The cold ocean breeze swept softly across the boundless expanse of the Western Sea, carrying the sharp, briny scent of deep waters and ancient salt. Under the tranquil silver radiance of the full moon, the dark sea rolled in gentle, rhythmic swells, its boundless surface stretching endlessly toward the black horizon.
Yet, cut directly through the heart of this vast, dark ocean was a miracle of pure frost.
A fifteen-yard-wide, perfectly smooth highway of deep sapphire-blue ice stretched across the waves, floating upon the ocean surface with absolute, immovable stability. The deep-blue ice was crystal clear, revealing the silent, shadowed depths of the ocean beneath, where bioluminescent sea creatures drifted peacefully like underwater stars. Along the edges of the frozen road, delicate, razor-sharp frost flowers blossomed in intricate patterns, glowing with a faint, crystalline starlight under the night sky.
Walking side by side upon this miraculous frozen bridge were two solitary figures.
Li-Wen walked with his steady, unhurried stride, his broad shoulders squared against the coastal wind. His dark traveler's coat was visibly torn along the back, stained with dark, frozen spots of blood that had long since snap-froze into inert crimson crystals. Deep within his lower meridian junction, the dark-violet Void-Piercing Needle remained completely encased in a microscopic shell of absolute-zero ice, isolating its void poison from his internal channels. Ninety percent of his spiritual Qi was sealed away, yet his posture remained as rigid and immovable as an ancient, iron mountain peak.
Beside him, little Xiao-Yue took short, energetic steps, her small leather boots clicking lightly against the hard ice. In her left hand, she held the pink lotus lantern high, its ruby flame casting a soft, gentle warmth around their feet, melting the bitingly cold ocean mist before it could touch her face.
"Look, Brother Li-Wen!" Xiao-Yue squeaked softly, pointing her small finger down through the transparent ice floor beneath her feet. "There's a big glowing fish swimming under us! It has long silver whiskers!"
Li-Wen did not slow his pace, but his dark, indifferent eyes drifted down toward the clear ice floor for a brief second. Thirty feet below the frozen road, a massive, thirty-yard-long ancient sea-serpent was swimming parallel to them. The creature, a Stage-4 aquatic beast capable of capsizing military warships with a single flick of its tail, was staring up at the two travelers with wide, terrified yellow eyes.
The beast could sense the passive, abyssal pressure emanating from the solitary man walking on the water above. It did not dare to raise a single ripple, holding its breath and swimming with utmost caution, acting as a silent, terrified escort beneath the ice.
"It is just a sea-worm, Xiao-Yue," Li-Wen replied, his voice calm, flat, and carrying a quiet resonance that melted into the oceanic breeze. "Do not mind it."
"A worm? But it's as big as the tea house!" Xiao-Yue giggled, her sweet laughter echoing across the silent sea. She adjusted her small cloth bundle on her back and looked up at Li-Wen's calm profile. "Brother Li-Wen... is your back still hurting? The bad needle from the shadow man..."
"I feel nothing," Li-Wen said simply. "A sliver of cold iron cannot affect a mountain."
"But you bled dark blood..." She slowed her pace slightly, her large, clear eyes filled with genuine concern as she reached up to pat his dark sleeve. "When we find a nice town on the other side of the sea, I'm going to make you warm ginger soup! Grandmother always said warm ginger soup fixes everything when you get hurt by the cold!"
A faint, almost imperceptible softness touched the cold depths of Li-Wen's eyes. He slowed his long stride just enough to match her small, rhythmic steps, his broad palm gently enclosing her small hand.
"Ginger soup will be fine," Li-Wen murmured.
As they continued their silent trek across the ocean, the gentle sea fog ahead began to change.
The soft, white coastal mist that had lingered near the Sea-Mist Crags gradually dissolved, replaced by a dense, suffocating, pitch-black fog that rose from the water like boiling black smoke. The silver moonlight above was slowly extinguished as the black mist swallowed the sky, cutting off all light from the stars and turning the world into an airtight chamber of total darkness.
The ocean waves beneath the ice highway grew strangely silent. The gentle swells vanished, replaced by an oily, motionless sea that reflected no light.
Xiao-Yue's small hand tightened around Li-Wen's fingers. The ruby flame inside her pink lotus lantern flickered slightly, its warm light shrinking from a ten-foot halo down to five feet under the sudden, oppressive pressure of the black mist.
"Brother Li-Wen..." Xiao-Yue whispered, pressing closer to his leg. "The mist turned dark. It smells like old, rusty iron."
Li-Wen did not stop. His boot clicked against the solid ice floor as he stepped directly into the pitch-black mist.
"It is the Sea of Deceit," Li-Wen said coldly, his voice devoid of any surprise. "The boundary waters between the Eastern Continent and the Western Domain. It is where those who fear the light hide their eyes."
HUMMM—!
The moment they stepped three hundred yards into the black mist, the quiet ocean air was broken by the low, haunting sound of a bronze bell echoing from the darkness ahead.
DING... DING... DING...
The sound was slow, mournful, and carried an ancient, soul-sucking resonance that vibrated directly against the human spirit.
