The absolute silence of the Silent Under-basins was broken only by the sharp, metallic crunch of ice.
At the entrance of the dark limestone passage, the shattered remains of the third elite guard lay scattered across the wet stones, reduced to a thousand glittering, blue-white crystals. There was no blood, no warmth, and no breath—only the freezing residue of a Frost Qi so pure that it had crystallized the man's meridians and soul in a single, silent heartbeat.
"Show yourself!" Alliance Master Heishui roared, his voice bouncing off the damp limestone walls in a series of deep, booming echoes.
His burly frame surged forward, his boots splashing through a shallow pool of freezing water. With a violent sweep of his arm, his black crescent blade cleaved the damp air. A massive, corruptive wave of dark-water Qi erupted from the glowing green runes of the heavy iron saber, crashing against the stone wall where the surprise attack had originated. The limestone wall shattered, showering the dark passage with sharp gravel and wet clay, but the strike met nothing but empty air and cold mist.
Beside him, Investigator Zhou was already retreating three steps, his segmented iron whip held high, the pale soul-binding runes etched along its metal links clinking in the damp wind. His eyes were wide, his pupils dilated as he scanned the pitch-black crevices of the ceiling.
"Master, keep the formation!" Zhou shouted, his voice carrying a rare edge of anxiety. "Do not disperse! The culprit is utilizing the caverns to mask their presence. Their stealth is too high!"
The remaining four elite guards immediately closed ranks, backing into a tight, defensive square. They were all experienced Core Formation cultivators who had fought through the rogue channels of the northern swamps, yet their hands trembled slightly as they held their sabers. The ambient temperature was plummeting with terrifying speed, their exhaled breath turning into thick, white plumes that hung suspended in the stagnant air.
Heishui lowered his heavy saber, the green light of its runes illuminating the scarred, furious lines of his face. His divine sense was expanded to the absolute limit, his peak Core Force rolling through the tunnels in a desperate search.
Yet, he felt absolutely nothing.
To his spiritual sense, the surrounding tunnels were completely empty. There was no heartbeat, no warmth, and no movement of Qi. The Silent Under-basins felt like a dead world, a massive stone tomb that was slowly freezing from the inside out.
"He cannot have vanished," Heishui muttered, his small eyes scanning the dark tunnels that branched off into the deep earth. "Even a master of stealth must leave a ripple of Qi when they move. They are faking a lower realm to play tricks. Keep your eyes on the passages. We move deeper."
"Master," Zhou whispered, his forehead beaded with cold sweat despite the freezing air. "The Silver-Eyed Falcon panicked in that copyist yard because it felt an absolute void. If the culprit possesses a soul state that can completely insulate their presence from your scan, we are blind in these tunnels. We should retreat to the surface and seal the cavern entrance with the county arrays."
"Retreat?" Heishui sneered, a vicious, stubborn pride flaring in his chest. "A half-step Spirit Manifestation master fleeing from a rat who dares not face me head-on? If we leave this cavern, they will slip away through the subterranean water veins, and the frost inheritance will be lost forever. If you are afraid, Zhou, you can go back and guard the boat. The rest of you, follow me!"
Without waiting for a reply, Heishui strode forward, his heavy black crescent blade resting on his shoulder, his peak Core Force aura forming a dull green dome that pushed the freezing mist away from his body.
Zhou clenched his jaw, his segmented iron whip clinking softly. He knew that returning alone through the dark tunnels was far more dangerous than staying near Heishui's blade. Grunting in frustration, he followed.
The search party moved deeper into the limestone maze, their heavy boots making almost no sound on the frozen stone paths. The air grew progressively thinner, smelling of old moss, wet clay, and the sharp, clean scent of frost. The natural tunnels split and merged repeatedly, creating a labyrinth of narrow crevices and flooded basins where the sound of dripping water echoed from a dozen directions at once, distorting all sense of distance.
Fang Lin watched them from the deep crevices of the vaulted ceiling, thirty meters above.
His dark robes merged perfectly with the cold limestone, and his breathing was non-existent. Wrapped within his Peak-Solid Soul State shroud, his spiritual presence was completely integrated with the stone around him. He felt the heavy, green pulses of Heishui's Core Force sweeping through the air, but the corruptive waves simply washed over his shroud like water over smooth glass, failing to register even a single ripple.
Fang Lin's gaze was cool and clinical as he observed the guards below.
