Chapter 50: Kazni

Shi Zui wiped the blood from her blade. Compared to guns, she truly preferred the icy chill of a sword’s back edge.

Or rather, what she loved was that profound sense of control. Once a bullet left the chamber, it was free—subject to wind speed, air pressure, humidity… In mere milliseconds, elemental influences could alter its path, sending it veering from the shooter’s intended trajectory.

Cold weapons were different. The hilt of a knife or sword remained forever in her grasp, forever under her command. If something lunged at her, she simply cleaved it apart. A bullet, though? It might halt forever after one mishap, leaving nothing but regretful sighs in its wake.

Another group of silver-masked half-beastmen fell. Shi Zui marked the location of the bodies and slowly advanced toward the uncleared zone. By the battle’s end, it felt like a game of cat and mouse.

But the roles on both sides remained undecided.

Aether had yet to fully recover. Someone was still assaulting its central brain as both factions desperately vied for control. Yi Fengyan and Minister Sanjima had seized command of the battlefield for now, with more Action Division Awakeners flooding into the Base. The scales of victory were tipping unmistakably.

Shi Zui sheathed her blade. Her Rampage Value still afforded her two chances to fully unleash her Instinct. Yet she didn’t relax. She had caught a faint whiff of something amiss.

What were these invaders from the Savior Organization truly after? A suicide mission to flaunt Project Y survivors to the Base? Risking exposure of their inside mole just to sneak in at midnight and disrupt sleep?

No. That didn’t add up.

Shi Zui halted abruptly. The Defensive Talisman Array shielded the Base’s masses of personnel and resources, but the underground levels lay entirely beyond its reach.

And what lurked underground?

The Key to Pandora’s Box, paper dossiers on ten S-rank Exotic Beasts, elite Elemental Weapons…

These people were thieves! If their mole held sufficient clearance, the intruders could bypass every trap and beeline for the Kazni Temple doors below the Base. They might fail to breach the Divine Temple this time, but one attempt paved the way for more. Having mapped the Temple’s position, they could strike its heart next time!

A District formed the Base’s core—and the sole above-ground access to the Kazni Temple. Shi Zui bolted toward the A1 District Temple entrance, relaying the intel to Yi Fengyan.

Yet the nearer she drew to the Temple entrance, the fiercer grew the counterstrikes from surviving invaders elsewhere in the Base. It was as though they were manufacturing chaos to lure her away, buying time for their comrades.

Handing off the remnants to Xie Pingzhi and Zhou Xianhui, Shi Zui shook her pursuers and charged straight for the Auditorium doors.

The hidden passage beneath the Auditorium stage was the only route below. Without a second’s pause, Shi Zui shoved the doors open and plunged inside—

Clang!

Two matching short blades collided in a screech like severed silver wire. The resonant chime of alchemical metal rang out as the pair sprang apart on contact.

Every light in the Auditorium blazed to life in an instant. Starlike candle flames danced atop grand candelabras, droplets of molten wax pattering against brass bases—a sound once negligible, now piercingly distinct.

“Long time no see, Number One.”

A stark spotlight etched a lean, upright silhouette. Number Twelve gripped twin double-edged daggers, facing Shi Zui with icy composure.

She wore no silver mask. Jet-black hair drifted loosely about the woman’s frame, though her striking eyes remained veiled in a hazy mist. Clad in a scant, pristine white tunic, she evoked pristine rice paper untouched by ink.

She was a strikingly beautiful woman, yet Number Twelve’s allure was fragile and subdued, like a paper doll liable to crumble at the slightest touch.

But Shi Zui knew better—this was a formidable adversary. Project Y subjects were typically dosed with sedatives and bound to beds amid restraints, yet Number Twelve defied confinement. She possessed Instinct, a force that enabled her repeated escapes from prisonlike cells, even if it couldn’t free her from the infernal Laboratory.

Shi Zui had witnessed Number Twelve’s recapture and punishment firsthand. Some uncanny power drove her to hurl herself at the cell door, braving electrocution time and again, only to curse bitterly upon each inevitable return.

Shi Zui had assumed the Project Y’s end would spur Number Twelve’s immediate flight. She never imagined this prisoner who had once craved freedom so fiercely would someday serve her sworn enemies.

“Long time no see,” Shi Zui replied evenly. “I never thought I’d find you here.”

Number Twelve spoke softly. “But I’ve been waiting for you quite some time. This is the sole entrance to the hidden passage. I knew you’d be first.”

“You’re the gatekeeper?” Shi Zui realized, easing her blade free. “So I arrived too late. Someone’s already through.”

“Indeed. My mission tonight is to bar anyone from entering. You’re no exception.” Number Twelve tightened her grip on her hilts.

Silence descended once more upon the Auditorium. Winter’s gale bit to the marrow, but no chill matched the blades they wielded. The vast, still hall stood empty—no wind, no sound. Half a year prior, members had reveled here marking another anniversary. Now, she met this long-lost “friend” not with goblets, but with steel.

