Voidmark Moth

Zhang Lan caught the meaning beneath her words.

"You mean?"

"I'm going with you."

Nan Shuishui said,

"I'll arrange for the deputy sect master to take charge of matters at the Earth Dragon Sect."

"The Heavenly Dragon Sect has already fallen. The Holy Spirit Cult won't reach its hands toward Dragon City again anytime soon."

"Nothing major will go wrong if I'm away for a month or two."

"But this is Qiuqiu's first Soul Ring hunt. I have to be there."

Zhang Lan did not agree immediately.

He glanced at the Ice Empress. She leaned against the courtyard wall, the evening breeze lifting a corner of her emerald dress. Her crystalline yellow eyes were half closed, as though she could not be bothered to get involved.

Then he looked at the Snow Empress.

The Snow Empress stood beside the dead tree in the courtyard, her white figure almost blending into the dusk. She gave a slight nod.

"All right."

Zhang Lan withdrew his gaze,

"But you'll follow my arrangements throughout the journey. That hasn't changed."

"Of course."

"Meet outside the north gate in three days, at dawn."

Three days later, the sky had yet to fully brighten.

When Zhang Lan reached the north gate, Nan Shuishui and Nan Qiuqiu were already waiting beneath its archway.

Nan Qiuqiu carried a small pack, with two ice-blue crystals attached to her outfit, one serving as a pendant and the other hanging from her hair tie. They glimmered faintly in the morning light.

Nan Shuishui had changed into a practical, close-fitting indigo outfit, her long hair tied in a high ponytail. She looked less like a sect master and more like an experienced traveler.

The Ice Empress and the Snow Empress stood behind Zhang Lan, one nonchalant, the other cold as frost.

At the sight of them, Nan Shuishui instinctively straightened and bowed slightly.

Zhang Lan beckoned to Nan Qiuqiu.

The girl jogged over and fell in half a step behind him, neither too close nor too far-just enough to stay out of his way without falling behind.

The group left through the north gate and headed north along the main road.

Travelers grew scarcer along the way. The farmland on either side gave way to wasteland, which in turn became sparsely vegetated frozen ground.

The outline of Northreach Pass appeared on the third evening, a stone fortification spanning the route between north and south.

Its walls were not high, but the mountains flanking it were steep. Wedged between the two mountains, the pass guarded the only main road from Dragon City to the Far North.

Beyond Northreach Pass, the main road ended.

Farther north lay boundless frozen earth and ice fields, with only scattered trails worn by hunters and Soul Masters winding northward.

Zhang Lan led the others onto a narrow trail toward the northeast.

The rift lay a little over a hundred li northeast of Northreach Pass, though the location recorded in the notes was imprecise.

They only stated that the rift lay at the lowest point of the terrain, near a patch of icy mist that never dispersed and could be seen for several li around.

They searched for four full days.

On the morning of the fifth day, Nan Qiuqiu was the first to notice something unusual.

Standing on a gentle slope, she pointed northeast and called out.

Zhang Lan walked over and saw a long, narrow white line across the distant ground, like a frozen river.

A barely visible layer of mist floated above it, shimmering faintly blue in the morning light.

As they approached, the white line became a rift.

The rift was only twenty or thirty zhang wide, a bottomless cleft cut into the earth. Thick ice coated its walls, with dark blue light faintly flowing deep within.

That thin mist hovered above the rift, tiny ice crystals slowly revolving within it like countless little eyes peering out.

Zhang Lan stood at the edge and looked down.

The information his gravitational sense fed back to him was chaotic. Just as the notes had described, the magnetic field at the bottom was warped beyond recognition.

His Gravity Dome would suffer constant interference in this environment. Maintaining its usual strength would consume twenty to thirty percent more soul power.

"This is the place."

Zhang Lan withdrew his gaze,

"Voidmark Moths nest in the rift walls. They don't come out during the day. They're active at dusk and dawn."

"We'll wait until dusk before going down."

Nan Shuishui stood at the edge, gauged the depth and width, then looked toward Nan Qiuqiu.

The girl stood a little farther from the rift, gripping the straps of her pack with both hands. Her face was pale, but she said nothing.

"Are you scared?"

Nan Shuishui asked.

Nan Qiuqiu shook her head.

Then she hesitated and said quietly,

"A little."

"That's normal."

Nan Shuishui patted her shoulder,

"I was scared during my first Soul Ring hunt too."

"Stay with Zhang Lan and listen to him."

Zhang Lan did not join the mother and daughter's conversation.

He crouched at the edge and extended the Star of Eden into the mist to test the gravitational field's response.

The instant the staff's tip touched the mist, the ice crystals scattered like a startled school of fish, then slowly gathered again.

There was a reaction, but it was not violent.

Voidmark Moths were sensitive to gravitational disturbances, but they did not attack unprovoked.

At dusk, the sun sank below the frozen horizon, leaving only a dark red band of light across the sky.

The mist above the rift suddenly thickened. The ice crystals within it began spinning faster, as though something were stirring below.

Zhang Lan stood up.

"We're going down."

He was the first to leap into the rift.

The Star of Eden turned in his hand, and his Gravity Dome spread open, enclosing both him and Nan Qiuqiu, who followed close behind.

The Ice Empress and the Snow Empress followed, one on either side, descending silently along the rift walls.

Nan Shuishui brought up the rear. Rouge-colored soul power formed a spectral dragon around her, ready to strike at any moment.

The farther they descended, the narrower the rift became, and the thicker the ice grew on its walls.

At a depth of roughly fifty zhang, fist-sized holes appeared in the ice, densely scattered across both walls.

Faint dark blue light flickered deep inside the holes, brightening and dimming.

Voidmark Moth nests.

Zhang Lan stopped, suspended in the rift. He looked up at Nan Qiuqiu.

"Get ready. I'll lure one out in a moment."

"Stay inside the dome and don't move. Once I've crippled it, you'll finish it off."

"Remember, save your soul power for the final blow. Leave the fighting before that to me."

Nan Qiuqiu nodded firmly.

Zhang Lan turned to the Ice Empress.

"Big Sister Ice Empress, help me watch the nests on the left."

"Just help me lure one out."

The Ice Empress lazily lifted a hand in acknowledgment.

Zhang Lan raised the Star of Eden, aimed its tip at a larger hole in the left-hand ice wall, and released a weak, concentrated gravitational pulse.

The pulse passed through the ice and burrowed deep into the nest.

A few breaths later, a faint fluttering came from within, and a palm-sized ice-blue moth emerged.

With a beat of its wings, the air several feet around it instantly warped like a crumpled sheet of glass.

A Voidmark Moth.

Zhang Lan did not hesitate. His Gravity Dome abruptly expanded, then contracted, trapping the moth inside.

The moth beat its wings frantically, its distorted force field tearing against the Gravity Dome. But its cultivation was only a little over a hundred years, and it was soon suppressed until it could no longer move.

Zhang Lan controlled the dome's contraction, slowly weakening its resistance.

"Qiuqiu, get ready."

Nan Qiuqiu held her breath. Rouge-colored soul power surged from her palm, forming a small dragon claw.

She was still unpracticed at releasing her martial soul. The spectral dragon claw was only palm-sized and wavered unsteadily, but Zhang Lan could feel that trace of Annihilation Attribute pulsing within it.