In a luxurious inn tucked away in the bustling heart of the Great Eastern City, a man who looked to be in his twenties lounged in a sleek black Western suit, tailored perfectly to his frame, paired with a crisp white shirt and fitted black trousers.
Two women sat on either side of him, draped in delicate, flowing red silk dresses that clung to their forms, revealing just enough to hint at their elegance and allure. One rested her slender fingers on his chest, while the other gently nibbled at his ear. The room smelled faintly of incense and wine, a perfect blend of luxury and indulgence.
The young man lifted a crystal glass of deep red wine to his lips. His golden eyes, sharp yet filled with indulgence, swept across the dancers moving gracefully in the open space before him. They twirled and swayed in thin, shimmering costumes, their movements a hypnotic blend of artistry and seduction.
He watched calmly, savouring each sip of his wine, his attention drifting lazily across the dancers' alluring movements.
From the doorway, a figure appeared… a man with a slightly shadowed face and an unreadable expression. He moved silently, closing the distance and positioning himself just behind the young master, blending into the dim lighting of the room.
Minutes passed as the dancers finished their routine. The young man finally raised a hand, a subtle signal that required no words. Instantly, the man behind him hurried forward and bowed low.
"Young Master Edrick," he said in a low voice, careful yet urgent, "Mo Xuan, along with the Moon City Lord and his son… they have been killed. By someone."
Edrick's golden eyes narrowed slightly. He swirled the wine in his glass, his grip tightening, as an imperceptible, cruel smile curved his lips.
"That idiot Mo Xuan really went that far… hiding in some countryside," Edrick said with clear disappointment.
"And in the end, the only thing he achieved there was death."
He took another slow sip of wine.
"Such a waste of a useful tool."
The man behind him hesitated before speaking again.
"Young Master… this news will be difficult to suppress."
Edrick paused for a moment, then asked calmly, his tone unchanged,
"Who killed them?"
"We don't know the other party's full background," the man replied, still bowing.
"But they are said to be led by someone called Young Master K, seemingly connected to one of the powers from the Central Continent."
He continued carefully,
"He has a subordinate who personally killed the Moon City lord's son. As for Mo Xuan… his location appears to have been leaked by a senior of unknown cultivation backing their side."
"Young Master K…?"
Edrick raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I've never heard of him. Does he belong to one of those reclusive powers?"
"It's still uncertain," the man answered.
"We've already sent people to investigate his background."
Edrick's gaze shifted, his arm tightening around the waists of the two women beside him as he straightened slightly.
"And that girl with Yin Physique…" he asked slowly, licking his lips.
"Du Yue."
"She's still unaccounted for," the man replied.
"We're not sure whether she's alive… or dead."
Edrick fell silent.
After a moment, he spoke again, his voice low and thoughtful.
"With injuries like hers, there's no way she could hide for long in such a place."
"Either she's dead… or someone is deliberately concealing her."
His eyes gleamed faintly.
"Are they connected to this so-called Young Master K…?"
He chuckled softly.
"No matter what… I can't afford to miss this opportunity."
He leaned in and bit lightly at the cheek of the woman in his arms, then spoke again… this time, his voice cold and cruel.
"I don't care what it takes," he said quietly.
"Go yourself… and take more men with you. Turn that entire countryside upside down if you have to."
His golden eyes gleamed.
"I want her… even if she's nothing more than a corpse."
******
A handsome young man in white robes walked forward with an easy stride. His black hair fell over his shoulders, neatly tied into a ponytail, while his sharp, lively dark eyes gave his otherwise calm and youthful face a quietly striking presence.
A cheerful smile rested on his lips as he walked shoulder to shoulder with a beautiful woman in blue robes.
The woman had long, flowing black hair that reached her waist. Her blue robes made her look like an elegant goddess descending upon the mortal world, and the golden dragon-and-phoenix earrings at her ears sparkled as they reflected the sunlight along the snowy path.
Yet contrary to her graceful beauty, the woman… Du Yue… wore an expression full of grievance and barely concealed annoyance, the look of a wife who had far too many complaints.
She kept stealing sideways glances at the man who was supposed to be her husband, and seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, something made obvious by the sunflower-like smile plastered across his face.
Above Du Yue's head, ten heavy spirit steel balls and five soft water blobs revolved in complex orbits, circling like a miniature solar system and making her resemble some kind of celestial deity.
As if that weren't enough, heavy spirit rings were worn all over her body… so heavy that every step she took threatened to leave a pothole in the ground.
Worse still, Su Wen had forced her to wear thin wooden sandals beneath her feet. She had to carefully control her strength to avoid shattering them, making every single step even more exhausting.
The training included, tempering her Soul Sense by controlling the ten spirit steel balls, keeping them revolving around one another just above her head. The weight of the rings combined with the constantly changing rotations… sometimes clockwise, sometimes anticlockwise, sometimes up and down in zigzag patterns… pushed her Soul Sense to its limits.
At the same time, she controlled the five water blobs using a small portion of her Soul Sense that controlled her Spiritual Qi, reshaping them continuously.
Using her Grade Three Snow Intent, she froze the water into small ice figurines, though their crude forms showed they still needed refinement.
She would then revert the figurines back into water, compress them into tiny droplets, freeze them again, and shoot them off into the distance… repeating the process over and over.
By doing so, she tempered her Grade 3 Snow Intent until it aligned perfectly with her will, while simultaneously refining her Spiritual Qi control to an even greater level.
Lastly, with the spirit rings weighing down her body, she had to devote a portion of her concentration to controlling her strength.
She wasn't using Spiritual Qi, nor her Yin Vital Qi, to bear the weight… instead, she relied on her raw physique, using the burden itself to temper her body directly.