My slap rang out in the silence of the sect far after I had walked out of the square. The legend of Long Chen, the garbage who returned from the depths of hell to slap a prodigy into a coma, was forged. Elders were notified. The sect master was awakened from his meditation. The entire Azure Sky Sect was stirred up.
But to me, nothing mattered.
I left the site of my first act of vengeance, my heart growing cold and calm. The fleeting rush of satisfaction at having put Wei Kun in his place was already beginning to dissipate, made way for a great, gnawing emptiness. It was the hunger for further power. The foes that had stolen my parents from me would not be vanquished with one slap.
"Master, where are you headed?" Xue'er's voice echoed in my head. "Aren't you supposed to go secure a better living arrangement? Perhaps the Wei Kun courtyard? You've certainly deserved it."
"A courtyard is merely a cage with more aesthetically pleasing bars," I considered. "I require resources. Proper resources. Pills, spiritual herbs, cultivation methods. The sort of things the sect keeps for its foundation disciples."
"Ahh, so you're going to rob them?" she said, her voice dripping with playful enthusiasm.
There was a weak smile on my lips. "Something along those lines. There exists a location that the sect uses to train its most skilled disciples. A location abounding with opportunity and risk. The 'Frigid Yin Cave'."
The Frigid Yin Cave was a natural phenomenon found in the rear mountains of the sect. It was a location where the earth's Yin energy was so concentrated that it coalesced into a cutting, bone-numbing chill. It was a harsh environment in which to train, but for those who were able to tolerate it, the payoff was substantial. The cold hardened the body, and exotic 'Frigid Yin Grass' was cultivated within, an essential component of most body-refining and Qi-condensing pills.
Only the highest ten inner disciples were eligible to enter. Wei Kun was among them. With him probably spitting out his teeth in the infirmary now, his position was technically available. Naturally, they wouldn't simply give it to me. I'd have to steal it.
As I trudged towards the rear mountains, I could sense eyes upon me. Sect elders, lurking in the shadows, watching. They were likely bewildered, wondering how a youth with closed meridians had suddenly turned into a fiend. Let them look. Soon, they would tremble at the mention of my name. Or revere me. It did not matter.
I reached the mouth of the Frigid Yin Cave. It was a crack in the face of a mountain, a black maw exhaling a palpable flow of white, icy air. The air here was already cold. Two central disciples were guarding the entrance, their expressions somber.
Their eyes widened in recognition when they saw me.
"Long Chen! Why are you here? This is a forbidden place!" one of them growled, although his tone did not have any real sincerity. My slap had obviously reached him.
I disregarded him and inspected the stone tablet to the left of the entrance. It had ten names inscribed upon it, in beautifully scripted calligraphy. The names of the ten disciples who were qualified to enter at present. Wei Kun's name was third.
Without saying a thing, I strode to the tablet. I raised my hand and brushed my palm against Wei Kun's name. The simple gesture, charged with a trace of my draconic Qi, was sufficient to clear the stone carving, revealing a smooth, blank surface.
And with my finger as a brush, I started chiseling two new characters into the stone.
Long. Chen.
My strokes were smooth and forceful. The stone was easily pressed by my finger, like tofu, and deep, razor-sharp lines were left.
The two guards were shocked into silence. This was an act of gross provocation. It was a brazen challenge to the entire inner sect hierarchy.
"You. you can't do that!" the guard finally stuttered.
"Why not?" I said, turning to him. "He's lying broken in a bed. He can't occupy his spot. I can. So, it's mine now. Or. does someone else want to take me on for it?"
I allowed my aura to seep out a little. Not the full force of a peak Body Refining master, but sufficient. A pressure fell upon the two guards. Both were at the eighth level of Body Refining, geniuses in their own right. But before me, they seemed like rabbits before a dragon. Their faces paled, and they took a reflexive step back.
Silence. No one had the courage to go forward.
"Good," I stated firmly, giving a nod. And then I turned and strode forward into the cold, dark mouth of the cave.
The instant I entered, a wall of cold hit me. It was a cruel, intrusive cold that chilled the flesh, yes, but also appeared to seek out the marrow in your bones and the Qi in your meridians to freeze them. A typical disciple would have to constantly flow their Qi merely to counteract it, slowing down cultivation and making it difficult.
To me, it was. invigorating.
My Celestial Primordial Dragon Body was a crucible of raw Yang energy. The chill Yin energy of the cave was no threat, but a pleasant counterbalance. It was as if bathing in cool water on a sultry summer day. My body naturally started to take in the Yin energy, employing it to temper my newly forged body, making it even stronger, harder.
