69: Chapter 69 The Revealed Secret and the Door Beneath the Ice

Beneath the water, something slid past the ice layer.

It was not a physical entity, but rather seemed like a shadow gliding rapidly against the ice, dragging along a faint, teeth-grinding friction sound.

The gurgling sound of bubbling cold Qi stopped for a moment, then became even more intense, as if some creature were quickening its breathing underwater.

Shen Xiao stared into Xia Lengbai's eyes, attempting to discern calculation or truth from those orbs that were always covered in frost.

The sluggishness in his Sea of Consciousness was like sludge; every attempt to communicate with the System felt like struggling in viscous asphalt.

Bailian's warning, the feeling of being watched by those giant ice-blue eyes that threatened to tear his Soul apart, and Xia Lengbai's seemingly unguarded proposal at this moment—everything was battering his remaining judgment.

"A door?"

He repeated the word, his voice as coarse as sandpaper rubbing together.

"Bailian's legacy is just turning herself into an ice sculpture, then opening a door beneath the spring eye to wait for us?"

His tone was mocking, but there was no relaxation in the depths of his eyes.

Xia Lengbai withdrew the hand that had been pointing at the spring eye, instead using her left thumb to forcefully scrape away the blood scab that was about to congeal on Shen Xiao's cheek.

The motion could hardly be called gentle; it was even somewhat rough, and the chilly sensation made Shen Xiao instinctively tilt his head away.

"The thing Bailian 'turned' herself into is more than just an ice sculpture."

Xia Lengbai's voice was kept very low, but her speaking speed was fast.

"She didn't just leave behind a Jade Slip. There is also... a feeling."

She lifted her right wrist; the blue-black color appeared even more hideous amidst the swirling cold Qi.

"This poison is part of the Formation, it is a key, and also a shackle. The sliver you absorbed made it 'loosen'. Now that the 'door' beneath the spring eye has opened, is it because our actions just now disrupted the balance of the Formation, or is it because... this hand of mine, or that 'System' on you, was 'marked' by those eyes?"

She paused, then pulled out a smile without any warmth:

"Trapped here, waiting for the cold Qi outside to freeze us both into the eighth and ninth ice sculptures? Or, go down and take a look.

If Bailian dared to leave things there, there must be some reason. At the very least, it is better than sitting here and waiting for death."

Shen Xiao fell silent.

He slowly turned his eyes, scanning the Ice Cave.

The seven Puppets were completely silent, the cinnabar marks on their foreheads dull and lusterless, like clumsy decorations.

The only exit was that narrow crack, but outside was a vast, boundless ice field; given the current state of him and Xia Lengbai, walking out was little different from courting death.

And the System...

He tried to access the System interface again.

[Data stream stability: 41%... Attempting to rebuild protocol... Residual unknown interference: 7%...]

[Warning: Unauthorized access traces detected in the core module. Log fragments have been encrypted.]

[New mission triggered (conditions met): Explore the "Anomalous Spatial Node". Reward: Unknown. Risk: Extremely high.]

A mission.

It came after all.

Shen Xiao sneered in his heart.

This System, or rather, the "entity behind" this System, truly would not let slip any opportunity to push him deeper into the "plot".

Whether it be the original plot, or this sudden "mission".

Xia Lengbai watched the subtle changes in his expression, not urging him, just waiting quietly.

The numbness in her right arm had spread to her shoulder, and the wound on her left shoulder slashed by the Puppet throbbed in the cold Qi, yet she stood straight, like a javelin stuck in the ice field, even though the shaft was full of cracks.

Shen Xiao's gaze finally fell back onto Xia Lengbai's face, moved to her eerie right arm, and finally fixed on the spring eye that was gurgling with cold Qi.

At the center of the spring eye, beneath the ice layer, the speed at which that shadow was swimming seemed to slow down, stopping at a certain spot, as if waiting.

Take a gamble.

Gamble that the backup plan left by Bailian, that ten-thousand-year-old schemer, wouldn't purely be to trap and kill latecomers.

Gamble that Xia Lengbai's "shared fate" at this moment, at least until finding a way to escape or the true legacy, had some degree of truth.

Gamble that the Dark Gold Core, covered in cracks, within his own broken body, and that System filled with "unauthorized access traces", could still endure the next impact.

He tugged at the corners of his mouth, which pulled at the wounds on his face, making him hiss in pain, but his voice carried a sense of reckless determination:

"Where is the door? How do we go down? Smash the ice?"

Xia Lengbai seemed to let out a sigh of relief inwardly; her tense shoulder line relaxed imperceptibly.

