The moment Elyahna stepped through the silver frostline, a crystalline hush enveloped her. The door closed behind her with a low chime, leaving her in a hall of prismatic frost, shimmering with hundreds of motes that reflected and multiplied her own aura. The air here was heavier, charged with raw, celestial qi that tasted of cold starlight and eternity. The first thing she noticed: layers of frost crisscrossed with veins of silver, like constellations trapped in glass.
Each step left trails of glimmering frost, alive under her feet, responding to her qi as if measuring her worth. A misstep could snap a shard of ice beneath her feet into a trap. Everywhere Elyahna looked were Crystalline frost flowers and rare ice fruits rare and powerful Ice essence cultivation resources that can be distilled into Soul-Crystal Qi cores—perfect for accelerating the cultivation of her ice lattices. To progress, she must align four constellations that only appeared in reflection, requiring precise control of her frost light to refract the beams correctly.
Elyahna paused, letting frost-motes spiral around her hand. Her training in Frozen Heart techniques made her precise enough to manipulate the reflections. Light bent, shards aligned, and a silver stairwell of ice rose ahead, opening access to the next floor. From my vantage point near the Eternal Firefly King's glow, my amber and Crystal blue eye swept across the plaza.
The frost light from Elyahna's newly claimed inheritance still lingered faintly in the distance, a soft halo of winter against the plaza's chaos.
Then—
A thundering gust of wind whipped through the plaza! Bending banners and tossing dust into the air. A pillar of light descended from the heavens, carried on the wings of twin dragoons! I tilted my head. The aura was sharp, precise, and lethal. The Blade Saint Zephyr Inheritance had arrived. Gasps rose from the crowd. The legends spoke of this inheritance as the crucible of swords—a path that demanded not just mastery of the blade, but mastery of anticipation, perception, and willpower itself.
From the throng, Zhenba of the Thousand Cuts Clan surged forward!
Twin sabers spun in hand, catching the sun in blinding arcs as he charged. "Forty-eight tokens," Zhenba muttered under his breath, eyes glinting. "I've earned this." Several other prodigies recognized the opportunity and rushed alongside him! Each had tokens, some approaching the required seventeen, others hoping to contest the prize once Zhenba triggered the entrance. The plaza's energy shifted. Sparks of qi collided as the air thickened with tension. I noted the familiar rhythm of the descent of power, the way the heavens granted entry only to those who had proven themselves.
Zhenba reached the epicenter first, stepping into the descending light. The ground beneath him seemed to bend, shimmering into a silver-lined doorway like those Elyahna had used. The portal pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, as though the Inheritance itself recognized the precision of his tokens. One by one, the other prodigies with enough tokens followed him, vanishing into the doorway. From my perspective, the plaza felt momentarily suspended, the chaos paused around the descending light.
The whispers of the crowd ran like threads through the air:
"The Blade Saint Zephyr"
"He's fast, but will his precision be enough?"
"Forty-eight! Only the truly skilled dare enter."
"This one could be dangerous… a rival to the Sovereign-Slayer?"
I didn't move. The fireflies around me twitched, sensing the incoming clash of power from the Blade Saint Inheritance. Their glow pulsed, steady and patient. I watched as the portal shimmered and closed behind Zhenba and the other prodigies, leaving a faint echo of steel and qi in the air.
A thought nudged at me, almost a whisper: "Another crucible begins… and soon, all of them will be forging themselves against destiny." The plaza returned to chaos as murmurs grew into shouts.
My gaze drifted back to the descending paths of other inheritances—the stage of the tournament was now fully alive, and the battle for eternity had begun in earnest.