It was a bright, sunny afternoon.
Elia arrived at the arena and walked toward the girl with short, ash-gray hair.
Her expression was calm, devoid of both joy and sorrow. She appeared composed, as if she were marching toward a destined fate.
The stands were deathly silent; nearly everyone held their breath.
They never expected that even when facing Kalin, Elia would not run away.
At this moment, they actually felt a hint of admiration for Elia’s courage.
Many people also began to involuntarily worry about Elia’s end.
Lu Mo sat in the front row, looking at the two of them with extreme focus.
If the situation became dire, she would intervene.
— Even if doing so violated the academy’s rules.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
Watching Elia approach, Kalin spoke indifferently, “A servant has no right to challenge me.”
Elia did not answer. She simply looked straight into Kalin’s eyes, which were as cold as the dead of winter.
Then, she raised the sword in her hand.
This action seemed to provoke Kalin. Invisible ripples emanated outward, centered on the short-haired girl.
In that instant, everyone felt the temperature in the arena drop significantly. Snowflakes faintly drifted around Kalin.
“The match begins —”
The referee announced the start of the battle.
Elia moved, attempting to strike at Kalin.
But Kalin was faster.
*Bang —*
In just a moment, snowflakes blasted toward Elia’s chest like flying daggers.
Elia was sent flying, falling heavily onto the ground.
Blood began to flow across the floor.
“Let your master come.” Kalin spoke and prepared to turn and leave.
In her eyes, the battle was already over.
However, the referee did not announce the result.
Before long, more movement came from behind her.
Kalin turned around and saw that Elia had actually struggled back to her feet.
The girl wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and stood unsteadily. Lowering her body, she once again assumed a combat stance.
Elia looked at her and spoke with some difficulty: “The battle has… only just begun…”
In those eyes was an unprecedented tenacity and determination.
Kalin did not like that look.
She especially disliked a servant looking at her with such eyes.
“Is that so?” she asked, tilting her head. The cold desolation in her eyes intensified.
An even more terrifying pressure echoed out at this moment. A cold wind rose, and frost spread across the ground with her at the center.
“If you seek death, then I shall grant it to you.”
*Swoosh —*
As her voice fell, the short-haired girl’s figure turned into a blur, charging toward Elia.
The silver-white rapier brought forth a flurry of snow. The sword’s momentum was like a wild serpent opening its bloody fangs.
Elia did not flinch and took the initiative to meet her.
*Bang —*
*Bang —*
After several consecutive exchanges, Elia was knocked back multiple times.
She fell to the ground, spat out blood, and clutched her wounds.
Even with the damage conversion array in place, the injuries she sustained were far too severe.
Deep gashes appeared on her legs, arms, and waist.
Frost seeped into her flesh, further worsening her wounds.
Both she and Kalin were using frost-attribute combat techniques.
But in front of Kalin, her abilities were completely suppressed. Not only were her techniques much slower to execute, but when she struck at Kalin, her sword skills were weakened like never before.
It was a mortal facing a genius.
A commoner standing before the Ice Queen.
Failure was certain.
It was destined to end in tragedy.
It was utterly gruesome.
Falling now and refusing to stand up would perhaps be the most sensible choice.
But Elia refused.
She stood up time and time again, clumsily swinging her sword.
It was like the ancient times, before the campfires were lit, when humans fought against dragons in the dark of night.
Even if the night was long and the end was nowhere in sight, one had to keep moving forward.
Until… the very last moment of life.
*Clang —*
Another defense.
Kalin swung her sword, and Elia immediately defended, blocking the strike.
But her strength was no match for Kalin’s. She was still knocked to the ground. The webbing between her thumb and forefinger tore open, and the blood that was about to drip down froze onto the sword hilt.
“Truly foolish…”
Kalin walked toward Elia step by step, looking down with arrogance. “Why don’t you understand? What you are doing now is completely meaningless. You are like the punished in myths, pushing a giant boulder to the top of a mountain only for it to roll back down again. You are like a foolish farmer who fancies himself a knight, crashing into windmills until he is bruised and battered.
You cannot defeat me, and I will eventually defeat your master as well.”
‘Maybe so…’
But under Kalin’s slightly surprised gaze, Elia actually stood up once again.
Her blood-stained hand had frozen together with her sword.
Yet she had no intention of letting go. Instead, she continued to point it at her opponent.
‘Foolish? Meaningless?’
Elia spoke, “But if I don’t try, how will I know how it ends?”
She had long since made up her mind. Until she truly fell, she would never admit defeat.
She wanted to win.
She wanted to enter the Advanced Class.
She wanted to stand side-by-side with Lu Mo.
And then, she wanted to say those words hidden deep in her heart.
If she could hold hands with Lu Mo and walk together during the best years of her life—
*Bang —*
A massive wound was torn into Elia’s left shoulder by the ice and snow. The intense pain distorted her expression, and her face turned deathly pale.
But she stood up yet again.
“The night will always pass, just as Elia will surely shine.”
A memory of sitting on the grass with Lu Mo, gazing at the starry sky, suddenly flashed through her mind.
The girl had comforted her, believed in her, and smiled gently with light in her eyes.
*Rrrrrip —*
Another bloody gash was torn into Elia’s abdomen.
If not for the damage reduction array, she might have already collapsed in a pool of blood, critically injured or dying.
But now, she stood up again by sheer force of will.
Knocked down again and again.
Near fainting again and again.
