?Location: The Savage Wilds – Sector F (Outside the Whispering Caves)
Time: Day 2 of the Trial – Combat Phase
?The mercenary swallowed the jagged red pill.
?For a second, he looked confused. He burped. A puff of red smoke escaped his lips.
?"It tastes like... burning iron?" he muttered, clutching his throat.
?Then, his eyes bulged. The veins in his neck turned black and pulsed with violent, unstable Qi.
?"Hot! Hot!"
?BOOM.
?There was no magical incantation. The mercenary simply detonated. His Dantian, unable to handle the sudden 200% expansion of the Crimson Burst Pill, ruptured like a faulty pressure cooker. A shockwave of blood and bone shrapnel blasted outward, knocking the three men standing next to him into the mud.
?Silence fell over the clearing.
?Feng Yu lowered his fan, staring at the crater where his hired sword used to be. A piece of smoking armor landed at his feet.
?He looked up at Aris.
?Aris (Han Xiao) was cowering behind a rock, hands over his head, trembling violently.
?"I told you!" Aris wailed, his voice cracking. "I told you it was unstable! I failed that batch! Why did you eat it?!"
?Feng Yu's face twisted from shock to pure, unadulterated rage.
?"Kill him!" Feng Yu screamed, pointing his fan at Aris. "Cut that idiot into pieces! And don't eat anything he throws!"
?The remaining seventeen mercenaries drew their weapons. They were professionals—battle-hardened killers from the Outer Rim. They charged as one unit, a wall of steel and killing intent.
?"Mo!" Aris shrieked. "Save me!"
?Mo sighed audibly. The sound was amplified by his iron mask.
?He stepped forward, placing himself between Aris and the charging horde. He didn't draw a sword. He simply lowered his shoulder and braced.
?[Combat Logic: Tank Mode]
?The first three attackers reached Mo. Their swords—heavy steel cleavers infused with Qi—slammed into Mo's arm.
?CLANG.
?The blades didn't cut skin. They bounced off Mo's Abyssal-Hardened Flesh as if hitting a mountain.
?Mo moved. A simple, brutal backhand.
?The three men were launched backward, their ribcages shattered by the sheer kinetic force. They hit the tree line fifty feet away and didn't get up.
?"Flank them!" a mercenary captain shouted. "Ignore the big one! Get the alchemist!"
?Five mercenaries broke off, leaping over Mo to strike at the cowering Aris.
?Aris looked up, his eyes wide with "panic."
?"Stay back!" Aris yelled, waving his hands frantically.
?In reality, his Abyssal Eye was dissecting the scene in slow motion.
?[Law Manipulation: Active]
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
[Target: Local Gravity Vector. Range: 3 Meters. Cost: 500 MP.]**
?As the mercenaries mid-air swung their swords down, Aris "tripped" backward over a root.
?He didn't just fall. He edited the gravity around his body.
?For a split second, the gravity in that three-meter circle shifted sideways.
?The five mercenaries, expecting to land on solid ground, suddenly found "down" was now "left." Their momentum threw them violently into each other. Swords meant for Aris sliced into the armor of their allies.
?"Argh!"
"Watch it, idiot!"
?They collapsed into a tangled heap of limbs and curses.
?Aris scrambled away on his hands and knees. "I'm sorry! I'm so clumsy!"
?As he crawled, he "accidentally" kicked a small stone.
?[Law Manipulation: Vector Assist]
?The stone shot forward with the velocity of a railgun slug. It struck a mercenary in the temple. He dropped instantly, dead before he hit the ground.
?"What is happening?!" Feng Yu roared from the backline. "He's just an alchemist! Why can't you hit him?"
?Feng Yu had seen enough. He opened his fan fully. The green feathers glowed with the sharp, cutting energy of the Wind Law.
?"Gale-Blade Art: Thousand Cuts!"
?He swung the fan.
?A tornado of wind blades, each sharp enough to slice through stone, tore through the clearing. It shredded the trees, the mud, and the bodies of the fallen mercenaries. It roared straight toward Aris.
?Aris stood up. He stopped cowering.
