I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

"lead the way."

These two calm words echoed in the dark, damp basement.

Lia bit her lip hard, using all her strength to stand up and lead the way for the god-like man before her. However, the backlash from forcibly activating the sacrificial array, the excruciating pain of losing her left eye, and the extreme weakness caused by massive blood loss all erupted like a tsunami at that moment.

She had barely managed to prop herself up when the world spun before her eyes, her legs gave way, and she collapsed once more into the cold blood like a rag doll.

Chu Tian looked at the dying girl at his feet, his brows twitching almost imperceptibly.

He immediately realized that with her current broken body, it was impossible for her to leave this lower city alive, let alone reach the heavily guarded noble manor in the upper city.

Chu Tian wasn't skilled in gentle and delicate healing methods. But for a mortal, the wisp of sword essence within him, forcibly suppressed to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage by the rules of the world, was already almost a miracle.

He took a step forward, extended two long fingers, and gently placed them on Leah's blood-stained brow.

A wisp of cool, suppressed sword energy flowed into her body like mercury through her broken meridians. This power was domineering yet protective, instantly stopping the bleeding and forcibly reconnecting the severed meridians. Finally, all the sword energy converged in the empty socket of her left eye.

Lia felt an unbearable throbbing pain in her brain, and then, a glimmer of light suddenly reappeared in the endless darkness.

She opened her eyes in disbelief, and with trembling hands raised, touched her left cheek.

The left eye that she had cruelly gouged out and sacrificed herself had miraculously grown back perfectly in just a few breaths! However, this newborn eye was no longer the original ordinary gray-blue; deep within the pupil, there was an extremely faint dark gold sword mark, an indelible mark left by Chu Tian's sword essence when he reshaped her physical body.

Leah was so shocked that she was speechless and even stopped breathing.

In the magical world of Ellan, regenerating severed limbs or healing lost eyeballs requires at least a high-ranking life mage and the use of expensive magic crystals. Yet this man before them accomplished this miraculous feat simply by raising a finger!

"Now, can we go?" Chu Tian withdrew his hand, his tone still calm.

Leah snapped back to her senses. She crawled out of the blood, feeling the surge of energy within her, and hurriedly said, "M-Master, we can't go directly to Randall Manor."

A glint of clarity flashed in her left eye, adorned with a dark gold sword pattern: "The upper city activates its isolation wall at night, and there are White Tower patrols and noble identity badge detection barriers everywhere. If we just go like this, we'll be locked onto by a magic circle before we even get close to the manor."

"My father was a low-level technician at the Third Magic Workshop. When he sensed danger, he secretly left behind two things: a bronze pass from the old workshop and a map of the sewage system leading to the underground experimental area of ​​Randall Manor." Leah clenched her fist. "I hid those things in my residence in the lower city. We have to go get them first!"

……

Behind the abandoned clock tower is a drainage alley that is perpetually shrouded in darkness.

The torrential rain hadn't stopped, and the lower city of the capital of Ellan resembled a giant, stinking swamp. Muddy sewage mixed with unknown alchemical waste flowed rampantly across the uneven cobblestones.

Chu Tian walked in the rain carrying the heavy, ancient sword box. The cold raindrops were silently shattered and bounced away by an invisible and sharp sword intent when they came within three inches of his body, leaving his blue robe completely untouched by water.

As you walk through the drainage alley, the true face of the lower town slowly unfolds in the rainy night.

There are no gleaming floating towers like those of the White Tower nobles here, nor any constant-temperature magical barriers. Along the streets, a few magic crystal lamps, their magic power nearly depleted, flicker in the wind and rain, emitting a buzzing sound.

A sour-smelling black bread shop stood with its door ajar. Under the dim light, the owner warily gripped a rusty, enchanted flintlock pistol. In the shadows of the corner, several scantily clad children lay prone in the mud, frantically rummaging through the freshly poured magic crystal slag with their frozen fingers, trying to salvage even a single, unburnt magic stone to exchange for tomorrow's rations.