Out from the thick, oily black mist, a colossal shape began to materialize upon the silent sea water.
It was an ancient, black wooden warship—over three hundred yards in length—floating motionless across the ice highway's path. Its towering masts were draped in tattered, blood-soaked sails that hung like rotting cobwebs. Its dark wooden hull was covered in thousands of barnacles, white human bones, and glowing blue runes of void suppression.
Hanging from the bow of the ghost ship was a massive, rusted bronze bell that swung back and forth without any wind, emitting the hollow, soul-rending tolls that echoed across the dead sea.
On the deck of the colossal ghost vessel, dozens of silent figures stood along the wooden railings.
They were not living men, nor were they ordinary undead skeletons. They were Stage-4 Soul-Bound Guardians—ancient experts whose physical bodies had died centuries ago, but whose souls had been forcefully bound to the ship's dark wood by high-grade necromantic arrays! They wore rusted iron armor, their empty eye sockets burning with cold, green ghost-fire, gripping massive sea-cleaving halberds and heavy ballista bolts coated in soul-corroding acid.
At the highest point of the ship's quarterdeck stood a tall, gaunt figure wrapped in tattered grey robes. He held a long staff made of dark sea-coral, topped with a glowing green skull.
This was the Ferryman of the Dead, a Stage-5 Intermediate-Grade Sovereign who had guarded the forbidden boundary waters of the Western Sea for over four hundred years!
"HALT, WANDERERS OF THE LIVING REALM!"
The Ferryman's voice echoed out from beneath his grey hood like two grinding tombstones. The green skull on his staff flared with a sickening, toxic radiance that turned the surrounding black mist into swirling green clouds of soul poison.
"No living soul crosses the Sea of Deceit without paying the toll of blood!" The Ferryman's burning green eyes locked onto Li-Wen and the small girl standing upon the frozen road. "The Sea-Mist Crags have fallen! The seven great sects have issued an absolute Heaven-Clearing Arrest Order across the three continents! The man carrying the heavy blade on his back and the child with the pink lantern—YOUR HEADS ARE WORTH TEN MILLION HIGH-GRADE SPIRIT STONES!"
On the deck of the ghost ship, the dozens of Stage-4 Soul-Bound Guardians raised their rusted halberds simultaneously, unleashing a combined, terrifying howl of dead souls that caused the dark sea water to vibrate!
"A crippled Sovereign whose meridians have been pierced by the Void-Piercing Needle..." The Ferryman sneered, his raspy voice filled with cold, calculated mockery. "Did you think the news of your injury would remain secret? Ancestor Shadow-Void's dying soul-message has already reached every hidden guild across the Western Sea! You have sealed ninety percent of your cultivation base just to keep that void poison from destroying your heart!"
He pointed his coral staff down at Li-Wen, his green eyes burning with greedy ambition.
"Without your spiritual Qi, you are nothing more than a physical brute! Yield the mortal child and your heavy blade, and I shall grant your soul a quick passage into the underworld!"
Down on the frozen ice highway, Li-Wen did not answer.
He did not raise his voice, nor did he draw the heavy blade resting on his back. His dark, indifferent eyes remained fixed on the towering black ghost ship blocking their path.
Beside him, Xiao-Yue held her lantern high, looking at the glowing green skull on the staff. "Brother Li-Wen... the grey man on the big boat is very loud. Is he going to ask for tea money too?"
"He has no tea, Xiao-Yue," Li-Wen said flatly, his voice carrying an unyielding, freezing calm. "He only has wood."
"EXECUTE THE SOUL-DEVOURING ARRAY!" The Ferryman screamed from the quarterdeck!
SWOOSH—! SWOOSH—! SWOOSH—!
Four massive, iron ballista bolts—each thirty feet long and wrapped in thick chains of soul-corroding green fire—were launched simultaneously from the ghost ship's lower deck! The heavy bolts tore through the black mist with deafening sonic booms, aiming directly for Li-Wen's chest and Xiao-Yue's small frame!
At the same time, thirty Stage-4 Soul-Bound Guardians leaped from the high wooden railings, their rusted halberds ignited with dark green phantom flames as they plunged down toward the ice highway like a rain of dead meteors!
The combined attack was ruthless, calculated, and designed specifically to exploit a cultivator whose spiritual Qi channels were locked! They believed that without the ability to channel wide-area spiritual techniques, Li-Wen would be forced to defend himself with physical body techniques, exposing his vulnerable back to the soul poison of the ghost ship's array!
Facing the lethal barrage of soul-corroding iron and descending undead guardians, Li-Wen's expression did not change by a single fraction.
He took half a step forward, placing his body firmly in front of Xiao-Yue.
He did not channel a single drop of spiritual Qi through his poisoned meridians. He did not activate his internal core.
He simply raised his left leg and brought his plain leather boot down onto the ice highway beneath his feet.
STOMP.
It was a simple, pure physical stomp—executed with the raw, terrifying density of his primordial constitution!
CRACK—! BOOOOM—!
A shockwave of absolute kinetic pressure, combined with the passive, physical cold stored within his bone marrow, erupted from beneath his boot heel!
The shockwave did not travel through the air. It traveled through the solid deep-blue ice highway itself!
