Blue Pillar of Light

When the last wisp of icy-blue light fragments merged into Murong Taxue's body, the biting cold surrounding her gradually receded, no longer spreading outward without restraint. Murong Taxue, who had been sitting cross-legged, slowly rose to her feet. Her robes fluttered despite the absence of wind, and her entire bearing had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.

Her formerly pitch-black, waterfall-like hair had now turned entirely silver-white, as though carved from the purest ice and snow. It cascaded over her shoulders, gleaming with a gentle luster beneath the daylight. Between her brows, a lifelike ice lotus mark bloomed quietly. Its petal patterns were distinct, flowing with a faint divine radiance that added an even more untouchable sacredness to her already cold and ethereal beauty.

A faint layer of pale-blue chill lingered around her body, rising and falling softly with her breaths. Wherever her feet touched the bluestone slabs, delicate ice blossoms formed beneath them, only to melt away silently a moment later, as if ice and snow moved at her command.

She still possessed that beauty capable of toppling kingdoms, and the grace of the North Divine Domain's foremost beauty had not diminished in the slightest. Yet her entire aura was utterly different. Before, she had been cold and pure like a winter plum blossom beneath the moon; now, she was like a snow lotus atop an icy peak, carrying the aloofness and divinity of one who looked down upon all living beings. One glance was enough to prevent anyone from harboring even the slightest profane thought. The spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from her were vast and profound as well. She was no longer a Third-Rank Martial Venerable—she had firmly reached the realm of a Seventh-Rank Martial Venerable, her aura steady and condensed without the slightest hint of instability.

"Damn! This Ice