He clutched his chest, his breathing shallow and extremely cold.

Even when he was a mortal, Ryu had never felt like this before. With his Ice Phoenix bloodline, even weather that could have killed a normal mortal was like a spring breeze to him. This only became more exaggerated after he began to truly train himself.

Whether it was his ingestion of yin blood or his practicing of the Ice Phoenix Martial Forms, each had made his bloodlines more and more robust.

On top of this, Ryu had even awakened his Ice Flame, making him even more impervious to the cold.

But at this moment, it felt as though his entire body was freezing. His blood slowed, the bumping of his heart reaching a state of lethargy. Every breath he took left a trail of icicles in its wake, almost turning his tongue into a solid block of frozen flesh.

His body shivered down to its very soul. Even his Spiritual Sea was slowly icing over, becoming a land of snow outside of Ryu’s control.

Ryu curled into a ball, his body trembling hard. The blood that fell from his eyes froze over, falling to the ground like shards of ruby while the rest latched onto his skin in clearly crimson veins.

This sort of cold was on a level Ryu could hardly wrap his mind around. Such an all encompassing chill, even to the point of affecting one’s Mental Realm was something even the rarest of cold treasures would find almost impossible to replicate.

’I…’

Ryu felt his thoughts slowing down. Let alone think his way out of this situation, he couldn’t do any thinking in the first place.

’… Can’t… Die…’

It took Ryu several minutes just to finish this thought. By the time he realized he might have just wasted his last moments on this almost meaningless statement, his consciousness slipped away.

In the Ethereal Plane, a massive Ailsa continued to hang in the air, her consciousness in a deep state of dormancy.

In the Real Plane, Ryu had collapsed, his skin freezing over. Icicles slowly formed over his body, encasing him in a cocoon of crystal.

Unfortunately for Ryu, unlike Ailsa who seemed to be at peace, he was at death’s door. His skin froze, his muscles and bones froze, his meridians and veins froze, even his Spiritual Sea froze.

Ryu’s soul was weak to begin with. With his poor talent, he had almost no resiliency in this regard. This was only made worse by the fact his soul had yet to take shape and enter the Soul Birth Realm.

It was then, however, on the precipice of life and death, that deep within the recesses of Ryu’s mind, a flame began to flicker.

If Ryu’s thoughts had been conscious enough to notice such a thing, he would have been at a loss. This flame was one he most definitely didn’t recognize.

It didn’t have the blue color of his Ice Flame, nor did it have the red-black color of his Rage Flame or the red-gold color of his Origin Flame. It didn’t even have the illusory characteristics of his Rebirth Flame.

It was completely white. A small, flickering ball of whiteness that could almost be mistaken for soft, fluffy fur swaying under a gentle winter breeze.

The flame lay at the very bottom of Ryu’s Spiritual Sea. In the beginning, it had been obstructed by the fog-like Spiritual Qi of Ryu’s Spiritual Entrance Realm. Then, it was swallowed up beneath the liquid of Ryu’s Spiritual Sea after he entered the Spiritual Endowment Realm.

Now, at this very moment, it began to pulse.

The cold qi that pervaded every part of Ryu’s body was suddenly pulled in by it.

The ice that it had been incased in shattered, allowing it to sway more freely as it greedily swallowed up this qi.

If Ryu had been awake, he would finally remember where he had seen this flame before. It wasn’t that he didn’t recognize it, but rather that he hadn’t paid enough attention when he first saw it.

This flame, whether it be in aura, looks, or presence… It was exactly identical to the sea of white flames that covered Ryu’s Spiritual Foundation.

It had been a very long time since Ryu thought of these white flames. One’s Spiritual Foundation isn’t able to be directly used to increase combat strength until one reached much later cultivation realms. In addition, he had no reason to believe it had an existence outside of his Spiritual Foundation.

Until now, the white flame had been completely dormant. And, even now, as it absorbed such a violent cold qi, it did so, so gently that Ryu didn’t even know what was happening. Even if he had been awake, he might not notice it.

This flame seemed to exist on a higher plane. Even when looking directly at it, it seemed all too easy to forget that it had ever been there in the first place.

Whatever this odd flame was, it greedily absorbed the cold qi Ailsa’s soul produced, treating it as though it was a delicacy rather than the dangerous existence that it was. In fact, with every bit it took, it seemed to grow a size, becoming larger and more resplendent.

As it grew, it became more and more difficult to compare it to a normal flame. It almost seemed alive, but it swayed from side to side like a fluffy ball of fur. It felt almost tangible, yet ethereal at the same time.

By the time it had swept Ryu’s body clean of all the cold qi, it had grown from the size of a small grain to the size of Ryu’s palm.

It continued to dance about at the bottom of Ryu’s Spiritual Sea, reaching out its fluffy white tendrils and rooting itself deeply.

At that moment, Ryu’s Origin Flame, seemingly sensing something, flickered. The wisps of aura the white flame radiated were absorbed by it, causing its embryonic form to grow more corporeal and inch toward wholeness.

At the same time, Ryu’s embryonic Northern Heavenly Wind also seemed to benefit, growing more fluid and powerful.

Soon, even Ryu’s other flames began to grow as well.

All the while, Ryu was none the wiser.