Embers of Starlight

The air was like frozen jelly, every breath carrying the icy, scorched smell left by torn space. Though the Ancient One's gaze had withdrawn from across dimensions, her lingering will clung like maggots to bone, still warping reality. Snowflakes hovered eerily in midair, then slammed down the next second; rubble beneath Lanling King's feet floated half a foot against gravity before falling; the few Xuan Weizi Guiguzi had just gathered vanished with a puff, leaving behind glaring visual voids. Worse still, an invisible sense of "solidification" pressed down on them, as if they would be frozen forever within this fragment of time and space in the next moment.

Xiang Yi's fingertips were numb with cold, frost seeming to seep into his marrow. His soul felt trapped in invisible amber, making even thought difficult. He could clearly feel his mental barrier covered in spiderweb cracks, on the brink of collapse. Ming Shiyin suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. Before it could splash down, the blood instantly congealed into tiny, irregular dark-red crystal clusters, like remnants of life forcibly stripped away and solidified, scattering across the withered grass with a dying gleam. He sagged, caught by Guiguzi. The bloodstains on the old man's sleeves were visibly thinning and breaking down, as though his very existence was being rejected and erased by this world's laws. An unstable halo flickered around Guiguzi's edges, and parts of him even blurred out and vanished for moments, like a television with poor reception. The essence sustaining his human form was burning away at terrifying speed.

"Go!" Guiguzi's voice was hoarse and urgent as his remaining Xuan Weizi gathered into swirling gray mist around them. But the edges of that mist were being frantically devoured and erased. The sense of frozen space was growing stronger!

Lanling King flashed forward and dropped to one knee before Xiang Yi, his back taut as a drawn bow. "My lord, forgive me!" An irresistible force lifted Xiang Yi onto his cold, hard armored back. Amid the jolting, something hard pressed against Xiang Yi's chest—the dagger that had appeared when he first summoned Lanling King. A faint yet remarkably distinct warmth seeped through its leather sheath into his chilled body. It was not healing him. It was more like icy adhesive, barely holding together the cracks threatening to split apart his mental barrier, becoming a fragile anchor that kept his consciousness from scattering.

"Mr. Guiguzi! Erase the traces!" Xiang Yi clung to Lanling King's back, his voice fractured, his gaze fixed on the ruined outpost.

"Understood!" Guiguzi pointed his gaunt fingers at the ruins with grim resolve. The remaining Xuan Weizi gathered like moths rushing into flame, forming the phantom image of a huge, crack-covered taiji diagram. Yet the Xuan Weizi forming it were vanishing faster than ever! Worse, several invisible "spatial folds" wound around the diagram's weakest cracks like venomous vines and tore at them madly! Guiguzi's hair and beard stood on end as he let out an inhuman roar. Pouring out the last trace of his essence, the arm he had extended exploded into countless scattering motes of Xuan Weizi light at the instant his power erupted! He smashed down the phantom taiji diagram that was on the verge of shattering!

Rumble—!

The earth shook violently! The energy shockwave precisely directed by Guiguzi instantly detonated the mountain's fragile structure! A genuine landslide erupted. Snow and shattered rock surged skyward like earthen dragons, burying the outpost completely in an instant! Having done all this, Guiguzi's exploded arm painstakingly reformed from motes of light. But the reconstructed arm was so faint it was nearly transparent, its edges flickering erratically. His whole body was like a guttering candle in the wind, his presence weak to the extreme, barely able to maintain a solid outline.

"Go!" His voice was as weak as static.

Lanling King hesitated no longer. He drove off with his feet like an arrow loosed from its bow, shooting into the steep conifer forest below. The freezing wind cut like blades. In the thin moonlight, Xiang Yi made out the mark at the end of the dagger's hilt—a cold diamond with razor-sharp edges, its center embedded with a miniature star.

"My lord, hold tight!" Ahead lay a cliff more than thirty feet high. Lanling King kicked hard off the rock at its edge and launched himself into the air! Weightlessness seized Xiang Yi's heart. In the instant of descent, Lanling King twisted at the waist, his boot striking precisely toward an icy protrusion on the cliff face—

At the very moment he pushed off!

That icy protrusion seemed to have been granted the will to "refuse support," its internal structure instantly collapsing into powder!

