Strongest Incubus System

The procedure began several hours later.

Ester did not allow anyone near Jian Li until her circulation was stable enough to endure seven seconds without the root. She prepared the infirmary as though she were expecting a war inside a single body. Three containment circles were drawn around the bed, Jian Li’s main meridians received silver needles, and small heated plates were positioned over her chest to prevent her heart from slowing too much when the cold was removed.

Damon remained seated beside the table, watching everything.

Mu Qing’s transparent sword lay in front of him.

The Heshan triangle remained inside an open box.

The guardian’s fragment rested over a white cloth, silent ever since Mei had explained the true purpose of the challenge.

Jian Yue paced back and forth.

"Stop," Ester said.

He stopped.

"Your nervousness is irritating me."

"She is my sister."

"Exactly why you should stay quiet."

Jian Yue looked at Damon. "Do you really believe you can close the passage after the root leaves?"

"No."

The man became still.

Damon continued. "I believe I can prevent it from choosing someone else. Closing the passage depends on the altar."

"That distinction does not help."

"Would you prefer that I lie?"

"No."

"Then stop asking questions whose answers you do not want to hear."

Su Lan remained against the wall with her arms crossed. Bao Ren watched the floor. Mei sat in a chair much too large for her, swinging her legs while staring at the fragment of the broken sword.

Elizabeth had removed every staff member from the wing. Celina was outside coordinating the guards and ensuring no one entered. Aria occupied a small table in the corner with several records open, prepared to write down every change during the procedure.

Mu Qing was also present.

Ester had hated the idea.

Damon had insisted.

The former disciple was restrained to a chair, with seals around her wrists, ankles, and neck. Her aged body looked even more fragile beneath the infirmary’s bright light, but her eyes remained attentive.

"If she tries anything," Jian Yue said, "I will kill her."

Mu Qing released a tired smile. "You speak like your ancestor."

Jian Yue gripped the sword.

Damon raised his eyes. "And that is exactly why you are not staying near her."

"She killed our companions."

"And you can kill her after we save your sister."

Jian Yue seemed to consider the statement.

Ester looked at Damon. "Do not encourage him."

"I am organizing priorities."

Jian Yue moved away.

Damon returned his attention to Mu Qing. "Seven seconds."

"If the altar is as weak as it appears, perhaps less."

"Why?"

"Because opening the passage requires energy from the core itself. Heshan has remained four years without the main root."

"And if it closes midway?"

"The part that crossed remains at the altar. The remaining part tries to reconstruct Jian Li."

Ester frowned. "Division."

"Yes."

"Would she survive?"

Mu Qing looked toward Jian Li. "Probably not."

"Wonderful," Damon murmured. "One more thing that cannot happen."

Jian Li opened her eyes. "I am ready."

Ester immediately replied, "You are not."

"I am conscious."

"That does not mean ready."

"If we wait longer, the root returns to my heart."

Ester did not argue because she knew it was true.

The physician checked the circulation points one last time. Then she looked at Damon. "When I tell you to stop, you stop."

"Yes."

"You do not interpret."

"Yes."

"You do not try to gain one more second."

Damon released a breath. "Yes."

Ester narrowed her eyes. "I do not believe you, but it is enough."

Yun Shuo was brought inside.

His hands were still bandaged and his expression remained closed, but the instant he saw the triangle, his attention changed. To him, that was not merely a tool. It was the last known connection to the valley where he had been born.

Damon pointed toward the chair in front of the table. "Sit."

Yun Shuo obeyed.

"When I tell you, open the connection."

"If Heshan is unstable, I may not be able to maintain it."

"You do not need to maintain it. Only open it."

"And afterward?"

"Then remove your hand."

Yun Shuo looked toward Mu Qing. "Did she teach you?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

Damon picked up the transparent sword. "Because she spent four hundred years complicating something simple."

Mu Qing laughed quietly. "Arrogant."

"It works for me."

Damon brought the sword toward Jian Li.

The reaction was immediate.

The white marks on her arm lit up, and a thin layer of ice formed around Ester’s needles.

"Calm down," the physician said.

Jian Li breathed slowly.

Damon did not touch her with the blade. He merely brought the sword close to her shoulder, feeling where the artificial channels connected to the natural ones.

The root noticed the tool.

It tried to retreat.

"Interesting," Damon murmured.

"What?" Ester asked.

"It remembers the sword."

Mu Qing looked away.

Damon noticed.

"You used this to prune the channels."

"To control the growth."

"So the sword does not merely cut energy."

"It separates authority from structure."

Damon looked at the transparent blade.

That was far more important than Mu Qing had admitted.

The sword had been created to allow someone to manipulate a root without destroying it.

Xue Lian had given her a tool for care.

Mu Qing had transformed it into a tool for human cultivation.

"We begin," Ester said.

Everyone fell silent.

Yun Shuo placed his hand over the triangle.

Damon held the sword.

Mei brought the guardian’s fragment closer while remaining outside the first circle.

Jian Yue stood beside his sister.

Ester pressed two needles.

Jian Li’s heart slowed.

"Now."

Yun Shuo activated the triangle.

The central symbol glowed white.

For an instant, the infirmary disappeared from Damon’s perception.

He saw a passage.

Not physically.

It was a line of cold crossing an enormous distance, descending beneath mountains, rivers, and lands until reaching something very far from Mirath.

Heshan.

The core was still there.

Weak.

But alive.

The root inside Jian Li went mad.

The marks advanced along her neck.

Ester closed her natural circulation.

Jian Li arched her body, but could not scream because her heart had nearly stopped.

"Damon!"

He moved the sword.

The blade passed through the first channel without cutting flesh.

