Continuing forward, after a while mist began to slowly appear, the further they went in. Along with it was even a rising freezing temperature.
There was a legend in the North, that explains as to how and why this mist always surrounds it, and why it is always accompanied by the freezing cold.
The legend talked about two lovers, a human and a really rare race, the Spirit Race, a race that is originally nothing but nothing special, in fact you can find them anywhere, as rocks, trees, water, lakes and seas, and even mountains. Of all of those the last ones are the most difficult to awaken, to be enlightened by the dao.
A young human cultivator was roaming around, simply killing time while observing mountains, and drinking from lakes. Always with a warm smile on his face.
He had seemed to be enjoying himself, but all the things he touched, all the things that approached him, they were all frozen solid.
He was not doing it on purpose, he had actually been born this way. Even gods wanted to take him as their disciple, but in the end he was taken away by an almighty cultivator that specialised in freezing techniques, his were even above the various sects and clans of that time.
No sect or clan had even dared to say anything, as the man had simply charged through the defences of the Dragon Race, so they thought they would take care of him, which never happened.
The dragon race that was also interested in the boy had suddenly lost all interest, which puzzled all the other races greatly, but none dared to say anything.
The legend stated that while he was roaming around in a forest, he chanced upon a mist. A mist that was moving on its own.
He thought it to be a demon, so he attacked without hesitation. But surprisingly he was unable to harm it in the slightest, only making it attack him instead.
After fighting for a few rounds, he was finally able to cause damage to the mist, to disperse it.
But when he noticed the mist did not transform back into a demon like he thought it would, he used a demon searching technique, which wielded no results.
Seeing this, he thought of a rare race, the Spirit Race. A mist was said to be impossible to acquire enlightement of the Dao, which clearly was begining to happen in front of him. Although it would still take a long time, perhaps now that he had harmed it, it had lost all chance of being able to do so ever again.
The boy, feeling bad took out a jade vial that had been given to him by his master, and then threw the contents towards the mist.
When the contents, mire specifically the droplets of the liquid made contact with the mist, it suddenly glowed golden, and the whole world trembled slightly, which then all Ki in the world came towards the mist.
The mist refused the Ki and simply focused to understand the Dao. The process had taken a very, very long time, but at long last the mist changed forms to suit that of a human, a human girl.
It was said that the girl followed the boy, being completely unaffected by his aura that transformed all beings into ice.
The boy's smile transformed, from warm into the summer itself. From then on the boy became the 'Winter that brings the Summer'.
According to the legend, they had lived a very long life, always together, of course long in the terms of humans life, in cultivators life, at most a suitable time of a few hundred years together.
Then the disaster came. A massive battle torn the two apart, and in the end the girl returned to her real form, into mist, although it was way bigger than before, it was dispersing, and it no longer was the girl he had once knew and fallen in love for.
The boy cried in grief and despair, bowing and kowtowing towards his master, the boy sacrificed his body and transformed everything to make his aura turn into real winter, it surrounded the grand mist, keeping it together and always keeping it on his embrace until it finally woke up again.
There was a continuation to this legend, that when the girl finally woke up, she notices the grand Winter that surrounded it, and understood what had happened.
She was a spirit that achieved the Dao, the boy wasn't. By sacrificing his body, it probably wouldn't reform ever again. So the girl chose to transform into mist again, until both of them finally woke up together and roamed the universe like before.