The heavy snow that fell upon the Capital in late spring, in the fourth month, dressed the splendid towers and terraces of the palace's inner grounds in a world of ice and snow.
When the men opened the icebound palace gates and entered the inner gardens, they were astonished to discover that, even amid such bitter ice and snow, many people were still alive! To the soldiers who had witnessed the strange snowstorm, though it was unlike anything they had seen in their lives and they knew nothing of its true power, the remarkable instincts honed through countless battles told them that the rebels within the palace must surely have been wiped out. Thus, when they actually stormed the palace and found so many survivors still drawing breath, they were naturally amazed.
Only Xing Yan knew the reason. The snow he had just brought down was fierce and desolate only in appearance; at its heart, it remained a gentle, forgiving spell of Daoism. The killing power of the ice and snow falling from the sky depended solely on the malice within those subjected to it. Whatever their magical power or cultivation, the more cruel and treacherous their hearts, the greater the harm they suffered beneath the snow.
Thus, as later inspections revealed, Marquis Changyi and his trusted followers had been frozen into shattered fragments. Many of the "experts" who aided the rebellion, brimming with the fire energy of the Five Phases, had also fallen dead by the wayside without exception. And among all the rebels frozen to death by this single snowfall was, unexpectedly, an old acquaintance of Xing Yan's!
Once the outcome was settled, Xing Yan and Ju Ying hurried with elite soldiers toward the palace's main hall, the Supreme Ultimate Hall. Just as they were about to rush