The peaks of the Northern Ridge rose like black spears against a blood-red dawn. Snow swirled through the passes, muffling sound, swallowing color. Somewhere beneath that frozen labyrinth, Mo Tian's hidden fortress pulsed like a malignant heart.
Li Xian moved first, a blur of crimson light across the ice. Behind him, Su Yao followed, her silver aura slicing through mist, the only warmth in that killing cold. They had traveled without banners, without escort—only the bond between them and the promise of retribution.
"Three barriers ahead," she murmured, voice steady in the wind. "Each layered with spatial folds."
Li Xian's eyes gleamed. "Then we break time before space."
He pressed two fingers together; runes of light flared across his arm. The world seemed to stutter—wind freezing mid-gust, snow hanging motionless. With a single motion he split the first barrier, time snapping back like thunder. The shockwave rippled through the valley, exposing black stone and a gate shaped like a dragon's jaw.
From the gate, masked figures poured forth—thirty, then fifty, each radiating the dark qi of the Black Heaven Sect.
Su Yao lifted her palm. Silver sigils spiraled outward, forming a mirror that swallowed the first volley of energy bolts. The air sang with impact; shards of frozen light scattered like stars.
Li Xian descended among the attackers.
One swing of his hand tore through armor and air alike. Crimson trails seared into the snow, marking his path. The masked fighters fell soundlessly, their weapons turning to ash before they struck the ground. He was methodical—no wasted motion, no hesitation. Every strike a statement: this is the power you dared provoke.
Above, Su Yao bent the wind itself. Her aura unfolded into the shape of a phoenix woven of moonlight; each beat of its wings scattered the enemy's formation. Where her feathers touched, corruption burned away, leaving silence and drifting snow.
When the last of the lesser guards fell, the fortress groaned. The dragon-jaw gate split open, revealing a staircase spiraling downward into red light. The smell of iron and old spells rushed up to meet them.
"They knew we'd come," Su Yao said.
Li Xian nodded once. "Let them think they can contain us."
They descended.
Inside, the walls pulsed with living veins of obsidian qi. Sigils blinked like eyes, following their every step. At the stair's end lay a vast hall, its ceiling lost in shadow. Chains hung from the darkness, suspending what looked like a crystal heart the size of a carriage. Within it swam a figure—half-formed, half-awake—radiating Mo Tian's aura.
A voice slithered through the chamber.
"You come so boldly, Li Xian. Did you think the north unguarded?"
The air shimmered. From behind the heart stepped a man robed in black steel, his smile thin as a knife. His eyes glowed the same red as the crystal.
Li Xian's pulse steadied; Su Yao's hand brushed his. Their qi intertwined—crimson and silver forming a single, blinding current.
"I didn't come to think," Li Xian said. "I came to end this."
Power crashed through the hall, cracking the crystal, shaking mountains. Outside, storm clouds answered, lightning coiling around the ridge. The snow turned to steam.
The black-armored man laughed, drawing a blade that drank the light around it. "Then let us see if the Apex can bleed."
The clash that followed split heaven and earth.