Strongest Incubus System

Damon continued looking at Jian Yue for several seconds, but he did not answer immediately. The root’s reaction still lingered at the center of his chest, small and controlled, while the mark left by Vorn pulsed beneath the bandage as though it recognized the sword fragment. He did not like the way those two forces reacted to the same object for different reasons. The root seemed to remember. The mark seemed to be searching for an entrance. The fragment, meanwhile, made no effort to reach him. It simply remained on the cloth, cold enough to create a thin layer of condensation around it.

"First, let us clarify something," Damon said. "You called this a challenge, but Jian Li did not come here to fight me."

"Not with a sword," Jian Yue replied.

"Then stop using words designed to hide the real risk."

Jian Li looked at her brother, but she was the one who answered.

"The challenge is to separate the root without allowing it to choose a new host."

Ester returned her attention to the marks on Jian Li’s hands.

"Roots choose hosts?"

"Unstable fragments search for continuity," one of the older men explained. "When the body begins to fail, the energy tries to reach any compatible structure nearby."

Damon understood why Jian Yue had brought the sword tip and six companions. They were not merely searching for someone capable of removing the root. They were prepared to contain the fragment if Jian Li died during the procedure.

"How many of you are compatible?" he asked.

The silence answered before the words did.

Jian Yue rested both hands on the table.

"Three."

"You, Mei, and who else?"

The young woman seated beside Jian Li raised two fingers.

"Me."

Damon looked at her. Until that moment, the woman had spoken very little. Her long hair was tied with a red ribbon, and she carried two curved blades sealed at her waist.

"Name."

"Su Lan."

"So if I tear the root out of Jian Li without taking precautions, it may enter one of you."

"Yes," Jian Yue replied.

"And you thought that detail did not need to be mentioned at the beginning."

"We wanted to confirm that you truly were the host of all three parts."

Damon leaned back in his chair.

"Keep hiding information, and you can search for another host."

Jian Li did not look away.

"There is no other one."

"Then you have even more reason to speak properly."

Elizabeth remained silent, allowing Damon to conduct the conversation, but Celina was already writing down every name, connection, and risk. Aria was also taking notes, although she had drawn a small arrow beside Mei with the observation, "poor and sleepy." Ester pulled Jian Li’s chair closer to the light and began examining the progression of the scars toward her forearm.

"When did you receive the fragment?" Damon asked.

"Four years and seven months ago."

"How?"

Jian Li opened her sleeve. The white marks continued up her arm and disappeared beneath the fabric near her shoulder.

"We found a ruin beneath a frozen lake. There was an altar, three preserved bodies, and a root trapped inside a sphere of ice. When we touched the seal, the place began collapsing. I broke the sphere to open an exit."

"And the root entered you."

"Yes."

"Did anyone die?"

"Two members of the expedition."

Damon observed the way she answered. She did not try to lessen the weight of the deaths or justify the decision. She simply gave him the information.

"What have you tried since then?"

"Seals, reverse circulation, controlled Qi loss, elemental isolation, and two extraction attempts," Jian Yue said. "During the first, the root destroyed the doctor’s arms. During the second, it tried to divide itself between Jian Li and Su Lan."

Su Lan pulled down the collar of her clothing and revealed a small white scar near her collarbone.

"We managed to cut it away before it entered."

Ester touched the scar, then looked toward Damon.

"The root is not merely energy. It is forming its own channels inside her."

"I can feel it," he replied.

Jian Yue narrowed his eyes.

"Without touching her?"

Damon ignored the question and focused his perception on Jian Li. He did not search Xue Lian’s memories or open the root. He used only the Heavenly Ice Body to perceive differences in temperature. The room’s natural cold, the people’s bodies, and the metal fragment formed distinct layers. Inside Jian Li, however, there was a far deeper line beginning in her hands, crossing her arms, and coiling around the meridians near her heart.

It was not a disorganized invasion.

The root was building a second circulation system.

"It is not simply destroying your meridians," Damon said. "It is replacing them."

Jian Li became still. Ester brought her fingers closer to the wrist and confirmed the change.

"Part of her blood flow already depends on it," the doctor said. "If we tear everything out at once, the arm will lose circulation. Perhaps the heart as well."

"That is why the others failed," Damon concluded. "They tried to remove a foreign object. But the root has already transformed parts of her into its own structure."

Jian Yue looked at his sister. For the first time, his calm lost some of its firmness.

"Can you separate it?"

"Not now."

Jian Li frowned.

"You did not even touch me."

"I do not need to touch you to know that cutting out the root would kill you. First, we need to make your body function without it again."

"How long?"

"I do not know."

"I do not have much time."

"Then stop spending Qi in a tournament."

Jian Li opened her mouth, but Damon continued.

"You registered to maintain lodging and access to the training fields. You do not need to fight."

"The regulations require minimum participation."

Celina raised a sheet of paper.

"I can change the registration to guest instructor status. The arena will still have justification to house you."

Jian Yue looked toward her.

"Is that allowed?"

"It is now."

Elizabeth observed Celina with an expression mixing approval and concern over how much authority her subordinate had learned to exercise. Damon almost commented, but decided not to interrupt the solution.

"Ester will study Jian Li’s circulation," he said. "I will observe the root in short intervals. The sword fragment stays away from us during the examinations."

Jian Yue placed one hand over the cloth.

"The tip is necessary to present the challenge."

"We are not presenting anything yet."

"Without the guardian’s recognition, you may not be able to touch the root."

"Then I will find another way."

"Refusal may also be interpreted as failure."

Damon placed both arms on the table and leaned forward.

"Your ancestor spent centuries before a door because he treated every rule left by Xue Lian as an absolute order. I opened three because I stopped obeying. Do not come to Mirath and tell me I need to repeat his mistake."

