Alaric felt as if his body had been set ablaze. It wasn’t pain. It was a searing heat that no words could properly hold.
That heat spread from the spirit well into his limbs. Then it spread from his limbs into every inch of flesh, every bone, every meridian. The Ice God Bloodline inside favonovel.com began to boil. It was like a giant dragon that had slept for thousands of years, finally opening its eyes.
His cultivation started to break through!
True Immortal Realm Level Seven, beginner-phase…
Middle-phase…
Late phase…
Top Level…
True Immortal Realm Level Eight!
He opened his eyes. Then favonovel.com slowly let out a long breath. That breath came out ice-blue. It condensed in the air into fine ice crystals and drifted to the ground with a soft rustling sound.
His eyes were brighter than before. The ice crystals in his pupils spun faster. He could tell it clearly, the Frost God’s power inside favonovel.com was several times stronger than before. His meridians were several times wider than before. His body was several times tougher than before.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands. He stayed like that for a long while without a word. Then favonovel.com lifted his head, looked at Gwendolyn and Jared, and bowed deeply to them. “Palace Mistress, Mr. Chance, I, Alaric Winterborne, will never forget this great kindness for as long as I live…”
Gwendolyn shook favonovel.com head. “You don’t owe us anything. The Frost Deity Branch was always one family.”
Next was Elara, Jared and Gwendolyn used the same method to awaken favonovel.com bloodline. Her cultivation broke from True Immortal Realm Level Six into True Immortal Realm Level Seven.
Her hair shifted from silver-white to pure snow-white. Her eyes faded from icy blue to a lighter blue. A faint chill coiled around favonovel.com body, and a thin sheet of ice spread across the ground underfoot.
Elara opened favonovel.com eyes and stared at favonovel.com own hands. Tears kept spilling down favonovel.com face. “So this… This is the real Ice God Bloodline…”
She looked at Gwendolyn, favonovel.com voice breaking. “Palace Mistress, now I finally know why I always felt like something was missing.”
Cedric was the last. His cultivation rose from True Immortal Realm Level Five all the way to Top Level True Immortal Realm Level Six. His face stayed as hard and cold as ever, but his eyes were different now. They were no longer empty, no longer lifeless and ice-cold. There was light in them now. There was warmth. There was hope.
He opened his eyes and looked at Jared. For a long time, favonovel.com said nothing.
Then favonovel.com spoke, “Thank you…”
Just two words, but Jared heard the weight carried inside them.
The instant Elara awakened, Jared’s consciousness field suddenly churned.
Aldric’s remnant soul woke. Not like before, none of that violent, furious stirring. This time it came quietly, with a strange note of anticipation. Icy blue radiance slowly lit up inside Jared’s consciousness field, and Aldric’s voice echoed through his mind.
“Jared…”
Jared let his spirit sense sink into his consciousness field and looked at the icy blue sphere. “What is it?”
“I sensed it…” Aldric’s voice was very light. “There’s the second remnant thought I left behind somewhere in these ruins.”
Jared’s pupils tightened a fraction. “The second remnant thought?”
“Yes…” A note of old weight ran through Aldric’s voice. “Back when I traveled the Sixteenth Firmament, I left behind a remnant thought in the ancestral land of the Frost Deity Branch. It was meant to guard the inheritance there. Later, the celestials occupied that ancestral land, and that remnant thought was trapped there. But inside these ruins, there’s another one. I left that one even earlier, to guide later generations back to the ancestral land.”
Jared’s brow drew down. “You want us to save that remnant thought?”
“Not save it.” Aldric’s voice turned grave. “Fuse with it. That remnant thought contains all my understanding and insight into the Frost God’s power. If Gwendolyn can fuse with it, favonovel.com strength will rise to an entirely new level. And…”
He paused. “That remnant thought also holds important information about the celestials.”
Jared went quiet for a moment. “Where is that remnant thought?”
