The tremors beneath the ice grew clearer and clearer, like some colossal beast crawling slowly underground. Chen Wuya withdrew his hand, his brow tightly furrowed. He turned to Bai Zhi and saw that she was standing steadily, the glow of the pregnancy-protecting talisman still flowing around her lower abdomen. Then he said quietly, "Move faster."
The three of them lingered no longer, making their way outward through the fissures in the rock. Wind and snow lashed their faces, but they had no time to care. Ahead of them rose an enormous wall of ice, faint azure patterns floating across its surface like a doorway.
Mo Feng approached the ice wall and took out a mechanism compass, pressing it against the surface. Its needle trembled faintly before pointing toward the center of the wall. "There's a hollow space," he said. "There's an altar behind it."
Chen Wuya nodded. Raising a hand, he channeled Misaligned Force into his palm and lightly pressed it against the ice wall. The system immediately issued a notification:
[Heart-demon resonance restriction detected. Royal memory credentials required for passage.]
He frowned. "Without credentials, forcing our way in will alert whoever's inside."
Bai Zhi leaned against his shoulder, her breathing calm. "Didn't you see the vision of the royal seal resonating? Try using that."
Chen Wuya closed his eyes, recalling the ripples that had arisen when the jade pendant touched the royal seal, along with the scene from the mural of Snow Demon royalty kneeling in worship. He pieced those fragments together, forcibly twisting his own aura with Misaligned Force, making a memory he had never experienced emerge within his consciousness—a youth standing before an altar, holding an ice crystal in both hands as ancient incantations echoed in his ears.
The system fell silent for a moment