Strongest Incubus System

Damon remained in front of the door for several seconds, staring at the symbol of the empty hand as though it might change meaning if he waited long enough.

It did not.

He turned toward Xue Mei.

"How exactly do I leave a body here?"

"You do not leave your body."

"You just said Body."

"You leave behind the authority that turns it into the Heavenly Ice Body."

Damon became slightly less bothered.

"That should have been explained first."

"You asked afterward."

"I’m starting to understand where your sense of humor comes from."

Xue Mei smiled faintly.

Ester approached the door but did not touch it. "Separating a bodily authority is not simple. If it is integrated into the meridians, removing it could cause metabolic collapse, circulatory failure, or spiritual rejection."

"It will not be removed," Xue Mei replied.

"Then what happens?"

"He temporarily renounces the right to use it."

Damon looked again at the open hand.

"Not possessing."

"Yes."

Aria opened her notebook again. "So the door does not want him to physically abandon the three parts. It wants him to enter without authority over them."

"Correct."

Damon exhaled.

"That is considerably less suicidal."

Ester did not look convinced. "Less does not mean little."

Jian Yue studied the three previous symbols. "How does he do it?"

Xue Mei pointed to the first.

"Memory."

The surface of the door moved.

The symbol related to the first choice disappeared, and the ice before them began reflecting an image.

Xue Lian.

Damon saw the woman standing in the snow, looking at him exactly as she had appeared during his coma.

But something was wrong.

It was not a memory.

It was a copy of a memory.

The figure extended one hand.

"Return it."

Damon did not move.

Aria looked at him. "Did she speak?"

"Yes."

"I didn’t hear anything."

"Neither did I," Ester said.

So the door was showing something only to him.

Damon stared at Xue Lian.

"Return what?"

"My past."

Damon understood.

The memories he had received were not merely information. They had blended with his own experiences over the past six months. Some scenes felt so natural that he had to stop and remember whether he had actually lived them or whether they belonged to Xue Lian.

The door wanted separation.

Not erasure.

A renunciation.

Damon placed his hand over the first symbol.

Cold entered through his fingers.

The memories reacted immediately.

He saw battles.

Mountains.

Blood on snow.

Xue Lian holding a sword.

Xue Lian training disciples.

Xue Lian standing before Jian Yue.

Xue Lian watching Mu Qing.

Xue Lian entering the Tomb.

Each image tried to remain.

Not through a will of its own.

But because Damon had spent months using them as part of himself.

He closed his eyes.

"They are not mine."

The memory resisted.

Damon repeated himself.

"I learned from them. But I did not live those lives."

The sensation inside his head changed.

A pressure disappeared.

Not completely.

But the weight was gone.

When he opened his eyes, Xue Lian’s figure on the door had vanished.

The first symbol turned white.

Aria studied his face. "What happened?"

"Did she take the memories?"

"No."

Damon touched his own head.

"I still remember them. They just do not feel like mine anymore."

Xue Mei nodded.

"First renunciation."

Ester looked at her. "And can that be reversed?"

"When he returns, yes."

"If he returns."

Xue Mei did not answer.

Damon pointed at her.

"You do that on purpose."

"Sometimes."

He decided to ignore her.

The second symbol began to glow.

The root.

Damon felt the structure inside his chest react before he even touched the door.

Unlike the memory, the root was not passive.

It had grown.

Adapted.

Recognized the body.

And after Arven and Heshan, it had begun responding to his choices.

Damon placed his hand over the second symbol.

The entire lake vibrated.

The main root beneath Heshan responded.

Yun Shuo stepped back.

"It felt that."

Xue Mei remained still.

"Naturally."

Damon closed his eyes.

This time, there were no images.

There was hunger.

Not hunger to consume.

A need for connection.

The root inside him wanted the soil, the cold, the underground channels, and every other similar structure.

That was why it reacted to Arven’s Heart.

That was why it recognized Heshan.

Roots existed to connect.

Damon had treated it as power.

Xue Lian had treated it as responsibility.

The door wanted to know whether he could let it go.

"I will not use you," Damon said.

The root pulsed.

"Nor possess you."

Another pulse.

"Nor decide where you should grow."

The connection to Heshan became stronger.

For an instant, Damon felt the entire valley.

Every house.

Every blocked channel.

Every part of the root trying to rebuild the soil.

He could command it.

The sensation was unmistakable.

He could force Heshan to open every channel.

He could accelerate decades into hours.

He could use the main root as an extension of his own will.

It was tempting.

Very.

Especially because he could justify it.

Save the valley.

Help the people.

Correct what Mu Qing had done.

Damon opened his eyes.

"No."

The word came out quietly.

The connection disappeared.

The second symbol turned white.

Yun Shuo looked at him. "You could feel everything?"

"Yes."

"And you could command it?"

Damon did not answer immediately.

"Probably."

"Then why didn’t you?"

Damon looked at the lake.

"Because that is exactly how it started with Mu Qing."

The former disciple was not there to hear it.

But the lesson was.

Jian Yue seemed to understand.

Xue Mei watched Damon in silence.

There was something different in her gaze now.

Not approval.

Perhaps confirmation.

Then the third symbol lit up.

The Heavenly Body.

Ester immediately grabbed Damon’s arm.

"This is the one that worries me."

"You said that about the others."

"This one really worries me."

Damon looked at Xue Mei. "If I renounce the authority, does my body return to what it was before?"

"No."

"Then what changes?"

"You lose the right to command the cold inside it."

