The dilapidated wooden door slammed shut behind him with a heavy thud, cutting off Zhao Gui’s vicious, mean-spirited curses and the receding footsteps of the matrons.
The last trace of daylight was thoroughly snuffed out.
The icy darkness, like thick, viscous ink, instantly swallowed the low, cramped side room reeking of mold and decay.
Dead silence.
Only the cold wind shrieked and wove through the broken roof tiles, sounding like the wails of a wronged spirit.
"Thud."
Qin Lie was brutally flung onto the hard, freezing floor. The dust kicked up by his body, mixed with biting cold air, choked his nose and throat.
He lay face down, motionless.
Like a genuine discarded corpse.
Tangled black hair, matted with mud and snow, clung to the bone-chilling cold of his cheeks.
His nose and mouth were filled with the earthy stench of soil, the salty smell of his own blood, and the nauseating, sour stench of the thick glob of phlegm Zhao Gui had spat upon his collar.
Every subtle breath pulled at a tearing, agonizing pain.
The two "poisonous dragons" temporarily suppressed within his body stirred once more under the violent emotional fluctuations and severe physical trauma.
The frigid, deathly Qi of the Purple Heart Bone-Corroding Poison pierced like fine, dense needles deep into his bone marrow.
Meanwhile, the tyrannical corrosive force of the Soul-Dispersing Severed Vein Wine burned and spread like a scalding branding iron through his shattered dantian and the fractures in his meridians.
Ice and fire intertwined, tearing at his remaining vitality.
Hatred grew wildly like poisoned vines in the gaps of his agonizing pain.
Su Qingxue’s cold, arrogant face.
The hypocrisy and murderous intent hidden deep in Xia Yuanchen’s eyes.
That greasy, stinking finger Zhao Gui had jabbed against his forehead...
Every scene was like a red-hot branding iron, fiercely scorching his soul!
"Hah... hah..."
A suppressed, bellows-like wheeze broke from his throat.
He clenched his fists so hard that his nails sank deep into the already numb flesh of his palms.
Fresh blood mixed with filth oozed from between his fingers, bringing a minuscule, stinging pain that miraculously suppressed the wild roar threatening to breach the dam of his reason.
He could not die!
Nor could he go mad!
This broken body was his only stake in turning the tables!
He had to take control of it immediately, right now!
Qin Lie took a sharp breath of the freezing, foul air.
The breath, mixed with the stench of mold, blood, and thick phlegm, rushed into his lungs, triggering a tearing fit of coughing.
"Cough, cough... ugh..."
He turned his head with great difficulty and spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with mud and snow.
His chest burned like fire.
He forced himself to ignore the suffocating stench and the pain that penetrated to his very bones.
His remaining mental energy, like a candle flickering in the wind, was forcibly gathered.
Like the most precise probe, he cautiously pierced every corner of his body.
Internal vision!
This time, without the assistance of the tyrannical cold current of the Ancient Bronze Mirror Fragment, there was only the resilient willpower forged in his past life and his minute perception of his body.
The dark field of vision slowly unfolded in his consciousness.
It was a devastating scene, shocking to behold.
His meridians were like riverbeds ravaged by a storm, clogged, twisted, and fractured inch by inch.
The dark purple, filthy toxic sludge (Purple Heart Bone-Corroding Poison) clung stubbornly to the walls of the broken meridians like stubborn moss, emitting a chilling, deathly Qi.
The dantian Qi Ocean—the source of a Martial Artist's power—was an even more horrifying sight.
The dantian walls, which ought to have been tough and smooth, were now covered in fine, spiderweb-like cracks.
Dark green, viscous toxic residue that slowly writhed like a living creature (leftover from the Soul-Dispersing Severed Vein Wine) entrenched itself deep within every crack, radiating a intensely corrosive aura and stubbornly blocking any possibility of repair.
Worse still, at a spot an inch below his heart.
The deep purple bruise was currently radiating a faint, ominous dark glow in the "vision" of his consciousness.
Wisps of dark purple deathly Qi, like the saliva of a venomous snake, constantly oozed from the core of the bruise, silently infiltrating and eroding the surrounding, relatively intact visceral regions.
Though slow, the advance was unwavering.
Like ink dropped into clear water, it slowly and fatally polluted his final sanctuary.
This was his body now.
