Chapter 10: The Meat Grinder
The magma chamber vibrated with the low hum of geothermal energy. The heat was oppressive, enough to scorch the lungs of a mortal, but Lin Yun stood perfectly still, the massive iron pillar resting on his shoulder as if it were a twig.
Above him, the sounds of descent grew louder. Scraping boots, hushed commands, the rustle of high grade robes.
"Five of them," Long Xi noted, her voice echoing in his mind. "All Inner Disciples. Three late stage Spirit Gathering. Two Early Earth Spirit Realm. A formidable hunting party."
Lin Yun did not respond. He just adjusted his grip on the cold iron of the pillar. His new silver bones itched with anticipation.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Figures dropped from the ventilation shaft, landing in crouches on the stone floor, weapons instantly drawn. Their Qi flared, creating colorful protective auras against the intense heat.
The first to rise was a hulking young man holding a tower shield nearly as big as himself, Wang Meng, known as the "Iron Wall" of the Inner Sect. Beside him landed a slender swordsman whose blade hummed with wind energy.
Finally, gliding down with practiced grace, came Liu Xue. Her pink robes were pristine, shielded by a shimmering layer of water attribute Qi.
They immediately scanned the room. Their eyes widened when they saw the shattered remains of the Ancient War Golem scattered across the floor.
"Heavens," the wind swordsman gasped. "Someone took down a Rank 2 construct solo?"
Then, their gazes shifted to the dais. The dull, grey stone that used to be the Heart of the Earth sat uselessly on the pedestal.
"Gone." Liu Xue's beautiful face twisted into an ugly sneer. "The essence is drained."
"Who is that?" Wang Meng pointed his shield toward the shadows near a river of magma.
The disciples tensed, focusing on the lone figure standing there. A savage in beast hides and python armor, wearing a bone mask, holding a crude iron pillar.
"You there!" Liu Xue stepped forward, her voice dripping with arrogant authority. "Identify yourself! Did you steal the Earth Essence?"
Lin Yun tilted his head. The eyeholes of his mask glowed, one gold, one cold blue.
"Steal?" His voice was a low rasp, distorted by the mask. "The ruins belong to no one. First come, first served."
"Insolence!" Wang Meng roared, slamming his shield onto the ground. "Do you know who we are? We are the elite of the Spirit Beast Sect! Hand over your storage bag and cripple your own arms, and Sister Liu Xue might show mercy!"
Lin Yun laughed. It was a dry, grating sound, like stones tumbling inside a metal drum.
"Mercy again," Lin Yun mused. "You sect disciples love that word. But you never seem to know what it means."
He hefted the iron pillar, shifting it into a two handed grip. The sheer weight of the five thousand pound object caused the stone beneath his feet to crack.
"If you want the essence," Lin Yun said, stepping forward, "come harvest it from my bones."
"A body refiner? A mere barbarian thinks he can challenge us?" The wind swordsman scoffed. "I'll turn him into ribbons. Gale Slash!"
He flicked his wrist, sending three crescent shaped blades of compressed wind screaming toward Lin Yun. These attacks could slice through solid oak trees.
Lin Yun did not dodge. He did not even raise the pillar to block. He just kept walking.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The wind blades struck his chest and shoulders. They shredded his beast hide tunic, revealing the bronze skin beneath. But against that skin, the blades sparked and shattered like glass hitting a stone wall. Not even a white mark was left behind.
The swordsman's jaw dropped. "Impossible! Even a High Tier defensive artifact should have cracked!"
"My turn."
Lin Yun vanished.
He did not use a movement technique. He simply exploded off the ground with the raw force of eighteen thousand Jin of leg strength. The stone floor where he stood disintegrated into powder.
He reappeared instantly in front of the swordsman.
The swordsman only had time to widen his eyes before Lin Yun swung the iron pillar horizontally.
It was not a martial art technique. It was just catastrophic violence.
CRUNCH.
The sound was sickeningly wet. The iron pillar caught the swordsman in the ribs. His protective wind aura popped like a soap bubble. His body folded around the pillar in an unnatural V shape before he was launched across the chamber, smashing into the far wall and sliding down into the magma. A brief hiss was all that remained of him.
Silence. Absolute, terrified silence reigned in the chamber.
One hit. An Inner Disciple elite, dead in one hit.
"Monster!" Liu Xue shrieked, her composure shattering. "Kill him! Everyone attack together! Don't let him get close!"
