Chapter 3: Seven Days of Ice
Day Four
Pain had become Chen Feng's constant companion.
It started in his bones—a deep, marrow-freezing ache that pulsed with every heartbeat. Then came the muscles, twitching and spasming as they restructured themselves. His skin alternated between burning hot and freezing cold, covered in a thin sheen of frost that melted and reformed in endless cycles.
The Celestial Physique was remaking him from the inside out.
Chen Feng sat cross-legged in the center of his room, stripped to the waist, steam rising from his body despite the arctic chill in the air. The windows were sealed shut—he'd ordered the servants to bar them from the outside, claiming illness. Only Yue Lian was allowed entry.
She sat in the corner now, ostensibly keeping watch, but he could feel her eyes on him. Studying the changes.
His skin had grown paler, taking on an almost translucent quality. Veins of ice-blue ran beneath the surface, visible when he channeled energy. His hair, once pure black, now held streaks of silver-white. And his eyes...
Chen Feng caught his reflection in the ice coating the mirror across the room. His irises had transformed into a brilliant glacial blue with silver flecks, cold and beautiful and inhuman.
[Transformation: 58%]
[Current Status: Third Circle of Manifestation → Fourth Circle Threshold]
[Warning: Circle breakthrough imminent]
[Estimated pain level: EXTREME]
"You should eat something," Yue Lian said, her voice cutting through his concentration. "You haven't had solid food in days."
"Can't keep it down." Chen Feng's voice came out rougher than usual. "The transformation... my body's rejecting everything that isn't compatible with ice."
She frowned. "That's not sustainable."
"It's only three more days." He forced a smile that probably looked more like a grimace. "I'll survive."
"Will you?" She stood, crossing to him with that predatory grace she never lost. Up close, he could see the worry in her eyes, the exhaustion from days of watching over him. "Young Master, you're freezing from the inside out. The servants are already gossiping about the cold. Your Third Brother tried to visit yesterday—I barely convinced him you had a contagious illness."
Chen Feng's jaw tightened. Chen Wei, always looking for opportunities to humiliate him. "What did he want?"
"To gloat, probably. Or check if you'd actually died." Yue Lian knelt beside him, close enough that he could smell her scent—jasmine and steel. "But that's not the point. The point is that people are noticing. And when the transformation completes..."
"I'll be strong enough that it won't matter what they notice."
"And until then?" She reached out, hesitated, then placed her hand on his shoulder. Her touch burned against his frozen skin. "You're vulnerable. If your family decided to move against you now—"
Ice exploded outward from Chen Feng's body.
It happened without conscious thought—pure instinct. Yue Lian jerked her hand back as frost crystallized in the air between them, forming razor-sharp spikes that hovered for a heartbeat before shattering into powder.
They both froze, staring at the ice dust settling on the floor.
"I'm sorry," Chen Feng said quietly. "I didn't mean—"
"Your control is slipping." Yue Lian's voice held no accusation, just observation. "The power is too much for your current state."
She was right. The Celestial Physique was flooding him with energy he couldn't properly channel yet. It leaked out in bursts, responding to emotion, to stress, to the slightest loss of focus.
[Warning: Energy overflow detected]
[Recommendation: Establish proper circulation pathways]
[Alternative: Risk spontaneous discharge]
Chen Feng closed his eyes, sinking deeper into meditation. He could feel the energy coursing through him—vast, cold, and barely contained. Like trying to hold an ocean in a teacup.
But he'd played this game before. Knew the techniques. The breathing patterns. The visualization exercises.
He began to guide the energy, carefully constructing new pathways through his meridians. The old ones, built for fire, were useless now. He needed channels designed for ice, for cold, for the absolute zero that was his birthright.
Hours passed. Or maybe minutes. Time lost meaning when you were rebuilding your entire magical foundation.
When Chen Feng opened his eyes again, the room was dark. Yue Lian had lit candles, their flames dancing but providing no warmth—the cold in the room simply devoured heat.
She sat by the door, daggers laid across her lap, head tilted back against the wall. Asleep, finally.
