Chapter 181: The Signal

The world lost all sound for a fraction of a second before the sky violently ruptured.

The detonation of a refined mana core at point-blank range was not merely an explosion—it was an atmospheric tearing.

A blinding, searing sphere of azure-white plasma expanded instantaneously, devouring the crowded thoroughfare in a heartbeat.

Cobblestones were ripped from the soil and turned to molten slag, while the violent shockwave slammed into the surrounding stone structures, collapsing facades, shattering heavy oak beams, and sending massive avalanches of brick into the narrow avenues.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entirety of Kaelos City shuddered to its very bedrock.

A dense, mushroom-shaped cloud of black smoke and blue fire rose high into the afternoon sky, visible from every district.

Over a thousand people—merchants, street hawkers, innocent bystanders, and low-realm cultivators who had gathered to watch the dramatic squabble—were erased in an instant.

Those caught at the epicenter were turned to ash before their nerves could register pain, while hundreds more on the outer perimeter were thrown into stone walls, crushed by falling masonry, or pierced by clouds of flying shrapnel.

Screams of pure agony instantly echoed across the ruined district as panic spread like wildfire.

Far from the chaos, in the luxurious top-floor study of the administrative palace, Mayor Henar sat behind his massive mahogany desk.

The sudden seismic tremor rattled his crystal inkwells, sending dark liquid spilling across his official documents.

"What in the hell was that?!" Henar roared, slamming his palms onto the desk as he stood up, his face pale with sudden fury.

Before his guards could even secure the perimeter, a young palace soldier burst into the room, gasping frantically for air, his leather armor covered in soot and sweat.

He threw himself onto his knees, trembling uncontrollably.

"M-Mayor Henar!" the soldier cried out, his voice cracking with terror. "A catastrophe in the commercial district! Senior Bama. A... a Martial Warrior self-destructed in the middle of the avenue! Over a thousand are dead! The entire market street is collapsing!"

"Self-destructed?!" Henar’s eyes widened in utter disbelief. "How???" his frown deepened.

"A Martial Warrior doesn’t just detonate his core in broad daylight for no—"

That’s enough noise I must say, my dear friend"

A cold, ancient voice echoed from the shadowed corner of the study.

The temperature in the room instantly plunged to sub-zero levels.

From the dark velvet curtains stepped an old man clad in sweeping, pale-gold robes embroidered with the crest of an ascending sun—an Elder of the Glorious Mythical Sect.

His aura was vast, heavy, and suffocating, instantly crushing the air out of the room.

The young soldier didn’t even have time to turn his head or scream.

SPLAT!

With a casual, almost bored wave of the Elder’s skeletal hand, a concentrated blade of pressure blasted across the chamber.

The mundane soldier’s entire body instantly imploded, turning into a horrific shower of red meatpaste and shattered bone that painted the stone wall behind him.

"Hmph...lousy big!" the Elder snorted.

Mayor Henar didn’t even flinch at the brutal slaughter, though a drop of cold sweat rolled down his temple as he bowed deeply toward the middle-aged man.

"I greet the Elder" Mayor Henar greeted.

"This is quite unprecedented I must say, Henar" the Elder stepped forward.

He stepped over the gory puddle, his eyes burning with an icy, terrifying light as he stared directly at the Mayor.

"Explain this stupidity, Henar. My sect relies on the stability of this city for our supply of beastman labor. Why is a low-realm bug detonating his core in the middle of your streets?"

"I... I will investigate at once, Elder!" Henar stammered, bowing even lower. "I shall deploy the city garrison immediately!"

"Be quick with that" the Elder nodded, "And make sure that underground prison is sealed"

"I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that this may not be as ordinary as we believe" the Elder exhaled a soft sigh as he turned to leave.

***

Back at the blast site, the scene was a living nightmare.

Whispers, frantic cries, and terrified murmurs erupted as hundreds of citizens and surviving cultivators rushed toward the edge of the crater.

"Look at the buildings... they’re completely gone!"

"My God, there are burnt corpses everywhere!"

"Water! Bring water from the well! The fire is spreading!"

Dozens of low-realm cultivators stepped forward, channeling their mana to summon streams of water and gusts of wind to douse the roaring blue inferno.

However, the moment their magic touched the flames, the fire did not diminish—it roared even louder, surging wildly against the wind.

This was no ordinary flame.

Because the one-armed marionette had detonated his core under the absolute, suicidal drive of Roy’s mental command, the resulting fire contained traces of the cultivator’s violent, suicidal ideation.

The flames were wild, unnatural, and intensely resilient, feeding upon the ambient mana in the air.

As the cool autumn wind swept across the district, the persistent blue fire leaped from roof to roof, igniting entire blocks in a matter of minutes.

***

Meanwhile, inside Room 301 of The Sleeping Boar Inn.

The heavy wooden structure had shaken violently during the blast, dust raining down from the ceiling joints.

Fortunately, Eurenia and Alisa had concluded their cultivation session just minutes prior, absorbing the four high-tier mana cores Roy had left behind.

Had the explosion occurred moments earlier, the violent disruption would have shattered their internal focus, causing a severe mana backlash.

Eurenia stood near the edge of the bed, her golden eyes shining with a sharp, lethal intelligence.

Her crimson leopard tail flicked calmly behind her as she adjusted her light leather armguards.

Beside the large balcony window, Alisa stood perfectly still.

The delicate crimson gown she wore fluttered slightly in the hot draft wafting through the frame.

She leaned her arm against the wooden sill, watching the distant column of black smoke and blue flame rising over the city roofs.

A beautiful, cold, and utterly wicked smile slowly bloomed across her lips.

"That’s the signal," Alisa whispered softly, her emerald eyes reflecting the distant inferno.

She turned back to face Eurenia, her hand dropping to the hilts of her hidden Phantom Veil daggers.

"Let’s move."