"Remember, our clan is turning weak, and it won't remain one of the elite clans when the members of my generation die. I'm 600 years old now and only have 300-400 years left to live. The future of our clan and family is on your shoulders; you can't become a useless pig like your parents."
Naomi would often say those words to her granddaughter. To be precise, Tiara was her great-great-granddaughter, but to simplify things they just called each other a grandmother and a granddaughter. Naomi's ultimate goal was to save her clan from falling from grace after her death.
Tiara would hear almost every day about how she had to save the family as if she was the only descendant alive. Of course, it wasn't true. Naomi's actions were part of a plan of the older generation to save the clan. Each elder of the seventh stage or eighth stage took one child from their parents and groomed them.
However, the children were always under extreme pressure and a tough training regime, and many of them developed twisted personalities and kinks as they grew up. Many took pleasure in taking out their frustrations and pent-up tension on their servants or the common disciples, worsening their clan's name further.
The Glacier clan was famous in the Phoenix Feather Sect, and one could discern their descendants by the Longma embroidery on their robes. A tall ice sculpture of the majestic dragonized horse was even exhibited at the entrance to their territory, maintained by the formation underneath it. (1)
However, the Glacier clan lost a lot of competitions and skirmishes with the other elite clans, which caused them to lose their control over different businesses and territories, all because their last 3 generations were too weak. They only had two strong generations alive, and one of them was already old while the other only had 200-300 years left, which wasn't a long period of time for cultivators.
Tiara Glacier hated her grandmother for separating her from her family, but it didn't take long for that hatred to generalize, and she developed a new sense of scorn for her parents for their weakness. They were too weak, and they were to blame for their incapability to keep her by their side.
'I will be nothing like those trash parents, and I will get free of my grandmother's control. Once I stand on my own, I will only do what benefits myself, and abandon this useless clan.'
Tiara's mind kept repeating those words as she trained diligently. She learned how to lie to make her grandmother satisfied, how to cheat to gain more resources, and how to be ruthless when dealing with competitors. The young girl never cared about how much others gained; she only cared about gaining the most she could.
She was competitive in the sense she wanted the most, but not in the sense she was concerned with whether others got more or less. She simply didn't care about others and turned more and more self-centered as time passed.
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"The challenge room is cleared now. You can take the test now, I hope for your sake that a stronger challenger will not arrive or you will have to face a worse challenge."
The voice woke up the young woman from her stupor, and she opened her eyes as she stored her incomplete Nascent Soul back into her core and got up on her feet to enter the door in front of her. Nobody else entered the Ice Chasm while she waited, so she was still alone.
Pushing the door open, she found herself at the entrance of a frozen room where the Ice Qi was so dense, she thought her saliva would crystalize if she opened her mouth.
"Welcome to the Challenge of Frost. Your task is simple; you only need to cross the room and get out of the other door to pass and win rewards."
The coldness engulfed the woman the moment she entered the room, and she hurriedly put a barrier of Ice Qi around her body to fight the incoming frost.
'I guess those guys didn't make it.'
Tiara thought to herself as she saw frozen corpses of men and women on the path to the next door when she looked around the room.
She could tell where the last challenger arrived by the trail of bodies that seemed to have been swept to the sides, and she knew that the first corpse in her way was the previous challenger, a woman wearing the green robes of the Serene Lotus Sect.
Tiara walked in a straight line to the room decisively, ignoring the coldness that tried to bite her skin under the robes. It felt like the robes offered zero isolation, and everything depended on her skills with Ice Qi manipulation.
The room was large and spacious with each wall being around 30 meters long. She wanted to sprint and cross it instantly, but as soon as she crouched, strong pressure was released from somewhere and she could barely remain standing.
'I guess running is forbidden here. Makes sense; the room would have to be much longer if they wanted us to experience the cold while running.'
Giving up on running, she shortly arrived at the 15 meters mark, crossing half of the room. Once she passed that spot, the chill turned stronger, causing her teeth to chatter and her body to tremble from the cold, reactions she hadn't shown in more than a decade.
However, it didn't bother her. Her proficiency with Ice Qi manipulation was much above average thanks to the intense training she went through as a child, and her affinity with frost was high.
After moving 5 more meters, she passed the first corpse in the room, indicating the worse score anyone ever got in this challenge - 20 meters. Without even glancing at the identity of the person, the ice princess kept marching forward with determination.
Upon reaching the 22.5 meters mark, thin layers of ice began to form on her skin, breaking in every movement. She had to make sure her whole body moved and twisted enough to break the ice all the time, lest the ice will accumulate on the stiffer parts.
Tiara wanted access to her storage ring so badly; she had three Heating Pills gifted to her by Ken, and their effect was the opposite of Chill Pills – they kept the body warm in cold environments. Sadly, she couldn't interact with the space inside her ring, meaning it was blocked by the trial.
The female contender had only 3 more meters to pass, but the cold got much worse. She could feel the chill permeate into her bones, seemingly attempting to turn her into another ice sculpture and add her to the horrifying collection of failed disciples.
'I went through much worse ever since I was a child!'
Tiara gritted her teeth as she recalled the memories of her childhood, forced to sit in pools of ice or suffocated by her grandmother's Ice Qi for hours only to get used to the frost. She finally reached the body of the former challenger at the 28 meters mark.
'I will leave those failures behind. I'm different than my parents; I'm not a failure! I never lose!'
She raised her leg with difficulty and kicked the frozen body to the side. She didn't care about respecting the dead; she only wanted to get out of the hellish cold. Since the corpses were in her way, she only perceived them as obstacles she had to overcome.
She fell on her fours, and her palms suffered from frostbite. Without giving up, she crawled through the last meter, ignoring the painful chilliness that pervaded her every limb and bone.
Opening the door with a weak push, just enough to pass through, she crawled her way out on her stomach with her barely functioning muscles.
"Congratulation on passing the Challenge of Frost, you may now pick your rewards."
Tiara desperately reached into her storage ring and consumed a Heating Pill as soon as she noticed the restrictions were gone.
"Huhh..."
Tiara heaved a sigh of relief as a wave of heat washed over her body, cleansing it from the cold that was almost attached to her cells now. The Heating Pill did wonders for her body, and as fifth-grade pills, they easily defrosted the ice.
Getting up from the ground, an idea came to her mind. She wondered if she could return now to the previous room.
"Can I enter the previous room again?"
"Yes, but the cold will remain the same," the voice said knowingly. Tiara wasn't the first one to think of this idea, and a few already did it before.
"I will do it."
She had nothing to fear now. Even if the trial didn't allow using the aid of pills, she already cleared it, so there was no reason for it to give her trouble over her reliance on the Heating Pills.
She entered the room and began plundering the corpses, absorbing the BP of every corpse that still had it on. She could easily discern those that were already ransacked since they had no storage rings, so there was no point in searching for the Blood Token in their clothes.
After scoring a net value of 135,000 BP, she left the room again to check out the rewards. Her visit in the room was much easier now with the support of the pills and offered only a little challenge.
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A/N: (1) Longma – a mythological creature from the Chinese culture. Long = dragon and ma = horse. It's basically a superhorse with some dragon features.
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