By then, Tian had reached Rank 20. His cultivation was slow, agonizingly so compared to prodigies—yet consistent. Year after year, frost accumulated like snow upon mountains.
One spring night, he ventured with senior hunters to capture another weak beast. They found it near ice-laden streams: a Frost Viper, its scales shimmering faint under aurora, cultivation twenty years.
It was not much, yet to Tian, it was everything.
The elder guided the hunt, wounding the viper until Tian could deliver finishing strike. With heart pounding, Tian sat cross-legged, Frost Crystal spirit flickering, as the faint purple glow emerged—his second soul ring.
Agony returned. His fragile body trembled, veins bursting, blood seeping. Yet Yuexin's hand clutched him from behind, whispering encouragement, her warmth anchoring him through hours of storm.
Finally—he succeeded.
The viper's ring fused. He collapsed exhausted, but when he awoke, the Frost Crystal pulsed with new clarity.
A second ability emerged: "Frost Bind" — fragile threads of chilling air that could stagnate motion briefly. Weak compared to soul masters' skills, yet synergistic with his Frost Veil.
Slow. Bind. Preserve.
Though he staggered half-dead after absorption, villagers cheered. None doubted now: Leng Tian, mocked ridiculed youth, had truly become a Soul Grandmaster.
He only smiled faintly, whispering to Yuexin:
"It is not my strength that matters. It is the roots that will grow from it."
🔥 End of Chapter 28