The scripture called it Emergency Resonance, a technique for stabilizing a partner in Yin-Yang crisis. It required direct physical contact, aligned breathing and intent.
Longwei had two out of three.
He breathed into her, forcing warmth into her lungs. His body heat was the only Yang he could offer, mortal warmth was nothing compared to cultivated energy but it was something. He focused on intent, on the desperate need to balance her to save her to push back the cold.
Please, he thought. Please Let This Work.
Something stirred.
In the shattered ruins of his core where nothing had moved since Zhou Chen's attack, something... flickered... a spark.
Mei's Yin was so powerful, so overwhelming that even his broken pathways could feel it. Could respond to it, the energy differential created a vacuum and nature abhorred vacuums.
His body, his mortal cultivation-less body finally began to generate Yang.
But not much, just a trickle compared to what a real cultivator could produce. But it was something and that something flowed through the contact of their lips, their breath and their bodies which was pressed together
Mei gasped.
Her eyes flew wide open with shock, and to her surprise found his face inches away.
"What the f..."
"Don't move." His voice was gentle, all his focus on maintaining the connection. "I know it might seem crazy, but you're dying and I'm trying to balance... Your yin."
"You're... you're a cripple, you can't..."
"Apparently I can." He felt the trickle of Yang leaving him and entering her, but somehow that loss Strengthened him. The scripture's words made sense now.
Exchange creates more than either possessed alone.
"Just breathe and let me help."
She stared at him for a while, her eyes searching his face for... something. Deception? Ulterior motive? He didn't know what she saw but she must have found something acceptable.
She closed her eyes and breathed in slowly.
Time lost meaning.
They lay in the dirt of the village square with their lips pressed together, breathing in sync while Longwei's nascent Yang flowed into Mei's raging Yin. The villagers had fled or hidden, so no one interrupted while the shattered remains of Lin Heifeng melted slowly around them ice becoming water becoming steam.
Gradually, Mei's skin warmed. The blue faded to pale white and the frost on her eyelashes turned into tears.
She was going to live.
When Longwei finally pulled back, breaking the connection he felt drained out. Exhausted beyond anything the stone-hauling had produced, like he'd ran a hundred miles without stopping.
But in the depths of his core, something new rose. That spark, that flicker It hadn't died when the transfer ended.
It was still there... still Growing.
"Who are you?" Mei's voice barely above a whisper. "What did you just do?"
Longwei sat back on his heels, breathing hard. "My name is Shen Longwei, disciple of the Celestial Sword Pavilion. Well... Former disciple, got betrayed.... by a brother who wanted me dead." He met her eyes.
"Oh... and what I did was Emergency Resonance, a technique from... a... Scripture." He didn't know if he should tell her the truth.
"What scripture?"
Fuck it, what's the worst that can happen?
He reached into his robes and pulled out the black silk book, the Yin-Yang serpents seemed to glow in the afternoon light.
Mei's eyes widened. "That's... that's impossible, that was destroyed centuries ago."
"Well... apparently not."
She stared at the scripture then back at him then at the scripture again, her mind was working overtime, he could see it in her expression. Thinking, assessing.
"You saved my life," she said finally.
"Well, you saved the town."
"No." She shook her head slowly. "I was going to die, Lin Heifeng was going to drain me or my own cultivation was going to kill me. Either way, I was dead." Her eyes locked onto his. "You changed that, you... a crippled cultivator with nothing somehow stabilized my Yin excess."
"The scripture..."
"I know what the scripture contains." Her voice hardened. "My sect has fragments, I know what dual cultivation can do." Then a pause. "What I don't know is why you helped me, what do you want?"
Longwei considered lying again or just deflecting, or maybe use a dozen pretty words that might make his situation sound less desperate.
But Instead, The words came out of his mouth quickly.
"I want to rebuild my core and the scripture says it's possible through dual cultivation but I need a partner."
He gestured at his broken body, the empty space where his power used to be. "Look at me, I have nothing to offer no resources, no reputation, no strength. All I have is knowledge from that book and a desperate willingness to try."
It got a little awkward.
He took a breath and continued.
"You're dying, your Yin is eating you alive. I don't really know why, maybe sect punishment, cultivation accident but truth is, I don't care. What I know is that pure Yin needs Yang to balance it and dual cultivation is the most efficient method of exchange."
He met her eyes directly.
"You need me, I need you and we're both fucked without the other." An awkward smile. "I'm proposing a partnership. Not romance, not love, not any pretty lies just mutual survival."
Mei went silent.
The square was empty around them, water dripped from melting ice. Somewhere distant, a child was still crying.
"You're serious," she said finally. Not a question.
"Completely."
"Dual cultivation requires trust and vulnerability. You're asking me to open myself to a stranger."
"I know."
"And you expect me to just... agree? Because you happened to save my life once?"
Longwei shook his head. "I don't expect anything, I'm simply offering a choice. You can refuse, walk away and find another solution, hell, maybe there is one or maybe your sect can help."
Her expression change at that. Pain, quickly suppressed again.
"Or," he continued, "you can take a chance and partner with a crippled stranger who has forbidden knowledge and nothing to lose and see if mutual desperation can become mutual benefit."
Another silence, longer this time.
Then Mei laughed.
"You're insane," she said.
"Probably."
"This is the worst proposition I've ever received."
"I'm not good with words."
"If my sect finds out I'm practicing forbidden arts with a disgraced sword cultivator, they'll kill us both."
"Then we won't let them find out."
She stared at him and he stared back, two broken people in a broken village square surrounded by the remains of a demonic cultivator and the wreckage of their previous lives.
"Fine," Mei said suddenly.
Longwei blinked. "FINE?"
"I said fine." She pushed herself upright. "I'll partner with you and we can try this... dual cultivation. See if it actually works." Her eyes were guarded, revealing nothing. "But I have conditions."
"Name them."
"First: no lies. If this requires trust, it requires honesty. I'll know if you're hiding things."
"Agreed."
"Second: I'm not your WOMAN. This is a cultivation partnership is not a relationship, If I want to walk away, I walk away."
"Agreed."
"Third: you teach me everything in that scripture, no holding back techniques for leverage."
Longwei hesitated, the scripture was his only advantage. Sharing it completely would leave him with nothing she couldn't replicate.
But she was right, a partnership built on information hoarding wasn't a partnership at all.
"Fine."
Mei nodded slowly then she extended her hand, not to shake but palm up, a gesture he recognized. Energy exchange, a cultivator's promise.
"Then we have a deal, SHEN LONGWEI."
He placed his hand in hers, her skin were still cool.
"We have a deal, Mei..."
"Xuefeng," she said. "Mei Xuefeng."
He repeated it silently. MEI XUEFENG. SNOW PHOENIX.
Fitting.
"We should move," Mei continued, pulling her hand back. "The commotion will draw attention, someone will investigate and I'd rather not be here when they arrive."
"Can you walk?"
"Can you?"
Longwei tried standing, his ribs still hurt, his jaw ached where Lin Heifeng had struck him. Every muscle felt like it had been beaten with hammers.
But he stood anyway.
"I can walk."
Mei rose beside him, unsteady but upright. "Then let's go, PARTNER..."
They limped out of Willowrest together, leaving behind a shattered ice statue, a traumatized village and the last remnants of who they'd been before.
The Path stretched forward.
Neither knew where it would lead.
But for the first time since the ravine, Longwei had something he'd almost forgotten.
HOPE.