Just like before, a faint frost power flowed over the surface of Elia’s body.
It slowly healed her wounds, supporting her as she stood up.
However, amidst the swirling snow, no one noticed this scene.
“Enough… just surrender…”
In the stands, some people couldn’t bear to watch any longer. This was a one-sided slaughter.
He spoke as if pleading for Elia to give up.
Even if she lost, there would be no shame in it.
“Surrender,” someone else said.
“Surrender,” voices began to converge.
This battle was destined to be a tragedy.
It would end with the genius defeating the mortal once more.
Lu Mo did not speak.
She looked at the arena, involuntarily gripping the hem of her clothes.
She respected Elia’s decision.
But the moment Elia was truly unable to withstand the next attack, she would definitely step in.
The cold wind wailed.
Elia vaguely heard the voices from outside, wanting her to surrender.
It was as if they were telling her to accept her fate.
Some things, no matter how hard you work, will never bear fruit.
“This is your last chance,” Kalin said.
She was tired of this.
Next, she would use her strongest power.
Although… doing so might cost a life.
However, she could afford to pay the price for a servant’s life.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t killed before back in her family.
Elia said nothing and stood up once more.
In the cold wind, she looked so lonely and fragile, and yet… so persistent.
*Whoosh —*
And so, Kalin no longer hid her killing intent.
In the next second, she used her rapier to slice her own palm.
Blood dripped onto the ground, and in an instant, a terrifying energy fluctuation surged!
Boundless frost power gathered toward her blood. At that moment, it transformed into pillars of ice, extending upward, and finally…
Transformed into a massive tree of frost!
Every leaf and every branch contained terrifying frost power, faintly showing natural law patterns.
As Kalin lowered her sword toward Elia, endless falling leaves and countless branches rotated frantically, sweeping toward Elia to swallow her whole!
It was so fast that the referee didn’t even have time to declare the match over!
“Oh no —” The referee’s face turned pale instantly.
This combat technique was far beyond the expected level!
It would definitely kill Elia!
The Hall Masters sitting in the high seats also changed their expressions. At such a close distance, they couldn’t possibly save Elia in time!
*Hum —*
The crisp ring of a sword sounded again as a pitch-black sword appeared in Lu Mo’s hand.
She stood up, intending to intervene in the battle.
Endless frost rotated as it surged toward Elia.
It blocked the sunlight, bringing darkness and cold to the girl’s side, as if to bury her in an eternal night.
The howling wind turned into cold words, questioning her heart and soul—
‘Do you accept your fate?’
“I do not.”
Even now, Elia’s answer remained the same as before.
‘Effort will turn into stars. Though faint, they flicker in the night sky, fighting against the darkness.’
She had seen stars light up the night; there was never any true despair.
‘The night will always pass, and the sun will eventually rise.’
She had once leaned on Lu Mo’s shoulder and watched the sunrise with her.
Lu Mo had always encouraged her.
And in truth, she had always wanted to tell Lu Mo something —
Actually, whether the sun rises or not doesn’t matter.
‘Sister Lu Mo, you are the light of my life.’
‘As long as you are there, I will not be afraid.’
She was moving forward, continuing on her path.
In fact, she was chasing after Lu Mo, wanting to catch up to her one day and walk side-by-side with her.
She wanted to move, to keep walking forward.
But the frost froze her body, making it impossible to move even a single inch.
She wanted to look at Lu Mo one more time.
But the darkness covered her vision, taking everything away.
‘Move!’
She told herself, forcibly breaking the frost on her skin. Her wounds tore open, and blood flowed freely.
‘Keep going!’
She told herself. Ice spikes pierced her legs, but she endured all the pain and took another step forward.
She didn’t sign up for this exam just to prove herself.
Her obsession…
Was Lu Mo —
*Crack —*
The intense obsession and unwillingness finally broke some invisible shackle at this moment.
Elia felt her entire body become light.
An energy that had been hidden within her for a long time was constantly surging outward.
It healed her wounds and spread to every part of her body.
Suddenly, she felt a powerful talent awakening, no longer obscured by dust.
Her cultivation level was breaking through at an incredible speed.
Breaking through the Early Stage, surging all the way toward the late stages of the Intermediate Stage!
She felt that the wind and snow in front of her were no longer cold, nor were they dangerous.
She could make all of this stop.
— With a single thought.
“What?!”
“What… what’s happening… why have the frost tree and the snow all frozen in place?”
In this instant, the people outside looked at the arena in disbelief. Some even stood up straight.
Kalin’s attack had actually stalled!
“Did Kalin decide to spare Elia?” someone asked in surprise.
No.
Because Kalin was also stunned.
She looked at the frozen snow and suddenly had a very bad feeling.
In the snow, there seemed to be an existence that even she feared, slowly approaching.
There was also a wind blowing from the other side of the frozen snow, making a mournful sound.
It was like a sigh from the wind and snow.
Like… Frost Whisper.
It had once been just an ordinary, bright, and sunny afternoon.
But sometimes, when Elia looked back, she realized it was the day her fate underwent a massive change.
She heard the sigh in the wind and snow, and more than once, she wondered whose sigh it truly was.
It crossed time and space, carrying an extremely heavy sense of destiny.
It sounded so sad, so filled with sorrow.
Who is sighing in the wind and snow?
Many years later, on a similarly bright and sunny afternoon, she suddenly understood. Her heart trembled with shock as tears streamed down her face, happening so fast there was no time for regret or sorrow.