Above the ice plain hung a heavy veil of frost mist.
It drifted slowly through the air, refracting the light of the three blazing suns into countless colored beams that splashed shifting patches of light and shadow across the ice.
Those beams skipped and turned across the frozen surface, as if they were alive.
Or as if some ancient formation were still moving beneath it all.
Jared sent his spirit sense into the frost mist.
The instant it touched it, an overwhelmingly powerful surge of frostforce knocked it back.
That power held no aggression at all.
It was simply cold—pure, primal, and utterly devoid of will.
It wasn’t aimed at anyone. It simply existed there, ancient and unchanged.
Anything that entered the ice mist—living or dead—would be eaten away by that cold, frozen through, assimilated, and in the end become part of the ice plains.
“The temperature here...”
Gwendolyn sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s far lower than I imagined. I trained before in the frostbound chamber of the Frost God Palace, and I thought that place was already the limit. Compared to this, though, it was the difference between a hot spring and an ice cellar.”
“Can you handle it?” Jared asked.
Gwendolyn nodded. “The Frost Deity Branch arcane arts are naturally attuned to cold. The frost energy here is strong, but it won’t hurt me.
If anything, it’ll speed up my cultivation.”
She paused, then turned to look at him. “You’re the one I’m worried about. Your chaotic force can block out the frost energy, but once we enter the inner precincts, the cold will multiply. How long can you hold out?”
Jared didn’t answer. He only lifted a hand, and a cluster of violet chaos-flame gathered in his palm.
The flame burned steadily, driving the frost energy back and carving out a cold-free space several yards wide around them.
“Chaotic force suppresses every element,” Jared said. “Ice included.”
Gwendolyn stared at the violet flame in his palm and fell silent for a beat.
Chaotic force did suppress every element—but only if its wielder’s cultivation was high enough, only if that power had been refined enough.
If the frost energy grew stronger than what the chaotic force could bear, that advantage would flip in an instant.
But she didn’t say it out loud.
She trusted Jared.
“Let’s go.” Jared drew back the chaos-flame and stepped onto the ice plains first.
The instant his foot touched the ice plains, a vicious chill knifed up through him.
It pierced through the sole of his shoe, through skin, through muscle, and sank straight into the deepest part of his bones.
His chaotic force moved on its own, forming a violet barrier through his meridians and forcing the cold back.
Gwendolyn stepped onto the ice plains too, and her reaction was completely different from Jared’s.
To her, the frost energy blanketing the ice plains wasn’t a threat.
It was nourishment.
She could feel it clearly—every thread of frost energy here carried the aura of the Frost Deity Branch, left behind by powerful adepts from hundreds of thousands of years ago, now fused completely with this stretch of frozen land.
Her Ice God Bloodline boiled inside her, as if it were answering a summons from the ancient past.
Jared sensed the change in her bloodline, and a flicker of relief passed through his eyes.
At least bringing Gwendolyn to the Northern Abyss Frost Chasm had been the right choice.
The frost energy here could nourish both her bloodline and her cultivation. If she stayed in the Northern Abyss Frost Chasm for a while, she might even break through to the Golden Immortal Realm.
The two of them moved across the ice plains at a steady pace, neither hurried nor slow.
The ice was slick, and every step demanded care. One mistake and they’d go down hard.


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