A dilapidated house riddled with holes, on the verge of complete collapse at any moment.
Occupied by two fatal poisonous dragons gnawing away at his last foundations.
The chill, even more biting than the cold wind in this broken room, instantly seized Qin Lie's heart.
The shadow of despair once again tried to drag him into the abyss.
At that very moment.
His fingertips inadvertently brushed against a hard, cold protrusion with irregular edges hidden inside the tattered collar of his inner garment.
The Ancient Bronze Mirror Fragment!
It was still there!
A faint yet incomparably real warmth, like the last straw grasped by a drowning person, instantly dispelled the biting, despairing chill.
Qin Lie's heart beat wildly, threatening to shatter his fragile ribcage.
He hesitated no longer.
Gathering every ounce of his remaining strength, he trembled as he pushed his right hand into his chest with extreme difficulty.
His fingertips groped between his cold, rough skin and dirty cloth.
Every tiny movement tugged at wounds all over his body, bringing bone-piercing agony.
Cold sweat instantly drenched his thin inner garments.
Yet he paid it no mind, his gaze as focused as if he were performing a life-or-death surgery.
Finally.
His fingertips once again touched that cold hardness carrying the aura of traversing eternity.
He gripped it fiercely!
The rough, cold, sharp-edged sensation instantly filled his palm.
It was like grabbing the cold throat of fate!
He carefully pulled it out.
Taking advantage of the extremely faint, desolate moonlight seeping through the crack in the door.
He opened his palm.
It was the size of a palm and extremely irregular in shape.
The profound, archaic bronze background gave off a chilling luster in the dimness.
The surface was covered in dense, arcane dark gold patterns, resembling the trajectories of stars or perhaps ancient secret codes.
Only now, a thin layer of dust and dried, blackened bloodstains coated the surface of the fragment, masking the mysterious radiance it should have possessed.
Dull and lifeless.
Like a genuine piece of scrap metal.
Qin Lie stared fixedly at it, his gaze complex.
There was relief at having survived a disaster, hatred that cut deep into his bones, and a desperate, all-or-nothing resolve!
He tugged at a relatively clean corner of the inner lining of his tattered garment.
Using his very last shred of strength, trembling, he very slowly, bit by bit, wiped away the grime on the surface of the fragment.
His movements were focused and devout.
Like the most pious believer wiping a consecrated divine artifact.
The cold bronze texture transmitted through the thin cloth to his fingertips.
Every wipe felt like brushing away dust-covered history and uncovering deeply hidden secrets.
The dust was brushed away bit by bit.
The dark gold patterns faintly revealed their complex and ancient outlines under the faint moonlight.
When his fingertips inadvertently grazed an extremely sharp edge on the border of the fragment.
The skin, already frozen numb and worn raw by the rough ground, was easily sliced open by a new, fine cut.
A droplet of scalding, bright red blood quietly oozed out.
It traced a tiny arc through the cold air.
And fell.
Landing precisely upon the most complex and arcane dark gold pattern in the center of the fragment, which he had just wiped clean!
Hum—!
A faint yet incomparably clear tremor, seemingly originating from the deepest depths of his soul, emanated from within the bronze fragment without warning!
Like a fierce beast dormant for eternity, gently awakened by this droplet of scalding blood!
The dark gold patterns on the surface of the fragment stained with the droplet of blood suddenly lit up!
No longer the fleeting, firefly-like micro-glow from before.
Instead, it was a steady, profound dark golden radiance that seemed to contain the power of the birth and destruction of stars!
The light was not dazzling, resembling molten gold flowing across the bronze surface.
Yet in Qin Lie's wide-open pupils, it shone like the first dawn splitting an eternal night!
Cold! Profound! Bearing a will that pierced all illusions and reflected the origin of all things!
This familiar palpitation originating from his soul once again gripped him fiercely!
Immediately afterward, an indescribable, soothing warmth, like a stream thawing in early spring, flowed instantly in from the fingertips with which Qin Lie held the fragment!
No longer the tyrannical cold current that pierced like steel needles from before!
This warm current was gentle, lingering, and carried an unspeakable, vibrant vitality!
Its flowing speed was not fast, yet it was exceptionally steadfast.
Wherever it passed, the bone-piercing agony like maggots boring into bone was instantly smoothed away and dispelled, as if meeting its nemesis!
