The Phoenix of the Slums

Chapter 62 – City of Shadows

The moment they stepped through the obsidian gate, the temperature shifted. The air inside the Lotus Sanctuary was cool, sterile, and humming with invisible energy.

Tianming felt it in his bones—a dull pressure, like the entire place was alive and breathing. The strange, floating metropolis stretched in every direction, defying the laws of architecture and logic. Buildings hovered at impossible angles, tethered only by strands of energy pulsing like nerves. Below, the ground was a grid of glass and metal, and beneath that, darkness.

Xiaoqing adjusted the visor over her eyes, her fingers tapping rapidly across a holographic interface. “I’m not even sure how to describe this,” she muttered. “There are hundreds of signal layers here. Encrypted pathways, buried code. This isn’t a city—it’s a computer.”

Fang Yao nodded solemnly. “This place was never built to be seen by normal people. It’s a sanctuary only by name. In truth, it’s a fortress. A factory. A graveyard.”

Tianming’s eyes locked on the throne floating high above the central spire. It wasn’t occupied, but the sense of command radiating from it was unmistakable. “That’s where he is,” he said. “Renshu… or maybe the Architect.”

Xiaoqing looked up. “The architecture shifts. None of the buildings are fixed. They rotate, realign based on movement patterns. And look—there are no stairs or elevators. Everything’s vertical. We’ll need to climb.”

“No,” Fang Yao said. “We ride the pulse lines.”

He pointed to the glowing veins of energy that ran from platform to platform like a nervous system. “They move objects. Cargo, maybe even people. You grab hold and let it take you.”

Tianming moved first. As he stepped onto one of the pulse lines, it activated—humming with resonance. Instantly, he was lifted, his body weightless but stabilized as the stream carried him upward, like an elevator made of light. Xiaoqing and Fang Yao followed close behind, and the city unfurled before them.

From above, the Sanctuary looked even more alien.

Large pods filled with liquid floated between buildings. Inside each one, humanoid figures were suspended—some fully grown, others half-formed. Machines buzzed around them, injecting fluids, repairing limbs, modifying organs. It was a lab… but also a breeding ground.

Xiaoqing’s voice was shaky. “These aren’t clones. They’re… designed. Engineered soldiers. Look at their neural cortex implants.”

“They’re building an army,” Tianming muttered. “Not just humans. Hybrids. Protocol-bonded, enhanced… and obedient.”

Fang Yao clenched his fists. “This was what they did to us. At the Crimson Temple, they used the same tech. They told us it was a gift. We didn’t know they were preparing us for this.”

The pulse line brought them to a suspended platform that hovered above a hall lined with glass cages. Inside, more failed experiments—creatures with half-formed limbs, twitching spasms, eyes wide with silent screams. Xiaoqing looked away.

And then came the voice.

“You came farther than I expected.”

It echoed through the chamber—deep, calm, male.

Tianming spun, eyes narrowing. “Renshu.”

A panel at the end of the platform shimmered, revealing a projection of the man himself. Renshu stood in a sleek black uniform, hands behind his back. His eyes were calm, predatory.

“Tianming,” he said, as if greeting a son. “You’ve grown well.”

“You killed Yurei,” Tianming snarled. “She was your ally.”

“She was obsolete,” Renshu replied. “Too emotional. Too attached to the old ways. You, on the other hand, are something new. Something… perfect.”

“Don’t flatter me. I came here to end this.”

“No,” Renshu said, smiling faintly. “You came here because you want to understand. Who you are. Why you resist the Protocol. Why your blood makes you different.”

Tianming said nothing.

“I’ll tell you,” Renshu continued, stepping closer in the projection. “You are not the result of chance. You were forged, Tianming. By Project Disruptor. Your mother… volunteered.”

Tianming’s eyes narrowed. “My mother…?”

“She was the only one who survived the initial trials. We combined Protocol strains with a rare bloodline fragment—something recovered from the ruins in the Kunli Desert. Ancient, powerful. Her child would be immune to mind-control. Resistant to bioweapons. A disruptor. The perfect test.”

Xiaoqing whispered, “That’s why they couldn’t control you.”

“But the Architect feared you would become unstable,” Renshu went on. “So they erased your past. Gave you to a handler. Buried the truth.”

Tianming’s fists trembled. “You… did all of this.”

“I only followed the design. The Architect sees the future. A new species. A world united by one mind.”

“That’s not unity,” Tianming growled. “That’s slavery.”

Renshu tilted his head. “Then prove me wrong.”

A door opened behind the projection.

“Come. Face me in the Core Hall. Let’s see if your blood is strong enough to break destiny.”

The projection vanished.

The silence returned.

Fang Yao spit on the floor. “He wants a fight. He’ll get one.”

They moved swiftly now, traversing more pulse lines, descending deeper into the city’s heart. The Core Hall was located at the base of the central spire—a sphere of glass and silver, surrounded by cascading waterfalls of data code. When they reached it, the doors opened without resistance.

Inside, the arena was empty save for a single platform at the center. Renshu stood atop it.

He was unarmed, his black uniform immaculate. But Tianming could see the enhancements now—veins glowing faintly under his skin, muscles slightly too perfect, eyes that never blinked.

“You came,” he said softly. “Good.”

Tianming stepped forward, Xiaoqing and Fang Yao holding back.

The two men stood face to face.

“This ends now,” Tianming said.

“Yes,” Renshu whispered. “But not the way you think.”

Then he moved.

Fast—inhumanly fast.

Tianming barely reacted in time, raising his forearm to block a blow aimed straight at his throat. The shockwave from the strike blasted dust across the platform, and the floor cracked beneath his feet.

He countered with a spinning elbow, but Renshu ducked, grabbed Tianming’s wrist, and twisted, aiming a palm strike toward his heart. Tianming dropped low, sweeping his leg. Renshu leapt back, landing like a feather.

They clashed again.

Every blow echoed with power. Renshu’s movements were precise, surgical. He wasn’t just fighting—he was analyzing, learning. Tianming realized the man had memorized every combat pattern he ever used.

But Tianming had changed.

He feinted left, then released the red fragment sphere. It exploded midair, sending a wave of disruption energy. Renshu was caught off guard—just long enough for Tianming to close the gap and land a punch straight into his ribs.

The floor cracked beneath Renshu as he staggered.

“You learned well,” he said, smiling. “But you’re still incomplete.”

He activated something—a glyph on his neck. Instantly, his body surged with Protocol energy. His skin glowed. His movements blurred.

Tianming grit his teeth.

Then he activated the black fragment.

A pulse of pure anti-Protocol energy flooded his body, and for the first time… the disruption didn’t just defend.

It fought back.

They collided again.

This time, it was Tianming who struck faster. Stronger. He drove Renshu back with a flurry of precise strikes, weaving between Protocol-enhanced moves and striking at the joints—elbows, knees, ribs. Renshu staggered, but didn’t fall.

“You’re evolving…” he whispered.

Tianming’s voice was low. “No. I’m remembering.”

He unleashed a final uppercut that shattered the energy field around Renshu’s body. The older man flew back, hitting the pillar behind him.

He slumped, coughing blood.

“I was trying to protect you,” Renshu gasped. “From him. From the Architect.”

“Then you shouldn’t have lied to me,” Tianming said coldly.

And then—

The lights dimmed.

A sound echoed through the Sanctuary. Not a voice. A presence.

Cold. Mechanical. Ancient.

“Very good,” it said. “Now… it is time you met me.”

Tianming froze.

Xiaoqing stepped back.

Even Fang Yao looked shaken.

From above, the throne began to descend.

The Architect was coming.