After the final, lingering heat of the kiss faded into the freezing mountain air, the girl placed the delicate paper into Shen Xuan's unconscious hand.
Her strength, already a flickering candle in a storm, reached its nadir. She leaned her back against the jagged, moss-covered stone, closing her eyes as she prepared to surrender to the long, cold sleep of the end. She was a Saint whose altar had been desecrated, waiting for the dark to claim her.
However, she did not realize that the very foundation of the Spirit Mountain Range had shifted the moment Shen Xuan's blood hit the earth.
The mountain was no longer a mere geographical feature; it had become an altar, and a primal, ancient hunger had been summoned by the scent of a falling Sovereign.
In a hidden, lightless cavern deeper within the range, a pair of eyes snapped open. They did not contain the dull hunger of a predator, but the sharp, icy clarity of a being that had witnessed the birth of stars.
"What an exquisite scent..." the beast murmured, its voice a low vibration that caused the stalactites to vibrate and shatter. "A bloodline that defies the current era. If I devour this origin, the wounds inflicted by those bastards from the Court of Eternity will finally knit. I will rise again."
Without the aid of wings, the creature stepped into the void, walking upon the air as if the wind itself had laid a path of glass beneath its paws. It moved with a speed that blurred the line between space and time, closing the distance to the waterfall basin in heartbeats.
Within the hour, it loomed over the scene. It looked down at the two humans, the girl, barely clinging to life, and the boy, whose head rested in her lap.
"Hmph... you humans," the beast sneered, its telepathic voice ringing with profound disgust.
"A perverted, sentimental race. Even on the doorstep of the underworld, you cling to one another in these pathetic displays of affection."
With a casual flick of its tail, it sent a wave of pressure toward them.
Bang!
The impact was suppressed, yet it was enough to send the girl into a deeper state of unconsciousness. The beast let out a huff of derision, its eyes fixing on Shen Xuan with a predatory intensity.
"A dragon's bloodline... and yet, it is mixed with the Law of Life? No, it is deeper than that. This is the origin of Chaos itself."
The beast let out a deafening roar that shook the very roots of the Spirit Mountain.
"I accept this gift, Heavenly Dao! Today, I, the Heavenly Frost Wolf, begin my reclamation! And you, the Dao Court of Eternity... just wait. When I find my masters and restore my lineage, each of you will be savored upon my tongue. I will drink your divinity like aged wine!"
The Wolf stepped onto the blood-stained rock. As its paws touched the stone, the waterfall behind them froze solid in an instant, turning into a majestic, jagged pillar of blue ice.
The girl's eyes fluttered open once more, forced awake by the sheer, killing intent radiating from the creature.
She looked up, and the world came crashing back with a suffocating, glacial weight.
Cold.
It was a bone-deep, soul-chilling frost. It didn't come from the mountain air; it flowed from the silver-furred horror standing less than ten steps away.
Her pupils shrank to needle-points. The beast was lean, its fur a pale silver tinged with an ethereal blue that seemed to glow from within.
Every slow breath it released carried a mist that crystallized into diamond-dust in the air. Its eyes were twin vertical slits of ancient, frozen intelligence.
"The Ancestry of the Void," she whispered, her voice a mere puff of frost.
She could feel the ancient weight of its lineage.
This was no mere monster; this was a catastrophe in flesh.
Although its aura currently rested at the Chaos Sea Realm, diminished and wounded, the sheer pressure it exerted crushed her spirit like an avalanche.
It was far more terrifying than the assassin leader she had faced. That man was a killer; this was a hunter of gods.
Her heart hammered against her ribs, pain flaring through her shredded meridians.
Blood soaked through her bandages, the warmth of it contrasting sharply with the freezing air.
Dark spots danced in her vision, but she forced them away.
Not yet. I cannot die yet.
She looked down at Shen Xuan. He lay peaceful, his silver hair spread like a shroud across the stone.
His chest rose and fell in shallow, fragile intervals. If the Wolf took one more step, the boy who had crossed the gates of hell for her would be nothing but a memory.
A stubborn, irrational fire ignited in her soul, burning through the cold of her fear.
He saved me. He jumped into the lake. He faced the seven.
He bled for me.
If she allowed him to be devoured now, her own life would be a curse she couldn't bear.
With a groan of pure agony, she pushed herself upright.
Her muscles screamed; her bones felt as though they were made of glass. Warm, copper-tasting blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
The Heavenly Frost Wolf tilted its head, its eyes reflecting her struggle with the same amusement one might show a struggling insect.
"Oh?" the Wolf's voice echoed in her mind. "Still twitching? You humans truly are the most resilient pests."
