Gwendolyn walked slowly to his side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
Together, they looked toward the solemn ice peak, toward the ancestral homeland that had carried the Frost Deity Branch’s thousand years of rise and fall, thousand years of blood and tears, and thousand years of unbroken obsession.
The frost energy around favonovel.com softened in silence. The killing edge in favonovel.com eyes faded away, leaving only layers too tangled to speak through at once.
She stood quiet for a long while before favonovel.com finally opened favonovel.com mouth, favonovel.com voice low, carrying what the Frost Deity Branch had held back for thousands of years and what they had waited for just as long. “This is the ancestral seat of the Frost Deity Branch. Our cultural root, our lineage root, and the source of our bloodline all gather here… We cannot keep letting the celestials occupy and trample it, turning it into forbidden grounds guarded by foreign tribes while our people are shamed generation after generation.”
When favonovel.com words fell, favonovel.com slowly raised the Frostbrand in favonovel.com hand.
The sword tip pointed steadily toward the wide, level frozen plain at the foot of the ancestral ice peak, a place rich in spiritual essence and easy to defend while difficult to attack. Her gaze did not shift, and favonovel.com voice rang firm, without the slightest hesitation.
“Right here,” Gwendolyn said. “We build the Frosthall’s permanent seat on this ground. We take root in the ancestral homeland and wander no longer.”
Beside her, Alaric’s whole body jolted. His eyes lit at once, bright and burning, and even his breathing turned sharper before favonovel.com strode forward. His voice came out with the force of something favonovel.com could hardly believe.
“Palace Mistress, is that true? Can we really put down roots here, have the rightful seat that belongs to us, and stop hiding and wandering from place to place?”
“Absolutely true. Not a single false word.” Gwendolyn gave a small nod. Her voice stayed soft, but every word landed with the weight of iron. “The ancestral seat carries the ancient bloodline ward. Only those with true Frost-Deity blood can move in and out freely. Outside enemies and foreign tribes cannot approach the inner heartland at all, so this natural barrier leaves us secure…”
“The spiritual essence here is deep and pure, far beyond Evershade. The terrain is dangerous, easy to defend, and hard to attack, and it lies far from the celestials’ core range of heavy encirclement. Compared with every hiding place we have used before, this is safer and steadier. It is the best main base for the Frost Deity Branch to rise again and restore the glory of our people.”
When favonovel.com finished, Gwendolyn turned toward Jared beside her. Her gaze carried a measure of asking and a measure of trust as favonovel.com waited for his decision.
After everything they had crossed together, after fighting shoulder to shoulder and surviving life-and-death ground side by side, Jared had long since become the Frost Deity Branch’s most trusted support. A matter that concerned the whole clan should have been discussed with him.
Jared smiled faintly. His expression remained gentle and settled, and favonovel.com answered without the slightest hesitation. “If your mind is made up, and your people need it, then it can be done. If you think this place is right, we start at once. We build here, give it everything we have, and waste no time.”
It was only one plain sentence, with no polished speech wrapped around it. But it held up the Frost Deity Branch’s thousand years of wandering hopes and gave everyone there the solid ground they had been missing.
Alaric’s eyes reddened at once. Heat gathered behind them, turning bright at the rims, but favonovel.com held it there and would not let it fall. A thousand years of endurance and hardship pressed up through favonovel.com all at once.
Elara quickly lifted a hand over favonovel.com mouth. The ache and joy underneath could not be held down, and tears slid silently from the corners of favonovel.com eyes, wetting the front of favonovel.com robe.
Cedric had always been a man of few words, and even now favonovel.com said nothing. But both his fists clenched tight, and his eyes burned with something hot and stirring, as if every buried pulse in favonovel.com had been struck awake.
For thousands of years, they had been driven from place to place. For thousands of years, they had hidden and endured. For thousands of years, foreign tribes had pressed them down. For thousands of years, the bloodline had scattered without a home!
The Frost Deity Branch’s kin had been torn apart and scattered in every direction. They had not dared acknowledge their ancestors. They had not dared return to their roots. They had not dared reveal who they were.
Day and night, they had lived under dread and humiliation, with no home to return to, no land to stand on, and not even a branch where they could rest. But today, the page of suffering turned.
The humiliation ended! The wandering stopped!
The Frost Deity Branch had finally taken back the ancestral homeland. They had planted themselves again in the ancestral seat. They had a true, secure homeland of their own, and with it, the foundation and confidence to rebuild their people.