She shook her head, lifted her swollen, black-bruised right hand, and hesitated for a moment with her fingertips; she did not touch the spring eye, but pointed to the edge of the spring eye, to an inconspicuous spot where the ice color was slightly deeper.

"Not smash. It is 'guide'. Another remnant Jade Slip left by Bailian mentioned that in the North Sea's Extreme Yin Cave, the spring eye leads to the nether, and requires 'Formation poison as a guide, cold marrow as a key'."

"My blood, mixed with that part of the 'poison' you couldn't absorb, and also..."

She looked at Shen Xiao and said,

"The aura of that millennium cold marrow you snatched from Lin Yun that remains in your body."

"Only when the three resonate can a stable 'entrance' be opened."

Shen Xiao's pupils constricted slightly.

millennium cold marrow!

He had long since absorbed that thing, yet Xia Lengbai could actually perceive the residual aura within his body?

Was it because of the characteristics of her own Ice Spiritual Root, or because... Bailian's "legacy" had exerted some kind of influence on her?

"I need your help."

Xia Lengbai looked him straight in the eye,

"Not to fight. To control. Control that bit of cold marrow aura in your body; do not resist the guidance of my Spiritual Qi."

"And, if that 'System' of yours can still be of some use..."

Her expression was complex,

"Make it not interfere."

Shen Xiao was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.

"Let's try."

He sat up cross-legged, the movement pulling at his wounds and making sweat break out on his forehead, but he forced himself to steady his posture.

Closing his eyes and focusing his mind, he no longer tried to "drive" the sluggish System, but instead sank his consciousness into his Dantian, cautiously trying to capture and soothe that faint, icy aura belonging to the millennium cold marrow.

It was like a startled little fish, shivering in his nearly dried-up Meridians.

Xia Lengbai took a deep breath and walked to the slightly darker spot by the edge of the spring eye, crouching down.

She bit the tip of her already scarred tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood, carrying dense cold Qi, onto the ice surface.

The blood did not congeal immediately; instead, it writhed like a living creature, rapidly outlining the silhouette of an incomplete rune.

Immediately after, she raised her right hand, palm facing down, hovering above the blood rune.

A bizarre scene occurred.

The blue-black poison on her right wrist, as if attracted, seeped out from under her skin in wisps, turning into strands of viscous black Qi that injected into the blood-colored rune below.

The blood rune shone brilliantly, its color changing from bright red to dark red, then to a somber, deep purple-black, emitting a nauseating coldness and deathly stillness.

At the same time, Shen Xiao let out a muffled grunt, suppressing the restlessness of the cold marrow aura in his body with all his might, and sent a tiny, extremely weak sliver of silver-white cold Qi across the air towards Xia Lengbai.

Hum...

The moment that sliver of silver-white cold Qi touched the purple-black blood rune, the entire Ice Cave trembled slightly.

The ice surface at the edge of the spring eye, like a red-hot branding iron pressed onto wax, silently melted into a circular hole with smooth edges.

No water gushed out; beneath the hole was not water, but a slowly rotating, bottomless, gloomy whirlpool.

Inside the whirlpool, fragmented ice-blue light and shadows could be vaguely seen swirling, emitting a chilling coldness even more intense than the outside, as well as a kind of... ancient spatial fluctuation.

The passage had opened.

A passage leading beneath the spring eye, whether it was a legacy or a trap, no one knew.

Xia Lengbai's face was as pale as a ghost, her left hand supporting her on the ground, her body swaying precariously.

The blue-black color on her right arm had faded slightly, but her entire aura was withered to the extreme.

She looked at Shen Xiao, her eyes asking a question.

Shen Xiao stood up, walked to the edge of the whirlpool, and looked down.

It was gloomy and deep; his Divine Sense probed inside like a clay ox entering the sea.

The System interface had no detection prompts regarding this whirlpool, only a line of cold, small text: [Anomalous Spatial Node activated. Suggestion: Enter.]

Suggestion. Shen Xiao tugged at the corners of his mouth; this damned System finally wasn't saying "mission".

He turned his head, looked at Xia Lengbai, glanced again at the seven dead-silent Puppets, and finally, his gaze fell back to the bottomless whirlpool.

"You go first or me?"

Shen Xiao's voice was flat, with no discernible emotion.

Xia Lengbai did not answer.

She only used her left hand to arduously fish two Low-Grade Spirit Stones from her bosom, holding them in her hand to absorb the negligible Spiritual Qi, attempting to recover a sliver of mobility.

Then, she moved to the edge of the whirlpool, stood side-by-side with Shen Xiao, and looked down at that gloom.

"Together."

No hesitation, no asking another word.

The two exchanged a glance and leaped down simultaneously.

The cold darkness instantly swallowed them.