The blizzard that gripped the Northern Continent seemed to howl with a renewed, mournful intensity, mirroring the chilling silence that had fallen within the snowy cave.
Hidden deep beneath a towering mountain of ice, the Heavenly Saint Elder of the Golden Cloud Immortal Sect—the man who had risked his life to play guardian to a "Child of Fate"—stared at the communication artifact in his trembling hand.
For a full year, the device had been a cold, dead hunk of jade, a symbol of his isolation in this backwater realm, but now, it began to show signs of being in connected.
His eyes, as if clouded by a century of weariness, suddenly flared with a desperate joy.
Finally! After twelve months of hiding in the shadows like a rat, he had managed to pierce the spatial interference and contact the High Heavens.
"Sect Master!" he whispered, his voice cracking. "Is that you?"
A holographic projection flickered into existence, casting a pale, ghostly light against the cave's frozen walls.
