The smoke from the "accidental" fire in the Broken Soul Pavilion had long cleared, leaving behind a lingering scent of burnt spirit oil and ozone. To the outside world, the pavilion remained a silent, forbidden zone where Old Man Qin conducted his eccentric and dangerous experiments. No one questioned the silence; in fact, the disciples of the Scarlet Cloud Sect avoided the area even more than usual, fearing the old man's legendary temper.
Hua Sui spent the following days in a state of hyper-focused preparation. He had cleared the bodies of Lin Wei and his lackeys, but the resources he had plundered from them—spirit stones and a few bottles of low-grade Qi-gathering pills—were only enough to sustain his current level. To truly break through the bottleneck of Rank 4 and reach the mid-stages of Qi Condensation, he needed something far more potent.
He needed the Cold Marrow Essence that Su Qing possessed.
Hua Sui sat at Old Man Qin's desk, staring at a blank piece of parchment made from spiritual bamboo. His hand was steady, but his mind was racing. He wasn't just a Pill Slave anymore; he was a weaver of fate, and the web he was spinning had to be flawless.
Using a specialized calligraphy brush and ink infused with a hint of Old Man Qin's residual Qi (which he had carefully preserved from the old man's spatial ring), Hua Sui began to write. He mimicked Qin's jagged, arrogant handwriting perfectly—a skill he had practiced in secret for years while the old man was in drunken stupors.
"Disciple Su," the letter began. "The Foundation-Consolidating Pill you requested is nearing completion. However, the 'Ice-Fire Equilibrium' has reached a delicate state. Your presence is required to provide a thread of your innate Cold Marrow Qi to stabilize the medicinal soul. Come alone at the hour of the Lunar Zenith. Do not inform the elders; the formula is... proprietary."
Hua Sui sealed the letter with Qin's personal wax seal. It was a masterpiece of deception. Su Qing was arrogant and ambitious. She knew that Old Man Qin was a rogue alchemist who often bent the sect's rules. The promise of a perfected Foundation-Consolidating Pill would be an irresistible lure for someone approaching their own bottleneck.
He summoned one of the Pavilion's trained messenger hawks—a half-starved, miserable creature that had survived on scraps of toxic herbs.
"Take this to the Ice-Dew Peak," Hua Sui whispered, tying the letter to the bird's leg. "Deliver it only to Su Qing."
As the hawk took flight into the darkening sky, Hua Sui turned back to the center of the hall. Now came the most dangerous part: preparing the Soul-Grasping Array.
This wasn't a standard sect formation. It was a forbidden ritual found in the deepest recesses of Qin's hidden notes. It required blood—not just any blood, but the blood of cultivators who had died in terror. Hua Sui dragged the remaining 'essence' he had drained from Lin Wei's group and began to paint runes onto the cold stone floor.
Each stroke of his finger left a trail of dark, pulsating energy. His Inverse Qi hummed in response to the forbidden symbols, the grey mist swirling around his ankles like a living thing. The array was designed to act as a vacuum, specifically tuned to drain Ice-attribute energy and funnel it directly into the central cauldron.
The hours ticked by. The moon rose, casting long, jagged shadows across the pavilion. Hua Sui stripped off his robes, exposing his scarred chest and the intricate network of grey veins. He took his place in a corner, hidden by a heavy silk screen, and began to circulate his Qi. He had to suppress his Rank 4 aura, making himself appear as weak and sickly as a mortal.
Clang.
The distant sound of the pavilion's outer gate echoed through the hall.
Hua Sui's heart didn't speed up. If anything, his pulse slowed, his breath becoming almost non-existent. He became a stone, a shadow, a ghost.
Footsteps approached. They were light, rhythmic, and carried an air of effortless grace. The temperature in the hall began to drop, a thin layer of frost forming on the metal surfaces as the visitor entered.
"Elder Qin?"
Su Qing's voice was like the ringing of a silver bell in a frozen forest. She stood at the entrance, her moon-white robes shimmering in the dim light of the soul-lamps. She held a jade sword in her hand, her posture cautious but not truly afraid. Her pride was her shield; she could not imagine a 'slave' or a 'dying elder' posing a threat to her, the genius of the Ice-Dew Peak.
"The Elder is... in the inner sanctum, Senior Sister," Hua Sui said, his voice a pathetic, trembling croak. He emerged from behind the screen, hunched over, coughing into his hand.
Su Qing's eyes swept over him with visceral disgust. "You. Why are you still alive? I thought the Elder would have used your marrow for his soup by now."
"The Elder... needs me to tend the fire," Hua Sui stammered, pointing toward the massive cauldron in the center of the blood-stained array. "He says the pill is ready for your touch. He is waiting just beyond the shadow-veil to begin the infusion."
Su Qing looked at the cauldron. The purple glow emanating from it was intoxicating. She could feel the immense spiritual energy contained within—the energy Hua Sui had spent the last three days pumping into it using Qin's stolen spirit stones.
"Very well," she snapped, stepping toward the center of the room. "Tell the Elder to hurry. I have no desire to spend more time in this pigsty than necessary."
As her boots stepped onto the first hidden rune, Hua Sui's eyes flashed with a cold, predatory light.
One more step, he thought. One more step, and the genius of the Scarlet Cloud Sect becomes my coal.
Su Qing reached the edge of the cauldron and extended her hand, her fingers glowing with a pale, blue frost. "Elder Qin? I am here. Begin the—"
BOOM!
The floor erupted in a pillar of dark red light. The hidden runes screamed as they tore through the floorboards, forming a cage of jagged energy around the girl.
"What?! An ambush?!" Su Qing shrieked, her jade sword erupting in a blast of freezing wind.
But the wind didn't push the array back. Instead, the red light seemed to drink the cold, growing brighter and more violent as it consumed her Qi.
"Hua Sui! You dog! What have you done?!" She turned, her face contorted in a mask of fury, but as she saw him standing tall, his grey Qi erupting like a volcano, her anger turned into a cold, paralyzing dread.
"I told you, Senior Sister," Hua Sui said, his voice echoing with the power of the array. "The pill is ready for your touch. But it isn't your Qi it wants... it's your life."