The dense trees of the Mystfall Forest towered over Kellan as he made his way past the border and into the deeper parts of the forest, where demonic beasts are said to live
He remembered what Elder Wei taught him about demonic beasts.
A demonic beast is a mutated animal that has absorbed enough Qi into its body that a true demonic core forms and they can start cultivating
Some even get strong enough to get human forms.
While Kellan shivered at the thought he continued walking further as a light mist hung in the air, thickening the deeper he got.
The chirping of birds and the occasional rustle of small animals slowly faded into eerie silence.
His heart quickened. Something about this place felt... off.
He scanned his surroundings, touching the new armor he bought out of nervousness.
The forest was unnervingly quiet.
The faintest hint of unease settled in his gut as he stepped over gnarled roots and weaved through thick bushes.
He tread carefully, his senses heightened, his instincts telling him to be on guard.
As he ventured deeper, a soft shimmer caught his eye.
A few stalks of Clear Frost Grass grew at the base of a tree, their translucent blades shining like delicate crystal in the dim light.
He bent down, carefully harvesting them.
Though they were rare, they were highly valued by the clan because they were used to refine pills used for cultivation.
At least this trip wasn't a complete waste, he thought.
But as Kellan tucked the grass into his storage bag, an unsettling sensation washed over him.
Something in the air shifted.
He narrowed his eyes and focused, his skin prickling as though the fabric of the world around him had warped.
His heart pounded in his chest. There was a formation up ahead—an array.
Squinting, Kellan focused his temporal Qi, slowing the world around him.
With time itself moving at a crawl, he could see the faint distortions in the air, shimmering like invisible threads weaving in and out of the trees.
The array formation was intricate, its Qi lines nearly impossible to detect at normal speed.
Despite his efforts, it was clear that he couldn't break through easily.
But then... there it was. A small gap, barely a sliver, exposed for a heartbeat.
His eyes locked onto it, and without hesitation, he slipped through.
The sensation of stepping through the array left him disoriented for a moment, but he quickly regained his bearings.
The forest here was different. The air felt denser, colder.
A strange stillness enveloped him once more, sending chills down his spine.
As he ventured further, the trees parted, revealing a shimmering lake ahead. Its surface was glass-like, reflecting the misty surroundings.
And there, in the center, stood a lone figure—a woman.
She was bathing in the lake, her pale skin almost glowing in the faint light. Her long hair cascaded down her back, barely concealing her form.
Kellan's breath caught in his throat, and for a moment, he stood frozen.
His eyes lingered on her slender figure before his senses snapped back to reality.
What am I doing? he thought, horrified. He turned quickly to leave, but it was too late.
A sharp voice rang out across the water, cold and cutting. "Who dares spy on me?"
Before Kellan could react, a flurry of greenish frozen spears materialized in the air, their sharp tips glinting as they shot toward him with deadly precision.
The spears sliced through the mist, each one aimed to kill. Kellan's reflexes kicked in, and he instinctively tapped into his temporal Qi, slowing the world around him.
Time seemed to grind to a crawl as he twisted and spun, narrowly avoiding the onslaught.
He could see the spears cutting through the slowed air, their trajectories frozen in time—but one slipped past his defenses, grazing his cheek.
The cold sting bit deep, and he could feel the freezing poison seep into his skin, leaving behind a line of burning frost.
"Wait!" Kellan shouted, breathless from the sudden attack.
He raised his hands defensively, his voice urgent as he tried to diffuse the situation.
"I didn't mean to see anything! I'm just here to hunt Red Tipped Boars!"
His voice echoed in the unnatural stillness, but the woman remained silent, her eyes as cold and unfeeling as the ice she commanded.
She ignored his plea entirely, her face betraying no emotion as she floated just above the surface of the lake.
With a flick of her wrist, she raised her hand high, greenish Qi swirling around her fingers.
The air crackled with power, and a massive sphere of green ice began to form above her, growing larger with each passing second.
Its surface pulsed with a dark, poisonous aura.
Kellan's heart pounded in his chest as he watched the sphere grow in size, casting an ominous shadow over the clearing.
The cold emanating from it was suffocating, even from a distance.
Before he could react, the woman brought her hand down in a swift motion, sending the massive orb hurtling toward him with a violent force.
