Strongest Incubus System

Damon remained staring at Xue Mei for several seconds, waiting for some reaction from the memory, the root, or even the mark left by Vorn.

Nothing happened.

The Heavenly Body recognized the cold around her as something exceptionally pure, but not as part of the inheritance.

That was strange in itself.

If that woman really was Xue Lian’s daughter, he expected something inside him to scream in recognition.

Mu Qing seemed far more affected.

"She had no children," the former disciple said.

Xue Mei finally looked away from Damon.

"Not before entering."

Chen Mo went still.

Even he seemed to lose his composure.

Damon pointed toward the open passage.

"That answer needs more words."

Xue Mei tilted her head slightly.

"Do you usually demand explanations before crossing doors?"

"After the last few, I started."

"My mother said you would do that."

A small smile appeared on Xue Mei’s face.

Mu Qing did not find it amusing at all.

"You cannot be her daughter. Xue Lian entered the Tomb alone. We saw it."

"You saw my mother cross the passage. You did not see what happened afterward."

"So you were born inside the fortress?"

"Yes."

Damon looked at Ester.

She immediately raised one hand.

"Do not ask me. This is not medicine."

Aria already had her notebook open.

"Does that mean a normal birth or some kind of spiritual creation?"

Xue Mei looked at her.

"Normal enough."

Aria wrote.

Damon leaned over to see.

"What did you write?"

"’Normal enough’ means absolutely nothing."

"Correct."

Xue Mei looked back at Damon.

"We need to cross. The convergence will not remain like this for long."

Damon looked at the white line across the water.

"Everyone?"

"You."

"I asked everyone."

"My mother is waiting for you."

"Then she can wait a few more minutes."

Xue Mei fell silent.

Damon pointed toward Ester, Aria, Jian Yue, Yun Shuo, Chen Mo, and finally Mu Qing.

"They came with me. I am not crossing an unknown passage while leaving half the group trapped inside a fold."

"Mu Qing cannot enter."

The former disciple laughed without humor.

"Naturally."

"Why?" Damon asked.

"She was banished."

"By Xue Lian?"

"By Heshan."

Mu Qing stopped smiling.

Yun Shuo frowned.

"A valley does not ban anyone."

Xue Mei looked at him.

"This one does."

As though responding to the statement, the white line over the water advanced to Mu Qing’s feet and stopped.

When she tried to bring her boot closer, the ice cracked before contact.

Mu Qing did not insist.

Damon watched carefully.

"And if I want to take her?"

"You can try."

"That sounds like a challenge."

"It is a choice."

Damon released a short breath.

The words were intentional.

Everything connected to Xue Lian always seemed to return to the same point.

Choice.

Not obligation.

He looked at Mu Qing.

"Do you want to enter?"

The question caught her off guard.

"Why are you asking?"

"Because the decision should be yours before I start arguing with a valley."

Mu Qing looked toward Heshan on the other side.

Snow-covered houses.

Smoke rising from chimneys.

Mountains she had not seen in centuries.

The resentment on her face gave way for a moment to something harder to identify.

Longing, perhaps.

Or guilt.

"No," she replied.

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?"

"I will not beg land that I fed for four hundred years to let me enter."

"You fed it with people."

Mu Qing clenched her jaw.

"I said no."

Damon nodded.

"Then stay."

Jian Yue spoke immediately.

"Someone needs to watch her."

Chen Mo looked at Mu Qing.

"I will stay."

Damon turned toward him.

"You know how to cross better than anyone."

"To Heshan, yes. Beyond the passage, my experience ends."

Xue Mei confirmed with a small nod.

"He cannot guide you beyond the valley."

Chen Mo looked at her.

"You know the path to the Tomb."

"I know the path that exists today."

The answer did not seem to please him.

Damon analyzed the situation.

Chen Mo could remain with Mu Qing at the edge of the fold while the others crossed.

If something happened, at least there would be two people with enough experience not to get lost immediately.

"You do not kill her," Damon said.

Chen Mo almost smiled.

"I was not planning to."

Mu Qing looked at him.

"I might kill you."

Ester discreetly touched the seal on her wrist.

Mu Qing felt it.

"Understood."

Damon turned back toward Xue Mei.

"And the horses?"

"They cannot pass."

Aria looked at her own animal.

"Of course they can’t."

Damon released the reins.

Chen Mo gathered the seven horses and led them a few steps back, where the black water remained firm beneath their hooves.

Jian Yue crossed first after Damon.

The instant he stepped onto the white line, his body seemed to distort for a second, and then he appeared inside Heshan.

Yun Shuo came next.

As soon as his feet touched the snow on the other side, he went still.

That was his home.

Damon crossed with Ester and Aria.

The transition was not violent at all.

One moment there was black water beneath their feet and inverted mountains above.

The next, Heshan’s cold air entered their lungs.

It was different from Arven’s cold.

Drier.

Lighter.

And surprisingly alive.

Damon felt the newly returned root spreading small currents beneath the earth.

They were weak, interrupted in several places, but they existed.

Yun Shuo fell to his knees.

He placed both hands on the snow.

"It’s back."

No one needed to ask what he meant.

The tears began falling before he could hide them.