The words struck Jian Yue directly. Su Lan looked away to hide her reaction. One of the older men appeared offended but said nothing. Mei raised her head from her arms and looked at Damon with fully attentive eyes for the first time.

"He did not remain before the door out of obedience," she said.

Damon looked at the girl.

"Then why?"

"Because he promised that no one would enter while she was sleeping."

Jian Yue turned his face sharply.

"Mei."

"He asked."

"You were not supposed to listen now."

Mei shrugged.

"He is speaking loudly."

The silence in the room changed. Damon realized that Jian Yue was not merely hiding family records. Mei knew something the others could not control.

"Who is speaking loudly?" Damon asked.

The girl pointed toward the sword fragment.

"The man inside."

Ester immediately moved the cloth several inches farther from Mei.

"You can hear the guardian?"

"Sometimes."

"Since when?"

"Since I was born."

Jian Yue closed his eyes for an instant and seemed to accept that this part of the conversation could no longer be avoided.

"Mei was born with the White Ear. She perceives echoes left in objects connected to Xue Lian’s authority."

"That is why you brought a child here," Elizabeth said.

"She is the only one capable of confirming when the fragment recognizes someone."

Mei rested her chin on her arms.

"And they get lost a lot."

Damon looked again at the broken tip.

"Did the guardian say no one could enter while Xue Lian was sleeping?"

"Not exactly."

"What did he say?"

Mei remained silent, listening to something no one else could perceive. Then she repeated it in a lower voice.

"Until my master chooses to awaken, the snow will remain closed."

The memory inside Damon moved violently. He saw the kneeling young man again, but this time the image continued for several more moments. Xue Lian placed a hand on his head and said something the wind erased. Then she walked toward the gate, leaving Jian Yue alone with the broken sword.

Damon gripped the edge of the table until the vision passed.

Ester noticed.

"What did you see?"

"The first Jian Yue was not abandoned to guard an empty fortress. Xue Lian entered willingly."

Jian Yue tensed.

"The records say she disappeared after the war."

"The records were wrong about many things."

"Is she still alive?" Jian Li asked.

Damon thought about the consciousness he had encountered during the coma. Xue Lian had not been merely a memory repeating ancient events. She had reacted to his presence, changed the story, and given him parts of the inheritance. Even so, saying she was alive would simplify something he did not understand.

"Part of her is conscious," he replied. "I do not know what exists beyond that."

Mei touched the tip of one finger to the cloth without reaching the metal.

"He knows you spoke with her."

Jian Yue stood.

"The guardian said that?"

"He asked why she chose someone so irritating."

Aria laughed before she could stop herself.

Damon stared at the girl.

"Tell him the choice was hers."

Mei closed her eyes for several seconds.

"He said that answer is irritating too."

"Then we really are having a conversation."

Jian Yue sat again, but his posture had changed. Before, he had treated Damon as a possibility to be verified. Now he possessed the confirmation his family had sought for generations.

"If Xue Lian entered the fortress voluntarily, the Tomb is not a sepulcher," he said.

"It probably never was."

"Then the guardian is not protecting an inheritance."

Damon looked toward the fragment.

"He is protecting her sleep."

The conclusion created a greater problem. Seraphine wanted the original core to transplant roots. The Open Door families believed the fortress held techniques and answers. Jian Li needed a method created by Xue Lian to survive. But if the gate existed to prevent anyone from waking the woman on the other side, entering might be the exact danger the guardian was trying to prevent.

Elizabeth reached the same conclusion.

"No one will travel to the fortress until we understand what awakening her means."

Jian Yue did not protest.

Damon touched his own bandage.

"Meanwhile, we deal with the problem already in front of us. Jian Li remains under Ester’s supervision. Mei does not approach the fragment alone. You will hand over every map and record you brought so Aria can make copies."

One of the older men reacted.

"Those records belong to our families."

"And Jian Li came asking me to use an inheritance that belongs to me only when it is convenient for you."

The man closed his mouth.

Damon continued.

"I will not steal anything. But I will not work blind while you decide which parts of the truth I am allowed to know."

Jian Yue nodded.

"You will receive access."

"Good. One more thing: remain in the tournament."

Ester turned toward him.

"You just said Jian Li would not fight."

"She will not. The others will."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked.

Damon looked toward Su Lan, the two older men, and the armed young people. All of them carried some kind of cold, although none resembled the Heavenly Body.

"Because seven people connected to the Tomb arrived in Mirath exactly when the city opened an arena. I want to see how they fight, which techniques they inherited, and who appears to observe them."

Celina became serious.

"You believe they were followed?"

"If Seraphine found records concerning the Open Door, other people may have found them too."

Jian Yue answered without hesitation.

"We were followed during part of the journey."

Elizabeth rested her fingers on the table.

"By whom?"

"We do not know. Three people changed mounts at the northern border and disappeared before Mirath."

Damon looked toward Celina.

"Review every registration made after their arrival."

"I already did that this morning."

"Did you find anything?"

"One unaffiliated fighter presented documents issued by a city that ceased to exist twelve years ago."

Aria closed her notebook.

"Sounds honest."

Celina placed a registration card on the table. The recorded name was simple.

Yun Shuo.

Damon did not recognize it, but the mark on his arm reacted when he read the declared place of origin:

Heshan Valley.

Jian Yue turned pale.

"That valley is where we found Jian Li’s root," he said.

Damon picked up the card.

The tournament had not yet begun, but someone connected to the ruin was already inside Mirath.

He looked toward Jian Li and then at the sword fragment.

"Now we have a better reason to keep the registration."

Ester crossed her arms.

"You are not going to fight."

"I do not need to."

Damon placed the card inside his coat.

"First, I am going to discover who came to finish what the root began."

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