Chapter 41: Into the Purple Smoke

Volume 3: The Mount Tai Inheritances

Chapter 41: Into the Purple Smoke

The subterranean arena of the Capital Imperial Academy had completely ceased to exist as a modern structure. Where reinforced obsidian granite and tactical server racks had once stood, there was now only a widening, vertical abyss of swirling purple smoke that pulsed to the frantic rhythm of a dying world.

Lin Feng stood directly on the crumbling rim of the primary fault node. The concrete floorboards beneath his sneakers were actively dissolving, turning into a fine, black dust that gravity refused to pull downward. Instead, the debris floated upward, sucked straight into the mouth of the newly birthed trans-dimensional gateway.

Within his lower abdomen, his

Dantian

thrummed with a terrifying, dual-loop resonance. The liquid Qi surging through his flawlessly integrated

Ren

and

Du

channels generated a dense, microscopic kinetic shield across his skin, keeping the toxic, sulfur-heavy atmospheric pressure of the void from staining his plain gray utility jacket.

The dimensional baseline has completely fractured ahead of schedule,

Lin Feng calculated calmly, his vacant, bottomless eyes peering down into the infinite purple depths.

The Imperial Core Rift was never meant to open as a standard tier dungeon. Because the Central Bureau and the hidden sanctuaries prematurely destabilized the continental leyline anchors, this node has bridged directly with the Mount Tai deep rifts. The playground of the capital is finished. The true war for the core resources of New Huaxia has begun.

Suddenly, his unbranded transponder vibrated violently inside his pocket.

The screen didn't display text; it was a pure, erratic stream of corrupted green data loops originating from Director-General Sun’s subterranean command bunker miles away. The satellite arrays were failing to log his positioning, their tracking visors entirely blinded by the energetic feedback of the void.

"Student Lin..." Sun’s baritone voice managed to crackle through the speaker, distorted by heavy static and ozone interference. "The outer perimeter is... collapsing. The heavy mechanized divisions are experiencing total tracking failures... The Bai family's drone fleets have crossed the northern valley borders... They are dropping seismic drills straight into the fault lines... You must..."

"Evacuate your vards, General," Lin Feng cut him off smoothly, his voice carrying an unhurried spatial resonance that caused the remaining iron framework of the dome to vibrate in a clean geometric frequency. "The table has already outpaced your artillery units. If your enforcers stay within the three-kilometer exclusion grid for another ten minutes, the residual spatial friction will ground their marrow into common clay. Leave the data lines open. I am entering the rift."

Without waiting for a response, Lin Feng adjusted the single strap of his worn utility backpack. He didn't execute an intricate movement art or deploy a traditional protective stance from his previous life.

He simply stepped forward, his body drifting off the concrete ledge and plunging straight into the suffocating purple void below.

The transition through a primary grand rift was a sensory nightmare that would have violently shattered the psychological center of an unawakened legacy heir like Zhao Ming. The linear parameters of time and gravity completely dissolved, replaced by a crushing, sub-zero vacuum that tried to ruthlessly compress his physical container into a flat molecular slate.

But to Lin Feng, currently circulating genuine geocentric fuel through his

Stage 2 Meridian Loop

, the environment felt familiar, almost welcoming.

Thump.

His feet touched ground with absolute, feather-like lightness.

The environment he stepped into was a vast, primeval subterranean labyrinth that bore zero resemblance to the modern city grids above. Towering, jagged pillars of uncut crystalline white jade—each one the size of an office skyscraper—stretched up into a shifting, violet sky choked with thick ash. The ground beneath his sneakers was composed of coarse, dark volcanic sand that vibrated to the deep, rhythmic thrumming of an active magma reservoir miles below.

This was the interior of

Mount Tai Sector 02

—a hidden ancestral inheritance sanctuary that was supposed to remain sealed for an additional six months into the official timeline.

Lin Feng pulled his hands from his jacket pockets, his eyes instantly locking onto a sharp, localized energetic ripple occurring three hundred meters ahead near a cluster of shattered jade structures.

The air there was burning with a cold, pale-blue light.

Standing on a fractured jade platform, her midnight-black silk trench coat whipped aggressively by the toxic, ash-laden wind, was Han Xue. Her clear, glacial gaze was fixed entirely on a massive, floating orb of pure, uncorrupted sapphire liquid floating three feet above a stone altar—the

Core Marrow Font of Mount Tai

.

But she wasn't alone.

Surrounding the altar were twelve sleek, automated tactical drones bearing the brilliant silver insignias of the

Bai Family Conglomerate

. The machines were actively firing high-frequency laser lines to establish an electronic cage around the sapphire liquid, their tracking visors locked onto her frame with absolute hostility.

From the shadow of a colossal jade pillar behind the drones, a tall, slender woman stepped forward. She wore a tailored crimson corporate suit that remained immaculate despite the heavy ash, and her long hair was pinned back with a solid golden hairpin shaped like a coiled serpent.

This was Bai Qingxi, the brilliant, ruthless heiress of the Capital’s primary corporate syndicate, and the master broker who had orchestrated the data drag-nets across the northern provinces.

"Your sanctuary's blueprints were remarkably accurate, Student Han," Bai Qingxi said, her smooth, aristocratic voice carrying a calculated, cold frequency that easily cut through the roaring wind of the rift. "You delivered the marrow stones to the independent block student precisely on schedule, assuming you could use him as a decoy to keep the Central Bureau's eyes on Dormitory Block D. You didn't realize that my drone fleets had already mapped the spatial alignment of the North Pit before the Matriarch ever drew her blades."

She tapped a small digital interface secured to her wrist. The twelve tactical drones shifted their weapon mounts, their laser sights instantly painting Han Xue’s throat and joints with red lines.

"The Core Font belongs to the Bai ledger," Bai Qingxi declared flatly. "Step away from the altar, or I will authorize the immediate liquidation of your lineage container."

Han Xue’s knuckles turned a bloodless white inside her sleeves, her pristine

Qi Circulation

paths violently straining as the sub-zero pressure of her

Frozen River Script

tried desperately to match the mechanical torque of the corporate weaponry. She was trapped, her legacy calculation completely shattered by the corporate giant's foresight.

"Your ledger is short by three thousand accounts, Director Bai."

The calm, smooth voice cut through the howling ash storm and the high-frequency thrum of the drones, falling directly into their ear canals with the unyielding weight of an ancient mountain strike.

Bai Qingxi’s aristocratic composure instantly froze. She pivoted her frame sharply, her cold eyes locking onto the dark path leading from the void.

Emerging from the purple smoke, his hands loosely tucked into his gray utility jacket, was Lin Feng. His vacant, bottomless eyes didn't look at the tactical drones or the corporate heiress; they remained fixed entirely on the floating orb of sapphire liquid.

The primary grand stage of New Huaxia had officially shifted into the deep rifts, and the undefeated apex of the coming world was already holding the eraser.