?He turned his back to Feng Yu, pretending to run away, but his eyes narrowed.
?Wind Law? Basic. Crude.
?Aris reached out with his mind, touching the invisible code of the reality around him.
?[Abyssal Divinity: Law Nullification]
[Target: Atmospheric Pressure.]**
?He snapped his fingers.
?A vacuum bubble formed directly in the path of the wind blades.
?Wind needs air to travel. Without air, there is no wind.
?The terrifying tornado hit the vacuum bubble and... vanished. It simply fizzled out into a harmless breeze that ruffled Aris's hair.
?Aris turned around, blinking. "Huh? Did you miss?"
?Feng Yu froze. His eyes were wide, staring at his fan, then at Aris.
?"That... that's impossible. That was a High-Grade technique!"
?Feng Yu looked around. His mercenaries were all down—either dead from "accidents" or unconscious from Mo's brutal punches.
?He was alone.
?And for the first time, he realized that the "fear" on the alchemist's face didn't reach his eyes.
?Aris straightened his posture. He brushed a speck of dust off his shoulder. The shivering stopped. The stammering vanished.
?A cold, violet light ignited in Aris's eyes.
?"You know," Aris said, his voice smooth and deep, echoing with a strange distortion. "I really was trying to be subtle. But you are making it very difficult."
?Feng Yu took a step back. "Who... who are you?"
?"I am Han Xiao," Aris smiled. It was a predator's smile. "But you can call me... the Manager."
?Aris raised a hand.
?[Skill: Abyssal Grasp]
?Gravity inverted.
?Feng Yu was ripped off the ground, suspended upside down in the air. His fan clattered to the mud. He struggled, flailing his limbs, but he was locked in a stasis field.
?Aris walked over to him, stepping over the corpses of the mercenaries casually.
?"Now," Aris said, looking up at the suspended Young Master. "Let's discuss the economics of bounty hunting. You put a price on my head. That means you have money."
?Aris tapped Feng Yu's forehead.
?[Soul Search: Brutal Mode]
?"AAAAHHH!" Feng Yu screamed as his memories were ripped open. Bank account numbers, stash locations, clan secrets—all of it flowed into Aris's mind in seconds.
?Aris pulled back. Feng Yu hung there, drooling, his mind shattered.
?"Mo," Aris called out.
?Mo appeared at his side, wiping blood from his prosthetic hand. "Yes, Master?"
?"Loot the bodies. Take the spatial rings. Then stack them in the cave."
?"And him?" Mo pointed at the twitching Feng Yu.
?"Leave him alive," Aris said, turning away. "But break his cultivation. He's going to be our messenger."
?Aris paused, looking at the camera feed of the System.
?"The narrative is simple: The Alchemist panicked. He threw unstable experimental pills. The pills caused a chain reaction. It was a tragic industrial accident."
?Aris grinned.
?"Nobody looks for a murderer when they can blame incompetence."
?Location: The Sector F Clearing – 1 Hour Later
Time: Dusk
?The clearing was quiet.
?Feng Yu lay in the mud, sobbing quietly. His Dantian was cracked. He would never cultivate past the Mortal Realm again.
?Aris and Mo were gone.
?In their wake, they left a legend. The legend of "Han Xiao the Mad Alchemist"—a coward so dangerous that even looking at him might make you explode.
?[Abyssal Nexus: End of Chapter Status]
?Host: Aris Thorne (Alias: Han Xiao)
Level: 71 (Half-Step Divinity).
Current Status: Moving to Sector C (The Ruins).
Kill Count: 21 (Indirect/Accidental).
?Loot Acquired:
?18x Mercenary Spatial Rings (containing basic weapons/supplies).
?Feng Yu's Spatial Ring (Elite): Contains 5,000 High-Grade Stones, a Wind-Law Manual, and a map of the "True Inheritance" hidden in the trial zone.
? Update - Law Manipulation:
?Effect: Aris can now edit the physics of the local area (Gravity, Friction, Vector).
?Limitation: High Mana Cost. Cannot be used directly on high-level living targets (yet), only on the environment.
