Balance Keeper

The moonlight over the Gobi carried a metallic chill, spilling over the blood-crusted back of Ye Ningzhou's hand. He had just used the black iron talisman brush to tend to his right arm wound—a burn from evading a Fire Cultivator's talisman fire, its flesh curled like scorched bark.

"In three days, the Quicksand Mystic Realm will open."

Su Muyao's voice drifted from behind the dunes. She had swapped her white robes for a crimson dress at some point; its hem brushed the sand, stirring up fine grains. The Nine-Tailed Fox heir seemed to favor colors that clashed violently with her surroundings, as if afraid others might miss her.

Ye Ningzhou's grip tightened on his giant axe, its blade dulled by dried blood. He had just burst from the Fire Cultivators' ambush outside Red Willow Valley, tearing through their ranks with Phantom Steps and brute strength—at the cost of three new burns across his back.

"What's that to me?" His voice was hoarse, worn from battle.

"Hasn't your Dao Seal told you?" Su Muyao arched a brow, her amber eyes blazing under the moon. "The realm holds fragments of an ancient talisman array, kin to the Balance Dao Seal. The Demon-Slaying Alliance is already en route—Xiao Wanlei leading them personally, claiming to 'uphold heaven's will' by purging demons from the realm." She scoffed, flicking a wisp of foxfire to cast dancing shadows on the sand. "In truth, they want the fragments to complete the Dao Seal. They think the Abyss Guardians' secrets boil down to that half-broken stone."

Ye's heart jolted. The Abyss Guardian's Manual had mentioned "array-seal symbiosis," noting that ancient arrays could amplify the Dao Seal's power—but never specified where to find such fragments. He touched his chest; the seal indeed pulsed warmly, as if responding to a distant call.

"How do you know all this?"

"The Ten-Thousand Demons Association doesn't keep idle spies." Su Muyao's tails swayed softly in the moonlight, releasing a faint fragrance. "We intercepted a secret letter between the alliance and the Marauder Alliance three days ago. They plan to seize control of the Eastern Region's spiritual veins using the realm's power." She stepped closer, her veiled face just barely visible. "I intend to find out what the Marauders are really after in there."

Ye studied her. For all her wariness of humans, this fox demon had warned him twice now—a reminder of the manual's words: "Balance is not solitary guardianship, but coexistence." Perhaps the balance between humans and demons lay hidden in such awkward kindness.

"I'll go with you." He said suddenly.

Su Muyao froze, then sneered. "Trying to use me?"

"Cooperation." Ye lifted his axe, its blade catching the moonlight. "You want the Marauders; I want the array fragments. Our goals align. Besides," he added, a faint taunt edging his tone, "when the alliance sees your nine tails, they'll lose their minds chasing you—leaving this mortal-boned nobody in peace."

Su Muyao's tails bristled, clearly stung. But her anger faded quickly, the foxfire in her palm flickering. "Fine. But three rules: no touching demonic treasures in the realm, no meddling in my business, and—" she fixed him with a sharp look, "no scheming for the Dao Seal."

"Agreed." Ye nodded, his mind already on the array fragments.

No sooner had they struck their bargain than distant hoofbeats thundered closer, mixed with alliance cultivators' shouts: "This way! The brat can't have gotten far!"

Ye and Su Muyao exchanged a glance, ducking into the dunes' shadow.

Beneath the moon, a squad of alliance cultivators galloped past, led by Xiao Wanlei's deputy—clutching a portrait of Ye, flapping wildly in the wind.

"I heard the Quicksand Realm has demon cores! A few of those could push me to late Qi-Convergence!"

"Leader Xiao says whoever finds the array fragments gets a reward from Lord Lord Bloodthirsty!"

Their footsteps faded, leaving greedy laughter in their wake.

Ye's gaze turned cold. To these men, everything was prey.

"Let's go." Su Muyao stood, her crimson dress a flame in the dark. "Stay, and we'll be the ones hunted."

Ye followed, his axe dragging a shallow trail in the sand. Watching her swaying tails, he found the scene absurd—they had fought to kill mere hours ago, yet now walked side by side.

After half an hour, Su Muyao stopped, pointing to the sea of dunes ahead. "Look there."

Ye followed her gesture. In the distance, dunes glowed with a faint blue light under the moon, as if wrapped in gossamer. Stranger still, the Dao Seal on his chest burned hotter, as if an invisible thread were pulling him toward it.

"That's the entrance to the Quicksand Mystic Realm. It emerges once every hundred years, and stays open for only three days." There was a subtle gravity in Su Muyao's voice. "According to my clan's ancient records, the realm holds not only the array fragments, but also..." She trailed off, falling silent.

