The descent into the Yin Hollow felt different this time. Before, it was a terrifying drop into the dark. Now, it felt like walking into a personal bank vault.
Ji Han landed on the ice. His heavy Bastion Plate crunched against the surface, but the ice held. It was thick—meters of frozen, supercooled water that had turned into a substance closer to quartz than liquid.
He walked past the frozen statues of the Myriapods he had already looted. They were hollow shells now, mined out for their meat.
He reached the center.
The Yin Spirit Pearl pulsed below his feet, embedded two meters deep in the clearest, hardest ice. The blue light it emitted was hypnotic, casting long, dancing shadows against the stalactites above.
"System check," Ji Han whispered.
[Environment: Absolute Zero Zone.] [Warning: Cold Intensity exceeds Passive Resistance.] [Warning: Qi Stagnation imminent.]
Even with Cold Resistance 50%, Ji Han felt his joints stiffening. The grease in his armor joints was thickening. His breath turned to snow the instant it left his helmet.
"Two meters," Ji Han calculated. "Through Spirit Ice."
He raised the Frost-Iron War Pick. The weapon hummed. It was made of this environment; it wanted to be here.
CRACK.
He struck the ice. It didn't shatter like glass; it chipped like diamond. A tiny shard flew off, cutting his cheek. The wound didn't bleed; it froze instantly.
"Harder."
Ji Han channeled his Level 3 Qi. The grey vortex in his core spun, sending waves of power into his arms.
BOOM.
The pick bit deep.
For hours, the hollow rang with the sound of the heist. Ji Han worked with a terrifying, mechanical rhythm. He didn't stop to rest; if he stopped, his sweat would freeze and weld his armor to his skin.
One meter down. The cold was now biting through his Iron Skin. His eyebrows were frosted white.
Two meters down. He was standing in a pit of ice, the Pearl glowing just inches away.
It was the size of a fist, swirling with milky white mists inside a sapphire shell. It didn't look solid; it looked like a storm trapped in a marble.
Ji Han reached out.
[Warning: Do not touch with bare skin.]
He didn't listen. He didn't have tongs. He activated his Isopod Gauntlet, the heavy leather and claw plating acting as insulation.
He grabbed the Pearl.
WHOOSH.
The reaction was instant. The Pearl sensed the heat of his hand—even through the glove—and retaliated. A pulse of absolute cold shot up his arm. The leather of his gauntlet turned white, then cracked. The frost raced up his elbow, bypassing his armor, seeking his heart.
"Suppress!" Ji Han roared.
He didn't fight the cold with heat; he didn't have enough Yang. He fought it with capacity.
He opened his meridians. He let the freezing energy flood in. But instead of letting it freeze his blood, he dumped it into the grey vortex of his Level 3 Dantian.
Spin.
The vortex churned. It swallowed the Yin surge, mixing it with the Earth Qi and Iron Qi. It was like pouring liquid nitrogen into a cement mixer. It steamed, it groaned, but it held.
Ji Han ripped the Pearl free from its pedestal.
The moment the Pearl left the stone pillar, the blue light in the cavern died. The glowing moss on the walls flickered and went dark.
The "battery" was gone.
A deep, groaning sound echoed from the walls. The ice beneath his boots shifted. Without the Pearl anchoring the temperature, the supernatural stability of the hollow was breaking.
"Time to go," Ji Han gasped, clutching the Pearl to his chest plate.
He scrambled out of the pit. He didn't walk; he ran. He sprinted across the ice, slipping and sliding, as hairline fractures began to race across the surface of the frozen pool.
He grabbed the rope. He hauled himself up, hand over hand, his heavy armor clanking against the shaft walls.
He tumbled onto the floor of the Granite Tunnel.
"Seal it!" he shouted to Lin Qinghe.
She was waiting. Together, they slammed the granite slab shut and hammered the wedges home.
Ji Han collapsed against the wall. He held the Pearl up. In the firelight of the tunnel, it looked innocuous. Just a pretty blue ball.
But the frost spreading across the floor where he sat told a different story.
"You got it," Lin Qinghe whispered, staring at the treasure. "The heart of the winter."
"Put it in a box," Ji Han chattered, his teeth clacking together. "Black Iron box. Lined with centipede fur. Hurry."
Lin Qinghe scrambled to the smithy corner. She grabbed a pre-made iron strongbox. She stuffed it with insulation. Ji Han dropped the Pearl inside.
CLANG.
She slammed the lid and locked it. The frost on the floor stopped spreading.
Ji Han lay there, breathing hard. He checked his internal state.
The surge of Yin energy he had absorbed to suppress the Pearl was sitting in his core. It wasn't digested yet. It was a cold, heavy lump.
"I need... to cultivate," Ji Han wheezed. "I need to digest this before the sun comes up."
"You have time," Lin Qinghe said, looking at the notches on the wall. "One month."
"One month," Ji Han closed his eyes. "Wake me when the rooster crows."
Time Skip: The Final Month of Night
The last month of the Long Night was peaceful. The Hive Mind, having lost its elite guards and sensing the shift in the seasons, had gone dormant deep in the earth. The surface winds howled, burying the tunnel entrance in ten feet of snow, but inside, the fire burned steady.
Ji Han sat in meditation. He slowly dissolved the lump of Yin energy, integrating it into his Grey Core.
His skin grew paler. His heartbeat slowed to four beats per minute. He was becoming something akin to the beasts he hunted—an apex predator adapted to the extreme.
And then, it ended.
Year 1, Month 12, Day 1.
The howling wind outside stopped.
The temperature in the tunnel rose by five degrees in an hour.
Ji Han opened his eyes. He stood up and walked to the upper door. He didn't need to check the time. He could feel it. The heavy, crushing weight of the Yang was returning.
"It's morning," Ji Han said.
He kicked the wedges out of the upper door. He shoved the slab open.
He tunneled through the snowdrift blocking the trench.
He emerged onto the surface.
The sky was no longer black. It was a bruised, vibrant violet. On the eastern horizon, a sliver of blinding white light was crowning the mountains.
The Sun was back.
The snow on the plains didn't melt slowly; it sublimated. Steam rose from the ground in massive, swirling clouds. The world was waking up, and it was angry.
Ji Han stood in the trench, shielding his eyes.
"One year," he whispered. "We survived one year."
Beside him, Lin Qinghe climbed out, blinking in the sudden light. She looked thin, worn, but alive.
"The Novice Barrier," she pointed.
Ji Han looked at the golden dome that covered their 1km territory.
[System Notification: Year 1 Complete.] [Time Dissonance Active: 6 Years Remaining.] [External Time Passed: 24 Hours.]
"One day for them," Ji Han said, gripping his Frost-Iron War Pick. "One year for us."
He looked at the steam rising from the thawing plains.
"The sun brings the heat," Ji Han said. "And the heat brings the plants. And the plants..."
"Bring the herbivores," Lin Qinghe finished. "And the herbivores bring the hunters."
The cycle was resetting. The "Winter Monsters" were retreating to the deep. The "Summer Monsters" were about to wake up.
Ji Han cracked his neck.
"Let them come," he said. "I have a pickaxe, and I'm Level 3."