Ice God's Chain

East Sea Academy's Class One classroom building was more spacious than she had imagined.

Yun Zhiyu chose a seat by the window. Outside stood an old banyan tree, its branches and leaves lush, filtering the afternoon sunlight into scattered flecks of gold across the desks.

She set her luggage against the back of her chair. Zhen Hua's Star Ring spun around her finger as her gaze settled on the new students passing by outside.

"Is someone sitting here?"

The voice was cool and clear, like the soft sound of the first snowfall in winter. Yun Zhiyu turned her head and saw a girl of about seven or eight standing in the aisle. She wore a plain white dress, her blue hair cascading like a waterfall. There was a detachment in her features that did not suit her age, as though she were separated from the world by a thin layer of ice.

Most eye-catching of all was the necklace around her neck—an icy blue chain made of a material that seemed both like ice and jade. Its pendant was a tiny shield-shaped gemstone containing intricate runes, glowing faintly blue beneath the light.

Yun Zhiyu's pupils suddenly contracted.

Ice God's Chain.

She could not possibly mistake it. It was the precious treasure she had passed to Wu Changkong through Zhuo Shi when she was one year old, a top-tier defensive soul device awarded by the system, capable of "Soul-Gathering and Spirit-Nourishing." She had thought it would protect Long Bing and change the outcome of that tragedy. Yet she had never expected...

"No one," she heard herself say, her voice trembling almost imperceptibly. "Sit wherever you like."

The girl nodded slightly and sat beside her. The hem of her white dress brushed over the chair like snow falling soundlessly onto a lake. She neatly arranged her books on the desk with practiced, quiet movements, then turned to look at Yun Zhiyu.

"Wu Nianbing," she introduced herself, her voice still cool. "The daughter of Wu Changkong, a teacher at East Sea Academy."

Yun Zhiyu's fingertips trembled slightly.

Wu Changkong's daughter. A character who had never appeared in the original story. A life born into this world because of her intervention, because of Ice God's Chain's protection. She looked at the necklace around the girl's neck, her spiritual power quietly spreading toward the interior of that shield-shaped gemstone—

She "saw" it.

Deep within the gemstone, a wisp of deep-blue soul slumbered in silence, like a butterfly frozen in ice, its wings covered in tiny frost crystals. The soul was weak, yet whole, slowly nourished by Ice God's Chain's Soul-Gathering and Spirit-Nourishing power. Though it could not awaken, neither had it dispersed.

Long Bing.

Yun Zhiyu withdrew her spiritual power, complicated emotions surging through her heart—relief, guilt, and an indescribable heaviness. She had changed history, but not all of it. Long Bing's body had perished, yet her soul had been sealed within the necklace, "living" on in this strange manner.

"Yun Zhiyu," she gave her name, her voice steadier than she had expected. "Your necklace... is very special."

Wu Nianbing lowered her head, her fingertips brushing over the icy blue chain. A trace of softness flickered through her distant eyes. "My mother left it behind. Father said it could protect me."

"Your mother..." Yun Zhiyu repeated softly.

"Yes." Wu Nianbing's voice was quiet, as though afraid of disturbing something. "She died when I was very young. I don't remember what she looked like. I only remember... this chain is cool, and gentle."

Yun Zhiyu fell silent.

Outside the window, the old banyan's leaves rustled in the wind. Flecks of gold danced across the desks, while the clamor of new students drifted from afar. Some ran about, some laughed and bickered, and some argued endlessly over class assignments. Yet in this corner by the window, two girls sat facing each other—one clutching the icy chain at her neck, the other hiding a secret in her heart.

"Big Sister Yun," Wu Nianbing suddenly said. Her dark eyes held a depth beyond her years. "Do you know my father?"

Yun Zhiyu paused. "Why do you ask?"

"Your eyes," Wu Nianbing said. "The way you looked at this chain was like... you had known it for a long time."

Yun Zhiyu lowered her gaze, lightly tapping her fingers against the desk.

She remembered Wu Changkong from when she was one: dressed in white, carrying a blue sword, cold as frost. She remembered the faint glimmer that had flashed through his eyes when Zhuo Shi gave him Ice God's Chain. She remembered his despair in the original story after Long Bing's death, when he sealed his cultivation and left for East Sea City.

