The black Cullinan screeched to a halt in the hospital's circular driveway, the tires smoking against the asphalt. The flickering lights of the Jiangcheng General Hospital gave the building the appearance of a dying beast, its heartbeat irregular and panicked.
Alexander was out of the car before the engine had fully cut, his hand automatically reaching back to help Elena. But she didn't need it. She stepped out, her crimson gown torn and stained, yet she carried herself with the terrifying poise of an empress going to her execution.
The man in the saffron robes didn't move. He stood at the center of the entrance, his long, white beard fluttering in a wind that no one else felt. The staff he held was made of aged peachwood, topped with a silver needle nearly six inches long.
"Elena Lin," the man said. His voice didn't carry; it resonated directly in her bones. "The branch has wandered far from the root. You have used the Phoenix Needle to save a mortal king, yet you leave your own mother's soul in a cage of ice."
"Elder Wei," Elena replied, her voice steady but her heart hammering against her ribs. She recognized him. He was the Enforcer of the Valley of the Sun, the man who had presided over her father's banishment. "My mother is not a cage. She is my life. If you have touched her, I will pull the Sun from your Valley and bury it in the dirt."
Alexander stepped forward, his cold aura flaring. The ground around his feet actually began to crack as the "Cold-Yin" within him reacted to the Elder's presence. "I don't care about your Valley or your robes. You are trespassing in my hospital. Move, or my security will remove your head."
Elder Wei smiled, a thin, paper-dry expression. "A man of frost and shadow. You have chosen a dangerous vessel for your heart, Phoenix. His blood is poison to our arts." He turned his gaze back to Elena. "Your mother didn't wake because of medicine. She woke because the Phoenix Needle was used within the city limits. The vibration triggered the Soul-Locking Seal your father placed on her to keep her hidden. Now, she is a beacon. And the Valley has come to collect."
"She's not a debt to be collected!" Elena snarled.
She surged forward, but Elder Wei simply tapped his peachwood staff on the ground. A wave of golden Qi erupted, a wall of pure energy that threw the surrounding security guards back like autumn leaves. Alexander caught Elena, his boots skidding on the pavement as he absorbed the shock.
"The Trial of the Nine Heavens begins with the Gate of the Sea of Marrow," Wei declared. "If you can reach her before the third bell of the midnight watch, she lives. If not, her soul returns to the Valley to be repurposed. You have ten minutes, Keeper."
He vanished. One moment he was a solid mass of saffron silk; the next, he was a swirl of golden dust caught in the hospital's draft.
"Upstairs! Now!" Elena shouted.
They didn't wait for the elevator. They ran up the fire stairs, Elena's lungs burning, the residual "False Fire" in her system screaming at the exertion. Alexander was a shadow at her side, his hand frequently touching her back, his cold Qi acting as a stabilizer for her frantic heart.
When they reached the Diamond Suite, the nurses were huddled in the corner, weeping. The air inside the room was thick with the scent of burning incense and old parchment.
Elena's mother, Sarah Lin, was sitting upright in bed. Her eyes were wide, but they weren't her eyes. They were glowing with a pale, golden light, and her skin was covered in faint, glowing calligraphy—ancient seals of the Valley.
"Mother!" Elena lunged for the bed, but an invisible force-field slammed her back.
"She is sealed," a voice whispered from the shadows. Elder Wei was there, sitting cross-legged on the windowsill. "To break the seal, you must navigate the Nine Heavens within her own body. One mistake, and you shatter her mind."
Elena looked at her mother's body. She saw the Qi blockages immediately. They weren't natural. They were placed with surgical, spiritual precision along the Du Mai (Governing Vessel) and Ren Mai (Conception Vessel).
"The Soul-Locking Seal," Elena whispered, her hands shaking. "He's blocked the Baihui point at the crown and the Huiyin point at the base. Her soul is trapped in the center, in the Middle Dantian. If I don't vent the pressure, she'll suffer a spiritual stroke."
"Do it, Elena," Alexander said. He stepped up behind her, his hands gripping her shoulders. "I will be your anchor. Use my cold. If the seal is made of 'Sun' energy, my 'Cold-Yin' is the only thing that can mask your movements from the Elder's detection."
