Black Rock City
The moon was slowly rising over the horizon when Ye Han's squad began to move. They had arrived the day before. After twenty-four hours of uninterrupted surveillance, they decided to act under the cover of night.
Shadows slid thick through the alleys of dark stone. The hanging lanterns barely scratched the darkness, trembling with each gust of wind.
Ye Han exchanged a brief glance with his comrades. No words were necessary. The squad dispersed with precision, like wolves trained in the art of the hunt. They wore gray tunics, with no visible emblems or insignias. But beneath the fabric, they carried steel: weapons, segmented armor, concealed bayonets.
He and V-15 advanced together, in a wooden cart pulled by a pair of horses. They stopped in front of the Xuan family forge. They pretended to browse the goods of a neighboring shop, like any ordinary merchants.
V-15 beside him pretended to examine some tools and murmured, barely moving his lips:
"Visual confirmation of the target. Xuan Forge. Two guards at the entrance."
Ye Han responded with a slight nod.
From the rear, V-17 and V-18 glided through the shadows like nocturnal demons. Each carried a rectangular box with wooden handles. Inside rested 40kg of dynamite, carefully packed. The operation had begun.
Far from the center, on the edge of the city's outer wall, a figure remained motionless on a rooftop. The night wind brushed against the tiles, but could not disturb its stillness.
V-12.
He no longer wore standard armor. After recent skirmishes, he had reported that the full gear limited his mobility and reflected too much light. Ethan reviewed his report and approved a complete redesign.
He now wore a segmented steel vest, fitted to his torso, covered in matte black fabric: light, durable, silent. The rest of the uniform was made of dark gray cloth. No metallic trace was visible. Nothing that could give him away.
Instead of the usual helmet, V-12 wore a black, unmarked mask. A faceless presence.
From a distance, he was indistinguishable from the night itself.
In position. Breath controlled. Pulse stabilized. Minimal movement.
His rifle's scope rested firmly on the firing line. Waiting.
He was the eye in the shadow. The shot no one would hear.
The ghost the enemy would never see coming.
At the back of the forge, V-17 slipped down the alley with the load.
"Rear area clear. Stone wall, no guards," he signaled briefly, conveying the message to V-18 stationed at the alley's far end. The latter nodded subtly and headed toward the main entrance.
With a calm pace, V-18 entered the Xuan forge, pretending to be a customer drawn in by the displayed treasures. Out front, Ye Han saw that everyone was in position. A slight smile appeared on his face as he approached the carriage.
"We proceed as planned," he murmured to V-15 beside him.
He raised his hand. A single signal.
Immediately, all picked up the order.
V-18 walked naturally between the shelves. An assistant looked at him indifferently. He sensed no spiritual presence—just a simple mortal. He ignored him with disdain and didn't bother approaching.
Unfazed, V-18 continued examining the spiritual weapons. Upon reaching the counter, he discreetly placed the box. He activated the delayed ignition mechanism and kept browsing the shop as if nothing happened. Then, he left empty-handed, raising no suspicion. No one stopped him.
Meanwhile, V-17 had swiftly climbed the rear wall. From his elevated position, he clearly saw the interior: piles of ingots, sacks of coal, and a low roof covering what appeared to be the forging area. A small open window, barely protected by a loosely fastened iron grate, offered a perfect opportunity.
He didn't place the charge.
He threw it.
With precision, the box sailed through the air and landed among the stacked materials, slipping through the opening without a sound. The mechanism was already active. The damage would be devastating, both to the structure and anyone inside.
Wasting no time, V-17 descended as smoothly as he had climbed and slipped into the darkness, vanishing among the alleys.
On the second floor of the shop area, all seemed quiet. An old man rested on a meditation cushion. His white beard brushed his chest, and his eyebrows hung like strands of silk. Though his body seemed withered by age, his presence remained imposing. The third elder of the Xuan family.
When V-17 scaled the wall, the elder's eyes opened instantly. Calmly, he pulled a formation plate from his robe and held it between his bony fingers. A faint glow emerged from the artifact.
