Outside the Divine Hall of the Frozen End, the atmosphere was on the verge of explosion.
Bang!
Bang!!
Bang!!!
Successive strikes of profound energy collided against the gigantic door of Heavenly Jade Stone. The space trembled, the surrounding snow was hurled away in chaotic waves, and cracks spread across the frozen ground, but the door... remained intact.
"Damn it!!" The man in green robes recoiled once more, his face twisted in fury. His arms were numb, blood trickled from his knuckles, and yet the door showed not even a visible mark.
"This damn hall...!"
"We've been attacking for days!"
"How is this still not broken?!"
Frustration gnawed at the group. Overlords and Thrones, accustomed to crushing entire sects with a gesture, were now being held back by a single door.
"Again!" Roared the man in green: "Attack together!"
One of the men gathered his profound energy to the limit, veins bulging in his neck, and charged forward with a brutal strike, concentrating everything into a single point on the door.
It was at that exact instant—
Clack.
A soft and delicate sound echoed from all sides.
The enormous door of Heavenly Jade Stone... opened.
The strike, laden with murderous intent, passed through the empty space where absolute resistance had once been. Before the attacker could even react, a hand extended calmly from inside the hall and grasped his fist.
The violent profound energy simply... dissipated, like snow touching warm water.
The man widened his eyes, his entire body freezing, not from the cold, but from instinctive terror.
Before him stood a man, his black hair falling freely to his waist, straight as absolute silk, as dark as a starless night—not the dull black of absent light, but a deep, dense black that seemed to absorb the surrounding glow. His face was impeccable in an almost cruel way. Well-defined, symmetrical features, as if sculpted by the creator to be perfect. The straight nose, the firm and elegant jaw, the thin and well-shaped lips carried a dangerous neutrality; they were neither gentle nor severe. They were too beautiful to submit to any trivial emotion. There was an absolute calm in them, a silent superiority that needed no affirmation...
But nothing compared to his eyes.
The pupils were as black as the primordial abyss, deep to the point of seeming infinite. Looking into them was like staring at a moonless night sky, where any light was swallowed before reflecting. Yet, paradoxically, they were beautiful, beautiful like the rarest immortal jewel, something that evoked fascination and discomfort at the same time. There was no warmth in them, nor explicit coldness... just an absolute distance, as if the world was something he observed from outside. His clothes were long and black, made of a fabric that seemed to absorb the surrounding glow, adorned with golden threads. The gold was not flashy; it was deep, solemn, like the authority of something that existed long before the laws of the world. The robes fitted his body naturally, highlighting broad shoulders, erect posture, and a presence that imposed respect without effort.
The worst part was that this man was holding his attack with two fingers, as if grasping something fragile!
Ren Zu smiled gently.
"That strike..." He said in a polite tone, almost amused. "Was it meant to tickle me?"
Silence fell like a blade.
"W-what...?!"
"How...?!"
The attacker tried to pull his arm back, futile. It was as if he were stuck to an invisible mountain. Anger and humiliation exploded on his face.
"You—!"
Before he could finish, his eyes moved involuntarily.
Beside that man, a figure stepped forward. Pure white robes, long and graceful. A thin veil partially covered the face, like lunar mist. The slender body seemed sculpted by extreme cold itself, and a glacial aura, silent and absolute, enveloped every movement. That figure, as beautiful as an immaculate fairy from the immortal world descending to the heavens, was precisely the one their young master had ordered to capture!
"She..."
"That woman..."
Ren Zu immediately noticed where everyone was looking and let out a light laugh.
He released the man's fist, who fell backward, staggering. With a casual gesture, he opened a bit of space in front of him, like a host presenting something precious.
"It seems you recognized her. Yes, allow me to introduce. This is Xia Qingyue, the one you came to capture. The problem is that she is my wife..."
Xia Qingyue cast a brief glance in his direction, silently reflecting on how terrifying her husband's intellect could be. With just a few pieces of information mentioned by the Mistress of Frozen Cloud Asgard, he was able to accurately identify who was behind the pursuit against her and the entire hidden plan involved. Moreover, he managed to convince the Mistress of Frozen Cloud herself to allow her to become his wife and follow him from that moment on, offering in exchange the salvation of the entire sect from the impending calamity.
It was true that, with her current level of profound strength, she could have resolved that crisis on her own. Someone who had reached the peak of the Sovereign Profound Realm was basically the pinnacle of power in the Profound Sky Continent. Still, she chose not to intervene. She let him take the lead, not out of necessity, but out of will. Because that was also her desire. She wanted to follow him forever...
Moreover, what her husband offered to the Frozen Cloud Sect went far beyond a simple agreement.
In recognition of everything they had done for her, he opened the Profound Entrances of all the disciples, something that previously only the Seven Fairies of Asgard had received from Yun Che, helping most of them advance several levels in their profound strength, completely changing the future of Frozen Cloud Asgard after that.