"Hee hee, master, this is the ideal location for you!" said Xue'er, smiling. "The Yin-Yang is fortifying your foundation. And look! Look at all this Frigid Yin Grass!"
She was correct. The walls of the cavern were scattered with tiny, crystalline blades of grass that glowed with a soft blue light. They covered the walls. I began picking them, shoving them into a pouch. These would be worth a fortune.
I went farther into the cave. The cold was more severe, and the way became narrower. The tunnel opened up into a big, round room after approximately fifteen minutes. The walls were encased in a thick covering of ice that sparkled like diamonds. In the middle of the room was a small, frozen pond, and on a piece of ice in the middle of the pond was an individual.
It was a woman.
She sat with her back to me, meditating. She had on a plain, pure white robe. Her pale moonlight-colored hair fell to the middle of her back like a sheet of frozen water. Even from the back, she exuded an aura of very cold. It was not the same kind of cold as in the cave. This was a cold that was crisp, absolute, and laced with an untouchable purity. It was the chill of the farthest, darkest emptiness between the stars.
My Myriad Flowers Dao Physique, long dormant, was awakening. It was signaling to me. Signaling with intense interest. Signaling with. hunger.
This woman, I suddenly realized, she has a special physique! And one that is incredibly strong at that.
I could see a thin, near-imperceptible layer of frost over her entire body, an indication that her own magic was so powerful she could hardly contain it.
The woman had to have felt my presence. Her meditation had been interrupted. She slowly turned her head.
My breath literally caught in my throat.
She was, undoubtedly, the most gorgeous woman I had ever laid eyes on in my existence. Su Mei, on the other hand, was a weed. This woman was a heavenly lotus that flowered on an icy mountain. Her complexion was fairer than snow, her features divine, as if carved by a god. But her eyes. her eyes were frozen sapphires, and they were cold with a fearfully awful emptiness, an earth-shattering loneliness that seemed to freeze the very soul of anyone who gazed into them.
It had to be her. Bing Xin. The number one ranked inner disciple. The Saintess of the sect, and the erstwhile beauty with a peerless face and an even more legendary ice-cold temperament. They claimed she never once smiled in her lifetime.
Her cold eyes rested on me. There was no surprise, no rage, only a chill analytical interest. "Who are you? You're not one of the ten." Her voice was like the chime of ice crystals, lovely but completely lacking in heat.
"My name is Long Chen," I told her, a mischievous grin spreading on my face. This was going to be enjoyable. "Wei Kun had an. accident. I'm his substitute."
A flash of something—perhaps shock?—crossed her glazed eyes. "You vanquished Wei Kun?"
"I hit him," I reproached her softly. "There was no battle."
Her eyes held on me for a fraction of an instant longer. She could sense that the cave's searing cold affected me not. She must have seen that I was not foolish.
"This is my training area. Leave," she stated, her voice firm. It was not an invitation, but an order.
I didn't budge. I simply continued to smile. "But it's so cold here. You must be lonely. A lovely fairy such as you shouldn't be perched all by herself on a slab of ice. You'll get cold."
Her flawless, chiseled face, which had probably never altered since years ago, now creased into a tiny frown. "Your words are meaningless. Depart now, or I will compel you."
"Hahaha!" I burst out laughing at the top of my lungs, my voice ringing in the ice chamber. "Compel me? I'd love to watch you try, Ice Cube Fairy."
Ice Cube Fairy.
The instant the words escaped my lips, the room temperature dropped. The very air appeared to be solidifying into ice. A deadly intent, so cold it was akin to a thousand tiny needle pricks stabbing at my soul, burst forth from Bing Xin.
Her face, for once, was not vacant. It was a death's mask of unadulterated, killing fury. Her snow-white cheeks were now suffused with a delicate, lovely red. It was a blush of wrath.
"You. what did you address me by?" she spat, the words icy daggers.
"I called you Ice Cube Fairy," I said again, the smile spreading across my face. I edged closer to the pool. "It fits. You're cold, hard, and. well, a fairy. Am I mistaken?"
"You are courting death!"
She didn't stand. She just extended a fragile, white hand. The air before her condensed, immediately crafting a dozen hard, shining icicles. They were all trained directly at my heart.
With a swoop of her wrist, they flew towards me, trails of pale mist following them through the air. They moved quicker than arrows, and colder than the kiss of death.