A Thorn in the Throat

In a world of ice and snow, beneath the endless polar night, the cold moon shone from above the nine heavens, its chill piercing to the bone.

White snow filled the eye, dazzling beyond measure and stretching without end. In the Extreme North, a place of utmost cold, wind and snow had never ceased for a thousand years, nor had the ice melted for a thousand years.

The demon's figure swept past, vanishing into the frozen wilderness in an instant.

Ahead, the Azure Boat sped onward, untouched by wind or snow, growing ever faster.

Before life and death parted them, the Phoenix Body had sent the Ghost Maiden away aboard the Azure Boat, waiting for the day of return to renew their bond.

Across the boundless snowy land, whose vastness defied imagination, the demon body did not dare pause for even a moment. Following the faint traces of Phoenix Essence left behind by the Azure Boat, he pursued without cease.

The freezing wind whipped up waves of snow that struck the demon body, bitterly cold.

The Dao body had endured a century, the demon body a thousand years. Yet after one sudden upheaval, the Phoenix Body had nearly fallen. The demon had no time to concern himself with that, rushing onward at full speed after the distant Azure Boat.

At the end of the Extreme North lay a world utterly frozen over, where the temperature was terrifyingly low. The sky seemed to overturn, and heavy snow turned to hail as it crashed down from above.

In such extreme weather, not a trace of life remained within a thousand miles. It was an absolute land of death, burying every living thing that entered.

The Azure Boat sailed through, its hull covered in ice crystals. Like a solitary boat carved into a