103: Chapter 103 The scabbard is cracked, and the sword also wants to rest.

A slick sensation seemed to spread from the depths of her consciousness to her skin. Xia Lengbai shuddered violently, as if an invisible tongue had truly licked her spine.

She slowly raised her head. Within the hollow ruins of her eyes, flames reignited—not the cold fire of order from before, but a complex fire mixed with shock, fury, shame, and a twisted excitement that made even her tremble.

She no longer looked at Shen Xiao, her gaze nailed firmly to that silent, cold, and seemingly eternally sealed Light Cocoon.

"So..."

Her voice was low and hoarse, each word squeezed out from a sandpaper-dry throat. "What 'It' stripped away was its own 'scabbard'? Those suppressed residues that didn't belong to the 'Perfect Destiny Script'... because they lacked the restraint of the 'scabbard,' they turned around to erode its 'blade'?"

She seemed to have realized something, and the frantic tearing between the dark gold and icy blue in her palm slowly subsided.

The light of the Tomb Guardian Seal no longer resisted, but instead coldly and decisively enveloped the volatile icy blue. The two formed a taut, mutually checking stability.

This stability was more like a cold dam, not intended to resolve the flood, but to more precisely control the direction and flow of the discharge.

Shen Xiao leaned against the cold stone wall. The intense pain and chaos within his body, temporarily suppressed by the icy blue energy, eased slightly, but another subtle, needle-pricking sensation quietly sprouted deep within his Meridians.

He had no time to investigate, seizing this rare opportunity. He wiped the fresh blood from his chin, his aura still withered, but his speech was terrifyingly clear:

"The Consciousness Entity sealed itself because it knows better than you what 'good things' are hidden inside the cracked 'scabbard.' If you want to reinsert the blade into a scabbard you don't recognize, or... simply forge yourself a new, more suitable one,"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the increasingly dense, cold air in the stone chamber, heavy with the stench of iron and decay. "We need to leave this damn place first."

He pointed to his feet; the faint perception of his Silver Pattern allowed him to "see" the trajectory of the energy contamination: "The 'filth' from the mirror feedback is still seeping out, and the speed is increasing. This place will soon become a real 'Emotional Swamp'—viscous, foul-smelling, specifically attracting those 'things' that like to scavenge for food in the residues of consciousness."

He omitted the details about how his System Silver Pattern could perceive the distribution and composition of the contamination more precisely, emphasizing only the most immediate danger.

Xia Lengbai's scrutinizing gaze fell on Shen Xiao again, like the most precise instrument scanning a weapon that had developed cracks.

Her gaze lingered for several seconds on his paper-white face, his lapels soaked in cold sweat and covered in a thin layer of frost, and his clearly unnatural breathing.

"Your injuries," she suddenly spoke, the question so blunt it was almost cruel, "how severe are they? How many more times can you use that... silver 'thread' of yours?"

She was evaluating. Evaluating the residual value, reliability, and potential risks of a tool.

Shen Xiao was well aware of this.

"Three extreme probes or interferences, one light warning." Shen Xiao did not exaggerate, nor did he show excessive weakness, giving a seemingly honest answer. "After that, I will need at least one day of undisturbed rest to recover basic mobility."

He omitted the possibility that "the time could be shortened if good medicine or energy supplements were obtained," and also hid the complex mechanism where the recovery of the System Silver Pattern was linked to the host's Mental Energy and emotional stability.

An answer that left enough room for maneuvering.

Xia Lengbai remained silent; only the icy blue energy in her palm, barely "tamed" by the Tomb Guardian Seal, emitted a constant, low-temperature halo.

"I need it!" she spoke again, each word carrying a cold weight. "All the information you have about 'Mirror Resonance.' Including what you've perceived, what you've deduced, and... what you intend to use it for. This is the price for our temporary 'companionship.'"

At the same time, she extended her other empty hand. Above her palm, a fist-sized, extremely pure ball of icy blue energy condensed out of thin air.

It was as translucent as the most perfect ice crystal, yet inside, there were no complex spiritual power patterns, only a state of absolute uniformity and absolute low-temperature purity. It carried not a single trace of Xia Lengbai's own emotional fluctuations, clean enough to be unnerving.

"It can temporarily stabilize your injuries and suppress the chaotic energy residues belonging to the 'Mirror' and... 'It' that have invaded your body." Xia Lengbai's tone was flat, as if she were reciting a product manual. "This is my sincerity. And also... a shackle."

