The courtyard of the southern academy rang with laughter, shouts, and the clatter of practice dummies being shattered by proud strikes. Smoke and heat rose into the air as youths displayed one brilliant ability after another. Fireballs roared, claws sliced into target dummies, and lightning crackled along spar poles. The instructors shouted encouragement, their eyes drawn instinctively toward whichever display was loudest, brightest, and most destructive.
Leng Xue stood quietly apart, snow drifting invisibly in a veil around him. His arms were steady against his side, the faint shimmer of a transparent Frost Veil spreading in a five‑meter circle. His opponent, a tall boy with a hawk spirit, laughed contemptuously. "That's your trick again, northern ice boy? Standing there with fog around you?"
The boy swooped forward, wings cutting air. But midway, his wingbeats slowed. The air thickened. His dive struck wrong angle, forcing him to stumble on landing. Before he could stabilize, ice‑frost wrapped ankle—Xue's Frost Bind shimmering soft but precise. Using nothing more than a borrowed spear, Xue pressed against boy's chest and whispered calmly, "Yield. You grow tired faster than me."
The boy's face flushed as laughter of onlookers cut short. It was not spectacular. No explosion. But the match ended without drama, Xue standing steady while another prodigy panted in frustration.
Later that evening, in the dining hall, the boy muttered toward companions, "That northern brat sucks all joy from battle. He wins without spectacle. What is such victory worth?" Yet even as they grumbled, the quiet respect deepened. Some chose not to challenge him anymore, fearing exhaustion more than wounds.
Xue listened to none of the noise. By firelight, he wrote quietly, testing ways to refine Frost Veil under warmer climates. His notes, stitched into small codex, were not for himself alone, but for clan. "When future children come south, this will shield them," he whispered inwardly. He never forgot that his path was not personal alone—it was inheritance in motion.