83: Chapter 83 Agreements and Costs

It was as casual as asking me how much silver I spent at the tavern last night.

"What I saw, what does it have to do with Fairy Xia?

Does the Fairy's Tomb Guardian Seal Legacy require you to 'pass on' even this to me?"

He deliberately emphasized the word "Legacy," his words laced with thorns, testing Xia Lengbai's bottom line.

At the same time, the faint wisp of Dark Gold Spiritual Energy within his body, prompted by the fragmented information of "Agreement," "Sacrifice," and "Identification" flashing wildly in the System background, resonated more obscurely with the ice fragment in his palm, attempting to capture more information while also trying to obscure any deeper probing that Xia Lengbai might be performing.

"What I 'saw'..."

Shen Xiao slowly exhaled a breath of cold air that tasted of blood. His gaze swept over Xia Lengbai's calm, expressionless face and finally landed back on her smooth brow. Under the cold radiance of the ice fragment, that Tomb Guardian Seal looked like a sleeping blue eye,

"A piece of very dark void, bottomless. Floating inside was a... blue stone tablet that was about to shatter."

He deliberately slowed his speech, observing every subtle reaction from Xia Lengbai.

"The characters on the tablet weren't carved; they seemed alive, flowing and twisting. I couldn't see them clearly." Shen Xiao licked his cracked lips, tasting the salty, fishy blood scabs. "And... a kind of 'scent'."

He paused, his eyes sharpening: "It's the same as the scent of the seal on your brow, and the scent of this thing in my hand. Is it the same... underlying code? The same... format? I can't quite say, but I know they are from the same group, or, at least, they used to be."

"The lingering echo of the same Agreement." Xia Lengbai said it for him. Her voice was calm and waveless, yet the temperature in the ice crevice seemed to drop even further. "You are better at 'reading' those things than I imagined. As expected, the fragment in your hand is a 'key' closer to the core."

She took another small step forward.

Shen Xiao's spine tensed instantly. The Dark Gold Spiritual Energy raced through his Meridians, pulling at his injuries and causing waves of sharp pain, but on the surface, he only narrowed his eyes slightly, appearing to listen intently while actually being ready to fight for his life at any moment.

"Behind the 'Gate of Agreement' lies the place where the 'Higher Existence' who signed the agreement sleeps or is imprisoned. And the agreement itself..." Xia Lengbai's gaze fell on the hand with which Shen Xiao was gripping the ice fragment. Her expression was complex—probing, coldly mocking, and even holding a trace of faint, sympathetic melancholy,

"...uses the most precious emotions or memories in the Soul as the 'key' and 'fuel.' It grants power, but it also exacts the deepest price."

Shen Xiao's heart sank, almost jumping out of his chest.

System. Plunder. Luck Points.

Cultivation, talent, memories... those things he had plundered and then had returned to him as System rewards—was their ultimate destination not just the black box that is the "System"?

"Price?"

Shen Xiao suppressed his churning emotions and pulled a mocking smile, which tugged at the frozen, cracked wounds on his face, making him look somewhat ferocious,

"It sounds like Fairy Xia knows far more than just 'vague records.' Could it be that you, Fairy, have also paid this price?"

Xia Lengbai did not answer this question.

She only smiled very lightly, almost silently. There was no warmth in that smile, only the desolation of an ice field.

She raised her hand, her fingertips not pointing at Shen Xiao but tracing the air over the Tomb Guardian Seal on her brow, her movements as gentle as if she were stroking a fragile ice crystal.

"Forced to shoulder 'Heavenly Fate,' playing a role that even I despise, day after day, year after year."

Her voice lowered, yet every word was clear, like ice picks striking Shen Xiao's eardrums,

"For the sake of that so-called 'Child of Luck,' I had to restrain my edge, hide my true nature, and even... personally strangle certain untimely sprouts of 'emotion.' Shen Xiao, tell me, does this not count as another form of sacrifice? Using the 'self' as an offering to exchange for that ethereal 'Favor of Heavenly Fate'?"

