The gray cloud of ash drifted slowly across the splintered terrace, caught in the cold draft that whistled through the ruined arches of Sovereign Hall. Not a single trace remained of the monstrous entity that had terrorized the mountain for months. Su Rou had staked her soul on a dark pact, and the backlash had stripped her from existence down to the last molecule of flesh.
Ye Chen stood alone in the center of the crater, his fingers closing tightly around the long, radiant bone he had just recovered. He felt its pure warmth pulse against his permanently chilled palm, a stark contrast to the winter locked inside his own nervous system. Across the broken flagstones, Sect Master Zhao Tianxiao stared blankly at the empty space where the matriarch had stood.
His breathing was shallow and rag
