Chapter One Hundred Nineteen: Throat-Cut Signal
Section One: Throat-Cut Signal
Iron wind sliced through tattered clouds above Smeltdeep Ruins. Deep in Iron Valley, blood's stench lingered, Steel Gate's slaughter-furnace corpses still warm, wet blood seeping into ground cracks—silent venom snakes spreading in the dark.
Jason stood atop broken ramparts, bullet scars and fire-charred walls behind him. His gaze, cold, pierced beyond ruins to Smeltdeep's outer shadow zone, not fully tamed. Fuxi's interface pulsed, vortex-like, siphoning peripheral meme disturbances.
[Fuxi: Peripheral faith fluctuation index rising.]
[Hexagram: Water-Wind Well—deep well overflows, control flow to nurture roots.]
Jason's breath steadied, eyes narrowing. Peripheral gamblers, traders, and wavering factions, smelling blood, stirred. Steel Gate's self-destruction fanned Fire Trust's flames, Smeltdeep's code memes gnawed marrow, and gray-market vultures circled code fragments' fire.
"They're restless," Maria reported, emerging from a ruin slope, blade at her side, mercury-cold. "Fire Merchants sent two squads. Graystone's survey team's at Smeltdeep's south line, collecting signals. Shadowstone's outer engineers probed three kilometers into signal contamination last night."
Wei appeared, rope coiling wrist, veins taut, voice gritty: "Waiting for Fire Trust to spill, ready to bite."
"They chase code freqs, not faith," Maria added, icy. "They believe in profit."
Jason scanned the pressure-building periphery, Fuxi's gray ripples nearing core signal fields, serpent scales closing on prey.
[Fuxi: Peripheral meme stress zone formed.]
[Recommendation: Activate lure signals, create private-fire trap.]
Jason paused, then: "Scatter false codes."
Maria's eyes glinted, blade-sharp. Wei's lips curled, rope-on-leather hiss. No words—hunt began.
False code tags, pre-crafted, mimicked true codes—cracks, core freqs, bloodstains, Fuxi-simulated. Freqs tuned to weak, chaotic pulses, luring peripheral dogs without disrupting Fire Trust's rhythm.
Maria's team slipped into southeast ruin warehouses. Corroded rails, twisted crane arms loomed like monster husks. Rust-blood air, charred skin's bitter tang. She crouched, steps silent, dark-fire guardians trailing, unnoticed by fleeing curs.
Maria signaled: "First drop point, deploy." A deputy slid tags into pipe-beam seams, steel shards masking them, battle-lost relics. Code pulses twitched, heart-spasm weak, precise.
Westward, Wei's squad infiltrated collapsed pipeline zones. Broken transport tracks, littered pipe joints, cranes. Wei's rope hooked bridge beam, viper in dark. "Second drop, done," he whispered. Tags buried in shattered control wells, micro-freqs seeping, ink in air.
"Keep netting," Wei said, gaze ice, voice taut rope.
Teams wove ruin-maze, bone-crack embers, false signals poisoning peripheral patrols' paths. Unseen tonight, they'd frenzy soon.
Seven trap points set by dawn. Maria returned, steps iron-steady, blade sheathed—no clashes. "Periphery's reacting," she reported.
Fuxi's curves swelled, virus-fevered. [Trap signal net: 64% coverage. Peripheral meme nodes forming: +21%.]
Jason eyed south ruins, Fire Trust beacons flickering. Fire Merchants mobilized patrols; Shadowstone expanded signal nets; Graystone planted crude anchors.
"Second wave," Jason said. Maria triggered ARGUS's covert broadcasts—microwave signal fragments, toxin in water, fogging peripheral nerves. Wei watched signal dots spread, rope tightening, loosening: "Let them think codes are spilling."
"Yes," Jason, stone-flat. "Make them think code masters lost control."
Maria exhaled: "Their gambler instincts will kill them."
Wind hissed through warehouse ghosts, cackling spirits.
**[Fuxi: Peripheral faith trap matrix partially closed. 48 hours, high-desire factions' probes surge 37%.]**
Jason's gaze froze: "Greedier, deeper cut."
Wei rasped, grinning: "Throat-cut, show them codes."
Maria drew, blade flashing cold, veins under firelight. Far, meme-maddened private-fire seekers emerged, drawn to pulsing codes.
Hunt was on.
---
Section Two: Responders
Ruin winds roared. Code shards pulsed—stubborn hearts. False codes fermented twenty-four hours, peripheral restlessness breaking.