A cold smile appeared on his face.
"Be alert... a rat has entered," he announced in a hoarse voice that resonated throughout the structure.
The elder descended with firm steps. In less than a minute, the guards and cultivators stationed in the area—about a dozen members of the Xuan family—deployed.
Most headed to the forge area in the rear, where the disturbance had been detected.
They searched corridors, rooftops, even the cracks between the walls. Nothing. Not a shadow. Not a single sound out of place.
The elder stopped in the middle of the forge, his brow furrowing with growing intensity.
"Why did it activate...? A malfunction?" he muttered, eyes fixed on the formation plate. It was stable. No signs of damage. Nothing seemed out of place.
And then, he felt it.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
A brutal pressure gripped his chest.
Danger.
A powerful sense of impending death engulfed him.
His face twisted with pure terror. He opened his mouth to shout—
Too late.
BOOOOOOOM.
The very earth seemed to roar in pain.
A hellish explosion tore through the air, shaking the forge with fury. The ground trembled violently. The blast was deafening.
A brutal shockwave rippled outward in all directions.
Wooden beams groaned and snapped like old bones, and bodies—guards and cultivators—were hurled against walls and furniture like broken dolls.
The box on the counter had detonated first, violently. A moment later, the charge thrown by V-17 in the rear exploded with even greater force.
The back wall didn't simply collapse—it blew apart, hurling stone, iron, and forge embers like shrapnel.
Fire and smoke filled the air.
The muffled roar of destruction continued to echo like a sound from hell.
At the epicenter, the third elder of the Xuan family hadn't even had time to react. The wave of energy swallowed him whole.
There was no time for a scream.
Only a searing flash.
Then, he was consumed by the storm.
Fire, dust, and molten iron surged like a wave of absolute destruction.
Eighty kilograms of dynamite were no joke.
The explosion even exceeded the squad's expectations.
What the Vespers didn't know was that, inside the forge, spiritual stones were stored near the core of the furnace.
And those stones, when struck by the extreme heat and shockwave, exploded in a chain reaction.
The result was a catastrophe.
The ground lifted, cracked, and then collapsed in on itself.
A column of black smoke and burning embers shot into the sky.
From a distant rooftop, V-12 observed through his rifle scope.
His cold eyes reflected the infernal spectacle.
Smoke and ash rose like a wounded dragon, swirling in violent spirals, fed by the coal of the melting furnaces.
On the main street, Ye Han had taken cover just in time behind the carriage.
The warm blast wind struck his face.
But he didn't waste a second.
He leapt onto the seat and grabbed the reins.
V-15 rose beside the Maxim machine gun, already mounted on the vehicle's rotating support.
From inside the forge, through the smoke and screams, agonizing figures could be seen.
Covered in blood, dust, and fire.
Their robes torn, their faces burned.
But some were still alive.
V-15 didn't wait for a signal.
With a mechanical roar, the Maxim came to life.
Tatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatata—
A hailstorm of lead swept across the front of the structure.
Bullets rained down like infernal judgment.
The roar of the machine gun spat fire at an unstoppable rate.
The ground was perforated, the walls shredded, and the bodies… disintegrated.
What had once been the forge's entrance ceased to exist.
Wood, stone, flesh, and iron were erased without distinction.
In seconds, nothing was left standing.
"Target one, destroyed," Ye Han shouted firmly.
He snapped the reins.
The horses neighed fiercely and galloped forward, charging through the smoke curtain like ghosts.
The carriage wheels screeched over stone fragments.
In seconds, they vanished down the street.
Behind them...
Only the groan of collapsing structures remained.
Where once stood a proud forge full of materials, now there was only a ruined crater.
Collapsed walls, charred beams, and the thick scent of gunpowder and burnt flesh filled the air.
Fragments of broken spiritual weapons glimmered among the ruins, a blackened anvil protruding from the rubble.
Nothing else moved.