Panic overtook discipline. The remaining three disciples unleashed everything they had. Fireballs, earth spikes, ice talismans, a torrent of elemental destruction rained down on Lin Yun.
Lin Yun spun the massive iron pillar like a staff, creating a steel whirlwind that deflected the majority of the attacks. Explosions rocked the chamber, kicking up smoke and dust.
"Did we get him?" another disciple asked, panting.
Through the smoke, two glowing eyes appeared.
Lin Yun charged out of the dust cloud, untouched. The heat in the room seemed to intensify around him, fueled by the Dragon Blood boiling in his veins.
He targeted Wang Meng, the shield bearer.
"Iron Wall?" Lin Yun roared, leaping into the air and bringing the pillar down in an overhead smash. "Let's see if you crumble!"
Wang Meng bellowed in fear, channeling all his Earth Qi into his massive tower shield, bracing for impact. "Mountain Guard!"
BOOM!
The impact shook the entire foundation of the ruins.
The iron pillar struck the center of the tower shield. For a fraction of a second, the shield held.
Then, a web of cracks spread across its surface.
The shield exploded into shrapnel. The iron pillar continued downward, smashing into Wang Meng's shoulder, driving him into the ground like a nail.
Wang Meng screamed as his collarbone and ribs, reinforced by Earth Qi, shattered against the unstoppable force of Lin Yun's Silver Bones. He collapsed, coughing blood, unable to move.
Two down.
The other two Spirit Gathering disciples turned and fled toward the ventilation shaft, abandoning Liu Xue.
"Cowards!" Liu Xue screamed.
Lin Yun did not chase them. He reached out with his left hand.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Sovereign Art. Blue Lotus Domain.
He did not fire a blast of ice. Instead, he expelled a wave of supercooled mist that saturated the air around the fleeing disciples.
The magma chamber's temperature plummeted instantly. Frost coated the walls.
The two fleeing disciples froze mid step. Their Qi circulation panicked, slowed to a crawl by the invasive cold. Their limbs turned stiff and blue. They fell over, shivering violently on the hot floor, unable to even crawl.
Only Liu Xue remained standing, her water attribute Qi barely keeping the cold at bay. She stood alone against the monster that had just dismantled her elite team in less than thirty seconds.
Lin Yun dropped the iron pillar. It hit the ground with a heavy thud that sounded like a death knell to Liu Xue.
He walked toward her slowly. The crunch of his boots on the stone floor echoed in the silence.
Liu Xue backed away, trembling. "Stay back! My grandfather is an Elder! If you touch me, the sect will hunt you to the ends of the earth!"
Lin Yun stopped three feet from her. He towered over her, his presence suffocating.
"The sect…" Lin Yun's rasping voice was quieter now, deadlier. "Tell me, Sister Liu. When Chief Disciple Lin Yun died… did you cry?"
Liu Xue froze. Why was this savage asking about her dead fiancé?
"I… I…" she stammered, trying to regain her composure, trying to use her renowned charm. She softened her eyes, looking up at him pleadingly. "He was a dear friend. Of course I mourned him. Why do you ask, brave warrior? Surely we can come to an arrangement…"
Lin Yun leaned in close. The smell of blood and sulfur on him drowned out her perfume.
"Liar."
He reached out slowly. Liu Xue flinched, expecting death.
Instead, his hand moved to her waist. He ripped her storage bag from her belt.
"You came for treasure," Lin Yun said, tying the bag to his own belt. "You leave with nothing. Not even your dignity."
He turned his back on her.
Liu Xue stared at his back, humiliated, terrified, and confused. "You're… letting me live?"
Lin Yun stopped without turning.
"Death is too easy for traitors. Go back up there. Tell Gu Cang what you saw in the dark. Tell him the Ghost is coming."
He walked over to the massive body of the fallen Golem. With a grunt of exertion, he lifted the entire torso of the construct, easily weighing ten thousand pounds, and dragged it under the ventilation shaft.
With a final heave, he wedged the massive metal carcass into the opening, sealing the only way out upward.
"Find your own way out, Sister Xue," Lin Yun's voice echoed one last time as he walked toward a small, hidden fissure in the magma wall that only his dragon eyes had spotted. "If you survive the heat."
He vanished into the crack, leaving Liu Xue alone in the sealed chamber with the groans of her crippled teammates and the rising heat of the magma.
The Meat Grinder had finished its work.