Chapter 43: Long Night

The blizzard swallowed the world. By this point, the cold was biting directly into their bones, causing Maya's teeth to chatter violently as she felt an aching pain spread through her veins. Snow hammered against the mounts so harshly that even the massive animals were beginning to struggle against the whiteout. Visibility had fallen to almost nothing, and the familiar red ice beneath their feet was completely buried under fresh layers of shifting white powder.

Lyra raised an arm to halt the line. "We need shelter."

They found refuge less than an hour later. A shallow cave opened beneath a rugged, rocky outcrop, plunging deep enough into the stone to shield them from the worst of the howling wind. It wasn't comfortable, but the interior was dry, defensible, and most importantly, warm enough to survive the night. Once the mounts were settled safely deeper inside the cavern, the four of them began unpacking their gear to prepare their sleeping arrangements.

"I'll take first watch," Leon said.

"I will," Maya counter-offered at almost exactly the same moment.

They looked at each other in the dim light. Maya narrowed her eyes suspiciously, prompting Leon to let out a quiet sigh.

"Your problem is that you can't sleep properly because you're anxious," Leon reasoned methodically. "This gets resolved by being near me. On the other hand, my insomnia has no cure; I can't sleep right now at all."

Maya stared at him, crossing her arms. "You already have the entire thing figured out. How are you unable to sleep when you're the one who owns the calming aura?"

Leon opened his mouth to reply, but Adrian spoke up from the shadows behind them.

"I'll take first watch."

Maya slowly turned toward him, and the pure venom on her face could have killed a lesser man. Leon looked at Adrian, then at Maya, then back at Adrian before holding out a hand toward her hilt.

"Maya, give me your sword."

She blinked in confusion. "What?"

"I've found the public enemy of insomniacs," Leon deadpanned.

Adrian frowned, entirely missing the corporate dynamic. "Well, it is the easier shift."

"Not only can you sleep peacefully whenever you want, you're still fighting for the only few hours the rest of us can actually sleep," Leon countered. "Do you want to fight?"

Before Adrian could answer, Lyra's eyes snapped open from where she had already settled herself comfortably against the cave wall. "This sounds like a two-on-two." She looked directly at Leon, her silver feathers rustling. "Are you sure you want to fight? I wouldn't want to hurt the fragile ego of a genius."

Leon raised an eyebrow.

Lyra smiled mockingly. "Every time I fight a genius and kick their ass, they hide in their room and cry."

"That's a strangely specific experience."

"I've met many geniuses."

"And defeated all of them?"

"Obviously," she smirked.

Leon considered the odds for a second. "Violence is not the answer; we should talk it out."

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"Coward."

"I prefer the term reasonable."

Maya snorted, breaking the tension, and they eventually settled on the only rotation that made practical sense. Maya would take the first watch, Leon would take the second, Adrian would take the final shift, and Lyra would sleep as much as possible to preserve her energy as the commander.

As the others settled down into their blankets, Leon sat directly beside Maya near the cave entrance while the blizzard raged violently outside. For a while, neither spoke, and then Leon closed his eyes to begin his Sage Guidance.

The familiar rhythm of Qi started circulating through his meridians. He knew the baseline pace now; completely filling up his internal network normally required six hours, an operation he had been maintaining effortlessly in the background. That was without actually focusing and actively increasing the absorption speed. With the Universal Vessel, he could technically increase his absorption speed by around a hundred times, but forcing that amount of raw friction would instantly explode his mortal body.

His first cycle had taken longer, but even then, his control had naturally improved enough that the final portion had been slightly faster than normal. Now, he wanted to know how much further he could push the physics of his system.

He increased the absorption rate by twenty percent. Nothing happened; his meridians accepted the extra friction without a single complaint. He increased it again to fifty percent, and a faint, tight pressure finally materialized inside his pathways. Leon remained perfectly still. There was no pain and no instability, so he continued to push.

The internal circulation doubled, sending a sudden wave of heat spreading through his meridians. His brow tightened. He calculated that this level of stress would not be sustainable without Self-Reliance Mode actively running. The moment he intensified his passive healing, it began mending the micro-tears at an equivalent rate, easing the internal strain.

Then, he pushed the threshold again to two and a half times the baseline speed. His meridians began to stretch uncomfortably under the volume. The moment Leon felt tiny tears forming along the pathways, his Bitter Strength responded immediately. The orange energy surged through his body as the damage accumulated, reinforcing his tissues against the very internal pressure he was creating. Boost Mode followed right behind it, its physical strength and speed feeding directly into the circulation of Self-Reliance Mode to allow the healing process to barely keep pace with the trauma.

It hurt, but Leon kept going. He pushed the system to three times its normal rate. His meridians screamed, the pathways stretching violently under the pressure as microscopic tears materialized faster than Self-Reliance Mode could repair them. But they weren't breaking.

Leon held the circulation steady at that peak, finally understanding his current threshold: three times the normal rate. Any further and the structural damage would stop being something he could recover from, even with Bitter Strength Mode enhancing his baseline tissue resistance; his meridians would simply tear apart completely.

He opened his eyes, noting the elapsed time. Two hours had passed, completing a full cycle.

Leon looked toward Maya, who had been quietly watching him for several minutes. "You were cultivating?"

"Testing something."

"You look like you're trying not to die."

"That's because I was testing something," Leon smiled faintly.

Maya sighed, shaking her head. "You really are terrible at taking it easy."

"So I've been told."

She shook her head one last time and returned her attention to the blizzard. More hours passed in silence. Leon successfully completed another cycle during that time by utilizing a brilliant workaround: the moment he filled his meridians, he immediately outputted all of his stored Qi in a few minutes using his Sage Eyes, then instantly returned to Sage Guidance to begin the loop anew.

Eventually, Maya woke Adrian for his shift. Adrian sat up, rubbed his eyes, and immediately activated his Sage Breathing. There was no awkward searching for the rhythm and no strained concentration; his breathing settled naturally into the flow. Leon watched him closely. They were adapting well.

Satisfied, Leon finally closed his eyes for sleep, knowing he would barely have three hours of rest before his own shift. By the time Adrian woke Leon back up for the final watch, Leon had already completed several background cycles. He checked his meridians and smiled faintly to himself; the fourth cycle was complete. He finished his watch shift along with his fifth successful cycle just as the storm outside began to weaken.

"Time to move," Lyra called out.

They packed their gear quickly and stepped outside into a world that was still entirely red. The mounts struggled through the heavy drifts as they resumed the chase, but for several hours, Leon couldn't catch a single glimpse of the silver silhouette.

His expression changed, his amber eyes scanning the expanse. "Where is it?"

Lyra scanned the layout of the storm, checking the terrain. "We are on the right track, don't worry."

Trusting her direction, the four pushed forward, driving their mounts deeper into the fading whiteout as the chase continued into the storm.