace
Chu Xuan refused the stretcher. Supported by two 'Dragon Tooth' operatives in heavy suits, he stumbled down the reinforced tunnel. Each step sent white-hot agony through his corrupted left arm. Sweat froze on his skin.
His arm was a horror. Crimson glaciers of condensed battle-rage cracked and groaned, lightning veins pulsing against spreading grey-white fissures. The stench of blood, decay, and raw power leaked from it.
Ahead, the massive doors to the Heart Furnace glowed with pure light.
"Chu Xuan!" A clear, choked voice cut through.
He turned stiffly. Lin Weiwei, face pale, eyes red-rimmed, struggled against security. She thrust a vial into his functional right hand. Inside, liquid emerald pulsed with profound vitality. "Life Essence… Purest sample… High-concentration Life Law fragments… Might… might stabilize…" Her voice broke as she saw his monstrous arm.
Chu Xuan looked at the vial. He felt its gentle, resilient power. A twisted grimace was all he could manage. He shoved the vial into his vest pocket, against his pounding heart.
He shrugged off the guards. Drawing a ragged breath, he straightened his trembling frame and pushed open the doors.
The Heart of the Furnace
Pure, potent white light swallowed him. He stood at the center of the crystal matrix, energy rivers flowing around the platform like liquid stars.
He felt it all – amplified a thousandfold by the fading elixir and the Life Essence's proximity. The crushing weight of billions of stares. The scorn. The fury. The mocking disbelief. It wasn't just observation; it was a psychic assault, arrows of pure shame piercing his soul.
Beneath the shame, the Devourer roared. Starving. Ravenous.
As the Heart Furnace peaked, as the countdown hit zero…
Chu Xuan moved.
His body jerked like a broken puppet. He raised his right arm stiffly overhead, fingers splayed – a grotesque parody of a dance's opening pose. His corrupted left arm, a nightmare of crimson ice and cracking stone, lifted in tortured mimicry.
This wasn't dance. It was a monster's death throes, broadcast to the world.
The dissonance was nuclear.
"GOD! He's DOING IT! The dance! He's INSANE!"
"DEMON! Look at that arm! I TOLD YOU!"
"The SHAME! Is THIS humanity's hope? KILL ME NOW!"
"HOW DARE HE?! This SACRILEGE! (Rage)"
"He's… suffering… that arm… what did they DO to him? (Twisted Pity/Shame)"
The global psyche detonated. Shame. Rage. Despair. Utter absurdity. A tsunami of emotion focused solely on Chu Xuan.
The Heart Furnace matrix focused this psychic tsunami. An invisible spear of pure, concentrated malice hurtled across space, piercing the light column, aimed at Chu Xuan's core.
NOW!
Chu Xuan's dark eyes ignited. A roar tore from him – agony and hunger fused.
DEVOUR!
WHUMMMPH!
A devouring singularity erupted from him! Not just his arm – his entire being! Especially the tortured limb, becoming a cosmic maw!
The colossal wave of global shame and fury was sucked in, violently channeled directly into the raging energy vortex in his left arm!
AAAAARRRGGGHHH!
Agony beyond imagining! Not just physical shredding. His soul was flayed by billions of needles dipped in shame and hate. The world's venom poured into his personal Armageddon!
KRA-KOOOM!
A psychic supernova detonated inside him!
The crimson ice on his arm erupted in blinding blood-light! Internal lightning storms detonated! The grey stone curse, its cracks widening under the assault, exploded into a spiderweb of deep fissures, racing towards his shoulder and torso!
"Gene Lock structure… CATASTROPHIC FAILURE!" Alarms shrieked in the control room. Chu Xuan's life signs plummeted off the chart.
"Energy Conflict CRITICAL! Limb Disintegration: 10…9…"
Lin Weiwei choked back a sob. Failed?! Accelerated death!
Qin and Zhao turned ashen, fists clenched.
8…7…6…
Inside Chu Xuan's vest, pressed against his hammering heart, the emerald vial cracked.
