The eastern corridor of the upper landing had become a crucible of opposing extremes. The pristine, frost-covered walls of the Ice Heart Pavilion wept streams of melting water, only for that water to instantly vaporize into blinding clouds of steam.
Hua Yimei floated half a foot above the wooden floorboards, her heavy purple and gold ceremonial robes billowing around her despite the lack of a natural breeze. Her eyes, normally a soft, calculating brown, now blazed with a terrifying, molten gold. She was no longer the cautious, politically mindful Sect Leader of a declining faction. She was a predator fully unleashed, her cultivation at the Middle-Stage of the Core Formation Realm pressing down upon the corridor like a physical weight.