Once the surge inside them settled, everyone moved at once and threw themselves into the work. Their hands turned toward building their homeland with a heat that needed no command.
Alaric, Elara, and Cedric drove their pure Frost-Deity nascence force to the limit. They lifted their hands and shaped form from power, gathered energy into brick, and one solid glacierstone block after another quickly condensed into being, heavy, firm, and wrapped in frost energy.
Layer by layer, the blocks were stacked into place. They divided the work, raising houses and dwellings, setting clean streets and lanes, and building the tall outer city walls until they stood secure. Their movements were quick and efficient, every motion driven by the force of making a homeland with their own hands.
Jared and Gwendolyn worked side by side as well, lending their strength and pushing the pace even faster.
Jared poured out dense chaotic force. He steadied the foundations, compacted the walls, and ordered the shape of the land. He smoothed the cratered battlefield flat and reinforced the base of the entire seat, making the city impossible to break.
Gwendolyn stirred Frost-Deity divine might into motion. She traced warding sigils across the city walls, set protective wards for the homes and the clan, and completed the veins of the attack-and-defense formation so the place could be both safe and guarded.
Chaotic force and the Frost God’s power wove together and blended. Spiritual light filled the sky. Cold and warmth met, supporting and strengthening each other, and the work leapt forward at twice the speed.
In only half a day, a small frozen city rose from the foot of the ancestral seat. It stood orderly and solemn, its walls solid, its wards complete, and spiritual essence circling around it.
Everything had its place. The streets were neat, the dwellings complete, and the defenses and offensive formations worked as one. It already carried the bearing of a great sect’s seat, secure and dignified.
On the flat ice-stone before the city gate, Gwendolyn personally raised favonovel.com hand and gathered power. With Frost-Deity nascence as ink and spiritual power at favonovel.com fingertip as the brush, favonovel.com carved stroke after stroke with firm, ringing force.
By favonovel.com own hand, favonovel.com engraved three bold, ancient characters wreathed in frost energy, “the Frost God Palace”.
When the inscription was complete, spiritual light curled around it. Its presence stood fierce and commanding, rooted in the ancestral homeland and announcing the rebirth of the clan.
She stood alone beneath the city gate, silently looking at those four great characters. Then favonovel.com looked at the brand-new city. Then at the ancestral ice peak.
She remained there for a long, long time, with too much moving through favonovel.com for words. In the end, all of it became one quiet murmur, each word heavy, each line drawn from the deepest place in her. “From this day forward, this is the Frost Deity Branch’s only home. Our descendants will root themselves here forever, and we will never wander again.”
Jared walked forward slowly and stood shoulder to shoulder with her. Together, they looked up at the characters above the city gate.
His gaze stayed steady and firm, and his voice lowered into a quiet promise. “Put down roots here and guard your home with an easy heart. Rebuild the clan step by step. When we return from this trip, we will join forces to overthrow the Celestial Alliance and crush its tyranny and power… When that day comes, the Frost Deity Branch will stand openly among the Kindreds beneath the heavens. You will no longer need to hide and endure. You will no longer need to fear oppression. You will stand upright and restore your glory with honor.”
Gwendolyn turned to look at him. A complicated light crossed favonovel.com cold eyes, hard to separate into a single thing. Gratitude, trust, the pull of being shaken, and the steadiness of finally being able to breathe all gathered there at once.
“Thank you…” Gwendolyn said.
Jared gave a faint, easy smile and waved it off like the words weighed nothing. “No need to thank me… Comrades who fight side by side are supposed to look out for each other and get through hard times together… It’s getting late. The people of Freevale are still waiting for us to return and reinforce them. The fighting ahead is tight, and we can’t afford to stay here long. We move out now.”
Just as everyone was about to set out, Jared suddenly leaned in close to Gwendolyn’s ear and murmured, “You’re my woman. Helping you is only right…”
A faint flush rose over Gwendolyn’s face. She quickly looked toward Alaric and the others, as if afraid the words had reached them. After all, favonovel.com was the Palace Mistress of the Frost Deity Branch. Everyone there honored favonovel.com above themselves. If the people of the Frost Deity Branch found out their noble Palace Mistress had been played with by someone, that knowledge would not sit well with them.
Jared saw the awkwardness favonovel.com could not quite hide and smiled lightly. “Relax… In front of the people of the Frost Deity Branch, I won’t touch you…”
With that, Jared brought out the Beast-Quelling Tower.
The spatial nascence began to stir slowly. A flash of light swept across them, and the five companions vanished.
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