Three days. Enough to turn the world upside down.
The scars of Dragon Spine Valley were still raw. Hundreds of kilometers away, deep within the snow-capped peaks encircling Coiling Dragon Vale, another miracle of construction neared completion. The roar of massive machinery was deliberately muted, replaced by the silent, hyper-efficient work of engineering battalions clad in powered exoskeletons. Steel skeletons rose from the stark contrast of pristine snow and bare, brown rock, their scale and structure dwarfing any existing human edifice. It no longer sought grandeur above ground. Like a slumbering behemoth, its vast bulk was driven deep into the mountain's heart, leaving only mountain-disguised blast doors and energy shield emitters visible on the surface.
This was the nascent hope – the prototype of "Life Ark" Base One. Guided by Chu Xuan's "Reclaimer's Memorandum," and tempered by the harsh lessons of Dragon Spine Valley's geological disaster, the new site avoided major spiritual leylines. Instead, it perched cunningly at the confluence of several secondary veins. The energy was gentler, the geology more stable, and crucially, it was closer to the hidden "spiritual nodes" marked in Chu Xuan's notes.
Now, beneath the largest, still-unsealed dome structure at the base's core, a colossal spiritual energy matrix was being laid. Not circuits or runes, but blocks of crystalline spirit stones, their cores pulsing with liquid light, embedded into special alloy bases in an impossibly complex geometric topology. At the matrix's heart lay a circular platform.
Elder Qin stood on a temporary command platform, overlooking the frantic scene below. Icy wind whipped snow against his wrinkled face, yet he felt no cold, only a near-combustible tension. Seventy-two hours of sleepless, all-out national effort had birthed this barely functional stage.
"Spiritual Matrix 'Heart Furnace' charge status?" Elder Qin's voice rasped, scanning the data streams on a nearby holographic screen.
"97.3%! Projected to reach critical stability thirty minutes pre-ceremony!" The tech lead's voice held exhaustion, but more so, fervor. "Energy conduits linked to Life Support! Signal sync calibrated! Global broadcast feed… forcibly overridden on all major media platforms. Resistance from key Western networks… physically suppressed by 'Weaver' system."
"Chu Xuan?" Elder Qin's gaze shifted towards a heavily guarded passage deep within the base.
"Consciousness fluctuations stable. Survival signal intensifying. Confirmed reception of ceremony coordinate guidance." Lin Weiwei's voice came through the comms, calm but tight. "'Nirvana' serum administered. Efficacy will maintain minimal bodily function and… limb coordination during the ceremony. But Elder Qin…" She paused. "The serum's side effects amplify his senses. Pain… and shame. The psychological impact of a global broadcast… will be hellish."
Elder Qin nodded grimly. Nirvana Serum. Trading potential and agony for fleeting mobility. The only way to make a dying man dance. The cost… he dared not contemplate.
"Perimeter defenses deployed! Any airborne or ground target threatening the ceremony will be annihilated on approach!" Zhao Qiming's voice was iron and blood. "'Dragon's Tooth' units in position. Inner ring secured by 'Thunderclap' mecha squadrons – absolute protection!" He referred to the first-generation rune-etched mechs, hastily repaired after Dragon Spine, their surfaces still scarred by fire and fissures.
All was ready. Awaiting only the fateful "performance."
Linhai City, Western Suburbs, Bunker Safe Point
The air in the maximum-security isolation ward hung thick as frozen lead. Chen Mo remained unconscious, but beneath his left eyelid, a faint, unstable cyan light flickered like a dying firefly. The "Silent Shackles" restraint system covering him pulsed with cold radiance, its force field locked at 300% theoretical maximum – pressure sufficient to crush a main battle tank into scrap.
Stone stood at the observation window, his bronze features hardened further by the restraint field's eerie glow. He held a freshly decrypted Kunlun briefing – fragmented words about the "Coiling Dragon Vale Ceremony" and its mind-bending core plan.
