Strongest Incubus System

The next morning, Damon woke before Ester.

That alone already felt like a small victory.

He remained lying down for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling while slowly moving the fingers of his marked hand. The lines left by Vorn had receded again to below his elbow. They were still there, darker near the wrist, but there was no pain and none of that sensation of something searching for a path toward his chest.

The call from Heshan, however, remained.

It was not strong.

It was constant.

A silent direction at the back of his consciousness, similar to the certainty of knowing where north was without needing to look at the sky.

Damon sat up.

"Do not even think about it."

He turned his head.

Ester was sleeping in a chair beside the door, arms crossed and eyes closed.

"You were awake?"

"I am now."

"So technically I woke up first."

She opened one eye. "If that makes you feel better."

"It does."

Damon stood and slowly put on his shirt. Ester watched his movements, but did not try to stop him. That meant his condition really had improved.

"How long can I use the Heavenly Body?" he asked.

"Without combat?"

"Yes."

"A few hours, as long as you keep the circulation low."

"And with combat?"

"No."

"That is not a measure of time."

"It is the only one you are getting."

Damon picked up his coat.

"We leave after breakfast."

"No."

He looked at her.

Ester stood. "After breakfast, after a full examination, after I confirm the lines did not advance overnight, and after Elizabeth finishes the travel plan."

"That sounds like the same thing with useless extra steps."

"Those steps are why you are still capable of standing."

Damon decided not to argue.

The mansion was already awake when the two reached the main hall. Mirath remained under partial lockdown, with the gates closed and guards checking everyone moving between districts. Celina had turned an entire table into an operations center, gathering arena reports, lodging records, and orders for the administrators.

Elizabeth stood beside her.

Aria was eating something near the window.

Jian Yue remained seated in front of a map.

Yun Shuo was handcuffed to a chair.

Mu Qing occupied another chair, restrained with much heavier chains.

Damon looked at both of them.

"I see trust remains high."

Yun Shuo raised his bound hands. "Your Baroness believes I am going to run away."

Elizabeth answered without taking her eyes from the report. "You tried to escape yesterday."

"I tried to free someone."

"While escaping."

"Details."

Damon smiled. "You are learning."

"Do not encourage him," Ester and Elizabeth said at the same time.

Aria pointed at them with a piece of bread. "This is happening often."

Damon sat beside the map. Heshan was drawn northeast of Mirath, but the three available versions disagreed on almost everything. One showed two roads entering from the south. Another placed a river where the first showed a forest. The third simply ended dozens of kilometers before the valley.

"Which one is correct?" Damon asked.

Yun Shuo looked at the maps. "All of them."

Damon raised his eyes.

"Depending on the season."

"Of course."

Mu Qing studied the drawing without any surprise. "After the root was removed, the paths became even less stable."

"And now that it is back?"

"No one knows."

"Excellent."

Celina placed another document in front of Elizabeth. "We found the second missing suspect."

Damon became serious.

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"At the eastern gate."

"He tried to leave?"

Celina shook her head. "He tried to enter."

Silence lasted a few seconds.

Damon leaned forward. "Explain."

"The guards had his description. The man appeared alone shortly before dawn, unarmed, raised his hands, and asked to speak with you."

Jian Yue frowned. "Name?"

"Chen Mo."

Mu Qing reacted.

It was small.

But Damon noticed.

"You know him."

She remained silent.

"Mu Qing."

"I knew a Chen Mo."

"When?"

"Four hundred years ago."

Aria stopped chewing.

Yun Shuo slowly turned his face toward Mu Qing.

Damon placed both hands on the table. "He is alive?"

"He should not be."

"That answer has stopped being useful lately."

Elizabeth signaled to two guards.

A few minutes later, a man entered the hall.

Damon had expected someone resembling Mu Qing after her artificial structure had been destroyed: old, weakened, sustained by some ancient technique.

Chen Mo looked thirty.

Short black hair.

Ordinary face.

Simple traveling clothes.

No visible marks.

The guards had removed every object he carried before bringing him in. Even so, Damon felt something the moment the man entered.

It was not a root.

It was emptiness.