Ye Ningzhou didn't press. He could feel the Dao Seal resonating more strongly, as if answering some slumbering ancient presence.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded behind them, accompanied by a cultivator's furious shout: "Found you! Today, we avenge Butcher Li!"

It was the same group of Demon-Slaying Alliance cultivators Ye had severely injured earlier—they'd been chasing them all this way.

Su Muyao's eyes sharpened, her nine tails unfurling silently. "Looks like we need to give them something to do."

She formed a seal with her fingers. Her pale pink foxfire suddenly exploded, morphing into countless illusions of Ye Ningzhou that darted in all directions. The trick wasn't sophisticated, but it was convincing enough.

" Doppelgängers?!" The alliance cultivators took the bait, scrambling after the illusions in disarray.

Ye seized the opportunity, swinging his giant axe. He channeled the momentum of the Mountain-Crushing Fist into the strike, sending the 800-jin force crashing into the nearest cultivator. Caught off guard, the man took the blow to his chest and spat up blood instantly.

"Tough target!" A cultivator yelled, slashing at Ye Ningzhou's neck with his saber.

Ye stood his ground, using his left arm to forcefully block the blade—the indentation left by the iron ring on his arm suddenly burned. It was the Dao Seal, acting automatically to protect its master! A faint cyan aura blocked the saber, preventing it from cutting even a hair's breadth deeper. With his right hand, he brought the giant axe crashing down, hitting the cultivator's knee dead on. The crisp sound of bone fragmentation echoed sharply in the night.

Su Muyao's pupils contracted slightly. It was the first time she'd seen someone use their physical body to withstand a magical weapon. This mortal bone was tougher than she'd thought.

In the blink of an eye, Ye Ningzhou had taken down three of the five cultivators. The remaining two, sensing danger, turned to flee.

"Leaving so soon?" Su Muyao chuckled, her foxfire suddenly forming a cage around them. "Disturbing my path—you must leave something behind."

Ye Ningzhou watched the cultivators wailing in the fire cage, then glanced at Su Muyao—she hadn't gotten a drop of blood on her, yet had already resolved the trouble. Such was the way of demons, quite different from the mortal bone's head-on clashes.

"Human and demon working together—isn't half bad." Su Muyao said, meaningfully.

Ye didn't reply, just touched the burning Dao Seal on his chest. During the fight, he'd clearly felt the seal's aura not only protecting him, but also faintly suppressing Su Muyao's foxfire, preventing their powers from conflicting.

This must be what the manual meant by "coexistence."

He looked up toward the Quicksand Mystic Realm. The cyan light there was growing brighter, and the Dao Seal's resonance stronger, as if summoning something.

The screams from the fire cage were gradually swallowed by the sandstorm. Su Muyao flicked her fingers, and the pink foxfire scattered into sparks, dissolving into the moonlight. She glanced at the whine ng cultivators on the ground, her tone as cool as ever: "They're still useful. If the Demon-Slaying Alliance finds their companions missing, they'll split their forces to search, buying us half a day's head start."

Ye knelt to check the cultivators' wounds. The axe marks were bone-deep, yet all avoided vital points—a lesson from Wang Cheng: sometimes leaving enemies alive was more useful than killing them all. When he looked up, he caught Su Muyao staring at his right arm, where the burn from the Fire Cultivator's talisman fire still scarred his skin.

"Your Dao Seal is more active than the ancient records described." Su Muyao suddenly said, her fox tail sweeping across the sand to reveal half a jade slip buried beneath. "This is a token of the Ten-Thousand Demons Association. If you encounter trouble with demons in the realm, it might help."

Ye took the jade slip. It was cold to the touch, and the fox clan totem carved on it faintly resonated with the "balance" character on the Dao Seal. He suddenly remembered the manual's words: "The way of balance lies not in standing alone, but in mutual support."

They said no more, walking one after the other into the sea of sand leading to the realm. Moonlight spilled over the dunes, stretching their shadows long. Occasionally, the shadows overlapped, creating a strange harmony.

After about an hour, the burning of the Dao Seal grew intense. Ye could even see faint cyan patterns on his skin, eerily like the veins of a talisman array. Su Muyao suddenly stopped at the top of a dune, pointing ahead: "We're here."

Ye looked. The sea of sand ahead glowed with a faint cyan light. Countless streams of quicksand swirled into vortices under the moon, and at their center stood a broken stone gate. The ancient characters carved on the lintel were blurred, but on closer inspection, they shared the same origin as the Dao Seal's patterns. Stranger still, flashes of array light occasionally flickered in the swirling quicksand, vanishing in an instant.

"The realm's entrance is guarded by an ancient array. Only those who resonate with the Dao Seal can enter." Su Muyao's voice held a note of solemnity. "My clan's records say that long ago, the Abyss Guardians and fox clan made a pact here, sharing the key to the realm."

