The glacial winds screamed like vengeful wraiths as Moran's party traversed the Frozen Wastes, their breath crystallizing into daggers of ice. Luo Xuewei led them toward a mountain of black ice—its peaks clawing at the heavens like the petrified fingers of a buried titan. At its base, a cavern yawned open, its entrance framed by statues of frost phoenixes with eyes that wept frozen blood.
"The Glacial Tomb," Luo Xuewei announced, her voice swallowed by the howling storm. "Your disciple has languished here for ten millennia. Free her… if you dare."
Bai Zhu'er sniffed the air, her tails bristling. "Smells like betrayal and bad decisions. My favorite perfume!"
Moran strode forward, Voidflame curling around his boots, melting the cursed ice into steaming rivulets. "Stay close, fox. These walls hunger for fools."
Xia Qingyue lingered at the rear, her moonlit dagger gleaming. "Why are we doing this? She betrayed you!"
"Betrayal," Moran said without turning, "is a lesson best taught twice."
The tomb's interior defied reason—a labyrinth of shifting ice mirrors that reflected not their faces, but their deepest regrets. In one, Xia Qingyue saw Lin Moran's corpse rotting in the ditch. In another, Bai Zhu'er watched her eighth tail wither to dust. Moran's mirror showed nothing but darkness… until a woman's laughter echoed—the Star-Shattering Empress, her dagger still dripping with his ancient blood.
"Charming decor," Bai Zhu'er muttered, shattering a mirror with her claw. "Who knew frost cultivators were such drama queens?"
The ground quaked. The ice walls groaned and rearranged, sealing their exit. From the shadows emerged Frostbound Sentinels—skeletal warriors encased in glacial armor, their hollow eyes blazing with blue fire.
Luo Xuewei unsheathed her sword, its blade singing with frost. "The tomb's guardians. They cannot be killed, only delayed."
"Killing is overrated," Moran said. The Eclipse Codex flared, its pages fanning out like wings of oblivion. "Erasing, however…"
Voidflame surged in a tidal wave, swallowing the sentinels whole. Their armor melted, their bones turned to ash, and their blue fire winked out like snuffed candles.
"Showoff," Bai Zhu'er huffed, kicking a pile of frozen debris.
Deeper within, they found her.
Chained to a throne of black ice, her body encased in a cocoon of glacial crystal, was Yan Meiling—Moran's third disciple, the one who had once shattered continents with a sigh. Her eyes, frozen open, glowed with a faint golden light.
"Master…" The word slithered through the tomb, carried by the wind itself. "You… came?"
Xia Qingyue staggered, clutching her head. "Her voice—it's inside my mind!"
Luo Xuewei raised her sword, frost swirling around her. "Break the crystal. Free her, and our alliance holds."
Moran stepped closer, Voidflame dancing on his fingertips. "You hid her here. Why?"
"Because," Luo Xuewei whispered, "she is the key to the Frost Phoenix's rebirth. With her Dao of Eternal Winter, we could—"
"Liar." Moran's flames died abruptly. He pressed a hand to the crystal, his voice softening—a tone none had ever heard. "Meiling. Wake up."
The crystal cracked. Then exploded.
Yan Meiling collapsed into Moran's arms, her breath ragged, her golden eyes flickering. "Master… I tried to warn you… about the Well. But they… they bound me here…"
Bai Zhu'er's ears flattened. "Uh, Sovereign? We've got company."
The tomb trembled. Above them, the ice ceiling split open, revealing a colossal frost phoenix—its feathers forged from cursed glaciers, its cry shattering the air.
Luo Xuewei smiled.
"The Frost Phoenix thanks you for its vessel," she said, her body dissolving into swirling snow. "Yan Meiling's Dao will be reborn… and your era will freeze into myth."
Moran laid Yan Meiling gently on the ground, his Voidflame igniting with apocalyptic fury.
"You misunderstand," he said, staring down the descending godbeast. "I didn't come to save her."
The Codex's pages turned to ash as he spoke:
"I came to remind your kind why they once kneeled."