The moment Lin Feng's palm touched the ice, everything changed.
It was not cold. It was not warm. For half a breath, there was nothing at all.
Then the whole of Binglan Star shook.
It was not a tremor from the ground. It was deeper, like the core of the planet itself had been struck. The white stone plaza cracked. The ice buildings around the square sang with a high, sharp note. People stumbled and grabbed onto each other. The silver-armored guards fell to one knee.
Lin Feng stood still, confused. His hand was stuck to the statue. He tried to pull back and could not.
Below the platform, Bai Wei did not look surprised. He smiled. It was a small, quiet smile, like he had been waiting for this for a very long time. Like he knew Lin Feng can do it.
Above them, the Ice Phoenix statue threw its head back and cried.
It was not the sound of stone. It was a real cry, ancient and clear, that tore through the sky over Frostlight City. The sound rolled out across the glaciers and the seas.
Then the statue moved.
The thirty-foot ice phoenix broke free from its base. Shards of clear ice fell like rain and turned to light before they hit the ground. The phoenix spread its wings, beat once, and shot straight up into the sky, and Lin Feng went with it.
He did not fly. He was lifted. His feet left the platform, his robes whipped around him, and his eyes went completely blank, white as snow. Ancient memories poured into his mind one after another, too fast to count.
He saw wars fought before stars were born. He saw a sea of fire freezing over. He saw himself, not as Lin Feng the core disciple of Eternal Sect, but as something vast, with wings that covered constellations.
He looked down through the light. Far below, on the cracked plaza, Bai Wei was looking up at him. Their eyes met across the distance.
Lin Feng smiled. In that instant he knew him. Not just as Bai Wei of the Eternal Sect. He knew him for eternity.
They had knelt side by side before the same master. They had taken the same oath. The face of that master flashed through his mind, and Lin Feng's own expression turned grim. His eyes, still blank white, filled with tears.
He was not a human who had gained a legacy. He was the legacy.
He was the ancestor of the phoenix.
Lin Feng turned his head and looked past the sky, past the atmosphere of Binglan Star, past the void. His gaze pierced straight into the Aetheria Plane, the ancestral home of all phoenixes.
In that distant plane of eternal flame and ice, the great nesting trees shook. The ancient phoenix sovereigns sleeping in their stars woke up all at once.
Over Binglan Star, a projection appeared in the sky. It was Lin Feng, but not his human body. It was his true phoenix form, a creature so large its wings stretched wider than light years. Its feathers were made of frozen starlight. It looked down at the planet with eyes that held no warmth.
The phoenix sovereigns across the galaxy trembled just by seeing that figure through their bloodline connection.
The projection opened its beak, and a voice that was not sound but willpower echoed across every world where phoenix blood flowed.
It said only one sentence.
"Human territory. Eternal Sect."
Then the phenomenon disappeared. The giant phoenix faded. The real ice phoenix in the sky dissolved into snow that fell gently over Frostlight City. Lin Feng dropped slowly back to the platform, his eyes clearing, his breathing heavy.
In the Aetheria Plane, the sovereigns of all phoenix kinds, the Vermilion, the Ghost Ice, the Nine-Colored, the Void Flame, all stared toward the same distant corner of the universe.
Only a few days ago, they had felt the ancestor of the dragons wake up in this lower realms. They had all felt it. Now they had felt their own ancestor wake up, and not in their ancestral home, but in human territory.
The last time the dragon ancestor and the phoenix ancestor had stood in the same place at the same time, it was because that person had summoned them.
That person, who could kill a sovereign with a single glance. Who could tear open a plane with one finger. Who had made both dragons and phoenixes bow their heads.
The sovereigns' eyes turned red with worry.
They all asked the same question without speaking it.
'Has he came back too?'
The shockwave from Binglan Star hit the Aetheria Plane like a gong. In the east, the aurora sky over the phoenix nests tore open. In the west, the Dragon Abyss, where the dragon sovereigns sleep coiled around black holes, rumbled. In the north, the Qilin stepped out of their jade forests. In the south, the White Tigers opened their eyes. Even the old xuanwus shook their head in fear...
But the voice had spoken in phoenix blood, so the phoenixes were the first to gather.
On the Tree of First Frost, at the center of their dominion, the nine phoenix sovereigns appeared.
The Vermilion Sovereign landed, and his heat melted a nearby comet. "He is awake."
The Ghost Ice Matriarch formed out of mist. "He spoke from human territory. He is in The Eternal Sect." The name alone of that sect shook them to their core...
Above them, far beyond their dominion, a massive golden dragon eye opened in the western sky of the plane. The Dragon Progenitor had woken only days before, and now he was watching. His voice rolled across the whole plane, not just the phoenix territory.
"Little birds," the dragon said, amused and cold, "your Forefather has finally left his egg."
The phoenix sovereigns bristled, but the Nine-Colored Empress answered calmly. "And your Forefather woke first, old worm. Do not pretend you are not shaking in fear ." She sneered at the eye.
In the northern jade light, the Qilin Lord spoke without showing his body. His voice was like bells. "Both Progenitors within a week. The last time this happened, the Master of the Eternal Dao was still alive."
