The wind and snow had stopped. The ice cavern was so quiet that breathing could be heard. Chen Wuya stood before the stone platform, the ice beneath his feet still trembling as cracks spread outward like a spiderweb. Cold air surged up from underground, scraping across his face like blades.
He did not move. His eyes remained fixed on the Mystic Ice Lotus, while he also kept watch on the woman behind him.
"You've passed two trials." The Snow Demon Queen's voice came from behind him. "That isn't something an ordinary person could accomplish."
Chen Wuya did not turn around. He knew she had not left and had been following behind him all along. That kneel earlier, that claim that he was one chosen by fate—it had sounded sincere, but the more sincere such words sounded, the less they could be trusted.
"What you want is right ahead." she said. "One more step, and the third formation will activate."
"I'm ready already," he said.
The instant he finished speaking, a sharp crack rang out overhead. He looked up to see icicles falling from the dome, densely packed, crashing down like rain.
His first instinct was to retreat, but his back foot slipped. The ground had already frozen over with a thin layer of ice; he could not keep his footing at all.
He could not dodge.
He closed his eyes and guided his true qi into the Hand Shaoyang Triple Burner Meridian. This route was wrong. No one training martial arts would circulate their power this way. But he dared to do it.
The system responded at once:
[Unconventional force distribution detected. Activate completion?]
He confirmed it in his mind.
Golden light erupted from the Jianjing Acupoint, surging up along his back and instantly spreading into a semicircular