On the ice field, Huo Yuhao knelt amid the shattered ice.
He lowered his head, his body trembling violently. Both hands clawed desperately at the ice, his nails digging into it as blood seeped from between his fingers and flowed across the frozen surface.
"Urgh..."
A suppressed growl squeezed out from the depths of his throat.
It did not sound human. It sounded more like a wounded beast.
He raised his head.
Those eyes—blood-red.
The Eye of Destiny was wide open on his forehead, golden light bursting out chaotically in every direction without any pattern. Wherever that light swept across the ice field, deep ravines exploded open, sending shards of ice flying.
The Ice Wings abruptly spread behind him, then abruptly folded away. Extreme cold and extreme fire intertwined madly around him, exploding into clouds of mist that froze into ice crystals before being burned into vapor.
He knelt at the center of that chaos.
Su Mo's memories were still flooding into him.
The tragic deaths of his parents—that rainy night, the flash of a blade, blood splattering across his face. He had been held underwater, drowning in suffocating despair, darkness, endless darkness.
Then there were his own memories.
The moment Huo Yun'er fell, the humiliation he had suffered through all those years at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, those contemptuous looks, those vicious words.
The two sets of memories tangled together, tearing at his consciousness.
"Ah—!"
Huo Yuhao threw back his head and howled.
That cry carried Su Mo's hatred, his own hatred, and the despair of being abandoned, trampled upon, and used by schemes across two lifetimes.
The ice field trembled.
The Eye of Destiny's light exploded, blasting one deep ravine after another around him.
He began to laugh.
"Heh... hehehe..."
The laughter was soft, very soft, forced