He looked at her one last time. His gaze dropped to her lips, hovered there for a dangerous, heart-stopping moment, and then moved back up to her eyes.

"Sleep," he said hoarsely. "I will see you in the arena."

He stood up. The cold air rushed back in to fill the space where he had been. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He turned and walked to the window. He didn’t look back. He slipped out into the night as silently as he had arrived, leaving only a fading trail of frost on the windowsill.

Ji’an sat there in the dark, clutching the ice bracelet on her wrist.

Her room was silent again. But her mind was screaming.

She touched her hand, the one he had nuzzled. It felt hot.

"Heartless Dao my ass," she whispered to the empty room, her voice shaking. "That boy has too much heart. It’s going to get us both killed."

She lay back down, pulling the quilt over her head. But sleep didn’t come.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his face. The way he leaned into her touch, the hunger in his eyes.

She rolled over, groaning.

"I need to find him a girlfriend," she muttered desperately. "Or a boyfriend. Or a hobby. Anything to stop him from looking at me like... that."

But deep down, in a place she refused to acknowledge, a tiny part of her whispered:

Xie Wangchen stood on the roof of the Class 9 building, looking down at the window he had just exited.

The wind whipped his white robes around him. The cold was biting, but he didn’t feel it.

He felt burned.

He touched his cheek, where her hand had rested. The phantom warmth was searing his skin.

He had almost done it. He had almost kissed her. Not her hand, but her...

When he saw her sitting there, disheveled and sleepy in her thin nightclothes, the urge to claim her had been a physical pain.

He wanted to wrap her in his robes, take her back to his peak, and hide her in the deepest ice cave where no one else could ever see her.

"Patience," he gritted out, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the hilt of Winter’s Sigh.

He wasn’t strong enough yet.

If he claimed her now, the Sect would tear them apart. Elder Qin would intervene. The Royal Family would intervene.

He needed to win. He needed to be the undeniable, untouchable genius of the Sect.

He needed to stand so high that when he finally took Lin Ji’an into his arms, the world would only dare to bow.

"Tomorrow," Wangchen whispered to the moon. "Tomorrow, I begin the conquest."

He turned and vanished into the night, a ghost with a burning heart, ready to tear the tournament apart for the sake of a cook.

[System Alert: Villain’s Obsession Level: CRITICAL.]

[Note: The ’Heartless Dao’ has been corrupted. New Path Detected: ’The Dao of Devotion’.]

[Effect: Power increases with emotional instability. Danger Level: SSS.]

***

The morning of the Celestial Sword Sect’s Grand Tournament did not arrive quietly.

It was heralded by the resounding, chest-rattling boom of the giant bronze Bell of Awakening, its deep tolls echoing across the nine peaks like the heartbeat of an ancient god.

For Lin Ji’an, however, the real awakening had happened hours ago, in the dead of night, courtesy of a certain frosty villain and a dangerously intimate hand-holding session.

She stood in the massive, sun-drenched expanse of the Outer Sect Assembly Plaza, surrounded by thousands of chattering, nervous disciples, but her mind was entirely preoccupied with her left wrist.

Beneath the coarse gray fabric of her uniform sleeve, the Frost-Soul Barrier rested against her skin.

The ice-crystal beads were perfectly smooth, radiating a faint, soothing chill that contrasted sharply with the chaotic heat rising in her cheeks every time she remembered how Xie Wangchen had looked at her.

’I am a professional. I am a pragmatic survivor in a fictional world. I do not get flustered by moody teenagers,’ Ji’an chanted her morning mantra internally, staring intensely at the back of Tang Bo’s head as if it contained the secrets of the universe.

"Boss," Tang Bo shifted uncomfortably, peering over his shoulder. "Why are you glaring at my neck? Are you planning to chop it? Please don’t chop it. I already have a stomach ache from nerves."

"I’m not glaring, Tang Bo. I’m focusing my Qi," Ji’an lied smoothly, crossing her arms and tucking her hands securely into her opposite sleeves. "And stop shaking. You’re vibrating so hard you’re going to cause a localized earthquake."

"How can I not shake?!" Liu Liu whimpered from Ji’an’s other side, clutching a small, embroidered pouch of protective talismans. "Look at them! They look like they want to eat us!"

Ji’an finally allowed herself to look up from Tang Bo’s neck.

The Assembly Plaza was a masterpiece of hierarchical architecture. The Outer Disciples, from Classes 6 through 9, were crammed into the lower courtyard, a sea of drab gray and nervous, sweating faces.

But fifty feet above them, suspended on a magnificent, floating terrace of polished white jade, stood the Inner Sect Elite, Classes 1 through 5.

They looked down upon the courtyard like a pantheon of bored deities observing mortals. Their robes were pristine white, woven with silver and gold threads that caught the morning light.

The spiritual pressure radiating from the terrace alone was enough to make the weaker Outer Disciples lightheaded.

And standing at the very edge of that jade terrace, looking down at the crowd with the focused intensity of a sniper, was Xie Wangchen.

Ji’an’s eyes snagged on him before she could stop herself.

He was breathtaking. He wore the formal ceremonial robes of the Eternal Cloud Peak, stark white with faint, icy-blue cloud motifs swirling at the hem.

The silver crown in his hair caught the sun, but it was his eyes that commanded attention. They were dark, bottomless, and locked directly onto Lin Ji’an, never leaving for a second.