"Global broadcast… dancing… that?" Night Owl, the sharp-featured intelligence analyst beside him, couldn't control the twitch in his lip, his worldview taking a nuclear hit. "To… collect shame energy? Break a genetic lock? Is… is this even science?"
"Since when has anything about him been 'science'?" Stone rumbled, his gaze fixed on the flickering cyan light under Chen Mo's eyelid. "Corpse Ghouls in Qinling. The frozen anomaly. Him… power beyond rules. Our 'common sense' might just be tools at their level." He brandished the briefing. "Kunlun is betting lives on a future. We here…" He looked at Chen Mo. "…are sitting on a bomb that could detonate any second."
Suddenly, a shrill alarm shrieked inside the ward! The gauge measuring the "Silent Shackles" loadout spiked violently! Simultaneously, the cyan light under Chen Mo's eyelid flared blindingly bright, like a miniature spotlight! A beam far more solid, far colder than before, ignored the crushing force field, spearing instantly through the ward's ceiling!
"Report! 'Abyssal Watcher' energy signature spiking! Restraint field load at 325%! Climbing!" The monitor's voice was laced with terror.
"Vector!" Stone barked.
A holographic map flashed up. A stark blue trajectory lanced from the bunker safe point, ignoring the planet's curvature like a thrown javelin, its target unmistakable – the Roof of the World, Mount Everest!
At the same instant!
Kunlun Base, "Celestial Artifice" Lab.
Deafening alarms drowned out all instruments.
"WARNING! WARNING! 'Zhen Yue' Sword contaminant activity index spiking! Energy radiation exceeding historical maximum!"
"WARNING! High-frequency energy oscillations detected within sword's glacial fracture network! Suspected… resonance?!"
"Resonance source locked! Coordinates: 27°59'17" N, 86°55'31" E… Southern slope of Mount Everest! Altitude approx. 7800 meters!"
Academician Zhou lunged to the observation window. Inside the isolation field, the massive, dark cyan sword was emitting a deep, resonant hum! Within the intricate network of icy cracks on its blade, foul, dark crimson light pulsed like awakened veins, throbbing in time with the hum! A savage, bloodthirsty aura, ancient and primal, seeped through the powerful field, making every heart pound erratically!
Everest! Everest again!
Mount Everest, Southern Slope, 7800m, "Death Zone".
The wind was a billion icy knives, hurling grit-hard snow pellets, howling like tormented spirits in the thin air. Pressure crushed lungs; each breath a desperate gasp from frozen tissue. Visibility was less than ten meters, a white void of sheer ice walls and snow-shrouded, bottomless crevasses.
A six-person international research team was trapped in this lifeless hell. Their mission: a final, secret multinational push to map Earth's unknowns before the "Ten Thousand Realms" invasion. Now, their cutting-edge gear was mostly dead weight.
"Huff… Huff… Captain! Signal… still… nothing!" A mummified figure, goggles frosted, yelled against the gale. His portable satellite terminal showed only static, a futile red SOS icon blinking.
Captain Li Weiguo, a veteran mountaineer and geologist, stood grim-faced, lips purple, eyes filled with unprecedented dread and a sliver of… despair. He stared at his multi-function wrist unit. Communications dead. Altimeter and barometer readings spiked wildly like a dying man's EKG.
"Not… equipment!" Li roared, voice shredded by wind. "This area… space… energy field… total chaos! We're… trapped… in an energy storm's eye!" He looked up into the thick snow clouds above, where instruments had last pinpointed the anomaly before failing.
Three days prior, they'd reached this altitude per plan, setting up the final observation post. Then, yesterday evening, without warning, the very space around the southern slope seemed to ripple violently, like water struck by a stone. Communications died instantly. All delicate instruments failed. The magnetic field scrambled so badly even a simple compass spun wildly. Worse, temperatures plummeted twenty degrees Celsius in mere hours! A savage ice storm descended out of nowhere, trapping them on this tiny ice ledge.