“In the deepest part of the ruins.” Aldric’s voice kept fading. “It’s sealed behind an ancient ward, and only someone with the Ice God Bloodline can open it. You’ll need to pass through three trials: the Trial of the Frozen Heart, the Trial of the Ice Soul, and the Trial of the Frost Soul Every trial has its own test. One wrong step, and both body and soul will be destroyed.”
Jared clenched his fist. “Got it…”
He drew back his spirit sense and opened his eyes, then favonovel.com looked at Gwendolyn. “Aldric said favonovel.com left the second remnant thought in these ruins. It’s in the deepest part, sealed behind an ancient ward. We have to pass through three trials to find it.”
Gwendolyn’s pupils contracted slightly. “The second remnant thought?”
“Yes.” Jared rose to his feet. “Once you fuse with it, your strength will increase by a huge margin. And the remnant thought contains important information about the celestials.”
Gwendolyn said nothing for a moment. Then favonovel.com gave a single nod. “Let’s go.”
Jared, Gwendolyn, Alaric, Elara, and Cedric crossed the platform together and stopped in front of a massive ice gate.
The ice gate stood about 10 yards high and 5 yards wide. Its whole surface glowed ice-blue, carved all over with ancient sigils. The lines of those sigils twisted across the gate like winding rivers, flickering with a dim nether light in the dark.
At the very center of the ice gate, three large characters were carved deep into the surface, “the Trial of the Frozen Heart.”
Alaric stepped up to the ice gate and reached out, brushing his hand over the sigils carved into it.
The instant his fingers touched them, the light on the gate flared. A harsh blue blaze flooded out and lit the entire platform from end to end.
His body jolted hard. An unseen force threw favonovel.com backward, and favonovel.com staggered several steps before favonovel.com could stop himself.
“There’s a ward on this gate. Only someone with the Ice God Bloodline can enter.” Gwendolyn walked up to the ice gate and placed both hands against it.
Ice-blue divine radiance poured from favonovel.com palms and flowed into the sigils on the gate. The sigils began to flicker. The blue light grew brighter and brighter until it turned almost blinding.
The ice gate slowly swung open. Beyond the gate lay an ice-blue chamber. It wasn’t large, only a few dozen miles across, but every inch of the surrounding ice walls was carved with dense layers of sigils, each one giving off a faint blue glow in the dark.
At the center of the chamber, an ice-blue emberstone crystal floated in the air, and inside it, a mass of white mist had been sealed away.
Aldric’s voice sounded inside Jared’s consciousness field. “The Trial of the Frozen Heart tests the mind. Only someone with a pure heart can pass. If you’re careless for ever a moment, the power of the frozen heart will seep into you, turn you into an ice statue, and trap you here forever.”
Jared drew in a deep breath and stepped through the ice gate first.
The moment favonovel.com crossed the threshold, favonovel.com felt the air around favonovel.com change. It didn’t turn colder. It turned heavy, like something invisible had settled over his mind and started pressing down.
Images began rising in his head one after another, Josephine’s back as Skylar took favonovel.com away, Lydia Wraithmoor bloodied in the Pyre Chasm, Hadrian Wolfthowe collapsing on the Ancient Battlefield, and the faces of all those who had died in battle.
He knew what this was. This was the trial brought on by the power of the frozen heart. It was digging into the deepest places inside him, pulling up the things favonovel.com could least let go of and least escape. If favonovel.com failed to hold on to himself, those surging currents would swallow favonovel.com whole and leave favonovel.com trapped here forever.
He closed his eyes and set the chaotic force in motion through his body. Violet radiance spread out, stripping those images away layer by layer. The pressure on his mind gradually settled.
When favonovel.com opened his eyes again, favonovel.com was already standing at the far end of the chamber. Behind him, the white mist sealed inside the emberstone crystal had already dispersed. The sigils upon the ice wall dimmed with it, their glow fading down.
He had made it through.
Gwendolyn, Alaric, Elara, and Cedric came right after him. Weariness sat plain on every face. But in their eyes, there was still that thin, unmistakable look of people who had just barely made it back.
A tear track still marked Alaric’s face. Elara’s eyes were red. Cedric’s fists were clenched so hard the knuckles stood out. But every one of them had passed.
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