The moment they crossed the bronze threshold of the Nine Springs Core. Then they stepped onto the dry dark rock raised stone road outside the gates, the huge fight-or-flight rush surge that had sustained Lin Tao began to collapse.
His vision doubled, the sharp six-sided tracking data overlays blurring into a chaotic smudge of static. A violent shudder ripped through his torso as systemic freezing sickness set in, his body heat dropping dangerously after hours of exposure to sub-zero rotting downdrafts. Lin Tao’s knees gave way beneath him. He collapsed onto the frosted red stone, his breathing shallow, rapid, and ragged.
Tie Shan right away halted.
Moving with astonishing grace for a man carrying twenty-one tons of star-iron, the giant knelt on one knee, smoothly lowering the massive clan totem onto the bedrock with a muted, ground-shaking thud that didn’t chip a single stone. Without a second’s delay, Tie Shan was beside Lin Tao, his massive calloused hands catching Lin Tao’s shoulders before his head could strike the dark rock.
“Lin Tao!” Tie Shan’s voice was tight with concern. “Sit upright. Lean on me.”
physical collapse, Lin Tao diagnosed internally. That forced his cold and exact mind to assess his body state. Inner body heat thirty-four point eight degrees. Second-degree contact burns across both palmar arches. Severe lateral deep bruise along the left seventh and eighth ribs from the headsman’s blast wave. Mental dissociation threshold approaching.