Not satisfied, he also demonstrated having fully learned the profound art of Frozen Cloud and, naturally, declared that they could consider him an honorary elder. If in the future they needed help, they just had to call him. For that, he gave them a special item that allowed direct contact with him, in addition to leaving behind a profound protective formation, powerful enough that even a practitioner of the Divine Way would be unable to scratch it.
He also guided all the disciples, the Seven Fairies of Asgard, including herself, and even the Mistress of Frozen Cloud Asgard in their cultivations and profound arts. The knowledge he demonstrated, allied with an almost perfect teaching ability, was simply terrifying, evidencing once again how frightening his intellect was. All of them, without exception, obtained immense benefits from this guidance.
All this had happened over those few days, while both remained in the Divine Hall of the Frozen End, surrounded by all her disciple sisters.
The problem was that, in the face of his kindness and an simply indescribable charm, the entire Frozen Cloud Asgard had been conquered by him over those last days. Even her own master showed ambiguous feelings toward her husband, as did the Sect Mistress. Part of this was due to the fact that the Frozen Heart Art, cultivated by all of them, simply had no effect on him. Spending time beside someone so extraordinary created a kind of irresistible emotional cocktail. The feeling of absolute security, serene happiness, the fullness that emanated from his presence... all of it became addictive. It was the kind of experience that, little by little, eroded defenses and left any woman inevitably in love.
Even the Mistress of Frozen Cloud Asgard, who had fallen in love with her husband, officially declared that he would be a "Great Elder," someone whose authority placed him even above her own, a decision that none of the disciples dared to complain about. More than that, she went so far as to declare that the ancient rule prohibiting any disciple from getting involved with men simply did not apply when it came to her "husband." A decision that left her deeply surprised, especially since such an order was not even known to her husband himself.
Of course, her master had talked to her about it. And although she felt jealous imagining having to share her husband with even more women, she did not reject the idea; at least, they were all sisters from Frozen Cloud Asgard, and she knew them...
And it wasn't as if her husband had accepted any of them.
That only made her admire him even more. Any man in his position would have taken advantage of the situation, would have given in to temptations almost without thinking. But he didn't. At no point did he cross that line, although she had no doubt that it could happen sooner or later. After all, the Fairies of Frozen Cloud Asgard were not called "fairies" for nothing; each one was a beauty capable of toppling an entire nation.
But her husband seemed to let that kind of thing follow its natural course, without forcing anything at all. That only highlighted his self-control, something worthy of someone who possessed an appearance as extraordinary as an equally indescribable profound strength.
Her husband was truly incredible...
She was immensely lucky to have him as her husband.
Her eyes shone with complex emotions as she concluded her thoughts about the last days and, finally, turned her attention back to the current situation.
Despite having thought about so many things, barely a second had passed. It was one of the advantages of her mental faculties having expanded extremely after sharing talent with her husband through dual cultivation, something she had missed greatly in the last days.
After Ren Zu's words, for a second... the world seemed to stop.
Then, laughter exploded.
"Hahahaha!"
"Wife?!"
"What a ridiculous joke!"
The man in green stepped forward, his smile twisted in contempt.
"This woman is already destined for our Young Master! Do you really think a nobody can claim her?!"
The instant those words were spoken—
The air changed.
The cold exploded.
An absolute glacial intent erupted from the body of the woman in white.
Just... a glance.
The man who had mocked her didn't even have time to scream. His body was instantly enveloped in translucent blue ice, from the top of his head to his feet. The expression of scorn remained eternally frozen on his face, eyes wide with terror.
Crack.
The ice solidified completely.
Deadly silence.
Everyone recoiled instinctively, their blood freezing in their veins.
Xia Qingyue remained motionless, the cold around her so pure and dense that it seemed to belong to another plane. Her eyes showed no anger, just an absolute coldness, as if that man had never existed. How dare he insult her husband...?
Ren Zu turned his head slowly toward her.
There was a faint smile on his lips.
"Qingyue..." He said softly: "Leave this to me."
She blinked once. The cold around her retracted, obedient, as if it had never been released.
Ren Zu then turned his gaze back to the invaders.
The gentle smile... did not change.
But, for some reason, everyone felt a deep terror rise in their hearts.
Ren Zu took a step forward.
The smile on his lips remained the same, gentle, almost affable, but the weight that descended upon the world in that instant made even the wind freeze in the air.
"You should feel honored." His voice was calm, unpretentious: "To have the chance to serve as my experiments."
The invaders' faces paled. Some tried to retreat, others instinctively gathered their profound energy, but it was already too late...
Ren Zu slowly raised a single finger.
The space below him shuddered.
