Demon Merin does not chase the sword.
He watches it return to Silan's hand like a swallow returning to its rightful nest—then turns away.
No shouting.
No unwilling roar.
Just a thin smile.
A promise to the future.
He descends again into the Frozen Abyss, the air sharpening like knives the deeper he goes. Here, silence is absolute—broken only by the faint tremor of ancient Dao.
He sits.
His Dao unfolds behind him—a devouring maw wrapped in ice and fire.
He begins.
---
Comprehending the Frozen Dao
The freezing Dao of this place is not mere cold.
It is stillness, suppression, entropy, the natural end of all motion.
The abyss assaults him immediately.
Ice creeps across his body.
Flesh cracks.
Blood crystallises.
Yet he does not defend.
Instead—
he devours.
The freezing energy pours into his Dao and splits apart under layered laws—Emotion guiding evolution, Five Elements balancing stability, Space creating containment, Devouring consuming resistance.
Fragments of law sharpen.
Concepts refine.
Days blur into months.
Months blur into years.
At last—
His Dao trembles.
A new Saint Art forms:
Frozen Silence
A technique that can stop motion—not by force, but by erasing the concept of movement itself.
But Demon Merin does not stop.
His eyes open—cold blue flame burning within—and he rises.
The cycle must continue.
---
Into the Fire Abyss
He travels south.
The air heats.
Sand becomes glass.
Ground becomes rivers of molten ore.
Fire here is not heat—it is will, change, rebirth, eruption.
He sits again, cross-legged.
The flames climb his body, devouring him, burning blood, bone, Dao—testing him.
He lets it.
His Dao opens again, and ancient flame pours in—not the fire of destruction, but the first spark of creation.
Flame becomes structure.
Structure becomes formula.
Formula becomes art.
Decades bleed away unnoticed.
Then—
BOOM.
His Dao manifests behind him:
Two branching tentacles—one pure ice, one pure fire.
Not clashing—rotating in harmony.
A dual polarity.
A mirror of this demi-world.
A new Saint Art form:
Infernal Reversal
Fire that becomes ice, and ice that becomes fire—a law contradiction that collapses enemy Dao from within.
With it comes insight—not of an art, but of the world itself.
He sees it.
A giant—a being of unimaginable scale—standing in chaos, pulling fire and ice from nothing, weaving existence between them.
Transformation Dao shaping foundation.
Devouring Dao stabilising imbalance.
Space Dao is sealing the borders.
A Supreme World-Forge Method.
Something meant to create—not imitate—reality.
His consciousness shudders.
Information floods him—far too vast.
He absorbs what he can.
One per cent.
Enough to evolve his Dao.
Enough to take him from budding to blooming.
---
Meanwhile: Silan
Far north, in the storm of resentment that never stops seeking her, Silan trains.
The world hates her now.
Every wronged spirit, every grudge, every unanswered malice—flows to her like iron filings to a magnet.
She should be corrupted.
She should be controlled.
Her soul should already be cracking.
But—
She sits with a calm blade in her hand.
The Supreme Sword suppresses the resentment, its will wrapping around her consciousness like a protective net.
She does not use it violently.
She uses it as anchor—a lodestone to stabilise her struggling Dao.
And while resentment batters her body and mind—
She studies.
She comprehends.
She walks the edge of imbalance and steals clarity from chaos.
That sword is not merely a weapon.
It is a lineage.
A legacy.
A map of a Supreme Dao.
With every passing day, she steps closer—
To Saint Realm.
And she knows.
Merin waits.
Watching.
Planning.
Counting on her fall.
Counting on her obedience.
Counting on the final step of the Resentment Battle Body technique to leave her exposed.
She smiles—cold as polar night.
"This time, I will be in control."
For the first time in her life, the words feel real.
No elders.
No sect edicts.
No arranged fate.
Just her—
and the Icefire Sword humming softly in her palm like a living heartbeat.
Control.
A foreign word.
Almost frightening.
Almost sacred.
Her smile lasts only a heartbeat before fading—replaced by a heavy, quiet worry.
Because the sword has shown her the truth.
Not as a rumour.
Not as a myth.
But as memory.
This world wasn't formed naturally.
It was created.
Forged by a Supreme so wounded he could no longer remain in the outside world.
The Spirit Dragon Supreme.
He had been hunted.
Cornered.
Torn apart by four other Supremes.
On the brink of death, he split the void, opened a space between worlds, and shaped it with the last of his will.
His body became the continents.
His blood became rivers and seas.
His bones became mountain ranges and abyss walls.
The living beings here—
the so-called Spirit Dragons—
They are not merely his descendants.
They are born from his corpse.
Children of a fallen god.
And she, Gu Silan—unwanted, abused, discarded—
is now the one chosen by the sword.
Because, like a seed waiting centuries to sprout, the sword has awakened.
The Icefire Sword remained behind to suppress the chaotic Dao of this demi-realm.
Its twin—the Fireice Sword—was sent to the outside world, to their original clan.
Now that the world stabilises…
now that the Dao no longer requires suppression…
The sword lives again.
The Demi-World edges toward the threshold of becoming a Small World—
a realm capable of birthing Saints, shaping destiny, and sustaining true creation.
To complete the ascension, it needs external resources.
And she…
She is chosen to gather them.
If everything follows the Supreme's original tapestry—
Then, when the world evolves,
The Spirit Dragon Supreme will resurrect.
A god returning from death.
A world reborn.
A people restored.
