They hauled themselves over the final icy ledge and onto the summit of Sky-Piercer Peak. It wasn't a flat plateau, but a jagged, windswept expanse of black rock scoured clean by millennia of storms. The wind here wasn't just howling; it was a physical wall, threatening to rip them from their footing. The cold was absolute, a deep, penetrating chill that even their advanced warming talismans struggled to fully ward off.
Above, the perpetual storm clouds still churned violently, but something was different. A deep, unsettling crimson light filtered through the swirling chaos, bathing the summit in an eerie, blood-red glow. This was the light of the Blood Moon, magnified and focused by the Triple Conjunction. The air itself thrummed with an almost unbearable intensity – pure, condensed yin-aligned celestial power, so thick it felt like wading through mercury. Even breathing felt strange, as if inhaling liquid moonlight.
"We're here," Lin Fan shouted, his voice barely audible over the wind's roar. "The peak intensity window has begun! Find the collection points!"
According to the ancient texts, Lunar Essence Dew wouldn't just rain down; it would condense on surfaces possessing specific resonant properties – usually ancient, extremely smooth rock formations or specific types of glacial ice that had absorbed celestial energy over centuries.
They began scanning the summit, their movements hampered by the wind and the bulky gear. The crimson light made everything look alien and menacing.
Then, Yue Qingqian spotted it. On a cluster of smooth, obsidian-like rocks near the center of the summit, sheltered slightly from the main force of the wind, tiny droplets were beginning to form. They weren't like normal condensation; these droplets glowed with a soft, silvery-white light, starkly visible against the blood-red ambiance. As they watched, the droplets slowly grew, coalescing like liquid pearls, each one radiating an aura of incredible purity and potent yin energy.
Lunar Essence Dew.
"There!" Lin Fan pointed, already moving towards the rocks. "Quickly! The vials!"
They took out the small, exquisitely cold Ice Jade vials. Handling them with thick, insulated gloves was clumsy, but necessary; direct skin contact with the vials, let alone the Dew itself, would cause severe frostbite, even for cultivators.
The collection process was agonizingly slow and nerve-wracking. They had to carefully position the mouth of the vial beneath a forming droplet and wait for it to grow heavy enough to fall. The slightest tremor of the hand, the slightest unexpected gust of wind, could send the precious dew skittering away across the rock face, lost forever.
The potent yin energy in the air made fine motor control difficult, numbing their fingers despite the gloves. The wind tugged at them relentlessly. Lin Fan deployed two heavy-duty Wind-Breaking Amulets, anchoring them to nearby rocks with pitons, creating a small pocket of slightly less violent air around the collection site, but it was still a battle.
They worked in tense silence, focusing entirely on capturing each glowing droplet. One vial, then another, slowly began to fill with the luminous, silvery liquid. It looked like captured moonlight, impossibly pure and radiating a cold, soul-soothing energy.
Suddenly, Lin Fan froze. He held up a hand, signaling Yue Qingqian to stop. Above the roar of the wind, another sound had reached his hyper-sensitive ears – a high-pitched, piercing cry, carried on the storm.
His spiritual sense, carefully extended, detected a large presence circling high above the storm clouds, drawn by the intense concentration of celestial yin energy. It wasn't actively hostile, but it was observing them. Likely a Sky-Rending Roc or some other powerful, high-altitude predator native to these peaks.
Lin Fan didn't hesitate. He discreetly activated a 'Threat Aversion' talisman he had prepared – not an attack, but a low-level array that subtly released an aura mimicking a territorial marker of an even more powerful, albeit fictional, beast. It was a bluff, designed to make the circling predator think twice about approaching an already-claimed feeding ground.
The piercing cries faded slightly, the presence moving to a higher, more distant orbit. It hadn't fled, but it seemed content to watch from afar for now.
"Continue," Lin Fan ordered, his eyes briefly flicking upwards before returning to the task. "But faster. We've attracted attention."
They redoubled their efforts, their movements becoming quicker, more desperate. The crimson light overhead began to subtly lessen. The thrumming energy in the air started to fade. The peak of the celestial event was passing. Droplets formed more slowly now, smaller and less luminous.
They managed to fill three small Ice Jade vials almost completely, and a fourth one about halfway, before the condensation ceased altogether. The Blood Moon's light faded from the clouds, replaced by the normal, dim grey of the perpetual storm. The overwhelming yin energy rapidly dissipated, leaving behind only the biting cold and the howling wind. The window had closed.
"Enough," Lin Fan declared, carefully sealing the last vial. "We have what we need. Maybe. We move. Now. Before our observer gets curious again, or the mountain decides to throw something else at us."
He quickly retrieved the Wind-Breaking Amulets. There was no time for rest, no moment to savor their victory. Survival dictated immediate retreat. They turned away from the desolate summit, secured their precious cargo, and began the perilous, exhausting descent back down the icy slopes of Sky-Piercer Peak, leaving the howling winds and the lingering echoes of the crimson moon behind them.