Elena looked at him, realizing the risk. If he gave her his cold energy while she was using her fire, they could both explode. "Alexander, it could kill you."
"I was already dead before you found me in that parking lot," he said, his eyes fixed on hers with an intensity that burned more than any fever. "Save her. I'll hold the world back for you."
Elena turned back to her mother. She pulled out seven Phoenix Needles at once. This was the Seven Stars Aligning technique, a forbidden move that required the healer to split their consciousness into seven parts.
"By the grace of the Phoenix and the marrow of the Earth," Elena chanted, her voice growing deep.
She struck.
The first needle hit the base of the throat. The golden calligraphy on her mother's skin flared, a screeching sound like tearing metal filling the room. Elena felt a backwash of Sun Qi hit her, trying to scorch her fingers, but a wave of absolute, freezing calm washed over her.
Alexander. He was channeling his curse into her, his face turning blue, his veins standing out like frozen ropes on his neck. He was taking the heat of the seal into his own body to protect her.
"Hold on, Alexander," she sobbed silently.
Needle two. Needle three. Needle four.
The glow in Sarah Lin's eyes began to fade, replaced by a terrifying darkness.
"The Fifth Heaven!" Elder Wei shouted from the window. "The Heart Gate! Beware the flame!"
As Elena aimed for the point over her mother's heart, the calligraphy suddenly shifted, forming the shape of a golden dragon that lunged at Elena's hand.
"Get back!" Alexander roared. He stepped in front of her, his bare hand catching the spectral dragon. The golden light burned into his palm, the sound of sizzling flesh making Elena scream, but he didn't move. He crushed the light in his fist, his "Cold-Yin" snuffing out the dragon like a candle in a blizzard.
"Now!" he gasped, his knees buckling.
Elena didn't waste the second he bought her. She plunged the fifth, sixth, and seventh needles in a perfect arc.
Click.
The sound was physical. The invisible barrier around the bed shattered. The golden light vanished from Sarah's skin, leaving her pale and gasping, but human.
"Elena?" her mother whispered, her real eyes finally finding her daughter. "The... the Needle... you used it..."
"I had to, Mom," Elena cried, catching her as she collapsed.
Elder Wei stood up on the windowsill, his expression unreadable. "You broke the seal using the poison of a mortal. You have saved the body, but you have stained the art, Elena Lin. The Valley will not forget this sacrilege."
"Leave," Alexander rasped, standing up and swaying, his hand a blackened, charred mess from the dragon's bite. "Before I show you what a 'mortal' can do when he stops caring about his own survival."
Wei looked at Alexander, a flicker of genuine curiosity—or perhaps fear—crossing his face. "The ice that burns. Interesting. We shall see how long your frost lasts against the Nine Heavens."
He vanished into the night air.
The room fell silent. Elena turned to Alexander, who had collapsed into a chair, his breathing shallow. She ran to him, grabbing his burnt hand, her tears falling onto his scorched skin.
"Why did you do that?" she wailed. "You could have died!"
Alexander looked at her, a weak, triumphant smirk on his lips. "I told you... I don't let anyone... touch what is mine."
He closed his eyes, his head falling back.
"Alexander!"
But as Elena reached for her needles to heal him, her mother's hand caught her wrist. Sarah Lin was looking at Alexander with a look of profound, ancient terror.
"Elena, stop," Sarah whispered, her voice trembling. "Look at the mark on his chest. The star... it's changing."
Elena looked. The blue-black star on Alexander's chest, the one that had been a curse for ten years, was now glowing with a faint, golden outline. The "Ice" and the "Sun" had merged.
"It's not a curse anymore," Sarah said, her voice dropping to a terrified breath. "It's an invitation. Elena, that man isn't just a CEO. He is the Vessel the Valley has been searching for for a thousand years. And you just gave them the key to open him."
The hospital lights stopped flickering and stayed off. In the darkness, Elena realized that by saving her mother and her husband, she had just handed the ultimate weapon to her greatest enemy.