Strongest Incubus System

Damon remained staring at his own arm.

The black opening at the center of the mark looked far too small to have caused the amount of trouble it already had.

Still, now that the Heavenly Body was functioning again, he could clearly feel the conflict.

His root rejected it.

Not like poison.

Like an invasion.

Xue Lian approached.

"Don’t touch it," Ester said immediately.

She stopped.

Looked at Ester.

"I know how to examine a spiritual structure."

"And I know he nearly died three times because people said they knew what they were doing."

Damon looked at Aria.

"Three?"

"She’s being generous."

"Thanks."

Ester ignored both of them and grabbed Damon’s arm.

The needles still maintaining part of the containment were intact, but small lines of dark ice had formed around them.

"This changed when your powers came back."

"Yes."

"Is it advancing?"

Damon closed his eyes.

Felt.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"It’s trying."

Xue Lian became serious.

"It isn’t trying to advance through your body."

Damon opened his eyes.

"Then?"

She pointed toward Heshan.

"It’s looking for the network."

Everyone went silent.

Yun Shuo, who had approached after noticing movement around the lake, looked at Damon’s arm.

"Can that reach Heshan’s root?"

"If it is what I think it is," Xue Lian replied, "it doesn’t need to reach it physically."

Damon sighed.

"Naturally."

Ester gave him a look.

"Stop treating this like an inconvenience."

"I’m treating it like an extremely dangerous inconvenience."

"That doesn’t make it better."

Xue Mei was still beside her mother, holding Xue Lian’s arm as though afraid she might disappear if she let go.

Even so, her attention also shifted toward the mark.

"You said you saw this in Shen Liang’s laboratories."

Xue Lian nodded.

"Not exactly like this."

"What’s the difference?" Damon asked.

Xue Lian took several seconds.

"His models had an incomplete Seed at the center."

Damon looked at his own skin.

"This looks incomplete."

"Yes."

"Then we’re doing well."

"They also had external anchors."

The humor disappeared.

Damon raised his face.

"Plural."

"Yes."

"What for?"

Xue Lian looked at the symbol again.

"Because Shen Liang couldn’t reproduce the original authority."

"So he decided to fake the network."

"More or less."

Aria already had her notebook open.

"Explain it as if no one here has found four-hundred-year-old secret laboratories."

Xue Lian seemed to accept the necessity.

"The true Seed does not create authority. It preserves a function and allows that function to continue through a structure. Shen Liang tried to copy that without understanding the origin."

"So he made vessels," Damon said.

"Yes."

"Like you."

"Like me."

"And children."

Xue Lian went silent.

The answer was clear.

Damon continued.

"But if he didn’t have a real Seed, he needed to keep the vessels connected some other way."

"Anchors."

Damon looked at the mark.

"This."

"Yes."

Ester frowned.

"So the mark wasn’t created to contain Damon."

"No."

"It was created to connect him to something."

"Yes."

The silence became heavy.

Damon looked at Ester.

"You can say you warned me."

"I’m still deciding what order I’m going to hit you in."

"Fair."

Aria stopped writing.

"Connect him to what?"

That was the important question.

Xue Lian did not answer immediately.

She walked to the edge of the lake and placed a hand over her own chest as though she still expected to find the old authority there.

Nothing.

For the first time, she had to think without feeling the entire network.

"Shen Liang used false cores," she said.

"How many?" Damon asked.

"I found three."

"Destroyed?"

"Two."

Damon did not like that.

"And the third?"

"It disappeared before I found the laboratory."

Aria stopped writing again.

"Disappeared how?"

"Removed."

"By Shen Liang?"

"I believed so."

Damon looked at his arm.

"Now you don’t."

"No."

Xue Lian turned toward him.

"If this structure really descends from his work, then someone found the third core."

"Or found the records."

"Or both."

Damon closed his eyes.

Vorn.

Seraphine.

The children.

The transplanted roots.

The attempts to create artificial circulation.

Until then, all of it had seemed like part of a desperate project to restore Arven.

Now there was a much worse possibility.

Maybe Vorn had not merely been trying to transplant roots.

Maybe he had been learning how to build vessels.

"Damon."

Ester noticed the change in his expression.

"I’m fine."

"Your face disagrees."

He opened his eyes.

"Vorn worked with children because they were easier to adapt."

Xue Lian went still.

Damon continued.

"He altered circulation. Created containment structures. Tried to make spiritual structures survive inside bodies that shouldn’t have been able to support them."

"Then he was repeating Shen Liang."

"Either without knowing it or knowing it."

Xue Lian stared at the mark.

"He probably knew at least part of it."

"Vorn never mentioned Shen Liang."

