A Frost-Covered Sword Falls from the Ninth Heaven

In the fifteenth year of the Yuanqi era of the Great Yu dynasty, on the day of Frost’s Descent.

On a rainy night in Lingzhou City, spearman Meng Jinghan and fan wielder Xie Guzhou fought to the death in a narrow alley. Xie Guzhou unleashed his Fate Form, “Immortal in the Painting,” sealing Meng Jinghan’s spear inside his fan and shattering his right arm. Just as he moved in for the kill, a young man in black came to the mouth of the alley: Shen Changce, who had just escaped from the Black Prison. His body was covered in wounds, but his gaze was as cold as frost and snow. He merely raised one finger, frost gathering at its tip, and shattered Xie Guzhou’s “Ink-Wash Landscape.” The fan broke, and its wielder died. Shen Changce’s Fate Form was called “A Sword’s Frosty Chill.” It began at the first rank, but could advance by killing and devouring fragments of other people’s Fate Forms. Every life he took strengthened his sword intent; every realm he crossed made his heart colder.

He began his bloody journey in Lingzhou and headed north. He met the swordsman Ji Tang, who gave him the sword “Snow-Illuminator” and urged him to kill less, only to be murdered by his enemies for his compassion. He took in Xie Qingqian, the orphaned daughter of a fan wielder, as his disciple, secretly planning to devour her once she had grown stronger. He killed the Eastern Depot’s governor atop the capital, then married the eldest princess as bait to probe the heights beyond. He killed corrupt officials, grandmasters, and holy sons, rising from the first rank to the ninth. At last, he learned that the mastermind was the “Mandate” organization, which controlled the rise and fall of dynasties. In the final battle beyond the heavens, he severed the shackles of the Mandate and broke through to the Destiny Realm, but lost all his emotions. Xie Qingqian waited for him atop a snowy mountain for three years, but never saw him shed a tear before she died. Only when he stood at her grave for seven days and seven nights did the frost flowers on his sword melt, and a tear fall. His final emotion, it turned out, had never been severed. He raised his sword to the sky. Frost blanketed the world, and the Heavenly Gate swung open. From then on, Shen Changce was no more. Only a breath of frosty wind remained, blowing through every winter rain.