The frozen ground began to creak, not from ordinary cracks, but as if the world's own space was being forced beyond its natural limits. A cold that did not belong to this world emerged silently...
Above his finger, a lotus began to take shape.
It was made of ice.
Not ordinary ice, but a translucent crystal of impossible beauty, each petal perfectly defined, as if it had been chiseled by the universe's most precise hand. The cold emanating from it could not be described as "icy"; it was the total absence of heat, a state where even thermal concepts ceased to exist. Absolute zero had been achieved and stabilized through his understanding of the Law of Ice and profound strength...
The lotus spun slowly, compressed to the extreme by profound energy so dense that it distorted the light around it.
Then, a change occurred.
Green flames emerged first, enveloping the lotus like a living veil, overflowing with vitality, the [Life Spirit Flame]. Next, red flames erupted around it, deep as blood: the flames of the Vermilion Bird. Finally, golden flames enveloped everything, violent and dominating, the flames of the Golden Crow...
The three flames did not conflict.
They fused.
The absolute ice remained intact at its core, while the exterior of the lotus began to shine with colors that should not coexist. Green, crimson, and gold intertwined in perfect harmony, creating a vision as beautiful as it was terrifying...
Among the profound practitioners who were as numerous as the stars, it wasn't as if there were no people who cultivated profound arts of two attributes, or even more attributes. But the prerequisite was that these two attributes should complement and result in one another, such as wind and fire, water and lightning. Although doing such a thing would divide the individual's concentration and was even a kind of taboo in the profound path, if the individual was truly and shockingly talented and could cultivate both profound arts of the two attributes to the limit, then they would undoubtedly possess an extremely great advantage over those of the same level.
But to simultaneously cultivate profound arts of fire and water, whose suppression of one over the other was the fiercest of all, had at least never happened before in the Profound Sky Continent!
Aside from idiots, there would absolutely never be anyone who insanely walked this path.
There could be many types of profound arts, but there was only one set of profound veins.
When two mutually repulsive attributes were activated at the same time, they would unquestionably begin to reject and counterbalance each other. Not only would there be no benefit, but instead it would cause the power of both attributes to weaken to a certain extent. If severe, it would make the profound energy churn in great chaos and even damage the profound veins...
But that young man in front of them was trying to do this absurd thing!
These completely conflicting energies could only reject and cancel each other out and would never have the possibility of fusing! Suppressing each other, complementing each other, stirring each other... These were the most basic natural laws of primordial chaos. Doing this was simply trying to challenge natural laws, challenge the ways of heaven!
But he did it casually!
The lotus now looked like a divine work of art.
Ren Zu moved his finger.
The lotus advanced.
There was no immediate explosion or even any kind of sound.
It simply crossed through space, and the instant it touched the first of the men who used profound strength to protect himself because he couldn't dodge in time, the world ended.
A sea of three-colored flames swept everything ahead, extending as far as the eye could see. Mountains were erased from existence, the sky seemed to tear apart, and the entire horizon was swallowed by devastating light.
Then—
VHHHOOOOOOOM——
A deep, vast roar that didn't sound like fire, nor like ice, but like the tearing of the world's laws. It was a grave, crushing sound that vibrated directly in the bones and soul, making the heart beat out of rhythm!
Soon after, the roar fragmented into layers: A crystalline crack, like billions of mirrors shattering at once, the sound of absolute zero freezing everything instantly. A burning whistle, similar to a sun forcibly rising within the atmosphere, the crimson and golden flames consuming existence. And finally, a muffled, dull, oppressive boom, as if the world had been compressed and crushed into a single point.
BOOOOOOOOON——
When it ceased, what remained was an even more terrifying silence, a dead silence.
The energy dissipated slowly, and the revealed scene was even more terrifying.
Everything was frozen.
The flames had burned everything to nothingness, and in the same instant, the absolute cold had frozen the result. The world ahead was a vast field of ruins perfectly preserved in crystalline ice. Fragments of earth, remnants of energy, even distorted space... everything frozen in an immutable state, like an eternal painting of the end.
Not even a trace of the invaders remained.
Xia Qingyue stood motionless.
Even with her cultivation at the peak of the Sovereign Profound Realm and knowing that her husband was powerful, that sight made her mind go blank for a brief instant. She turned to him, her normally cold eyes carrying a rare shock.
"Husband... Don't you think you overdid it?"
Ren Zu looked at the frozen horizon, then shrugged.
"I really thought they were a bit stronger." He then smiled faintly, like someone satisfied with a successful test: "I decided to call this 'Three-Colored World-Punishing Immortal Lotus'."
The profound art itself was an extreme manifestation of multiple absolute principles.
First, the [Frozen End Divine Art] was taken beyond any known limit, forcing profound energy to create an ice core that reached absolute zero, a state where even natural laws ceased to operate. This ice was then compressed to the extreme, reduced to a perfect lotus structure, capable of containing practically infinite energy without collapsing; he had only poured a tenth of his profound energy into it...
