Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

18: Chapter 18: The Tribulation of Ice and FireThe Profound Yin Cold Qi erupting within Su Muxue’s body was like an out-of-control ice storm, instantly sweeping through the entire Woodshed! The hay near her frosted over at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the air seemed to freeze, emitting faint ’crackling’ sounds! This cold energy was pure yet chaotic, carrying the madness of a tearing Seal, further mixed with the pained hisses caused by the conflicting medicinal power of the intermittent ointment!

For Lin Mo, who was currently at the most painful Peak of the ’Bone Tempering Stance’ with his mental will stretched to its limit, this sudden polar storm was no different from throwing a piece of ten-thousand-year profound ice into a roaring furnace!

“Pfft—!” On a conscious level, Lin Mo felt as if he heard the loud crack of his Soul being torn apart by the dual heavens of ice and fire! The chaos dao seed, which had just stabilized a sliver under the nourishment of the Soul-Nourishing Wood shavings, flickered wildly like a remnant candle in a gale! That warm Soul-Nourishing barrier was instantly pierced, frozen, and riddled with cracks by the bone-chilling cold!

The agonizing pain of bone tempering and the erosion of the Profound Yin Cold Qi attacked from both inside and out! Lin Mo felt as if the ulna of his right arm was being pierced by countless ice needles from the inside and seared by a red-hot iron from the outside! This extreme agony instantly surpassed the limits of what his will could endure!

[Warning! Host is suffering an impact from an external Profound Yin Origin (Chaotic State)!] [Warning! Mental will barrier is suffering dual erosion from ice and fire! On the verge of collapse!] [Warning! Bone tempering process forcibly interrupted! Qi and blood backflow! Faint cracks have appeared in the tempered area of the right arm’s ulna!] [Warning! The depletion of the Dao Seed (Seed) Origin has worsened! Stability -1%!]

The cold System notification sounded like a tolling death knell! Under the dual assault of extreme pain and freezing cold, Lin Mo’s consciousness instantly plunged into a chaotic darkness and a searing ice field! His small body convulsed and spasmed violently on the straw mat, his throat letting out uncontrollable, strangled gasps, and a trace of crimson blood foam even seeped from the corner of his mouth! That was a minor internal injury caused by the forced interruption of bone tempering and the backflow of Qi and blood!

“Moer—!” The first thing Old Man Sun saw upon rushing into the Woodshed was this tragic scene of Lin Mo! A terrifying glint erupted in his cloudy eyes, and with a flash of his silhouette, he pounced to Lin Mo’s side!

His withered fingers gripped Lin Mo’s wrist like lightning. This time, he felt more than just depletion and disorder; there was a violent, chaotic Profound Yin Cold Qi originating from Su Muxue, acting like maggots on a bone, raging and freezing within Lin Mo’s fragile Meridians and blood! Meanwhile, Lin Mo’s own weak Qi and blood were like an enraged trapped beast, instinctively and chaotically resisting this invading cold, forming a terrible internal depletion!

“Profound Yin invasion! Qi and blood backflow! Internal organ damage! This... this is simply adding insult to injury!” A storm of shock rose in Old Man Sun’s heart! He immediately pulled a tiny jade bottle from his robe and uncorked it. A pungent, scorching scent with a strange floral fragrance instantly filled the air, even dispelling a bit of the cold in the Woodshed! Without hesitation, he carefully dripped the remaining few drops of the honey-thick, blood-red liquid from the jade bottle into Lin Mo’s slightly parted, bleeding mouth!

Crimson Sun Flower Stamen Essence! This was Old Man Sun’s bottom-drawer treasure, extremely yang and fierce, specifically meant to counter cold and evil poisons, and the core ingredient for refining qi-boosting powder! At this moment, to keep Lin Mo’s breath going, he couldn’t care less!

Those few drops of crimson nectar melted the moment they entered his mouth, and a scorching torrent like molten lava instantly rushed into Lin Mo’s depleted and chaotic body! This supreme yang power was incomparably overbearing; wherever it passed, the chaotic Profound Yin Cold Qi from Su Muxue met its nemesis, letting out ’sizzling’ melting sounds as it was instantly forced back and suppressed! Simultaneously, this heat forcibly organized Lin Mo’s chaotic Qi and blood, temporarily stabilizing his internal injuries.

“Ugh, ah—!” Lin Mo let out an even more painful groan! The agony of the ice and fire battle inside him caused his small body to curl up like a shrimp! But the overbearing medicinal power of the Crimson Sun Flower Stamen ultimately forced that chaotic Profound Yin Cold Qi to be temporarily expelled and suppressed into the corners of his Meridians, winning a moment of respite for his collapsing body! The wildly flickering light of the Dao Seed, under the forced ’welding’ of the Crimson Sun power, temporarily stabilized at an even dimmer edge, though it was no longer collapsing.

