85: Chapter 85: The Seal Must Be Sold and the Exit Requires Additional Payment

The throbbing of the System Silver Pattern within his body was perfectly synchronized.

"Hum!"

It was a low-frequency resonance, not a sound, but a synchronization of some kind of "information stream" that pierced through his bone marrow and Divine Sense.

Every time the starlight points frozen inside the ice fragment in his palm flickered, the Silver Pattern deep within his Dantian, representing the [Destiny Plunderer] System, would light up and dim in rhythm, without the slightest deviation.

Shen Xiao moved rapidly while pressed against the ice wall, his Dark Gold Spiritual Energy spreading through the ice layer beneath his feet like mercury, guiding his body to slide silently through the narrow and complex network of ice crevices.

The cold was bone-piercing; every breath carried ice shards, and the old injuries in his internal organs throbbed with pain under the continuous exertion.

But he could not afford to care about that.

The System's cold broadcast, mixed with high-frequency static, was forcibly pouring into his consciousness with unprecedented "detail" and "proactiveness."

"...Protocol fragment information stream parsing... Stability increased to 3.1%... Data infusion starting..."

"...Core keyword association analysis... Protocol level: Ancient (estimated era > upper limit of current epoch civilization)... Core keywords: 'heavenly dao chessboard', 'underlying rules', 'cornerstone', 'energy'..."

"...Constituent element analysis... Subject: Non-standard energy... Conversion source: Emotion (high purity/specific types prioritized), Memory (depth/obsession level), Origin of life (complete extraction)... Conversion products: Rule authority (temporary/fragmented), Luck (transferable/consumable)..."

"...Protocol holder characteristics... Mutual perception (range affected by 'protocol' integrity and 'fuel' quality)... Mutual restraint (same-source higher-order protocols suppress lower-order ones)... Status: Fragmented (majority)... Active: Very few... Warning: Host carrying 'protocol' has triggered attention from underlying rules; probability of being marked by relevant 'Child of Destiny' and associated individuals has increased..."

The information stream was fragmented and jumpy, yet it carried a cold logic that pointed straight to the Origin.

Shen Xiao's pupils contracted as he flew forward.

Cornerstone... energy... mutual perception?

He instantly connected all the fragmented clues from before.

Could it be that the so-called "Child of Destiny" Lin Yun, those inconceivable "Luck," those "coincidences" and "sacrifices" that were "destined" to pave the way for him, were not just the favor of the Heavenly Dao, but because Lin Yun himself, or the Heavenly Dao will behind him, was a massive, functioning aggregate of "protocols"?

It needed to constantly absorb "emotions," "memories," and "life"—the most primal and precious things—as fuel to maintain and even grow itself, ultimately achieving some goal, such as... nurturing a perfect "fruit," and then devouring it?

And Xia Lengbai's Tomb Guardian Seal, the "door" she guarded, the Seal under the Ice Abyss, and the ice fragment in his own hand, perhaps they were all different "fragments" or "ports" of this massive "protocol"?

Holders could perceive each other... so that was why Xia Lengbai could vaguely sense the "protocol" scent on him?

And that was why the ice fragment in his hand resonated with the aura of the Tomb Guardian Seal?

Even, did the current resonance between him and the System Silver Pattern mean... that this System, which he had always relied on and been wary of, was essentially a variant or execution unit of a "protocol"?

"Damn it..." Shen Xiao cursed inwardly, the cold air choking his throat and triggering a suppressed cough.

This water was deeper and more bottomless than he had imagined, and so murky it made his scalp tingle.

He no longer tried to fully understand those awkward and cold messages, turning instead to grasp firmly onto one most critical and practical core: "mutual perception."

This meant that, in theory, if he were "complete" enough, or the "fuel" were "pure" enough, perhaps he could inversely perceive other "protocol" fragments or holders?

This thought made his heart skip a beat, followed by a chill of excitement that shot up his spine.

Plundering now had a clearer "radar."

Near the entrance of the ice crevice, the turbulent aura and the aftermath of the shattered ice rocks had not yet completely subsided.

Xia Lengbai stood alone in the chaotic mist of ice dust, with her back to the direction where Shen Xiao had disappeared.

The hem of her moon-white Dharma robe was stained with a bit of grayish ice dust, but what was most striking was the dark red bloodstain on the inside of her right sleeve, hanging by her side and trembling slightly, which had rapidly seeped out and been frozen onto the fabric fibers by the extreme cold.

