BOOM—!

A sudden, violent explosion shattered the damp silence of the Mist Cloud Forest, sending a shower of pulverized stone, dirt, and ancient moss raining down into the dense foliage.

As the thick plumes of dust slowly settled, a jagged fissure in the side of a hidden cliffside collapsed completely, revealing the gaping mouth of a newly formed cave.

From the shadows of the subterranean passage, a figure stepped smoothly out into the dim forest light.

The man stood at a height of five feet nine inches, possessing a strikingly slender frame and a complexion of smooth, almost unnatural pale skin.

His long, vibrant green hair fell loosely over his shoulders, catching the filtered sunlight.

Yet, despite his slender appearance, the raw, suffocating pressure he radiated was absolutely massive.

The air around him rippled and warped with every breath he took, projecting the terrifying, unyielding aura of a high-and-mighty Nascent Soul cultivator.

This was the identity Shen Yu had chosen to spearhead his conquest of Crimson Iron City. The name of this new identity was Mo Liu.

To ensure this disguise was completely foolproof against even the most discerning eyes of the cultivation world, Shen Yu had methodically stacked multiple high-level concealment techniques.

First, he had activated the Blood Burning Art, forcefully shifting his underlying bone structure and physical proportions from his native, towering build to this slender, green-haired form.

Next, he channeled his inner core to trigger his bloodline's intrinsic ability, the Crimson Fox Veil, seamlessly altering his unique Qi signature and his deep voice into an entirely different frequency.

Finally, he tapped into the mystical bracelet resting securely around his wrist.

Because he had already broken through to the genuine Foundation Establishment realm, he was able to project a flawlessly simulated, terrifying Nascent Soul aura to intimidate any potential obstacles.

A cold, amused smile touched Shen Yu's lips as he felt the sheer weight of his disguise.

Without a single moment of hesitation, his body blurred into a streak of green light, leaping through the canopy as he began to run at breakneck speed toward the opposite end of the vast, fog-laden Mist Cloud Forest.

Two days passed in a blur of continuous, rapid travel.

On the morning of the third day, Shen Yu stood silently on the precipice of a jagged mountain cliff.

His piercing gaze locked onto the foot of a massive, neighboring mountain range that dominated the horizon.

Unlike the lush greenery of his journey, these peaks were a striking, metallic reddish color, surrounded by matching crimson-hued flora that grew from the mineral-rich soil.

Nestled tightly within the valley at the foot of these iron mountains was a sprawling, heavily fortified metropolis.

Protected by towering, ash-colored stone walls and humming defensive arrays, it was an industrial powerhouse almost entirely on par with the scale of Thousand Waves City. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Crimson Iron City.

This legendary settlement was widely renowned across the realm as a powerhouse of metallurgy and craftsmanship.

Built directly over volcanic veins and rich geological deposits, Crimson Iron City was world-famous for its high-grade spiritual ores and the exceptionally durable weapons and armor forged within its subterranean foundries.

The city operated primarily as a massive export hub; nearly seventy percent of the raw materials and finished martial artifacts produced here were loaded onto heavily armed merchant caravans, destined for distant empires and wealthy cultivation clans.

Yet, beneath this facade of industrial wealth lay a critical, glaring vulnerability: the local medical market.

Because the excavation of crimson-iron ore released highly toxic, metal-infused dust into the deeper mines, the demand for healing panaceas and cleansing elixirs was astronomically high.

Consequently, the pill market here was vast, dwarfing that of non-industrial territories.

Because the city's soil was too metallic to naturally cultivate delicate medicinal flora, herbs had to be imported at exorbitant costs, making refined pills significantly more expensive here than in coastal metropolises like Thousand Waves City.

A common medicinal pill that would cost a few low-grade spiritual stones elsewhere was treated like a luxury here, drained greedily by miners and mercenaries just to keep their meridians from corroding.

His green eyes flared with a predatory hunger. Stepping off the cliffside, he descended the mountain path and began a steady, deliberate walk toward the primary northern entrance of the city.

Before the stern, armored guards could even blink or raise their halberds to demand entry taxes, Shen Yu subtly triggered a specialized cultivation technique: the Phantom Void Mirage Step.

This was a high-grade movement and concealment art that had originally caught his eye during the very first week of the system's Primal Store rotation.

Lacking the necessary funds at the time, he had proactively saved the technique in his digital cart, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Because the subsequent weeks of the store rotation had featured lackluster, underwhelming items, he had held onto his resources without a single shred of hesitation. The moment his Desire Points reached the mark, he had immediately finalized the purchase.

The technique was an absolute masterpiece for stealth operations.

Unlike basic illusion arts that merely bent light, the Phantom Void Mirage Step allowed the user to subtly blend their presence into the ambient spiritual frequencies of the environment.

It manipulated the sensory perception of anyone looking directly at him, causing their minds to automatically register his physical form as nothing more than a passing breeze or an irrelevant trick of the light.

As he stepped forward, the space around his slender, green-haired form rippled with a faint, undetectable distortion.

To the guards and the surrounding crowd, it was as if a minor shadow had briefly brushed against their senses.

He walked smoothly past the threshold, crossing straight into the bustling, iron-scented streets of the city without a single inspection guard even registering that a living soul had just bypassed their line.

The ambient air warped for a fraction of a second. To the guards and the surrounding crowd, it was as if a passing shadow had briefly brushed against their senses.

Shen Yu stepped smoothly past the threshold, crossing into the bustling, iron-scented streets of the city without a single guard even registering his presence.

Shen Yu strolled through the bustling, wide thoroughfares of Crimson Iron City.