Chapter 56: A song for the Night

Hours passed as the two mounts continued their steady march across the crimson snow. The twilight of the Frost Expanse seemed to deepen, cast under a heavy, blood-red canopy that threatened a full-scale blizzard, but for now, the path remained navigable. Whenever a rogue Grade Zero beast or a lingering scavenger materialized on their way, Lyra would seamlessly leap from her saddle and delete the creature before it could even disrupt their heading. She moved with an unyielding military economy, sheathing her saber and returning to Adrian's mount before the frost could even settle on her blade.

Behind them, Leon remained entirely locked in his own internal rhythm. He spent the riding hours continuously running his cultivation loop, patiently filling his meridians to maximum capacity before expending the accumulated Qi to draw upon his talismans. Cycle after cycle passed in serenity. Despite the violent swaying of the mount beneath him and the biting wind pulling at his white t-shirt, he finally succeeded in crafting functional talismans while on the move.

He started with the familiar blueprint of a simple heating talisman, stabilizing its localized frequency until the material radiated a steady warmth. Once he had the baseline metrics under control, Leon began applying his newly acquired formation concepts directly to the talisman structures. He crafted specialized core talismans designed to act as internal hubs, allowing them to work in tandem to speed up his overall drafting metrics. Just like the central nodes of his formations but with talismans. By linking these mobile configurations together, he made ones that collaborate upon deployment, significantly extending their operational lifespan while generating far stronger, more varied effects.

The primary issue with talismans was a clear design flaw: while they were entirely portable, they were fundamentally consumable. Unlike a stationary formation carved into the solid stone of a cave, a talisman carried a finite amount of fuel before its material medium disintegrated into ash. To alleviate the bottleneck, Leon applied the structural principles of formations, linking specific self-maintaining functions across the circuits to dampen the active decay. It wasn't a permanent fix, but with precise calibrations and special adjustments, he managed to extend a talisman's lifespan from a meager dozens of seconds to several minutes. By linking multiple units together into an interconnected formation array, he pushed those minutes to last for almost an hour, mapping the absolute physical limit of his current mastery.

It was more than enough. By focusing strictly on utility and production speed, Leon managed to mainly make talismans that could print an already recorded etching or a set of runes. This allowed him his first copy paste in the cultivation world. Using this to quickly finish laying out the most repeated parts of his talismans his new workflow allowed him to make talismans faster than his consumption. He finalized a comprehensive set, neatly packing the finished talismans away into his travel pouch, and allowed his shoulders to sag into a deep stretch.

With this he had consumed the last QI remaining in his meridians for the 9th cycle of this stage. The fourth stage of the Bloodline Awakening Foundation Realm was officially complete. As his body adjusted to the new baseline, Leon looked inward to inspect his meridians. Now at the beginning of the fifth stage, his total internal capacity had successfully expanded to hold ten units of Qi.

Leon guided his mount slightly forward, bringing his saddle directly alongside the lead beast. He looked at the guide's rigid profile, his honey-colored eyes completely neutral. "Are you still angry at me? How can I make it up to you?"

Lyra looked at him, her silver feathers rustled slightly against the leather of her collar. "You have to promise me right now. No more lies. No more tricks. You never do it again."

From behind Leon, Maya let out a dry, exasperated sigh. "Lyra, don't waste your breath. That's not going to happen. Leon never makes promises. It's a whole thing with him."

"I promise," Leon said flatly.

Maya nearly slipped entirely out of her stirrups, her jaw dropping as she stared at the back of his head in absolute, unadulterated shock. "Leon! What the hell? You're actually making a promise? Back home, you literally refused every single promise anyone tried to lock you into!"

Stolen story; please report.

Leon didn't look back at her, his voice remaining level and calm over the howling wind. "I refuse promises because I hold them in exceptionally high value. If I make one, I always uphold it, no matter what the situation is. That's exactly why I don't make them lightly. Now that Lyra has my word, it's locked in."

