Yesterday, disciples were huddled in groups, whispering rumors and looking over their shoulders. Today, they were sharpening their swords. They resumed normal operations. They were laughing.

  It wasn't the laughter of joy. It was the laughter of the gallows.

  "Hey, Sven!" A young disciple shouted across the yard. "If the Ghost eats me today, you can have my boots! I just resoled them! But don’t you dare date my sister!"

  "If the Ghost eats you," Sven shouted back as he was checking the edge of his axe, "it'll die of indigestion! You're too tough and stringy, Arvid!"

  "Better stringy than soft like you!" Arvid laughed.

  Li Yu was surprised by this complete turn around. He walked through the area and was watching them load the Bone-Breaker for another supply run or another assault on a rift that might appear.

  "It’s strange, isn't it? But I told you so." Torben laughed as he appeared beside him. The Sect Master had his massive armor on and his beard braided for war. "They are less afraid now than they were yesterday."

  "I think I can understand it a bit more. After having seen the disciples myself. Uncertainty creates anxiety," Li Yu said. "Certainty creates resolve. They know the rules of the game now. They are warriors. They understand that there is nothing they can do about it. Run, hide or fight. It is all the same. So why not fight and continue as normal."

  "We have new orders too," Torben said. "Soul Formation and above. We are tasked with active search. We are the only ones who might survive a brush with it. At least from what we know. So we have to go find it."

  "Good," Li Yu was firm. "I am going to find this damn thing."

  Life in the North resumed with a frantic and feverish intensity. The rifts continued to open. The beasts and demons continued to pour out. And the cultivators of the Dominion met them with a ferocity that bordered on suicidal. They were even more fierce than before as any day now could be their last.

  They fought like people who had nothing to lose.

  Li Yu, Krell and Tekton returned to their search. They were patrolling the silent zones and looking all over. All with the goal of finding that needle in the haystack.

  Li Yu pushed his senses to the absolute limit. He flew high above the cloud layer, his eyes scanning the spectrum of reality. He looked for distortions. Anything that might offer him a clue.

  At another rift location. They landed in the middle of a skirmish between a local militia and a pack of Iron-Jaw Wolves.

  The militia was fighting recklessly. A man with a broken arm was swinging a club with his good hand and screaming insults at the wolves.

  "The Crab Claws!" The militia leader shouted as he saw the blue-and-black banner on Tekton’s carapace. "Nice of you to join the party! We saved some for you!"

  Li Yu didn't waste time. He wasn’t in the mood to play around with enemies or waste a second of his time. He unleashed a wave of glacial Qi from his palm. It froze half the pack instantly. Krell smashed through the rest with his massive hammer.

  "We know about your distribution." The leader yelled while he was organizing a few things within his storage ring. Then he tossed a storage bag to Li Yu. He had given him about 50 percent of his loot from his own stash. He would get it back after harvesting the beasts here. “This way you don’t need to wait around. After we are done harvesting here we're going to the tavern!"

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  "You're in high spirits," Li Yu commented as he was catching the bag.

  "Why not?" The man grinned, revealing a missing tooth. "Didn't get eaten by the Ghost today. Didn't get eaten by the wolves. It's a good day! Drinks are on me if you come by the Frozen Tusk!"

  Li Yu watched them leave. They were marching with a swagger that shouldn't exist in a world where an invisible reaper was stalking them. This continent truly was quite amazing. The culture and people here were something else.

  ‘If I ever form a legion or army. I would want to have my army full of people like this.’ Li Yu thought to himself.

  "They are utterly insane. But I like it!" Krell chuckled. He was falling more and more for this land.

  "You are right." Li Yu chuckled. "They've accepted it. Just like what Torben said."

  Days turned into a week from the first kill. The "Ghost" continued to claim victims but the rate dropped drastically. A squad here. A merchant there. But the widespread paralysis of the continent was gone. The economy of the war machine churned on.

  Li Yu spent his nights searching. He was set on trying to find this damn thing. Not only to stop all the killing but he wanted to know what it was. He sat on the highest spire of an unknown and stared out into the darkness.

  "It targets souls," Li Yu whispered to the darkness. "It bypasses physical matter. It bypasses Qi shields. But it struggles with a stronger and more dense soul."

  “Elder Sigurd survived because his soul was too thick to be pulled out or destroyed instantly. The connection broke before the extraction was complete."

  Li Yu looked at the stars. He thought that he could do all of the things that this Ghost could. He could attack a sect and kill everyone with his massive soul attack. His soul strength was strong enough to wipe out Soul Formation experts in fact. At least to the mid-stage level. That made this ghost terrifying to leave alive. If it was like him, it was extremely dangerous.

  "It has a limit. It has a mechanism. And if it has a mechanism, it can be broken."

  He checked his storage ring. The massive collection of demon cores he had amassed was waiting. Tens of thousands of them.

  "Should I try to push it now and just settle with a less stable foundation. I need to push," Li Yu said to himself. "If I reach Divine Transformation... my soul density will increase exponentially. I should be better set up to find it with my enhanced senses. I'll be able to resist any kind of soul attack it has even better..."

  "No, not yet…" Li Yu shook his head. "There’s no guarantee that it would solve the problem here. Rushing it here might hurt me in the long run. I must be patient. I have the energy. But I need the foundation. I need natural treasures to stabilize the breakthrough. The cores are just the fuel. I need other parts to handle the output."

  "I need to keep hunting," Li Yu said to himself again. "I will keep searching. Every rift we close is one less distraction. And maybe... just maybe... we catch this thing feeding."

  The chapter of the Silent Winter settled into a rhythm.

  Reports of silent deaths became less common. People adapted. They developed new superstitions. They started wearing iron collars, hoping the cold metal would ground their souls.

  They started carrying "Ghost Whistles.” Little flutes carved from bone that supposedly screamed if a spirit approached. They didn't work but they sold out in every market.

  Vorgnir was spotted in the High Pass. He was fighting a horde of Wyverns alone. When asked if he was afraid of the entity, he reportedly laughed and said, "I’ve been trying to hunt it. Let it come to me. I've been trying to leave this world for years. If it wants to take me, it better pack a lunch."

  Torben led the Frost Iron Sect on three major campaigns in a single week. He was everywhere. His massive voice booming over the battlefield and reminding his disciples that they were hunters, not prey.

  And Li Yu... Li Yu also was slowly becoming a fixture of the North.

  The banner of the Crab Claws became a symbol of a strange and chaotic hope. The mercenary group that traded treasures for trash. The group that ran towards danger and towards anything related to the Ghost.

  As the sun set over the frozen tundra. Li Yu stood on a peak in the mountains and was watching the world below. The lights of the towns were twinkling. The forges were burning. The people were living.

  "They didn't break," Li Yu said softly.

  "Give them time," Krell grunted next to him but there was no malice in his voice.

  "No," Li Yu smiled. "They won't break. They're too stubborn. They've decided that if they're going to die, they're going to die busy."