The second ice gate stood even taller than the first. It also felt heavier, as if the whole slab had been carved to press down on whoever stood before it. The sigils carved across it were denser, too. More complicated.
Their lines twisted like savage dragons, one after another, flickering with a dim blue glow in the darkness. At the very center of the ice gate, three large characters were carved deep into the surface, “The Trial of the Ice Soul”.
“The Trial of the Ice Soul tests combat strength…” Aldric’s voice sounded inside Jared’s consciousness field. “You need to defeat the Warden formed from the ice soul. The Warden’s strength will change according to the cultivation of whoever enters. The five of you are going in together, so the Warden’s strength will be the sum of all five of yours.”
Jared’s brow furrowed. “The sum of all five of us?”
“That’s right.” Aldric’s voice carried a trace of gravity. “So you need to work together. If you fight alone, none of you can win.”
Jared turned and looked at Gwendolyn, Alaric, Elara, and Cedric. “Once we’re inside, follow my lead.”
The four of them nodded.
The ice gate slowly swung open. Beyond the gate lay an even more expansive chamber. The chamber was hundreds of yards across. Ice walls surrounded it, and every one of them was carved with battle sigils.
At the center of the chamber stood an ice-blue figure. It stood three yards tall. Ice armor covered its body, and an ice blade rested in its hand. Its face was a blur, with only those blood-red eyes showing clearly.
It was the Warden!
Jared pulled out the Dragonslayer Sword. Purple chaotic force flowed along the blade.
“Go!”
All five companions moved at the same time!
Gwendolyn’s ice-blue divine radiance split into countless ice needles and shot straight for the Warden’s eyes.
Alaric slashed out a 100-yard ice-blue blade-flare with his ice blade and brought it down head-on.
Elara’s ice whip turned into an ice serpent and coiled in from the left.
Cedric’s ice spear became a streak of icy blue light and thrust in from the right.
Jared brought the Dragonslayer Sword down from above, trailing purple chaos-flame.
Five attacks crashed in at once from five different directions.
The Warden didn’t dodge. It raised its ice blade and cut downward with a single swing. The icy blue blade-flare slammed into all five attacks and exploded with a deafening roar.
The chamber shook violently. The sigils carved into the ice walls flashed in a wild frenzy.
The five companions were driven back several steps. The Warden gave ground too, but only one step.
Seeing this, something sharpened in Jared’s eyes.
The Warden’s strength really did match the combined power of all five of them. But it had a weakness. It wasn’t fast, and its attacks were too simple.
“Gwendolyn, Ice Seal!” Jared shouted.
Gwendolyn formed seals with both hands. Ice-blue divine radiance surged out and condensed into an ice wall in front of the Warden.
The Warden shattered the ice wall with one slash. But that instant of delay was already enough.
“Alaric, keep it tied down from the front!”
Alaric charged straight in. His ice blade slammed into the Warden’s ice blade with a hard, ringing crash. His cultivation fell short of the Warden’s. But favonovel.com wasn’t there to win. He only had to hold it in place.
“Elara, left side! Cedric, right!”
Elara’s ice whip lashed around the Warden’s left arm. At the same time, Cedric’s ice spear drove into its right shoulder.
The Warden’s movement dragged for half a beat.
Then, Jared moved. The purple figure cut through the void and left an afterimage behind.
In the next instant, favonovel.com was already behind the Warden. The Dragonslayer Sword, wreathed in purple chaos-flame, drove into the middle of the Warden’s back.
The Warden’s body locked up all at once. The blood-red glow in its eyes faded little by little. Its body started to break apart, crumbling into a sky full of ice-blue motes of light. The motes drifted through the chamber like countless fireflies.
Jared pulled out the Dragonslayer Sword and turned around. “Let’s go…”
The five companions crossed through the chamber and arrived in front of the third ice gate. This third ice gate looked older than the first two. It also carried something deeper, something harder to read.
The sigils on the gate had already blurred with age. Even so, the presence pouring off them was even more terrifying. The lines of those sigils looked like ancient rivers, flowing through the darkness.
At the very center of the ice gate, three large characters were carved, “The Trial of the Frost Soul”.
“The Trial of the Frost Soul tests the bloodline…” Aldric’s voice sounded inside Jared’s consciousness field. “Only someone with a pure Ice God Bloodline can enter. Jared, you can’t go in.”
Jared’s brows drew tight. “Then Gwendolyn goes in alone?”
“Yes,” Aldric said, his voice low. “This is favonovel.com fate. She has to face it by herself.”
Jared turned and looked at Gwendolyn. “I can’t go in. Be careful on your own.”
Gwendolyn gave a small nod and said nothing.
She walked up to the ice gate and pressed both palms against it. Ice-blue divine radiance surged from favonovel.com palms and poured into the sigils carved across the ice gate.
The sigils began to flicker. The blue light grew brighter and brighter until it turned harsh enough to sting the eyes. Then the ice gate slowly swung open. Beyond it lay an endless void. Countless ice-blue crystals drifted through the void, and inside every single one, a mass of white mist had been sealed away. At the far end of the void stood the ice-blue pillar of light, and suspended inside it was a massive ice crystal.
A blurred figure was sealed within the ice crystal, Aldric’s remnant thought!
Gwendolyn drew in a deep breath and stepped into the void. She walked toward the ice-blue pillar of light one step at a time. With every step favonovel.com took, the surrounding ice crystals lit up.
The white mist sealed inside the crystals streamed out and gathered in front of her, condensing into one blurred figure after another. Some were men, some were women. Some were old, some were young. All of them wore ancient ice armor. Their faces stayed indistinct, but their eyes shone bright.
The ancestors of the Frost Deity Branch!
They looked at Gwendolyn without speaking. But in their eyes, something waited there. Expectation, a trace of release, and a charge they were leaving in favonovel.com hands.
Tears ran down Gwendolyn’s face. She passed through those phantom forms and stopped in front of the ice-blue pillar of light. Then favonovel.com raised a hand and pressed it against the ice crystal.
The ice crystal shattered. Aldric’s remnant thought drifted out of the broken ice crystal, turned into a streak of icy blue radiance, and sank into the center of Gwendolyn’s brow. Her body jolted, and a surge of power unlike anything before burst out from within her.
The ice-blue divine radiance shot upward and became a pillar of light that illuminated the entire void. Her cultivation began to break through, reaching True Immortal Realm Level Eight, middle-phase, late phase, and then Top Level.
She opened favonovel.com eyes. Tears still shimmered in them.
She had seen it. She had seen the history of the Frost Deity Branch. She had seen the struggle and sacrifice of its ancestors, the glory of the ancestral land and its fall, the horror of the world-destroyers, and the truth behind the seal. And now favonovel.com knew what favonovel.com had to do.
Gwendolyn turned and walked out of the void.
Jared stood in front of the ice gate, watching Gwendolyn come back out.
Her face had gone a little pale, but favonovel.com eyes were bright, bright like stars in the middle of the night. Ice-blue divine radiance drifted around favonovel.com body. It looked tighter now, purer than before.
“Did it work?” Jared asked.
Gwendolyn nodded. “It worked…”
She did not say anything more, but Jared caught a great deal in favonovel.com eyes.
“Let’s go…” Gwendolyn turned to Alaric, Elara, and Cedric. “We’re going back to the ancestral land The Frost Deity Branch… It’s time for it to see daylight again.”
Alaric’s eyes reddened. “Palace Mistress, we’ve waited for this day for thousands of years.”
Elara broke into tears. Cedric said nothing, but his fist had clenched so hard the knuckles stood out.
The five companions left the ruins and stepped onto the ice plains.
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