"I know your father," she finally said, her voice gentle but honest. "And I know... this chain. It once saved your mother's life, though... it could not save her in the end."

Wu Nianbing's fingertips stiffened on the icy chain.

After class, Yun Zhiyu went to find Wu Changkong alone.

East Sea Academy's teacher dormitory stood behind the classroom buildings, a five-story gray-white structure overgrown with ivy. Standing before Room 502, she raised her hand, hesitated, then knocked lightly, as though testing something.

The door opened.

Wu Changkong was thinner than he had been six years ago. His white clothes were pristine as snow, his blue sword carried on his back, and his cold, severe face bore a few more traces of hardship. His eyes landed on Yun Zhiyu. Confusion came first, then his pupils abruptly shrank—he recognized those eyes. Although her hair and eye colors had changed, her calm bearing was exactly like that of the infant practicing horse stance beside Sea God's Pavilion years ago.

"You are..." His voice was hoarse with disbelief.

"Yun Zhiyu." She bowed. "Yun Ming's daughter from Sea God's Pavilion. Senior Brother Wu, I have long admired your name."

Wu Changkong froze where he stood.

Nine years ago, he had been a disciple of Shrek's Inner Court, Zhuo Shi's direct disciple, and Long Bing's lover. Nine years later, he was a teacher at East Sea Academy, Long Bing's surviving husband, a man whose heart had turned to ashes as he raised his daughter alone.

"Come in." He finally stepped aside, his voice deep and still as an ancient well.

The room was simply furnished: one bed, one table, one chair. A portrait hung on the wall. The woman in it wore white, her features gentle, and she resembled Wu Nianbing by seventy percent. Yun Zhiyu's gaze lingered on the portrait for a moment, bitterness welling up in her heart.

"Aunt Long Bing..." she murmured.

Wu Changkong's body stiffened. He walked to the table and poured two glasses of water, his movements mechanical, as though completing some ritual. When he pushed one toward Yun Zhiyu, his fingertips trembled faintly, sending small ripples across the surface.

"What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice carrying suppressed exhaustion.

"Ice God's Chain." Yun Zhiyu looked straight into his eyes. "Didn't it protect Aunt Long Bing?"

Wu Changkong remained silent for a long time.

Outside the window, the old banyan's leaves rustled in the wind, filtering the afternoon sunlight into scattered flecks of gold that fell across his pale face. He looked down at his hands. They were long and powerful, hands that had once wielded a sword against evil and held his beloved in an embrace. Now, they trembled faintly.

"It did protect her," he finally said, his voice seeming to come from far away. "That chain you... the one you passed to me through my teacher, Long Bing wore it all the time. She said it was cool and comfortable, like someone was watching over her."

He paused, his fingers tightening around the glass until his knuckles turned white. "But later, on the day she gave birth, the chain suddenly shone and protected her within an icy blue barrier. I thought... I thought everything would be fine. But who could have known..."

"Dark Hummingbird," Yun Zhiyu continued, cold fury in her voice. "Aunt Long Bing's father, the Holy Spirit Cult's Titled Douluo."

Wu Changkong suddenly raised his head, shock flashing through his blue eyes. "How did you know?"

"Shrek's intelligence network." Yun Zhiyu lied without changing her expression. "My father told me. Teacher Wu, what happened after that?"

After that.

Wu Changkong's voice grew quieter and quieter, as though sinking into a bottomless abyss. Dark Hummingbird had brought powerful members of the Holy Spirit Cult to their door, intending to take Long Bing away and kill him, a mere mortal who had "defiled the bloodline of evil soul masters." Long Bing could have escaped under Ice God's Chain's protection, but she chose another way—

She used herself as bait, triggering the evil soul master bloodline within her to self-destruct, dragging Dark Hummingbird and the Holy Spirit Cult members into a vortex of death. At the final moment, Ice God's Chain gathered her soul, but it could not preserve her body.

"She told me to take Nianbing and leave." Wu Changkong's voice was hoarse as though he had wept. "She said... she said the chain would protect her, told me not to look back. I... I carried Nianbing and ran far, so far. When I went back, all that remained was this chain, and..."

He could not continue.