Maintaining that intensity, that precision, and the simulation of the ancient Seal's aura sufficient to deceive Lin Yun's Divine Sense, came at a cost far beyond ordinary Spiritual Energy consumption.

It was a forced "enactment" of a heavy and ancient "protocol" echo that did not belong to her; it was using her own "Tomb Guardian Seal" Legacy as a catalyst to pry open an insignificant corner of the Seal's Origin.

At this moment, the pale blue Tomb Guardian Seal mark on her forehead was sending waves of needle-like stinging pain, as if countless ice needles were trying to pierce through her skin from the inside.

Deeper within, there was a sense of exhaustion and emptiness stemming from her Soul, as if some carefully maintained balance had been broken, revealing the cold and desolate essence underneath.

"Cough..." A very soft, suppressed groan in her throat.

Xia Lengbai's face turned pale, even whiter than the surrounding ten-thousand-year black ice.

She quietly bit the tip of her tongue, and a mouthful of vital blood with a strange, sweet and metallic taste surged out, which she silently sprayed onto the mark on her forehead using a secret technique.

The blue light flared imperceptibly, then quickly retracted, barely gathering and stabilizing the aura fluctuations that were about to dissipate.

The price was a ripple of exhaustion that was hard to detect, passing through the depths of the ice lake in her eyes.

Outside, Lin Yun's Divine Sense was like a comb, scraping over the ice crevice area repeatedly, the light threads formed by the golden light of Luck dense as a net, probing every inch for abnormalities.

But other than the chaotic residual Seal, the distinct coldness of the Tomb Guardian Seal, and the traces of Spiritual Energy left by the battle, he found nothing.

Shen Xiao was like a drop of water in an ice sea, having disappeared without a trace.

"Fake... it's an aura projection!" On Lin Yun's handsome face, anger churned like a volcano, and his golden eyes seemed almost ready to spew fire.

He suddenly realized he had been played, played by a "cannon fodder" he had never taken seriously and Xia Lengbai working together!

"Xia Lengbai!" He whipped his head around, his sharp gaze seemingly wanting to pierce through layers of ice rock to lock onto that moon-white figure.

But he held back; now was not the time to pursue this, nor was it the right moment to completely break ties with Xia Lengbai.

"Search!" Lin Yun gritted his teeth, the golden light of Luck exploding forth, turning into countless thin but tough light threads, like tentacles possessing life, instantly spreading toward the deeper, vast ice fields behind the crevice, with a range and level of detail far exceeding before.

At the same time, his cold voice, containing overwhelming fury, reached the ears of the following Disciples: "He must have run deeper! Dig three feet into the ground if you have to, but drag him out for me!"

Several miles away, at the bottom of a huge glacial crevice that was deeper and far from the main ice field.

The environment here was even harsher than the previous ice crevice.

The four walls were near-vertical, mirror-smooth blue black ice; looking up, the crevice opening was just a distant line of faint light.

The air was stagnant as a solid; the cold was no longer a flowing wind, but a settled substance that could almost freeze the Soul.

There was no sound, only the occasional, barely audible "crack" coming from deep within the ice walls—that was the ten-thousand-year cold ice slowly deforming under its own weight.

Shen Xiao leaned his back against the bone-piercing cold ice wall, breathing slightly.

Continuous stealth and the hidden pain in his internal organs had consumed much of his stamina, but the resonance from the ice fragment in his palm, synchronized with the System Silver Pattern, was becoming clearer and more stable.

Like a lamp swaying in the endless darkness but never extinguishing.

A subtle spatial ripple spread out.

Xia Lengbai's figure appeared silently three steps behind his side, as if she had directly manifested from the shadows of the ice wall.

Her appearance was still light and agile, but Shen Xiao's sharp perception caught a hint of difference; when she landed, her toes touched the ground extremely lightly, the movement to dissipate force was half a point more deliberate than usual, and the frequency of her breathing was slightly more rapid than normal.

Her complexion, under the reflection of the deep blue ice walls, showed an unnatural pallor, like fine mutton-fat jade that had lost its warmth, leaving only a cold, hard texture.

At the cuffs of her moon-white Dharma robe, that smear of frozen dark red bloodstain looked particularly glaring in the cold tones.

"It seems," Xia Lengbai spoke first, her voice still cold, but a faint hoarseness at the end of her sentence betrayed her internal exhaustion, "you cannot afford my 'additional price' for now."

Her ice-blue eyes swept over Shen Xiao's pale face and blood-stained lapels, then grazed his hand, which was tightly gripping the ice fragment, knuckles white.

"Lin Yun will catch up soon. Your 'key'," her gaze fell on the ice fragment, "have you figured it out?"