Next, this core was fused with the three supreme flames he possessed. The "Life Spirit Flame," the "Divine Flames of the Vermilion Bird," and the "Flames of the Golden Crow" mixed perfectly. In the case of the latter two, he still executed the highest stages of their exclusive profound arts, refining them and integrating them into the core in an absolute manner, surpassing the Golden Crow and Vermilion Bird themselves in mastery of the profound arts they had created...
The result was a technique that burned everything to nonexistence and, in the same instant, froze the final result, sealing not just matter and profound energy, but also space and local laws.
The best part was that he could use the "World-Punishing Immortal Lotus" in one- or two-color versions, simply by removing one or two of his supreme flames. Additionally, it was also possible to employ only pure extreme ice, without any flame involved. In this way, this profound art came to possess four volumes or distinct stages, each adapted to different situations and power levels, with the "three colors" being the strongest...
Xia Qingyue remained silent for an instant.
"..." Her gaze rested on her husband's figure, as if trying, once again, to redefine the image she had of him. The frozen horizon reflected in her limpid eyes like still water, but what really left her motionless was not the devastation ahead, but the ease with which it had all been done.
She finally spoke.
"Husband. You... created this profound art just now?"
Ren Zu nodded simply.
"Yes."
Xia Qingyue's heart trembled.
Creating a profound art was not just a matter of talent or momentary inspiration. Even incomparable geniuses needed years, sometimes decades, to conceive a stable technique of their own, much less something that surpassed a profound art inherited from an ancestor. The profound arts that Frozen Cloud Asgard possessed were the absolute pinnacle of the ice path within the Profound Sky Continent, something that had sustained Frozen Cloud Asgard for countless years... and yet, he had just created something that surpassed it so easily?
He had created a profound art that surpassed even the [Frozen End Divine Art].
More than that, he had fused ice with fire, elements that, according to all the laws of the world, should annihilate each other. Not only did they coexist... but they were integrated in perfect harmony, elevating to a level that simply shouldn't be possible.
Could this be called merely talent? Such a deep understanding of laws, principles, and the world itself that made the concept of "limits" seem irrelevant.
Xia Qingyue felt a shiver run down her spine.
For the first time since reaching the peak of the Sovereign Profound Realm, where she had imagined she would catch up to her husband soon, she felt something akin to an insurmountable distance. Not a distance that caused frustration or envy, but one that awakened absolute admiration... and a slight fear.
She took a deep breath, her heart calming little by little.
Then, her lips curved into a soft, almost imperceptible smile.
Incredible.
There was no other word.
And that man... was her husband.
Ren Zu remained silent for a few instants after her words.
The cold wind passed through the devastated valley, sliding over the frozen field like a distant lament. Fragments of crystalline ice reflected the pale light of the sky, and the world seemed to have been forced to accept that new landscape as an eternal scar.
Then, he slowly turned his head.
His gaze did not linger on the destruction, nor on the remnants of the frozen laws around. He looked far away, beyond the snow-covered mountains, toward a point that was not visible to ordinary eyes.
The Divine Hall of Sun and Moon.
His abyssal eyes seemed to pierce through space, time, and the layers of the world, fixing on that place as if he were already before it.
"Let's go." His voice was calm, almost casual, as if suggesting a simple stroll: "There's a small pending task. It won't take long."
Small... task.
If anyone else had heard that, they might laugh, since he was referring to fighting against one of the Sacred Grounds. But coming from him, Xia Qingyue knew that "small" meant only that it would require no effort on his part.
She asked no questions.
She merely nodded lightly and stepped forward, standing beside her husband, her white robes contrasting with his dark ones.
The space ahead opened into a rift.
Then, together, they took a step forward.
The space closed behind them with a soft sound—
As if it had never been torn...
________________________
(A/N: The days Ren Zu spent in Frozen Cloud Asgard were deliberately skipped. Unlike Xia Qingyue—who possesses exceptional willpower—the other women of Frozen Cloud do not share the same level of resistance. Faced with Ren Zu's absurd charm, combined with the sense of absolute security, intellectual superiority, and the almost hypnotic presence he exudes, conquering them was simply… too natural to be worth a detailed description. To avoid dragging the story into a "boring arc" filled with predictable events, I chose to move the timeline forward and focus only on the consequences.
Now, a question for you all: what do you think I should do with this "Crystal Palace" that was acquired randomly? I thought about giving it focus as an independent force that serves Ren Zu loyally—whether by having them never betray him if he sleeps with them even once, or by having him invent a method that prevents betrayal altogether—and turning them into multiple beautiful attendants he can strengthen to high levels to handle random cannon fodder… or maybe not.
Suggestions—and judgments—are welcome. 😌
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