They found shelter in a hunter's cabin a few clicks from Willowrest.
It was abandoned by the looks of it. It had dust on every surface, cobwebs in the corners, a musty smell but atleast the roof was intact, the door had a bar and the single window faced the approaching path. Which was good enough.
Mei collapsed onto the narrow cot the moment they entered, she'd pushed herself too hard and the walk had drained what little energy she'd recovered. Her skin was still too pale and her breathing too shallow.
Longwei barred the door, checked the window and finally allowed himself to slide down the wall until he sat on the dirt floor. His ribs weren't still fully healed, everything still hurt.
"We can't stay long," Mei said without opening her eyes. "Lin Heifeng wasn't working alone and when he doesn't report back, others will come looking."
"How many others?"
"I don't know, he found me through an information broker in the last village. Could be more hunters on my trail or could even be my sect's own seekers." She gave a bitter laugh. "Everyone wants a piece of me."
"Why?" Longwei asked. "Why is your sect hunting you?"
Silence... he thought she wouldn't answer.
"Because I ran," she said finally. "A disciple of Jade Phoenix Palace doesn't get to just... leave, especially not one with my bloodline."
"Bloodline?"
Her eyes opened, fixing on the ceiling. "I have the Ice Phoenix inheritance, a rare bloodline that appears maybe once a century. It makes my Yin cultivation exceptionally pure, exceptionally powerful." Her voice was flat, reciting facts. "It also makes me exceptionally valuable, a prize to be kept, controlled and used."
"Used how?"
Another silence.
"The palace has... rituals, techniques that require someone with my bloodline. I was raised for them, trained for them even told my whole life that my purpose was to serve the sect through these ceremonies." She turned her head, meeting his eyes. "Do you know what those rituals involve?"
Longwei could guess, the world building in his mind filled in the gaps. Jade Phoenix Palace, their "companions" their treatment of men as resources.
"Dual cultivation," he said. "But the parasitic kind, they use you to extract from others."
"Close." Her smile was razor thin. "They use others to feed me, force Yang cultivators to pour their energy into me, burning themselves out while my bloodline converts their essence into power for the sect's elders." She sat up slowly. "I'm not the predator, I'm the Vessel. A living battery they charge with men's lives."
Longwei took that In.
He'd thought of Jade Phoenix Palace as a matriarchal sect that mistreated men, he hadn't considered that some of the women might be just as trapped.
"The ice cultivation," he said, connecting pieces. "It's not natural for you."
"No, my original affinity was fire, I have phoenix blood after all." Another bitter laugh. "But fire is Yang aspected, uncontrolled and dangerous. So when I was twelve, they converted me and sealed my fire then forced ice cultivation instead... Pure Yin, perfectly suited to receiving energy, perfectly suited for their rituals."
"And now the ice is killing you."
"The seal is degrading and my natural fire is trying to reassert itself but there's so much accumulated Yin that the conflict is tearing me apart from the inside." She held up her hand; frost crystallized briefly on her fingertips before fading. "Without the rituals, without regular Yang infusion the Yin will overwhelm me completely and I'll freeze from the core out."
"So you need Yang cultivation to survive," Longwei said slowly. "The rituals provided that... in a twisted way, so you ran."
"I ran because the last ritual killed someone..." Her voice cracked, the first real emotion breaking through. "A companion, a man who'd been... kind to me. The only one who treated me like a person instead of a bloodline. They strapped him to the altar and I felt his life pour into mine while he screamed and I couldn't stop it, I couldn't..."
She broke off. Her hands were shaking.
Longwei didn't say anything, what was there to say?
"His name was Lee Ping," Mei whispered. "He was twenty three and he liked poetry and terrible puns and he always saved me the best fruit from the kitchens, and I killed him. My cultivation killed him and the worst part is that i felt him die inside me."
The cabin was silent except for her heavy breathing.
"So I ran," she continued after a moment. "Stole what supplies I could and slipped out during a festival, ran as far and fast as possible. I thought maybe I could find another way, a cure. Something that didn't require feeding on people."
She looked at him directly.
"Then you happened, a stranger with a forbidden scripture offering dual cultivation that supposedly doesn't drain partners." She laughed again. "Either you're the answer to my prayers or the universe's cruelest joke."
Longwei considered his response carefully.
"I can't promise it will work," he said. "I've never done this... the scripture explains techniques but I have no practical experience. My core is shattered and your cultivation is unstable. We're probably the worst possible candidates for this."
"I know."
"But," he continued, "the Emergency Resonance did something which you felt too, energy moved between us..."
"That was barely anything... a pinch."
"A pinch is more than nothing." He met her eyes. "And the scripture says the first attempts are always weak and trust takes time to build. Resonance deepens with practice, If we keep trying..."
"If we keep trying, it might work." Mei finished. "Or it might kill us both."
"Would dying trying be worse than dying doing nothing?"
She stared at him for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly she smiled, small but genuine.
"You're very bad at inspirational speeches."
"I told you I wasn't good with words."
"Nope, you're not." She took a breath, straightening. "But you're honest, that's... rare."
She swung her legs off the cot, planting her feet on the floor. Her hands went to the ties of her outer robe.
"What are you doing?" Longwei asked.
"What do you think?" She pulled the first tie loose. "You said it yourself, trust takes time and practice deepens resonance, we're not going to build either sitting on opposite sides of the room."
"Now? You just told me your life story. You're exhausted, injured..."
"And getting weaker by the hour." The second tie came loose. "Every moment I'm not receiving Yang the ice spreads, I felt it growing during the walk here. Another day, maybe two and I won't be able to attempt dual cultivation at all, I'll be too far gone."
Her outer robe slipped down her shoulders, circling around her waist.
She wore a thin inner robe beneath white silk, almost translucent doing little to hide the body underneath. Longwei's eyes traced the curve of her shoulders, the shadow of her collarbone, the swell of...
He looked away.
"We don't have to do this tonight," he said. "The scripture mentions preparatory exercises, ways to build resonance without..."
"Without what? Without touching?" Mei's voice was sharp. "Didn't the scripture also says physical contact accelerates energy exchange. Direct skin contact even more and the most efficient transfer happens during..." She paused. "You know what."
"You've read the fragments your sect has."
"Enough to know what this requires." She stood letting the outer robe fall completely. The inner robe clung to her body, revealing more than it concealed. "I'm not naive, Shen Longwei. I know what I agreed to and I know what dual cultivation means."
She stepped toward him.
"The question is. DO YOU?"