"Food… fuel… less than… 48 hours…" The logistics officer's voice trembled on the edge of tears. Hypothermia, hypoxia, exhaustion – death hung like an icicle over their heads.
"L-look… look there!" The youngest member, a Nepalese Sherpa guide named Sangye, pointed a trembling, frostbitten finger towards a large, half-buried ice couloir to their right, his voice warped by terror.
They followed his gaze, hearts seized by an icy fist.
Within the swirling snow mist, twisted, translucent shapes coalesced! Not solid, but like concentrated, soul-freezing wind and snow given form! Their outlines blurred, ghostly figures draped in cloaks of ice crystals, sliding and spinning soundlessly through the maelstrom. Where they passed, the air crackled sharply, leaving trails of instantly formed and shattered ice crystals! A wave of pure, unadulterated cold – a conceptual spear of absolute zero – slammed into their minds!
Fear! Primal, uncontrollable terror froze them solid. Souls felt encased in ice!
"S-Snow Specters?!" Li Weiguo stammered, ancient local horror tales flashing through his mind. Not beasts, not monsters… cold incarnate! Manifestations birthed by this chaotic energy field? Or… vanguard scouts of an alien invasion?!
One of the translucent shapes seemed to "sense" them. Its indistinct, vortex-like "head" slowly turned towards the research team. No eyes, yet all felt a gaze colder than the void lock onto them!
Huummm!
An invisible wave of glacial force erupted!
CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!
The ancient ice beneath the team fractured like spiderwebbed glass! One member screamed as the ice underfoot gave way, plummeting into the abyss!
"GRAB HIM!" Li lunged, hand outstretched, grasping only freezing air!
Despair, thick as Everest's ice, drowned the remaining five.
Kunlun Base, Coiling Dragon Vale Command Center.
The holographic sand table zoomed in on the Everest region. The trajectory of Chen Mo's cyan energy beam and the dark crimson resonance marker from the "Zhen Yue" sword converged like twin poisoned needles precisely on the southern slope at 7800 meters!
"Everest research team missing! Last distress signal origin… confirmed within that energy anomaly!" The intelligence officer's voice was urgent. "Based on fragmented pre-blackout data and 'Weaver' remote scans… initial assessment: unknown high-dimensional energy lifeforms activated by the anomalous field! Characteristics… highly consistent with 'Absolute Cold Elementals' – Snow Specters – described in ancient texts and data leaks from spatial weak points! Their 'Absolute Zero Domain' and 'Soul-Freeze' effect caused the blackout and equipment failure!"
"Specters?" Elder Qin stared at the deep-blue zone marking extreme cold and chaotic energy on the sand table, face grim. Disaster upon disaster! The Coiling Dragon Vale ceremony loomed, Chu Xuan hung by a thread, and now mythical horrors on Everest! And the abnormal resonance pointing Chen Mo and the sword there…
"Energy level assessment!" Zhao Qiming demanded.
"Initial estimate… individual Specter energy equivalent to… peak Qi Refinement stage! But they appear… hive-minded! Fields amplify each other! That zone… is a mobile, Great Perfection Qi Refinement-level Absolute Zero Domain! And…" The officer's voice held a tremor. "'Weaver' detected an extremely faint… life signal deep within the energy core! Energy signature… unlike any known Earth lifeform! Profoundly restrained… terrifyingly potent… and… ice-locked!"
An ice-locked, powerful lifeform? Elder Qin and Academician Zhou exchanged a look of profound unease. Could it be… an entity from beyond, fallen through an early spatial rift as hinted in Chu Xuan's notes? Or… something far older?
"How long until the Coiling Dragon Vale ceremony?" Elder Qin snapped towards Lin Weiwei.
"One hour, forty-seven minutes!" Lin Weiwei watched the countdown, palms slick. Chu Xuan couldn't afford delay.
"The Everest team doesn't have that time!" Zhao Qiming stated flatly. "The Specters' field is expanding! If it fully stabilizes, or that frozen entity awakens… consequences are unthinkable! Immediate action is required!"