Yun Zhiyu looked at the man in white with the blue sword. She remembered how he had been cold as ice nine years ago, yet had light in his eyes. She remembered the tragedy from the original story, where he sealed his cultivation after Long Bing's death and became a walking corpse. She had changed history, but not all of it. Long Bing's body had perished, her soul had been sealed away, and Wu Changkong still lived in pain.

"Teacher Wu," she said softly, "Aunt Long Bing's soul... is still here."

Wu Changkong shuddered. The glass slipped from his fingers and shattered into countless glittering fragments on the floor. He seized Yun Zhiyu's wrist, his grip so strong that it hurt. Nearly crazed hope burned in his blue eyes. "What did you say?!"

"Ice God's Chain." Yun Zhiyu did not pull away, her voice as steady as the deep sea. "It has the effect of Soul-Gathering and Spirit-Nourishing. When Aunt Long Bing self-destructed, the chain should have collected her soul within itself and slowly nourished it with Ice Soul Power. Teacher Wu, all these years... haven't you noticed?"

Wu Changkong froze.

He slowly released her hand. His gaze fell upon his trembling fingertips, then gradually shifted toward the window—somewhere in that direction, Nianbing should be in her classroom, clutching the icy chain at her neck as she quietly attended class.

"Nianbing..." he murmured. "Ever since she was little, Nianbing said that the chain sometimes glowed. It was cool, gentle... as if... as if someone were stroking her head..."

"That is Aunt Long Bing," Yun Zhiyu said, her voice holding an almost compassionate gentleness. "She is protecting her daughter, and she is also... waiting for you."

Wu Changkong's eyes finally reddened.

This man, cold as frost. This "proud, aloof male god" who had never shed tears in the original story. At this moment, he was like a lost child, burying his face in his palms as his shoulders shook violently. He made no sound. There was only his stifled, broken breathing, like a sword rusting away inside its sheath, giving voice to a silent lament.

Yun Zhiyu did not disturb him.

She rose and walked to the wall, looking at Long Bing's portrait. The woman in the painting had gentle brows and eyes, a faint smile on her lips, as though she were looking at someone she deeply loved. Yun Zhiyu's spiritual power quietly spread, reaching toward a hidden compartment beneath the portrait—inside lay an icy blue gemstone fragment, from the same source as Ice God's Chain, but even purer.

"Teacher Wu." She turned around, her voice gentle but firm. "Aunt Long Bing's soul is sleeping within the chain. It needs time to recover, but... her body has already been destroyed. Truly reviving her will be difficult."

"How difficult?" Wu Changkong looked up. His blue eyes were bloodshot, yet they burned with a light that refused to go out.

"Become a god," Yun Zhiyu said. "Divine power can reshape her body and call back her soul. That is... the only way."

The room was silent for a long time.

Wu Changkong slowly rose, walked to the portrait, and reached out to trace the painted woman's features. His movements were so gentle that it seemed he was touching a fragile dream. His fingertips rested on the frame for a very, very long time.

"Become a god... but the God Realm has vanished now, and the path to godhood has been severed..." he repeated quietly. His voice carried a determination to stake everything on this. "Fine. I will wait. Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years... I will wait."

Yun Zhiyu looked at his back and suddenly recalled the ten muddled years Wu Changkong had spent in East Sea City in the original story. Without her intervention, he would have passed the rest of his life with his cultivation sealed, until Tang Wulin appeared and reignited the edge of that blue sword.

But now, she had given him a goal, a hope, a reason to keep holding his sword.

"Teacher Wu," she said softly, "don't tell Nianbing the truth about her necklace... at least, not yet."

"Why?"

"She is still young," Yun Zhiyu said. "She cannot bear the alternation between such hope and despair. When she grows up and becomes strong enough, then tell her... that her mother has always been protecting her."

Wu Changkong was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. He turned to look at Yun Zhiyu, his blue eyes filled with complicated emotions—gratitude, confusion, and an indescribable scrutiny.

"You..." he began, his voice hoarse. "Why are you helping us?"

Yun Zhiyu paused, then curved her lips into a smile. She remembered giving Ice God's Chain to Zhuo Shi when she was one. She remembered how, at six, she had watched Grandpa Zhuo Shi guide his disciples near the forging room with wistful nostalgia. She remembered the ending from the original story, where this man in white with the blue sword burned his life away during the Abyssal War, embracing Long Bing's phantom as he died.