A precisely aimed blast of reverse-flowing cold wind curled around his ankle like a living thing and viciously yanked downward!

At the same time, his body suddenly grew lighter, as if gravity had vanished by more than half!

The malicious overlap of three rule disturbances left Lanling King with his old strength spent and new strength not yet born! More fatal still, a teeth-grating rip came from his left shoulder blade!

"Urgh!" Lanling King's muffled groan came with bloody foam! The old injury left by Yunnan Outpost tore open completely under the extreme strain on his muscles! Warm blood instantly sprayed from the gaps in his cracked armor and clothing! The heavy scent of blood spread at once! Xiang Yi could clearly feel the violent spasm from the body beneath him, and Lanling King's suddenly held, trembling breath!

Enduring the agony, Lanling King burst forth with terrifying strength from his waist and abdomen, forcibly adjusting his posture in midair. After several perilous rises and falls, he crashed heavily into a pile of rocks on the riverbank below. He staggered violently upon landing before managing to steady himself. A glaring patch of dark red rapidly spread across his left shoulder blade. Blood gushed down the edge of his armor, pattering onto the snow and blooming into vivid red plum blossoms.

That damned old wound again! He's holding on with his life! And I... can only watch! I'm just dead weight! Intense guilt and heart-rending helplessness twisted around Xiang Yi's heart like poisonous vines. His nails dug deep into his palms until blood seeped out, yet he did not notice.

Almost at the same time, A Ke's blood-red figure drifted down like a phantom, light and soundless. A drop of vivid blood fell silently from Sharktooth's tip, freezing at once.

"The tail's been dealt with." Her voice carried the chill of ice and snow. Her sharp gaze swept across the bleeding wound at Lanling King's shoulder blade, and her grip on Sharktooth's hilt tightened almost imperceptibly. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed a bloodstained shuriken onto the snow, where it landed precisely beside Lanling King's blood droplets. Attached to its tail was a neatly severed piece of a miniature tracker bearing a viper mark. "The smell of blood draws trouble even faster than wolf musk." As she spoke, Sharktooth's tip traced a strange rune across the snow. It flashed and vanished, raising a faint spatial ripple as the surrounding traces were instantly thrown into complete disorder and covered up.

Lanling King said nothing. He steadied Xiang Yi more securely on his back, his knuckles white from the force of his grip.

The abandoned herbalist's cabin groaned amid the wind and snow. Ming Shiyin had been placed on the dry grass in the corner. Every labored breath came with a wheeze like a broken bellows, while dark-red bloody foam spilled uncontrollably from the corner of his mouth, crystallizing into more tiny dark-red clusters scattered through the grass like cold gravestones marking his fading life. His presence was as weak as the last spark on a freezing night, ready to go out at any moment. Guiguzi sat cross-legged behind him, his fingers sending out Xuan Weizi trembling like dead leaves in the wind. The gray mist he supplied was so thin it was almost invisible. Every transmission made his already faint body outline grow blurrier and flicker harder, sometimes even vanishing briefly like a signal cutting out, as though he might dissipate completely in the next moment. His voice came with a crackling hiss, as if from an immense distance.

Xiang Yi slid down against the freezing wooden wall, utterly exhausted. He laid the dagger across his knees. The cold diamond mark flowed with a stronger deep-blue radiance beneath the moonlight leaking through the broken roof. The warmth that passively stabilized his mind was still flowing, binding together the cracks in his spirit. Something stirred in his heart, and he endured his weakness as he summoned a thread of his newly recovered mental strength.

Suppressing his hunger for power, Xiang Yi turned his mental strength only into the gentlest of "feelers," carefully brushing along the "edge" of that passive connection. He tried to sense its source rather than invade it...

Hum—!

A faint vibration that struck directly at his soul! Fragmented images exploded before Xiang Yi's eyes: a Great Wall pass blanketed in wind and snow; beneath a bloodstained banner, a figure in silver armor stood proudly, spear in hand like a dragon. A majestic, unyielding dragon's roar from the spear seemed to pierce the barriers of time and space and stab straight into his soul! A violent headache hit at once, as if his soul were being forcibly torn apart! He grunted, his vision going black, his ears ringing, cold sweat pouring down his temples.

"My lord?" Lanling King became alert at once.

"I'm fine..." Xiang Yi panted, suppressing his churning blood and energy. His blazing gaze fixed upon the dagger. "This thing... is extraordinary!"