Rescue? How? 7800 meters on Everest! Death Zone! Chaotic energy storm! Specters! Ground rescue? Suicide! Air support? Any aircraft entering that turbulent energy field and Absolute Zero Domain risked instant engine freeze and catastrophic crash!
The command center plunged into tomblike silence. Time bled away. The Everest team's life signals flickered like dying embers. The Coiling Dragon Vale countdown marched on relentlessly.
"I'll go."
The voice was cold, grating, like sandpaper on stone. It echoed through the comms channel.
Everyone jolted, eyes snapping to the main screen. The source – Life Support Center!
Inside the regeneration pod, Chu Xuan's eyes were open! They still held the gray pallor of near-death, but deep within the pupils burned twin embers of dark fire! The Nirvana Serum raged through him, forcibly driving back some of the petrification curse's stiffness and chill, but bringing with it agony like ten thousand ants devouring his bones and senses sharpened to excruciating levels. He had clearly "heard" everything about Everest!
His holographic image appeared on screen – face bone-white, jawline still etched in gray stone. He tried to move his left arm, confined in the pod. The stone-gray fingers flexed stiffly, scraping faintly. A weak but overwhelmingly domineering suction centered on his left hand caused the pod's energy readings to momentarily fluctuate.
"I… need… a warm-up." Chu Xuan's voice was fractured, each word forced through clenched teeth, carrying the serum's artificial strength and indescribable torment. "Devouring… those Specters' 'Frost Cores'… can… suppress… Nirvana's… burning… and… replenish… the ceremony's… 'kindling'…"
His "kindling" was the "Extreme Sentiment" needed to shatter the genetic lock! The global broadcast of shame was the main course, but the fragments of pure "cold" and "terror" released upon the death of these high-dimensional energy lifeforms were potent "appetizers"! They could prime his Devourer Physique, pre-heat a body tortured by both petrification and serum!
More crucially, he had "heard" the faint signal of the ice-locked entity! An instinctual, ravenous craving roared from the depths of his Devourer soul! That thing… was useful!
Elder Qin stared into those darkly burning eyes on the screen. Madman! Utter madman! To voluntarily charge into the dragon's den of the Death Zone when already on the brink of collapse, moments before a gamble for humanity's future! But he knew Chu Xuan's decisions were never reckless!
"Your odds?" Elder Qin's voice was parchment-dry.
"Fifty-fifty… coming back alive." Chu Xuan's lips twisted into a grimace more agonized than a smile. "But… if I don't… they… die. My… ceremony… success chance… drops."
Fifty-fifty! Gambling his already slender thread of life for others!
"Approved!" Elder Qin slammed the console, eyes bloodshot, voice ragged with desperate fervor. "Zhao Qiming! Activate 'Kuafu' Protocol! Clear… his path!"
"Thunderclap Squadrons! Target: Everest Southern Slope! Escort mission! Ensure Advisor Chu reaches the target zone!" Zhao Qiming wasted no breath, his iron command echoing through the base. "Repeat! All costs! Clear the path… for Advisor Chu!"
Three minutes later.
Deep within Coiling Dragon Vale Base, a specialized vertical launch silo rumbled open.
A heavily armored, snow-camouflaged rune-mech, larger and more imposing than its first-gen brethren (designation "Thunderclap-Zero"), ignited its dorsal thrusters. Blue-white plasma fire roared, catapulting it skyward like a meteor breaking free! Strapped securely in the chest cockpit, Chu Xuan's face was a death mask. His body trembled from serum agony and crushing G-forces. But his eyes, burning with dark fire, remained locked on the holographic screen displaying the rapidly receding Kunlun peaks and the rushing clouds.
Behind him, three slightly smaller but equally lethal rune-mechs ("Thunderclap" 1-3) formed a protective delta, engines screaming as they tore through the sky!
Target: Everest! Death Zone!
Target: Snow Specters! Ice-Locked Entity!
Target: Before dancing that cursed jig, devour the cold and the terror of the Roof of the World!