That name made every beast in the plane go still.
The Void Flame Lord, who rules the deepest part of the phoenix dominion, looked toward the dragon's eye. "You felt it too, dragon lord. He did not just wake up. He remembered everything. He looked at the human boy below him and he recognized him."
The dragon's eye narrowed. "The Ancient pine. He was always with the Phoenix Progenitor. If that human is him reincarnated, then the pair is together again."
The White Tiger Sovereign laughed from the south, a sound like swords clashing. "Then we should all be worried. The pair only ever gathered when their Master called. If the Master has returned to the Eternal Sect, do you think he will forgive what we did after the war?"
The phoenix sovereigns looked at each other. The Ash Feather King, the youngest, could not stay quiet.
"Then what do we do? The Aetheria Council has not met in ten thousand years because the beasts swore never to share the same sky with humans again. Do we need to break the truce?"
The Vermilion Sovereign turned his head to all four directions of the plane, addressing not just phoenixes but every listening sovereign.
"We'll not march an army into human territory. The ancestor marked the Eternal Sect with his own voice. That is now forbidden ground. Any beast who enters without permission will be declaring war on him."
The Ghost Ice Matriarch added, "let's send envoys, not legions. Phoenixes will send source flame. Dragons, if you are wise, you will send scales and teeth. Qilin, a jade horn. Let the humans understand that the Aetheria Plane remembers its debts."
High in the west, the Golden dragon eye slowly closed. "Agreed. For now."
The Nine-Colored Empress folded her wings. "And watch the Eternal Sect. If that man truly sits there again, the entire plane of mythical beasts will have to kneel, just like we did ten thousand years ago."
The Tree of First Frost shivered, and across the whole Aetheria Plane, from dragon abyss to tiger mountain, every mythical beast lowered its head for a single breath, in fear of a human they hoped was still dead.
On the plaza in Frostlight City, the snow was still falling.
It was not real snow. It was the ash of the ice phoenix statue, drifting down slowly and melting as soon as it touched skin.
Lin Feng landed back on the platform. His feet touched the cracked white stone without a sound. His eyes were no longer blank, but they were not normal either. A faint gold ring turned slowly in each pupil, like a small sun trapped in ice.
He did not look at the crowd. He did not look at the guards. He looked only at Bai Wei, and then he stepped down from the platform.
The Glacial Veil disciples were still standing where they had been laughing.
They were not laughing now.
The tall one who had called Bai Wei trash was the first to understand what he was seeing. His face went from red to white in one breath. His legs locked. The spirit energy he had been so proud of a moment ago would not move in his meridians. It felt like a mountain was sitting on his chest.
The disciple next to him tried to speak. His mouth opened, but only a dry sound came out.
"Pro... progenitor..."
The third one, the youngest who had shouted about their bed, dropped to his knees without realizing it. His white and blue uniform was soaked through from the melting snow. He was shaking so hard his teeth clicked.
Lin Feng walked past them. He did not hurry. He did not even glance at them. That was what made it worse.
The tall disciple finally forced his body to move. He fell forward onto his hands, his forehead hitting the cold stone.
"Senior! Senior, forgive us! We did not know! We have eyes but could not see Mount Tai!"
Another one slammed his head down beside him. "We were blind! We insulted the Phoenix Ancestor! Please, Ancestor, spare our sect!" They know it because of that huge form of Lin Feng.
The youngest was crying now, tears freezing on his cheeks. "We didn't mean... we were just... please don't destroy the Glacial Veil..."
Their voices cracked. Around them, the rest of the crowd had already backed away ten steps, leaving a wide empty circle around Lin Feng and Bai Wei. No one wanted to be mistaken for being with them. The city guards, who had been ready to stop a fight moments before, now stood with their spears lowered, heads bowed, pretending they had heard nothing.
Bai Wei finally looked at the kneeling disciples. His expression was calm, almost pitying.
Lin Feng stopped. He turned his head just slightly, enough for the gold in his eyes to catch the light.
He did not raise his voice. He spoke quietly, but everyone on the plaza heard it clearly.
"You should be thankful he stopped me earlier."
He meant Bai Wei.
The disciples hit their foreheads on the stone again and again, the sound dull and desperate. They did not dare to stand up until Lin Feng and Bai Wei had already walked past them and left the plaza.
They had only just turned the corner past the plaza when the sky above Binglan Star changed.
It did not darken. It became clear, too clear, like glass. Then, without sound, a figure stepped out of the void directly above Frostlight City.
She is Nexus.
The moment she appeared, the entire space for several light years around Binglan Star was cut off. It was not a barrier of ice or fire. It was a perfect digital seal. From the outside, the star system looked dead, quiet, unchanged for the last thousand years. No spiritual sense could enter. No sovereign's gaze could pierce it.
She had done it the instant she felt the fluctuation. She knew Shen Huai, the terrifying being. The moment she saw someone from that same sect going through a transformation, she blocked the area. And she was right. 'Just how many powerhouses does this sect still have?'
She thought to herself...