Chen Feng studied her in the candlelight. Dark circles under her eyes. A bruise on her jaw from the serpent's tail. Blood on her sleeve from where she'd reopened a wound while carrying him back from the ruins.
All for him. A master she had no reason to serve loyally, a disgrace who couldn't even protect himself, let alone her.
Not anymore, he thought. Never again.
[Transformation: 64%]
[Fourth Circle Breakthrough: READY]
[Warning: Next phase will be significantly more painful]
[Proceed?]
Chen Feng looked at Yue Lian one more time, memorizing the way the candlelight played across her features. Then he closed his eyes and dove inward, toward the breakthrough that would either kill him or make him stronger.
The pain hit like a hammer to the chest.
His Fourth Circle formed not gradually, but explosively—ice crystallizing in his core, expanding outward in fractal patterns. Chen Feng bit down on a leather strap he'd prepared for exactly this moment, muffling his scream.
Every nerve ignited. His bones felt like they were shattering and reforming. The ice in his blood turned sharp, cutting him from the inside.
Through the haze of agony, he heard Yue Lian wake with a gasp, rushing to his side. He felt her hands on his shoulders, her voice in his ear, but couldn't make out the words over the roaring in his head.
Then something shifted.
The pain didn't stop, but it... organized. Became purposeful. His body wasn't just breaking down—it was evolving, adapting, becoming something more than human.
[Fourth Circle of Crystallization: ACHIEVED]
[Transformation: 71%]
[New Ability Unlocked: Frost Aura (Passive)]
[New Ability Unlocked: Ice Blade Construction]
[Physical Enhancement: +45%]
Chen Feng's eyes snapped open.
The world looked different. Sharper. He could see the individual ice crystals in the frost coating the windows. Could feel the moisture in the air, sense where it would freeze and where it would remain liquid. His awareness expanded, encompassing the entire room and beyond.
And he could feel power. Real, tangible power flowing through him like a river of liquid nitrogen.
"Young Master?" Yue Lian's face swam into focus, pale with worry. "Can you hear me?"
"Fourth Circle," Chen Feng breathed. "I'm Fourth Circle now."
Her eyes widened. "That's... that's impossible. Three days ago you were Second Circle. Even genius prodigies take years to—"
"I'm not a prodigy." Chen Feng pushed himself to his feet, testing his new strength. His legs felt steady, stronger than they'd ever been. "I'm something else entirely."
He raised his hand, and ice answered his call with an ease that would have been impossible before. A blade formed in his palm—not crude like the spears he'd made in the temple, but refined, elegant, sharp enough to cut steel.
Yue Lian stared at the ice blade, then at him. "Who are you really?"
The question hung in the air between them. Chen Feng met her gaze, seeing the confusion, the fear, the desperate need to understand what was happening to the boy—the man—she'd sworn to protect.
He could lie. Should lie. But looking at her, at this woman who'd fought a Sixth Circle beast for him, who'd watched over him for days without sleep, who'd given him loyalty he'd never deserved...
"I'm someone who knows how this story ends," Chen Feng said quietly. "And I'm someone who refuses to accept that ending."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I can give you right now." He dismissed the ice blade, letting it sublimate into mist. "But I promise you this, Yue Lian—everything I'm doing, I'm doing to survive. And I'll protect you in the process."
She was quiet for a long moment. Then: "You've never called me by my name before. It was always 'you' or nothing at all."
Chen Feng blinked. She was right. The old Chen Feng had barely acknowledged her existence beyond her role as a tool.
"Things are different now," he said.
"Clearly." Yue Lian stood, her expression unreadable. "The sun will rise soon. You should rest. Real rest, not meditation. Your body needs to consolidate the changes."
She was right, as usual. Chen Feng could feel the exhaustion pulling at him now that the breakthrough was complete. But there was still so much to do. Six days until the protagonist arrived. Forty-six days until his scripted death.
Not enough time. Never enough time.
[Daily Quest Available]
[Mission: Master Fourth Circle Control]
[Reward: Skill Experience, Faster Transformation Progress]
[Time Limit: 24 hours]
"Tomorrow," Chen Feng said, mostly to himself. "Tomorrow I start training properly."