Damon went silent.

That was worse than it sounded.

The Heavenly Body was not merely resistance.

It was reflex.

The cold obeyed before Damon even formed an intention.

It protected organs.

Reinforced skin.

Altered circulation.

Helped recovery.

Ever since waking, he had relied on that structure almost constantly.

Entering without it meant being truly vulnerable.

Ester understood.

"He will still have the body."

"Yes."

"But he will not have conscious control over its adaptation."

"Correct."

"If he is injured?"

"He bleeds."

Damon looked at Ester.

"That sounds very dramatic when you say it."

"Because you forgot what being a normal person is like."

"I was never particularly normal."

"That is not the point."

Damon placed his hand over the third symbol.

Nothing happened.

He waited.

Nothing.

"This is new."

Xue Mei spoke calmly. "You still have not let go."

"It did not even start."

"It started before you touched it."

Damon frowned.

Then understood.

The problem was not the cold.

It was trust.

Before even placing his hand there, he had already decided that the Heavenly Body would continue protecting him passively.

That even without authority, he could still rely on the structure if something went wrong.

That was not renouncing it.

That was hiding a guarantee.

Damon slowly exhaled.

"Son of a bitch."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "The door?"

"The logic."

He closed his eyes.

He felt every part of the Heavenly Body.

Resistant meridians.

Adapted muscles.

Cold circulating between the bones.

The invisible layer that reacted whenever something threatened his life.

Damon spoke.

"If I go in, you do not protect me."

Ester tightened her grip on his arm.

The door reacted.

"You do not reinforce me."

The cold inside his body receded.

"You do not heal me."

His skin temperature rose.

"You do not respond."

The final layer vanished.

Damon opened his eyes.

The third symbol turned white.

And immediately, his legs nearly gave out.

Ester caught him around the waist.

"Shit."

Damon breathed deeply.

The air was much colder.

For the first time since waking, Heshan actually felt freezing.

He could feel the wind against his skin.

He could feel the muscle pain accumulated from the journey.

He could feel the cut from the previous day on his arm.

He could feel everything.

Aria studied his face.

"You went pale."

"I’m noticing several unpleasant things."

Ester touched his pulse.

"Normal heartbeat."

"That’s good."

"For a human."

"That was less good."

Damon slowly pulled away.

He could stand.

He still had strength.

He still had his own body.

But the Heavenly Body did not respond.

The root remained silent.

Xue Lian’s memories felt distant.

He was alone.

The symbol of the open hand began to glow.

The door became solid.

This time, truly solid.

The ice lost its transparency and formed a white surface before them.

Xue Mei stepped aside.

"Now you can open it."

Damon placed his hand on the door.

Nothing reacted.

No memory.

No root.

No cold.

Only his hand against a frozen surface.

He smiled.

"So that was it."

Jian Yue approached. "What?"

Damon looked at the four symbols.

"She wanted to know whether I would keep going even without anything that made me special."

Xue Mei did not answer.

She did not need to.

Damon pushed.

The door opened.

There was no fortress on the other side.

There was snow.

A vast plain surrounded by mountains that did not belong to Heshan.

On the horizon, very far away, a white structure pierced the clouds.

The Tomb of the First Snow.

Finally.

Damon stared at it for several seconds.

Aria stopped beside him.

"That looks far."

"Yes."

Ester approached from the other side.

"You don’t have your powers."

"I noticed."

Jian Yue gripped his sword.

"Then we protect you."

Damon looked at him.

"No."

Jian Yue frowned.

"No?"

"You can fight if something appears. But I’m not crossing this door just to be carried to the end."

He took the first step.

The snow gave way beneath his boot.

Cold.

Normal.

Real.

Xue Mei remained in Heshan.

Damon looked back.

"You’re not coming?"

"I can’t."

"Why?"

"I was born inside."

"That should help."

"It means I belong to the Tomb."

Damon remained still.

Xue Mei smiled.

"You are entering because you managed to stop belonging."

The door began to close.

Ester crossed.

Aria did too.

Jian Yue was the last.

Before the path disappeared, Damon looked at Xue Mei again.

"When I find your mother, I’m going to ask why she let Jian Li suffer."

Her smile vanished.

"I know."

The door closed.

Silence took over the plain.

Damon looked toward the distant Tomb.

Without the Heavenly Body.

Without the root.

Without Xue Lian’s memories guiding every choice.

For the first time since waking from the coma, there was nothing inside him telling him which path to follow.

Aria opened her notebook.

"So..."

Damon started walking.

"Don’t even think about it."

"I was only going to ask which direction."

He pointed toward the gigantic fortress ahead of them.

Aria looked.

"Fair."

Ester walked beside him, still checking his breathing from time to time.

Jian Yue remained a few steps ahead.

The path looked simple.

That worried Damon more than any fold.

After everything he had needed to abandon to enter, he doubted Xue Lian had placed nothing more than a long walk between him and the true door.

The answer came a few minutes later.

A figure appeared on the horizon.

Then another.

Then dozens.

Men and women walked through the snow toward them.

Broken armor.

Ancient swords.

Bodies covered in ice.

Jian Yue stopped.

"Dead?"

Damon watched the first figure raise its head.

The eyes held no life.

But the mouth moved.

"Go back."

Damon clenched his fists.

Nothing froze.

No root answered.

No memory offered a technique.

He sighed.

"Yeah."

Aria looked at him.

"What?"

Damon drew the ordinary sword from his waist.

"Now the annoying part begins."

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