The Observation Cliff above the Dragon-Locking Pool was a desolate, windswept place. The air here was unnaturally cold, carrying a primal chill that had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the ancient terror sleeping in the abyss below.
When Yue Qingqian arrived, two figures were already waiting for her, silhouetted against the faint starlight. One was Elder Liu, practically vibrating with a mixture of nervous excitement and paternal concern. The other was a formless presence shrouded in mist—the Sect Master. His aura was not oppressive, but it filled the entire space, a silent, absolute authority that made the very stones on the ground feel insignificant.
Yue Qingqian bowed, her movements slow and deliberate. "Master. Sect Master," she said, her voice a soft, untroubled whisper. Her gaze, however, was already drawn downward, towards the source of the cold.
Below them lay a sight of breathtaking dread. The Dragon-Locking Pool was not a pool of water but a vast, circular chasm filled with a liquid so black and still it seemed to absorb all light. No ripples marred its surface. A faint, dark mist clung to its edges, coiling and uncoiling like a sleeping serpent's breath. From its depths, a suffocating aura of ancient power and slumbering malice rose, a silent promise of annihilation.
The Sect Master's voice, calm and dispassionate, cut through the silence. "The incense stick has been lit. Your time has begun, Quasi-Saintess."
This was her cue. The final, most dangerous performance was underway.
Yue Qingqian walked to the very edge of the cliff. She did not look at the two elders. Her entire being was focused on the dark water below. She took out the smooth, grey pearl Lin Fan had given her.
"The song of the water is deep and cold," she murmured, her voice carrying the practiced cadence of a sage speaking a profound truth. "My own song is too warm. I must attune myself to its melody first."
She held up the "Aqueous Attunement Sphere," letting the two elders see it clearly, before placing it gently in her mouth. As soon as it touched her tongue, she could feel its effect: her own life aura began to merge with the chilling, stagnant energy of the pool.
"Good," the Sect Master's voice came from behind her, a single word of analytical approval. He could clearly sense the change. The girl wasn't hiding her presence; she was becoming the environment. A bizarre but undeniably high-level technique.
Then, without any hesitation, Yue Qingqian stepped off the edge of the cliff.
She did not plummet. Her descent was a slow, controlled drift, as if she were a falling leaf. It was a testament to her exquisite control over her spiritual energy. She landed silently on a rocky outcrop just above the pool's surface, a hundred zhang below the cliff where her audience watched.
The cold was intense here, a physical force that seemed to leech the warmth from her very bones. The pressure from the slumbering Demon King was a palpable weight on her soul. But the Pill of Profound Calm held her terror at bay, leaving only a cold, focused clarity.
She knelt at the water's edge. She took out the final prop: the small, folded disc of interwoven runes. The "Sphere of Absolute Harmony."
"The deep song is pure," she whispered, her voice carrying up to the cliff on the wind, "but the water that carries it is filled with ancient sorrows. I must shield my own harmony, lest it be stained."
She placed the disc on the black water. It floated for a moment, and then she channeled a tiny, precise thread of spiritual energy into it.
A soft, warm, golden light bloomed in the oppressive darkness. It expanded into a shimmering, translucent bubble, about six feet in diameter, pulsating with a gentle, rhythmic glow. It looked utterly sacred, a sphere of pure, holy light in the heart of a cursed place.
From the cliff above, Elder Liu gasped in awe. It was more profound than he could have ever imagined! A sphere of pure Dao to protect her from the world's corruption!
Even the Sect Master's misty form seemed to still, his focus intensifying. What an extraordinary, unheard-of treasure.
Yue Qingqian took one last look up at the two distant figures on the cliff. Then, she took a deep breath and stepped forward, passing through the golden light and into the bubble. She sat down in the center, cross-legged. The bubble then slowly, silently, sank beneath the surface of the black water, taking her with it.
The world went dark. The sound of the wind was replaced by a deep, oppressive silence. Outside her golden bubble, the chilling, black water of the Dragon-Locking Pool pressed in from all sides. The aura of the Demon King was now a suffocating, omnipresent terror.
She was alone in the belly of the beast. But she was not truly alone. She could feel the Sect Master's divine sense, a subtle, almost imperceptible pressure, following her, observing her every action through the layers of water and darkness.
The heist had officially begun. Under the watchful eye of the most powerful guard imaginable, the thief had entered the vault.