Passing the Flame

In the family's core district, within a quiet cultivation tower under Heaven Hall.

Li Xuanbing sat cross-legged on a Han Yu bed, dense ice-blue mist swirling around her. The temperature in the room was low enough to freeze water instantly. She had just absorbed the sixty-thousand-year Fragrant Chrysanthemum Jade Flower left leg bone and was carefully comprehending the energy and laws contained within it.

Unlike Li Xuanqing, who chose to temper himself through battle, she preferred to consolidate and improve through deep meditation and the absorption of high-quality resources. The Ultimate Ice attribute made her exceptionally sensitive to energy.

This soul bone not only improved my speed, but also bestowed a trace of "jadeification," making my ice-attribute defenses more resilient and even granting some resistance to Mental Impact... Li Xuanbing realized. Combined with my Absolute Frost Domain, perhaps I can develop new ways to use it.

She slowly opened her eyes, snowflakes seeming to drift within her ice-blue gaze. Becoming a Heaven Hall reserve meant she had greater access to the family's profound inheritances and top-tier resources, but it also meant greater responsibility. She understood clearly that a Surging Undercurrent lay beneath the family's calm surface. Only with sufficient strength could she protect everything she wished to protect in the storms that might come. "Strength... I need even greater strength." She murmured softly, closed her eyes again, and sank into deeper meditation. All the turmoil of the outside world seemed unrelated to this cold cultivation tower.

Law Enforcement Department, outside an interrogation room.

Li Yuansu, dressed in the neat uniform of a law enforcement officer, leaned against the wall and listened to the scolding and excuses coming from inside. He was now a member of the Law Enforcement Department's investigative squad.

"Yuansu, that guy in there is stubborn as hell.