Chapter 1: The Day Winter Was Born
Azure Dragon City.
Ye Family Private Medical Center.
The atmosphere outside the delivery room was heavy enough to crush a tank.
If a stranger walked into this hallway, they would faint from the sheer pressure. Two figures stood outside the door. One was pacing; the other was standing like a statue. These weren't just nobles; they were titans.
Ye Tian. Class: Berserker. Rank: S-Rank. One of the Ten Generals of the Human Alliance.
Lin Lan. Class: Divine Archer. Rank: S-Rank. The "Valkyrie of the East."
"She has been in labor for twelve hours," Ye Tian growled, his voice vibrating through the reinforced walls. "If anything happens to her, I will tear this hospital down brick by brick."
Suddenly, the screaming inside the room stopped.
Ye Tian kicked the door open, ignoring the magical locks. "Lan!"
But as he stepped across the threshold, the S-Rank Berserker—a man who had bathed in dragon blood and wrestled Giants—froze.
He didn't freeze from fear. He froze literally.
CRACK-BOOM!
The delivery room had been transformed into a glacial cavern. The medical machinery was encased in jagged spikes of blue ice. The doctors and nurses were huddled in the corner, protected by a barrier that was rapidly cracking.
In the center of the room, on the bed of ice, sat Lin Lan.
She was alive. In fact, she looked more terrifyingly beautiful than ever before.
Her once jet-black hair had turned a shimmering, frosty white at the tips. Her skin glowed with a translucent, jade-like luster. The S-Rank mana radiating from her had mutated. The wind element she was famous for had vanished, replaced by a terrifying, cutting Frost.
In her arms, she held a silent baby.
"Tian," Lin Lan whispered. Her breath came out as a cloud of ice crystals. "Look at him."
Ye Tian approached, his S-Rank aura flaring automatically to resist the bitter cold. He looked at his son.
The baby, Ye Han, had eyes like the deepest part of a frozen ocean. He wasn't crying. He was looking around the room with a calm, indifferent gaze, as if he owned the winter itself.
"The moment he came out..." Lin Lan looked at her hands, where frost was dancing. "A surge of power rushed into me. It came from him, Tian. He didn't just freeze the room. He... he gifted me this power."
She clenched her fist. The air screamed as it froze.
"My bottleneck," she said, her eyes widening. "I've been stuck at Early S-Rank for five years. But just now... I broke through. I am now Mid S-Rank. And I have gained a Dual Element."
Ye Tian was thunderstruck.
An infant that could help an S-Rank Hunter break through just by being born?
"A monster," Ye Tian whispered, a wild grin spreading across his face. "We have birthed a monster! He will surpass us both. He will be the first SS-Rank... no, perhaps the first SSS-Rank humanity has ever seen!"
The couple looked at their son with feverish expectation. They didn't know that the power Lin Lan absorbed was merely the overflow—the tiny scraps of energy that leaked from the baby's body because his mortal vessel couldn't contain the soul of the Sovereign.
Five Years Later.
The Ye Family Estate was not just a home; it was a kingdom.
Being the only child of two S-Rank Hunters meant Ye Han was the "Crown Prince" of Azure Dragon City. From birth, he was bathed in high-tier medicinal baths and given monster cores to play with as if they were marbles.
However, the "Crown Prince" was strange.
In the backyard training ground, huge boulders made of Tungsten-Steel were arranged.
"Mom, watch this!"
A five-year-old Ye Han sat under the shade of a tree, watching his mother train.
Lin Lan, now known as the "Ice Valkyrie," drew her bow. An arrow made of pure condensed ice mana formed on the string.
Thwack!
The arrow flew. It didn't just pierce the Tungsten boulder; it disintegrated it into snow.
"Did you see that, Little Han?" Lin Lan beamed, her white-tipped hair flowing in the wind. She floated over to him, landing gently. Since that day in the hospital, her ice power had only grown stronger. She felt a deep, spiritual connection to her son because of it. "Do you want to try?"
Ye Han looked at the bow, then shook his head. "It's too loud."
"Loud?" Lin Lan blinked. "But I used a silencing spell."
"Not the bow," Ye Han said, rubbing his chest. "The heartbeat."
Lin Lan's smile faltered slightly. "The heartbeat again?"
Since he could speak, Ye Han had complained of a 'calling.' A rhythm that pulled him toward the wilderness. Lin Lan and Ye Tian had checked him for curses, hexes, and mental interference. They found nothing.
"It wants me to go," Ye Han said, pointing toward the West. Toward the forbidden horizon.
"That is the Dead Zone, Han," Lin Lan said softly, crouching down to hug him. Her body was naturally cold now, which was the only reason Ye Han let her hug him. Normal humans felt too hot, like burning stoves. "There are Bad Dungeons there. Black ones. Even Mommy and Daddy cannot go there."