At that moment, Ming Shiyin, barely clinging to life in the corner, used the last of his clarity to suddenly open his clouded eyes and stare at the dagger! A rasping sound came from his throat as he struggled to raise a twig-like finger toward it. Every word seemed to exhaust the last strength of his life, emerging hoarse and urgent amid spraying bloody foam:

"Do... not seize it! The sea of stars... is vast! No... mortal vessel... can... bear it!!!"

Before the words had faded, his arm dropped limply, and he fell completely unconscious. His life force was so weak it was nearly gone.

Blood Pact Star Guide? Acknowledging an owner? Replenishment? The sea of stars was vast, and no mortal vessel could bear it?!

Those words exploded through Xiang Yi's mind like thunder! Acknowledging an owner? Replenishment... was that continuous warmth...? The sea of stars was vast, and no mortal vessel could bear it?!

The sea of stars is vast; no mortal vessel can bear it... Xiang Yi savored the warning spoken at the cost of life. Looking at the dagger flowing with dim light across his knees, understanding dawned on him: this trickle of replenishment was Star Guide's instinctive, pitying gift to the life of its contractor, as natural as breathing. If he tried to seize the power of the sea of stars with a mortal soul, he would be courting death!

Yet power was his only hope of survival now! His fierce need to live overwhelmed everything else. He closed his eyes and gathered a stronger will despite his physical weakness. But this time, he no longer tried to "grab" with thoughts of plunder. Instead, he completely "opened" his mental barrier on the verge of collapse, like parched, cracked earth silently praying for sweet rain from heaven. With all his will, he became a humble "vessel," ready to "receive" the cold trickle from the sea of stars flowing through their invisible connection...

Hum...

The dagger trembled ever so slightly. A faint yet incomparably pure energy, carrying the cold, distant aura of the starry sky, seemed to answer his humble plea. It flowed back passively, drop by drop, through that invisible line into the dry, cracking source of his spirit! Though this trickle was too weak to heal the deep wounds of his soul, it brought profound tranquility, as if his soul had entered the embrace of endless space. The pains from being torn apart slowly "froze" and "dulled" in that coldness. The mental flame that had nearly gone out stabilized once more, and a trace of clarity returned to his thoughts. The replenishment of power was minuscule, but it was real! It was passively repairing the outermost wounds of his soul!

Replenishment! It was real! It was passive breathing! It was a safe lifeline!

Wild joy and exhilaration at surviving a catastrophe instantly scattered his pain and weakness! This dagger was not only the medium of a contract, pointing toward that silver-armored figure. It was itself a faint but unceasing source of mental power! This was the first glimmer of light he had seized in his desperate situation! It was the most precious bargaining chip he needed now! The trickle was weak, but inexhaustible... Opportunity and unknown risk coexisted, but he had to grasp this faint light! It was his only chance to catch his breath beneath the Ancient One's shadow! In this deadlocked game, it was the first—and most crucial—piece he had seized!

The wind and snow wailed more shrilly outside, and the wooden door groaned like it was dying beneath the gale. A Ke's cold voice pierced through the clamor, carrying suppressed impatience. "If we stay any longer, we won't need the Ancient One to find us. This shack will bury us alive! Where are we going?"

Xiang Yi drew a deep breath of piercingly cold air and forcibly suppressed his tumultuous emotions and crushing exhaustion. Bracing himself against the ice-cold wooden wall, he slowly but firmly rose to his feet. His gaze swept across Ming Shiyin, coughing blood that crystallized, his presence nearly severed; Guiguzi, his body faint and flickering like a signal ghost; Lanling King, his shoulder blade wound gruesome and soaked in blood, silently enduring as his body trembled faintly; and A Ke at the doorway, Sharktooth bared, her aura cold though anxiety showed in her eyes. Finally, his eyes returned to the dagger glowing dimly on his lap, feeling the cold tranquility brought by its unceasing, faint yet real trickle of mental power.

The mountains were a dead end! The Ancient One's gaze was like blades against his back, the outpost was ruins, supplies were cut off, and his heroes were dying... Their only way to live was in the city! There, they could hide among tangled energy noise and use Cosmos's money and intelligence network! That "chaotic stew" of electromagnetic noise, life-force fields, and industrial energy within the city would be the best burial shroud to conceal the dagger's unusual fluctuations! Even those glaring energy sources—the Stark reactor, perhaps?—would emit enough light to blind their pursuers!