"Ugh..."
Qin Lie could not help emitting a moan of ultimate relief.
His body, taut to the limit, instantly relaxed due to this sudden warmth and the alleviation of the pain.
He greedily felt this warm current flowing through his shattered body.
It slowly advanced along the fractured and twisted meridians.
A miraculous sight occurred!
When the warm current touched the dark purple toxic sludge (Purple Heart Bone-Corroding Poison) clinging to the walls of the meridians, those stubborn impurities hissed silently upon meeting boiling snow, their color fading and thinning at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Though it failed to completely clear them, the rate of erosion was dramatically slowed!
What shocked Qin Lie's mind even more was that this warm current seemed to possess a peculiar "guiding" function.
It did not flow aimlessly; rather, it precisely bypassed the most dangerous areas occupied by the core poison of the Soul-Dispersing Severed Vein Wine (such as the core fractures of the dantian), focusing instead on scouring and nourishing those endings of the meridians and visceral regions that suffered relatively lesser damage and still retained a trace of weak activity!
Especially the area an inch below his heart, surrounding the deep purple bruise radiating an ominous dark glow!
The warm current, like an invisible hand, gently yet powerfully enveloped that fatal source of poison.
Wisps of warmth penetrated inward, forming a subtle confrontation and neutralization with the continuously oozing dark purple deathly Qi.
The faint dark glow at the core of the bruise seemed... to be suppressed and dimmed by a fraction!
Though merely a fraction, it was like the first spark lit in a dark abyss!
Hope!
The fire of genuine, practical hope ignited with a roar in Qin Lie's heart, burning fiercely!
He immediately realized that this warm current was the most direct and effective "healing" power the Ancient Bronze Mirror Fragment offered to his currently shattered body!
The previous tyrannical cold current was more akin to "suppression" and "reflection."
Whereas this warm current was "repair" and "nourishment!"
He no longer passively endured.
Instead, he actively guided it!
Qin Lie closed his eyes, concentrated all his remaining mental energy, and cautiously guided this soothing warm current.
His mind, like the gentlest thread, wrapped around the flowing vitality, attempting to make more of it flow toward the visceral regions most eroded by the poison and lowest in vitality.
Especially his heart and lungs!
The agony where every breath felt like being slashed by knives had its root right here!
The warm current seemed to sense his intent.
The flow sped up by a fraction.
More warmth converged toward his chest cavity.
Like parched, cracked earth welcoming sweet rain.
The burning, sandpaper-like agony rapidly subsided and calmed under the infusion of the warm current at a speed visible to the senses!
His breathing... grew smoother!
Though it still carried a bellows-like wheeze, at least not every inhalation was accompanied by tearing torture!
Qin Lie breathed greedily, the cold air carrying the stench of mold rushing into his lungs, yet bringing no more extreme pain.
He could even feel that the alveoli in his lungs eroded by the poison and covered in shadows were regaining a trace of weak elasticity under the nourishment of the warm current!
This feeling... was marvelous!
Like timely rain after a prolonged drought!
He clutched the bronze fragment tightly, his knuckles turning white from exertion, as if he wanted to fuse this cold metal into his own bones and blood.
On the surface of the fragment, the complex dark gold patterns stained with his blood flowed with a steady light, fading and brightening like breathing.
A continuous stream of soothing warmth flowed endlessly into his body from the point of contact.
Repairing the wounds riddled with holes.
Combating the stubborn poison like maggots in the bone.
Nourishing vitality on the verge of exhaustion.
Time passed slowly amidst the intertwining of cold and warmth.
The cold wind still howled outside the house.
Yet within this dilapidated hut, it was as if a realm of its own had formed.
Qin Lie leaned against the cold wall, his body still weak, his complexion still pale as paper.
Yet beneath his tightly closed eyelids, his eyeballs twitched slightly and rhythmically.
All his concentration was immersed in the communion with the warm current of the ancient mirror.
Guiding it.
Feeling it.
Familiarizing himself with the trajectory of its flow and the rhythm of its repair.
I know not how much time passed.
When the soothing warm current, having completed its preliminary sorting, began to slowly recede and finally shrank entirely back into the fragment,
Qin Lie slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils was no longer the dead despair of before, nor the desperate, reckless madness.
