Chương 66: Chapter 28 Part 2

The raw, chaotic energies of the Heavenly Killing Star and the Abyssal Frost Marrow surged upward from Evanthe's Dantian like twin tidal waves. In the sunlit courtyard of the Morvant Estate, this was the exact moment she had panicked. Her conscious mind had tried to forcefully, mathematically dictate the flow of the opposing elements, causing a violent bottleneck that resulted in a massive steam explosion.

But as she stared down the screeching, venom-dripping mandibles of the Abyssal Crawlers lunging toward her face, all conscious thought was instantly, brutally eradicated by the sheer, primal necessity of survival. The human body, when pushed to the brink of death, is a terrifyingly efficient machine. Evanthe didn't try to think. She didn't try to control. She simply reacted to the threat in front of her.

As the massive influx of energy hit the bottleneck of her shoulders, her autonomic nervous system, supercharged by the adrenaline of a live dungeon dive, violently seized control of her meridians. It instinctively recognized that mixing absolute zero and solar heat inside her fragile arms would result in her death. Without a single conscious command, her internal pathways forcefully split. The freezing, necrotic chill of the Abyssal Frost Marrow was shunted violently down her left arm.

The blistering, apocalyptic heat of the Heavenly Killing Star was forced down her right. The two opposing forces raced down her limbs, entirely isolated from one another, until they slammed simultaneously into the highly conductive golden hilt of her sword. The Sungold blade let out a deafening, harmonic screech. The left side of the longsword instantly frosted over, radiating a thick, rolling mist of white cold.

The right side of the blade glowed a blinding, cherry-red, instantly flash-boiling the moisture in the subterranean air. The elemental friction was finally occurring exactly where it was supposed to: on the indestructible, mythic-tier cutting edge of the weapon.

"Strike!" Axel's voice cracked like a whip from the shadows.

"Don't swing wild! Step into the opening!" Evanthe pivoted on her heel, dropping her center of gravity exactly as Durgan had drilled into her, and swung the super-charged blade in a wide, horizontal arc. A crescent wave of pure, conflicting elemental destruction erupted from the sword. It hit the first rank of Abyssal Crawlers like a siege engine. The blade effortlessly sheared through their thick, chitinous armor.

The terrifying friction of the magic caused their wounds to instantly flash-freeze into jagged ice, only for the localized heat to violently detonate the frozen blood a microsecond later. Five of the massive, wolf-sized arachnids were obliterated in a single swing, their shattered remains raining down across the cavern floor. Evanthe stumbled forward, the momentum of the swing pulling her, and braced for the agonizing, bone-shattering recoil that had thrown her across the courtyard that morning.

The recoil never came. Her arms didn't explode. The kinetic backlash had been seamlessly absorbed by the Sungold alloy and filtered perfectly out through the edge of the blade.

"I did it," Evanthe gasped, staring at her intact hands in shock.

"Don't admire your work, rookie!" Durgan roared from behind her, stepping forward to casually kick a leaping Crawler back into the swarm with a heavy iron boot.

"The pack isn't dead! Reset your stance! Keep your guard up!" The brief moment of awe shattered. The surviving Crawlers, enraged by the sudden slaughter of their pack, shrieked and swarmed the Vanguard's perimeter with renewed, frenzied aggression. Garrick slammed his towering shield into the dirt again, creating a physical, unbreakable wall that bottlenecked the monsters into a narrow choke point.

"Funneling them center! Take the line, Lady Evanthe!" Evanthe gripped her sword, her red eyes burning with a newfound, exhilarating confidence. The suffocating terror of the dungeon was gone, entirely replaced by the addicting thrill of true combat progression. Unknown to her, her eyes shone brightly, a dazzling blood red color. She stepped into the choke point. She swung again, her blade weaving a deadly, beautiful dance of frost and fire. The Vanguard operated with terrifying mechanical perfection.

They didn't steal a single kill. If a Crawler tried to flank Evanthe, Axel would appear from the shadows, sweeping the monster's legs out with the blunt flat of his blade, setting it up perfectly for Evanthe to execute. If she overextended her swing and left her chest exposed, Garrick's massive shield would slide flawlessly into the gap, absorbing the counter-attack. It was a masterclass in party dynamics.

They were forcefully feeding her combat experience, keeping her perfectly balanced on the razor's edge between life and death. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. For the next two hours, the Sovereign's Retinue slowly, methodically carved their way through the sprawling labyrinth of Floor 1. They encountered packs of Cave Goblins, vicious, green-skinned scavengers wielding rusted iron spears.

Evanthe learned how to parry, her Sungold blade effortlessly snapping their crude weapons in half before she delivered a lethal, super-heated riposte. They were ambushed by massive Dire Bats dropping from the stalactites, forcing Evanthe to adapt her footwork, rolling across the rocky terrain to evade their sonic screeches before flash-freezing their wings. With every monster she struck down, the chaotic flow of Yin and Yang inside her Dantian became a fraction smoother.

The elemental filter in her meridians, forced into existence by the primal necessity of survival, began to permanently solidify into her muscle memory. She was leveling up.

While Evanthe fought tooth and nail in the dirt, sweating, bleeding, and desperately honing her martial foundation, the Heavenly Demon was having a lovely morning stroll. Ming Xuan Ji walked exactly ten paces behind the Vanguard's defensive perimeter. She didn't draw a weapon. She didn't offer any verbal encouragement. She simply glided over the jagged, blood-slicked cavern floor as if she were walking through a manicured imperial garden.

