The roar of the wind vanished, replaced by the crushing impact of the White Serpent River.
They hit the rapids like a cannonball. The tri-fold barrier—a spinning sphere of gold, azure, and silver Qi—took the brunt of the collision, shrieking as thousands of tons of freezing water tried to crush it flat.
Above them, the shattered cliffside plunged into the river. Massive boulders the size of carriages slammed into the water, violently tossing their energy sphere in the dark, churning depths.
"Hold the circuit!" Yue's voice cut through Ye Chen's mind via Qi transmission. Inside the bubble, she was pale, her silver hair plastered to her cheeks. "The river is an ancient suppression array! If the shield breaks, the water will crush your meridians to dust!"
Ye Chen gritted his teeth, his arms locked around Xiao Mei while his other hand gripped Yue's wrist. The strain was agonizing. Xiao Mei's Yin was a desperate, wild blizzard fighting to keep them alive, while Yue's was a cold, calculating glacier trying to steer them. Ye Chen was the furnace caught in the middle, forced to burn away the friction before it tore them apart.
A jagged black boulder clipped the edge of their shield. The impact sent them spinning wildly into a deep, underwater vortex.
"I can't—breathe!" Xiao Mei gasped, her azure energy flickering. The pressure was suffocating, draining the oxygen straight from their lungs.
"Don't fight the current!" Yue yelled over the deafening roar of the rapids. She raised her free hand, the silver lotus hairpin glowing blindingly bright. "Push your Yang into the pin, Ye Chen! Now!"
Ye Chen didn't hesitate. He flooded his remaining golden Qi straight through Yue's meridian channel, ignoring the searing pain in his arm. The silver lotus flared, projecting a beam of piercing light that sliced the dark water apart like a blade.
The vortex shattered. The river instantly spat them out.
They broke the surface, tumbling through the air before slamming hard onto a smooth, slick surface. The tri-fold barrier collapsed into mist.
Ye Chen rolled, coughing up a lungful of metallic-tasting water. Next to him, Xiao Mei pushed herself onto her hands and knees, violently dry-heaving on the cold stone.
"We're... alive," Ye Chen rasped, wiping blood from his nose.
He forced himself to look around. They weren't on a riverbank. They were inside a massive, hollowed-out subterranean cavern. The walls glowed with a faint, eerie phosphorescent moss. Above them, a shimmering, translucent membrane of silver energy sealed the ceiling, holding back the raging waters of the White Serpent River.
"Commander Feng cannot pass the water array without a Guardian's blood," Yue said, stepping gracefully out of a shallow pool. Her silk robes were soaked, clinging to her skin, but her composure had returned to its icy baseline. She looked down at Xiao Mei. "You survived. Barely."
Xiao Mei staggered to her feet, leaning heavily on Ye Chen's shoulder. She glared at the silver-haired Guardian, her dark eyes flashing with exhausted fury.
"Don't touch him again," Xiao Mei breathed, her voice hoarse but razor-sharp. "Unless we are actively dying, you keep your Qi to yourself."
Yue's lips curved into a faint, mocking smile. "Possessive little sparrow. You should be thanking me. Without my refinement, his core would have burned you both out before you hit the water."
"Stop it, both of you," Ye Chen interrupted, his voice echoing loudly in the quiet cavern. His amber eyes were grim. "Elder Li stayed behind. Feng is still up there."
"The elder knew the risks," Yue said coldly. "And we have a much bigger problem."
She pointed toward the far end of the cavern.
Out of the darkness, two towering doors of smooth, black obsidian rose from the cavern floor, stretching fifty feet into the air. They were covered in intricate, glowing green veins—the exact same color and pattern as the Celestial Key embedded in Ye Chen's chest.
As Ye Chen looked at the doors, the jade beneath his ribs began to pulse with a violent, searing heat. The rhythm matched the slow, grinding sound of the massive obsidian doors inching open in the dark.
"Welcome to the First Celestial Gate," Yue whispered, her violet eyes narrowing. "But the array is wrong. The doors aren't supposed to open themselves."
From the widening black crack between the doors, a single, heavy footstep echoed into the cavern.
Whatever was waiting for them inside had just woken up.