After a beat, Shi Zui stirred. “I know it’s a long shot, but I hope you’ll stand aside.”

Number Twelve blinked, caught off guard as if hearing an outlandish fable. “Are you trying to talk me down?”

“Yes.” Shi Zui nodded gravely.

“You’re not the same anymore. Did this place change you? The Number One from evening drills never spared me idle chatter. She just attacked.”

“Maybe. But you don’t have to keep slaving for Messiah.”

Number Twelve laughed. “No. I’m not in service to those maniacs. My eyes have always seen only me.”

Her words were sliced off in midair by an invisible blade, trailing off without echo. Number Twelve unleashed a burst of speed that pushed the limits of any living creature. Her hands carved out a cross-slash, aiming straight for Shi Zui’s throat.

With a faint clink, three blades met in the air. Shi Zui blocked the crossed short swords with one hand, then casually flicked them upward. An unimaginable surge of power sent Number Twelve flying backward.

Number Twelve skidded to a halt, her mind racing. In that exchange, Shi Zui hadn’t drawn on any Instinct—no enhancements, no added speed—yet she’d exploded with enough raw force from a standstill to hurl a grizzly bear aside. Just how thoroughly had this woman’s body been forged by countless elemental barrages?

No, she wasn’t human anymore. Number Twelve refused to believe that Shi Zui’s body hadn’t been pumped full of experimental drugs back in the day.

And with just this first clash, the battle’s outcome already hung in the balance.

“Lucky me, getting to cross blades with you again,” Number Twelve sneered. “But I won’t let you through. Not a chance.”

The water elements in the air suddenly began to cluster thickly. The humidity in the grand hall doubled, then tripled, until the vapor reached full saturation. A cloying dampness, like the muggy haze of a southern spring thaw, clung to both women. Yet Number Twelve’s form grew ever more translucent, on the verge of vanishing from the world entirely.

Instinct: Listen to Light.

The human eye could only capture so much light—corner resolution was just one limitation. The invisibility cloaks in sci-fi films weren’t impossible; an optical camouflage based on Snell’s law could achieve it.

Listen to Light worked the same way. Compared to the similar Aether: Shadow Walk, it coalesced vast quantities of water elements into a kind of sensory net, feeding every surrounding detail back to the Awakener. If Shadow Walk suited stealth, Listen to Light was made for assassins.

“Number One, one day you’ll understand us,” Number Twelve’s voice whispered, light as an eagle’s feather yet ghostly and curse-like. “I wish you, on that day, the right to plunge a blade into your own chest.”

“I’ll be watching.”

A fierce wind whipped up from nowhere. The auditorium’s lights burst one after another—pop, pop, pop—plunging everything into pitch darkness. In that endless void, the clash of blades roared like crashing waves!

~~~

Ye Jingqiu opened her eyes.

Where… was she?

She pinched herself hard, half-dazed, hoping to prove it was all a dream.

She was sitting cross-legged right at the fulcrum where the two leaves of an open bronze door met. When she woke, that’s exactly how she’d been positioned, facing a gap three or four meters wide—but she couldn’t make out what lay beyond.

The door was enormous, rivaling the one in Candle Dragon Golden Hall. Intricate, chaotic patterns adorned it, reminding her of the rune formations etched into the base’s surfaces. Same style, for sure.

Tentatively, she reached out and touched the door. Bone-dry. She activated the flashlight mode on her Will Ring and finally pieced together where she was.

A steel alloy plaque was bolted beside the bronze doors, stamped with the base’s unique emblem and standard font. Mystery solved.

“Al Khazna.”

Kazni Temple—or Treasury, as it was known.

Ye Jingqiu scratched her head, baffled at how she’d ended up here. Kazni Treasury was a Roman Corinthian-style temple. Legend had it this was the very vault from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the one that opened only to “Open Sesame.”

This underground version was a few centuries younger than the original base, built by a Greek elder who’d once led the Awakeners. It stored precious documents and materials under maximum security—stuff even Aether lacked clearance for.

Like the dossiers on the ten S-rank Exotic Beasts. To prevent leaks, those top-secret files existed only in hard copy, rarely revealed to the public.

So why was she here now?

Ye Jingqiu pushed herself up using the door for support. As an S-Rank Specialist, she had access, sure—but that didn’t mean she wanted it. The more secretive something was, the more dangerous. Her curiosity only extended to safe things.

Problem was, she was already here, and the temple doors stood wide open. An intruder?

The underground levels had no signal for maximum secrecy. She hesitated: head back and report to the Captain, or venture in a little first?

Pacing at the door gap, she knew time waited for no one. She leaned in carefully for a peek, just to spot any obvious idiots lurking inside.

But as she took a single step forward, Ye Jingqiu froze.

Inside the temple… was a tree.