Floor Ten of the Abyssal Crypt was a realm of pure slaughter.
Grand Elder Moros stood at the edge of an obsidian cliff, flanked by two reinforcements.
To his left was Arch-Inquisitor Valen in silver battle armor. To his right stood Dean Caleb of Radiant Dawn Academy, holding a celestial staff.
Behind them, two hundred and sixty spellblades formed a phalanx, shields humming.
Before them stretched the Sovereign Blood Sanctum.
The cavern was occupied by a bubbling lake of thick, crimson blood. Floating on the surface were monoliths carved from the rib bones of ancient dragons.
Hovering in the center was a figure of pure dread.
The Blood Demon Sovereign.
The ancient fiend stood twelve feet tall, draped in robes crafted from flayed dragon hide. Obsidian horns curled from his brow, crackling with crimson lightning.
In his right claw, he held a skull scepter crowned with a pulsating jewel.
His eyes burned like twin suns of molten gore, casting an aura so heavy that the subterranean bedrock began to splinter.
【Target: Blood Demon Sovereign】 【Grade: 9th-Tier Ancient Calamity】 【Realm: Half-Step Saint Sovereign】 【Inspector Note: A pompous, blood-drinking edge-lord sealed ten thousand years ago. Loves theatrical monologues and bone thrones. Totally oblivious to orbital strike mechanics.】
"A Ninth-Tier Calamity..." Dean Caleb whispered, knuckles white on his staff. "The First Emperor sealed him beneath Floor Ten to guard the lower gates!"
Arch-Inquisitor Valen drew his golden executioner’s blade.
"His spiritual domain spans miles," Valen said grimly. "Even with three Saint-Realm experts, our survival chances do not exceed ten percent."
The Blood Demon Sovereign drifted forward across the blood lake, his cape fluttering.
He threw his head back and laughed, shaking dust from the cavern ceiling.
"MORTAL INSECTS!" the Blood Sovereign roared. "AFTER TEN MILLENNIA BENEATH THE ROCK, THE SEAL OF EMPEROR WU HAS CRUMBLED! DID THE UPPER REALM SEND YOU AS CATTLE TO QUENCH MY THIRST?"
He raised his skull scepter, causing geysers of boiling blood to erupt thirty feet into the air.
"TREMBLE, WORMS! GAZE UPON THE HARBINGER OF YOUR DOOM! WHEN MY CRIMSON DOMAIN CONSUMES THIS CONTINENT, THE SUN SHALL WEEP BLOOD! PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR MARROW SUCKED DRY, FOR I AM—"
Two hundred miles away, under a clear blue sky, Felix Vance let out a wide yawn.
He was sprawled in his Zero-Gravity Recliner on the porch of Solitude Spire, completely relaxed.
The scent of blooming Sun-Lotus Cabbage bathed the cedar deck in eternal spring warmth.
Down in the clover, the Thunder Gryphon was snoring loudly, its massive eagle beak tucked beneath a golden wing like an oversized rooster.
On the porch railing, Barnaby the clockwork owl stood rigidly on guard.
His polished copper-tipped beak remained sealed tight by the black rubber laboratory stopper. His brass gears clicked in quiet rhythm as he tracked a wandering bumblebee.
Inside the quiet kitchen, the short front leg of the pine table rested firmly on Grandmaster Vivienne’s Sovereign Heart Seal, perfectly level.
And inside Felix's chest, the 2.0-Earth-Mass terrestrial core rotated slowly, radiating heavy, comforting warmth.
Light footsteps approached across the suspension bridge.
Lyra Ashford stepped onto the porch, carrying a covered porcelain bowl with two hands.
The lid rattled slightly from steam, emitting an aroma of braised beef brisket, rich star anise broth, garlic, and fresh hand-pulled noodles. Beside the bowl sat a basket of warm scallion flatbreads and roasted chili oil.
Lyra knelt beside the low pine side table, setting the feast down reverently.
"Senior Brother," Lyra murmured. "Your lunch has arrived. The Imperial Chef simmered this marrow broth for seventy-two hours."
Felix pushed the straw hat up onto his forehead.
His eyes lit up with profound enthusiasm.
"Now that," Felix said, "is proper food delivery."
His stomach gave an appreciative rumble.
He picked up a pair of bamboo chopsticks with a crisp *snap*.
Just as he reached toward the steaming bowl, his lap vibrated.
*BZZZZ.*
The brass-cased AetherDeck flared with crimson light, accompanied by a melodramatic 8-bit pipe organ theme.
Felix looked down into his lap, frowning in mild annoyance.
On the screen, *Catacomb Crawler v2.0* had reached the Floor Ten boss arena.
His tiny silver knight stood on a stone ledge overlooking a lake of red pixels. Floating in the center of the lake was a horned demon sprite waving a skull staff, complete with a massive red boss health bar:
Across the bottom of the screen, the pixel demon spat out a massive dialogue bubble:
`"TREMBLE, WORMS! GAZE UPON THE HARBINGER OF YOUR DOOM! WHEN MY CRIMSON DOMAIN CONSUMES THIS CONTINENT, THE SUN SHALL WEEP BLOOD..."`
Felix’s face twisted in disgust.
"Another speech?" Felix groaned. "Three minutes of monologue? Right when my beef brisket noodles just arrived?"
He glanced at the steaming bowl.
The hand-pulled noodles were floating in clear amber broth. If he waited three minutes for this pixel demon to finish shouting about blood and weeping suns, the noodles would absorb the broth and turn into soggy mush.
In the culinary world, letting fresh noodles get soggy was an unforgivable sin.
"I am not letting my noodles get cold for an edge-lord in a bath of red juice," Felix muttered.
He didn't want to grease up his fingers holding the AetherDeck while eating.