"Why?"
"Because of the Fear," she explained. "Anyone who goes near them gets very, very scared. Their hearts stop."
"I'm not scared," Ye Han stated.
Lin Lan chuckled, ruffling his hair. "I know you're brave, my little ice cube. But wait until you awaken today. Once you get your S-Rank class, you can go anywhere you want."
Today was the Potential Measurement Ceremony.
The Grand Hall.
Because the parents were S-Rank celebrities, the evaluation of their son was a major event. High-ranking officials from the Hunter Association, military generals, and other noble families were present.
Ye Tian stood on the stage, radiating power. "Today, my son Ye Han will undergo the bone-age and mana-density test. We expect... great things."
Ye Han walked up the stage. He was dressed in a small, formal black suit.
He approached the God-Tier Mana Orb, a relic capable of measuring even SSS-Rank potential.
"Place your hand there," the examiner said nervously.
Ye Han placed his small hand on the orb.
Buzz.
The orb flickered.
Ye Tian leaned forward. Lin Lan held her breath. The audience watched with wide eyes.
Then, the light died.
The orb turned a dull, lifeless grey.
"..."
Silence. Absolute silence.
The examiner tapped the orb. "A glitch? Let me reset."
He reset it. Ye Han touched it again.
Grey. Lifeless. Null.
"This..." The examiner began to sweat profusely under the pressure of the two S-Rank parents. "Lord Ye, Lady Lin... I... I am getting no reading."
"What do you mean no reading?" Ye Tian's voice was low, dangerous. "Is it too high for the machine?"
"No, sir," the examiner squeaked. "It means... it means there is no mana vessel in his body. He... he is a Muggle. An unawakened civilian."
The words hung in the air like a curse.
A civilian?
The son of two S-Rank powerhouses? The child who froze a hospital at birth?
"Impossible!" Lin Lan shouted, rushing the stage. She grabbed Ye Han's hand. "I felt it! I have his power inside me! How can he be empty?"
She pushed her own S-Rank ice mana into Ye Han, trying to jump-start his system.
But just like when he was born, Ye Han's body acted like a black hole. It silently swallowed her mana without a trace. No reaction. No glow. Just a bottomless pit.
Ye Tian stood there, his face turning from pride to ash, and then to a masked fury. In this world, power was everything. A son with no talent? It was a stain on his legend.
"The birth phenomenon..." Ye Tian muttered, his fists clenching until his knuckles turned white. "It was you, Lan. It must have been you awakening your Dual Element that froze the room. We... we mistook your breakthrough for his talent."
"No!" Lin Lan argued, tears forming in her eyes. "I know what I felt!"
"The machine does not lie!" Ye Tian roared, cracking the stage floor.
The audience began to whisper. The look of awe directed at Ye Han turned into pity and ridicule.
"A trash son born to S-Rank gods?"
"How tragic."
"The Ye bloodline ends with him."
Ye Han stood amidst the chaos. He looked at his father's angry back. He looked at his mother's desperate, crying face.
He felt... detached.
The disappointment in the room was suffocating, but it was nothing compared to the Call.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The heartbeat from the West was deafening now. It was screaming at him.
They do not understand you.
They cannot measure you.
Come. Come to your throne.
Ye Tian turned to the examiner. "Take him away. The ceremony is over."
Ye Tian didn't look at his son. He couldn't. The shame was too great.
Lin Lan tried to follow Ye Han, but she was surrounded by elders demanding explanations.
Ye Han walked out of the back exit of the hall alone. He loosened his tie. It was too hot in here. Too noisy.
He walked past the guards. He walked past the gates.
Usually, there were S-Rank wards protecting the house, but in the chaos of the failed ceremony, the security grid had been lowered for the guests.
Ye Han slipped out.
He walked into the city streets, then toward the outer wall.
He was five years old. He had no mana. He had no weapon.
But as he stepped into the wilderness, the monsters that usually hunted humans scattered in panic. A Shadow Leopard, a beast that could kill a C-Rank hunter, watched the boy from a tree. As Ye Han walked by, the leopard whimpered and covered its eyes with its paws, paralyzed by an invisible pressure.
Ye Han walked for hours. His small leather shoes were ruined. His suit was dirty.
Finally, the sky turned purple, then black.
He stood at the edge of the Dead Zone.
Ahead of him was a crater. Inside the crater was a swirling vortex of absolute darkness.
Black Dungeon No. 7.
The Primal Fear radiating from it was strong enough to kill an ordinary human instantly.
Ye Han took a step forward.
He breathed in.
"Finally," he whispered. "Fresh air."
While the rest of the world trembled at the Black Dungeon, Ye Han felt like he was returning to his bedroom. He slid down the slope of the crater and walked straight into the abyss.