The instant a fine crack split the shield, I immediately turned my back toward the oncoming wind. I crossed my arms and held the spirit beast tightly against my chest. Its body was light, trembling faintly against me. I could feel its heartbeat, rapid but still beating.
The wind slammed in from every direction.
Every impact felt like a hammer striking my back. Golden light wavered, and the shield let out a low hum. I gritted my teeth and did not dare loosen my hold. When that purple-black bolt of lightning had struck earlier, I had already tasted blood. Now my throat was dry and burning, and every breath felt like swallowing sand.
"Don't move." I pressed my lips to its ear as I spoke, though my voice could not carry at all. Still, I said it. It seemed to hear me. Its struggling paused for a moment, and it tucked its head deeper into my arms.
I closed my eyes, refusing to look at the flying rocks and broken logs. The turbulence in my sea of consciousness grew stronger and stronger. The system notification showed only one flickering line: "Protective mechanism activated. Energy circulation being established."
Three breaths passed, but the shield had yet to stabilize.
I drew on the remaining spiritual energy in my dantian and placed buffers at several key points in my meridians. It would consume more strength, but it could hold out longer. The sound of the wind above my head suddenly changed, as though something were tearing through the air. I abruptly opened my eyes and saw a dark current sweeping in from the side, slicing toward the edge of the shield like a blade.
The golden light shook violently.
The crack widened a little further.
I turned my head and let my shoulder take the impact. An old injury in my right shoulder suddenly flared with pain, and my entire arm went numb. Fortunately, I had not lost my strength. The shield was still there. Though its light had dimmed considerably, it had not shattered.
The spirit beast's breathing grew weaker.
I lifted it higher, bringing it closer to my face. White vapor puffed from its nostrils, only to scatter the moment it emerged. Its body temperature was even lower than before, and a thin layer of frost had formed over its fur. At this rate, it would not survive.
I loosened the front of my daoist robe and pressed it directly against my chest. The instant our skin touched, its body shuddered and it let out an extremely faint whimper. I ignored the cold, wrapped it in my clothes, and left only its head outside.
The chill immediately crawled up my spine.
My limbs began to stiffen, and my fingers barely obeyed me. I tried moving my thumb and could just barely manage it. The shield's energy was unevenly distributed. The pressure on my back was greatest, and the golden light there had already turned dark yellow. I focused my spiritual sense and sent a thread of spiritual energy toward that spot. The light barrier trembled, its color brightening slightly.
The wind direction suddenly changed.
The entire storm began spinning faster. We were flung onto a new trajectory, our bodies tilting as we hurtled forward. Borrowing that force, I relaxed one arm and adjusted my posture to make it smoother. The frontal impacts lessened, and the shield's burden eased somewhat.
Southeast.
I remembered the spirit beast moving in that direction earlier. There had been a red glow on the horizon then. Now, there was nothing visible but gray-black currents. Still, I tilted my head that way, hoping to spot something again.
The system interface appeared in my sea of consciousness.
The answer panel was gray and unusable. A small icon flashed in the corner—the Calming Pill. It was the reward I had received for correctly answering Pangu's question in Chapter Two, and I had never used it. Now, it had lit up on its own.
I immediately activated it with my mind.
The phantom image of the pill appeared, and a warm, gentle aura spread outward. The mental pressure eased somewhat, and my mind cleared. Seizing the chance, I locked onto the weak points of the shield again and used my remaining spiritual energy to reinforce them bit by bit.
The temperature was still dropping.
My clothes clung to me, stiff as iron sheets. I could no longer feel my toes at all, and everything below my calves felt as though it did not belong to me. I lowered my head to look at the spirit beast. Its eyes were half closed, and its breathing was nearly imperceptible.
I could not wait any longer.
I guided the last trace of warmth in my body to my chest, then slowly transferred it into its body. This was the Breath Transfer Technique from the Basic Breathing Technique, originally meant to help someone stabilize their Heart Meridian. Now, I could only try and see whether it worked.
A few seconds later, the tip of its tail moved faintly.