A region inside Chen Mo where cold simply did not remain.

Mu Qing stood as quickly as the chains allowed.

"You."

Chen Mo looked at her.

For several seconds, his expression remained completely blank.

Then contempt appeared.

"You are still alive."

Mu Qing clenched her fists.

Damon watched the two. "I am starting to think that phrase should be your official greeting."

Chen Mo finally looked at him.

His eyes moved over the white hair, the bandage around his arm, and stopped at his chest.

"So you are the chosen one."

Damon sighed.

"Bearer, host, chosen one. Can none of you agree on a title?"

"Xue Lian hated titles too."

That caught his attention.

"You knew her?"

"Yes."

Mu Qing pulled against the chains. "Liar."

Chen Mo did not even look at her.

"You were a child when she entered the Tomb," Mu Qing continued.

"I was nineteen."

"Exactly."

"That still counts as knowing someone."

Damon sat again. "Why did you kill the man in the northern district?"

Chen Mo answered without hesitation. "Because he tried to steal a piece of the Open Door and intended to leave Mirath before the gates closed."

"And why did you leave the symbol?"

"So Mu Qing would understand."

"Understand what?"

Chen Mo finally looked at her.

"That it is over."

Mu Qing became still.

Damon noticed that the words struck deeper than any threat made so far.

"You were one of the twelve disciples who remained outside?"

"I was the twelfth."

"Were?"

"The twelve no longer exist."

Jian Yue moved closer. "How many remain?"

"Four."

Mu Qing went pale.

Damon studied Chen Mo. "You, her, and two others."

"Mu Qing stopped being one of us when she began feeding Heshan with people."

"Then three."

"Yes."

"The other two felt the convergence open?"

"We all did."

"And they are going to Heshan."

Chen Mo nodded.

Elizabeth finally joined the conversation. "And why did you return to Mirath?"

"Because racing to Heshan would be useless."

Damon smiled slightly.

Elizabeth noticed.

"Do not start."

"I said the same thing."

"That does not mean he is trustworthy."

"I did not say that."

Chen Mo looked at Damon with some curiosity. "You decided not to race."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because anyone trying to force me to arrive exhausted probably wants me to arrive exhausted."

The man smiled for the first time.

Mu Qing closed her eyes.

"He is just like her."

Damon looked at her. "I hope that is partially a compliment."

"It is not."

Chen Mo approached the map, but the guards blocked his path.

"I can show you a route."

Elizabeth did not allow it immediately. "From where?"

"From Mirath to the first fold."

Yun Shuo became attentive. "You know the folds?"

"I helped Xue Lian stabilize three."

For several seconds, Yun Shuo seemed to forget the restraints around his wrists.

Mu Qing released a bitter laugh. "And then abandoned everything."

Chen Mo turned his face. "I refused to feed people to the altar."

"You left the valley to die."

"You turned the valley into a machine that required corpses."

"Without me, Heshan would have disappeared centuries ago."

"And perhaps it should have."

Yun Shuo stood with such force that the chair scraped across the floor.

"No."

Everyone looked at him.

The man was breathing faster.

"My family lives there. Children live there. People who know nothing about Xue Lian, disciples, roots, or tombs live there. Do not speak as though the valley is only a spiritual mechanism that can be discarded."

Chen Mo watched Yun Shuo for several seconds.

Then nodded.

"You are right."

The answer seemed to surprise even Mu Qing.

Chen Mo continued. "That way of thinking is exactly what destroyed us. We began looking at Heshan as a function before looking at the people who lived there."

Damon rested his chin on one hand.

"So you do not want to close the convergence."

"No."

"You also do not want the root."

"No."

"What do you want?"

Chen Mo looked directly at him.

"To see whether Xue Lian truly chose someone capable of reaching her without repeating our mistakes."

Damon remained silent.

"This is starting to sound like a trial."

"It is."

"I do not like it."

"She expected that."

"Did she leave something saying that?"

"Several things."

Damon ran a hand over his face.

Aria began laughing.

"You found someone who irritates you in exactly the same way."

"You did not need to comment."

