After the incident with the Venom Lord, the dynamic in the Floating Fortress shifted again.
Li Wei was no longer just a resident. He was a resource.
Su Mei didn't lock him up, but she tripled the guards around his quarters. She claimed it was for
his protection. Li Wei knew the truth: you don't leave a walking, talking panacea unguarded.
He spent his days in the garden, staring at the artificial sky. He felt thinner. The blood loss had
taken something permanent from him. He felt transparent, as if he were slowly fading out of
existence.
One evening, Su Mei came to dinner.
It was rare. Usually, she ate spirit pills in her cultivation chamber. But tonight, she sat across
from him at the long obsidian table.
The servants placed dishes of spirit fruit and roasted beast meat.
"How is your health?" Su Mei asked. She was cutting a piece of meat with surgical precision.
"I am cold," Li Wei said. "Always cold."
"I have ordered the installation of a Yang-Fire Core under your bedroom," Su Mei said without
looking up. "It should raise the ambient temperature."
"Thank you."
Silence stretched between them.
"My cultivation has stagnated," Su Mei announced suddenly.
Li Wei put down his fork. "Is that why you are here? Do you need more blood?"
Su Mei paused. She looked at him. Her eyes were eerie—too blue, too bright.
"No," she said. "Not yet. The Golden Blood is potent, but building a tolerance diminishes its
effect. I am saving it for emergencies."
She took a sip of wine.
"The stagnation is mental. My Dao Heart is wavering."
"Wavering?" Li Wei asked. "You? The Ice Empress?"
"I am reaching the threshold of the Spirit Severing Stage," she explained. "To sever the spirit,
one must sever the mortal tether completely. My master... the projection in the tomb... she said I
am still holding onto a shadow."
She looked at Li Wei.
"She meant you."
Li Wei gripped the table. "I know."
"I have been thinking," Su Mei said, her voice conversational, as if discussing the weather. "Why
do I keep you? Is it love? I don't feel love. Is it duty? I have repaid my debt to you a thousand
times over in protection. Is it utility? Yes, your blood is useful, but I could extract it and store it in
jars."
Li Wei felt sick. "Then why, Su Mei? Why am I still here?"
Su Mei stood up. She floated over to him. She placed her hand on his head. Her touch was
freezing.
"Because you are my humanity," she whispered. "You are the jar where I keep my conscience.
As long as you are alive, I can tell myself I am not a monster. I can say, 'Look, I take care of my "And if you want to advance?" Li Wei asked. "If you want to reach Spirit Severing?"
"Then I must stop making excuses," Su Mei said.
She pulled her hand away.
"I am going into closed-door cultivation. The Heartless Sword Sutra... I have taken it out of the
box."
Li Wei's eyes snapped open. "Su Mei! No!"
"I haven't practiced it yet," she said. "I am just... reading it. Understanding the theory."
"That's how it starts!" Li Wei stood up, knocking his chair over. "First you read it. Then you try a
little bit. Then you lose yourself! That Sutra requires you to kill your loved one!"
Su Mei looked at him. Her expression was unreadable.
"I know the price, Li Wei. I am weighing it against the benefit. The enemies in the Higher Realm
are getting stronger. If I do not advance, the Floating City will fall. If the City falls, you die."
She walked to the door.
"It is a paradox. To save you, I might have to become someone who is capable of killing you."
"That's not saving me!" Li Wei shouted. "That's just murder with extra steps!"
"Is it?" Su Mei turned back. "If I kill you to sever my Dao, you die once. If the enemy catches us,
they will torture you for your blood for centuries. Which is the greater mercy?"
She didn't wait for an answer. She left.
Li Wei stood in the dining room. The logic was twisted, insane, and perfectly consistent with the
System's warnings.
[System Alert: Beneficiary Logic Matrix Corrupted.] [The 'Mercy Kill' subroutine has been
activated in her subconscious.] [Warning: She is convincing herself that killing you is an
act of love.]
Li Wei slumped to the floor.
"She's insane," he whispered. "My wife is gone. There is only a calculator left in her skin."
He looked at his wrist. The scar from where he fed her was throbbing.
He realized then that he was trapped in a tragedy that had no exit. He couldn't run. He couldn't
fight. He could only wait for the day the calculator decided that the variable 'Li Wei' equaled
'Zero'.
He walked to the window and looked out at the purple clouds of the Spirit Realm.
"System," he said softly. "Is there any way to reverse the Sutra if she learns it?"
[Answer: No. Once the emotions are severed, they cannot be reattached. The bridge is
burned while you are still standing on it.]
Li Wei nodded. "Then I have to make sure that when she burns it... I fall quietly."