"Because," she said, so softly that it seemed she was speaking to herself, "I do not want to see... good people go unrewarded."

She turned and walked toward the door. With her hand on the doorknob, she suddenly stopped.

"Teacher Wu," she said without looking back, "I will become a god, soon. When that time comes... I will revive Aunt Long Bing. This is my promise to you, and also... to myself."

The door closed behind her, shutting Wu Changkong's stunned gaze inside.

In the corridor, sunlight streamed through the windows, outlining Yun Zhiyu in a faint golden glow. She looked down at her hands. These hands had forged stars, wielded a sword against evil, and given Ice God's Chain to a desperate man. Now they bore another weight—a promise about godhood, resurrection, and changing fate.

System, how long will Ice God's Chain's Soul-Gathering and Spirit-Nourishing take to repair Long Bing's soul?

[Estimate: approximately thirty to fifty years, depending on the host's cultivation progress]

[Notice: after the host becomes a god, the recovery process can be accelerated and the body can be reshaped]

Thirty to fifty years. Yun Zhiyu clenched her fists.

For ordinary people, that was half a lifetime. For soul masters, it was a long wait. But for her, it was merely part of the journey toward godhood. She had the Torch Dragon Bloodline, the Xuanyuan Sword martial soul, the system's assistance, and Shrek's resources—she had to become a god. She would become a god. She would create her own God Realm and change the tragedies.

Wait for me, she said in her heart, not knowing whether she was speaking to Long Bing, Wu Changkong, or herself. I will do it.

When she returned to the classroom, Wu Nianbing was still seated by the window. The hem of her white dress brushed against the chair, and her fingertips clutched the icy chain at her neck as if feeling a warmth that only she could touch.

Yun Zhiyu sat beside her. Her gaze fell on the shield-shaped gemstone as her spiritual power quietly spread toward its depths—the wisp of deep-blue soul was still asleep. The frost crystals on its wings were more lustrous than they had been nine years ago, like a slow yet steadfast recovery.

"Big Sister Yun," Wu Nianbing suddenly asked, confusion in her dark eyes. "Where did you go?"

"To see your father," Yun Zhiyu answered honestly. "To catch up."

"Father..." Wu Nianbing's voice softened. "He rarely catches up with anyone."

"Then I am honored." Yun Zhiyu smiled and took out a sugar painting from her pocket—a dragon-shaped one she had bought on the streets of East Sea City. "Here. My younger sister likes these, so I thought you might like one too."

Wu Nianbing looked at the sugar painting for a long time before finally reaching out to accept it. She gently bit off a corner. Sweetness melted across her tongue, and a rare softness flashed through her cold eyes.

"It is sweet," she said, a faint curve appearing on her lips. "Thank you, Big Sister Yun."

Yun Zhiyu watched her smile and suddenly thought of this girl, who had never appeared in the original story and whose fate had changed because of her. Wu Nianbing—Wu Changkong and Long Bing's daughter, guardian of Ice God's Chain, daughter of a sleeping soul. Her existence was a continuation of tragedy, but also a seed of hope.

"Nianbing," she said softly, "keep wearing your necklace. Never take it off, never lose it, and never give it to anyone."

"I know." Wu Nianbing tightened her grip on the icy chain. "Father said Mother left it for me. It is more important than my life."

"More important than your life," Yun Zhiyu repeated, her voice solemn as an oath. "Remember those words."

Outside the window, the old banyan's leaves rustled in the wind, filtering the afternoon sunlight into scattered flecks of gold across the two girls' desks. The clamor of new students came from afar. Some ran about, some laughed and bickered, and some were nervous about the coming lessons.

Yet in this corner by the window, one clutching an icy chain and one hiding a secret, they sat facing each other like the intertwining of fate.

Yun Zhiyu withdrew her gaze and looked toward the drifting clouds beyond the window. The Tang Sect Bracelet around her wrist glowed faintly. Zhen Hua's Star Ring flowed with deep radiance around her finger, while Na'er's Silver Dragon Hairpin rested against her skin, sending waves of warmth through her.

East Sea Academy. Tang Wulin, Gu Yue, Xie Xie, Xu Xiaoyan, Wu Nianbing...

Her path had only just begun.