The night was heavy with silence, broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves outside the orphanage window. Ye Fan sat cross-legged on his narrow bed, the moonlight spilling across his thin frame.
Ever since receiving the three gifts from the Shop of Eternity, a restless energy had been simmering within him. The Heavenly Ice Seed pulsed faintly in his soul, whispering to him, calling him. It wanted to awaken.
He clenched his fists. "So it's time…"
Unlike normal children, who needed special ceremonies and awakening stones to stimulate their first element at age ten, Ye Fan had no need. The seed was already there, demanding release.
The Awakening Begins
He inhaled deeply, sinking into meditation. The Star Path Acceleration Manual guided his breathing, and the threads of stardust within his body lit up like tiny fireflies.
The moment he touched the Heavenly Seed in his spiritual world, an explosion of cold burst outward. It wasn't pain. It was purity. A cold so divine that it felt like he was being sculpted into something new.
His veins burned with frost, his blood turned crystalline, and his heartbeat echoed like ice cracking across a frozen lake.
"Ugh!" Ye Fan gasped, his body trembling violently. Frost formed across the blanket, crawling over the floorboards like tiny silver spiders. The temperature in the room plummeted; his breath fogged instantly in the air.
The orphanage children stirred in their sleep, shivering and curling under their covers, but none woke.
The Transformation
The Heavenly Ice Seed didn't just awaken—it rewrote him. His body glowed faintly, skin turning pale and flawless, his thin frame filling with strange vitality.
Most shocking of all was his hair. In the moonlight, the once dull black strands shimmered and drained of color, transforming into pure snow-white, shining faintly like freshly fallen frost.
Then came his eyes. His irises shifted from dark brown to a luminous crystal-blue, so bright they seemed to reflect the stars themselves. It was as though two frozen galaxies had been placed within him.
The surge stopped abruptly. The world grew still again, the frost on the ground gleaming like diamonds under the silver moonlight.
Ye Fan opened his eyes slowly. His heart thudded. His breath misted before him.
"...I've changed."
The Mirror
Rising on shaky legs, he crept quietly across the creaking floorboards to the far corner of the orphanage room, where a cracked old mirror leaned against the wall. It was chipped and dull, but still enough to reflect his face.
The sight made him freeze.
A boy of ten stared back at him—yet no longer the thin, ordinary orphan with black hair and dull eyes. Instead, a youth with snow-white hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a faint aura of cold majesty.
His heart skipped a beat.
This… this isn't me.
But it was.
He tilted his head slightly, the white locks brushing over his forehead, the crystalline eyes glinting faintly in the dim light. The transformation had made him ethereal, almost inhuman. He looked like the reincarnation of some ancient ice deity, wrapped in the aura of winter itself.
He leaned closer to the cracked mirror, running his small fingers across his cheek. His reflection's eyes burned with light, chilling yet mesmerizing.
A faint, incredulous laugh slipped from his lips. "Hah… I look like… Gojo Satoru."
The resemblance struck him instantly. In his past life, he had seen anime and read novels, but never imagined he would embody such a figure. The white hair, the piercing eyes—it was uncanny.
Yet unlike Gojo's playful arrogance, his gaze carried something heavier: loneliness, determination, and the icy weight of destiny.
Admiration and Fear
For a few moments, Ye Fan couldn't tear his eyes away. He admired the strange beauty of it—the ethereal aura that made him look untouchable.
But then reality sank in.
If anyone else saw this, questions would come. No child should awaken with such transformation. No ordinary Ice element should turn hair white and eyes blue. It would only mean one thing: he was no ordinary mage.
And extraordinary things drew envy.
His grip on the mirror tightened, his reflection trembling slightly in the cracked glass. "I must hide this… hide everything."
With a deep breath, he summoned the pendant of Ice Calamity. The silver crystal teardrop appeared in his palm, pulsing faintly. To his relief, it responded to his will, cloaking his aura. The frost that had been spreading across the room retracted, vanishing as if it never existed.
The freezing cold in the air dissipated, returning the room to its natural chill. The other orphans sighed softly in their sleep, warmth creeping back into their blankets.
The First Test
Ye Fan raised his small hand, focusing on the new energy in his veins. Blue starlight gathered at his fingertips, swirling into a tiny frost crystal. It shimmered, so beautiful it almost looked alive.
With a flick, the crystal shot forward and froze a patch of the old wooden floor. Frost crawled outward in jagged patterns, leaving behind a thin layer of ice.
Ye Fan stared at it in awe.
"This power… this is only Stardust level. Yet with the Heavenly Seed, it already feels overwhelming."
Normal Ice magic at the Stardust stage could barely slow down an opponent. But his? The frost was so sharp and dense it could pierce flesh. The pendant hummed faintly, amplifying the freezing abnormal effect.
Even a Servant-level beast, he realized, might be crippled instantly by this.
His pulse quickened. At ten years old… I already wield a power that grown mages would envy.
A Vow
He looked back into the cracked mirror, the reflection of his new self burning into his mind.
"I may look like a god," he whispered softly, "but I am still an orphan in this world. If they see my hair, my eyes, they'll never leave me alone. They'll cage me, dissect me, use me."
He gritted his teeth, fists clenched.
"No. I'll keep it hidden. Until I am strong enough to stand at the peak, no one will know the truth of my awakening."
His reflection stared back, crystalline blue eyes unblinking.
Ye Fan reached up, tying a strip of cloth around his head to shadow his hair and eyes. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. He would play the part of an ordinary boy until he could not be ignored.
But deep within his chest, the Heavenly Seed pulsed, promising a future of frost and calamity.
End of the Awakening
The frost on the floor slowly melted away, leaving behind damp patches on the wood. Ye Fan returned to his bed, lying down quietly as though nothing had happened.
The other children still slept peacefully, unaware that the boy among them had just stepped onto a path that would shake the foundations of the magical world.
As his eyelids grew heavy, Ye Fan whispered into the quiet night:
"Fifteen years before the canon begins… I will forge my own legend."
And in the cracked mirror across the room, the reflection of a white-haired boy with blue eyes gleamed faintly under the moonlight—like a young god waiting for the world to tremble.