Strongest Incubus System

Damon remained standing before the open gate.

Xue Lian was there.

After months of carrying memories that were not his, facing ruins built around her name, dealing with disciples who had turned teachings into obsessions, and nearly dying more times than he cared to count, there was finally a real person in front of him.

And the guardian had just told him he could simply walk away.

Damon looked at the man.

"If I decide not to enter?"

"The gate closes."

"And then?"

"You return to Heshan."

"That’s it?"

"That’s it."

Damon narrowed his eyes.

"No curse?"

"No."

"No hidden test saying retreat means failure?"

"No."

"No giant corpse showing up because I demonstrated cowardice?"

Aria stepped a little closer.

"He’s trying to confirm previous experiences."

The guardian looked at her.

"I noticed."

Damon pointed at him.

"You’re annoying too."

"I heard that recently."

Mei.

Damon almost smiled.

Then he looked back at Xue Lian.

She remained seated.

Her eyes were still closed.

No reaction.

Nothing forcing him forward.

That made the decision harder.

Jian Yue took a step toward the guardian.

The man looked at him.

Neither spoke immediately.

The resemblance was obvious now that the helmet was open. They were not identical, but the shape of their eyes, the nose, and even the way they held their shoulders perfectly still clearly belonged to the same bloodline.

Jian Yue tightened his grip on his sword.

"You’re him."

"I am."

"The first Jian Yue."

"That was the name I was given."

"My ancestor."

The guardian observed him for several seconds.

"You carry my blood."

"My family spent generations searching for this gate."

"I know."

The answer struck Jian Yue.

"You knew?"

"I heard every one of them who came close."

"And you never answered."

"I couldn’t."

"Because of Xue Lian?"

The guardian looked toward the woman seated inside the Tomb.

"Because of the promise I made."

Jian Yue took a deep breath.

"You stayed here for four hundred years because of a promise?"

"Longer."

Damon turned his head.

"Longer?"

The guardian ignored him.

Jian Yue seemed to have too many questions and no order in which to ask them.

"My family believed you had been abandoned."

"I chose to stay."

"Why?"

The man looked at him.

"Because someone needed to remain before the gate and say no until a person arrived who could hear no without trying to break it."

Damon went still.

Aria immediately looked at him.

"Don’t say it."

"I wasn’t going to."

"Your face did."

Ester almost smiled.

Jian Yue did not take his eyes off his ancestor.

"So all these years..."

"Were not for her."

Jian Yue frowned.

"They were for us," the guardian continued. "For those who remained outside. We turned her disappearance into purpose. Some sought inheritance. Others power. Others answers. Mu Qing decided preserving the path justified any price."

He looked at Jian Yue.

"I stayed to prevent our need from becoming a right."

Jian Yue slowly lowered his sword.

Damon understood why that man had never opened the gate for his descendants.

They believed the fact that they had searched for generations gave them some kind of claim.

It did not.

The guardian looked back at Damon.

"You have no right either."

"I know."

"She chose to give part of herself to you."

"That was her choice."

"You could have turned that choice into a title."

"I don’t want a title."

"Into authority."

"I already left that outside."

"Into destiny."

Damon looked at Xue Lian.

"That one I’m still deciding."

The guardian nodded.

"Then the gate works."

Damon sighed.

"Everyone here talks like I’m an experiment."

"You are."

"Great."

Ester stepped closer.

"I don’t like this."

Damon looked at her.

"What?"

"You going in alone."

"Who said I’m going alone?"

The guardian answered.

"I did."

Damon closed his eyes.

"Naturally."

Aria crossed her arms.

"Why?"

"Because you were not called."

"I don’t need to be called to accompany someone."

"In this case, you do."

Aria looked personally offended.

Ester was more direct.

"If he has any physical problem in there, who helps him?"

"He does."

"Wrong answer."

The guardian did not react.

"That part is not under my control."

