"Liu Rushi requests an audience with Elder Ice Spirit."
Before the Elder Palace, Liu Rushi cupped his hands and bowed slightly. His voice was not loud, yet wrapped in spiritual power, it carried clearly into the hall.
"Enter."
Elder Ice Spirit's cold voice came from within the palace, devoid of any emotion, like ice that had endured for a thousand years.
Liu Rushi straightened his robes and stepped into the Elder Palace.
A chilling frost filled the hall, and a thin layer of ice had formed over its four walls.
At the center of the great hall floated an enormous ice-colored lotus. Its translucent petals overlapped in layer upon layer, radiating a biting chill.
Ice Spirit Fairy sat cross-legged atop the lotus, dressed in white robes. Her skin was like congealed cream, her features picturesque, and her entire being exuded a cool, distant aura that kept others a thousand miles away.
Before the Grand Elder, Liu Rushi did not dare be careless.
"Greetings, Elder Ice Spirit..."
He respectfully bowed, then recounted from beginning to end what his son, Liu Chengfeng, had encountered at the Ten Thousand Treasures Tower.
He neither embellished nor concealed anything, merely stated the facts.
At the end, he told Ice Spirit Fairy that he had already sent Liu Chengfeng to punish Ning Jin, charging him with colluding with the Demon Race and trafficking Human Realm resources.
"So it concerns Ning Jin..."
Ice Spirit Fairy, seated upon the ice lotus, said nothing. Her eyelids narrowed slightly as she looked down at Liu Rushi from above.
He was not one of her direct subordinates, but his relationship with her was fairly good.
Liu Rushi had always been smooth and adaptable within the Elder Council, finding favor on all sides. He aligned himself neither with her, nor with Chu