Chen Mo pointed toward the map. "The physical road to Heshan takes eight days. The road opened by the fourth door can take two."

Ester became serious. "What is the risk?"

"If the convergence changes while we are inside, we can emerge somewhere else."

"How far?"

"Another country."

Aria stopped laughing.

"Or die?"

"That too."

Ester looked at Damon.

He anticipated her. "We are taking the two-day road."

"Of course."

"We have a window of seven to ten days."

"And the normal route is safer."

"If we take eight days, we arrive at the limit. That is still racing."

She hated the logic.

Damon noticed.

"Besides, he knows how to cross it."

"You trust him?"

"No."

Chen Mo raised an eyebrow.

Damon continued. "But he voluntarily came back to a sealed city, killed a possible thief instead of escaping, and could have reached Heshan before us if that were what he wanted."

Elizabeth nodded slowly. "That does not prove loyalty. It proves his goals require you alive."

"For now, that is enough."

Mu Qing pulled against the chains. "If he guides you, he will take you directly to the western fold."

Chen Mo looked at her. "Yes."

"It is unstable."

"It was."

Mu Qing fell silent.

"You felt the change," Chen Mo said. "When Damon returned the root, the fold returned to its old position."

Damon looked at Yun Shuo.

"Did the path change this morning?"

The man thought.

"I felt... something. Like pressure to the north."

"Then it works."

Elizabeth looked at Celina. "How many horses?"

"We can prepare eight immediately."

"We will need six," Damon replied.

He began counting.

"Me. Ester. Aria. Jian Yue. Yun Shuo. Mu Qing."

Chen Mo pointed at himself.

Damon looked at him. "Seven."

"You forgot me."

"I did not forget. I am still deciding."

"Without me, you will not find the fold."

"Then seven."

Ester crossed her arms. "Mu Qing is still coming?"

"Yes."

Jian Yue also looked dissatisfied, but this time he did not protest.

Elizabeth approached Damon.

"You leave at noon."

He frowned. "I was going to say after breakfast."

"You already ate."

Damon looked toward the table.

There was an empty plate in front of him.

He did not remember eating.

Aria pointed. "You ate while interrogating Chen Mo."

"That is concerning."

"It was bread, cheese, and two fruits."

"Thank you for the record."

"That is my function now."

Celina began separating travel documents.

Jian Yue left the hall to speak with Jian Li before departure.

Yun Shuo was taken away to have his handcuffs replaced by containment seals that would allow him to ride.

Mu Qing remained seated, watching Chen Mo with resentment far too old to fit inside that room.

Damon approached her.

"Do you really think Heshan should continue as it was?"

She did not answer.

"Even now?"

Mu Qing closed her eyes. "I spent four hundred years believing that if I stopped, everything I did would have been meaningless."

Damon remained silent.

"That is the worst part," she continued. "Not the bodies. Not the roots. It was going too far to admit the path was wrong."

Damon looked at Chen Mo.

He had heard her.

But said nothing.

"Then watch someone else do it differently," Damon replied.

Mu Qing opened her eyes.

"Perhaps that will be worse."

"For you?"

"Yes."

Damon smiled slightly. "Good."

At noon, the seven of them stood before Mirath’s northern gate.

Ester carried two medical bags.

Aria carried documents, maps, and enough food to complain less during the journey.

Jian Yue carried the sword and the guardian’s fragment.

Yun Shuo remained under seal.

Mu Qing was chained at the wrists and ankles.

Chen Mo carried no weapon at all.

Elizabeth stood in front of Damon.

"Come back."

He raised an eyebrow. "That was almost sentimental."

"Do not ruin it."

"I will try."

Celina handed Aria the final map.

The gates opened.

Damon mounted and felt Heshan pulse in the same direction Chen Mo had indicated.

The fourth door remained open.

But now he knew he was not walking toward it alone.

Three of Xue Lian’s disciples still existed.

One was chained beside him.

Another would guide the way.

And the third was already waiting somewhere beyond the mountains.

Damon pulled the reins.

"Let’s go."

For the first time, the path to the Tomb of the First Snow stopped being a distant memory.

Now it began on the road before him.

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