The surface of the city wall flipped up like fish scales as the wall extended higher from the ground, revealing a honeycomb-like array of crossbows beneath.

All three thousand six hundred of the fish-scale plates on the wall flipped over at once. Three-inch barbs sprang from the edge of each plate, glinting with a sinister, blue, venomous light in the twilight.

As gears roared from deep underground, the entire section of the wall seemed to grow upward like a living creature. Simultaneously, a large, cleared plot of land inside the city, adjacent to the wall, began to tremble violently before splitting open into a long, narrow maw.

From within the maw, a lotus-shaped base forged from Profound Steel rose from the depths of the Earth Vein. Twelve layers of Profound Steel lotus petals unfurled, and from each petal emerged a honeycomb-like turret made of Hundred-Forged Profound Steel. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

KACHA!

Scalding steam hissed from the joints of the lotus petals as seven hundred and twenty Thunder Fire Crossbows extended from the exposed honeycomb turrets.

The bodies of the crossbows were pitch-black. Their grooves weren’t loaded with ordinary arrows, but with Profound Iron Spears as thick as a man’s wrist. The chains attached to the spears’ ends were connected to mercury pumps in the moat.

When the first wave of javelins was loosed, mercury surged up the chains, weaving a venomous net in the air. The javelins struck with deadly precision, hitting the Incense and Candle Sect’s Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Army, which had surrounded the city at some unknown time.

A single volley wiped out more than half of the Incense Followers.

Viewed from above, it was as if several lotus petals were continuously pushing up from the ground, eventually burying the entire city within Guniu Mountain. Below, the Profound Steel Lotus City had sealed completely. The lotus-shaped fortress gleamed with a cold, hard light in the twilight. Its twelve layers of Profound Steel petals interlocked, each one embedded with seven hundred and twenty Thunder Fire Crossbows. The grinding of their gears sounded like a passing swarm of locusts.

A primordial grinding of gears echoed from the mountain peak, drawing Xu Yunfan’s attention. But what truly shocked him was what followed.

The entire ridge of Guniu Mountain split open to form a massive maw. From it, a colossal steel tiger, towering over fifty zhang high, slowly began to rise.

Amidst the clouds of sulfurous smoke billowing from the chasm, the great steel tiger’s silhouette grew distinct.

This Mechanical Beast stood nearly fifty zhang tall and was forged entirely from Profound Steel. Its stripes were actually three thousand six hundred heat vents, which now pulsed with the red glow of lava from the Earth Vein. As it moved, the vents at its claw joints spewed clouds of sulfurous smoke, staining the setting sun the color of blood.

Once the giant tiger had fully emerged from the mountain, it climbed atop the lotus fortress and locked into place, turning the whole of Celestial Craft City into a single, sealed structure. It then opened its maw toward the Incense and Candle Sect army charging from outside the city, revealing the barrel of an astoundingly massive cannon.

Xu Yunfan saw it clearly. Among the approaching Incense and Candle Sect forces was the same Blood Exchange Realm master wielding the Ten-foot Bright King Spear. A single man on a single horse, he led the charge.

BOOM!

The instant the giant tiger’s cannon fired a test shot, the night sky was dyed crimson.

The shell disintegrated in mid-air into thirty-six burning iron pellets. Upon impact with the Incense and Candle Sect forces, they triggered a heaven-shaking explosion and threw up rings of fire made from Thunder Fire, trapping the sect’s vanguard like fish in a barrel.

Xu Yunfan even saw miniature mechanical scorpions crawling out from some of the burning pellets. These venom-laced killing machines were designed to burrow through the gaps in armor and attack the wearer’s vital spots.

’What in the world!?’

Xu Yunfan stared blankly at the sealed Celestial Craft City below, then up at the tiger head embedded atop the Celestial Craft Fortress.

’A Tiger-shaped Mechanical Beast... in the Martial Arts World.’

"Pretty incredible, isn’t it? The predecessor of our Celestial Craft Cave was a branch of the Mo School from two thousand years ago. Ever since our sect was founded a thousand years ago, every generation of the Mechanical Hall, the Celestial Craft Department, and the Melt Gold Hall has exhausted themselves trying to restore this Mo Family’s Mechanical Tiger. But even now, it’s still not quite what it used to be.

