A Long Journey

When Xue Lingyun walked out of the Cultivation Room, Xiao Bai was lying at the door.

He was the first to notice him. Not with his eyes. First, his nose twitched as he caught a scent that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

What was familiar was Xue Lingyun's own scent. What was unfamiliar was the chill that seemed to seep out from the depths of a Ten Thousand Year Glacier. Xiao Bai could not say exactly what had changed, but his nose would not lie to him. He raised his head, his deep-blue eyes staring straight at Xue Lingyun, and tilted his head as he looked at him for a long while.

"Little Cloud, you've changed."

Xue Lingyun did not reply. He walked over and reached out to rub his head. Xiao Bai did not dodge, but his gaze kept circling over Xue Lingyun's face. He moved closer and sniffed. That unfamiliar aura had grown stronger, as if something were seeping out from inside Xue Lingyun's body. His tail lightly swept across the ground, as though confirming something.

Xue Lingyun sat down beside the Ice Platform and closed his eyes to look inward.

The Sea of Consciousness had changed. It had originally been a lake, but now it had expanded into an inner sea, so vast that he could not grasp its boundaries for a moment. Three clusters of spiritual halos floated above the sea's surface. The Ice Empress's emerald green, Youyou's pinkish white, and the Snow Empress's luminous white.

The three spiritual bodies occupied different positions in the Sea of Consciousness in a triangular formation, echoing one another without interfering with each other. The Ice Empress's spiritual body stood with her arms crossed over her chest, emerald-green light patterns flickering across its surface. Youyou's spiritual body resembled a half-open