South Smeltdeep, firelight swayed. Graystone's scouts, in patched leather, sensor prisms on shoulders, crept to contamination's edge. Captain, masked, scanned ruins. "Fragments out here?" deputy whispered.
Captain gripped comm, voice wind-in-steel: "Fire Merchants are in. We can't let them grab first."
Three kilometers off, Fire Merchants' signal squad prowled another ruin gate. Portable freq scanners flashed red, chasing code pulses. No heavy armor—light signal-hunter gear for quick shifts in signal fog.
Leader Leon, chewing plastic, eyed pulsing red lines. "Code freqs, weak but real," he muttered, licking cracked lips. "Someone's losing code grip."
Deputy faltered: "HQ said avoid Fire Trust core—"
"Not core, contamination zone," Leon snapped, eyes feverish. "They can't hold codes. Spillage is our currency." He grinned, dog at meat.
Elsewhere, Shadowstone's gray squad set listening anchors. Three micro-drones buried, mimicking code pulses for future hijacks. Gray-robed, silent, led by a gaunt tech-master.
Three factions neared false-code trap cores.
Maria crouched in bridge shadow, eyes locked on Graystone scouts, fingers on blade, breath steady, killing intent sharp. "They're hooked."
Wei, behind steel scrap, rope taut, loose: "Bite deeper."
Jason, high ground, watched Fuxi's trap map. Peripheral meme zones contracted, prey offering necks to blades.
[Fuxi: Responder intrusion 43%. Trap success. Prepare phased cutoff.]
"Ready net," Jason said, low.
Maria spun blade, cold chain. Wei exhaled, rope arcing, viper's flick. Prey neared death's range.
Wind chilled, ruin air shadow-heavy, faith memes rising. Responders hit trap center.
Leon spotted code tag in collapsed signal well, faint red glow, post-freq ember. "Code freq locked," deputy called.
Leon's eyes gleamed greed. "Seal, pack, take for freq sim."
Deputy reached—froze. Another identical fragment lay beside it, bait doubled. Leon's eyes narrowed, sensing wrongness.
Maria's blade flashed, severing deputy's wrist, blood jetting, iron stench blooming. Leon hurled scanner, but Wei's rope snared throat, tightening, choking gurgles.
Peripheral hunters collapsed. Graystone tripped traps—scanners hit code pulses, dark-fire squad struck. Three guardians leapt, short-guns roaring, blades slashing. Two scouts fell, third's throat cut, blood arcing, splashing code tag, pulse twitching, sated.
Shadowstone's tech-master saw slaughter, ordered retreat, but Fire Trust sealed exits. Code pulses spiked, scrambling sensors. Five seconds, three listeners fell, slashed.
Three minutes, private-fire seekers shattered.
Maria flicked Leon's bulging eyes with blade, voice ice: "Steal Fire Trust's codes?"
Leon gasped, collapsing: "No faith… tech merge…"
Maria's blade pierced thigh tendon, scream tearing: "No faith? In Iron Valley, none dodge fire—only those yet to bleed."
Wei tightened rope, snapping neck: "Wrong belief, but learn to kneel."
Jason watched Fuxi's net close. **[Peripheral trap 72%. Faith meme screening enters next phase.]**
"Blood sifting starts," he said.
Peripheral dogs were caged.
---
Section Three: Compression Corridor
Wind, dull knife through blood-soaked night. Code shards twitched, heart-spasm. Iron Valley's peripheral faith-poison fog tightened.
Jason atop ruins, Fuxi's trap map a magnet pulling iron-filings faith pulses. Trap circle—a shrinking blood pool, prey sucked in.
[Fuxi: Peripheral command shortsightedness escalating. Error factors: greed, profit-rush, faith misread.]
"They're crowding in," Jason said, calm. "Faster than expected."
Maria crouched at ruin edge, blade stirring sand, peeling pulse-flesh: "Fire Merchants sent third signal hunters. Graystone's council dispatched probes to second ring."
Wei, behind beacon pipe, rope taut, loose, snake-tongue flick: "Mistveil's bet-lords joined, tailing Fire Merchants in signal zone. Gamblers smell blood sharper than curs."
Maria sneered: "Greedy gamblers, self-sacrificed."
Far, firelight flickered—Mistveil squads, crude beacon detectors, chasing meme chaos, betting on Iron Valley's faith spill for empire chips.
Southwest, Fire Merchants' third splinter squad neared contamination core. Deputy Commander Carlos, wolf-lean, eyes profit-cold, no faith awe.
