The vibrant, ever-pulsing aura of life around her gradually faded, as her youthful energy and vitality quickly grew cold and desolate. Her expression shifted from resolute to solemn, then to indifferent, then to ethereal, and finally, to utter emptiness.
There was no doubt about it—this was the Heart Severing and Thought Cutting Technique.
If there were any other way, Jill Young would never have chosen to use such a dangerously risky secret art. Even the legendary master of martial arts nearly lost herself to madness using it. If both twins were present, the Twin Link could be used to store emotions, dramatically lowering the risk. With one stabilizing the other, it’s basically like doing a one-brain job with two brains—so much easier.
But right now, Jill was the only one left on Earth. The Twin Link had faded to almost nothing, so there was no clever workaround. And to make matters worse, Jill’s own affinity for this technique was abysmally low. If it was a difficulty level of ten for her teacher, then for Jill, it was more like a hundred.
Still, even if it was a hundred, she went for it without hesitation.
Using the side-profile statue as a bridge, Jill threw herself into strengthening the Twin Link. Two waves of Saint-level spiritual power surged forth as Jill tapped into her teacher’s memories and insights about the Heart Severing and Thought Cutting Technique. These experiences trickled through the Twin Link, helping Jill tackle the impossible.
"Brrr—!" Rachel Luo, standing guard outside, suddenly shivered, as if blasted by an Antarctic wind. Her Prajna Technique had reached a decent level, so her senses were way sharper than most. All at once, she felt a massive wave of icy coldness fill the meditation room behind her. The chill didn’t touch the physical world, but it was somehow even more bone-chilling than the harshest winter.
Her usually restless mind felt like it’d been hit by a blast of absolute zero, freezing over in an instant. Rachel felt like a snake in winter, her consciousness fading fast. It was obviously dangerous, but she was so lost in the nightmare she didn’t even know how to struggle.
"Ding!" The Frostbell Sword chimed, its clear, lingering note echoing through the air. Instantly, the cold in the meditation room shrank back, no longer affecting the outside.
Rachel Luo snapped out of it with a full-body shiver and let out a long breath. She stared at the meditation room door, still shaken and unsure whether that freaky cold was normal or not.
When the Frostbell Sword chimed, Jill Young opened her eyes in the meditation room. Every trace of emotion and personality was gone, leaving only pure, absolute calm and emptiness—like her heart was frozen over by millennia of ice.
In the Heart Severing and Thought Cutting state, her senses were pushed to their absolute limits—most of the fog between seeing and knowing was wiped away. Everything tangible seemed to vanish, leaving nothing but countless pieces of data floating all around her.
Her spiritual power burned fast, her thoughts racing a thousand times faster than normal. All the data transformed into light and shadow, pouring into her mind, shattering into countless specks of starlight, then stacking, splicing, breaking apart, and recombining over and over. Every possible—and impossible, reasonable and unreasonable—method flooded her mind, waiting for her to sort and choose.
Jill Young focused all her energy on one question—what exactly are Void Coordinates?
When it comes to understanding the endless void, she knew she was second to none. Every trip through a Soul Rift, every time she called for support from a distant dimension, was another firsthand experience with the infinite void. Especially her exile after the Pacific World collapsed, and that split-second glimpse of the Axis of Worlds during the Blacklight Reverse White Night event—those were rare, precious experiences.
If traveling through space was like sailing, then other Chosen Ones just slept through the journey. Eyes closed, blink, boom—other world. No clue how they got there, no idea what the "sea" even looked like. She, on the other hand, not only watched the whole trip, she got pushed overboard and had to swim herself—and even got a peek at the nautical charts and guidebook. When it comes to "water skills" and knowing the "sea," she was confident nobody could beat her.
But even with all that, she was still stumped—what do Void Coordinates actually look like?
In that endless void—where left and right, up and down, front and back don’t even exist, where normal folks can’t even begin to grasp the concept—how do you even describe or record a "location"?
Even while using the Heart Severing and Thought Cutting Technique, Jill couldn’t help but frown. If there really was a clue or a method hidden in all this data—Woodhead, for Auntie, for our cousin, we’ve gotta go all in...
This meditation session lasted a full three hours.
For three hours straight, Rachel Luo didn’t leave her post outside the door. That strange, icy chill kept coming and going, like cold waves rolling in during winter. Rachel focused her mind and spirit to hold it off, never once flinching. After enduring this tough ordeal, her Prajna Technique and Bright Jade Technique leveled up big time—she was close to another breakthrough.
But Rachel wasn’t happy about it. She’d seen her master use the Heart Severing and Thought Cutting Technique plenty of times, and she’d watched him activate the Cold Jade Demon God state more than once, but the mental power had never spilled out into the world like this. She knew the shifting cold waves—sometimes lasting, sometimes powerful—weren’t random. They were just signs that her martial aunt’s spiritual power was unstable.
If it were really just a block of ice, it wouldn’t be so restless, would it?
Finally, in the third hour, the massive chill spread like a raging storm. But at the very core of that cold was a volcano’s worth of blazing lava, erupting endlessly. Most people’s minds are like the ocean—one cold wind, and they freeze solid. But Jill Young’s mind was a sea of fire, a sea of molten lava; no matter how strong the cold, it only froze the surface, never the burning core.
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Boom! Out of nowhere, thunder cracked over the island, lightning split the night sky, and Jill’s wild spiritual power accidentally triggered a change in the weather. After the thunder faded, all psychic radiation vanished—no more cold, no more heat, as if nothing had ever happened.