"Tomorrow you start healing," Yue Lian corrected. "Training comes after."
For once, he didn't argue.
Day Five
Chen Feng woke to find Yue Lian asleep in the chair beside his bed, her head pillowed on her arms on the mattress. She must have sat down to watch over him and simply... collapsed.
He studied her sleeping face, noting details he'd never paid attention to before. The small scar on her chin. The way her lashes cast shadows on her cheeks. The vulnerability she only showed when unconscious.
Beautiful, he thought. And utterly wasted on guarding a failure.
Except he wasn't a failure anymore, was he?
Chen Feng carefully extracted himself from the bed without waking her, pulling a blanket over her shoulders before moving to the center of the room. The servants had cleaned while he slept, removing the worst of the ice, though frost still coated the windows and a permanent chill hung in the air.
[Transformation: 73%]
[Status: Fourth Circle of Crystallization (Stable)]
[Daily Quest Active: Master Fourth Circle Control]
Time to see what he could really do.
Chen Feng began with the basics—channeling ice energy through his meridians, feeling how it flowed differently than fire ever had. Where fire was explosive and consuming, ice was patient and enduring. It didn't burn away obstacles; it encased them, preserved them, made them part of itself.
He formed simple constructs. A sphere of ice. A wall. A pillar. Each one more refined than the last, his control improving with every attempt.
Then he tried something more complex.
Chen Feng extended both hands, visualizing what he wanted. Ice crystallized in the air, forming into a perfect rose, every petal distinct, every thorn sharp enough to draw blood. It was beautiful and deadly—a fitting metaphor.
"Showing off?"
He turned to find Yue Lian awake, watching him with an expression somewhere between amusement and awe.
"Testing limits," Chen Feng said, letting the rose dissolve. "I need to know what I'm capable of."
"You just jumped two full Circles in four days." She stretched, working kinks out of her neck. "I'd say you're capable of quite a lot."
"Not enough." He created another construct—this time a crude approximation of a human figure. "The protagonist will arrive in six days. When he does, he'll already be Fourth Circle at minimum, maybe Fifth. He'll have techniques I don't know, a mentor's guidance, and the universe's favor."
"The universe's favor?" Yue Lian raised an eyebrow.
"Luck. Plot armor. Call it what you want." Chen Feng made the ice figure perform a sword form, testing his fine control. "He's the hero of this story. I'm just a stepping stone."
"Were," Yue Lian corrected. "You were a stepping stone. Past tense."
He looked at her, surprised.
"You think I don't notice?" She gestured at him, at the ice constructs, at the frost spreading across the floor wherever he walked. "Four days ago, you were the family's greatest disappointment. Now you're... this. Whatever 'this' is, it's not a stepping stone."
Chen Feng felt something warm bloom in his chest despite the cold in his veins. Belief. She believed in him.
"I need to get stronger," he said. "Fourth Circle isn't enough."
"Then train." Yue Lian drew one of her daggers, spinning it casually. "But not alone. You need a sparring partner."
"You're Seventh Level martial. I'm Fourth Circle magical. The power difference—"
"Is exactly why you need this." She fell into a combat stance. "You've got raw power now, Young Master. But power without skill is just waiting to be exploited. And I guarantee the protagonist will have both."
She had a point. In the game, Tian Wu's strength came not just from his cultivation level but from his martial arts mastery, his tactical thinking, his ability to leverage every advantage.
Chen Feng needed the same.
"Don't hold back," he said, ice forming around his fists.
Yue Lian smiled—a real smile, fierce and wild. "I wouldn't dream of it."
She moved.
One moment she was ten feet away, the next her dagger was at his throat. Chen Feng barely managed to jerk back, ice armor forming instinctively across his neck. The blade scraped across the frozen surface, leaving a thin white line.
"Too slow," Yue Lian said, already circling. "Magical barriers are useless if I kill you before you can form them."
Chen Feng created an ice spike and thrust it toward her. She flowed around it like water, her counter-strike aimed at his ribs. He blocked with another barrier, but she'd already anticipated, changing direction mid-strike to slash at his legs.
