Kael turned his back on the massive holographic bounty board.
Behind him the central plaza was descending into chaos.
Mercenary crews shoved each other aside.
Bounty hunters screamed into comm units.
Two-point-eight billion credits had turned the entire station into a feeding frenzy.
Kael walked away.
He slipped into a side corridor, leaving the blinding blue lights behind.
He needed a ship.
And according to the data cache he had ripped from the dead cyborg's network, the local bounty guild stored impounded vessels in the restricted hangars of Sector Four.
Perfect.
The wide station avenues quickly narrowed into maintenance tunnels.
The air here was heavier.
Coolant leaks dripped steadily from exposed pipes.
Electrical cables hung like tangled veins from the ceiling.
The station's infrastructure looked less like architecture and more like the exposed organs of a dying machine.
Kael walked slowly.
Every step allowed him to measure his body again.
The crude reactor he had absorbed earlier had finished integrating into his muscles.
His skin felt dense.
Heavy.
The Iron Body tier was stabilizing.
It was the lowest level of cultivation.
A stage he had surpassed thousands of years ago.
But here?
In a universe made of fragile alloys and plastic circuits?
Even the lowest rung was dangerous.
Kael's eyes shifted toward a puddle on the floor.
The reflection showed movement behind him.
He had been followed since leaving the market.
They weren't subtle.
Heavy boots.
Armor plates.
Confidence.
The corridor ahead ended at a sealed blast door.
Kael stopped.
He turned around.
Three men stepped from the shadows.
Guild insignias were carved into their shoulder armor.
The same symbol the dead cyborg had worn.
"You walk slow for a guy who just killed one of our prospectors," the largest one said.
He was huge.
Nearly a foot taller than Kael.
His entire right arm had been replaced with an industrial hydraulic limb.
The metal fingers flexed with a grinding hiss.
To his left stood a thin gunner holding a double-barreled plasma repeater.
To the right was a third man wearing layered combat armor.
A circular device on his chest activated with a tap.
Blue light exploded outward.
An Aegis shield.
Kael was cornered against the blast door.
Three hunters.
Heavy weapons.
A single unarmed man.
"Jax was cheap scrap," the leader said.
His mechanical fingers curled.
"But he still belonged to the guild."
He smirked.
"You took his reactor, didn't you?"
Kael studied them calmly.
External batteries.
Replaceable parts.
Machines replacing muscle.
Fragile.
"He was defective," Kael said flatly.
The hunters blinked.
"You are no better."
The leader's eye twitched.
"Burn him."
The gunner fired.
Three plasma bolts exploded down the corridor.
They struck Kael square in the chest.
The impact pushed him half a step back.
His stolen jacket vaporized instantly.
Smoke filled the corridor.
The gunner lowered his weapon.
"Target liquidated."
Then the smoke cleared.
Kael was still standing.
His bare chest was exposed.
Three blackened craters dented the skin where the plasma had struck.
But the flesh had not broken.
No blood.
The skin rippled.
A metallic sheen flashed across his chest.
The dented flesh slowly pushed outward.
Reforming.
The Iron Body technique had locked his cellular structure together at the moment of impact.
Kael looked down at the marks.
He brushed away the ash.
"Still too soft."
He looked up.
"My turn."
Kael moved.
The corridor exploded with motion.
He crossed the distance instantly.
The leader swung his massive hydraulic arm.
Kael caught the metal fist with one hand.
The impact sounded like a hammer striking steel.
Hydraulics screamed as the machine tried to overpower him.
It couldn't.
The hunter stared in disbelief.
"What are you?"
Kael tightened his grip.
"You build machines."
He clamped his other hand over the arm's main hydraulic line.
"I build flesh."
He twisted.
Metal shrieked.
Then snapped.
The entire cybernetic arm tore free in a shower of sparks.
Kael kicked the leader in the chest.
The massive man collapsed, screaming.
Kael spun.
The severed arm became a weapon.
He swung it like a club.
It smashed into the gunner's skull.
Bone shattered.
The body flew sideways.
Two down.
Four seconds.
The third hunter stumbled backward.
His shield flickered brighter.
"Stay back!" he screamed.
"This is a military Aegis! It can survive an orbital strike!"
Kael dropped the severed arm.
He walked forward slowly.
Energy shields were designed to stop bullets.
To disperse heat.
They were not designed to stop a cultivator.
Kael aligned his knuckles.
Then punched.
The blue barrier screamed.
Cracks spread across the light.
The shield shattered.
Kael grabbed the hunter's helmet.
His fingers tightened.
The reinforced visor spider-webbed instantly.
"Fragile."
He squeezed.
The helmet collapsed with a wet crunch.
Silence returned.
The corridor floor was red with blood.
Kael shook his hand once.
His breathing remained steady.
Above him a small drone hovered in the shadows.
Its green camera lens focused directly on him.
Kael looked up.
He didn't destroy it.
Let them watch.
High above, two scavengers watched the live feed from a catwalk.
One of them stared at the diagnostic overlay.
His hands trembled.
"Did the scanner break?"
The older scavenger shook his head slowly.
"No."
He pointed at the data.
Green text blinked on the screen.
THREAT LEVEL: UNQUANTIFIABLE
ENERGY SIGNATURE: 0.00
The older scavenger whispered:
"He's not augmented."
Below them, Kael stepped over the bodies.
"And he's looking for a ship."
Author's note:
First confrontation between cultivation logic and technology logic.
Who wins in your opinion?
Flesh… or chrome?