She held a small, delicate porcelain cup in one hand, and her insulated travel flask in the other. Ahead of her, Evanthe let out a fierce shout, her Sungold blade cleaving a massive Cave Goblin chieftain cleanly in half. A spray of dark, foul-smelling blood splattered across the stone, a few drops flying back toward Xuan Ji. Without even blinking, Xuan Ji's passive Yang aura flared slightly, instantly vaporizing the incoming blood drops into a harmless puff of steam before they could soil her pristine silk hanfu.

She took a slow, highly satisfied sip of her oolong tea. The UBAO raid mechanics were functioning perfectly. The Vanguard was an impenetrable wall of crowd-control, and the rookie was safely power-leveling her fundamental skill trees. It was the ultimate, highly optimized carry. Suddenly, a sharp, echoing screech pierced the cavern air from above.

A massive, mutated Dire Bat, easily twice the size of a grown man, possessing an innate, low-level shadow-cloaking affinity, had managed to completely bypass Garrick's front line. It dropped silently from a high stalactite directly behind the Vanguard's formation. Its glowing yellow eyes weren't fixed on the heavily armored mercenaries or the fiery swordswoman. Its predatory instincts recognized the unarmored, completely exposed woman sipping tea as the weakest, most vulnerable prey in the cavern.

"Boss! Above you!" Durgan roared, pivoting wildly, his battleaxe raising to intercept. But he was twenty feet away, locked in a choke point. He was going to be too late. The Dire Bat opened its massive, razor-toothed maw, diving straight for Xuan Ji's back at terrifying speed. Xuan Ji didn't turn around. She didn't drop her teacup. She didn't even break her slow, leisurely stride. She simply raised her free left hand, extending her index finger and thumb. Snap.

A single, blindingly bright spark of True Fire Samadhi materialized in the dark air, exactly one inch in front of the diving monster's face. It wasn't an explosion. It was a localized, pinpoint application of absolute, supreme thermal annihilation. The air pressure violently collapsed inward. The massive Dire Bat didn't screech. It didn't flail. The moment its physical body made contact with the golden spark, the monster was instantly, flawlessly vaporized into a cloud of fine, gray ash.

The momentum of its dive carried the ash forward, washing harmlessly over Xuan Ji's shoulders like a gentle breeze. Durgan froze mid-swing, his jaw hanging slightly open. Axel stepped out of the shadows, staring at the slowly settling pile of ash on the cavern floor. Xuan Ji lowered her hand, poured herself another cup of hot tea from the flask, and casually blew the steam from the rim.

"Watch your aggro, Durgan," Xuan Ji murmured lightly, taking a sip.

"You let a stray slip past the tank."

"Y-Yes, Sovereign," Durgan stammered, deeply humbled, immediately turning back to the front line and aggressively slamming his axe into an approaching goblin.

"Tighten the perimeter! Nothing gets past the rear guard!" An hour later, the cavern finally grew quiet. The massive, sprawling pack of Abyssal Crawlers and Cave Goblins had been entirely routed. The floor of the dungeon was littered with shattered chitin, broken spears, and glowing, low-tier mana crystals. Evanthe took two stumbling steps forward and dropped heavily to her knees. Her beautiful blue martial tunic was torn at the shoulder, soaked in sweat, and thoroughly stained with dark, viscous monster blood.

Her arms were trembling so violently she could barely lift them. She was completely, utterly physically exhausted, her Dantian drained to its limits. She drove the tip of her Sungold longsword into the dirt to keep herself upright, gasping for air in the dim, bioluminescent light. Xuan Ji walked forward, stepping gracefully over the battlefield, and came to a stop in front of her disciple.

"Well," Xuan Ji noted, looking down at the panting, blood-soaked girl.

"You look terrible." Ming Xuan Ji didn't know why the blood didn't disappear alongside the body, within the dungeon the monster disappeared into thin air when killed, yet the blood remained on her disciple's body for some reason. She might need to investigate it further. Evanthe slowly tilted her head up. Her crimson hair was matted to her forehead, and there was a smear of soot across her cheek. But as she looked up at her master, her luminous red eyes were shining with a brilliant, profound, unyielding light.

A massive, breathless smile broke across Evanthe's face. She hadn't hidden. She hadn't cowered behind a shield. For the first time in her life, she had stared into the darkness, wielded the terrifying power of her own cursed bloodline, and carved her own path forward. She had not only survived; she had conquered.

"I filtered it," Evanthe panted, her voice rough but filled with triumph.

"I controlled the friction, Master. I didn't break."

"No," Xuan Ji smiled, a rare, genuinely warm expression that reached her dark eyes. She reached down and gently ruffled Evanthe's crimson hair.

"You didn't break. You passed the tutorial." The Vanguard gathered around them, their weapons lowered, their postures relaxed. Durgan looked down at the exhausted girl and offered a slow, deep nod of veteran respect. Garrick clapped his massive hand against his shield in a quiet salute. Axel simply smirked, tossing a small, glowing F-rank mana crystal he had looted from a crawler onto the dirt in front of her.

"Not bad, rookie," the dark elf chuckled.

"Not bad at all." Xuan Ji turned her gaze deeper into the Grand Abyss, looking down the dark, spiraling tunnel that led to Floor 2. The miasma down there was thicker, the shadows deeper, and the monsters infinitely more lethal. The foundation was officially set.

"Rest up, Evanthe," Xuan Ji commanded smoothly, turning back toward the stairs leading to the surface.

"Tomorrow, we dive deeper."