Having done all this, Old Man Sun’s forehead was drenched in sweat, and his breathing was unsteady. He didn’t have time to catch his breath before snapping his head toward the source of the cold—Su Muxue!

Su Muxue was even more terrifying now! Her small body was curled on the straw mat, her light green long hair moving without wind, each strand emitting cold air like ice crystals! On her exposed skin, countless twisted, dark blue patterns resembling ice cracks emerged! At the wound on her left shoulder, the pitch-black intermittent ointment was covered by a thick layer of ice, making overloaded ’crackling’ sounds! A Profound Yin Cold Qi far purer and more violent than before was gushing uncontrollably from deep within her body, especially from the wound! Her consciousness had clearly been completely swallowed by the backlash of the Seal and the pain, leaving only instinctive, painful struggling!

“Profound Yin backlash! The tearing of the Seal is intensifying!” Old Man Sun’s face turned ashen! He immediately understood that his bowl of supreme yang qi-boosting powder and the overbearing intermittent ointment, combined with the painful fluctuations (the aura of the Chaos Dao Body) emitted during Lin Mo’s bone tempering, had acted like three keys, simultaneously stimulating the extremely unstable Profound Yin Seal within Su Muxue! This had caused the current catastrophic eruption!

“Girl! Hold on!” Old Man Sun roared, his voice carrying a trace of an undetectable tremor. His hands moved like butterflies through flowers as he quickly formed hand Seals, his withered fingers lighting up with an extremely faint, almost invisible pale golden light! This light carried a balanced and peaceful yet exceptionally resilient suppression power as it slammed onto Su Muxue’s forehead and heart!

“Seal!”

Hum—! The pale golden light acted like invisible shackles, instantly enveloping Su Muxue’s entire body! The violently gushing Profound Yin Cold Qi seemed to be forcibly pressed down by an invisible hand, its momentum suddenly stalling! The ice crystals covering her stopped spreading, and the icy layer over the nearly shattered intermittent ointment on her shoulder stabilized.

But Old Man Sun’s body swayed violently, and his face instantly became pale as paper! A trace of faint blood even seeped from the corner of his mouth! His eyes were filled with shock! The level of this girl’s Profound Yin Seal and the strength of the backlash were far beyond his estimates! His meager cultivation forcibly suppressing it was like a mantis trying to stop a carriage, resulting in a violent backlash!

“Pfft!” Su Muxue also suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood containing ice shards! Her body convulsed violently; although the violent cold energy was forcibly suppressed back into her body, the ice crack patterns on her did not disappear. Her small face took on a strange greenish-purple hue, and her vitality, like a flickering candle in the wind, weakened rapidly! Forcible suppression was also a huge blow to her already fragile Origin!

“No! If this continues, she’ll be shaken to death by my sealing power first!” Old Man Sun was frantic! He suddenly looked at the nearby Lin Mo, who had just been kept alive by the Crimson Sun Flower Stamen and was still convulsing in the agony of ice and fire. An extremely risky, almost absurd idea flashed through his mind!

“Boy! It’s up to your fate now!” A flash of decisiveness crossed Old Man Sun’s eyes! He suddenly retracted his hand from Su Muxue’s heart and instead slapped a palm onto the center of Lin Mo’s back! Meanwhile, his other hand remained firmly pressed against Su Muxue’s forehead, maintaining the precarious sealing suppression!

What was he doing?!

A stream of pure but weak balanced power (Old Man Sun’s Origin True Qi) was forcibly poured into Lin Mo’s depleted and chaotic body through his palm! This power wasn’t an attack; it was more like a fuse! Its target was aimed directly at the chaotic Profound Yin Cold Qi from Su Muxue that was still stubbornly entrenched in several places despite being suppressed by the Crimson Sun Flower Stamen!

Old Man Sun’s True Qi acted like a precise probe, instantly triggering those chaotic Profound Yin Cold Qis! Simultaneously, the sealing power from his palm on Su Muxue’s forehead subtly loosened a tiny crack!

“Lead!”

Boom—! The triggered chaotic Profound Yin Cold Qi within Lin Mo, as if finding an outlet, surged wildly toward Su Muxue along the ’bridge’ constructed by Old Man Sun’s True Qi! And the purer Profound Yin Origin suppressed within Su Muxue, due to the opening of this crack and the attraction of the ’same source’ aura (the bit of Chaos aura in Lin Mo), reactively split off a wisp and flowed toward Lin Mo!

In an instant! A bone-chilling Profound Yin torrent and a scorching, overbearing Crimson Sun afterglow (remnants of the Crimson Sun Flower Stamen) used Old Man Sun’s body as a ’transfer station,’ forming an extremely brief, extremely dangerous, yet strangely balanced cycle between Lin Mo and Su Muxue!

