Before Zhang Tie could react, his brow grew hot. A point of golden light shone through his flesh, then spread outward. The phantom of the Time Sandglass appeared before his forehead, slowly rotating.
A membrane-like layer of golden light flowed down from the sandglass, clinging to his skin and covering his entire body. Zhang Tie felt his body tighten. The golden light was insubstantial, yet it carried a crushing weight that made his breathing hitch.
But immediately afterward, the bone-deep chill receded as though it had been blocked outside by the golden light. Feeling returned to his limbs, and the pulling force dragging at his ankles vanished as well.
He blinked, and his vision became completely clear.
Xuan Gu stood not far before him, his entire body sealed in ice. The ice was crystalline and transparent, revealing every detail of his face. His mouth hung half open, his brows were raised, and his eyes were frozen looking diagonally downward—exactly as they had been when he had last looked at his own ankles.
Within the ice sculpture, Xuan Gu's robes retained their billowing folds, as though they would continue fluttering the next moment. At their feet, the Yellow Springs Water still surged murkily. The withered hands that had grabbed their ankles had disappeared, but whirlpools still occasionally rose on the water's surface, as if something were moving beneath it.
With a thought from Zhang Tie, the golden membrane enveloping him expanded outward.
The edge of the golden light touched the ice sculpture that Xuan Gu had become and swallowed it like water flooding over stone. The space within the membrane seemed to grow slightly larger, accommodating both of them. Zhang Tie raised his right hand and pressed his five fingers against the ice covering Xuan Gu's shoulder.
He closed his eyes