Ester looked at Damon.

He knew that expression.

It was the same one that came before long arguments involving his tendency to enter dangerous places.

Damon raised one hand.

"I’m going to talk to her."

"Without the Heavenly Body."

"Yes."

"Without the root."

"Yes."

"Without healing."

"Yes."

"If something happens—"

"I’ll come back."

"The guardian just said he doesn’t know if you’ll come back."

"Xue Mei said I would."

"That makes it worse."

Damon stepped closer to her.

"If I don’t enter, everything I’ve done up to this point still matters. Jian Li is alive. Heshan got the root. We discovered what happened."

Ester fell silent.

"I’m not going in because I need to complete a test."

"Then why?"

Damon looked through the gate.

"Because I want to ask."

She understood.

She did not need to ask what.

Jian Li.

Mu Qing.

The root.

The disciples.

Why Xue Lian had allowed so many things to happen around her own legacy.

Damon wanted to hear it from the person responsible.

Not from memories.

Not from followers.

From her.

Ester grabbed the collar of his clothes and pulled him slightly downward.

"If you die, I’ll resurrect you just so I can kill you again."

"That sounds medically difficult."

"I’ll figure it out."

"I trust you."

She let go.

Aria handed Damon the notebook.

He looked at it.

"Why?"

"To take notes."

"You know I won’t."

"Then at least pretend."

Damon handed the notebook back.

"You know me."

"Unfortunately."

Jian Yue remained in front of his ancestor.

Damon placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Stay."

Jian Yue turned his head.

"I want to enter."

"I know."

"She owes my family answers too."

"I know that too."

"Then why do you get to enter and I don’t?"

Damon looked at the guardian.

Then back at Jian Yue.

"Because this gate did not open for you."

The answer hurt.

But Jian Yue did not argue.

Damon continued.

"You finally found your ancestor. Talk to him. Find out what your family really carried for four hundred years."

Jian Yue looked at the guardian.

The man waited.

Damon stepped away.

"I’ll ask about your sister."

Jian Yue nodded.

"Don’t accept an easy excuse."

Damon smiled.

"You really still don’t know me?"

That drew a small reaction from him.

Damon turned toward the gate.

He took one step.

Nothing happened.

Another.

The cold changed.

It did not become more intense.

It disappeared.

Inside the Tomb there was no wind, no temperature, no sensation of winter beyond the snow accumulated over the steps.

Damon crossed completely.

The gate remained open behind him.

For now.

He walked toward Xue Lian.

Each step made a clear sound.

She did not move.

Damon stopped a few meters away.

He observed her.

The first thing he noticed was the breathing.

Very slow.

But it existed.

The second was that Xue Lian looked younger than she did in many of the memories.

Not young like a girl.

But like someone who had not yet carried centuries of exhaustion.

White hair flowed down the steps.

Her hands rested over her legs.

No weapon.

Damon stood there.

"I came."

Nothing.

"This is usually the part where you open your eyes."

Silence.

Damon waited.

Nothing.

"If I crossed four doors just to find a sleeping woman, I’m going to be very annoyed."

Her eyes opened.

Blue.

Very pale.

Xue Lian looked directly at him.

Damon felt discomfort that came from no energy at all.

She looked like she knew him.

Not like someone recognizing a face.

Like someone recognizing a conversation that had been interrupted.

"You took your time," she said.

Damon looked behind him.

"Four doors, dead people who learn, a version of me trying to beat me up, and a guardian who likes philosophy."

He looked back at her.

"I’d say I got here quickly."

A small smile appeared.

The same expression he had already seen in the memories.

But now it belonged to her.

Real.

"You’re more annoying in person."

"Your guardian said something similar."

"He always had good judgment."

Damon stepped down one stair and sat in front of her.

He did not kneel.

Did not bow.

He simply sat.

Xue Lian watched him.

"You don’t intend to ask who I am?"

"I know who you are."

