Snow crackled beneath Xue Yun's feet as he stood slowly, the icy wind brushing past his long black hair. The arrogant sect disciple, still reeling from the invisible frost that had just crushed his attack, stared with disbelief.
"You—what kind of technique was that?" he barked, trying to conceal his fear behind a mask of anger.
Xue Yun didn't answer. He couldn't.
His mind was in chaos.
> The Eternal Frost Scripture... activated.
Why now? I've trained for five years. Why did it suddenly respond...?
But deep in his core, he felt it: a delicate snowflake of pure energy, rotating slowly in his dantian like the bud of a dormant storm.
A Frost Core had formed.
It wasn't supposed to be possible. In the entire Northern Continent, ice-type cultivators were rare and slow to advance. Most would struggle for decades to form even the first stage of energy condensation.
But Yun had done it by instinct. And in doing so, had shocked a Frostcloud Sect elite into retreating.
The silver-haired girl stepped forward at last, her voice calm and elegant. "Jiang Shan, this isn't worth killing a mortal over. His technique... it may not even be from our sect. Let's report to Elder Yue."
Jiang Shan's eyes twitched. He wanted to kill Yun right then. But he hesitated. He didn't understand what he'd just witnessed.
"Fine," he growled, glaring at Yun. "You got lucky. But remember this: in seven days, the Frostcloud Sect holds its annual entrance trial. Come if you dare."
He pointed toward Yun's chest. "I'll be waiting."
With a final flick of his sleeve, he turned and leapt back onto his flying beast. The disciples followed, the beast's wings stirring snow and shadow as they vanished into the misty sky.
Silence returned.
---
Old villagers slowly came out of hiding. Elder Lin approached, coughing hard and leaning on a gnarled staff.
"You… you really activated the Eternal Frost Scripture?" he asked hoarsely, disbelief warring with awe.
Xue Yun nodded. "Something awakened. I don't know how... but it felt like my body had always been waiting for this moment."
Elder Lin stared for a long time. Then he sighed.
"Perhaps… your father wasn't mad after all."
---
That night, Yun sat alone under the frozen tree again. He studied the manual once more, but now its characters seemed to shift and glow with faint blue light, resonating with the newly-formed frost core in his body.
> Eternal Frost Scripture — First Stage: Ice Vein Tempering.
Circulate the frost qi through the bones. Refine the marrow. Cleanse the impurities. Temper the will.
Pain surged the moment he began. His bones creaked like old wood in a blizzard. His skin frosted over. Veins turned icy blue. It felt as if his body were being reborn in freezing death.
He bit down on his lip until blood spilled.
But he didn't stop.
---
At dawn, his eyelids opened—and a faint frost aura radiated from his skin.
He had succeeded in breaking through to the first layer of the Eternal Frost Scripture.
---
Seven days passed quickly.
The entrance trial for the Frostcloud Sect arrived.
And Xue Yun… stepped out of Icewind Village, heading toward the sect that had once scorned
his family name.
He would not bow.
He would ascend.
---
End of Chapter 2