Shen Xiao did not answer immediately.

He first looked at the bloodstain on her cuff, his gaze lingering for a moment, then felt the increasingly clear resonance between the ice fragment in his palm and the System Silver Pattern in his body, which felt as if it were about to burst out, as well as... that faint, ethereal sense in the dark, a vague perception of the aura belonging to Xia Lengbai's Tomb Guardian Seal in a distant direction.

Although weak, it was real, like a thin silver thread in the darkness.

He pulled at the corner of his mouth, tugging on the frostbite on his face, and hissed in pain, before slowly opening his mouth, his voice hoarse but clear:

"Understood a bit. This thing," he raised his hand, the ice fragment shimmering with restrained cold light in the gloom, "might not just be a key to open the door, but can also act as a 'compass,' to 'locate' other similar fragments, or... holders."

He paused, looking with complex eyes at Xia Lengbai's smooth but subtly tired forehead, where the light of the Tomb Guardian Seal had dimmed significantly.

"But using it requires 'fuel'." Shen Xiao's voice dropped, carrying a sense of realization and a trace of imperceptible chill, "Just like your Tomb Guardian Seal; that move just now, what burned up... wasn't just Spiritual Energy, right?"

Above the crevice, far away, came the faint sound of air being torn and angry shouts that, even filtered by the ice layers, still sounded violent.

"Shen Xiao! Get out here and die!"

Before the words had even faded, several incomparably condensed streaks of golden light of Luck, filled with Lin Yun's furious killing intent, like spears of divine punishment, tore through the distant space, ignoring the complex terrain, and fiercely pierced into this glacial crevice!

"Whoosh!!!"

The sharp, shrill whistle of air being torn traveled from far to near, instantly amplifying!

Before the golden light arrived, that overwhelming and irresistible sharp energy and majestic pressure had already made the ice walls at the bottom of the crevice groan under the unbearable load; dense cracks "cracked" and spread, and ice shards fell with a rustle!

Shen Xiao's pupils suddenly contracted to needle points, and the Dark Gold Spiritual Energy in his body, which had just calmed down slightly, instantly surged violently.

Almost at the exact moment he sensed the energy locking onto him, before he even had time to think, his body had already reacted before his consciousness...

He lunged out and grabbed Xia Lengbai's cold wrist!

The touch was the expected coldness and slenderness, but beneath the skin on the inside of her wrist, a faint, imperceptible throb of weakness belonging to the Origin of life was clearly transmitted to his palm through the touching skin.

"Go!"

He growled, not a request, but an order.

The Dark Gold Spiritual Energy under his feet and the cold light from the ice fragment in his palm exploded simultaneously, his figure dragging out a blurry afterimage, not upward, but toward a corner deeper, darker, and further away from the trajectory of the golden light spear shadows, dodging rapidly!

Xia Lengbai was yanked, stumbling, a flash of faint surprise in her cold eyes, but her body offered no resistance, following his momentum like a snowflake caught in a gale, instantly merging into the churning ice mist and darkness below.

The next instant after their figures disappeared.

"Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom—!!!"

Several golden light spears, like falling miniature suns, fiercely pierced into the spot where they had just been standing and the large area of ice walls around it!

The terrifying sounds of explosions merged into one; ice crystals instantly vaporized under the extreme heat and impact, and in the next second, were frozen by the even more violent cold air into a strange ice mist mixed with golden light.

The entire glacial crevice was shaking and collapsing violently; huge ice blocks fell like meteorites, blasting one deep pit after another in the bottom.

Ice shards, mixed with the cold water vapor steamed out by the golden light, rained down like a violent ice storm, covering everything and temporarily concealing all auras and traces.

And on the edge of the center of that ice storm and collapse, deep in a narrow, downward-sloping ice crevice that had not yet been fully affected.

Shen Xiao gripped Xia Lengbai's wrist tightly, pulling her half a step behind him, the two pressed against the vibrating ice wall, with ice shards constantly falling from above.

His eyes in the darkness and ice mist were frighteningly bright, staring at his palm; there, the starlight points frozen inside the ice fragment were flashing frantically at an unprecedentedly intense frequency, not pointing toward the incoming Lin Yun, but toward a deeper, absolutely dark corner of the crevice.

At the same time, the System Silver Pattern in his body sent a wave of scorching throb, accompanied by an intermittent but clearly directed prompt:

"...Detected high concentration... same-source protocol fluctuation... reaction source... not host, not known marked target... distance: extremely close... status: active..."