The interior of Obsidian Manor felt colder than usual as the heavy doors swung shut behind Elena and Alexander. The silence of the house was a sharp contrast to the screams and gunfire that had echoed through the Vane Tower only an hour prior. Alexander walked through the foyer, his steps heavy. He did not go to his office or the bar. He went straight to the medical wing Elena had insisted on establishing.
"Leo, clear the floor," Alexander ordered without looking back. "No one enters this room. Not even the board of directors if the company is burning."
"Yes, sir," Leo replied, bowing before retreating to the hallway to stand guard.
Elena gripped the handle of her medical bag. She could see the golden veins beneath Alexander's skin pulsing with a rhythmic, aggressive light. It was no longer confined to his chest; it was creeping up his neck, toward the base of his skull. In the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the brain was the "Sea of Marrow." If the unchecked Sun Qi flooded that sea, his consciousness would be incinerated.
"Sit," Elena commanded, pointing to the leather treatment chair in the center of the room. "Strip to the waist. I need every primary meridian accessible."
Alexander complied. As he removed his shirt, the blue-black star on his chest flared with a brilliant gold edge. The air around him shimmered with heat, yet the floor beneath his feet was beginning to frost over. The two energies were no longer just coexisting; they were accelerating.
"The probe from Elder Wei triggered a full-scale resonance," Elena said, her voice clinical to mask her fear. She began laying out her silver needles on a fresh silk cloth. "The ice is trying to suppress the sun, and the sun is trying to melt the ice. You are the battlefield, Alexander. If I don't create a third path—a neutral meridian—your heart will stop from the sheer pressure."
"Do what you have to do," Alexander said. He leaned his head back, his eyes closing. "I trust your hands more than I trust my own life."
Elena took a deep breath, centering her own Qi. She retrieved the final volume of her father's manuscript—the one she had memorized but kept hidden in her mind. This was the Harmonizing Cycle, a technique that required the healer to act as a lightning rod.
She picked up the first needle. "I am going to strike the Yongquan points on your feet first to anchor your energy to the earth. Then, I will work upward to the Baihui at the crown of your head. It will feel like you are being burned and frozen simultaneously. You cannot move."
"Start," he whispered.
Elena moved with the precision of a master. The first two needles went into the soles of his feet. Alexander's muscles corded, his hands gripping the armrests of the chair so hard the leather groaned. Next, she struck the Zusanli points on his legs, then the Qihai in his lower abdomen.
As each needle entered his skin, a faint hiss of steam escaped. The gold light began to flow toward the needles, redirected by the silver conduits.
"Now for the heart," Elena murmured.
She took a longer needle, one made of a special alloy her father had commissioned. This was the Phoenix Heart Needle. She positioned it directly over the center of the golden star.
"This is the dangerous part," she warned. "I have to pierce the center of the curse to allow the 'Ice' and the 'Sun' to mingle in a controlled vortex. If my depth is off by a millimeter, I will puncture your pericardium."
Alexander opened his eyes. The gold rings in his pupils were spinning. "Elena. Look at me."
She looked.
"Your father died for this knowledge because he believed it could change the world," Alexander said, his voice straining against the pain. "You are not just a doctor. You are the Phoenix. Finish it."
Elena's hand stopped shaking. She felt a surge of warmth in her own chest—her own Phoenix inheritance responding to his call. She thrust the needle in.
A shockwave of energy threw her back two steps. The room was suddenly filled with a blinding white light. Elena felt a metallic taste in her mouth—the sign of internal Qi disruption—but she forced herself to step back into the light.
She saw the energy. The blue frost and the golden fire were spiraling around the central needle, forming a perfect Taiji symbol of Yin and Yang. The jagged, aggressive pulses smoothed out into a steady, humming vibration.
"The Governing Vessel is open," Elena shouted over the hum of the energy. "Alexander, breathe! Draw the energy into your spine!"
Alexander let out a roar—a sound of both agony and release. The gold and blue light began to sink into his skin, moving from the surface of his body into his bones. The star on his chest faded from a physical mark into a faint, translucent shimmer.
The light in the room died down. The silence that followed was absolute.
Elena stumbled to the chair. Alexander was slumped forward, his chest heaving. His skin was neither freezing nor burning; it was warm, human, and radiating a subtle, powerful vitality.
She reached out and touched his shoulder. "Alexander?"
He looked up. The gold rings in his eyes were still there, but they were no longer chaotic. They were integrated into his dark irises, giving him a look of ancient, terrifying wisdom.
"I can feel everything," he said. His voice was no longer a baritone; it was a resonance that seemed to vibrate in the very air. "I can feel the pulse of the house. I can feel the blood moving in your veins, Elena."
He stood up. His movements were no longer stiff. He moved with the grace of a predator that had finally found its true form. He looked at his hands, then at Elena.
"The Harmonizing Cycle is complete," she whispered, her strength finally failing. She began to collapse, the strain of acting as a conduit for the Nine Heavens energy taking its toll.
Alexander caught her before she hit the floor. He pulled her against his chest, and for the first time, Elena felt the perfect temperature. He was no longer the "Cold CEO." He was her husband, a man of sun and frost.
"You did it," he whispered into her hair. "You brought the Phoenix back to life."
"We did it," she corrected, her eyes fluttering shut. "But Alexander... the elders saw the light. The Valley of the Sun will not stop at Silas Vane. They will send the Grand Alchemists now."
"Let them come," Alexander said. He picked her up in his arms, walking toward the bedroom. "The Blackwood Group owns the sky, and the Lin family owns the earth. Together, there is nowhere for them to hide."
As he laid her on the bed and covered her with the silk duvet, a screen on the wall flickered to life. It was a news report from Jiangcheng Financial News.
"In a shocking turn of events, the Vane Medical Group has declared total bankruptcy following the arrest of Silas Vane and the disappearance of Chairman Julian Vane. Stocks for Blackwood Global have surged to a record high, but rumors of a 'supernatural incident' at the Vane Tower continue to circulate. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure in saffron robes has been spotted at the city gates, leading a procession of hundreds…"
Alexander turned off the screen with a flick of his wrist, a spark of golden-ice energy leaping from his fingers to the sensor.
"Sleep, Elena," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed and watching over her. "Tomorrow, we stop being the hunted. Tomorrow, we start the purge."
Elena drifted into a deep sleep, the scent of sandalwood and the warmth of a steady heart being her final memories of the day.