They danced like that for minutes—her attacking with brutal efficiency, him defending with increasingly creative ice constructs. She was faster, more skilled, more experienced. But he had reach, versatility, and power she couldn't match.
When Yue Lian finally called a halt, they were both breathing hard.
"Better," she said, sheathing her dagger. "But still too reliant on defense. You create barriers, walls, shields. What about offense?"
"I don't want to hurt you."
"I'm Seventh Level. You're Fourth Circle." She smirked. "Trust me, Young Master, you won't."
Challenge accepted.
Chen Feng thrust both hands forward, and a barrage of ice shards erupted toward her. Yue Lian dodged, weaving between them with impossible grace, but he kept the pressure on, creating more and more projectiles, forcing her to move, to react, to—
She closed the distance in a burst of speed that left afterimages, her dagger aimed at his heart.
Chen Feng didn't think. He just acted.
Ice exploded outward from his body in a spherical wave—his Frost Aura manifesting at full strength. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in an instant. Yue Lian's strike slowed, ice forming on her blade, on her clothes, on her skin.
She leaped back, breaking free of the aura's range, and they stared at each other.
"That," she said after a moment, frost crystallizing in her breath, "is definitely offensive capability."
[Skill Mastered: Frost Aura (Active Control)]
[Daily Quest Progress: 67%]
They trained for hours after that. Yue Lian pushed him relentlessly, finding every weakness in his technique, every gap in his defenses. And Chen Feng pushed back, his control improving with each exchange, his instincts sharpening.
By the time they stopped, the room looked like a battlefield—ice covered every surface, furniture was overturned, and scorch marks marred the walls where his frost had eaten away at the wood.
"The servants are going to have questions," Yue Lian observed, surveying the damage.
"Let them question." Chen Feng felt energized despite the exhaustion. For the first time since awakening in this world, he felt like he was actually preparing for what was coming. "We'll need to find somewhere else to train soon anyway. Somewhere private."
"I know a place." Yue Lian wiped sweat from her brow despite the cold. "Beneath the manor. Old training halls from when your grandfather was alive. No one uses them anymore."
"Perfect." Chen Feng paused. "Yue Lian... thank you. For this. For everything."
She looked away, but not before he caught the faint color on her cheeks. "You're my responsibility. I'm just doing my duty."
"Is that all this is? Duty?"
The question hung between them. Yue Lian met his eyes, and for a moment, Chen Feng saw something raw and vulnerable in her expression—something that made his breath catch.
Then she turned toward the door. "I'll arrange access to the underground halls. We'll start using them tomorrow."
She was gone before he could respond.
Chen Feng stared at the empty doorway, his heart beating faster than it had during their entire sparring session.
[Relationship Status: Yue Lian]
[Loyalty: 89% (↑)]
[Affection: 34% (↑)]
[Trust: 76% (↑)]
Something was changing between them. Something that had nothing to do with cultivation or survival or stolen destinies.
Something dangerous.
[Transformation: 78%]
Chen Feng shook his head, forcing his focus back to what mattered. Emotions could wait. Right now, he needed to get stronger.
The countdown continued.
Forty-five days remained.
Day Six
The underground training halls were exactly what Chen Feng needed.
Vast stone chambers lit by mage-lights, walls reinforced with formations designed to withstand Sixth Circle magic, and most importantly—complete privacy. No servants, no family members, no prying eyes.
Just him and Yue Lian, training like their lives depended on it.
Because they did.
"Again," Yue Lian commanded, her voice echoing off the stone.
Chen Feng formed another ice construct—this time a full-sized golem, seven feet tall and vaguely humanoid. It moved clumsily at first, responding to his mental commands with a delay that would be fatal in real combat.
Yue Lian darted in, her daggers flashing. The golem tried to block, too slow, and she severed its arm with a precise strike. It dissolved back into mist.
"You're treating it like a puppet," she said. "That creates lag. You need to make it autonomous—give it basic instructions and let it act independently."
Chen Feng frowned. "That's... significantly more complex."
"Which is why you need to learn it." She gestured at the space around them. "Create three. Make them fight each other. That will force you to develop the kind of split attention you'll need in real battle."
Three golems. He could barely manage one.
