Within the fortress on the other side of the border, the fortress stood between the northern and central lands protecting the central lands from invasion.
The fortress was held by the divine ice sect who had lived within the edge of the northern icelands border for more than a thousand years.
Through every generation they fought off the invading northern armies and tribes along with any beast waves.
For the past few months the sect within the fortress enjoyed a short period of peace after suffering some losses during the last invasion.
Many of the women inside the fortress kept working hard to rebuild their forces and recover from the damage done in time for another attack.
Night came and many of the elders gathered around a young girl around ten years old.
She had a slim body but tall body for her age, pale white skin, beautiful facial features, glacial blue eyes and silvery white hair.
What stood out about her the most was her pure and emotionless gaze and how she seemed to only ever respond to the elders words.
The grand elder stood among the elders and addressed the other elders of the sect as she looked towards the young girl. "The sect has been improving since the previous attacks but we still need time to better prepare for our ice goddess to grow. Then the sect should have a chance to rise back to its previous status. Do not expect any help from those men within the martial alliance for help… although we have been doing their job of protecting the central lands for them for more than a thousand years they still do not consider us to be of any importance to them or treat us with respect. We have recruited many others from the surrounding villages from the northern tribes that have relations with us and some families within the central lands."
While the grand elder spoke, the young girl did not experience a single emotional fluctuation as if she was an ice cold sculpture unaffected by anything around her.
The grand elder turned to the young girl and asked with a tone of voice devoid of any warmth towards the child. "How far have you practiced the divine ice soul scripture?"
The young girl emotionlessly responded with a cold voice. "It is completed."
The grand elder smiled upon hearing the young girl had responded to her words and spoke. "That is good, now we can begin the next stage of training."
She placed several books into the young girls hands. "Lumi, you must master these too to become the sects guardian. The sect masters martial arts are only to be passed down to the ice goddess according to tradition and you are the most qualified and talented within all of the children recruited so you will be the next sect leader."
The young girl nodded and took the books without expressing any emotions and coldly went to read the books.
The ice goddess or the sect master had always served the sect as the final trump card and their protector for many generations.
The tradition and creation of each sect leader or ice goddess was for a chosen child with enough talent to begin practicing the divine ice soul scripture.
The divine ice soul scriptures first stage begins with removing the memories of the user and then the emotions are removed upon achieving complete mastery.
That is the reason for the girls pure and emotionless gaze as if she were a stainless and clear peace of ice untainted by anything.
The sect elders had trained the girl to remain obedient only to themselves who carried the elders token and remain unaffected by other things beyond their orders and because she had undergone the training of the divine ice soul scripture she became the perfect tool for them to raise as a trump card for the sect.
Maybe the first sect masters intentions for creating the martial art scripture were more pure and held the intention to cut off their worldly desires and emotions in order to achieve a greater focus towards their martial arts.
Over the years the intentions of the first sect master was either forgotten or misinterpreted so the sect leaders position transformed from a leader position to a spiritual leader or sect guardian position.
The little girl named Lumi left the elders and entered an icy cavern sitting down as if breathing in the extremely cold air according to a certain rhythm after she finished reading the books she had been given.
Meanwhile back at the hall, the elders continued their discussion and began preparing to defend the fortress from future invasions.
On the walls there were several lookouts watching for invaders and switching out on a rotation.
Suddenly on the weaker side of the walls several arrows flew towards the ladies on lookout and killed them before they could raise an alarm.
Luckily several disciples noticed a body fall from the walls and ran to inform the others.
Before they could alert anyone with a high enough position the walls had already started to be climbed and several intruders began breaching the walls.
The intruders who breached the walls opened the gates and allowed their men to enter the divine ice sects grounds.
Within the hall the grand elder coldly looked upon the elders and let out an exhausted sigh after hearing about the sudden invasion. "We have defended the central lands for generations but we never expected to be stabbed in the back one day… how funny this is. Our end will not be by our enemies hands but instead from those within the central lands. Do you know who is behind the attack?"
Another elder shook her head. "We have no exact clues to help identify them yet but they have come prepared and are many in numbers. I'm not sure if we can survive this attack because we were caught unprepared and we have not fully recovered from the previous attack."
The grand elders face turned cold as she silently stood deep in thought. "It looks like we have no choice but to fight back with everything we have."
The elders nodded and headed out with their swords to gather all of the disciples together.
A young girl stood by the grand elder with an unclear look in her eyes but her face remained obedient as she bowed to the grand elder. "Master what can we do now?"
The grand elder coldly looked at her disciple and replied. "We have no chance of winning. The others can fight off the invaders and provide the sect a final chance to resurrect. Follow me to find Lumi and we will escape and we will come back when we have the strength to rebuild."
The young girl bowed her head hiding the look of sarcasm in her eyes and replied in an obedient tone of voice. "Yes master!"
The young girl followed the grand elder to the ice cavern finding Lumi who was deeply focussed in her training.