Silvery-white fissures poured light like a waterfall, tearing apart the darkness of the Shadow Abyss.Beneath Lin Tian's feet, a frost bridge formed, lowering him gently to solid ground. In his chest, the spirit pearl pulsed like a thunder drum, threatening to tear his flesh apart.
Crack—A sharp sound came from the ice coffin not far away.
It was the sound of fractures spreading.The icy-blue sigil at the coffin lid's center began to flicker, silver patterns rippling outward like a tide.
Mu Changsheng's gaze burned with feverish intensity. "At last… it's coming out."
Zi Dian instantly flashed in front of Lin Tian, lightning surging like a raging tide. "Lin Tian, stay back! That thing… does not belong to the mortal realm!"
Zhu Feng slowly raised his blade, his eyes locked with utter focus—as if he had been waiting for this very moment.From the remnants of the Shadow Abyss's rift, You Xuan's clawed shadow emerged, but it did not strike. It simply hovered, like a predator waiting for prey to step willingly into its trap.
Boom—The first chain upon the ice coffin shattered.A deep hum from the distant ages echoed in every mind—low, cold, and heavy with pressure, as though a boulder had been set upon each person's chest.
"That… is the will of the Hanyuan," Mu Changsheng trembled.
When the second chain broke, the air froze still.The surrounding temperature plummeted visibly; frost climbed the rock walls, and even Zi Dian's lightning disintegrated into tiny snow-like motes.
Lin Tian's breath quickened. He could feel the spirit pearl resonating with something inside the coffin—an unseen chain tugging at his chest, promising that if he willed it, the ice coffin would open completely.
"Lin Tian, hold on!" Zi Dian roared. "Once it's fully opened, you may never be yourself again!"
"Heh—" Mu Changsheng smiled, stepping closer. "And what of it? He will become the new master of Hanyuan."
The third chain—snapped.
Cracks raced across the coffin like a spider's web. Icy-blue radiance surged forth like a tidal wave, engulfing everything.Everyone was forced to shut their eyes.
When the light receded, a figure knelt within the coffin.A woman in silver-white armor, her hair like snow, eyes closed, her face cold and perfect as carved ice. Countless crystalline motes floated about her, each brimming with annihilating frost.
Lin Tian froze. Embedded in the woman's brow was an icy-blue jewel identical to the spirit pearl in his chest.
Mu Changsheng's voice shook with excitement. "A thousand years… the Heart of Hanyuan is at last reborn into this world!"
The woman's lashes trembled. Slowly, she opened her eyes—two icy-blue pupils meeting Lin Tian's gaze across the air.
In that instant, the spirit pearl in his chest pulsed with pure joy, flooding his body with freezing power.
Her voice came, cold as the wind of the eternal night:
"It was you… who awakened me?"
Lin Tian instinctively nodded.
The woman reached out, her fingertip brushing his forehead—
A torrent of memories crashed into his mind: a snowfield buried in bones, a blood-red sky over the far north, and… a man strikingly similar to him, standing at her side against an endless tide from the Shadow Abyss.
"You are… his heir," she said, her tone carrying a trace of complexity. "Then it shall be you who bears my name—Hanyuan."
As her words fell, the last trace of the coffin's frost poured into Lin Tian, the spirit pearl's glow erupting into a halo of icy-blue soul light.
You Xuan finally moved, his voice sharp as torn night:
"No—Hanyuan must not fall into your hands!"
The Shadow Abyss's darkness surged madly. Zhu Feng's blade light, Zi Dian's lightning tide, Mu Changsheng's incantations—everything converged toward Lin Tian.
But Lin Tian merely lifted his hand.The icy-blue soul ring expanded, and every attack turned into drifting frost the instant it neared him.
"Stand down."
For the first time, his voice carried a foreign, sovereign authority.
The entire mountain range fell silent at that single command.