Blood Throne Crumbling

1. Crimson Gate, Blood-Stained Welcome

The Crimson King's fortress stood at the edge of the Burning Ravines—a temple carved into the walls of a volcanic canyon. Rivers of molten Qi flowed beneath it, fed by the King's own blood aura.

No guards at the gate.

Not out of arrogance.

Out of confidence.

Inside? Twelve bloodbound cultivators, hand-picked from sects the King had absorbed. Each one a killer. Each one enhanced with forbidden Crimson-brand seals.

Jin Haru knocked on the gate.

It echoed once.

Then he blew it open with a spirit arrow wrapped in spatial shatter Qi.

"We're here for your king," he said."But you'll do for warmup."

2. The Cleansing Begins

They moved as one.

Haneul danced between the elites—his blade unsheathed for less than three seconds at a time, yet every strike was a death sentence. His movements carved patterns of silver light in the air, disrupting formation and flow.

"Three down," he muttered.

Jin handled the heavy hitters. He used delay sigils and reverse-summons to trap the strongest in collapsing formation fields, then obliterated them with kinetic burst arrows.

"Six," he said, sweating but steady.

That left the final three.

Haeun walked into the center of their formation—barehanded.

"You fight with power," one snarled."You don't know pain."

He let them charge.

And then?

He moved once.

And their minds shattered.

He didn't use brute force—he twisted their inner sense of time, creating mental loop traps that replayed their worst regrets until their spiritual cores collapsed.

"I remember pain," he said, stepping through the silence."It made me."

3. The Crimson King Descends

The walls of the fortress shook.

From deep within the throne chamber, a single footstep echoed—slow, heavy, soaked in command.

The door opened.

And the Crimson King emerged.

Towering. Muscles pulsing with spiritual threads like living veins. His eyes were not his own—they were burning red with rage and legacy. He wore no armor.

He didn't need it.

"So the bastards live," he said."And they bring a mutt with them."

Jin stepped forward. "Try me."

The Crimson King raised a hand—And the entire hallway exploded in a wave of blood-pressure energy.

4. 3v1 Begins: First Clash

Haneul moved first—blade out, arcs of silver chaining across the space, redirecting the Crimson King's aura and forcing him to step back.

Jin fired next, aiming at joints and spiritual nodes—not to damage, but to disrupt Qi flow.

Haeun waited, scanning.

And then—

The King bled.

Not from his body. From his spirit.

"You copied our master's blood art," Haeun said coldly."But you never understood it."

"Your master's dead," the King spat."I crushed his lungs under my heel."

That was a mistake.

5. The Twins Unleashed

Haneul activated a mirrored stance—for the first time, he and Haeun synced forms.

One pure offense.

One flowing defense.

They moved like two reflections trapped in time, overwhelming the King's counterstrikes. Where he blocked one blade, the other struck his pressure points. Where he lashed out, Jin suppressed with well-timed burst arrows.

And still—

The Crimson King grinned.

"This is why I left you alive," he growled."So I could kill you when you thought you'd grown strong enough."

His body flared with crimson chains.

Bloodline Lockdown Art: Thronebreaker Form

The ground cracked.

His aura now dripped down the walls like tar.

6. Haeun's Breaking Point

The pressure was unbearable.

Haeun's bones trembled—not from fear, but from the strain of his own Dantian shifting.

His Spirit Core vibrated.His Life Dantian burned.His Mind Lotus blossomed fully for the first time—

And he saw it:

A vision.Of a throne of nothing.A realm of silence.A moment where gods bowed to memory.

He came back to the fight with eyes glowing pure white.

"Haneul. Jin. Shift to fallback. I've got him."