The biting wind howled like an ancient lament, driving sharp ice crystals against their faces. Chu Hongying led the way, her Lie Feng Spear cutting a path through the heavy snow curtain, each step sinking deep to her knees. The exhaustion of days spent fleeing was etched on all four of their faces; the relentless cold of the Northern Frontier was steadily draining their strength and resolve.
"This is no way to go on," Gu Changfeng rasped, wiping frost from his brows and lashes. "The Empire's Mirror Shadows will track us eventually. We need a base, or we'll be worn down and die out here on this frozen plain."
Shen Yuzhu's Mirror Patterns flickered faintly in his eyes. "According to the directions Old Zhao gave us before he died, there's a derelict border army watchtower another ten miles north. It's our only hope."
Lu Wanning pulled her collar tighter, her face as pale as the snow. "Everyone's injuries and fatigue are accumulating. My silver needles can only suppress the symptoms for so long. We must find shelter from the wind soon for proper treatment."
Chu Hongying didn't look back, her gaze sweeping the storm-shrouded wilderness ahead like a torch. The Blazing Bloodfire Chain on her arm pulsed with a faint warmth—not pain, but a strange resonance, as if it had forged some connection with this frozen land.
Suddenly, she halted.
It wasn't a sound or a tremor, but a more primal sensation that shot from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head. It felt as if something deep within the earth's crust had stirred in its sleep.
"Stop," she raised her left hand, her voice tense.
Shen Yuzhu looked up almost simultaneously, the patterns in his eyes already swirling uncontrollably. "Anomaly in the earth-pulse frequency. This isn't natural. An external force is interfering."
Gu Changfeng instantly gripped his Cloud-Edge Blade tighter, scanning their surroundings warily. "Mirror Shadows?"
"No," Shen Yuzhu shook his head, the patterns flickering erratically. "The waveform... it feels more like the aftershock of a massive energy system overloading."
Before the words faded—
Thrum... ZZZzzzt—
A deep, basso thump, mingled with a screeching, metallic high-frequency vibration, erupted from deep beneath the ground! It wasn't a sound heard by the ears, but a violent convulsion transmitted directly to their bones, blood, and souls.. The snow beneath their feet rippled like a wave, and in the distance came the thunderous crack of splitting ice.
"The earth-pulse... it's accelerating," Lu Wanning gasped, dropping to one knee and pressing her pale fingers directly into the snow, her heterochromatic eyes wide with alarm. "Like a heart trying to beat its way out of a chest. It's too fast... too chaotic... This isn't a natural rhythm!"
Shen Yuzhu fought against the torrent of data flooding his mind, his voice tight. "The Empire... the Order Net is overdrawing energy from the North. They're destabilizing the land's equilibrium!"
"Dammit! The wind's gone crazy!" Gu Changfeng roared, raising his Cloud-Edge Blade defensively. The blizzard around them, once a chaotic whirl, now seemed churned by invisible hands, forming mad vortices that spun snow upwards into the sky. The air pressure shifted violently, and sharp ice crystals shot out like daggers. "The very air currents of the North have lost their minds!"
A sense of crisis pierced them like an ice needle.
Before the four could react, the marks on their bodies lit up of their own accord!
The patterns of Chu Hongying's blood lock glowed fiercely on her arm, deep crimson lines extending like living roots down through her boots, deep into the snow, as if instinctively resisting the violent seismic waves from below. A heavy, scorching power forced its way into her body. She grunted, the snow at her feet cratering under the sudden pressure.
"I can't control it..." she gritted her teeth, feeling her blood threaten to boil.
Shen Yuzhu's vision was forcibly switched. The Mirror Patterns were no longer a tool for calculation but had become an autonomous analyzer, cramming his mind with the frequency, intensity, and even some incomprehensible 'geometric shape' of the subterranean pulse. He tried to regain control, but found his consciousness locked out. "The mirror... it's calculating on its own... Damn it!"
The silver needles in Lu Wanning's sleeves emitted a chorus of sharp, urgent chimes, flying out to hover before her, their points unanimously aimed at the most violent energy node beneath the snow. "The energy is running wild! We must channel it, or it will form a shockwave!" She could feel the 'qi' there had become a destructive vortex on the verge of explosion.
Gu Changfeng found he didn't need to exert any control; an invisible 'wind wall' naturally formed around him, pushing the onslaught of snow and wind outward, creating a relatively stable sloped area around the four. The power of the wind was no longer a weapon he needed to wield with his blade; it had become as natural as breathing, autonomously protecting their space. "The wind... is protecting us?" He stared at his trembling hands in disbelief.
The four exchanged glances, seeing the shock and a flicker of fear in each other's eyes. For the first time, their powers had completely slipped from their conscious control, as if the powers themselves held a higher priority—to respond to the world's imbalance—and they were merely the vessels.
Crack—CRRUMBLE! BOOM!
Not far ahead, a thick layer of snow suddenly collapsed, cascading like a waterfall into a chasm and revealing a jagged fissure several yards long. This was no ordinary ground crack. Its edges were ragged and shimmered with a faint, verdigris glow, while the inner walls of the fissure were interlaced with dark red blood patterns eerily similar to those on Chu Hongying's arm, like the vascular network of some ancient creature, throbbing violently as if ready to rupture at any moment.
From within the fissure billowed not scorching magma, but a stream of primordial, chaotic breath—neither hot nor cold, carrying an ancient desolation and a disquieting sense of 'life'. Where it passed, the snow and ice didn't melt; they simply vanished.
Shen Yuzhu's pupils constricted. "This is a wound caused by the Empire's excessive energy harvesting... a scar left by the Order Net!"