Lyra’s features softened slightly at the weight of his statement, the lingering coldness in her expression finally cracking into a sigh. She adjusted her reins, turning her gaze squarely onto him.

"If you're going to be honest, then you need to start thinking very hard about your future," Lyra said, her voice dropping into a serious register. "Specifically, you need to decide which of your three arts you are going to hide before we reach the main fortress. Aside from that we usually tell you about that after most people master Sage guidance since it's not normal for someone to be so ahead of the pack but now I have to tell you since you are more than halfway done with the foundation realm. You can't upgrade your spirit blood after the foundation realm. So be careful not to breakthrough before reaching a satisfactory level. That would be immemorial spirit blood for you. It would be a waste if someone like you settles for desolate spirit blood."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "Okay I sort of felt that way anyway. I sensed that breaking through to Qi Condensation would solidfy my foundations and prevent me from improving my spirit blood further. But what's that about hiding my sage arts. Why?"

"Because the five Sage Arts are the most valuable strategic resources on the continent," Lyra explained, her tone sharp. "An artisan who possesses a natural talent in a single art—like a pure Formations master or a pure Alchemist—is already incredibly rare. But an individual who can actively command two separate arts is considered a special strategic asset of the realm. The arts naturally complement each other. A person who understands both can use their divination to make better formations, and then turn around and use those enhanced formations to strengthen their divination. They receive immediate, massive offers to work directly for the royal court in exchange for absolute protection and endless cultivation nurturing."

She paused, her expression growing increasingly heavy as the mounts crunched through the ice.

"But a person who can use three arts is practically unheard of," Lyra’s fingers tightened around the leather. "Every single time a triple-talent artisan appears, kingdoms go to total war over his custody. The Empire, which is currently recognized as the absolute strongest power on the continent, achieved that level of dominance historically for one reason: they managed to secure two triple-talents in a row. It alters the balance of the world."

Leon listened to the lore, his mind immediately spotting a fundamental discrepancy in how the natives categorized the 5 arts. "If all five arts share the exact same roots, why can't people simply practice all five? It sounds like an artificial bottleneck."

Lyra looked at him as if he had lost his sanity. "Because everyone understands the internal intricacy differently! It is a miracle for a mortal mind to comprehend the underlying spiritual principle connecting just two separate arts. The mental strain is too vast."

"That doesn't sound right," Leon murmured, entirely genuine. "Based on what I've experienced so far, I feel like all five arts have the exact same underlying principle. It's just different expressions of the same concept."

Lyra completely snapped, her voice exploding across the snowy plain. "DID YOU NOT HEAR A SINGLE WORD I JUST SAID?! Kingdoms fight bloody, historical wars over triple talents! No one in the entire recorded history of the continent has ever been capable of commanding four arts! It is biologically and spiritually impossible! Never mention using five arts again, do you hear me?!"

Leon blinked, entirely unbothered by the outburst. "You're the one who wanted honesty."

Adrian let out a quiet breath that was definitely a laugh, while Maya simply shook her head in amusement at the total breakdown of communication. Lyra pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes closed as she muttered a quiet prayer to the heavens to preserve her sanity while riding next to a freak of nature.

Once the tension settled back into the steady, rhythmic breathing of the mounts, Leon pivoted back to the primary threat. "Lyra, tell me whatever you can remember of the children's lullaby. The exact wording of the Night Guest song."

Lyra took a slow, deep breath, her gaze tracking the blood-red horizon as she forced her mind back to the ancient song of her childhood. "I only remember a small portion."

She cleared her throat, her voice dropping into a haunting, rhythmic cadence that seemed to echo perfectly against the frozen black stones of the wasteland:

"One touch has such grim power,

That it will kill within the hour.

Should death refuse to make its claim,

You'll wake where none recall your name.

Though body lives and soul still stays,

Your past dissolves like morning haze.

Should goosebumps rise without a sound...

Pray the Night Guest isn't around."