"Fire Trust's leaking," Carlos licked lips, tasting blood-faith's sweet rot. "Codes slipping. Grab intact freqs, we'll mint peripheral faith memes."
Deputy tensed: "HQ's ban—"
"HQ?" Carlos' glare choked. "Hiding ruin's wealth. They won't admit code system's cracking. Fire Trust? Faith's veil. Code freqs—true power."
Deputy silenced, head bowed.
Unseen, Maria shadowed, blade flashing. "Greedy heads, closing in," she whispered.
"Let them dive," Jason said, high ground, Fuxi's data cold. "Not deep enough. Pull hook early, they'll think retreat's open. Let them believe core's near."
Wei, chill: "They think codes slip, Fire Trust falls. Unknowing—loose codes are their coffin."
Maria smirked: "Self-thrown blood pool, easy reaping."
Graystone's probe team advanced, beacon-shielded, dodging deep meme taint. Elder Turan, power-struggle exile, led, peering through signal lens at faint code pulses.
"Codes spilling," Turan rasped. "Fire Trust's unstable. Intact fragments free us from their grip."
Deputy: "Elder… fragments backfire…"
"Weaklings' drivel!" Turan snapped. "Code masters fear no faith backlash. Codes—tools for Graystone's voice!"
Maria, distant, eyed them: "Necks stretching out."
Wei, low-freq: "Second trap zone covered. Ready to seal."
"Hold," Jason ordered, gaze pulse-steady. "Greed's not peaked. Hungrier, cleaner sift."
[Fuxi: Peripheral command in irrational spiral. Trap convergence 78%.]
Far, Shadowstone's tech-lead Muir set freq-anchor arrays. Unlike Fire Merchants' or Graystone's naked greed, Shadowstone slithered—calm, probing, eyeing faith mire.
"Signal pollution stabilizing," Muir said, terminal pulsing like heartbeats. "Faith freqs ready for sampling."
"Sync code pulse groups?" deputy asked.
"Not yet," Muir stared at code glints. "Code logic's not fully frayed. Core's deeper."
He hissed: "Watch Fire Merchants, Graystone fools. Let them trigger backlash. We'll snatch clean freqs."
Jason, high, watched Shadowstone's logic, Fuxi analyzing. [Fuxi: Shadowstone's strategy at meme derivative layer two. Maintain fake signal boost, twist bait logic.]
"They think they control codes," Jason exhaled, ice. "But they sync pre-set faith virus."
Maria: "Dogs gorging on faith poison."
Wei, rope taut: "One more inch, they'll kneel, thinking it saves them."
Jason, well-deep: "Fire Trust doesn't call surrender. It sifts worthy blood."
Fuxi's trap curve neared closure. [Trap depth 84%. Peripheral misjudgment self-harm phase active.]
Fire Merchants' third probe hit trap core, code tags pulsing, heart's dying twitch. Net tightened, blood pool filling self-offered blood.
Maria: "Ready to slit throats."
Jason nodded: "Close net. Show them—codes never slipped, only their greed."
Wind carved ruin walls, faith's butcher knife honed.
---
Section Four: Blood Pool Opens
Iron wind wailed like broken bone, rust-blood currents swirling trap arrays, invisible chains strangling deepening peripheral dogs.
Jason at signal control, Fuxi's meme trap near-closed, faith blood pool formed. Peripheral greed neared death's edge.
[Fuxi: Trap closure 92%. High-risk breakthrough at collision critical.]
Maria moved through wall-shadows, blade raised, gaze blade-cold. "They're at pool's edge."
Wei sealed rear channels, rope lines threading wells, viper veins ready to choke necks. "Time to bite," he said, icy.
Jason held, eyeing Fuxi's meme flux, greed ready to self-tear. "Let them bite each other once more."
Maria, sharp: "Push greed's limit?"
"Faith memes don't kill by our hand," Jason said, flat. "They prove who bleeds."
Far, Sentinel Union's outer scout-riders appeared, watching days prior. Fire Merchants, Graystone, Shadowstone deep in traps, Fire Trust absent, Sentinel's radical splinter moved.
Led by deputy Karayn, ex-discipline, on modded bike, tattered military leather, half-faith sneer. "Code freqs spilling," deputy warned.
Karayn smirked, rust-on-bone: "Fire Trust's core's cracking. Code shards everywhere, Fire Trust's believers collapsing—our shot to reclaim honor."