"I can feel it."

Xue Mei watched in silence.

Damon approached and touched the ground.

The Heavenly Body responded immediately.

Beneath the snow were dozens of nearly dead channels.

Some ended abruptly.

Others were blocked by layers of ancient ice.

At the center of the valley, however, there was a pulse.

Slow.

One beat every several seconds.

The root was trying to rebuild Heshan.

"It does not need decades," Damon said.

Xue Mei looked at him.

"My mother said the same thing."

Mu Qing had claimed it would take decades because she thought in terms of restoring each channel manually.

Damon now understood the mistake.

The root knew how to rebuild.

It only needed to stop being obstructed.

"There are blockages," he said.

"Hundreds."

Yun Shuo raised his face.

"Can we remove them?"

"Probably."

"How long?"

Damon looked toward the mountains.

"Not today."

Ester looked satisfied that he had learned that phrase.

Xue Mei started walking.

"Come."

Heshan was not abandoned.

That surprised Damon.

People began emerging from the houses as soon as they advanced through the first streets.

Men and women stopped where they were, watching Yun Shuo, the strangers, and especially Damon.

Children peeked through windows.

Several residents wore clothes too heavy even for that climate, and many buildings bore cracks caused by years of freezing.

A woman ran toward Yun Shuo.

He barely had time to open his arms before she embraced him.

Two children came immediately afterward.

Damon looked away.

Aria did the same.

Ester did not.

"Those are the children he mentioned," she said.

"I noticed."

"You look uncomfortable."

"I’m giving them privacy."

"You are three meters away."

"It’s the available distance."

Xue Mei waited without complaint until Yun Shuo finished the reunion.

When he quickly explained that he needed to continue, his wife did not try to stop him.

She simply held his face, confirmed he was alive, and took the children back home.

Yun Shuo returned to the group different.

The hardness he had carried since Mirath had lessened.

"Thank you," he said to Damon.

"For what?"

"For returning the root."

"I did it for Jian Li."

"Even so."

Damon only nodded.

They continued to the center of Heshan.

There was a lake there.

Or what remained of one.

The surface was covered by a layer of completely white ice, but a wide crack ran through the center.

Steam slowly rose from the opening.

Jian Yue went still.

"It was here."

Xue Mei nodded.

"Four years ago."

"Yes."

"You were here?"

"Yes."

He turned toward her.

"Then you saw Mu Qing use Jian Li."

"I did."

Jian Yue’s hand moved toward his sword.

"Why didn’t you stop it?"

Xue Mei did not look away.

"Because my mother forbade me."

The answer struck everyone.

Even Damon.

"Xue Lian knew?" he asked.

"Yes."

Jian Yue took a step.

"She knew my sister would spend four years being destroyed by that root?"

"She knew someone would remove the root."

"That does not answer me."

"She did not know who."

"But she let it happen."

Xue Mei remained calm.

"Yes."

Jian Yue drew half his sword.

Damon caught the hilt before it came out completely.

"No."

"She knew."

"I heard."

"And did nothing."

"I heard that too."

Jian Yue looked at Damon angrily.

"And that does not bother you?"

"A lot."

Damon released the sword and stared at Xue Mei.

"Especially because now I want to hear the explanation directly from her."

Xue Mei seemed to have expected that answer.

"That is why my mother is waiting."

She walked toward the edge of the lake.

Damon followed.

Beneath the ice, something enormous moved slowly.

Not a creature.

A structure.

The main root.

It stretched through the depths like a white tree lying beneath the mountain.

At the center of the lake was the broken altar where Jian Li had found the sphere.

Now, however, something was different.

Behind it stood a door.

It was not physically there.

Damon knew that because he could see the ice through it.

Even so, the silhouette was clear.

A white door, tall enough for three men to pass through side by side.

The fourth symbol.

Xue Mei stopped before it.

"This is the entrance my mother left for you."

Aria opened her notebook again.

"Finally, a real door."

"Not exactly," Xue Mei replied.

Aria closed the notebook.

"I should have expected that."

Damon approached.

The door reacted.

Lines appeared across its surface.

Three symbols he knew.

Reject being defined as an heir.

Refuse sacrifice.

Return the cold to the world.

Beneath them appeared a fourth.

An open hand.

Empty.

Damon understood.

"Not possessing."

Xue Mei nodded.

"What happens if I open it?"

"You enter the path to the Tomb."

"And the others?"

"They can follow."

Jian Yue raised his eyes.

"Even me?"

"If Damon allows it."

He looked at Ester and Aria.

"Then we go together."

Xue Mei did not move.

Damon noticed.

"There is something else."

"Yes."

"Of course."

She pointed toward the symbol of the empty hand.

"To open the fourth door, you must enter without carrying any part of the inheritance."

Damon went still.

"Explain."

"Root. Body. Memory."

Ester frowned.

"You want him to remove them?"

"No."

Xue Mei looked directly at Damon.

"I want him to leave everything here."

Silence fell around the lake.

Damon studied the door.

"Temporarily?"

"If you manage to return."

He closed his eyes for a moment.

"You people really have a problem with leaving the second half of sentences until the end."

Xue Mei smiled.

"My mother said exactly that."

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