The underground chamber of the Balancing Hall was built from thick granite, specially designed to muffle screams.
But tonight, it wasn't screams that echoed through the damp corridors—
It was the sound of ice cracking.
Crack. Srrrt.
Yan Kesh had just descended the stairs when Gou San's body was sent flying into the wall.
"Damn it!" Gou San cursed, clutching his left arm.
The arm wasn't broken—but frozen. A thin layer of ice coated his skin, the veins beneath showing an unnatural dead blue. A bone-chilling cold seeped from it.
"She's not human, Master! She's a monster!" Gou San shouted, his face pale as he endured instant frostbite.
Yan Kesh didn't reply. He walked past Gou San calmly, his gaze fixed on the center of the holding cell.
There, the teenage girl he had "acquired" from the refugee camp stood cornered. Her hands and feet were chained to the stone wall. The iron chains trembled violently, covered in blooming frost that continued to thicken.
The girl—let's call her Su Ran—stared at Yan Kesh. Her eyes were bloodshot, not from crying, but from ruptured blood vessels caused by uncontrollable internal energy pressure.
"Don't come closer," Su Ran hissed. Her voice was hoarse, and every word came out with white mist, as if she were speaking in the middle of a blizzard, even though the room's temperature was normal.
"Or I'll freeze your heart."
He Qiu stood on the other side with his sword drawn, hesitant to attack.
"Master, we can't get close to her. Anyone who enters within three steps is immediately affected by extreme Yin energy."
Yan Kesh stopped right at the three-step boundary.
He didn't see the girl as a threat.
He saw her as a leaking nuclear reactor.
[AUDIT TARGET: SU RAN]
[Condition: Nine Yin Constitution (Unawakened)]
[Status: Energy Leakage]
[Cause: Yin meridians blocked. Energy accumulation turning into cold toxin.]
[Risk of Explosion: 85% within 24 hours]
This girl was dying.
Her body was producing cold energy far faster than she could discharge it. If left alone, she would freeze into an ice statue from the inside out.
"You're in pain," Yan Kesh said flatly.
Su Ran bared her teeth in a feral grin, blood seeping from her gums.
"What do you care, devil? You kidnapped me to sell me, right? Or to eat me?"
"I don't eat ice cubes," Yan Kesh replied as he took a step forward.
Whoosh!
The temperature plummeted. Frost spread across the stone floor beneath Yan Kesh's feet. The cold pierced through the soles of his shoes, crawling up toward his calves.
Yan Kesh did not stop.
"You think this cold of yours is power?" he said, continuing to walk into the danger zone.
"It's not power. It's trash. It's waste your body can't get rid of."
Su Ran's eyes widened.
This man was insane.
Yan Kesh's face began to turn blue, his eyebrows frosting over with ice crystals, yet his steps did not falter.
"Die!" Su Ran screamed, slamming her arms forward.
The ice-covered iron chains shattered into pieces, brittle from the extreme cold.
Freed from her restraints, Su Ran lunged at Yan Kesh. Her corpse-cold hand shot straight for his throat.
"Master!" He Qiu cried out.
But Yan Kesh did not dodge.
Instead, he spread his arms wide.
Go ahead.
Grab.
Su Ran's small hand clamped around Yan Kesh's neck.
In an instant, Yan Kesh felt the blood in his neck freeze solid. His carotid artery iced over. His lungs felt as if they were filled with shards of glass. Death stood before him, no more than a single heartbeat away.
Yet inside Yan Kesh's mind, The Audit flared to life.
[DETECTED: SURPLUS NEGATIVE ENERGY (YIN)]
[Source: External (Su Ran)]
[Storage Capacity: EMPTY]
[ACTION: ASSET ABSORPTION]
Yan Kesh did not resist the cold.
He opened the "warehouse door" within the hollow root of his soul.
Yan Kesh's soul-root was a dead stump—empty by nature.
And emptiness was always hungry.
Zrrrooot!
Su Ran suddenly froze in place.