Shen Xiao's pupils contracted sharply.

He recalled the description of Xia Lengbai in the original work—cold and aloof, unwavering in her deep affection for Lin Yun, and ultimately, to help Lin Yun overcome a Bottleneck, she exhausted all her cultivation in a specific Secret Realm and perished.

That was the script written by "Heavenly Fate."

But now, the Xia Lengbai standing before him had eyes like bottomless icy lakes, and her words were filled with undisguised mockery and loathing for "Heavenly Fate."

She was resisting.

Or rather, she had always been resisting, only no one knew—not the Heavenly Dao, and perhaps not even Lin Yun.

"What does this have to do with my System?" Shen Xiao pressed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He felt he was approaching the edge of some terrifying truth.

"Of course it does."

Xia Lengbai approached again, leaving less than three feet between them.

Shen Xiao could clearly see his own reflection in her ice-blue pupils—disheveled, vigilant, like a trapped beast.

The cold, faint fragrance on her became even clearer, mixed with the scent of ice and snow, yet inexplicably carrying an extremely aggressive presence.

"The scent of the 'Agreement' on you is more vivid, more... complete, and also hungrier than that 'Gate' under the Ice Abyss that is about to shatter."

Xia Lengbai enunciated each word clearly, her gaze like ice needles piercing into the depths of Shen Xiao's eyes,

"You use it to plunder Lin Yun's Luck, to plunder my memories, to plunder Nangong Li's talent... where do those stripped-away things go? Do they really just turn into the spiritual energy in your Dantian or the extra knowledge in your brain?"

She leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping even lower, carrying a cold, almost cruel temptation:

"Do you want to know where the 'price' your System collects... or rather, the 'price' it pays on your behalf, ultimately ends up?"

This sentence exploded in Shen Xiao's mind like a thunderclap.

The price the System collects? Paying the price? Where does it flow to?

When he plundered, the target lost cultivation, memories, and talent.

The System gave him rewards: cultivation infusion, memory fragments, and talent enhancements.

In this process, does a "price" exist?

If it exists, who is paying it?

Who is it paid to?

Is it not just a simple energy conversion?

Could it be... that the System itself is a more Advanced, more secretive "Agreement Executor"?

Or even, is it just... a part of the "Agreement" itself?

Just as Shen Xiao's mind was shaken to the core, and he subconsciously wanted to look inside the System to pursue this fatal question—

"Shen Xiao!!!"

A clear yet furious sound of a sword ringing, like lightning tearing through the sky, suddenly exploded from above the Ice Rift Valley!

Immediately after, Lin Yun's sharp shout, suppressing boiling rage and cold killing intent, carried by vast spiritual power, resounded like rolling thunder across the entire ice field!

"I know you're hiding here! Get out here!!!"

Before the sound had even faded, a Sword Qi as solid as reality, shining with brilliant golden light, struck down like a spear of divine punishment!

"Boom!!!"

The entire ice crevice, along with the recessed chamber where Shen Xiao and Xia Lengbai were, trembled violently!

The ancient ice layer overhead groaned under the unbearable strain, and fine ice debris fell in a rustle, as if a snow of ice had begun to fall.

In Shen Xiao's palm, the ice fragment that had been emitting a faint cold radiance suddenly became scalding hot the moment Lin Yun's shout and the Sword Qi descended!

That silent "stillness" was broken, and the frozen, flickering starlight points inside flashed wildly, transmitting a sharp, almost alarm-like palpitation!

Outside the ice crevice, the wind and snow roared, and the Sword Qi soared into the sky.

Inside the ice crevice, the cold fragrance was deep and secluded, and the deathly silent ice fragment was scalding like fire.

Shen Xiao and Xia Lengbai, amidst the suddenly intensifying tremors and roaring, locked eyes once again in the dark and cold air.