The streets of the Night Furnace District had transformed into a theater of cold, industrialized slaughter.
The shrill, rhythmic wail of sirens echoed through the skeletal remains of derelict buildings. High above, on the gilded edges of the Upper District, massive high-intensity searchlights pivoted, their beams cutting through the gloom like incandescent blades. Hundreds of Garrison soldiers in grey-black fatigues and Inquisition Shadow-Hounds swarmed the slums, the sounds of heavy boots on cobblestone mingling with the desperate cries of miners being dragged from their hovels.
Gu Hanzhou stood in the jagged shadow of a towering water vat, looking down at the mobilization with the cold, detached gaze of an apex predator.
Pinned to his chest was the stolen silver badge. The metallic disk emitted a subtle, high-frequency pulse of Order Energy. In the vast, invisible sensory web laid out by the Inquisition, this pulse identified him as "Friendly." He had become a ghost in their machine—the only flaw in an otherwise airtight net.
"Since you want to catch me so badly," Gu Hanzhou whispered, his voice barely audible over the wind, "I'll help you tear this web to pieces."
He pulled his collar up, masking the lower half of his face. His hand rested naturally on the hilt of [Black Order]. He didn't choose the obvious path—to run for the city gates. Instead, he moved against the current of the search, weaving through the alleyways toward Lin Xiu's temporary command post: The Old Mine Dispatch Center.
That center housed the Inquisition's Elite Strike Team—Lin Xiu's right and left hands. They were the central processing nodes of the entire manhunt.
If he decapitated the nodes, the net would collapse.
Half an hour later, Gu Hanzhou approached the Dispatch Center. The area was flooded with artificial light, making it a stark white island in the black district. Two Adjudicators stood guard at the main entrance, their eyes scanning the perimeter as they gripped heavy Order-Crossbows.
Gu Hanzhou didn't sneak. He lowered his head just enough to shadow his eyes and walked directly toward them along the main road, his pace steady and arrogant.
"Halt! Restricted Zone!" one warrior shouted, snapping his crossbow up and aiming it directly at Gu Hanzhou's throat.
Gu Hanzhou didn't say a word. He simply turned his body slightly, allowing the searchlight to glint off the silver officer's badge on his chest.
The two warriors froze. In the Legion's rigid, caste-like hierarchy, a silver badge represented a special envoy from the Upper District. Despite their confusion, their training took over. They instinctively lowered their weapons and snapped their heels together in a crisp military salute.
"Sir! Lord Lin is on the second floor—"
Before the soldier could finish the sentence, Gu Hanzhou struck.
His back foot exploded against the pavement, propelling him forward like a black streak of lightning. He covered the five-meter gap in a fraction of a second. The first sliver of the blade—nourished by the scabbard's ancient power—flickered in the soldier's dying vision.
Puchi!
Gu Hanzhou spun like a dervish. His left hand slammed into the man's forehead to steady the target, while his right hand drove the Tang Dao through the narrow seam beneath the soldier's armpit, piercing the heart with surgical accuracy.
As the second guard opened his mouth to scream, Gu Hanzhou's left leg lashed out like a steel whip, striking the man's neck with a sickening crack.
The guard went limp, falling to the ground before his finger could even twitch against the crossbow's trigger. The entire double-kill had taken less than two seconds. No alarms. No struggle.
Gu Hanzhou pushed open the heavy iron doors of the Dispatch Center. The roaring hum of internal machinery masked the sound of his light footfalls. He didn't head for the stairs immediately. Instead, he pivoted toward the basement power-distribution room.
He knew Lin Xiu was upstairs, likely surrounded by a dozen Blood-Ignition tier guards. A frontal assault was suicide. He needed to create "Chaos."
Inside the power room, Gu Hanzhou drew [Black Order] in one fluid motion. The obsidian blade, saturated with dark-gold energy, sliced through the massive energy conduits as if they were made of butter.
BOOM—!
A cascade of violent electrical sparks erupted in the confined space. The lights across the entire Dispatch Center died instantly, replaced by the eerie, rotating crimson glow of the emergency sirens.
"What's happening?!" an enraged roar echoed from the second floor.
Gu Hanzhou's lips curled into a cold arc. He lowered his tactical goggles. In this strobe-lit hell, he was the master of the house.
He climbed the stairs, one silent step at a time.
In the second-floor corridor, six elite Adjudicators were clustered around Lin Xiu, their weapons drawn and eyes darting frantically. Lin Xiu's hand was white-knuckled on the hilt of Frost-Order, his face contorted with a mixture of rage and burgeoning doubt.
"My Lord, the conduits have been severed! It has to be that slave!"
"Shut up! He can't have gone far!" Lin Xiu barked.
Suddenly, a heavy object was hurled out of the darkness at the end of the hall. It hit the floor with a wet thud, rolling toward their feet.
It was the decapitated head of one of the guards from the front gate.
"There!"
The warriors opened fire blindly, a hail of Order-bullets shredding the air and the floorboards.
During the momentary lapse in their firing rhythm, Gu Hanzhou plummeted from the ventilation ducts above their heads. He didn't aim for Lin Xiu yet. He targeted the weakest link in the formation.
[Black Order] cleared its sheath, the blade reflecting the rotating red emergency lights like a streak of cursed blood.
SHLICK!
A guard's head spun into the air, a fountain of gore spraying the ceiling.
"He's here!"
Lin Xiu roared, finally drawing Frost-Order. A wave of bone-chilling blue blade-intent swept outward, instantly freezing the wooden furniture in the hall until it shattered like glass.
Gu Hanzhou twisted his body mid-air with impossible agility. He used the spine of [Black Order] to parry the side of the frost-wave, using the massive kinetic kickback to propel himself like a bat back into the ceiling shadows.
"Lin Xiu... your life is merely on loan."
The boy's voice seemed to emanate from the very walls, echoing from every corner of the darkened hall.
Lin Xiu trembled with fury. He lunged forward to give chase, but as his boot hit the floor, a sharp hissing sound erupted. Gu Hanzhou had pre-emptively coated the floorboards in high-concentration acidic waste from the pits.
"Curse you!"
As Lin Xiu leaped back to avoid the acid, another dark-gold flash erupted from the gloom.
This time, the blade opened the throat of a second guard.
It was a textbook example of asymmetric hunting. Gu Hanzhou utilized the terrain, the darkness, and the psychological fractures of his enemies. In less than three minutes, the six elite guards were reduced to two.
Every strike was precise, venomous, and devoid of wasted energy.
Lin Xiu finally realized the horrifying truth. The boy before him was no longer a "consumable" to be toyed with. He was a fully awakened apex predator who had mastered the art of the kill.
"You will die! I swear you will swing from the Inquisition's gallows!" Lin Xiu screamed, swinging his frost-blade wildly, yet he couldn't even graze the hem of Gu Hanzhou's coat.
Gu Hanzhou stood in the shadows at the far end of the hall, calmly wiping a single drop of blood from his blade. He could sense the heavy reinforcements closing in from the outside. He had achieved his goal: the head of the manhunt had been paralyzed with terror.
"The game is only just beginning."
Leaving behind those icy words, Gu Hanzhou vaulted through a window, dropping into the pitch-black abyss of the abandoned mine shafts below the building.
When the reinforcements finally burst into the room, they found only a floor carpeted in severed limbs and a pale, shaking Lin Xiu standing amidst the ruins of his dignity.
That night, the great net of the Furnace District collapsed.
And for the first time, the name Gu Hanzhou was etched at the very top of the Inquisition's Blacklist.