But Chen Feng had never backed down from a challenge in either of his lives.
He split his focus, creating three cores of ice magic in different positions. Slowly, painstakingly, he built constructs around each one, forming crude approximations of warriors. Then he gave each a simple directive: fight the others.
The golems lurched into motion.
It was chaos. They moved without coordination, striking at random, dissolving and reforming as Chen Feng struggled to maintain them. Sweat—actual sweat, despite his ice physique—beaded on his forehead.
But gradually, slowly, he found the rhythm. Learned to let each golem act on its basic programming while he made high-level adjustments. The movements became smoother, more natural.
"Better," Yue Lian said. "Now fight all three at once."
She blurred into motion before he could protest.
The next hour was brutal. Every time Chen Feng started to get comfortable managing the golems, Yue Lian would disrupt his concentration with a strike he had to block, forcing him to divide his attention even further. It was frustrating, exhausting, and absolutely necessary.
By the time she finally called a halt, Chen Feng had progressed from barely maintaining three golems to controlling five simultaneously while defending himself.
[Skill Unlocked: Ice Construct Mastery (Basic)]
[Transformation: 82%]
[Fifth Circle Threshold: 75% Progress]
"Not bad," Yue Lian said, not even breathing hard despite the workout. "At this rate, you might actually survive your first real fight."
"Your confidence in me is overwhelming."
She smiled. "I'm keeping you humble. Can't have you getting arrogant now that you've got some actual power."
Chen Feng dismissed the constructs, letting them sublimate into mist. "Speaking of power... I can feel the Fifth Circle approaching. Maybe two more days."
"Five Circles in a week." Yue Lian shook her head. "Do you understand how absurd that is? Most mages train for decades to reach Fifth Circle. You're doing it in days."
"I'm cheating." He touched his chest, feeling the cold pulse of the Celestial Physique. "This isn't normal cultivation. It's... accelerated evolution."
"And when it stops? When the transformation completes?"
"Then I cultivate normally. But I'll have a foundation that would take others fifty years to build." Chen Feng met her eyes. "That's the advantage I need. The protagonist has talent, training, and destiny on his side. I'll have a head start."
"Will it be enough?"
Honest question. Deserved an honest answer.
"I don't know," Chen Feng admitted. "But it's all I have."
Yue Lian studied him for a long moment. Then she did something unexpected—she reached out and took his hand.
Her skin was warm against his frozen palm. The contact sent a shock through him that had nothing to do with magic.
"You're not alone in this," she said quietly. "Whatever you're facing, whatever is coming... you have me."
Chen Feng's throat tightened. When was the last time someone had offered him unconditional support? Not in this life. Maybe not in his previous one either.
"Why?" he asked. "Why do you care so much? I'm just an assignment. A duty."
"You saved my life once." Her grip tightened. "Four years ago, when I failed a mission and the family wanted to execute me. You spoke up. Took responsibility. Convinced your father to let me serve as your shadow instead."
Chen Feng's eyes widened. He'd forgotten—or rather, the original Chen Feng had never thought it important enough to remember. But clearly, Yue Lian hadn't forgotten.
"I was fifteen and terrified," she continued. "Everyone else saw me as disposable. But you... you treated me like a person. Like I mattered." Her eyes glistened. "So yes, Young Master. This is more than duty."
The words hung in the air between them, heavy with implications neither was quite ready to address.
Chen Feng became acutely aware of how close they were standing. How her hand felt in his. How her scent—jasmine and steel—filled his senses.
"Yue Lian..."
She stepped back, releasing his hand, her expression carefully neutral again. "We should head back. You need to rest before tomorrow's training."
"Right. Of course."
But as they left the underground halls, Chen Feng couldn't stop thinking about the way she'd looked at him. About the warmth of her hand. About possibilities that had nothing to do with cultivation or survival.
[Relationship Status: Yue Lian]
[Loyalty: 94% (↑)]
[Affection: 52% (↑)]
[Trust: 89% (↑)]
[Warning: Emotional attachment deepening]
Dangerous territory.
But Chen Feng found he didn't care.
Day Seven
The transformation reached its crescendo at midnight.