Back then, a master of the Mo Family could communicate with this Mechanical Tiger mind-to-mind. With it, he burned seven cities to the ground in a single night. Now, we can’t even unleash thirty percent of its power."

Mo Shisan had climbed back onto the Celestial Craft Corridor Bridge. He quietly watched the completely enveloped Celestial Craft City below, his expression a mixture of inexpressible grief and anger.

"After this battle, the Celestial Craft Cave has lost nearly half its disciples. My master said the dream invasion ability is only truly effective the first time; subsequent uses are much weaker and can’t ensnare people’s hearts. So, the worst of the crisis is mostly over. Once the Cyan Dragon Winch is activated and Celestial Craft City’s Profound Steel Lotus is fully formed, no one short of a Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster will be able to break through. Even a Grandmaster of Refining the Internal Organs wouldn’t gain any advantage here.

We might lack for other things here beneath Guniu Mountain, but we certainly don’t lack steel. Half of the wealth we’ve accumulated over the past millennium has been poured into this Profound Steel Lotus fortress."

Although Mo Shisan spoke lightly, the slaughter within Celestial Craft City—where former brothers and fellow disciples were now butchering one another—was a devastating blow to the Celestial Craft Cave.

He turned his head to look at the large crater smashed into the corridor bridge.

"What about Bao Yan?"

"I killed him."

Xu Yunfan’s tone was casual, but Mo Shisan saw the countless purplish-red welts writhing like earthworms across his skin through the tears in his clothes. He understood just how perilous the battle must have been.

He gave Xu Yunfan a complicated look, fell silent for a moment, and then said in a low voice, "Thank you! It seems you paid a heavy price to kill Bao Yan."

Xu Yunfan gave Mo Shisan a baffled look. ’Dealing with Bao Yan? The man’s qi and blood were in decline, and he’d been in a high position for far too long. He was completely out of practice.’

’Once I activated the Linn Character State, one strike from my mace broke his defense, and the second crushed him.’

’What was there to overthink?’

"I’m leaving. I need to find Senior Brother Fu."

After taking a few steps, Xu Yunfan turned back. "How do I get in?"

"The entirety of Guniu Mountain has been hollowed out. Most of Celestial Craft City is inside the mountain. Just head back the way you came, from the Celestial Craft Corridor Bridge."

Without delay, Xu Yunfan entered Guniu Mountain and stepped onto a sliding platform at the side. After pressing his True Inheritance Disciple Token against it, the platform let out a hiss of steam and began a rapid descent into the mountain’s depths.

Once inside Celestial Craft City, Xu Yunfan looked up at the Lighting Stones dotting the cavern ceiling, which bathed the city below in light as bright as day.

When he found Fu Jin, the sulfurous smoke in the Weapon Casting Hall’s Earth Fire Room was thick. Fu Jin’s large hand was wrapped around the neck of the last frenzied disciple.

The thirty-seven people who had been tied up had veins bulging like earthworms all over their bodies. The whites of their eyes had completely consumed their pupils.

These were the signs of the Heart-Eroding Pill destroying the mind.

Xu Yunfan’s gaze grew heavy. He remained silent.

Fu Jin glanced back at him, his expression grim. When his eyes fell on the purplish-red welts on the side of Xu Yunfan’s neck, he knew the path here had not been easy.

"The Incense and Candle Sect’s Heart-Eroding Pill... A few months ago, a letter came from Wuzhou. We sent the Quenching Blade Army’s Reconnaissance Camp to investigate in person... There is no cure.

Master just sent word. Nearly half of the Celestial Craft Cave’s disciples were led astray after the Incense and Candle Sect’s Ming Venerable invaded their dreams. On top of that, Incense Followers infiltrated the city and distributed the Heart-Eroding Pill..."

As he spoke, the disciple in front of him began to struggle wildly. Fu Jin tightened his grip and snapped the man’s neck.

"Li Wen. The seventh son of the Li Family, who run the skin-making business in the west of Celestial Craft City."

Fu Jin’s hand seized a second struggling disciple. As his calloused fingers dug into the man’s collarbone, the glow from the Earth Fire Room’s lava illuminated the twitching muscles in his cheek. "Zhao Siping. An orphan who fled the famine in Mosenan Dao. Seven years ago, he was stealing steamed buns at the City God Temple. I was the one who brought him back to the Weapon Casting Hall!"

(Three more Chapters will be released later, I’m still writing.)