Chapter 10: The Silver Shadow
The air inside the hidden room was so cold it felt brittle, as if the very atmosphere could shatter if Ye Jun spoke too loudly. The silver-haired boy, who appeared no more than six years old, sat amidst a pile of spirit-stones that had been drained of their luster, turned into translucent husks by his voracious appetite for Qi.
"Sister... she's very cold," the boy whispered. His eyes, a haunting shade of violet-blue, were fixed on Su Yan's unconscious form.
Ye Jun felt a pang of empathy that bypassed his usual caution. He recognized that look. It was the look of a child who had been told his very existence was a crime. "She's resting, little one. My name is Ye Jun. I'm her... assistant."
"Assistant?" The boy tilted his head, a small puff of frost escaping his lips. "Sister doesn't have assistants. She says people are 'thorns in the snow'."
"I'm a different kind of thorn," Ye Jun said, moving closer.
As he crossed the threshold of the boy's aura, the Earthen Core Physique within him groaned under the pressure. The gravity in this room was distorted by the sheer density of the child's frost energy. This wasn't just Pure Glacial Moon Body; this was the Absolute Zero Spirit Root, a physique so rare it was said to appear only once every thousand years. If the Sect Leader found out, the boy would be taken away to be used as a living battery for the sect's grand array.
"Master," the cauldron's voice was uncharacteristically somber. "The child is a leak in the heavens. He is pouring out essence that his small body cannot generate. Su Yan has been using her own life-force to plug the hole, but she is at her limit."
Ye Jun knelt. He could feel the golden Chaos Spark in his heart trembling. It wanted to consume the cold, but it also wanted to shield the child.
"I need you to trust me," Ye Jun said, holding out his hand. He didn't use the Frost-Fire Qi this time. Instead, he reached into the First Chamber and pulled out a single leaf from the Star-Silk Herb he had grown. The leaf glowed with a gentle, starlight-tinted warmth.
The boy looked at the leaf, his small nose wrinkling. "It smells like... morning."
"Eat it. It will help you hold your breath," Ye Jun urged.
As the boy tentatively took the leaf and chewed, Ye Jun turned his attention to Su Yan. Her pulse was a thready, frozen beat. He placed one hand on the boy's shoulder and the other on Su Yan's forehead.
"Cauldron," Ye Jun commanded in his mind. "Use me as the bridge."
THUMP.
The world vanished. Ye Jun's consciousness was pulled into a void where two massive storms were clashing. One was a blizzard of jagged ice (Su Yan), and the other was an abyss of silent, absolute cold (the boy). They were feeding off each other in a deadly feedback loop.
Ye Jun threw himself into the center of the storm. He unleashed the Chaos Spark, allowing it to expand until it became a golden barrier between the two siblings. He wasn't trying to suppress them; he was trying to synchronize them.
Refine the frost. Temper the fire.
He began to chant the words from the Frost-Fire Manual, but he adapted them. He used his Earthen Core to provide a "ground"—a place for the excess energy to drain into. That "place" was the Third Chamber of the cauldron.
In the real world, Ye Jun's body began to steam. His skin turned a deep, angry red as the friction of the two energies passed through him. Beads of sweat evaporated before they could even form.
Minutes felt like hours. In the dilated time of his mind, he spent what felt like three days holding the two storms apart, slowly weaving their jagged edges into a smooth, circular flow.
Suddenly, the tension snapped.
The boy let out a long, peaceful sigh and slumped over, falling into a deep, natural sleep. The translucent blue glow of his skin faded to a healthy paleness.
At the same moment, Su Yan's eyes fluttered open.
The first thing she saw was Ye Jun's face, inches from hers. He looked exhausted, his hair damp and his black robes singed at the edges. But his eyes—the gold and the blue—were steady.
"You..." Su Yan gasped, her voice no longer a shard of ice, but a soft, human sound. She looked past him to her brother. "Ning'er?"
"He's asleep," Ye Jun said, his voice a dry rasp. He sat back on his heels, his hands shaking slightly. "He's stable for now. But you've been feeding him your heart-blood, Elder. If you keep that up, you won't live to see him grow up."
Su Yan sat up slowly, clutching her chest. The killing chill that had haunted her for years had been replaced by a lingering, golden warmth. She looked at Ye Jun, and for the first time, the "Ice Phoenix" mask didn't just crack; it fell away entirely.
"His name is Su Ning," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears she had refused to shed for a decade. "Our parents were killed because of his birth. I've kept him in this room for six years. I thought... I thought I was the only one who could keep him alive."
"You were," Ye Jun said. "But now you have an assistant."
Su Yan looked at him—really looked at him. She saw the "trash" disciple who had survived the graveyard, who had robbed the Law Hall, and who had just done the impossible by stabilizing an Absolute Zero physique.
"Why?" she asked. "Why help us? You could have used this secret to blackmail me. You could have taken my titles, my resources..."
Ye Jun stood up, his joints popping. He looked at the small, rusted cauldron at his waist, then back at her.
"Because the dirt is a lonely place, Elder Su," he said softly. "And I think you've spent enough time in the cold."
The moment of vulnerability was broken by a sharp, rhythmic tapping on the outer window of the pavilion. It was a messenger bird—a silver-winged crane used only by the Sect Leader's Office.
Su Yan's face instantly regained its composure, though her eyes remained soft as she looked at Ye Jun. She stood up, smoothing her robes, and went to the window to retrieve the scroll.
As she read it, her brow furrowed.
"What is it?" Ye Jun asked.
"The Sect Gathering has been moved forward," Su Yan said, her voice turning grim. "It starts in three days. And the Law Hall has petitioned the Sect Leader to have you participate in the Trial of the Seven Stars."
Ye Jun's eyes narrowed. "The Trial of the Seven Stars? Isn't that for Inner Court elites?"
"It is a survival trial in the Forbidden Mist Forest," Su Yan said. "They can't prove you robbed the warehouse, so they want the forest to kill you for them. If you refuse, you lose your Alchemist rank. If you accept..."
"I accept," Ye Jun said, a cold smile touching his lips.
The Forbidden Mist Forest was full of the one thing he needed most: Unclaimed Herbs.
"But before we go," Ye Jun added, "I'm going to need a lot more spirit-stones. I have a second chamber that needs to become a nursery for your brother."