Darkness faded slowly.
Lan Xue was the first to wake.
Cold stone pressed against her cheek. Her breathing was uneven, ribs aching from the collapse. For several seconds she remained still, gathering awareness. The cavern chamber around her was narrow, fractured, dimly illuminated by faint veins of spiritual crystal embedded in the walls.
She pushed herself upright — slowly.
Pain flared through her side.
Not fatal.
But heavy.
A few steps away, Mo Xuan stirred.
His body felt as though it had been crushed and rebuilt incorrectly. Several ribs were fractured. His meridians throbbed from the backlash of the demon's strike.
He opened his eyes.
Lan Xue exhaled in relief. "You're awake."
He tried to rise immediately.
His vision darkened.
She moved forward and pressed a hand to his shoulder. "Don't force it. Your bones are cracked."
He ignored the pain for a moment, scanning the chamber.
Ling Yue wasn't there.
Lan Jian wasn't there.
Han Wei wasn't there.
"We're separated," Lan Xue said quietly.
Mo Xuan clenched his jaw.
She retrieved a small jade vial and handed it to him.
"Snowpulse Rejuvenation Pill. It stabilizes fractured bones and calms spiritual turbulence."
Mo Xuan hesitated only briefly. He understood his condition clearly — in this state, he could not protect anyone.
He swallowed the pill.
Cold energy spread through his veins like flowing icewater, easing the fracture pain and sealing minor meridian ruptures.
Lan Xue also consumed one.
They sat cross-legged, circulating qi carefully.
Meanwhile—
In another cavern chamber deeper below—
Ling Yue slowly opened her eyes.
Lan Jian and Han Wei were already stirring nearby.
Lan Jian winced but stood firmly. "We're not dead."
Han Wei coughed blood lightly. "That demon nearly sent us to the afterlife."
Ling Yue pressed her palm to the ground and forced herself upright. Her arms trembled.
Lan Jian handed her a similar pill. "Ice Star emergency reserve."
She swallowed it gratefully.
"Mo Xuan…" she whispered.
Lan Jian shook his head. "We'll regroup at the mountain core. The spiritual convergence point. My sister can sense it. She'll head there."
Ling Yue nodded.
"Yes. He will too."
They began moving carefully through the fractured tunnels.
—
Back in the other chamber—
Lan Xue rose first.
"The spiritual convergence is deeper below," she said. "That is likely the mountain's core."
Mo Xuan nodded.
"Then we go there."
They moved cautiously through narrow stone passages, avoiding unstable rock.
Lan Xue walked slightly ahead, sensing fluctuations.
After several minutes of silence, she spoke quietly without turning.
"When you woke… your first instinct was to find Ling Yue."
Mo Xuan said nothing.
"You were heavily injured. Yet you didn't hesitate."
Still silence.
She slowed slightly.
"Do you like her?"
The question lingered in the narrow corridor.
Mo Xuan's steps paused for half a heartbeat.
"No."
Lan Xue glanced back.
"I saw your eyes when she was hurt."
"She saved my life," he replied evenly. "I owe her. She brought me into her sect. She stands beside me. I will not let her die because of me."
Lan Xue studied his expression.
He spoke calmly.
But something flickered beneath.
She looked forward again.
"If that's all it is… then good."
Her voice softened slightly.
They walked in silence again.
Then—
A killing intent descended.
Both stopped instantly.
The air shifted.
A figure stepped from the shadows ahead.
Black robes.
Face partially covered.
His aura crushed the space around him.
Late Core Formation Realm.
Stronger than Lan Xue.
Much stronger than injured Mo Xuan.
"So," the man said calmly, "the insects that ruined our master's preparations."
Lan Xue's grip tightened on her sword.
"You serve the one on the mountain peak."
He smiled coldly.
"You destroyed the Life-Devouring Tree. The Soul Idol. Years of preparation."
Mo Xuan's eyes sharpened.
"So you were harvesting life force."
The man's gaze turned dangerous.
"You should have died quietly."
He raised his hand.
"Black Nether Palm."
Dark energy erupted forward like a crushing wave.
Lan Xue reacted instantly.
"Iceheart Severing Gale!"
Her blade swept in a crescent arc of condensed frost, colliding with the palm force.
The cavern exploded in shockwaves.
Both were forced back several steps.
Mo Xuan lunged forward, executing a basic sect sword form — clean, precise, minimal movement.
The masked man parried easily.
"So weak," he muttered.
He countered with a spinning kick laced with spiritual force.
Mo Xuan blocked with his forearm — bones screamed.
Blood touched his lips.
Lan Xue unleashed another technique.
"Frostbound Thousand Needles!"
Hundreds of ice shards shot toward the man's vital points.
He twisted mid-air, black mist coiling around him, deflecting most of the shards.
"Shadow Rift Strike."