Outside a dilapidated alchemy shop, a wooden sign wobbled precariously in the wind, with the words "Wand Repair, Waste Magic Stone Recycling" crookedly written on it in cheap fluorescent powder.

At the bottom of different worlds, there is a strikingly similar despair and struggle.

Lia led Chu Tian through a maze of twists and turns, finally stopping in front of a dilapidated slum apartment building. She climbed the wooden stairs to the top floor and pushed open the door to a cramped, run-down attic.

The house was leaking, and in the corner huddled an old, blackened blanket, next to half a bag of coarse rye flour and a chipped iron pot.

Leah immediately knelt down, pried open a loose, broken piece of wooden floorboard, and carefully pulled out a small package wrapped in oilcloth.

After receiving the items, Lia turned around. She looked at Chu Tian standing by the door. Although her injuries had been completely healed, she still felt immense awe in the face of this god-like savior.

She walked to the chipped iron pot, and used a rough earthenware bowl to scoop out a bowl of the completely cold vegetable soup. The soup contained only a few floating rotten vegetable leaves and murky wheat bran, and was icy cold, even with a hint of sourness and bitterness.

Holding the bowl of cold soup in both hands, she walked up to Chu Tian, ​​her voice trembling with humility and gratitude, and said, "My lord... I... this is all I have."

This is the only "gift" that a penniless girl from the bottom of society can offer to the benefactor who gave her a new life and hope for revenge.

Chu Tian glanced down at the bowl of cold soup.

A sudden flashback appeared in his mind: the bowl of hot soup noodles that the young disciple on Kunlun Sword Peak had brought him through the wind and snow, a bowl he hadn't yet had a chance to drink.

He didn't show any disgust, but sat down on a rickety, broken wooden stool and reached out to take the rough ceramic bowl. Under Leah's astonished and red-faced gaze, he tilted his head back and slowly drank the cold, bitter vegetable soup, sip by sip, until it was completely empty.

"boom--!"

The moment Chu Tian put down the empty bowl, a strange change occurred on the street outside the small attic!

A deafening magical explosion resounded through the street below. Raging flames instantly engulfed the slums lining both sides of the street, flames shooting into the sky, mingled with the desperate screams of the lower town's inhabitants and the cries of children.

The pursuers from the White Pagoda have arrived.

"Right in this building! The filthy, bloody smell is still fresh!"

A cold, arrogant voice echoed through the rainy night. Those high and mighty mages didn't care whether innocent people would be harmed; they simply used the most brutal fireball spell to blast open the street.

A grand mage apprentice, clad in magnificent robes, hovered in mid-air, his wand crackling with dangerous lightning. Before him stood several fully armed magic knights. Behind them were two colossal steel beasts, each three meters tall and covered in thick defensive runes—alchemy golems!

"Tear this building down! No matter what abyssal trash she summons, crush it!" The archmage apprentice coldly issued the order.

Inside the attic, Leah took a step back in horror.

Chu Tian stood up, not looking at her, and simply said, "Stay here," before turning around and pushing open the rickety wooden door of the attic.

In the rain-soaked alley, the firelight and water vapor mingled.

Chu Tian, ​​dressed in a blue robe, walked down the stairs as if strolling in a garden, and stood quietly in the mess of mud and water.

"It's you?"

The archmage's apprentice looked at the Eastern man, who showed no signs of magical energy, a cruel glint of mockery in his eyes: "Alchemy Puppet, tear him apart!"

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Two enormous alchemical golems strode forward with heavy steps, like two moving steel fortresses, shattering the bluestone slabs and charging towards Chu Tian with ferocious mechanical power. These war machines were covered in runes for resisting magic and fortification; ordinary swords and blades couldn't even leave a mark on them.

Chu Tian stood still, his right hand slowly gripping the edge of the sword box behind him.

