The black light sizzled against Chu Yang's hastily erected qi barrier, eating into it like acid on metal.
*"Down!"* Su Yuyan yanked him behind the wall as three talismans streaked toward the window. Two robed figures dodged, but the bloodsword wielder cleaved through the golden light with a contemptuous slash.
*"Surrender the Tai Xu Slip, and live."* That same rasping voice from the alley.
The jade slip burned against Chu Yang's thigh, projecting words directly into his mind:
**「Bloodsword Sect: Soul-Devouring Blade. Weakness—third engraving on guard.」**
*"Su Yuyan! Third engraving on the sword guard!"*
Her ice-blue aura intensified, frost crystallizing along her hair. *"Thousand Ice Blades."*
The air temperature plummeted. Before the cultists could react, shards of glacial energy erupted from her palms—each razor-edged and humming.
The collision shattered the entire wall. Chu Yang slammed into the hallway, ribs screaming. A jade pendant smacked into his palm—Su Yuyan's emergency talisman—its cooling energy immediately numbing the pain.
Outside, Su Yuyan moved like a blizzard given form, her qi trailing cerulean afterimages. Yet the three pressed their advantage: the bloodsword deflecting her strikes, black beams harrying her flanks, while the third assailant scattered powder that writhed into venomous insects.
Chu Yang clenched the pendant. *Not just a spectator.*
He visualized his meridians as code architecture—a *for loop* channeling qi from dantian to palms. The gathered energy whirled faster, tighter, until a miniature cyclone screamed between his hands.
The insect-summoner never saw it coming.
The qi vortex struck his spine, sending him crashing earthward. Su Yuyan seized the opening—an ice blade speared toward the bloodsword's guard.
*CLANG!*
A hairline fracture appeared exactly where predicted.
*"You dare?!"* The leader's sword vomited specters—faces of the slain, howling. Su Yuyan's ice shield cracked under their assault.
Chu Yang grabbed her wrist.
Contact.
Their energies *resonated*.
A shockwave of combined power exploded outward—her shield tripling in size, rebounding every wraith. The cult leader staggered, eyes wide.
*"Qi resonance? Impossible unless—"*
Su Yuyan didn't let him finish. *"Permafrost Prison."*
The temperature dropped to absolute zero.
Walls flash-froze. The remaining attackers moved through syrup-thick air, their robes stiffening with rime. With a snarl, their leader crushed a black jade token—shadow swallowed all three.
Silence.
Chu Yang became acutely aware he still gripped Su Yuyan's arm. Their mingled energies pulsed like shared bloodstreams, his dantian crystallizing with foreign ice-qi.
She wrenched free. *"Only blood kin or... destined partners resonate like that."*
The ruined hallway groaned under its icy shell. Distant screams—mundane guests fleeing.
*"Move."*
---
The black SUV's talisman-inscribed windows blurred the outside world. Chu Yang's hands wouldn't stop shaking—not from fear, but qi depletion.
*"The Bloodsword Sect helped exterminate Tai Xu three centuries ago,"* Su Yuyan said coldly. *"That blade is forged from your predecessors' souls."*
The jade slip vibrated in agreement.
As they merged onto the highway, Chu Yang inspected his dantian—the icy mote spinning serenely at its core. *Not temporary,* he suspected.
*"Who *are* you?"* Su Yuyan's knuckles whitened on the wheel. *"No novice triggers resonance. Or modifies ancient techniques like debugging code."*
He recounted the alley, the old man, the slip's predictive algorithms. Her frown deepened when he demonstrated optimizing a cultivation sequence—the jade slip projecting approval.
*"This changes everything."* Her voice dropped. *"In the Dharma-Ending Age, refining techniques means defying entropy itself. Darkmoon will burn cities to possess this."*
Mountains loomed ahead.
*"Allies, then."* She spoke to the windshield. *"I provide orthodox training; you refine my techniques. Temporary. After the threat's neutralized, we part ways."*
Chu Yang studied the ice-mote in his dantian. Something told him nothing about this would be simple.
*"Deal."* He offered his hand.
She ignored it. *"No physical contact unless you enjoy unplanned resonance."*
The rejection stung more than expected.
As the SUV climbed into wilderness, Chu Yang watched civilization shrink in the rearview. His old life—the overtime, the takeout, the gaming marathons—felt as distant as a previous incarnation.