Shen Xiu stood before the ice platform, his steps coming to a halt. Yan Wuji noticed him stop abruptly and immediately reined himself in as well. Flames leaped at his side with a crackling hiss. His gaze followed Shen Xiu's to the gray orb of light at the center of the ice platform. At first, he saw nothing unusual, but upon closer inspection, there truly was an exceedingly faint glimmer of golden light flickering within the gray mist, like a tiny lamp amid a blizzard, liable to be snuffed out at any moment.
"What is that?" Yan Wuji asked, lowering his voice.
Shen Xiu did not answer at once. His divine sense circled the gray mist orb with utmost care. Though that thread of golden light was weak, its aura was incomparably familiar—it shared the same origin as the Thunder Origin within his body and resonated with the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Art. He could almost certainly say that a Thunderheart Fragment was sealed within that golden light, likely the will or power left behind by the third-generation Thunder Lord, or perhaps an even earlier Thunder Lord. Yet it was tightly trapped by the gray mist, wrapped in and eroded by contaminated power, like prey slowly constricted by a giant python.
"Thunderheart," Shen Xiu finally said, his voice low and grave. "There is a Thunderheart Fragment inside. It's trapped by the gray mist."
Yan Wuji's brows twitched. Though he did not know much about the Thunderheart, after spending so many years on the Heavenly Ranking, he had heard some legends about the ancient Thunder Lords. The Thunderheart was the core of a Thunder Lord's inheritance, and every fragment contained astonishing power. If this Thunderheart Fragment was truly trapped here, then how long had it been eroded by the gray mist?