The physical constraints of the narrow pathway had forced their defensive square to stretch out into a single, vulnerable line. Heishui was in the lead, followed by two guards, then Zhou, and finally the last two guards bringing up the rear. The gap between the third guard and Zhou was less than five meters, but in the dark, mist-filled tunnels, it felt like an abyss.
Fang Lin reached out, his finger pressing lightly against a large, hanging stalactite. A microscopic thread of his pure Frost Qi slipped into the stone, freezing the moisture within the hairline cracks of the limestone.
With a soft, dry crack, the heavy stalactite broke free.
It fell silently through the dark, crashing into the flooded basin to the right of the path with a loud, echoing splash.
"Who's there?" the lead guard shouted, instantly spinning around and firing a blast of fiery red Qi toward the water.
The sudden light of the fire illuminated the damp cavern walls for a brief second, casting long, twisting reflections across the stone. The sudden flare blinded the lookouts' eyes, their pupils contracting in the glare.
In that single second of distraction, Fang Lin dropped from the ceiling.
He landed behind the trailing guard without making a single sound. Before the man could even register the shift in the wind, Fang Lin's hand shot forward. His palm, backed by the unyielding strength of his parallel meridians, pressed flat against the guard's back.
The Will of Stillness flared.
A torrent of absolute, refined Frost Qi poured directly into the guard's spine. The freezing energy raced through his nervous system and meridians in a fraction of a second, extinguishing his internal heat and freezing his heart solid before it could beat again. The guard's eyes widened, turning a pale, milky blue as his body stiffened into a rigid block of ice.
Fang Lin caught the frozen cultivator by the shoulder, sliding him backward into a narrow, dark crevice as he retreated, vanishing back into the darkness.
By the time the fire Qi died down and the cavern returned to its grey gloom, the line of guards had closed the gap, unaware that their companion had vanished from the rear.
"Nothing but falling stone," Heishui growled, his voice tight. "Zhou, keep the tracking compass active. Do not let the dampness throw it off."
Zhou looked down at the silver compass in his hand. The needle was shaking violently, its cold blue light flickering as if confused by the ambient frost that saturated the entire cavern system. "The Frost Qi is everywhere, Master. It is as if the culprit is breathing through the very walls. The compass cannot pinpoint a direction."
They walked for another hundred meters before the path widened into a large, vaulted cavern chamber. The floor was covered in a deep, stagnant pool of black water, with only a few flat limestone slabs rising above the surface like stepping stones.
The fourth guard in the line, a lean cultivator named Wu, paused at the edge of the water. He turned back to check on his companion, only to find the dark passage behind him completely empty.
"Master..." Wu said, his voice trembling as he pointed at the empty dark. "Second Brother... he is gone."
The party halted instantly.
Heishui spun around, his small eyes widening as he stared at the empty space. His divine sense swept backward through the passage, but it found only the cold stone.
"When did he drop out?" Heishui hissed, his teeth bared in a snarl. "Zhou! Did you hear nothing?"
"Nothing," Zhou said, his voice dropping to a whisper, his segmented whip shaking. "There was no clash of Qi, no scream, and no warning. Master, we are being hunted. This culprit is not running away. They are isolating us."
"We are three Core Formation guards, Investigator Zhou, and the Alliance Master himself," Wu said, trying to bolster his own courage, though his pale face betrayed his fear. "We have the numerical advantage. If we stand back-to-back in this chamber, they cannot approach without crossing the water."
"He is right," the third guard agreed, stepping onto one of the flat limestone slabs. "The water is clear. If they try to swim or slide across, we will see the ripples."
Fang Lin stood in the deep gloom of a limestone pillar at the edge of the chamber, his feet resting lightly on the surface of the freezing water. His dark robes did not stir, and his presence remained completely hidden.
He looked at the three remaining guards standing on the limestone slabs. Their formations were tight, but their panic was growing. Panic made cultivators reckless, forcing them to rely on sudden, explosive moves that consumed their Qi.
Fang Lin closed his eyes, letting his Parallel Meridians hum with a low, resonant vibration. The pure Frost Qi inside his spiritual sea resonated with the natural cold of the under-basins, drawing the ambient moisture toward him.
Slowly, a thin layer of white mist began to roll off the black water, rising from the surface until it covered the limestone slabs in a dense, blinding shroud.
"The mist is rising!" Wu yelled, his sword cutting the air. "Clear it!"
