Date: October 17, 2025
Lâm Minh's Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Foundation Establishment) – Early Phase
Spiritual Root: Heaven Tier (Stage 2/9 Unsealed – 95%)
The air in the Kentron Industrial Sector tasted of chemical death.
Even through the advanced filters of his stealth suit, Lâm Minh could detect the acrid bite of airborne toxins and the faint, unsettling prickle of low-level radiation.
The multi-spectrum goggles painted the desolate landscape in sickly hues of green and orange, highlighting hotspots of contamination and the skeletal remains of colossal factories clawing at the perpetually overcast sky.
The silence was oppressive, broken only by the mournful sigh of the wind whistling through shattered structures and the distant, rhythmic creak of rusted metal.
His first few hours were spent navigating the treacherous surface level of Kentron, searching for the access point indicated in the fragmented schematics – an old, supposedly sealed emergency maintenance shaft for the subterranean data archive.
This area was even more dilapidated than Sumitomo's upper levels, a true wasteland where nature, in its most twisted forms, was slowly reclaiming the ruins.
Mutated flora, glowing faintly with absorbed radiation, grew in bizarre patches, and the ground was littered with the skeletal remains of unfortunate scavengers who had dared to venture too deep.
Lâm Minh moved with the silence and grace afforded by his Foundation Establishment cultivation and Shadow Step.
His Qi Sense, now far more potent, constantly scanned his surroundings, not just for physical threats, but for pockets of intense radiation or corrosive chemical spills.
Several times, he had to use his Cleansing Flame to neutralize localized clouds of toxic gas or burn away particularly virulent mutated fungi that barred his path.
Date: October 17, 2025 - Evening
He finally located the emergency shaft entrance late in the evening.
It was hidden beneath a pile of collapsed girders and ferrocrete, its circular hatch almost completely obscured by rust and decades of neglect.
It took him nearly an hour of careful, Qi-infused effort with his crowbar to pry it open, the protesting screech of tortured metal sounding unnaturally loud in the dead silence.
The shaft descended into absolute blackness.
Unlike Sumitomo, there were no dormant emergency lights here, only an unnerving, profound emptiness.
The air that wafted up was cold, damp, and carried a faint, underlying hum – the same kind of subtle machine resonance he had detected before finding Sumitomo's active core.
"Yan, this is Minh. I've found an entry point to the Kentron sub-levels. Commencing descent. Radio silence from this point until I reach a designated safe zone or initiate emergency protocol." He spoke softly into his encrypted communicator.
"Understood, Minh. Hạnh's team is in position at the perimeter observation post, coordinates locked. Proceed with extreme caution. May your path be clear." Yan's voice, tinny and distant, was the last human sound he would hear for some time.
The descent was perilous.
The shaft was unstable, with sections of ladder rungs missing or dangerously corroded.
Several times, he encountered pockets of highly concentrated radioactive gas, forcing him to rely heavily on his suit's integrity and his Cleansing Flame.
His Qi Sense also picked up faint, erratic energy signatures deep within the walls – ancient, failing security systems, or perhaps something worse.
Date: October 18, 2025 - Early Morning
After what felt like an eternity, but his chronometer indicated was roughly six hours, he reached what the schematics identified as Sub-Level Gamma of the Kentron Data Archive.
This level, according to the fragmented data, housed the primary server coolant systems and redundant power conduits leading to Vault Zero.
The corridors here were narrow, claustrophobic, and many were partially flooded with a dark, oily liquid that his suit's sensors identified as a mixture of degraded coolant, industrial solvents, and unknown biological contaminants.
The air was thick with the smell of ozone and decay.
It was here that he first encountered the "Echoes."
He sensed them before he saw them – faint, cold, and distinctly artificial auras moving with a coordinated, predatory silence that was far too disciplined for typical scavengers or mutated creatures.
He melted into a shadowed alcove using Shadow Step just as two figures glided past.
They were humanoid, clad in sleek, dark, form-fitting suits that seemed to absorb light.
Their faces were obscured by smooth, featureless visors from which a single, crimson optical sensor glowed.
They moved with an unnatural grace, their limbs seeming to articulate with an eerie fluidity that wasn't entirely human nor purely mechanical.
Their energy signatures were a disturbing blend of faint, almost undetectable Qi, and powerful, sophisticated cybernetics.
These were not the crude, sparking augmentations of the Iron Fang thugs; this was advanced, integrated technology.
And they carried slender, rod-like weapons that hummed with contained energy.
The Silent Master's elite guard, Lâm Minh surmised.
Rat-tail's description had been accurate.
He trailed them cautiously, using every ounce of his stealth and his Foundation Establishment senses.
The Echoes moved with purpose, patrolling specific routes, their crimson sensors sweeping methodically.
He realized they weren't just guarding; they were hunting.
For intruders.
For him.
This confirmed he was on the right path.
But it also meant the "Silent Master" was aware of potential threats, perhaps even anticipating an investigation after the Sumitomo incident.
As he shadowed the Echoes, Lâm Minh's thoughts drifted briefly, incongruously, to Tố Quyên.
It had been nearly two weeks since he'd last seen her properly, since their conversation about Mai Linh's brother.
He wondered if Mai Linh's family had received any relief after his raid on the Skulls' stash.
He had given Hạnh some credits to anonymously assist them, but he hadn't had a chance to follow up.
He missed those brief, normal conversations with Tố Quyên, the glimpses of a life beyond shadows and death.
She, with her bright intellect and unwavering optimism, represented a part of the world he was fighting so desperately to protect.
He recalled her telling him about an upcoming xenolinguistics symposium at her school, something she was incredibly excited about presenting at.
The symposium would be starting tomorrow, October 19, 2025. He wouldn't be there to see it.
He might not even be alive.
The thought, instead of dispiriting him, sharpened his focus.
He was here, in this toxic hellhole, facing unknowable horrors, precisely so that people like Tố Quyên could have their symposiums, could dream of a future.
He refocused on his immediate surroundings.
The Echoes he was trailing paused before a heavily reinforced blast door, identical in design to the one he'd breached at Sumitomo leading to the Crimson Altar.
One of them placed its hand on a glowing panel, and the door hissed open, revealing a dimly lit corridor beyond.
They stepped inside, and the door began to close.
This was it.
This had to be the way to Vault Zero, to the Sanctum of Whispers.
Lâm Minh made a split-second decision.
He couldn't risk them sealing the door and losing the trail.
He activated Shadow Blink.
In an instant of disorienting, shadowy transit, he rematerialized just inside the closing blast door, a heartbeat before it sealed shut with a resounding clang, plunging the corridor into near-total darkness.
He was in.
But he was also trapped with at least two of the Silent Master's deadly Echoes.
The hunt had just become a very intimate affair.