"He wouldn’t need to."

"Why?"

"Because Shen Liang didn’t use his own name in the records either."

Damon frowned.

"Then how do you know?"

"Because I knew him."

"What name did he use?"

Xue Lian answered without hesitation.

"Architects of Return."

Aria wrote it down immediately.

Damon went still.

"Plural again."

"It was a group."

"How many?"

"I don’t know."

"Was Shen Liang the leader?"

"No."

That was worse.

"Who was?"

Xue Lian looked at him.

"I never found out."

Damon ran a hand over his face.

"So the man who tampered with your memories, used your mother, placed an authority inside you, and experimented on children wasn’t even the biggest problem."

"No."

"Wonderful."

Xue Mei tightened her grip on her mother’s arm.

"You never told me this."

"I wasn’t sure what was true."

"But you knew it existed."

"Yes."

The answer hurt.

Damon noticed.

But Xue Mei did not argue.

Not yet.

There would be time for that later.

Jian Yue approached, the ancestor’s sword now strapped to his back.

"What did this group want?"

Xue Lian looked toward the mountain.

"Continuity."

"Of what?"

"I don’t know."

Damon let out a humorless laugh.

"That word is getting annoying."

"I agree."

The mark burned again.

Damon immediately raised his arm.

The black opening at the center had grown.

Barely.

But it had grown.

The root inside him reacted more strongly.

Ice formed around his forearm.

Ester grabbed his wrist.

"Don’t use force."

"I’m not."

"You are."

"Automatically."

"Then tell it to stop."

"You just spent two days telling me my body does this without asking."

"This isn’t the time to use my arguments against me."

Xue Lian approached again.

This time, Ester allowed it.

She studied the black opening.

"It’s searching for a compatible point."

"With the network?"

"Yes."

"Why now?"

Xue Lian looked toward Heshan.

"Because the network is back."

Damon became serious.

Before, the mark only found fragmented structures.

Now there was a functioning network.

A path.

An open system.

Exactly what an artificial anchor needed.

"So if this connects..."

"We don’t know."

"Guess."

Xue Lian did not like that.

But she answered.

"It may try to insert a false function into the network."

Aria raised her face.

"What function?"

"Depends on the core on the other side."

Damon went silent.

That was worse.

It was not simply energy entering.

It was an order.

An artificial function trying to use the original network.

"Can we cut it?"

Xue Lian looked at Ester.

"Maybe."

"Maybe isn’t enough."

"Without knowing where the other anchor is, cutting Damon free may only make the system search for another point."

Damon exhaled.

"Then we need to find the other side."

"Yes."

"Vorn."

"Probably."

Damon started walking.

Ester grabbed his clothes.

"No."

He looked at her.

"I’m not going to Arven right now."

"Good."

"We’re going to talk to Mu Qing and Chen Mo."

Ester slowly let go.

"That I’ll accept."

Xue Lian frowned.

"Why?"

"Chen Mo knows ancient structures. Mu Qing spent four hundred years messing with roots she shouldn’t have."

"That description is unfair."

Damon looked at her.

Xue Lian thought about it.

"No. It’s fair."

Aria started laughing.

The group returned through the open passage into the fold.

Chen Mo was still where they had left him.

Sitting on a nonexistent rock in the middle of the black water, holding the horses’ reins.

Mu Qing was a few meters ahead.

The two were arguing.

"I told you the fold would stabilize."

"You said it might stabilize."

"That doesn’t change the fact that it stabilized."

"It changes the fact that you were wrong about being certain."

"I never said I was certain."

Damon stepped out of the passage.

"You two spent four hundred years like this?"

Both looked over.

Chen Mo stopped.

Mu Qing too.

Then they saw Xue Lian.

Silence.

No provocation.

No response.

Mu Qing completely lost her expression.

Chen Mo released the reins.

Xue Lian remained standing in front of the two.

For several seconds, no one knew what to say.

Chen Mo spoke first.

"You got out."

"Yes."

He smiled.

Not like someone seeing a master.

Like someone seeing an old friend he had believed he would never meet again.

"Took you long enough."

Xue Lian laughed.

"I heard that recently."

Mu Qing did not move.

Her eyes remained fixed on her.

Xue Lian looked back.

"Mu Qing."

The former disciple opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

Damon watched.

All the resentment.

All the hatred.

Four hundred years turning abandonment into justification.

Now Xue Lian was standing there.

Without authority.

Without power.

Without anything Mu Qing could blame as a divine presence.

Just a woman.

"You knew," Mu Qing finally said.

Xue Lian did not try to escape the accusation.

"Part of it."

"You left me there."