“Ugh, ah—!” “Mm—!” Lin Mo and Su Muxue let out groans of extreme pain simultaneously! Lin Mo felt a Profound Yin Origin even purer than before rush into his body, clashing violently with his remaining Crimson Sun medicinal power, as if it were going to tear his body completely apart! Meanwhile, Su Muxue felt a weak but strangely attractive scorching aura flow in, colliding violently with her rampaging Profound Yin Origin, bringing a pain that felt like her Soul was being seared!

However, amidst this extreme collision of pain! Lin Mo’s chaos dao seed, which was on the verge of being extinguished, felt the influx of this pure Profound Yin Qi of the same Origin level. Like a desert traveler finding an oasis after a long drought, it erupted with an unprecedented greedy suction! Although this suction was weak and the conversion efficiency was pathetically low, that pure Profound Yin Qi was actually forcibly torn and swallowed a tiny bit by the Dao Seed! The seed’s extremely dim light actually... very, very faintly... brightened a sliver?! Although it was still depleted, it seemed to have a trace of... ’vitality’?

And within Su Muxue, the weak scorching aura that flowed in (containing a trace of Chaos Dao charm), after colliding with her rampaging Profound Yin Origin, was not completely annihilated. Instead, like a drop of water thrown into boiling oil, it instantly triggered even more intense Chaos! But within this Chaos, the previously monolithic, violently backlashing Profound Yin Seal actually developed an extremely tiny, spiderweb-like ’crack’! This crack wasn’t destruction; it was more like a ’loosening’ in the stalemate. An extremely weak life vitality, suppressed by the Seal, actually seeped out a sliver from this crack!

Ice and fire collided, Yin and Yang surged! At the edge of destruction, a sliver of a chance for new life was strangely nurtured!

But this balance was fragile to the extreme! “Pfft—!” Old Man Sun, acting as the ’transfer station,’ bore the brunt of it! He endured the counter-current of two rampaging powers simultaneously; his withered body, as if hit by a heavy hammer, suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood! He flew backward like a kite with a broken string, slamming heavily into the wooden wall of the Woodshed! The pale golden sealing light instantly dissipated!

The cycle was broken!

Lin Mo and Su Muxue both went limp and completely fainted. There was more blood at the corners of Lin Mo’s mouth, his small face alternating between green and white, his breathing weak and chaotic, but the violent ice-fire conflict in his body had strangely subsided by more than half, leaving only the heavy depletion and the weak but ’vital’ pulse of the Dao Seed. The ice cracks on Su Muxue’s body hadn’t disappeared, but the greenish-purple hue had faded some, and the violently leaking cold energy had withdrawn back into her depths. The icy layer of the intermittent ointment on her shoulder shattered and peeled off, revealing the hideous wound below that was slowly writhing and forcibly healing; deep within the wound, a weak sliver of life was struggling against the remaining Profound Yin erosion.

The Woodshed was a mess, a mix of frost and blood; in the dead silence, a heavy smell of blood and medicine permeated the air.

Old Man Sun struggled to get up but spat out blood again, his vision going dark. Leaning against the wall, he looked at the two unconscious children, his eyes filled with lingering fear, shock, and an indescribable complexity. That crazy move just now was practically gambling three lives! Gambling on that one thread of life in the unknown!

He... seemed to have won half the gamble? At least for now, neither of the little ones was dead. But the price paid... Feeling his nearly scattered True Qi and severe internal injuries, he grinned bitterly.

Just then, a heavy ’thud’ of something falling to the ground came from the backyard!

Liu Qingxuan!

Old Man Sun’s heart sank! He forcibly gathered his breath, struggled to get up, and stumbled out of the Woodshed.

In the backyard, Liu Qingxuan had collapsed beside the pile of foul-smelling bone rotting grass roots. Her gloves were already in tatters, and her exposed fingers were largely grayish-white and swollen like radishes. Black veins were faintly visible under the skin, spreading up her arms! Her face was also stained with blackish-green juice, her lips were dark purple, her eyes were tightly shut, and her breathing was so weak it was almost imperceptible! The potent poison of the bone rotting grass, under her long hours of labor and high mental tension, had finally erupted completely, invading her heart!

Misfortunes never come alone! A true catastrophe descended at this moment!

Old Man Sun looked at Liu Qingxuan lying on the ground, her life or death unknown, and then at the two children in the Woodshed who were also unconscious and in unknown condition. A deep sense of powerlessness and cold despair, like the most piercing winter wind of Black Stone Town, instantly submerged him completely.

Inside and outside the pharmacy, there was a dead silence. Only the pile of bone rotting grass roots emitted a decayed stench like death itself, silently permeating the air.