A white line left Jian Li’s arm.

Then another.

And another.

The root tried to retreat toward the heart.

Damon blocked it using the Heavenly Ice Body.

He did not absorb it.

He merely created a wall of purer cold.

The root found the path to Heshan open behind it.

It hesitated.

Mei touched the fragment.

The metal vibrated.

The guardian’s presence crossed the room.

Damon heard no words, but he understood.

Choice.

Not obligation.

That was the difference.

He could not rip the root out as Mu Qing had done.

He needed to make it recognize the path.

Damon opened the circulation between Jian Li and Heshan.

He did not pull.

He returned it.

The first part crossed.

Yun Shuo screamed as the triangle burned his hand.

"Three seconds!" Ester warned.

Damon cut the second set of channels.

The root abandoned the shoulder.

The marks began disappearing from Jian Li’s fingers.

"Four!"

Mu Qing raised her head.

For the first time, the fear on her face was not for herself.

"Stop. The altar will not withstand all of it."

Damon ignored her.

"Five!"

The connection trembled.

Very far away, Heshan responded.

An impact crossed the passage.

The infirmary wall became covered in ice.

Yun Shuo began to cry.

"I can feel the valley."

"Six!"

Only one channel remained.

The deepest.

Wrapped around the heart.

Damon placed the sword over Jian Li’s chest.

Ester looked at him.

"Now or never."

He cut.

Jian Li stopped breathing.

The root emerged.

For an instant, it remained suspended between her body and the passage like a small white structure resembling branches made of light.

It tried to return.

Damon felt it.

There was no more time.

"Seven!"

Ester extended a hand to interrupt him.

Damon did not hold the root.

He pushed the surrounding cold.

Not the root.

The environment.

He created a current toward Heshan.

The fragment was carried with it.

The passage closed.

The triangle exploded.

Yun Shuo was thrown backward.

Damon fell to his knees.

Jian Li remained motionless.

Jian Yue advanced.

"She is not breathing."

"Ester."

The physician was already over her.

She pressed against her chest.

Nothing.

Again.

Nothing.

"Move away."

Damon held Jian Yue before he could interfere.

Ester sent a short discharge of energy through the needles.

Jian Li’s body arched.

Nothing.

Jian Yue began struggling against Damon.

"Let go!"

"Stay still!"

"Ester!"

"QUIET!"

The physician applied another discharge.

The heart returned.

One beat.

Then another.

Jian Li dragged in a violent breath and began coughing.

Jian Yue stopped struggling.

Su Lan covered her mouth.

Bao Ren released all the air he had been holding.

Mei smiled.

Damon sat on the floor.

"It worked."

Ester looked at him as though she wanted to kill him. "You used eight seconds."

"It felt like seven."

"I counted."

"Then your clock is wrong."

"There is no clock."

"That complicates my defense."

Ester pushed him backward with one hand and began examining Jian Li.

The white marks slowly disappeared.

Not completely.

Some scars would remain where the natural channels had been replaced for too long. But the cold was no longer advancing.

Her body belonged only to itself again.

Jian Li opened her eyes.

"It is... quiet."

Jian Yue held her hand.

"What?"

"My head."

A tear ran down her face.

"For four years, I have been able to hear the cold."

Mu Qing closed her eyes.

Damon noticed.

"You were never able to shut it out, were you?"

The former disciple did not answer.

"That is why you became obsessed with controlling the root. It was never silent inside you."

Mu Qing kept her head lowered.

There was no need for confirmation.

Yun Shuo slowly rose from the floor. His hands had been burned by the destroyed triangle, but he was smiling.

"Heshan answered."

Damon looked at him. "Could you feel the core?"

"Yes."

"What was it like?"

Yun Shuo took time to answer.

"Weak."

His smile grew.

"But it woke up."

Aria, who had recorded every second, raised her eyes from the paper. "Does that mean the valley will return to normal?"

"Not immediately," Damon replied. "The root spent four years away. The natural channels must be destroyed or blocked."

Mu Qing opened her eyes. "It will take decades."

Damon looked at her.

"With your method."

She remained silent.

"You knew Xue Lian. You know how the roots connect to the environment."

"I will not help you."

"You do not need to."

Damon raised the transparent sword.

"I have this."

Mu Qing finally lost her composure. "You think you can reconstruct four hundred years of work by looking at a sword?"

"No."

Damon stood with difficulty.

"But I learn quickly."

Mei released a small laugh.

The guardian’s fragment vibrated again.

She tilted her head, listening.

"What did he say?" Jian Yue asked.

Mei looked at Damon.

"He said you now understand the fourth door."

Damon frowned. "There was no fourth door."

"There is now."

Silence filled the infirmary.

Xue Lian’s memory reacted.

This time, it did not show the Tomb.

It showed Heshan.

The valley appeared covered in snow, but beneath the earth several white lines began slowly lighting up, like roots awakening after a long winter.

At their center was a symbol.

A closed door.

Damon opened his eyes.

"The path to the Tomb changed."

Jian Yue stood.

"What do you mean?"

Damon looked toward the sword, then at the guardian’s fragment.

"The first three doors were not the path to Xue Lian."

"Then what were they?"

"A test to discover whether I would be different from people like Seraphine and Mu Qing."

Mu Qing slowly raised her head.

Damon continued.

"The true entrance was not waiting for someone powerful enough to open it."

He looked toward Jian Li, breathing without the root for the first time in four years.

"It was waiting for someone to return something."

The sword fragment glowed.

Far away, in Heshan Valley, an entire mountain responded.

And for the first time since Damon awakened Xue Lian’s memories, he felt the Tomb of the First Snow call to him directly.

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