Elder Xuanji lifted a trembling hand to the place where his hair knot had been sliced away The calm immortal look on his face twisted into something like a furious ghost He let out a shriek that scraped the whole training ground raw Around the arena nine bronze warning bells answered at the same time

  Their sound rolled like heavy iron struck in the dark The mountain air shook with it

  White robed figures poured in from every direction They were inner gate enforcement disciples They moved with practiced speed and hard eyes In moments they formed a Beidou Sword Formation

  Layer after layer of sword light rose like a white tide Mike stood trapped at the center

  Mike could not understand the ritual words they shouted But he understood the meaning in their faces Every gaze promised a clean kill The sha qi in his body kept roaring like a diesel engine with the throttle pinned

  It did not only mend his meridians It made his blood feel like it was burning hot and moving fast It made his mind sharp and loud

  The sword tide pressed closer Steel points flickered at his throat and ribs Mike breathed once Then he drove forward like a truck that refuses to brake

  He smashed into the ring of blades with raw brutal force Each strike sounded like a heavy door slammed shut A few disciples tried to close in and cut him down at arm length They were hit by the violent rush of his sha qi and thrown backward

  Men and swords flew together Several fine steel blades shattered into fragments the moment they touched that savage power

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  For a heartbeat the crowd thought the formation would collapse But this was a great sect with deep roots Elder Xuanji waved a command banner with a face full of ice The Beidou Sword Formation changed in an instant

  The sword light stopped meeting him head on It became sticky and clinging It wrapped him like tough rope It dragged at his arms and legs It stole space the way thick mud steals motion

  Countless sword streaks circled and tightened They did not cut deep They wore him down

  Mike forced his way forward step by step Sweat ran cold down his back In this strange world the air itself felt like it wanted him gone The loneliness of that rejection hit harder than pain

  It felt like driving a dead highway that never ends It felt like every vehicle on the road was coming straight at him

  The formation herded him without him noticing Each time he broke a gap another gap closed Each time he chose a path the path bent him backward Little by little the ground under his boots changed

  The air ahead looked warped Loose stones on the ground did not roll They trembled as if a hidden engine was idling under the earth A faint metallic hum crawled up his teeth

  Mike backed through the last line of trees and saw the forbidden edge of the back mountain A massive gorge opened in front of him Jagged stone spires leaned over a bottomless drop Strange twisted magnetic light flickered between the rocks like cold lightning trapped in glass

  This was the Ten Thousand Foot Magnetic Gorge

  Stories hit his mind even without words Flying swords that passed through here would lose control and fall Metal would be shredded into iron dust in an instant That was why even sect disciples feared this place

  The pursuers stopped about ten zhang away Their long swords trembled in their hands The blades kept trying to tilt toward the gorge As if an invisible hook had caught the steel and would not let go

  Elder Xuanji pushed through the crowd and stepped to the front He looked at Mike like a man watching prey reach the end of a cliff A thin cruel smile pulled at his mouth

  Mike felt the only space behind him vanish Then he felt something else In his pocket the heavy chrome plated wrench began to shake It was being yanked by a force he could not see

  It rattled hard against his thigh Like it wanted to tear free and fly straight into the metal eating abyss

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