Creak—the meditation room door swung open, and Jill Young stepped out. Rachel Luo’s eyes went wide, and she rushed forward, shouting, “Martial Aunt, are you okay?”
Jill looked utterly exhausted. Her usually glowing face was now dull and gray, her hair dry, her eyes sunken, and the dark circles under her eyes looked like she’d put on black eyeshadow. She couldn’t even walk straight, wobbling all over the place. The hand that should’ve pushed the door open with energy now just weakly clung to the frame—like someone who hadn’t slept for ten days, she radiated pure burnout.
Hearing Rachel’s shout, Jill’s eyes shifted, but her gaze was slow and dull, nothing like her usual spark.
“Martial Aunt!” Rachel’s eyes welled up with tears—how much did a powerhouse have to push herself to end up like this?
"Haa—whoosh—" Jill took a deep breath. Her cultivation was still strong, so just one cycle of internal energy with each breath helped her recover quite a bit.
"I'm fine, just a bit overdrawn—nothing permanent," Jill said with a faint smile, looking much more normal. She patted Rachel Luo on the shoulder: "Come on, find me a spot. I need a quiet place to rest for a bit."
"I'll get right on it!" Rachel replied, finally relaxing a little. She used her lightness skill to dash off at full speed.
As Rachel sped away, Jill glanced over at the corner of the wall. Rachel had always thought she was the only one guarding, but not far away, Dream Monroe had been standing there with her arms crossed for three whole hours.
Jill curled her lip, her tone a bit sarcastic: "What, you here to guard me too?"
Dream Monroe shrugged. "More or less. I mean, I want my ties to the mortal world cut, but if you got ambushed and killed, would that count as breaking the ties, or would it mean they’d never be broken? Not a risk I want to take."
"So basically, a widow is single but not divorced—is that what you’re saying?"
"Still so vulgar," Dream Monroe shot back with a sarcastic grin. "And look at you—even your voice sounds weak. You’re drooping like a frostbitten eggplant. Guess that meditation didn’t go too well."
"If someone had actually helped out in America a few days ago—if we’d managed to grab that Divine’s data—maybe things would be fine. But now..." Jill actually shook her head and sighed, rare for her. "I’m just not him." Even with her teacher’s remote help, the Heart Severing and Thought Cutting Technique still didn’t fully succeed—she was just a hair short.
Seeing Jill’s disappointed look, Dream Monroe’s heart suddenly clenched. She held back and held back, but finally couldn’t help herself—her voice softened as she comforted Jill: "Even if your secret technique worked, you probably still wouldn’t have found the answer. The mysteries of the void aren’t so easy to crack. You’ve got potential, but you’re not a true Chosen One yet. If—"
"If what? If you were a Chosen One, then what—would you be able to see through the mysteries of the void, see the truth of the Axis of Worlds?" Jill Young suddenly looked up, eyes wide, staring hard at Dream Monroe. "Do you know where the Heart of Tiberius is?"
"I don’t know," Dream Monroe replied honestly. "Being a Chosen One is a role, not a power. Even the Divine, facing the Axis of Worlds, is like a speck in the sea—I’m even less than that."
"But you at least know how to find it, right?" Jill didn’t let up—her gut told her she was right. She lunged forward and grabbed Dream Monroe’s hand: "Tell me—just give me a method, a clue!"
"I..." Dream Monroe’s eyes wavered, her mouth opening and closing, closing and opening, until she finally looked away: "I can’t say..."
"Still playing that game?!" Jill was almost steaming, but then forced herself to calm down. "Fine, I get it—you fortune-tellers always have your professional rules. But can you at least give me a hint in your fortune-teller way? Be cryptic, be vague, just give me something to work with!"
She grabbed Dream Monroe by the shoulders and spun her around, staring into her eyes: "Jonathan’s life is hanging by a thread—he could fall apart any minute. I’m out of time, girl, I’m out of time! Please, if you really are a goddess, give me a sign!"
Dream Monroe looked at Jill—so close their breaths mingled. On that face that was always wild, bold, and fierce, now there was exhaustion she couldn’t hide, and a resolve that shone through even her fatigue. Something—some subtle expression—hit Dream Monroe right in the heart, making her chest tighten, ache, and hurt so much she nearly couldn’t breathe.
She struggled, conflicted, hesitated. She was afraid of causing huge consequences, but looking into those pleading eyes, she just couldn’t say no.
She let out a long sigh, like she’d finally given up—or maybe just let go of a heavy burden. Her eyes even seemed to brighten a little.
Dream Monroe suddenly smiled, almost unconsciously poking Jill’s nose with her finger—a gesture Maggie and Jill’s teacher used to do. "You know, you’re all mixed up because you care too much. Think about it: if you had to go somewhere but didn’t know where it was, and had no map or GPS, how would you get there?"
Jill was stunned by the poke, then thought of something, but shook her head. "I know what you mean—I’ve already considered that method. But unfortunately, I can’t do it myself, and neither can Big Brother. At least, not with full confidence. I can’t let Mom take that risk."
"You dummy, you really are dumb! If you’d just rushed in like usual, you think I’d let Auntie get hurt?" Dream Monroe tapped Jill’s nose over and over like a pecking chick. "Dummy, dummy, dummy!"
"Oh, my queen, I get it now~~!" Jill instantly understood, her mood flipping to pure delight, and she burst out laughing. "Let’s go find Mom!"