A spear of compressed darkness shot toward Lan Xue.
She barely deflected it — the impact slammed her against the cavern wall.
She coughed blood.
The masked man advanced.
o Xuan saw it too late—
The masked man's killing intent shifted.
His target changed.
Lan Xue.
The black-robed cultivator vanished in a blur of shadow, reappearing directly before her. His palm, wrapped in compressed nether energy, descended toward her throat.
Too close.
Too fast.
Lan Xue's pupils contracted. She raised her blade instinctively, but she knew—
She would not fully block it.
In that instant—
Mo Xuan moved.
Not from the front.
Not from the side.
He intruded between them like a tearing shadow.
His arm wrapped around Lan Xue's waist, pulling her sharply backward against him. Her body collided with his chest as his other palm rose to meet the incoming strike.
There was no technique.
No named move.
Only raw spiritual power condensed into a simple forward palm.
The two forces collided.
The cavern detonated with sound.
Shockwaves blasted outward, forcing both Mo Xuan and Lan Xue backward across the stone floor. His arm remained around her waist until their momentum slowed, boots scraping hard against rock.
Then—
He released her.
The masked man stumbled three steps back.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
He stared at Mo Xuan in disbelief.
"…Impossible."
His gaze lifted.
And froze.
Mo Xuan's eyes were no longer ordinary.
His dark pupils had turned deep crimson.
Within them, faint spiral patterns rotated slowly, like ancient seals awakening.
A suffocating pressure filled the tunnel.
The masked man's voice dropped.
"What… are you?"
Mo Xuan said nothing.
Lan Xue, still catching her breath, looked up at him from beside him.
She saw it.
Those eyes.
Ancient.
Cold.
Not something cultivated in a mere sect.
Mo Xuan stepped forward once.
The masked man instinctively retreated.
The air between them felt heavier.
Lan Xue's fingers tightened around her sword.
She did not understand what she had just witnessed—
But she knew one thing clearly.
The Mo Xuan standing before her now…
Was not simple.
—
Elsewhere in the fractured tunnels—
Lan Jian, Han Wei, and Ling Yue faced a single black-robed subordinate.
Late Core Formation Realm.
His aura crushed the narrow passage, suffocating and violent.
Without warning, he attacked.
"Shadow Ruin Fist!"
A compressed wave of dark spiritual force blasted toward them.
Lan Jian stepped forward.
"Ice Crest Barrier!"
A thick wall of frost formed instantly—
It shattered on impact.
Lan Jian was thrown backward, crashing into stone.
Han Wei hurled three talismans mid-air.
"Golden Thunder Bind!"
Lightning chains wrapped around the masked man's limbs.
For half a second—
He was restrained.
Ling Yue stepped forward.
"Frost Veil — Silver Crescent!"
Her blade cut through the lightning gap, striking his side.
Blood spilled.
But the masked man roared.
He broke the lightning chains through sheer force.
"Nether Crushing Step!"
He vanished and reappeared before Han Wei.
A palm strike slammed into Han Wei's chest.
Han Wei was sent flying into the cavern wall, coughing blood.
Lan Jian forced himself up again.
"Ice Dragon Shatter!"
A spiraling frost spear formed in his hands and shot forward—
The masked man smashed it aside with brute force.
He moved again.
This time—
Toward Ling Yue.
She blocked once.
Twice.
On the third exchange—
"Void Shattering Palm!"
The strike landed.
Her guard collapsed.
She was thrown backward violently.
Her sword scraped across stone as she landed on one knee.
Blood dripped from the corner of her lips.
Lan Jian attempted to rise—
But his legs trembled.
He could not stand fully.
Han Wei pushed himself up—
Only to collapse again.
The masked man walked forward slowly.
"So this is Ling Yue."
His voice carried mockery.
"Daughter of Ling Tianyuan of Heavenly Radiance Sect."
Ling Yue's breathing faltered.
"You know my father?"
He laughed softly.
"Of course. Once powerful. Now declining. Your family weakens year by year."
He stepped closer.
"Even your father struggles to maintain authority."
The words struck harder than the blows.
Memories surged.
Whispers among elders.
Comparisons.
Expectation.
Doubt.
Ling Yue's fingers tightened around her sword hilt.
The blade trembled.
Not from fear—
From fury.
The masked man stopped a few steps before her.
"You are nothing but the fading shadow of your lineage."
Silence filled the tunnel.
Ling Yue slowly planted her sword into the ground.
Using it—
She lifted her chin, blood still on her lips, eyes blazing with unyielding pride.
"You don't get to decide who I become."
Her grip on the sword tightened as spiritual energy trembled around her fragile yet unbroken frame.
And in that shattered cavern beneath the mountain, destiny held its breath—
Because what awaited them next would change everything for both of them.
End of Chapter 20...