Ye's Dao Seal suddenly burned fiercely. The cyan patterns on his chest spread like a spider's web, echoing the patterns on the stone gate. He took two steps forward, and the quicksand vortex automatically parted to form a path. Cyan light crept up his ankles, as if verifying his identity.

"So you're the 'resonant one.'" Su Muyao's tone gave no hint of joy or anger, but her nine tails tensed slightly. "I can only take you this far. A demon's identity can't pass."

Ye turned to look at her. The hem of her crimson dress had been dyed pale gold by the sand, like the rising sun over the desert. He suddenly remembered how, when they fought side by side earlier, Su Muyao's illusions had perfectly covered him, while his physical skills had just broken through the cultivators' defenses.

"Let's try together." Ye held out his hand. The Dao Seal's cyan light flowed down his arm, weaving a faint ribbon of light between them. "The manual says balance requires coexistence."

Su Muyao arched a brow. Her amber eyes sparkled in the cyan light, but finally, she placed her hand in his. Her fingertips were cool, carrying the unique faint fragrance of the fox clan, mixing with the sweat on Ye's palm—and somehow, making the Dao Seal's light softer.

As they stepped into the vortex side by side, the quicksand suddenly stopped spinning. The stone gate slowly opened, revealing deep darkness beyond. The array lights swirled around them, as if celebrating a long-awaited reunion.

"Who knew there were humans who understood pacts?" Su Muyao's voice held a hint of a smile, her nine tails gently swaying in the light ribbon.

Ye Ningzhou didn't reply, just tightened his grip on her hand. He knew that from this moment, the invisible boundary between humans and demons had been seared open by the cyan light of the Dao Seal.

The instant the stone gate closed behind them, Ye Ningzhou heard Xiao Wanlei's roar from outside: "Stop them! The realm's key must not fall into demon hands!"

The voice grew distant, finally swallowed by the mystic realm's gale-force winds.

Deep within the realm, cyan light blazed like daylight. Countless array fragments hovered in the air, forming winding paths. Ye Ningzhou and Su Muyao still held hands; the light ribbon woven from the Dao Seal and fox spiritual energy hummed softly in the silence—the first chime of the Dao Seal, the prelude to restored balance.

The Quicksand Mystic Realm's gale-force winds carried the sharp whistle of array fragments, stinging like needles against their faces. When Ye Ningzhou and Su Muyao loosen hands, the light ribbon dissolved into cyan sparks, merging into both their bodies. The burning of the Dao Seal faded significantly, while the foxfire's heat gained a gentle warmth—a strange, unprecedented connection.

"It seems the ancient records told the truth," Su Muyao brushed the fox insignia between her brows, where a trace of cyan light lingered. "Human and demon spiritual energy must harmonize to fully activate the realm's arrays." She looked toward the path's depths; the floating fragments suddenly lit up, piecing together half a star map in the darkness. "This is a remnant of the 'Star-Fixing Array,' which guides the way to the realm's core."

Ye Ningzhou followed her gaze. The star trails formed by the fragments glowed with pale gold, intermingling with the Dao Seal's cyan light. He suddenly understood why the Abyss Guardians had forged pacts with humans and demons—no single power could ever reassemble these shattered arrays.

They walked along the array path, the quicksand beneath their feet shimmering. Each step landed on ancient runes. Su Muyao's crimson dress swept the sand, stirring up stardust that mirrored her fox tails like flowing flame; Ye Ningzhou dragged his giant axe behind him, its blade cutting the air, colliding with the gale-force winds in a dull roar.

"There's the smell of blood ahead," Su Muyao suddenly stopped, her nose twitching. "More than one person... and demonic cultivator aura."

Ye Ningzhou gripped his axe. The Dao Seal burned faintly in his chest—the array fragments ahead suddenly rippled, their cyan light tinged with dark red, as if stained by blood. He gestured for Su Muyao to step back, then ducked close to the left rock wall, where the runes showed faint signs of wear, as if deliberately damaged.

Muffled gasps came from behind the rock wall,mixed with a Demon-Slaying Alliance cultivator's curse: "This fox demon's illusions are damn tricky! We've searched everywhere and found no array fragments..."

"Leader Xiao said if we can't find them, we'll blast this place! Lord Lord Bloodthirsty only wants the Dao Seal anyway—these fragments are just nuisances!"

Ye Ningzhou's heart sank. They intended to destroy the realm?

He started to rise, but Su Muyao grabbed his wrist. She shook her head, her 指尖 quickly tracing characters in his palm: "Left hidden door"—a fox clan secret technique, transmitting words via spiritual energy, silent as a whisper.