A three-hundred-yard-wide wall of jagged, crystalline ice spears—each fifty feet high and sharp as diamond razors—erupted violently from the frozen road, shooting straight up into the sky like an emerging mountain range of blue glass!
BANG—! BANG—! BANG—!
The four thirty-foot iron ballista bolts struck the emerging ice wall and were instantly smashed into useless, bent scrap metal! The green soul-fire coating them was completely snuffed out by the absolute-zero kinetic impact before it could even spread!
The thirty Stage-4 Soul-Bound Guardians descending from the sky were caught directly in the path of the rising ice spears!
CRUNCH—! CRACKLE—!
The jagged blue ice spears impaled the undead warriors mid-air, their ancient, rusted armor shattering like fragile clay! The absolute physical cold contained within the ice instantly froze their bound souls, turning their phantom flames into motionless green crystals that shattered into harmless dust!
Thirty Stage-4 guardians—erased in a single physical breath!
"WHAT?!" The Ferryman screamed from the quarterdeck, his gaunt face twisting in sheer, unimaginable horror as he watched his undead vanguard get slaughtered without the enemy even using a single martial technique! "No spiritual Qi?! Pure physical force erupted an ice mountain from the sea floor?!"
Before the Ferryman could even order a retreat, the three-hundred-yard-wide wall of ice spears did not stop!
Driven by the overwhelming kinetic momentum of Li-Wen's single stomp, the massive wall of blue ice spears surged forward across the water like a galloping tsunami of solid frost!
BOOOOOOM—!
The giant, three-hundred-yard black warship was struck head-on by the surging wall of ice!
The ancient, reinforced wooden hull—which had survived four centuries of ocean storms and naval battles—was lifted twenty feet into the air before being crushed into microscopic splinters between the massive jaws of the ice wall!
"NO—! MY SHIP! MY SOUL-ARRAY—!" The Ferryman shrieked in agony as his four-hundred-year-old vessel was ground into useless sawdust in less than two seconds!
The Ferryman frantically mobilized his Stage-5 Intermediate core energy, his grey robes exploding as he launched himself high into the air, trying to use spatial flight to escape into the thick black mist above!
However, as he reached a height of fifty feet, he felt a cold, heavy shadow fall over his head.
Li-Wen had already appeared directly above him mid-air.
There were no spatial ripples, no wind sounds, and no spiritual energy fluctuations. It was pure, terrifying physical speed that bypassed human perception!
Li-Wen's dark traveler's coat fluttered against the cold mist. His dark, indifferent eyes looked down at the floating Ferryman like a deity staring at a crawling ant.
He raised his right palm, wrapping his fingers around the Ferryman's skull.
"Wait—! SPARE ME! I HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WESTERN GUILDS—!" The Ferryman screamed in sheer, pathetic desperation, his green eyes burning with frantic terror!
Li-Wen did not speak a single word.
His fingers simply tightened.
CRUSH—!
A wave of dense, physical absolute-zero cold surged from his palm.
The Ferryman's skull, his Stage-5 core energy, his soul, and his four-hundred-year cultivation base frozen solid in a microsecond before exploding into a cloud of fine, pale blue frost-dust that drifted away in the coastal breeze!
Li-Wen descended gracefully from the sky, his leather boots landing softly back onto the smooth ice highway without making a single sound.
Behind him, the ruined wooden splinters of the giant ghost ship and the remains of the dead guardians frozen solid, sinking silently into the black, motionless ocean water below.
The black mist surrounding the sea began to disperse, broken by the sheer kinetic shockwave of the explosion, allowing the soft silver moonlight to flood the ocean once more.
Silence returned to the Western Sea.
Li-Wen stood on the quiet ice highway, taking a deep, slow breath to stabilize the frozen needle behind his shoulder. His face remained calm, undisturbed, as if he had merely swept away a few speckles of dust from his path.
He turned back to look at Xiao-Yue.
The little girl was standing on the ice, her pink lotus lantern burning brightly, her small mouth slightly open as she looked at the cleared, moonlit ocean ahead.
"Brother Li-Wen," Xiao-Yue said softly, blinking her large eyes as she walked up to his side, clutching his hand again. "The big wooden boat... it broke into small pieces."
"It was old wood, Xiao-Yue," Li-Wen replied softly, his broad fingers gently wrapping around hers. "It was time for it to sink."
"Mmm!" She nodded happily, hugging her lantern close. "The path ahead is clear now! Look, I can see mountains far away!"
Li-Wen raised his eyes, looking across the vast, shining ice highway toward the distant horizon.
Far beyond the blue waters, illuminated under the clear moonlight, the shadowy outlines of towering, snow-capped mountain ranges began to appear against the night sky—the gateway to the ancient, mysterious Western Continent.
"Yes," Li-Wen murmured quietly, his voice carrying an unyielding, steady weight into the night wind. "The path is clear. Let us keep walking."
Side by side, the solitary Northern Sovereign and the small girl holding her lotus lantern stepped forward, walking along the frozen bridge over the deep ocean, heading straight toward the unknown horizons of the new realm.
See you in next chapter....