Lu Wanning's fingertips trembled. She could 'hear' countless fragmented, chaotic 'whimpers' from deep within the fissure—the noise of energy flow being violently twisted and blocked, accompanied by a sensation of tearing at the very limit. "This scar... it's about to give way!"
Chu Hongying took an involuntary step forward. As she neared the edge of the fissure, the blood lock on her arm grew intensely hot, a powerful pull emanating from its depths. Vague images flashed before her eyes—Northern Frontier soldiers bathing in blood at the border passes, the Empire's Mirror Shadows executing orders with cold ruthlessness, the land's energy being forcibly drained like blood...
"This fissure must be sealed," she looked up, a crimson light flashing in her eyes, "or this land is finished!"
No sooner had she spoken than the bronze-and-blood light within the fissure flared brilliantly, the primordial breath turning violent, ready to burst forth like a broken dam and devour everything in its path!
"Hongying, suppress the core! Southeast position, the earth-pulse is weakest there!" Shen Yuzhu commanded sharply, his Mirror Patterns having already calculated the energy flow trajectory and forced the prediction to the others.
Without hesitation, Chu Hongying slammed her hands onto the spot Shen Yuzhu indicated at the fissure's edge! The Blazing Bloodfire Chain erupted with light, its deep red patterns spreading downward like frenzied roots, forcibly connecting with the blood patterns within the fissure and holding back the destructive surge. Immense pressure instantly assaulted her entire body; her bones groaned under the strain, and her heart felt as if being pulled and twisted by invisible threads, the pain so intense her vision darkened and the taste of blood filled her mouth.
"Second shockwave in three breaths, seventy percent intensity! Wanning, Qian position, Kan position!" Shen Yuzhu's words came rapid-fire, cold sweat beading on his temples. Forcing control over the runaway Mirror Patterns was pushing his spirit to its limit.
"On it!" Lu Wanning's hands moved swiftly. The hovering silver needles, like obedient soldiers, precisely pierced the energy nodes around the fissure that Shen Yuzhu had indicated. The needle tails vibrated intensely, Guiding the frenzied energy along the 'logical conduits' she had constructed, she worked to cool and divert the violent flow, much like managing blood vessels on the verge of rupture. She could feel the energy's core—a violent, imperial-artifice-laced nature that resisted her efforts. Every act of channeling sent a sharp, stabbing pain radiating through her fingertips.
"Changfeng, the eastern snow cliff is collapsing!"
"Shut up and let me work!" Gu Changfeng bellowed, driving his Cloud-Edge Blade deep into the ice at his feet. His arm muscles bulged as the intangible wind wall solidified and expanded, not only blocking the storm but also generating an upward force that stubbornly propped up the snow cliff threatening to bury them. He felt like a nail being relentlessly hammered into the ground, his organs shaking with each impact, yet for the first time, he clearly felt he was no longer just a capricious 'wind', but a 'stake' anchoring reality and protecting his comrades.
The four fell into their roles, their powers merging and cooperating in an unprecedented way. Blood Lock as the shield, Mirror Patterns as the eyes, Silver Needles as the channels, Wind Wall as the domain. Under the quartet's combined efforts of suppression and expert channeling, the agitated fissure gradually stilled, its ominous bronze-and-blood luminescence slowly fading into the falling snow.
As the last trace of violent energy was guided deep into the earth-pulse by Lu Wanning's needles, the fissure finally stilled, leaving only the hideous wound, slowly being buried by fresh falling snow.
The four of them let out a collective, ragged breath. The moment their nerves relaxed, the cost became immediately apparent.
Chu Hongying staggered, clutching her burning, tight chest. A mouthful of blood she could no longer suppress splattered onto the snow, a stark, vivid red. The light in Shen Yuzhu's Mirror Patterns faded, bringing on a wave of intense mental exhaustion that left him swaying on his feet. The silver needles Lu Wanning retrieved were scalding hot, her fingertips blistered and trembling slightly. Gu Changfeng, dropping the wind wall, was hit by a wave of weakness; his Cloud-Edge Blade felt impossibly heavy, the tiger's mouth of his hand split and bleeding.
"What... what was that just now?" Gu Changfeng panted, looking at the others.
"Our power... was protecting this land of its own accord," Lu Wanning said softly, a complex light in her heterochromatic eyes.
Shen Yuzhu's face was pale. "The Empire's plunder of the North is worse than we imagined. This fissure is just the beginning."
Chu Hongying wiped the blood from her lips, her gaze firm as she looked north. "Then we can't let the Empire have its way. To the watchtower. And then... we'll raise the banner of the Scarlet Heart Army from here."
At the Icy Peak of the Northern Frontier.
Helian Sha stood in the blizzard, a wolf-king surveying his domain. Abruptly, he shuddered, the wolf blood coursing through his veins rippling without warning. The energy fluctuation coming from afar carried a stench that disgusted him—the foul odor of Imperial artifice, mixed with a faint resonance that... stirred his own blood.
His golden wolf-like eyes narrowed slightly, gazing south.
"Vermin of the Empire... and one particularly... interesting one..." he murmured to himself, his voice lost to the wind and snow. "Have you come to the North as well?"
Back on the Snow Plains.
The brief respite didn't last.
A deeper, vaster undulation, like the irritable stirring of a slumbering beast that had been disturbed, slowly emanated from the depths of the earth.
High above, the clouds began to swirl unnaturally.
The four looked up simultaneously, their faces etched with weariness and unprecedented gravity.
Shen Yuzhu watched the aberrant celestial phenomenon, his voice hoarse from overexertion:
"The Empire's next move... is coming."
The wind and snow still howled, but the intangible, oppressive shadow cast by the Imperial order had already plunged the vast, desolate landscape into a trembling, suffocating dread.