Instead, it was a settled coldness, like a deep ancient well, coupled with... control!
He lowered his head to look at the bronze fragment in his hand, which had returned to stillness, its dark gold pattern's light internalized, retaining only a hint of warmth.
"Hah..."
He let out a long, slow breath of stale air.
Though his breath remained weak, it was far steadier than before.
The burning sensation and tearing feeling within his chest cavity had all but vanished.
Though his body remained weak and the virulent poison in his meridians and dantian still entrenched, the near-death sensation of asphyxiation and the agonizing pain of imminent collapse had been immensely alleviated!
More importantly, he clearly sensed that his connection with this fragment had deepened a layer.
No longer the passive acceptance of shocks or warm currents from before.
Instead, there was a faint sense of... communion and guidance!
He tried concentrating his spirit once more.
This time, without blood as a medium.
He cautiously extended his concentrated mind, like the finest thread, toward the core dark gold pattern on the surface of the fragment that had just been activated by blood.
The instant his mind made contact—
Hum!
The fragment once again emitted a faint tremor perceptible only to his soul!
A weak yet clear, cold perceptive force, like ripples stirred by a stone dropped into a calm lake, instantly fed back!
This perceptive force was neither a warm current nor the tyrannical cold current from before.
It was more akin to... an invisible "eye"!
Qin Lie's heart stirred.
He immediately guided this cold perceptive force and cast it inward into his body.
The "vision" of his internal sight underwent a heaven-shaking transformation instantly!
No longer the vague, dim scene from before where he had to blindly grope relying solely on his own perception.
Under the cold perceptive force originating from the ancient mirror, the scenes within his body became unprecedentedly "clear"!
As if layers of thick fog had been parted!
His fractured and twisted meridians were visible down to the finest hair.
The specific shapes of the blockage nodes, the distribution concentration of the dark purple poison, and even the minute textures of damaged muscle tissue deeper down were clearly "reflected" within his consciousness!
The dark green viscous toxic residue entrenched on the dantian walls seemed focused under a magnifying glass; the details of its slow writhing and the varying intensity of the corrosive aura it emitted were clearly distinguishable!
What made Qin Lie hold his breath the most was the deep purple bruise core below his heart!
Under the "reflection" of the mirror's perceptive force, it was no longer merely a vague dark glow.
Qin Lie "saw" it clearly!
Deep within that core, there was actually entrenched a tiny phantom of a venomous spider condensed entirely from pure dark purple deathly Qi!
Its eight slender limbs plunged deep into the junction of his heart pulse and skeleton, its mouthparts opening and closing as it continuously spewed out new deathly Qi!
This was the concrete manifestation of the core poison source of the "Purple Heart Bone-Corroding Poison"!
Cold! Bizarre! Hair-raising!
The perceptive force of the ancient mirror seemed to sense the threat of this poison source as well, and the cold sensation fed back suddenly intensified, bearing a strong will of "analysis" and "locking on"!
Qin Lie endured the shock in his heart and the mental pressure brought by that cold perception.
He attempted to cautiously shift this "reflected" power away, casting it toward his relatively intact right arm.
The meridians there were similarly damaged, but the toxic erosion was lighter.
Under the clear "vision," he could even "see" deep within the muscle fibers some extremely faint, firefly-like pale golden dots of light!
That was the residual vitality of his life source!
Under the shroud of the mirror's perceptive force, these weak spots of light seemed to receive some invisible attraction and grew slightly more active!
This discovery made Qin Lie's heart beat faster still!
Reflection! Analysis! Nourishment! And even... guiding vitality?
The capabilities of this Ancient Bronze Mirror Fragment were far more powerful and profound than he had imagined!
It was not merely an amulet.
It was more like a key!
A key capable of unlocking the shackles of his broken body and glimpsing the esoteric origins of the Martial Dao!
Qin Lie clutched the fragment tightly, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the cold dark gold patterns.
His gaze burned like a blazing star.
He was no longer content with passively receiving the nourishment of the warm current.
A bolder, madder notion grew within his heart—mental communication!
A deeper level of communication!
He wanted to know what else this fragment could do besides releasing warm currents and providing perceptive force.
Did those arcane patterns contain deeper information? Regarding itself? Regarding its original form before shattering? Or even... regarding the Martial Dao rules of this realm?
His mind, like a prayer uttered by the most devout believer, gathered once more.
