The swirling blue portal snapped shut. For a single, terrifying second, Li Chen felt like he was falling through a tunnel made of solid ice. The world spun in circles of bright blue and pure white. He could not hear the roaring wind of the arena anymore. He could not feel the terrible, melting heat of the Supreme Patriarch’s giant golden hand. Then, his heavy black boots hit a solid floor. Li Chen stumbled forward but quickly caught his balance. He immediately raised his pitch-black, dark-infused fist, ready to punch whatever enemy was in front of him. His eyes, still swirling with the black vortexes of the Devourer, looked wildly around the room. He was no longer on the broken stone stage. The red sky and the bloody arena were completely gone. He was standing inside a massive, breathtaking ice palace. The floor was made of perfectly clear, polished blue ice. It was so clean that Li Chen could see his own dull, grey metallic reflection shining back at him. Giant pillars of frozen

Elder Zhao took another heavy step forward. The flames on his sword grew larger and hotter. The heat fought against the natural cold of the palace, creating thick clouds of white steam in the middle of the room. "Step aside, you foolish girl!" Elder Zhao yelled. "Or I will burn this entire ice palace to the ground and kill you with him!"Li Chen pushed against the ice trapping his boots. "Let me go," Li Chen whispered to Su Binglan. "I will handle him. I will eat his fire.""Quiet," Su Binglan ordered Li Chen without looking at him. She turned her icy blue eyes back to the mad, bleeding Elder Zhao. "You speak of the Supreme Patriarch," Su Binglan said clearly. Her voice was perfectly steady, echoing through the steam. "The Patriarch is a sleeping god. He wakes for a moment, strikes, and then returns to his deep slumber. His strike missed. His waking moment is over. He has gone back to sleep beneath the mountain."Elder Zhao gritted his teeth. "It does not matter! His order remains!

Su Binglan let out a very small, quiet breath. The tension in her shoulders relaxed just a tiny bit. She turned around to face Li Chen. She waved her white hand. The thick block of profound ice trapping Li Chen’s boots instantly shattered into harmless white mist. Li Chen was free to move. Li Chen stepped forward. He did not say thank you. He looked at her suspiciously. "A test subject?" Li Chen asked, his voice low and dangerous. "Is that what I am to you?""It was a lie," Su Binglan said calmly, walking past him toward a dark tunnel at the back of the ice palace. "I needed a story that Elder Zhao would not dare to challenge. The Sect Master is not making a Nine-Headed Demon Pill. The Sect Master does not even know you are here.""Then why did you bring me here?" Li Chen demanded, following her. His heavy boots clicked loudly on the clear ice floor. "You said I am useful to you. You said you need someone who can survive extreme conditions. If it is not a pill, what is it?"Su Bingl

Li Chen’s eyes narrowed dangerously. The dark aura around his fists began to hum. "I am no one's property.""You are," she stated simply, taking a slow step toward him. "Because I am the only thing standing between you and the wrath of the heavens. But I do not keep useless, broken tools, Li Chen. I do not care about your sad story. I do not care about your dead family. I only care about power."She raised her delicate white hands. "You claim to be the Devourer," Su Binglan said, her eyes flashing with a dangerous, icy blue light. "You claim your Chaos Root can eat anything. Let us see if you are telling the truth, or if you are just a lucky boy with hard skin."She gave him absolutely no warning. She did not say 'begin.' She did not wait for him to get ready. Su Binglan unleashed her magic. "Absolute Winter: Heart-Freezing Palm!" she shouted softly. She pushed her right hand forward. A massive, blinding beam of pure, lethal cold Qi erupted from her palm. It was not a wind attack.

Li Chen looked down at Su Binglan. "Is the test over?" Li Chen asked. His heavy voice was perfectly calm, but it held a dangerous edge. "Or do you have more food for me?"Su Binglan stood frozen for a moment. Her perfect, emotionless facade was completely broken. Her icy blue eyes were wide open. Her mouth was slightly parted. She stared at his right hand, trying to understand the impossible thing she had just seen. A physical manifestation of a black hole. A devouring void that could eat Inner Sect magic like it was nothing. Slowly, she took a deep breath. She smoothed the front of her white silk robes. She forced her face back into a calm, cold mask. But her eyes still shone with a wild, intense excitement. "It is real," Su Binglan whispered, almost to herself. She looked up at Li Chen’s dark face. "The legends in the ancient forbidden texts were true," she said, her voice trembling slightly with awe. "The Primordial Chaos Root. The Devourer of Heavens. I thought you just had a