Chen Feng felt it coming—a pressure building in his core, like a dam about to burst. He sent Yue Lian away, not wanting her to see him like this, vulnerable and in pain.
She'd protested, of course. But one look at his face and she'd nodded, trusting him to handle it.
Now, alone in his room, Chen Feng braced himself for what was coming.
[Transformation: 99%]
[Final Integration Beginning]
[Warning: EXTREME pain expected]
[Estimated Duration: 4 hours]
It started as a tingling in his extremities. Then it spread—ice crystallizing in his blood, in his bones, in every cell of his body. The Celestial Physique completing its transformation, rewriting the last remnants of his mortal flesh.
Chen Feng bit down on leather, muffling his screams.
This was different from the previous breakthroughs. This was... fundamental. Like every atom of his being was being frozen and thawed simultaneously, broken down and rebuilt into something new.
Through the haze of agony, information flooded his mind. Techniques. Abilities. Knowledge that came with the Celestial Physique—inheritance from the ancient ice mages who'd first developed this power.
He saw visions of frozen wastelands. Of mages who could turn armies to ice with a gesture. Of battles that reshaped continents. Of his mother's clan, wielding the absolute zero, the coldest cold, the negation of all heat and motion.
And he understood.
The Celestial Physique wasn't just about power. It was about dominion over the fundamental force of entropy itself. The ability to impose perfect order, perfect stillness, perfect cold.
[Transformation: COMPLETE]
[Celestial Physique Achieved: Body of Primordial Winter]
[Fifth Circle of Transcendence: ACHIEVED]
[All Abilities Enhanced]
[New Abilities Unlocked]
The pain stopped.
Chen Feng opened his eyes.
The world had changed. Or rather, his perception of it had. He could see heat signatures, feel the vibrations of molecules in the air, sense the kinetic energy in everything around him. And he could affect it—slow it, stop it, freeze it at will.
He stood, testing his new body. Stronger. Faster. More resilient. The changes were visible too—his skin had become almost translucent, his hair now pure silver-white, his eyes glowing with inner frost.
He looked like winter personified.
[Status Window Updated]
[Name: Chen Feng]
[Age: 19]
[Family: Ling (Seventh Son of Twelve)]
[Rank: Fifth Circle of Transcendence]
[Affinity: Absolute Zero (Complete) - 100%]
[Celestial Physique: Body of Primordial Winter (COMPLETE)]
[Special Abilities: Frost Aura, Ice Construct Mastery, Thermal Vision, Molecular Manipulation (Basic), Extreme Temperature Immunity]
[Reputation: Unknown (Change Pending)]
Fifth Circle. In seven days, he'd gone from Second to Fifth Circle. A feat that should have been impossible.
And the protagonist still hadn't arrived.
Chen Feng smiled.
For the first time since awakening in this world, he felt like he might actually have a chance.
A knock on his door. "Young Master? I felt... something. Are you alright?"
Yue Lian. Of course she'd sensed the energy surge.
Chen Feng opened the door.
She froze, her eyes going wide as she took in his transformed appearance. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
"I told you things were changing," Chen Feng said finally.
"Changing," Yue Lian repeated faintly. "You look like... like an ice god descended to earth."
"Is that a compliment?"
"I haven't decided yet." But he caught the way her eyes traced his features, lingering. "Fifth Circle?"
"Fifth Circle."
"In one week."
"In one week."
She laughed—a sound he'd never heard from her before, bright and genuine and tinged with something like relief. "The family is going to lose their minds."
"That's the plan." Chen Feng's smile turned cold. "Let them underestimate me for three more days. Then I'll show them exactly what their 'failure' has become."
The countdown continued.
Forty-two days remained.
But Chen Feng was ready.
[End of Chapter 3]
[Next Chapter: "The Protagonist Arrives"]
[Transformation Complete!]
[Chen Feng's Stats:]
- Rank: Fifth Circle of Transcendence
- Age: 19 (Youngest Fifth Circle in Kingdom History)
- Ability: Absolute Zero - Can manipulate heat and molecular motion
- Next Goal: Sixth Circle + Confront the Protagonist