"Zheng—"

This was the first time Chu Tian had truly drawn a section of his sword since arriving in this world.

Chu Tian shifted his stance slightly, transforming into a streak of azure light as he instantly slicing between the two magical puppets. His all-seeing eyes instantly discerned the fatal weakness of this otherworldly alchemical creation.

The sword flashed as if washed clean, leaving only a very thin white streak in the rain.

"Swoosh! Swoosh!"

With terrifying precision, Chu Tian's sword sliced ​​into the unarmored gaps at the puppet's joints. An invisible sword intent erupted instantly, severing the puppet's extremely complex internal magical energy transmission circuits!

The steel behemoth, which had been unstoppable just a second ago, suddenly lost its red light after charging forward a few steps. With two loud "booms," the two heavy alchemical golems lost all power and crashed heavily into the mud like a pile of scrap metal.

"What?!" The arrogance on the Grand Mage's apprentice's face froze instantly.

"For the glory of the White Tower! Kill!"

Seeing this, several magic knights frantically activated their battle qi, raised their magic greatswords engraved with sharp array patterns, formed a battle formation, and slashed down at Chu Tian.

"Too slow."

Chu Tian lowered his eyes, and his long sword was not even fully drawn. He simply flicked the hilt of the sword in the air with extreme casualness.

"Buzz—!"

A surge of overwhelming, domineering sword energy exploded outwards from Chu Tian! The magic knights didn't even touch the hem of Chu Tian's clothes before their enchanted armor shattered like paper. They coughed up blood and were violently thrown back, crashing through the brick walls on both sides of the street. Their fate was unknown.

"This is impossible! What kind of monster are you?!"

The archmage's apprentice panicked completely. He waved his wand in terror and chanted spells frantically.

"The Wall of Extreme Cold! A wall of ice seals it off!"

"High-level mental magic... Mental Shock!"

Three thick ice walls instantly rose up in front of Chu Tian, ​​and at the same time, an invisible mental fluctuation pierced Chu Tian's mind.

Faced with this seemingly dazzling magical combo, Chu Tian didn't even pause in his tracks.

He merely raised his head, giving the archmage apprentice a cold, indifferent look. The world's rules might suppress his cultivation level, but they couldn't suppress his unparalleled sword intent, forged in fire!

A flash of sword light appeared in Chu Tian's eyes. The "mental shock" that could instantly turn an ordinary person into an idiot was crushed to pieces the moment it touched Chu Tian's sword intent, just like an egg hitting Mount Buzhou!

"ah--!"

The mental magic suffered a terrible backlash, and the archmage apprentice let out a pig-like scream, blood flowing from his seven orifices. The three ice walls blocking Chu Tian's path were instantly sliced ​​into countless tiny ice crystals by the sword intent emanating from his body as he passed through.

A flash of sword light, and the screams abruptly ceased.

The battle began swiftly and ended even more decisively. There was no drawn-out, arduous struggle, only a crushing defeat that instilled despair.

The poor people of the lower town huddled behind cracks in doors and windows, trembling as they watched this scene. For generations, they had been enslaved by the White Tower nobles, and this was the first time in their lives they had witnessed those high and mighty mages being slaughtered as easily as chickens.

Beside the door of the attic.

Leah stared blankly at the now quiet rain-soaked alley, at the broken magical weapons scattered on the ground and the corpses of the White Tower pursuers. Her left eye, marked with a dark gold sword pattern, warmed slightly; fear was completely dispelled in that moment, replaced by a hope that could ignite a wildfire.

She clutched the rusty workshop pass and the old map of the grease-soaked sewer tightly in her hands, as if she were holding the sharpest blade in the world.

Under the night sky in the far distance.

Within the layers of isolation walls in the upper city, the mage tower complex, representing the power center of the White Tower aristocracy, had its blinding red warning light pierce through the heavy rain.

Chu Tian walked back to the front of the attic and glanced at the intricate underground route map in Lia's hand.

"Walk."