She felt the cold that had tormented her all her life—the cold that made her feel as if she were sleeping naked atop a glacier—suddenly being sucked away.
It was like a massive whirlpool forming at Yan Kesh's neck, drawing out all her suffering.
"Ah…" Su Ran gasped, her grip loosening. Not because she wanted to let go, but because her body went weak from overwhelming relief.
For the first time in her life…
She felt warm.
The ice on the walls melted. Water pooled on the floor. Yan Kesh's bluish skin gradually returned to normal, though his lips still trembled purple.
Yan Kesh gently pried Su Ran's hand away and released it. The girl collapsed to the floor, panting, staring at him in total confusion.
"What… what did you do to me?" she whispered.
Yan Kesh coughed, cold mist spilling from his mouth. He rubbed his stiff neck.
"I took your trash," he said hoarsely.
Yan Kesh checked his own status.
[NEW ASSET RECORDED]
[Type: Pure Yin Energy (Condensed)]
[Amount: 5000 Units]
[Status: Temporarily Stored in Soul Root]
[Warning: Must be transferred soon or Yan Kesh's body will suffer damage]
Yan Kesh had become a walking battery of cold.
But this was perfect.
Qiu Moren suffered from excessive Yang (heat/fire) energy from the Ashen Heart technique.
Su Ran suffered from excessive Yin (cold/ice) energy.
Yan Kesh only needed to become the Broker.
He would sell Su Ran's cold to Qiu Moren.
1 + (–1) = 0.
Perfect balance.
And he would take commission from both sides.
Yan Kesh squatted in front of Su Ran, leveling his gaze with hers.
"What's your name?"
"…Su Ran."
"Listen, Su Ran. Your body is defective. You produce too much cold. Without me, you'd either freeze to death before your sixteenth birthday—or explode and kill everyone within a one-li radius."
Su Ran lowered her head. She knew it was true. Her parents had abandoned her because she kept turning their home into a tomb of ice.
"I'm offering you an employment contract," Yan Kesh continued. His tone was professional, as if interviewing an employee rather than addressing a slave.
"You'll live here. Eat proper food. Sleep on a real bed.
Your only job is this: every three days, let me drain the excess cold energy from your body."
"You won't suffer from the cold anymore. And I…" Yan Kesh tapped his chest. "…will take care of the remaining trash."
Su Ran's eyes welled up. All her life, people had treated her as a monster, a curse.
This man… this man saw her as a business partner.
"You won't… sell me to a brothel, will you?" Su Ran asked softly, voicing her greatest fear.
Yan Kesh chuckled.
"Selling you there would be the same as killing all their customers with hypothermia. No, Su Ran. You're far too valuable for such cheap work."
Yan Kesh stood and turned to He Qiu, who was still stunned.
"He Qiu, take her to the guest room on the second floor. Give her warm clothes and ginger soup. She's not a prisoner. She's a core asset."
"And call an ordinary physician to treat Gou San's arm. Don't use my energy. That would be a waste."
He Qiu nodded quickly and sheathed his sword, carefully helping the weakened Su Ran away.
When the room was finally empty, only Yan Kesh remained in the darkness.
His body trembled violently. His teeth chattered.
The Yin energy he had absorbed from Su Ran was now raging inside him, freezing his intestines and stomach from within.
"So cold…" Yan Kesh muttered, hugging himself.
This was the price of being a middleman.
He had to endure the cold until tomorrow, when Qiu Moren's therapy session was scheduled.
Yan Kesh crawled back to his room, wrapping himself in three layers of thick blankets, yet still shivering uncontrollably.
Enduring the freezing pain, Yan Kesh smiled beneath the covers.
He had found the Eternal Solution.
Qiu Moren (Fire) + Su Ran (Ice) = Yan Kesh (Profit).
As long as he kept both of them "ill," Yan Kesh would become the most indispensable person in the entire sect.
"Sleep…" he murmured as his consciousness began to fade from mild hypothermia.
"Tomorrow… we harvest big."