"Frostsong…" Raine repeated the name instinctively, his fingers brushing over the empty scabbard. A sharp pang of loss washed over him, coupled with an illusion of icy touch. This sword was far more than just a weapon to him.
Hank's cloudy, one-eyed gaze flickered at the name. He muttered, "Frostsong… hss, that name sounds familiar…" He stumbled toward a corner of the clinic, buried under animal hides and dust. After rummaging for a long while, he dragged out a long, dirt-caked leather sheath. "That night, when the energy storm swept you here, this was stuck in the ground near you… hss… its energy readings were strange, so I took it with me first."
He yanked the sheath open, revealing a longsword. The blade was narrow and cast in a cold, pale blue, as if forged from millennia-old ice. Its sheen was now dull, and near the hilt, fine cracks traced across the steel. The grip was wrapped in faded, dark green vine-like decorations. The sword lay silently, yet exuded a subtle, melancholic chill.
The moment Raine gripped the hilt, a surge of bloodline connection shot through his entire body! The dormant blade trembled slightly, emitting an almost imperceptible hum. The cracks on the blade glimmered faintly with emerald light, seemingly responding to his touch. At the same time, the Life Seed mark on his left chest warmed slightly. A cool stream of energy tried to flow from his left arm toward the blade—but the Silent Mercury inside him severely hindered it, causing only a ripple.
"It… it's damaged," Raine said, his voice tinged with a pain even he hadn't noticed. He could feel the sword's spiritual sorrow and silent lament.
"A fine sword, but such a shame," Liana commented, her gaze shifting between the cracks and Raine's reaction. "A sentient weapon? Looks like it, like you, will need time to recover. Still, having one is better than none." She turned to Hank. "Master, what should we prepare for the mines? You know them best."
Hank's face darkened, twisted with disgust and fear. "There's no proper way to die for this!" he growled. "The depths of the mines… that's not a place! It's a living nightmare! The air itself melts your brain into mush! And don't get me started on…"
"That's exactly why we need to be fully prepared," Liana interrupted firmly. "Anti-corruption potions, mental protection runes, climbing gear, illumination… and maps. You surely have some old miner maps, even if just for the outskirts."
Hank glared at her, then at Raine, who was gripping Frostsong tightly with a determined gaze. Finally, he sighed in defeat and slumped into a chair like a withered tree stump. "Mad… all of you are mad…" he muttered, still trembling as he pointed toward a locked iron cabinet. "The bottom layer… that black iron box. Maps… and some notes left by the old folks. Hopefully, they'll help you survive a few more minutes."
Merry nimbly ran to fetch the box. Inside were several yellowed, brittle sheets of parchment, giving off a musty smell. Rough lines depicted a complex network of tunnels, many areas marked with traps long since inactive and collapsed passages. There were also scattered notes, handwriting sloppy and filled with fear: "Cryings beneath the third shaft…", "Do not trust the shadows on the walls…", "The red crystals move…"
Liana, seeing them as a treasure, immediately spread out the maps and took out her drawing tools to compare and mark them. Amber-colored eyes flickered with focused light. "The effect of Silent Mercury is unstable, and our time is limited. We must reach this suspected node area before the next Red Moon energy peak, which is midnight three days from now." She pointed at a section deep within the map, marked with a giant question mark and a twisted skull.
Over the next two days, the Gray Ash Town clinic became a tense pre-battle workshop.
Hank, wincing in heartache, opened his treasured herbal repository and brewed the finest Fortifying Wall Potions—capable of temporarily strengthening the body's resistance to corrupted energy; and prepared Calm Mind Sachets—giving off a pungent yet refreshing herbal scent, able to somewhat resist the whispers of the mind. But he repeatedly emphasized that how much these would help in the depths of the mine… only the heavens knew.
Merry was in charge of checking and preparing equipment: ropes reinforced with Deep Diver tendons, lanterns embedded with faintly glowing moss, sharpened chiseling tools… she even somehow managed to find two sets of relatively fitted old leather armor, full of patches, yet soaked in anti-corruption solutions.
Liana was the busiest. She spent most of her time in her caravan, from which occasional strange energy pulses and faint metallic scraping sounds emerged. Using the concentrated corrupted energy crystals extracted from Buck, along with some rare materials she brought, she was urgently modifying and enchanting certain items. She prepared several Demon-Repelling Talismans for Raine—able to deflect energy attacks to a certain degree for a short time; she also modified some Holy Light Needles · Anti-Evil Type, making them cause extra damage to shadow creatures.
But the most important preparations were happening on the energetic level.
Once, when Raine tried to more precisely control the suppressed energy within him, in order to gently nurture the cracks on Frostsong, Liana stopped him.
"Silent Mercury is both hindering you and protecting you. Blindly forcing it will only accelerate its failure." She paused for a moment, then suddenly said, "Perhaps… you can try to feel the way my energy flows."
Raine looked at her with a puzzled expression. Liana extended her finger, and at the fingertip, a faint platinum-and-white dual-colored stream of energy condensed. This energy carried the sanctity of the Dawn Clergy, yet also contained a hint of predatory coldness. "Watch closely."
She gently touched the fingertip to a metal ingot prepared for enchantment. The next second, the faint terrestrial energy contained within the ingot (an inert magical energy) was forcibly drawn out, flowing along her fingertip into her body. Her body tensed slightly; after circulating once through her body, the energy exited from another fingertip, but it had become more condensed and tamed, and she precisely infused it into the core of a talisman.