...An abandoned factory? Yes! They needed an abandoned factory with old grudges attached! They could use that lingering dead aura and the yin veins underground to conceal their life force! Xiang Yi instantly recalled that the warehouse's former owner had an old grudge against Stark Industries!

"Mr. Guiguzi is right," Xiang Yi said decisively, his voice cutting through the wind and snow. "The greatest concealment lies in the city. We're going into town!" He bent down and solemnly returned the dagger to the specially made leather sheath at his waist. The cold metal pressed against his body, its faint but continuous mental replenishment pulsing like a second heart quietly beating in the dark.

"Our target is the urban fringe." Xiang Yi looked toward the gray stretch at the city's edge, forgotten by neon lights. "Find a warehouse large enough, deep enough, and inconspicuous enough. Use every bit of funding the Foundation can mobilize to buy it! Better yet... an abandoned factory with old grudges!" He emphasized the final point.

A faint glimmer passed through Guiguzi's weary, flickering eyes. His voice crackled with static. "This old one... can spend what remains of my essence... to alter ordinary people's perceptions, conceal... the sounds of construction... An abandoned factory... with long-held resentment... underground... yin veins... perfectly suited... to hiding life force..."

With every word, his figure seemed to dim further.

"I'll survey the terrain and clear out any possible 'nail households.'" A Ke's voice was calm as Sharktooth slid back into its sheath with a soft click. Her gaze swept over Lanling King's shoulder blade wound once again.

Lanling King silently stepped forward and lifted Xiang Yi onto his back again. His left arm supporting Xiang Yi's legs was steady as a mountain, but Xiang Yi's chest, pressed close to his back, could clearly feel the spasmodic twitches from the wound at his left shoulder blade beneath those powerful back muscles with every step, like silent drumbeats pounding out despair. "This subordinate will lead the way."

Xiang Yi lay against Lanling King's broad, cold back, feeling the faint strength at his waist that continued to burn like a spark of starlight. He gave Ming Shiyin one last look, his presence faint in the corner, quiet as a deep pool.

"Go."

Lanling King's figure became a panther melting into the night as he charged once more into the vast wind and snow. A Ke's blood-red form followed close behind, like a deadly shadow guarding their flank. Guiguzi laboriously helped Ming Shiyin up. The remaining Xuan Weizi turned into an almost invisible haze of thin gray mist, barely concealing the last trace of their presence as they vanished into the depths of the snow-lashed mountain forest.

The abandoned cabin shook violently in the gale. At last, unable to hold together any longer, it let out a long, agonized groan and collapsed with a crash. Snow and broken timber buried it completely, leaving only a faintly raised mound of snow that was quickly smoothed away by fresh wind and snow. The ancient silence of the Kunlun Mountains descended over everything once more.

Xiang Yi closed his eyes amid the jolting ride, leaving behind the biting wind and snow of the Kunlun Mountains and the rotting stench of the broken cabin. Ahead lay an unknown urban jungle, a more complicated game, greater dangers hidden beneath steel and concrete, and a new cage. But the cold mark pulsing continuously at his waist and the trickling power it supplied were the first ray of starlight to pierce that cage of despair. A cage could also become a hunting ground for one lying in wait.

And in the darkness where no one could see, the cold diamond mark pressed against his body faintly responded to the vast, orderly hum of the electrical grid from the distant city—50/60 Hz—and to the "urban base frequency" woven from countless living pulses... The dim light of the "miniature star" at the center of the mark began to subtly synchronize its pulse with the rhythm of the replenishing energy flow, then underwent an extraordinarily slight autonomous shift. Like a precise stellar core instinctively adjusting its own "rhythm" in endless space, it attempted to achieve an initial... resonance with the chaotic "heartbeat" of that forest of steel. With every minute adjustment, the replenishing trickle grew imperceptibly stronger and steadier. As though the slumbering Star Guide had sensed that vast, chaotic "sea of background noise" in the distance, formed by countless weak electromagnetic waves, life fluctuations, and industrial energy... Under the cover of that chaos, it began, with extreme slowness, to find a way to merge into this new "starry sky" after its long slumber.