I sent another wisp of warmth into it. This time, one of its legs kicked, and its head nudged against my neck. It was alive. Its awareness had returned.
At that moment, the entire storm suddenly shuddered.
It was not the wind. It was something deeper, as though the earth below were trembling, or some kind of law had been disturbed. The shield's golden light suddenly contracted, then swelled outward in response.
I stared into my sea of consciousness.
The system notification updated with two words: "Resonance."
What was resonating?
I had no time to think. The wind pressure intensified again, and several huge rocks shot up from below and crashed into the shield. The golden light rippled violently, and searing pain tore through my back. I gave a muffled groan, and blood spilled from the corner of my mouth again.
This time, I did not swallow it.
The wind blew the blood away directly, turning it into a red streak that vanished into the currents.
Sensing something wrong, the spirit beast suddenly looked up at me. Its eyes opened, its pupils narrowing into slits. It reached out its tongue and licked the blood from my chin, then clamped down on the corner of my robe as though afraid I would let go.
I knew what it was worried about.
I was afraid too.
Afraid I would not last until the end.
But I had already promised it that I would not let go.
Was the stone platform in the valley still running? I still remembered the sunlight falling over the moss that morning. The sound of the stream, the rustle of vines stirred by the wind, and the feeling of it rubbing against my palm for the first time.
Those things had all happened.
It was not a dream.
So I could not fall.
I drew in a deep breath and buried all those memories in my heart. Those images became sparks, slowly warming bones that were nearly frozen stiff. I straightened my back again and held the spirit beast even tighter.
Another crack split the shield.
This one was at my left shoulder.
I mobilized the last controllable trace of spiritual energy and patched it. The light barrier trembled twice, barely stabilizing. The system notification continued flashing: "Energy circulation in progress. Completion: 67%."
Not fast enough.
The wind grew fiercer and fiercer. We were pushed higher and higher. My vision was filled with roiling gray-black currents, occasionally lit by flashes of lightning that revealed distorted terrain in the distance. The wasteland remained below us, but it was getting farther away.
The southeast suddenly flashed.
It was not red light. It was silver-white, appearing for only an instant.
The spirit beast's ears twitched. It struggled to lift its head and looked in that direction. I turned as well. At that exact moment, a new band of airflow swept across us like a wall and slammed into the side of the shield.
My whole body was sent spinning.
I held it tightly as my back crashed heavily into a flying rock. The shield let out a piercing shriek, and its golden light dimmed drastically. My left arm completely lost feeling, and my right hand could only barely hook around the back of its neck.
"Hold on," I said.
It looked at me.
Its gaze was no longer as unfocused as before. It raised a forehoof and lightly touched my wrist. Then it rested its head against my chest again.
The wind kept howling.
More and more cracks spread across the shield, and its light grew weaker and weaker. The system notification finally jumped to "99%." Just a little more.
My teeth had been chattering nonstop. My lips were split, and even speaking took effort. But I kept counting. Every impact I endured counted as one step.
Ten times.
Twenty times.
At some unknown count, the silver light flashed again in the southeast. This time, it was brighter and lingered longer, as though something were about to emerge.
The spirit beast suddenly went rigid.
It stared in that direction, its horn glowing faintly. The rune on its forehead began to flash, its frequency somehow matching the shield's pulses.
I froze for a moment.
Were they responding to each other?
Before I could figure it out, the center of the storm suddenly collapsed for an instant. All the currents drew inward, then exploded outward with violent force. The shield released one final hum, and its golden light abruptly expanded, completely enveloping us.
In my sea of consciousness, the system notification jumped to "100%."
Protective mechanism complete.
I let out half a breath of relief and was just about to adjust my posture when I realized the wind had stopped.
It had not weakened.
It had truly stopped.
Everything above, below, left, and right had gone still. Flying rocks hung in the air, broken logs froze halfway through their flight. Even the shield's light had solidified.
Only the spirit beast was still moving.
It raised its head, its horn pointing straight toward the southeast. There, a silver-white figure was rising from the horizon.