The third guard unleashed a blast of wind Qi, trying to blow the mist away. But the cold draft of the cavern was too strong; the moment the mist was parted, it rolled back in even thicker, cold and heavy.
In the middle of the white shroud, a faint, cold whisper echoed from the left.
"Zhou Yan."
Zhou Yan was Investigator Zhou's true name, a name he had not used since he fled the northern sects a century ago. The sound of his name sent a freezing jolt of terror through his chest.
"Who are you?" Zhou screamed, his segmented iron whip cracking through the mist, shattering a limestone pillar into dust.
In the confusion of the echoing crash, Fang Lin struck.
He glided across the frozen surface of the water, his movements as silent as a drifting leaf. He appeared directly beside the third guard. The man sensed the sudden drop in temperature and tried to swing his sword, but Fang Lin was faster.
Fang Lin's fingers clamped onto the guard's wrist, the pure Frost Qi instantly freezing the muscles and bones of the man's arm. With a swift twist, Fang Lin shattered the frozen limb, and before the guard could scream, his other hand shot forward, his palm striking the man's chest.
The Will of Stillness erupted.
The guard's heart stopped instantly, his lungs turning to ice. Fang Lin released him, letting the frozen body slide into the black water without a splash.
"Third Brother!" Wu screamed, hearing the dry crack of bone. He fired a flurry of water needles through the mist, but they struck only the empty water.
Fang Lin was already behind the fourth guard.
He did not use a weapon. His hands, reinforced by the dense, three-path Qi of his parallel meridians, swept through the guard's defensive barriers. The guard tried to trigger his Core Force shield, but the absolute purity of Fang Lin's Frost Qi cut through the shield like a hot knife through tallow.
Fang Lin's hand closed over the guard's throat. With a cold, precise squeeze, the windpipe was crushed and frozen, the cold energy sealing the guard's throat before any sound could escape. The cultivator's eyes bulged, and he collapsed onto the stone slab, a silent, frozen corpse.
In less than twenty breaths, only Wu was left of the elite guards.
Wu turned to run, his feet slipping on the wet limestone. He lunged toward the passage that led back to the entrance, his heart pounding in his ears, his mind completely consumed by the need to escape the freezing tomb.
He did not see the dark figure waiting in the narrow archway.
Fang Lin stood in the center of the path, his dark outer robes damp with mist. As Wu rushed forward, Fang Lin stepped aside, his hand moving in a simple, downward arc. A thin blade of pure Frost Qi swept through the air, clean and silent.
The guard's momentum carried him forward two more steps before his legs froze solid and shattered, his body collapsing onto the cold stones, his life force dissolving into the freezing air.
The under-basins fell silent once more.
Inside the massive, vaulted chamber, the white mist slowly began to settle, leaving the black water clear and still.
Investigator Zhou and Alliance Master Heishui stood back-to-back on the central limestone slab. Surrounding them in the quiet water were the pale, frozen shapes of their elite guards—motionless statues of blue ice resting beneath the dark surface.
Heishui's breathing was heavy, his chest rising and falling as he gripped the hilt of his black crescent blade. The green runes along the steel were glowing fiercely, casting a corruptive, sickly light across the water, but the weapon felt cold and heavy in his hands. All five of his elite guards were gone, systematically executed without a single clash of weapons.
Zhou's hands were trembling so violently that the segmented links of his whip clinked against one another in a rapid, metallic chatter. He looked at the dark passages that surrounded the chamber, his eyes wild.
"They are dead," Zhou whispered, his voice cracking. "All of them. We are alone."
From the edge of the chamber, where the dark water met the limestone wall, the freezing white mist parted.
A young teenager in simple, damp outer disciple robes stepped onto the water. He did not sink; instead, the black water beneath his boots froze instantly into a thin sheet of blue ice with every step he took. His hood was pulled back, exposing his calm, pale face and his dark, quiet eyes that carried no warmth and no anger.
He looked at them as if they were already dead.
"You..." Heishui snarled, his scarred face twisting with a mixture of rage and terror. He raised his crescent blade, his peak Core Force expanding in a desperate wave. "You faked the shell of a mortal... Who are you?"
Fang Lin did not answer. He slowly raised his hands, the pure Frost Qi beginning to gather around his fingers like threads of silver light, his dark eyes locking onto the two remaining cultivators in the freezing silence.
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