)
As the years passed, Tang San's clash with Spirit Hall grew fiercer. News traveled north—Spirit Hall had crowned its own Pope, the Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires struggled against its rising power, and war loomed across the continent.
Throughout it all, the Leng Clan endured. They did not join the frontlines like Shrek, but they preserved trade, sent supplies, and supported secretly. Tang San himself sent word once: "Your frost arrays arrived at the right time. They saved many lives."
Leng Xue smiled when he read the letter. His clan was not meant to dominate battlefields with glory, but to preserve, to sustain. That was their mission.
But Frostpine was not spared forever. Spirit Hall tried once more to burn the valley, marching soldiers under night banners. The Leng Clan rose as one. On that night, Leng Xue walked to the gate at nearly fifty years old. He summoned his Glacial Fortress, combining every inscription, every refinement of frost from decades into a towering wall of ice.
The Spirit Hall army battered endlessly but could not break it. When dawn came, they withdrew humiliated. People across the north began to whisper, "The Leng Clan is unbreakable. Truly, frost never falls."