Ye Ningzhou checked the direction she indicated. A section of the 岩壁's runes indeed fit abnormally, like a disguised hidden door. He drew the black iron talisman brush, channeled spiritual energy, and tapped lightly—the door opened, revealing a huddled figure behind it: a badly wounded fox cultivator with half a talisman arrow in his chest, clearly a survivor of the alliance's purge.

"He's from the Ten-Thousand Demons Association," Su Muyao's voice turned cold, her tails rigid. "The Demon-Slaying Alliance won't even spare my clan's outer scouts."

She knelt to examine the wound, foxfire spilling from her 指尖 to wrap around the talisman arrow, slowly stripping away its spiritual energy. The fox cultivator grunted in pain; when he opened his eyes and saw Su Muyao, he whispered weakly: "Young Master... they went to the core, saying they're looking for..."

He fainted before finishing.

Su Muyao dragged him into the hidden door, her eyes frosty when she turned back. "It seems Xiao Wanlei wants more than array fragments—he's seizing the chance to wipe out the Ten-Thousand Demons Association's spies." She looked at Ye Ningzhou, a fox tail flicking. "Shall we split up?"

"No need." Ye Ningzhou hefted his axe; the Dao Seal's cyan light rippled over its blade. "If they want to destroy the realm, we can't let them reach the core." He pointed to a right fork, where array fragments glowed with faint red. "The alliance is likely taking this path. We'll circle around the left to cut them off."

Su Muyao arched a brow, foxfire dancing at her 指尖. "You're sharper than you look."

As they split into the forks, Ye Ningzhou heard a faint rustle behind him—Su Muyao using illusions to mimic footsteps along the main path, luring the alliance to chase the wrong way. This fox demon was craftier than he'd thought.

The left path's array fragments grew denser, their patterns more complete. Running his hand over the rock wall 's runes, Ye Ningzhou recognized the markings of a "Spirit-Stalling Array," which slows cultivators' spiritual energy flow. He stopped, dipped the black iron talisman brush in quicksand, and traced the missing array core on the ground—the Dao Seal's cyan light seeped into the sand, and the array patterns flashed to life, vanishing into darkness.

No sooner had he finished than Su Muyao's laughter drifted from afar, laced with the fox clan's distinctive charm: "The array fragments Leader Xiao wants are on the stone platform ahead..."

Her voice barely faded when chaotic footsteps crashed into the "Spirit-Stalling Array." The sudden sluggishness of their spiritual energy drew curses: "What's going on? Why's our energy suddenly so heavy!"

Ye Ningzhou hid behind the rock wall,watching the alliance struggle in the array, his axe growing warm in his grip. He knew Su Muyao's illusions could only delay them briefly—the real strike was yet to come.

Sure enough, a violent explosion followed. The array fragments' cyan light trembled violently, as if part of the pattern had been blown apart. Su Muyao's cry of alarm carried on the wind: "You're insane! That's..."

Ye Ningzhou charged out from behind the rock wall,axe in hand. He channeled the Mountain-Crushing Fist's momentum into the blade, swinging with 800 catties of force at the nearest cultivator's lower back—the man was too busy breaking the array to dodge, and the crunch of 碎裂 bones mingled with his scream, echoing along the path.

"Ambush!" The cultivators yelled, drawing their swords, but the Spirit-Stalling Array slowed their movements. Ye Ningzhou's axe cut through them like a whirlwind, hacking left and right, each strike finding its mark. The Dao Seal's cyan light shielded him, keeping their talisman blades at bay.

Su Muyao's figure suddenly darted in from the right, her foxfire exploding into a rain of flames that swerved around Ye Ningzhou, burning only the trapped cultivators. Pink fire and cyan light intertwined in eerie harmony.

"Not bad teamwork," Su Muyao's voice came through the explosions, tinged with amusement.

Ye Ningzhou said nothing, swinging his axe faster. This must be what the manual meant by "coexistence"—not life-or-death struggle, but covering each other's flaws, guarding each other's safety.

By the time a cup of tea might have cooled, the last cultivator was engulfed in foxfire as Ye Ningzhou's axe crushed his skull. The path reeked of charred flesh, yet the array fragments' cyan light burned brighter than before, as if celebrating their victory.

Su Muyao brushed sparks from her skirt, glancing at the scratch on Ye Ningzhou's arm—left when he'd shielded her from a talisman arrow, now healing under the Dao Seal's cyan light.

"Mortal bones are more reliable than spiritual vein cultivators," she said softly.

Ye Ningzhou lifted his axe; blood droplets fell from its blade into the quicksand, absorbed instantly by the array. He looked toward the path's depths, where cyan light blazed fiercer, the Dao Seal's resonance clearer than ever—the realm's core lay just ahead.

"Let's go see what Xiao Wanlei is so eager to blow up."