Three months in the Pagoda.
Li Wei had lost track of day and night. The artificial sun cycled every twelve hours, but it felt
meaningless. He spent his time farming the spirit radishes Su Mei had tossed into the inventory,
not because he was hungry—the System provided nutrient pellets—but because he needed to
touch dirt, even if it was synthetic.
Suddenly, the world shook.
The artificial sun flickered red. The ground tilted forty-five degrees. Li Wei was thrown against
the wall, his shoulder slamming into the hard light barrier.
[Alert: External Impact Detected.] [Pagoda Structural Integrity: 85%.] [Beneficiary Status:
In Combat.]
Li Wei scrambled to the viewing screen.
Outside, it was chaos.
Su Mei was fighting three cultivators. They wore robes of black silk embroidered with silver
skulls—members of the Soul Refining Sect, a notorious faction in the Spirit Realm. They were
all at the early Nascent Soul stage, matching Su Mei's level.
But there were three of them.
"Hand over the Spatial Artifact!" the leader screamed, his voice distorted by a demonic mask.
"We sensed the life fluctuation inside! You are hiding a treasure! A Spirit Fetus? A rare beast?"
Su Mei didn't answer. She was a whirlwind of ice. Her sword, now a High-Grade Spirit Weapon,
deflected a barrage of green skull-shaped fireballs.
"Protect the necklace!" Su Mei grit her teeth.
She was fighting defensively. Normally, she would dodge, weave, and strike from unexpected
angles. But she was keeping her chest turned away from the attackers, shielding the Void
Pagoda with her own body.
"She's protecting me," Li Wei whispered, clutching the frame of the screen. "Su Mei, don't! Just
fight!"
The enemy realized her weakness.
"Focus fire on her chest!" the leader commanded. "She values the necklace more than her life!"
Three beams of necrotic energy shot toward Su Mei.
She had a split second to react. She could dodge to the left, but the residual splash damage
would hit the necklace. The Pagoda was tough, but a direct hit from three Nascent Soul attacks
could shatter the spatial stability. If the space collapsed, Li Wei would be crushed into a
singularity instantly.
She didn't dodge.
Su Mei crossed her arms over her chest, channeling all her defensive Qi into a barrier around
the necklace.
BOOM.
The beam hit her forearms. The sound was sickening—the crack of bone and the sizzle of
burning flesh.
Su Mei was blasted backward, crashing into a floating mountain. She coughed a spray of blood
that turned into ice crystals in the air.
"Mei'er!" Li Wei screamed, pounding on the screen. "Let me out! Throw the necklace away!"
Su Mei ignored the pain. The injury seemed to flip a switch in her mind. The cold calculation "You touched it," she hissed. Her voice wasn't human. It was the grinding of tectonic plates.
"You touched my baggage."
She opened her mouth and exhaled.
Forbidden Art: Breath of the Absolute Zero.
It was a technique that burned her own Life Essence to fuel. A white mist engulfed the three
cultivators. They didn't even have time to scream. They froze instantly, their souls trapped within
their ice-statue bodies, denied reincarnation.
Su Mei fell to her knees on the floating mountain. Her arms were black, the necrotic energy
eating away at her flesh.
She reached up with trembling fingers and touched the necklace.
"Li Wei," she rasped. "Status."
"I'm alive!" Li Wei shouted at the ceiling. "I'm fine! Look at your arms! You need to heal!"
Su Mei didn't heal immediately. She channeled her remaining Qi into the necklace, stabilizing
the spatial fluctuations caused by the impact. Only when the red warning light in Li Wei's room
turned green did she lean back and close her eyes.
She popped a healing pill into her mouth. The black flesh on her arms began to flake off,
revealing pink, raw skin underneath.
An hour later.
The white room shimmered. Su Mei materialized inside the Pagoda.
She looked exhausted. Her robes were torn. Her arms were still wrapped in bandages of light.
Li Wei ran to her. He wanted to hug her, to check her wounds.
"Stop," Su Mei said. She held up a hand.
Li Wei froze.
Su Mei looked at him. There was no affection in her eyes. There was only a terrifying clarity.
"You almost died," Li Wei said, his voice trembling. "Because of me. You took that hit."
"I did," Su Mei confirmed. She walked over to the fake garden and sat on a stone bench. "The
Soul Refining Sect... they are scavengers. But they were right about one thing."
She looked at Li Wei.
"You are a weakness."
Li Wei felt the air leave the room. "I know."
"I calculated the trajectory," Su Mei continued, her voice devoid of emotion. "If I had dodged, I
would have killed them ten seconds faster and saved thirty percent of my Qi. But I calculated a
15% chance the Pagoda would crack. I prioritized the Pagoda."
She looked at her bandaged arms.
"This injury... it will delay my cultivation by six months. I have to purge the necrotic poison."
"I'm sorry," Li Wei whispered. He fell to his knees. "Su Mei, just... put me down. Leave the
necklace in a safe city. I can hide. I can wait."
"A safe city?" Su Mei laughed humorlessly. "In the Spirit Realm? With your constitution? You
would be eaten by a stray dog or enslaved by a demon within an hour. You are a walking pill of
pure vitality, Li Wei. You are immortal meat."
She stood up and walked over to him. She looked down at her husband.
"I cannot leave you. My Dao Heart prevents it. I promised to protect you."
She leaned down and whispered, her face inches from his.
"But you are heavy, Li Wei. You are so incredibly heavy."
She straightened up.
"I will install a defensive formation on the necklace. It will drain fifty percent of my passive Qi
generation. It means I will cultivate half as fast. But it means I don't have to use my arms to
block for you next time." "Su Mei, don't," Li Wei pleaded. "Half your speed? In this place? That's suicide!"
"It is the price of the item," she said, referring to him as an 'item' again. "I bought the item. I must
pay the maintenance cost."
She began to fade, teleporting back to the outside world.
"Stay inside. Don't watch the screen. Seeing you panic... it distracts me."
She vanished.
The screen went black.
Li Wei sat in the artificial grass, staring at the blank monitor.
[System Notification: Host Value Depreciating.] [Current Status: The Millstone.]
[Beneficiary Resentment Level: 15% (Rising).]
Li Wei curled into a ball. He wished the Soul Refining Sect had hit the necklace. At least then,
he would be dead, and she would be free.