The mountain winds howled with a voice older than time, swirling snow across the craggy peaks of the Northern Expanse. Each gust sliced at the cloaked figure trudging uphill—a lone traveler against a backdrop of eternal white.
Vương Triều had faced many trials since awakening in this second life, but nothing compared to the silence of the Frozen Abyss.
He exhaled slowly, breath turning to mist. His skin, despite the circulation of spiritual energy, ached with cold. But this pain—this realness—was grounding. It reminded him that he had returned to a world that had not forgiven nor forgotten.
Three nights ago, an ancient map hidden in the library of the Eastern Sect led him here—to the northern ends of the continent. The scribbled ink spoke of a place where death slept in slumber, beneath an ocean of ice. A place where secrets were sealed with blood and betrayal.
As he crested the ridge, the sight stole his breath.
A massive crater stretched out before him, circular, impossibly wide. Its heart was a mirror of translucent blue—a frozen lake, smooth and untouched, as if the heavens themselves had sealed it. And beneath that ice... movement. A flicker. A shadow.
He stepped down slowly, boot crunching snow. Each step brought with it a sense of dread—and anticipation.
At the center of the lake, a single object protruded: a black monolith, jagged and ancient, with runes spiraling like veins. Even from a distance, Triều could feel its pull. The language inscribed on its surface was not of mortals nor immortals—it predated both.
"You're getting closer, aren't you?" a voice rang in his mind. Feminine. Cold. Familiar.
He turned swiftly. No one.
His eyes narrowed.
That voice—it had whispered to him before. Back in the dreamscape. Back when the heavens tried to burn his soul for the second time.
He leapt onto the ice, spiritual energy hardening beneath his feet to prevent cracks. Step by step, the world around him dulled, like falling into water without sound. No wind. No sky. Just breath. Heartbeat. And the hum of ancient power beneath the ice.
Reaching the monolith, his hand stretched forward—
A pulse. A shockwave of memory.
He fell to his knees.
---
Flash. A battlefield, corpses of sect elders strewn like broken dolls.
Flash. His former self, the Emperor of Ten Thousand Flames, standing before a woman in black robes—her eyes silver, voice trembling. "I did this... for you."
Flash. A betrayal. A blade through his spine. Her tears. Her kiss on his lips as his world faded.
---
He gasped.
The monolith had shown him a memory he didn't know he had—his death, not by divine retribution… but by her.
"Who was she?" he whispered, trembling. "And why does her voice still follow me?"
Suddenly, the ice beneath him cracked.
Snap.
Then again. Snap. Snap.
He stood quickly, eyes darting. Below, shadows churned. One... two... a dozen.
From the depths, hands reached up—pale, rotted, yet glowing with traces of spiritual essence.
"Undead cultivators," Triều muttered, voice steady despite his racing heart. "Of course."
He drew his sword, the Flamebrand, its crimson edge shimmering even against the cold. As the first corpse burst through the surface, he met it with steel and fury. One strike. Then another. Each slash illuminated the ice like fire meeting night.
But they kept coming.
The monolith behind him pulsed. Runes flared. The cracks expanded like spiderwebs, and then—
The entire lake shattered.
He fell.
Down into darkness. Down into a world buried beneath the world.
---
He hit solid ground—miraculously uninjured. Around him: a hidden city, frozen mid-collapse. Statues of cultivators, temples long buried, and at its center... a throne. And on it—
A woman.
Eyes closed. Dressed in tattered black robes. Her silver hair flowed like mist.
It was her.
The woman from the vision. The one who had killed him.
And yet... her chest rose and fell.
"She's alive," he whispered. "She's been down here all this time."
He took a step forward. Her eyes snapped open.
Silver. Cold. Endless.
"You followed me here," she said, voice neither cruel nor kind. "Again."
---
To be continued...
End of chapter 16