Inside Sector 6 of the Upper-Realm Frozen Astral Prison, the Ninth Abyssal Ice Trench had not felt a single degree of warmth or smelled a single mortal fragrance in ten thousand years.
Yet at this exact moment, through the six-foot circular window of golden-blue starlight hovering in the center of Empress Luo Qingxue’s cell. A wave of golden-amber kitchen warmth—infused with the rich, caramelized aroma of Sweet-and-Sour Braised Dragon-Marrow Pork Ribs, Steamed Jade-Pearl Spirit Rice. Hot Red-Date Ginger Tea—washed over her chained shoulders like a summer breeze!
Crackle—drip, drip.
Where the warm golden light touched the three-inch crust of ten-thousand-year black rime coating Luo Qingxue’s pale cheeks and eyelashes, the indestructible Upper-Realm frost instantly melted into warm, harmless water droplets! Even the eight black God-Freezing Astral Chains piercing her collarbones let out a startled metallic whine and loosened by half an inch. The Lv.2 Awakened Frost-Phoenix Hearth-Link Hairpin suppressed fifty percent of their freezing erosion!
Luo Qingxue—the peerless Rank 8 Star-Realm Sword Empress whose icy gaze had once made ten thousand Upper-Realm elders tremble—sat completely frozen on her ice platform. Her hands still cupped in midair, her mouth slightly open around the words “buy goat’s milk for baby Nian.”
Because standing on the other side of the crystal-clear spatial window was not a ragged, coughing mortal widower fleeing through a snowstorm in Frost-Pine Town.