Her icy blue eyes looked straight at Shen Xiao: "Accept it, and a part of your recovery process will be in my hands. I can perceive its state, and when necessary... I can also affect its stability. You can treat it as a slow-release poison, or a safety insurance policy. It depends on whether we are 'companions' or 'enemies who haven't broken ties yet' going forward."

The stone chamber was deathly silent. In the distance, the Light Cocoon remained silent. The icy blue energy hovered between the two, emitting a harmless yet fatal shimmer.

Shen Xiao looked at it. The Silver Pattern trembled slightly within his body, conveying complex feedback: pure, powerful, with astonishing restorative power—these were its most superficial attributes. But at a deeper level, like the part of an iceberg beneath the water, he perceived a trace of something extremely subtle, yet fundamentally different.

It was not energy, but more like a... "mark," a cold mental imprint originating from the depths of Xia Lengbai's Soul, carefully woven into the very core of this energy, lying dormant.

Accepting was a shortcut to quickly recover mobility and the key to leaving this place before the mirror contamination spread. But accepting also meant handing over the weakness of his own "recovery state," at least in part, to the other party. She could perceive it, and perhaps at a critical moment, could use that trace of a mark to create a "trouble" of some size.

Refuse? In his current state, let alone dealing with potential contamination mutations, even walking normally was difficult. Xia Lengbai's "shackle" was at least clearly priced. The price of refusal might be being immediately judged as useless or high-risk, and then being cleared away.

A few seconds of silence felt as long as a century.

Shen Xiao's fingers moved, and his fingertips were wreathed in a layer of silver shimmer, even dimmer and almost imperceptible than before. He reached out, not to grab, but slowly and firmly grasped it.

A bone-chilling cold instantly exploded from his palm, spreading up along the Meridians of his arm, almost freezing him stiff. But following closely behind was a gentle yet extremely effective restorative power. Like spring water melting ice, wherever it passed, the burning, searing pain was smoothed away, and the chaotic, churning energy residues were forcibly suppressed and combed through.

At the same time, a trace of an extremely subtle, cold "sense of traction" quietly established itself between him and Xia Lengbai—faint, yet undeniably real.

Shen Xiao's face turned another shade paler, but his eyes stabilized. "Deal," he said, his voice still hoarse, but lacking that forced weakness.

He turned his head, casting his gaze toward the far end of the stone chamber, where the entrance to the ancient altar, leading to the outside world and covered by layers of eerie ice, appeared blurry and ominous in the dim light.

"But before we talk about the details of the 'Mirror'..." Shen Xiao said slowly, his gaze locked on the ice-sealed area, "we need to deal with the trouble at the 'entrance' first. Its Seal structure is already unstable, and the internal conflict and mirror feedback contamination from just now have likely already affected it. In case it becomes the next 'emotional resonance point' or 'contamination leak'..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was self-evident.

A cold transaction was reached in this ruin, filled with the stench of blood, dust, and emotional residues. A blade that had just experienced internal turmoil and desperately needed repair, and a sheath-cracked, cold-hearted wielder who was equally weak but controlled the key "restorative resources," temporarily formed the most fragile and dangerous alliance.

Xia Lengbai withdrew her hand. The icy blue energy had completely submerged into Shen Xiao's body, leaving only a faint, snowflake-shaped mark on his palm, which quickly faded away.

The unstable, bright light around her completely calmed down, leaving only the quiet dark gold of the Tomb Guardian Seal and the cold blue of the Ice Soul spiritual power, the two coexisting in a subtle ratio.

"Lead the way." She was concise, turning around first. Her icy blue hem swept across the congealed blood on the ground without leaving a trace, walking toward the entrance of the altar covered in layers of ice.

Her footsteps were steady, but she was even more silent than before, as if all her complex emotions had been compressed beneath that momentary calm.

Shen Xiao took a deep breath, enduring the subtle stagnation in his Meridians caused by the icy blue energy as it circulated and faintly repelled his own Silver Pattern power, and began to walk. Every step tugged at his injuries, but the energy was indeed working, suppressing the pain to a tolerable range.

The two walked one after the other toward the darkness-shrouded exit.

The stone chamber returned to silence, with only an occasional, imperceptible, extremely dim silver glimmer passing over the Light Cocoon, like the unconscious pulse of a sleeping giant in a dream.

Shen Xiao followed half a step behind Xia Lengbai, his gaze sweeping over her straight back, which inexplicably revealed a hint of tension. His palm seemed to still retain the cold touch of that energy, as well as the obscure presence of that "traction."

He moved his fingers slightly. In his Meridians, at the edge where the foreign icy blue energy met his own Silver Pattern power, a trace of extremely subtle, static-like crackling quietly brushed past.