"You know who my memories say I am."

"Then correct me when I’m wrong."

Her smile grew slightly.

"Good answer."

Damon rested his arms over his knees.

"First question."

"Jian Li."

Xue Lian answered before he could finish.

The smile disappeared.

Damon became serious.

"You knew."

"I knew the root would be removed."

"You knew someone would suffer."

"Yes."

"And you allowed it."

"Yes."

No excuse.

No attempt to soften it.

Damon felt his irritation rise.

"Why?"

Xue Lian lowered her eyes.

"Because I couldn’t stop it."

"You left a daughter walking around Heshan. A guardian controlling the gate. A root capable of sustaining an entire valley. Don’t tell me you were powerless."

"I wasn’t powerless."

"Then?"

She raised her eyes.

"I was dangerous."

Damon fell silent.

Xue Lian extended one hand.

The snow around them did not react.

Even so, Damon felt something very far away move.

Not inside the Tomb.

Outside.

Mountains.

Rivers.

An absurd amount of territory.

"When I entered this place, my body could no longer distinguish between what I touched and what I ruled."

Damon frowned.

"Explain."

"Every root I connected to began responding to me. Every cold region I reached began adapting itself to my existence. I thought I controlled the authority."

She closed her fingers.

"In truth, it was learning to control through me."

Damon remembered Heshan.

The temptation to command every channel.

"You were changing the world."

"Yes."

"Without meaning to."

"At first."

That answer caught his attention.

"Then you realized."

"Yes."

"And continued."

For several seconds, Xue Lian did not answer.

"For too long."

Damon released a short breath.

"So the Tomb is a prison."

"Also."

"For you?"

"Primarily."

That changed a great deal.

Damon looked around.

The fortress did not protect Xue Lian.

It protected the world from Xue Lian.

"If you interfered in Heshan..."

"The convergence would open a path for my authority."

"Then why send Xue Mei?"

"She does not carry my root."

"But she’s your daughter."

"Exactly."

Damon fell silent.

"How?"

Xue Lian tilted her head slightly.

"Is that your second question?"

"No. That’s curiosity."

She almost laughed.

Damon continued before she could change the subject.

"Did you know Mu Qing would turn people into conduits?"

"No."

"Did you know she would try to possess the root?"

"I suspected it."

"And you left no warning?"

"I did."

"That worked extremely well."

Xue Lian accepted the criticism without reacting.

"I overestimated my disciples."

"Finally, something simple."

"Yes."

Damon looked at her for several seconds.

"Then why me?"

Xue Lian went still.

"I don’t want to hear that I was chosen by destiny."

"You weren’t."

"Good."

"It was an accident."

Damon blinked.

"That was unexpected."

Xue Lian smiled.

"You came into contact with something you should not have, survived an integration that should have killed you, and when my memories found space inside you, I woke enough to notice."

"So you chose me afterward."

"Yes."

"Why?"

She looked at him.

"Because the first thing you did with my inheritance was question why you should obey it."

Damon went quiet.

"I spent centuries surrounded by people who heard my words and searched for orders," Xue Lian continued. "You heard orders and searched for reasons."

"That sounds like an inconvenient trait."

"It is."

"So I’m not your successor."

"No."

Damon relaxed slightly.

Xue Lian continued.

"You are my way out."

He froze.

"That sounded much worse."

"I know."

Damon stood.

"Now we’re going to need several more words."

For the first time, Xue Lian laughed.

The sound traveled through the empty hall.

Then she looked at him seriously.

"I don’t need you to inherit my power."

Damon waited.

"I need you to kill me."

Silence fell.

Damon looked at her.

Then at the gate.

Then back at Xue Lian.

"No."

She blinked.

Damon crossed his arms.

"You just said you chose me because I ask questions before obeying."

Xue Lian remained silent.

"So let’s start properly."

He pointed at her.

"Why the hell should I kill you?"

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