Two days later, Kai’s eyes flashed open.The cold around him cracked.For a moment, the black glacier domain trembled as if something beneath it had awakened. Frost clung to Kai’s hair, his shoulders, and his robes, and a thin layer of dark ice had formed over half his body, but when his eyelids lifted, silver light flashed through his pupils before disappearing just as quickly. The frozen pressure that had been crushing his blood and marrow for two straight days loosened slightly, not because the training ground had become weaker, but because his body had learned how to push back against it better than before.Kai inhaled slowly.His silver blood moved like a cold river beneath his skin, stronger and smoother than it had been when he first sat down. Every heartbeat felt heavier, deeper, and more controlled. The cold that had tried to slow him now moved through his body like a sharpening stone. It still hurt, of course. It hurt terribly. But useful pain always had a different taste.

Ten years later.The loud sound of a beast falling echoed throughout the whole forest.It was not a simple sound. It was the kind of fall that made the earth tremble, the kind that sent birds scattering from ancient trees and forced weaker creatures hidden in burrows to curl tighter in fear. The massive beast crashed through three towering trunks before its body finally slammed into the ground, carving a long trench through mud, stone, and roots. Dust rose. Leaves rained down. The thick spiritual mist hanging over the forest shook violently from the impact, and for a few breaths, everything went still.Kai stood several meters away from the fallen beast, breathing heavily.His clothes were torn in too many places to count, blood streaked the side of his face, and one of his arms hung slightly lower than the other, clearly dislocated or half-broken, but he remained standing. His silver blood pulsed beneath his skin, rapidly closing the deep wounds across his chest and shoulder. Every b