Home.
One word, yet it said more than a thousand.
The Ice Empress froze. She looked at the word, then at Lan's calm profile, and her eyes reddened slightly.
The Snow Empress's gaze settled on the word "Home," and she did not look away for a long time.
For the first time, tenderness stirred in those eyes that had been frozen for eternity.
She stepped forward and reached out a slender finger, gently touching the spot above the word Lan had carved.
No light appeared, and no sound rang out.
Yet a line of words, cold and proud but filled with boundless hope, quietly took shape.
[May the wind and snow endure forever; may my son be safe and sound.]
Night.
The night sky over the Far North was the most magnificent painting in the world.
Across the deep, ink-blue canopy, dazzling auroras drifted like ribbons, their green, purple, and gold hues weaving together and shifting unpredictably.
The three of them did not return to the palace. Instead, they sat beneath the Pillar of Eternity and lit a pile of pale blue flames.
They were the Ice Empress's source flames. They looked cold, yet brought the purest warmth.
They brought out the Ice Marrow Wine the Snow Empress had treasured for tens of thousands of years and drank deep as they ate the roasted Snow Fish.
They said little. Only the occasional clink of cups and the faint crackle of the flames broke the silence.
The Ice Empress seemed to have a poor tolerance for alcohol. After a few cups, her fair little face turned rosy, and she became much more talkative.
One moment, she clung to Lan's arm, telling him he wasn't allowed to let other girls at the academy trick him away.
The next, she tugged at the Snow Empress's sleeve, chattering on about how they absolutely had to wake that lazy fellow, A-Tai.
The Snow Empress simply listened in silence, a faint smile playing at her lips as she refilled Lan's and the Ice Empress's cups from time to time.
Lan did not drink much. Most of the time, his gaze rested on the two people dearest to him, wanting to carve their faces as they were that moment deep into his memory.
That night, they drank a lot and talked about many things.
At last, the Ice Empress fell asleep in the Snow Empress's arms, dead to the world.
Deep into the night, all was silent.
Lan lay on a bed hastily made of ice, yet sleep would not come.
He closed his eyes and thought back over every moment of the past nine years.
As his thoughts swirled—
A faint, fragrant breeze drifted into his nostrils.
It carried the coolness of ice and snow, mingled with a lotus-like fragrance—the scent that belonged only to the Snow Empress.
Then he felt a corner of his blanket being gently lifted.
A body, cool to the touch yet impossibly soft, pressed lightly against him from behind and wrapped around his waist.
Lan's body stiffened at once.
Even through their thin clothes, he could clearly feel the startling softness against his back.
"Au... Aunt Xue?"
"Mm."
The Snow Empress answered from behind him, her voice cool, with a hint of languor.
Her breath was as fragrant as an orchid. It brushed lightly against Lan's ear, sending a tingling itch through him.
"Did I... wake you?"
The Snow Empress's voice was very soft, almost like a murmur in her sleep.
"No."
Lan steadied himself and relaxed.
The Snow Empress seemed to feel him loosen up, and held him a little tighter, resting her cheek gently against his back.
"Lan."
"Mm?"
"Are you afraid to go to the human world?"
"No."
Lan answered without hesitation.
"Why?"
"Because Aunt Bing is by my side." Lan paused, then added, "And I know you'll always be there too, Aunt Xue."
Silence fell behind him for a moment.
The arms wrapped around his waist tightened a little more.
"I was... very happy today."
"I really liked the word you carved."
"But I was also afraid."
Lan was slightly taken aback. He turned around and met those breathtaking eyes beneath the dim aurora.
"Afraid of what?"
The Snow Empress gazed at him. For the first time, an emotion called vulnerability surfaced in those eyes, which seemed capable of freezing the soul.
"Afraid this is all just a dream."
"Afraid that the greater my hopes, the greater my disappointment will be."
"Afraid I won't live to see the day you become a god."
"Afraid that when the next tribulation comes, I'll... never see you and Bing'er again."
She buried her head against Lan's chest.
It felt as though something had stabbed Lan's heart.
He reached out and gently drew this supreme ruler of the Far North into his arms.
"That won't happen."
"Believe me, Aunt Xue."
The Snow Empress said nothing more, only holding him tighter.
That night, the auroras blazed across the sky.
The sky had yet to fully brighten.
A faint glimmer struggled up from the horizon, turning the snow into a hazy gray-blue.
Lan opened his eyes.
The space beside him was already cold.
Only a faint, almost imperceptible fragrance of ice and snow mingled with lotus remained in the bed, proof that the night before had not been a dream.
He sat up and gazed beyond the palace, in the direction of the Abyss of Frozen Ice, without moving for a long time.
"Awake?"
The Ice Empress had somehow already dressed and was sitting on an ice chair not far away, swinging her slender white legs.
The drunkenness and reluctance of the previous night were gone from her expression, replaced by her usual haughty air.
Yet her slightly reddened eyes still betrayed her feelings.
"Where's Aunt Xue?"
Lan asked softly.
"She left."
The Ice Empress hopped down from the chair and walked over to him.
"Not long ago."
She pursed her lips, her tone carrying a trace of understanding and helplessness.
"Big Sister Snow is just like that."
"She looks icy and indifferent, as if she doesn't care about anything, but she has the softest heart of anyone. She hates farewells like this more than anything."
"She didn't want to watch you leave, and she certainly didn't want you to see her crying."
Lan fell silent and nodded.
He understood.
"All right, stop moping."
The Ice Empress patted his arm, urging him on.
"Come on. Those two human girls must be getting impatient."
"It's time for us to set out too."
When Lan and the Ice Empress, now in human form and wearing a long, emerald-green dress, arrived at the agreed-upon ice valley, Liu Ruyan and Shui Bing'er were already waiting there.
When they saw the two of them—especially the girl walking beside Lan, who looked no older than seventeen or eighteen yet was as delicate as a porcelain doll—Liu Ruyan and Shui Bing'er both froze for a moment.
But they quickly collected themselves and bowed respectfully.
"Let's go."
Lan offered no further explanation.
Liu Ruyan nodded, took a map drawn on animal hide from her Soul Tool, and spread it across a flat patch of ice.
"The road from here to Heaven Dou Imperial City is long."
She pointed to a spot on the map marking their current location, on the outskirts of the Far North's Core Circle.
"We'll first have to cross the Far North Plateau, then travel through Xueling Star Province and Di'ao Star Province before we can finally reach Heaven Dou Imperial City."
The Ice Empress leaned over to glance at it and gave a disdainful snort.
"Isn't that just the distance from Nuoding City to that Star Dou Great Forest place? You call that far?"
Liu Ruyan and Shui Bing'er exchanged looks, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
For an ordinary Soul Master, this was a journey so long it could take several months, or even more than half a year.
"I say," the Ice Empress said, planting her hands on her hips and looking up at Shui Bing'er, "you humans really know how to make things difficult for yourselves. You came all this way just for a Soul Ring?"
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