A surge of anger flared in Kellan's chest. His patience snapped.
With a roar, he punched forward, channeling his Qi into his fist.
The force of his blow collided with the icy sphere mid-air, shattering it into a million pieces.
Shards of ice exploded outward like a storm of frozen blades, scattering across the clearing.
The shockwave from the impact reverberated through the ground, shaking the nearby trees.
Kellan glared at the woman, his breathing heavy. "Stop this!" he growled, his voice laced with frustration.
But before he could say more, a creeping cold spread through the ground beneath him.
He glanced down in horror as greenish frozen ice surged up from the earth, wrapping around his ankles and locking him in place.
The ice wasn't just cold—it was alive, spreading with an unnatural speed and malice.
It coiled around his legs, creeping higher with each heartbeat.
He could feel the cold leeching the strength from his body, as if the ice itself was draining his energy.
His muscles stiffened, and his Qi faltered.
The freezing poison embedded in the ice sank deep into his bones, numbing him from within.
His vision blurred slightly, and his breath became shallow as the cold tightened its grip on him.
Gritting his teeth, Kellan summoned his Qi, trying to force it into his legs to shatter the ice, but the cold was relentless.
It gnawed at his reserves, weakening his body and mind. His limbs trembled, refusing to obey his will.
"Damn it, why am I so unlucky!" he cursed, trying to fight through the freezing pain.
He struggled to move, but his legs were frozen solid, encased in thick ice that seemed to grow stronger the more he resisted.
The woman watched him with anger, her cold gaze never wavering.
She stepped closer, her feet gliding effortlessly over the surface of the lake as if gravity had no hold on her.
Her greenish robes fluttered softly in the icy breeze she conjured, and her aura pressed down on him like a suffocating weight.
"You shouldn't be here," she said finally, her voice calm but laced with a subtle threat.
She raised her hand again, and Kellan could feel the temperature plummet even further.
The air itself seemed to freeze around him, crackling with cold energy.
A swirling mass of green ice shards began to gather above her, forming a vortex of razor-sharp frozen needles.
Kellan's eyes widened. He was trapped, unable to move, and if those ice shards hit him now, there was no way he could dodge.
"I really didn't mean to see anything, you were too far away for me to see anything anyways!"
Kellan shouted, his voice hoarse as he tried to push his Qi harder.
The woman's expression changed to one of embarassment.
"So you did look at me! You Bastard, you deserve to die!
She waved her hand, sending the vortex of ice needles crashing down toward him.
Time seemed to slow once again as Kellan desperately summoned what remained of his temporal Qi.
He could feel the strain of his weakening body, the freezing poison making it harder and harder to channel his energy. But he had no choice.
He focused all his Qi into a single point, trying to slow time enough to create a gap in the storm of ice.
The needles descended like a torrent of death, but at the last moment, Kellan managed to shift his body just enough to dodge.
The storm of needles exploded against the ground where he had been standing, sending up a spray of icy shards.
One of them slashed across his arm, leaving a deep cut that quickly froze over with poisonous frost.
Gasping for breath, Kellan's vision swam. He could feel the frostbite spreading, his Qi faltering under the relentless cold.
He needed to act, and fast. Gathering the last remnants of his strength, he summoned his Qi into a single burst of power, targeting the ice around his legs.
With a sharp crack, the ice shattered, freeing him momentarily.
But before he could take a step, the woman was already upon him, her fingers glowing with a sickly greenish light.
"How did you break past my barrier?"
She asked, her voice cold as her hand pressed toward his chest, her fingers inches away from his heart.
Kellan was too weak to dodge, his body shaking from the cold.
But he forced himself to answer through chattering teeth.
"I… I passed through the gaps in your array."
The woman's eyes narrowed, disbelief flashing across her face.
"That's impossible. You're only at the third level of the Blood Solidification Realm. No one at your level can do something like that."
Kellan's heart raced as he struggled to remain conscious.
The cold was overwhelming, his strength nearly spent. "I… don't know how… but I did."
The woman's expression darkened, her hand still poised to strike. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now."
Kellan's mind raced, panic rising within him.
His limbs felt heavy, the poisonous cold weakening him further by the second.
How was he going to get out of this alive?