So, with the bamboo chopsticks already firmly gripped in his right hand, Felix extended his right pinky finger.
He tapped the virtual button in the center of the glass: `[ENGAGE AUTO-CLEAR]`.
*BEEP.*
Felix paid no further attention to the screen.
He leaned over his bowl, scooped up a thick tangle of noodles, dipped them into the chili oil, and slurped them into his mouth with noisy delight.
"Mmm," Felix mumbled around his mouthful. "Broth is incredible. Flatbread is super crispy."
Two hundred miles away, deep within Floor Ten, the Blood Demon Sovereign reached his theatrical crescendo:
"...AND BY MY SANGUINE WILL, ALL LIVING FLESH SHALL DISSOLVE INTO MY ETERNAL—"
*ZZZZZZZZZT.*
The sound was not an explosion.
It was a sharp, high-frequency hiss, like a red-hot needle plunging into water.
The solid bedrock of the cavern ceiling, three hundred miles beneath the earth, simply ceased to exist.
A beam of pure, blinding white-blue cosmic solar radiation, no wider than a pencil, descended from the heavens at the speed of light.
The beam carried the concentrated gravitational compression of a 2.0-Earth-Mass stellar core. It ignored bedrock, mountain roots, and ancient sealing arrays.
It struck the Blood Demon Sovereign directly between his twin obsidian horns.
In 0.0001 seconds, the temperature of the boss platform reached forty million degrees Celsius.
There was no blood. There was no smoke.
The twelve-foot Blood Demon Sovereign, his flayed robes, his skull scepter, and the half-mile lake of boiling crimson blood were instantly flash-vaporized into subatomic plasma.
The pencil-thin beam vanished as quickly as it had arrived.
The entire cavern was plunged into breathless silence.
Grand Elder Moros, Arch-Inquisitor Valen, and Dean Caleb stood frozen at the cliff edge, jaws hanging slack.
The terrifying half-mile blood lake was gone.
In its place was a smooth crater of vitrified turquoise glass, glowing faintly with harmless cosmic warmth.
The air smelled pleasantly of fresh mountain ozone, without a trace of demonic sulfur.
Dean Caleb’s celestial staff slipped from his numb fingers, clattering loudly against the rock.
"A... a solar ray?" Caleb breathed, eyes wide with existential terror. "A cosmic ray beam... fired from the heavens, piercing three hundred miles of earth to delete a Saint-Realm calamity in a single microsecond?"
Valen fell to both knees, his golden blade tumbling into the dust.
"The Blood Sovereign did not even finish his sentence," Valen wept, clutching his chest. "Ten thousand years of demonic cultivation... erased between the inhale and the exhale! Who... who possesses such casual divinity?!"
Moros collapsed beside them, slamming his forehead against the stone floor.
"The Dao of Absolute Annihilation!" Moros wailed with ecstatic devotion. "The Supreme Master did not even grant the demon an audience! He deemed the creature's very existence an interruption! Kowtow, all of you! Kowtow to the Lord of the Heavens!"
Behind them, two hundred and sixty spellblades dropped to their knees, weeping and chanting praises that echoed through the empty cavern.
Back on Solitude Spire, Lyra Ashford stood frozen beside Felix's chair.
She had felt the discharge.
The 2.0-Earth-Mass core in Felix's chest had flared for a fraction of a millisecond, venting a microscopic trace of excess fusion energy through the ether.
Lyra’s violet eyes looked from the empty space where the ray had punched into reality, then down to Felix.
Felix was happily slurping his third mouthful of noodles, his face glowing with pure culinary bliss.
He dipped a wedge of warm scallion flatbread into the beef broth, taking a loud, crunchy bite.
*He... he vaporized a Ninth-Tier Calamity with a flick of his pinky,* Lyra thought, her soul shaking so violently she could barely maintain her balance.
*The grandmasters braced themselves for a battle that would shake the world. Yet Senior Brother treated the ancient demon as nothing more than a noisy fly! He didn't even put down his chopsticks! He prioritized the temperature of his broth over the life of a ten-thousand-year sovereign!*
She watched Felix chew his flatbread, her heart swelling with comprehension.
*To Senior Brother, mortal sovereigns and ancient demons are utterly identical,* Lyra realized, tears of awe pricking her eyes. *They are all dust before the infinite cosmos! The only thing in this universe worthy of his attention... is a hot bowl of noodles!*
On Felix's lap, the AetherDeck chimed with a triumphant arcade fanfare:
Felix swallowed the last bite of flatbread and wiped his mouth on a linen napkin.
He glanced down at the screen, saw the five-digit number in his crystal wallet, and gave a satisfied nod.
"Eleven thousand crystals," Felix murmured, a genuine grin spreading across his face. "A full ten-pull in the bank, plus extra for the next event. That's what I'm talking about."
He pushed the empty noodle bowl aside and slid the AetherDeck back onto the tea tray.
He crossed his arms over his chest, feeling the heavy, comfortable warmth of his 2.0-Earth-Mass core settling inside his belly alongside the hot beef brisket.
He leaned back into the plush ergonomic mesh of the Zero-Gravity Recliner.
With a lazy flick of his wrist, Felix pulled the frayed straw hat back down over his eyes, shutting out the bright afternoon sun.
Down in the yard, the Thunder Gryphon let out a soft snort in its sleep, tail flicking lazily.
Barnaby sat silently on the porch railing, his brass feathers gleaming under the clear blue sky, his copper-tipped beak sealed tight.
Felix Vance let out a long, contented sigh, drifting off into a peaceful, well-earned afternoon nap.
"Ten floors down," Felix whispered into the warm mountain breeze. "Free gacha crystals claimed. Nobody bother me until dinner."