"Yes."

"You knew what would happen to Heshan."

"I knew the root would be removed."

"You didn’t stop me."

"No."

Mu Qing laughed.

The sound came out broken.

"Then I was right."

"About what?"

"You abandoned us."

Xue Lian went silent.

"Yes."

Damon raised his eyebrows slightly.

Mu Qing had not expected that either.

Xue Lian continued.

"I abandoned you."

No excuse.

"Because staying near me was dangerous. Because I was losing control. Because I believed leaving instructions would be enough."

She looked at Mu Qing.

"It wasn’t."

Mu Qing clenched her fists.

"I spent four hundred years—"

"I know."

"You don’t."

"No."

Xue Lian nodded.

"I don’t."

Mu Qing was left without an answer.

Damon realized that probably hurt more than any argument would have.

Xue Lian was not trying to correct the history.

Nor claim rights over her pain.

Only acknowledging it.

Damon decided to interrupt before it turned into four centuries of therapy in the middle of a fold.

He pulled up his sleeve.

"We have another problem."

Mu Qing looked.

The instant she saw the false Seed, her expression changed.

Damon noticed immediately.

"You know it."

Mu Qing went silent.

"Mu Qing."

She looked at Xue Lian.

Then at Damon.

"I found one of those."

Damon went still.

"When?"

"One hundred and seventy years ago."

"We’ve gone from ’maybe’ to ’one of those.’ Continue."

Mu Qing took a deep breath.

"Under Heshan."

Yun Shuo went pale.

"Under the valley?"

"Not the current valley."

Chen Mo understood first.

"An ancient fold."

Mu Qing nodded.

"Yes."

Damon looked at his own arm.

"Was it active?"

"No."

"Did it look the same?"

"Bigger."

"How much bigger?"

Mu Qing opened her hands, indicating something approximately the size of a heart.

"It was fixed inside an altar."

"Did you touch it?"

"No."

Damon looked surprised.

Mu Qing stared at him.

"I wasn’t a complete idiot."

Chen Mo made a short sound.

She ignored him.

"But I copied the symbols."

Damon smiled without humor.

"Now there it is."

"I wanted to understand how the structure kept a root without a host."

Xue Lian became serious.

"You used those symbols on Jian Li."

Mu Qing did not answer.

She did not need to.

Damon looked at the mark.

"So Vorn and Mu Qing reached the same method through different paths."

"Or they didn’t," Chen Mo said.

Everyone looked at him.

Chen Mo stood.

"If the core was under Heshan, someone put it there."

"Shen Liang?" Damon asked.

"Maybe."

"Or the Architects," Xue Lian said.

Mu Qing froze.

"You know that name."

She looked at Xue Lian.

"I found it carved into the altar."

Damon closed his eyes.

"Of course."

Aria was already writing frantically.

Damon raised one hand.

"So we have an ancient organization, a missing core, Vorn reproducing the structure in Arven, and this thing trying to enter a network that just woke up."

Yun Shuo looked toward Heshan.

"There’s another core here."

Mu Qing replied:

"If it’s still there."

"Do you know where?"

"If the fold hasn’t changed too much."

Damon smiled.

Ester saw it.

"No."

"I didn’t even say anything."

"Your face."

Damon pointed at Mu Qing.

"She knows where there’s a core belonging to the Architects of Return."

"And you just got your powers back."

"Yes."

"You’re injured."

"A little."

"You have an artificial mark trying to use your body as an anchor."

"That is exactly why we need to find the core."

Ester closed her eyes.

Xue Lian approached.

"He’s right."

Ester opened her eyes.

"I don’t like you."

"We’ve known each other for only a few minutes."

"It was enough."

Damon smiled.

Finally someone other than him was receiving that treatment.

He looked at Mu Qing.

"How far?"

She studied the black water.

"If the fold still exists..."

"Mu Qing."

"One hour."

Damon looked at Ester.

She already looked defeated.

"One hour."

"If you run, I’ll break your leg."

"Then we walk."

"If you fight—"

"You break the other one."

Ester went silent.

Damon smiled.

"I’m learning."

Then the mark on his arm pulsed.

Once.

Hard.

Far away, somewhere inside the folds of Heshan, something else answered.

Mu Qing lost all color.

Damon felt it too.

Not through the root.

Through the mark.

A call.

Weak.

Artificial.

But perfectly clear.

Something had just realized he was nearby.

Damon looked toward the dark path ahead.

"Well."

Aria raised her eyes.

"What?"

He lowered his sleeve.

"Now we don’t need to search anymore."

Mu Qing became serious.

"Why?"

Damon started walking.

"Because it found us first."

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