A frozen smile

A Giant Sphinx swept across the azure firmament, heading east.

After he had spent some time in Northern Europe, drinking and chatting with old friends, the days had slipped by in a flash.

Now that he belonged to the long-lived Divine Clan, his sense of time was slowly changing, no longer as hurried as it had been in the old civilization.

Before he left, Aulisel gathered Jiang Yang and the Seven God Kings for a meeting to discuss what they had discovered in the Deep Sea.

But however they turned it over in their minds, none of the Gods had a solution. They could only wait until they were stronger before considering it again.

After the meeting, Li Xiaowa from the Great Snowfield Shelter made a video call, asking Jiang Yang when he would return.

As the person least like a God King, she had finally waited until Jiang Yang awoke and wanted to lay down her burden, only for him to promptly run off to travel the world.

The other God Kings had all left their shelters to establish Divine Courts elsewhere. Only Li Xiaowa and Mar had remained in their original shelters.

Mar simply could not defeat Gilgamesh. Now that Gilgamesh was dead, he too had begun establishing a Divine Court elsewhere.

Li Xiaowa, meanwhile, was not particularly enthusiastic about being a God King.

Moreover, the territory under the Great Snowfield Shelter's jurisdiction was vast, and even now, many powerful Strange Beasts still lived within it.

Li Xiaowa was relatively weak and had been the last to reach Emperor-Rank, so naturally she could not manage it all. Letting the Golden Humans venture out to fend for themselves was already the most she could do.

After all, when the shelters were first established and their territories divided, Jiang Yang's presence had naturally earned theirs a large jurisdiction.

Li Xiaowa only wanted to stay at the Great Snowfield Shelter, do research with Qing Fengxi, and live a good life.

In the battle back then, the Great Snowfield Shelter had suffered the greatest losses. Jiang Yang had vanished, and Ania had died in battle.

Picking the tallest from among the dwarfs, Chen Jing had therefore handed authority to her before she died, leaving her to shoulder tremendous pressure.

But all of that had vanished the instant Jiang Yang returned.

It was as though someone taller had come to hold up the sky over the Great Snowfield Shelter.

Seeing the earnestness and exhaustion in Li Xiaowa's eyes over the video call, Jiang Yang could only agree.

But it would have to wait until he returned from the Far North Shelter.

He wanted to visit Isa, and Ania, who was still encased in ice.

The Far North Shelter had the smallest population of the Seven Great Refuges, but it actually bore responsibility for humanity's most important legacy.

That was the human gene bank, an advantage afforded by its natural environment.

Not only that, but the Old Humans who had voluntarily had themselves frozen were all housed in the Far North.

Living creatures were scarce here, and there were few powerful Strange Beasts. Even its greatest danger came only from the depths of the Ocean.

But there were few such beings in the waters of the Far North, either.

Scientists from the Seven Great Refuges often came here to exchange knowledge.

In fact, in the original plans, this had been the most secluded and safest place. If any shelter fell, it could take in its people.

Yet the Ice and Snow Divine Temple that Isa had established was extremely conspicuous.

Riding on Sphinx's back, Jiang Yang arrived in the Far North and spotted it at a glance.

It stood atop a towering snowy mountain, its crystalline temple of ice and snow a breathtaking sight.

Jiang Yang ordered Sphinx to land, then entered the Divine Temple with Filiya.

Members of the Far North Divine Clan at the Divine Temple spotted him and greeted him one after another.

"King Jiang!"

"Welcome to the Far North, King Jiang."

"Hahahaha, King Jiang, the Queen is already waiting for you inside the Divine Temple."

Jiang Yang smiled and nodded to them as he slowly stepped inside the Divine Temple.

White snow covered the ground, with white walls, white bricks, white tiles, and clusters of white palaces.

Everything was a world of pure white, until Jiang Yang entered an ornate palace and saw Isa standing at the doorway.

Her face was still youthful and beautiful, like a snow lotus frozen high above the nine heavens. Her bearing was even more ethereal and removed from the mortal world than it had been a thousand years ago. Rather than a God King, she seemed more like an immortal.

Her eyes seemed steeped in a sorrow that would not thaw in ten thousand ages.

The instant she saw Jiang Yang, she forced a smile onto her stiff face.

"Jiang Yang, welcome to the Far North!"

The sight pained Jiang Yang a little. He sighed softly and walked up to her.

"Isa, how long has it been since you last smiled?"