She didn't waste her breath on a reply. Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the green spirit sword. It felt like it weighed a thousand tons, its light dim and flickering as it felt her waning life force.
She gritted her teeth, the metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. First, she moved her body, shielding Shen Xuan. She dragged him backward inch by inch, her fingers digging into the stone until his back was braced against a taller rock, keeping him out of the immediate line of fire.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice breaking. "Just... wait a little longer."
She stood.
Her legs shook with such violence she thought they might snap. She planted the sword tip into the rock to steady herself.
The Heavenly Frost Wolf let out a low, mocking growl. "You intend to fight me? In that state? You cannot even hold your sword straight, little saint."
Its gaze swept over her, from her trembling arms to the blood-drenched silk of her robes. "Your will is a loud scream, but your strength is a silent whisper."
She raised her head, staring into those twin abysses of blue ice. "I don't need to win," she rasped. "I only need to be the wall you cannot cross."
The Wolf laughed. It was a sharp, cruel sound that echoed through the valleys. "Interesting. Very well. Let us see how long your resolve lasts before it shatters like ice."
The pressure intensified. Frost spread across the stone beneath the Wolf's paws, creeping outward like living veins of cerulean fire. The air became so cold that it burned her throat. Her knees buckled, the world spinning in nauseating circles.
But she remembered the way Shen Xuan had looked—calm, invincible, standing beneath the waterfall. She remembered the warmth of his head on her lap.
She straightened her back.
With a hoarse, defiant cry, she raised the green sword. Chaos Qi surged weakly through her broken meridians, sputtering like a dying candle in a gale. It was a pitiful spark compared to the supernova of power coiled within the Wolf, but it was all she had left of her soul.
The Heavenly Frost Wolf lunged.
It moved like a silver blur, crossing the distance in a fraction of a second. Its claws tore through the space between them, leaving trails of frost that seemed to freeze the very air.
She reacted on pure, ancestral instinct.
The green sword swung upward in a desperate arc.
CLANG!
The impact sent a violent, numbing shock through her arms. She felt her radius bones crack. She was flung backward like a broken doll, her body slamming into the stone beside Shen Xuan. The sword slipped from her fingers, clattering across the ground with a hollow sound.
She coughed, a spray of dark blood painting the white snow.
The Wolf did not rush to finish her. It stepped forward slowly, savoring the scent of her despair. "Is that all? Your will is a lie. Your strength is the truth."
She struggled to her knees, her vision swimming in a sea of red. Every nerve ending in her body was screaming for the end. Her gaze flickered once more to Shen Xuan. He hadn't moved. He looked like a masterpiece of jade, silent and still.
A strange, crystalline calm settled over her. If she was to die, she would die with her hand on her weapon.
She crawled forward, dragging her mangled body toward the fallen sword. Her fingers brushed the hilt just as the frost from the Wolf's aura bit into her skin, turning her hand a deathly, translucent blue.
She grasped the hilt.
With a final, agonizing effort, she pushed herself upright.
The Heavenly Frost Wolf's eyes narrowed into slits of lethal intent. "You surprise me. Few insects have the audacity to keep twitching once the frost has claimed their soul. But audacity does not stop the winter."
The Wolf opened its massive jaws.
A blinding, cold light gathered in the back of its throat. The temperature dropped so drastically that the very moisture in the air turned into jagged shards of ice. The waterfall behind them, already frozen, began to crack under the sudden dip in temperature.
A Breath of the Frozen Void.
She knew she could not survive it. She knew the moment that light touched her, she would be turned into a statue of ice, to be shattered at the Wolf's whim.
Still, she raised her sword. Not to win. But to remain standing.
At that precise moment, the atmosphere on the mountain peak changed. The wind, which had been howling in a frenzy, suddenly died. The frozen waterfall ceased its cracking.
Deep within Shen Xuan's unconscious body, beneath the layers of ancient seals and suppressed divinity, a voice echoed. It wasn't a voice of sound, but of pure, terrifying authority. It resonated through the soul of the girl and the spirit of the Wolf alike.
"If you dare hurt her..."
The voice was cold, colder than the Wolf's breath, and heavy with a billion years of blood and conquest.
"I will personally peel your skin and make my bedding from that soft hide of yours. I will turn your bones into the very ingredients I use to reforge my path. Step back, you little beast, before I decide that your lineage ends tonight."
Shen Xuan's fingers, still wrapped around the Saint's letter, twitched. His eyes did not open, but a faint, golden-purple glow began to seep through his eyelids.
The Heavenly Frost Wolf froze. The light in its throat flickered and died.
It stepped back, its fur standing on end, its primal instincts screaming a warning that had been passed down from the beginning of time.
It wasn't looking at a boy. It was looking at a Sovereign.