The wall of waves cleaved apart by the prow froze into pillars of ice in an instant, then exploded with a thunderous crash. Chen Wuya's pupils contracted. Ahead was no longer the sea, but swirling snow mist and blades of wind plunging straight down. The golden sail shuddered violently, fine cracks spreading across its fabric. An invisible force lifted the entire ship and flung it into the air.
He had no time to speak before the cold stabbed into his marrow. Bai Zhi let out a muffled groan, her flexible sword flying from her grasp and striking the mast with a sharp clang. Mo Feng clung desperately to the gaps in the deck, his knuckles turning blue.
"Hold on!" Chen Wuya roared, slamming his right palm against the ship's bottom. Misaligned Force Reversal surged upstream. Rather than flowing into the keel, it spiraled up along the outside of the hull. Golden light twisted into rings amid the storm, like an irregular chain wrapped around the waists of all three.
Wind and snow swallowed every sound.
The ship crashed into a stretch of gray-white, the impact seeming to displace everyone's organs. Chen Wuya rolled twice, his shoulder and back slamming into solid ice. Misaligned Force Reversal automatically surged back to defend him, protecting his heart meridian. Bracing himself against the ground, he looked up and saw that only half the golden sail remained, hanging from the broken mast and lashing the snowfield in the wind.
"Cough..." Bai Zhi crawled out of a snowdrift, pressing her left hand over her abdomen as she slowly rose. She wiped ice chips from her face, while her right hand had already clenched the flexible sword, its tip aimed into the depths of the blizzard.
Mo Feng lay not far away, a crack running across the