Drip… Drip…
Viscous, life-saturated liquid seeped through the fabric, touching his skin.
A wave of pure, gentle, yet inexorable vitality blossomed. Spring after endless winter. It didn't force. It wove. Tendrils of profound Life Law snaked into the Armageddon within his arm. Mediating. Harmonizing. Finding infinitesimal paths for coexistence amidst the chaos.
Simultaneously, deep within Chu Xuan's pain-fogged mind, the broken system interface BLAZED. A dormant symbol flared violently!
[WARNING! High-Purity Life Law Fragments Detected!]
[Catastrophic Rule-Based Psychic Energy Impact Detected!]
[Critical Heterogeneous Energy Conflict Confirmed!]
[Conditions Met…]
['Hongmeng' Authority (Damaged) – PASSIVELY ACTIVATED… Module: ??? (Critical Failure)…]
[Attempting Rule-Based… Harmonization… Simulation…]
HUMMM!
A wisp of primordial chaos, faint yet supremely authoritative, emanated from Chu Xuan's core, enveloping his dying arm.
Under this chaos, the warring energies… stuttered. For a crucial nanosecond, they paused. The Life Law's emerald light, like divine thread, flashed through the paused conflict points, binding, guiding, redirecting!
HISSSSS!
Not an explosion. The sound of superheated metal quenched.
The churning crimson ice on Chu Xuan's arm imploded, solidified. Its color deepened to a profound, resilient dark gold. The violent blood-lightning was subdued, compressed into intricate, rune-like patterns etched onto the golden surface. The grey stone curse cracks remained, but stopped spreading. Deep within the fissures, a molten dark gold light pulsed. A new energy – savage yet grounded, cursed yet enduring, infused with a wisp of supreme life – pulsed within his arm, achieving a razor-thin, dynamic equilibrium.
Simultaneously, a towering, ethereal figure materialized behind Chu Xuan. Clad in simple hemp, holding a wooden herb-spade, radiating boundless botanical vitality – the Divine Physician! His face was indistinct, but his eyes held infinite compassion and wisdom. The spectral spade gently tapped Chu Xuan's transformed, dark gold arm.
HUMMM!
A wave of pure restorative power – the essence of "Withered Wood Greening," "Evil Purged, Vitality Restored" – washed through Chu Xuan. Internal injuries from energy clashes and psychic assault mended. His flatlining vital signs surged back, stabilizing powerfully!
[Gene Lock… First Barrier… SHATTERED!]
[Chaos Devourer Constitution Integration… 17%… New Ability Unlocked: Primordial Gold Physique (Elementary)]
[Vital Signs Stabilized… Stone Curse Erosion… Halted… Undergoing Unknown Mutation…]
[WARNING: New Energy Equilibrium EXTREMELY VOLATILE! Requires Sustained High-Energy Ingestion or Emotional Resonance for Stabilization!]
"S-Success?" Lin Weiwei whispered, collapsing into her chair, tears streaming as the monitors showed rock-solid green vitals and the dark gold, rune-etched arm. The Divine Physician's shadow faded.
Qin let out a shuddering breath, the weight of worlds lifting from his shoulders, a weary smile touching his lips.
Global Broadcast – Live Feed
The light column dimmed. Chu Xuan lowered his arms. Exhaustion lined his face, but his eyes were clear, deep, like storm-washed skies. His left arm, now sheathed in dark gold armor etched with crimson-gold runes, gleamed with latent, formidable power under the matrix light.
He raised his head. His gaze swept the lenses, seeming to lock onto every shocked, disgusted, or bewildered face beyond the screen.
No words. No declarations.
He raised his new, dark gold left hand. Fingers slowly curled into a fist. Metallic knuckles ground together with a sharp click.
Then, before the watching world, he slowly, deliberately, raised that dark gold fist…
…and extended a single, defiant, gleaming middle finger.
Silence.
More deafening than any roar.
The screaming, mocking internet… went utterly, completely blank.