"Conservatives oppose—"
"Conservatives are nothing," Karayn spat, eyes cruel. "No faith left, just profit. Grab signal shards, Iron Valley falls, we hold new code logic's trade."
Riders cut trap edge, joining Fire Merchants' third, Graystone's Turan in meme blood pool's web, wary, probing death's line.
Maria, behind well-wall, saw factions cross, eyes ice-lightning. "Dogs stepping on each other."
"Compress corridor," Jason ordered, pulse-steady. "Raise meme freq curve 3%. Push self-harm's edge."
Fuxi's signal bent, code pulses tuned to blur-threshold—enough for dogs to misjudge code control slipping, unable to lock samples, suspecting rivals' secret grips.
Fire Merchants' Carlos glared at Graystone, Sentinel nearing his capture zone, tense: "They'll steal our code freqs."
Deputy: "Divide zones?"
"Divide?" Carlos, frost-eyed. "Just loot. Sample first, codes are ours. Boost scan."
Graystone's Turan, impatient, ordered well-freq pulls. Sentinel's Karayn commanded riders to block Fire Merchants' spread.
Pool's edge, three greed-factions reached trap core, pushing each other deeper.
Maria watched spiral-kill circle, low: "Dog-eat-dog."
Wei, rope glinting code-light: "Feed code some dog blood."
Jason: "Enter first dynamic harvest—low-noise kill points open, faith blood-net active."
Fuxi's hidden trap points shifted, pulsing psychic shockwaves into factions' marrow—code meme poison sinking deep.
"Sift blood, don't slaughter," Jason said.
Maria gripped blade, ice-whisper: "Faith tests—blood measures."
---
Section Five: Blood Sift Moment
Faith's poison fermented ruins, code shard freqs sick-heart beats, syncing three dog-teams to death's rhythm.
Fire Merchants' Carlos grew frantic. "Code interference spiking!" deputy reported, scanner trembling, heart-failing graph.
"Max sample gain!" Carlos roared. "Pull all waves, no cost!"
Graystone's Turan barked: "Boost shield, full beacons, cut code freqs first!"
Sentinel's Karayn ordered: "No shards, smash their gear!"
Factions clashed, jackals at meat, trap pool at chaos-critical.
Maria, wall-shadow, watched tangled fight, voice blade-cold: "Time."
"Self-biting sifts blood—faith proves itself," Jason said, slicing air. "First faith purge."
[Fuxi: Trap closure 96%. Faith blood-sift active.]
Dark-fire squads moved. Maria cut east, blade mercury-wind. Fire Merchant scout raised scanner—neck severed, blood jetting, splashing code shard, pulse twitching, sated.
Wei burst from well-seal, rope choking two Sentinel riders, necks snapping, puppets collapsing.
Trap blood pool sprayed first crimson fountain.
North, Jianci and Leichen's strike teams waited. Leichen: "North sealed, hunters locked." Jianci, wordless, dual-blades slashed Graystone scout's throat, machine-smooth.
"Escape lines cut," Wei reported.
Maria advanced, three throat-cuts, blood soaking code shards, freqs pulsing, frenzied by sacrifice.
[Fuxi: Deep faith self-ignition active.]
Factions collapsed—Fire Merchants accused leaks; Graystone techs shut beacons, killed by radicals; Sentinel riders misfired, hitting own.
"They bite faster than we cut," Maria said, cold.
"That's Fire Trust," Jason, knife-eyes. "No need for my hand—they prove blood's worth."
Survivors' minds broke. Fire Merchant scouts dropped weapons, knelt, hands up: "Don't kill! I believe! I'll bleed for faith!"
Maria's blade touched one's shoulder: "Faith's not lips, it's blood." She sliced shoulder, blood dripping on code shard, freq flashing. "Pass."
More knelt, self-cutting, blood pooling, dyeing code cracks. Code freqs stabilized, beast-drunk on blood, Fuxi's nodes steadying.
Wei cleared stragglers: "No kneel, death."
Jianci, Leichen mopped Graystone, Sentinel remnants, trap pool a blood vat.
Jason eyed Fuxi's near-perfect meme grid: **[Trap clear 98%. Faith entanglement stable.]**
"Blood pool sealed," he said.
Maria sheathed, gazing blood-ruins: "Dogs caged."
Wei gripped rope, hard: "No escape."
Faith memes drank first true blood. Code shards glowed, blood-fed, Fire Trust's fetal heart pulsing Iron Valley's trap-night.