And she—
just a pawn in his plan.
Unless…
She rewrites it.
---
She continues cultivating, refining the Supreme Dao hidden in the sword's memory—law by law, fragment by fragment.
But eventually, even cultivation must pause.
---
A Quiet Day
One day, she stops her comprehension and calls Mengui to lunch.
Mother and daughter sit together at a wooden table, sunlight spilling through the window.
The air smells of soup and steamed rice.
Mengui swings her legs cheerfully, holding a chopstick in each hand—far too carefree for someone centuries old.
But she was born in isolation, not court politics.
A child raised on danger, rebellion, and power—not etiquette.
Between bites, she murmurs:
"Mother… if Father were here… our family would be complete."
Silan freezes.
The words hit harder than any sword.
Mengui doesn't look up—she says it casually, like a truth so obvious it doesn't need permission.
From the moment she was born, she never had both parents beside her.
Only glimpses.
Only isolation.
Only a battlefield between two people who should have been her foundation.
Silan forces a gentle smile.
"Don't worry," she says softly, brushing a strand of hair behind Mengui's ear,
"We will… spend time together. All three of us."
Mengui brightens—nodding like a little girl, even if her mind is already sharp as a blade.
Silan looks at her daughter, and her voice lowers to a whisper she does not intend to escape:
"Even if I have to tie him down."
Mengui blinks.
"…What?"
Silan clears her throat quickly.
"Nothing."
She reaches over and places more food onto Mengui's plate.
"Eat. You need strength."
Mengui smiles, takes a bite, and begins telling a story—about a butterfly she chased, a guard she terrified, a formation she dismantled because it annoyed her.
Silan listens.
And—for the first time in many lifetimes—
She feels something like peace.
Even as resentment swirls.
Even as fate tightens.
Even as a Supreme plan waits.
She watches Mengui's laughter echo—bright, soft, unguarded—
—and then the Icefire Sword trembles.
A sharp metallic buzz resonates inside her dantian.
Silan's expression freezes.
She lifts her gaze toward the open sky.
Something is coming.
No—
someone.
Before she can circulate her qi, the Icefire Sword forces itself out of her dantian in a streak of cold flame and hovering heat.
It hangs in the air beside her, humming—not as a weapon preparing for battle, but as a beacon.
A signal.
A response.
Space ripples.
A tear forms in the sky—not violent, but deliberate, controlled.
Two figures step through.
A young man and a young woman.
They do not look like mortals, nor cultivators of this world.
Their presence is old.
Inherited.
Royal.
The young man stands tall with long platinum hair tied behind his head, his features sharp as carved jade. His eyes glow with shifting ember and frost—the mark of dual inheritance. His robe is woven with scales, faintly shimmering in cold-blue and ember-red tones.
At his hip hangs a sheathed blade.
It vibrates.
Without touch, without command, the sword tears free—floating beside him.
Unlike Silan's Icefire Sword—crystal-white and cold flame within—
This sword is its opposite:
A weapon of living fire, burning red-gold,
with a core of frozen abyss caged inside.
Fire holding ice.
Opposites reversed.
The moment the two blades see each other—
They react.
Both swords release waves of resonance—light crashing into light, qi meeting qi, recognition blooming like sacred instinct.
Then—
Each returns smoothly to its respective holder.
A reunion—and a boundary.
The young man smirks, glancing toward the girl beside him.
"Dina," he says lightly, "looks like your position as Holy Daughter is… questionable."
The young woman—Dina—steps forward.
She is striking—not beautiful in fragility, but in sharpness.
Her hair is long and jet-black, streaked with scarlet and frost blue. Her horns—small, spiralled and delicate—mark her as one born of the pure blood lineage.
Her eyes—mercury silver with flames flickering deep within—lock onto Silan.
She points at her.
"I, Dina," she declares, voice ringing with ancient authority, "challenge you—according to the laws of the Spirit Dragon Race."
Silan's brow tightens.
She now understands who they are.
She does not understand why they care.
Her voice is calm.
"Who are you? Why should I accept anything from you?"
Dina lifts her chin.
"I am the Holy Daughter of the Spirit Dragon Race—the chosen heir of our Supreme. According to the ancestral decree, only the Holy Daughter may wield the Icefire Sword."
Silan's expression remains unreadable.
"I am not a member of the Spirit Dragon Clan of the outside world."
Dina answers instantly:
"You have to be. That sword chose you. The rule is absolute."
Silan's eyes narrow.
She is one breath from refusing—
When the Icefire Sword trembles again.
A voice—ancient, cold, absolute—whispers inside her mind:
*"The law was written by the Supreme.
If you wish to wield me…
You must answer the challenge."*
Silan's heart tightens.
She exhales.
Then lifts her head, gaze steady.
"…I accept."
Dina nods once.
"To make the duel fair, I will seal my cultivation to match yours. And neither of us may wield the Icefire Sword."
Silan nods silently.
The sword returns to her dantian, acknowledging the terms.
She steps into the air—ascending with calm steps until she stands before Dina, equal height, equal qi pressure, equal battlefield.
The young man lowers himself to the ground below, crossing his arms.
Mengui stares upward—eyes wide, frightened and furious.
"Mother—be careful!"
Silan does not turn.
But she nods—barely.
Her gaze never leaves Dina's.
Their auras rise—two storms colliding.
Cold and flame.
Resentment and inheritance.
The sky trembles.
Space strains.
And the duel begins—not yet in movement, but in inevitable fate.
---
End Scene.