Night Winter's voice drifted in with the wind and snow, carrying a hint of pride and more than a little regret.
Evan Lin casually raised a qi barrier. Normally invisible, his transparent inner-force shield now appeared with layers of pale blue light as soon as it formed.
This wasn’t because the qi itself became visible, but because the ultra-low temperature caused the qi to show signs of freezing.
Layers of cold gathered around the normally invisible qi, forming one small ice shell after another—each shell encasing Evan’s qi barrier inside.
When those little ice shells shattered, the qi inside the barrier vanished along with them.
This is what Night Winter meant by the 'death of qi.'
"Interesting," Evan remarked.
Evan wasn’t in any hurry. He lifted his head and, from inside the Winter Gate, gazed up at the sun in the sky—even the sun seemed to be tinted blue here.
Countless ice spikes, snow like goose feathers, all falling piece by piece—each snowflake looked harmless, but in reality, its edges were sharper than a blade.
Snowflakes scattered everywhere, and the blizzard swept in from all directions, surging toward Evan’s position.
Beside Night Winter, at the formation core, layers upon layers of icy-blue snowflakes spun in place with the raging wind, nurturing immense power.
"I used to think the Four Seasons Grand Array was just a formation that borrowed one feature from each season—spring’s blossoms, summer’s heat, autumn’s wheat, winter’s snow."
"But now, it seems this formation has something a bit different going on."
Evan stamped his foot, and with a thunderous boom, cracks spread out from where he stood in every direction.
Wherever those cracks passed, any ice spikes that appeared were instantly obliterated.
Those seemingly unimpressive cracks actually contained terrifying amounts of inner force.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
To the onlookers, every ice spike that touched those cracks instantly shattered into fragments.
Evan strode forward, each step powered by fierce inner force. With every footfall, countless cracks radiated outward.
Within those cracks, all of them were filled with terrifying inner force.
To the onlookers, the youth walked alone through the blizzard, each step stirring up layers of frost. Inside the Winter Gate, wind and snow intertwined, blue light shining on his back—he looked, from behind, like a solitary king.
Allen Ju saw this scene and suddenly recalled a line he’d read before.
He comes from the wind and snow, walking alone toward the supreme throne.
That was exactly Evan Lin now—in this Winter Gate, the enemy he faced was an entire pocket world.
A pale blue ice mountain instantly formed, hanging low above Evan’s head before crashing down with a roar.
The massive ice mountain enveloped Evan, as the blizzard’s gale slammed down head-on.
Evan reached out and grasped a four-foot longsword, not even glancing at it. He swung it upward at the massive ice mountain bearing down from above.
The sword flashed out, inner force raging, a cold gleam streaking through the air.
The massive ice mountain was sliced cleanly in two, without a hint of flourish.
The shattered ice crashed down beside Evan, and with a thunderous roar, another wave of pale blue ice blades surged up, continuing to fly toward him.