"Energy deprivation, preliminary purification, guided reshaping." Sweat beaded on Liana's forehead—clearly, this process was also a heavy burden for her. "This is my 'withered' path. The power within you is far more complex and stronger than mine, but perhaps… you can learn from this idea of 'guiding' rather than forcibly 'controlling'. The power of your Life Seed naturally leans toward nurturing and growth. Perhaps you can try using it as a 'riverbed' to guide other, more violent forces, even if only a very faint trace."
Raine considered this. He closed his eyes, no longer attempting to forcibly break through the blockade of Silent Mercury, but instead let his consciousness sink into his body. He no longer saw the jade energy, the draconic power, and the crystalline energy as wild horses to be tamed, but imagined them as three frozen rivers of distinct natures.
He began to attempt, using the innate, most subtle "nurturing" intention of the Life Seed—like spring sunlight melting ice—extremely slowly and carefully guiding a barely perceptible strand of mixed energy (mainly the relatively gentle Life Seed energy, interspersed with a trace amount of crystalline energy) toward his right arm.
The process was extremely arduous, like trying to guide a flood with a thread. The obstruction from Silent Mercury was everywhere; the crystalline energy was especially unruly, and even a slight misstep could trigger a small-scale energy disorder, causing needle-like, intense pain.
But after several failures, a miracle happened. When he successfully guided this extremely faint strand of mixed energy to his fingertip and attempted to inject it into the tiniest crack on Frostsong, the crack actually began to close—visible to the naked eye! Although the entire process was agonizingly slow, mentally exhausting, and could not be used frequently (as it would accelerate the failure of Silent Mercury), it undoubtedly pointed in a clear direction!
Liana watched nervously the entire time. When she saw the success, a brilliant light suddenly burst in her amber eyes: "You did it! Although crude, this proves my hypothesis! Your Life Seed is an excellent stabilizer and guide! This may be the key reason you can withstand multiple alien powers without collapsing immediately!"
She appeared even more excited than Raine: "If we can find a way to enhance this 'guiding' property, perhaps… someday in the future, you won't just control them—you might truly 'fuse' them!"
Just as the two of them felt a spark of exhilaration from this tiny breakthrough, Merri ran into the caravan, panicked.
"Old Hank! He… he's not right!"
The two of them rushed back to the clinic, only to see Hank curled up in a corner, clutching his head tightly, his body trembling violently, letting out suppressed, agonized groans. His one eye was bloodshot, his gaze unfocused, fixed intently on the crimson moon slowly rising outside the window.
"…Whispers… again…" he rasped intermittently, "…they're calling me… to the mine… to return… red blood…"
Liana's face changed immediately, and she stepped forward to examine him: "It's deep psychic resonance! His brain has been exposed long-term to Red Blood Crystals and corrupted energy, creating a pathological link! As the Crimson Moon's energy grows stronger, the whispers become irresistible!"
She immediately pulled out silver needles, preparing to perform a technique to calm his mind.
But Raine stopped her. He looked at Hank writhing in pain, and in his mind, the image of Liana draining Bark's energy flashed, along with his own recent success in the subtle energy guidance.
A dangerous and bold thought arose.
"Let me try," Raine said, his voice calm yet carrying an unmistakable sense of authority.
Liana looked at him in astonishment: "You? Your energy is sealed by Silent Mercury, and this requires extremely high precision…"
"I know." Raine crouched down. He did not try to mobilize the main powers that were blocked, but instead focused all his attention on the Life Seed mark on his left chest, activating the most fundamental, tiniest instinct of "drawing" and "nourishing"—not an attack, but the most basic demand of life itself.
He placed his left hand, which emitted a faint jade glow, gently on Hank's forehead, veins bulging.
There was no violent energy impact—only an extremely subtle force, soft and gentle, like plant roots drawing moisture. Raine closed his eyes, sensing with all his might. He "saw" the filthy whispers from the Crimson Moon entrenched in Hank's mind—they wriggled like countless tiny blood-colored worms, gnawing at his sanity.
The power of the Life Seed instinctively rejected this "poison."
Raine carefully guided that strand of drawing force, like using the thinnest silk thread to fish, extremely slowly, little by little, "adhering" and "peeling off" the blood-colored "worms" from Hank's mind.
This process was even more difficult and dangerous than repairing Frostsong, requiring unimaginable concentration and control. Sweat rolled down Raine's forehead; his fingers trembled slightly.
After several minutes, Hank's trembling gradually subsided, his breathing steadied, and his gaze cleared, though he was extremely exhausted.
Raine's left palm had condensed a grain-of-rice-sized, constantly writhing, malice-emitting dark red energy spot—that was the materialized form of the psychic corruption he had removed.
Liana immediately contained and sealed it in a specially made container. She looked at the exhausted Raine and the now-normal Hank, her eyes filled with awe.
"…The Withering Healer…" she whispered, this time with a completely new meaning.
Raine looked at his left hand, feeling that strange, subtle emptiness left after the act of drawing. He did not feel discomfort; instead, there was a… peculiar calm. It was as if this very act of "drawing" was inherently part of his power.
Outside the window, the crimson moonlight grew increasingly eerie.
The entrance to the mine, like the gaping maw of a ravenous beast leading to hell, awaited their arrival. Meanwhile, the dormant power within Raine seemed to ripple faintly, stirred by this brief act of "withering."