*Chapter 52: The Weight of Tribute**
The bandits returned at dawn, their silhouettes etched against the blood-orange horizon like vultures circling carrion. This time, they did not ride spirit-wolves. They marched—thirty men and women in mismatched armor, their faces hidden behind masks of charred bone. At their center walked their leader, the rogue cultivator, his molten eye glinting like a dying star. Behind him, two hulking figures dragged an iron cage on wheels. Inside, a creature thrashed—a *soulreaver*, its jagged maw dripping with venom that hissed where it struck the earth.
Old Man Wen's branch-leg creaked as he stumbled back. "Emperor's teeth… they brought a demon."
Li Tian stood at the village's shattered gate, the Aeternum Core cold against his chest. The artifact's usual hum had quieted since the last battle, its fissures leaking faint trails of shadow. Xiaoling's voice, when it came, was brittle. *"Gege… that thing isn't natural. Even the Sovereign's horde didn't breed soulreavers."*
The cultivator halted, raising a hand. The bandits froze, their discipline unnerving. "Three days," he called, his voice a rasping chorus, as if fire had scorched his throat. "Three days to meet our tribute. You've had two."
Meiying nocked an arrow, her single hand steady. "We've nothing left to give."
The cultivator's molten eye pulsed. "Wrong. You have *blood*."
He snapped his fingers. The soulreaver's cage shuddered open.
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**The Price**
The creature lunged, chains snapping. It was a grotesque fusion of wolf and serpent, its body shimmering with unstable qi. Villagers screamed as it tore through a goat pen, devouring livestock in gouts of black flame.
"Stop!" Li Tian's spatial staff struck the earth, rippling the air. The soulreaver hesitated, its mismatched eyes locking onto the Core.
The cultivator laughed. "Ah. The wanderer thinks to command a spirit. How quaint."
Li Tian's jaw tightened. The soulreaver wasn't a natural beast—it was a *construct*, its core a knot of corrupted qi. To destroy it, he'd need to destabilize that core without triggering an explosion. The villagers were too close. Too vulnerable.
"Name your tribute," Li Tian said, buying time.
The cultivator's smile revealed teeth filed to points. "Three things. First: the child who survived the granary fire. His resilience… intrigues me."
Wen's grandson, Lin, whimpered in his grandfather's arms.
"Second," the cultivator continued, "the ore from Old Wen's forge. The *star-iron* he's hoarded since the Shadowspawn raids."
Wen paled. "How did you—?"
"And third." The cultivator's gaze settled on Li Tian. "Your staff."
The villagers murmured. Meiying's arrow trembled.
"You'll kill us anyway," Li Tian said softly.
The cultivator spread his hands. "Perhaps. But refuse, and the soulreaver feasts today."
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**The Forge's Secret**
Night fell with the village huddled in Wen's forge, the soulreaver's chains clanking outside. The star-iron—a palm-sized ingot glowing with captured starlight—sat between them, its light painting their faces in ghostly blue.
"My father mined it from the Skyfall Gorge," Wen said, voice trembling. "Said it was a gift from the heavens. We've kept it hidden since the raids… it's all we have left."
Meiying glared at Li Tian. "You can't seriously consider handing over Lin."
Li Tian traced the Core's fissures. "No. But the star-iron is key. This isn't about tribute—it's a power play. That cultivator wants the ore to forge something. Something that requires a child's… resilience."
Xiaoling's whisper coiled through his mind. *"Blood-forging. The Flame Emperor's old trick. Sacrifice a resilient soul to bind unstable elements."*
Li Tian's stomach turned. He'd seen the results of blood-forging in the war—soldiers fused with molten metal, their screams echoing until their throats melted.
"We fight," Meiying said.
"With what?" A farmer gestured to the soulreaver's shadow outside. "That thing'll rip through us before Tian lifts his staff."
Li Tian stood, the Core's shadowed light stretching his silhouette across the wall. "Distract the soulreaver. I'll handle the cultivator."
"And Lin?" Wen asked.
Li Tian's hand hovered over the star-iron. "We give them what they want."
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**The Tribute**
Morning brought a mist thick with the stench of charred bone. The bandits arrayed in a crescent, the cultivator lounging atop the soulreaver's cage.
"Well?"
Li Tian stepped forward, staff in one hand, star-iron in the other. Lin clung to Wen's leg, tears cutting tracks through the soot on his cheeks.
"The ore," Li Tian said, tossing it to the cultivator. "And the staff."
The cultivator caught both, his molten eye flaring. "And the child?"
Li Tian placed a hand on Lin's head. "He stays."
The cultivator sighed. "Pity."
He crushed the star-iron.
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**The Betrayal**
Spectral chains erupted from the shattered ore, binding Li Tian's wrists. The star-iron hadn't been mere metal—it was a *trap*, infused with sealing sigils. The staff clattered from his grasp.
"Fool," the cultivator sneered. "Did you think I'd risk facing you fairly?"
The soulreaver lunged, chains snapping.
Meiying's arrow took it in the eye, but the beast barely flinched. Villagers scattered as its tail lashed, igniting huts with black flame.
Li Tian strained against the chains, spatial qi sputtering. The Core's fissures widened, shadows leaking like blood.
*"Gege!"* Xiaoling's voice spiked with panic. *"The chains—they're nullifying your qi!"*
The cultivator strode toward Lin, a dagger of crystallized flame in hand. "Resilient souls are rare. This one will forge a fine weapon."
Wen lunged, branch-leg snapping. The cultivator backhanded him into a wall.
"NO!"
Lin's scream pierced the chaos.
And Li Tian *snapped*.
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**The Core's Wrath**
The Aeternum Core detonated.
Shadow and light erupted in a maelstrom, shredding the spectral chains. The soulreaver howled as the storm consumed it, its form unraveling into ash. Bandits fled, their masks melting into their flesh.
The cultivator staggered, his molten eye dimming. "Impossible—!"
Li Tian's hand closed around his throat. "You mistake mercy for weakness."
Spatial energy surged, compressing the cultivator's body into a singularity no larger than a grain of rice. It hovered for a heartbeat before winking out of existence.
Silence.
Then Lin's whimper. "Tian… your chest…"
The Aeternum Core's scar now glowed an angry crimson, its fissures spiderwebbing across Li Tian's torso. Xiaoling's voice was faint, distant. *"Too much… can't hold…"*
He collapsed as the villagers rushed forward, their cries blending into the roar of his failing pulse.
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