More concentrated than before, more resilient.
He cautiously extended the tendrils of this mind deep into the interior of the fragment.
No longer the surface patterns.
Instead, he attempted to... sink into it!
Hum——!
The exact moment his mind attempted to pierce that cold bronze casing and touch the deeper core of the fragment!
An unimaginable, vast, ancient, and cold torrent of information—cold enough to freeze the soul—counter-attacked violently and without warning, like a breached starry river!
Boom!!!
Qin Lie felt as though his head had been fiercely smashed by an invisible, myriad-weight giant hammer!
No!
His soul was being torn apart!
Countless shattered images, distorted runes, the light and shadow of stars born and perishing, the chaotic roars of the world's creation, and that cold will that pierced all illusions and reflected reality... pierced his fragile Sea of Consciousness like billions of red-hot steel needles, barbarously and brutally!
"Ah——!!!"
A shrill shriek, unlike anything human, erupted from Qin Lie's throat!
His body instantly curled into a shrimp, as if lashed fiercely by an invisible force!
The bronze fragment in his hand slipped free, dropping onto the cold muddy ground with a clatter.
The dark gold light instantly extinguished, reverting to the appearance of a dull stone.
"Pfft!"
A large mouthful of scalding fresh blood erupted like a fountain from Qin Lie's mouth.
Crimson blood spatters sprayed onto the mottled wall, the cold ground, and the bronze fragment rolling nearby.
Shocking to the eye.
His vision plunged completely into a chaos intertwining pure blood-red and darkness.
Agony, like a tidal wave, instantly submerged and swallowed him.
His consciousness, like a candle flame in a gale, flickered wildly, on the verge of complete extinguishment at any moment.
The cold muddy ground pressed tightly against his burning cheeks.
Pain tore at every single nerve in him.
The salty stench of blood permeated his mouth.
In the darkness, there remained only his own heavy, bellows-like breathing.
And the soul-tearing sensation that felt like maggots in his bones.
I know not how much time passed.
Perhaps merely an instant.
Perhaps as long as a century.
The soul-tearing agony and information onslaught finally slowly subsided like a receding tide.
Qin Lie lay paralyzed on the cold ground, his entire body drenched in cold sweat and blood.
His body kept spasming and trembling due to excessive pain and exhaustion.
Every minute twitch brought a new round of excruciating pain.
He was like a dying fish washed ashore.
Lacking even the strength to move a finger.
Only deep within his half-closed, bloodshot eyes.
Beyond the lingering echoes of pain.
DeEper still, a kind of madness akin to... enlightenment and... greed burned brightly!
He had seen it!
Though merely a fleeting glimpse, though the price was heavy.
Yet in the instant swept by that vast torrent of information, in the gaps of pain as his soul was torn apart.
He had caught it!
Several shattered runes, deeply branded into the core of his consciousness like seals!
They were twisted, ancient, radiating a cold and arcane aura.
He could not understand even a one-ten-thousandth of their meaning.
Yet the form of those runes, the trajectory of their flow, the rhythm of certain "rules" they contained...
Were utterly distinct from any cultivation technique or martial skill from his past life!
Yet they vaguely pointed in one direction—reflection! Analysis! Tracing origins! And even... reconstruction!
Was this the true core ability of the Ancient Bronze Mirror Fragment?!
Qin Lie moved his eyeballs with great difficulty.
His blurred vision cast toward the dull fragment lying quietly in the mud and pool of blood not far away.
It was cold, silent, like a stone enduring through eternity.
Yet Qin Lie knew.
Beneath that seemingly ordinary facade.
Lay hidden a power capable of subverting destiny!
And the painful price he... must pay.
He twitched the corners of his mouth with difficulty.
Fresh blood wound its way down from his split lips.
Blooming a small, eerie flower of blood on the cold ground.
Twilight sank completely.
The cold wind whipped up snow flurries, drilling through door cracks and window gaps, wailing and swirling.
The dilapidated hut was like an ice cellar.
Qin Lie curled up amidst the cold and filth, his breath weak.
Yet deep within those lowered eyes.
Beneath the frozen cold pool.
The thirst for power, the obsession with vengeance, like a demonic seed watered with blood.
Upon the ruins of agony and enlightenment.
Grew wildly.
And quietly bloomed.