The sun had sunk completely below the horizon. On the Tianwu Continent, the moon shone full every single night, for it was itself a luminous celestial body.
Yet its radiance differed vastly from that of the sun. If the sun embodied light and heat, the moon stood for cold and yin—one of fire, the other of water.
With the sun's descent, the moonlight blazed all the more vividly.
Upon the roof of a cottage in the mountain village beside Hengyuan Valley stood a lone figure, sword in his arms.
All movement below ground to a halt. Even the bandits froze mid-action, staring dumbfounded at Gao Han's silhouette above them.
A man, a sword, a white robe. The gentle wind brushed against his emaciated frame, stirring his slightly soiled white robes.
Yet none of this could dim his bearing. He remained as handsome and cold as ever, exuding an aura of bone-piercing frost and a suffocatingly formidable presence.
This was none other than Gao Han.
He had sensed trouble the moment he saw nearly two hundred bandits storm into the village, and had rushed over with all his speed. Alas, he had arrived too late—their atrocities had already begun.
"Boy, who in the world are you? I suggest you stay out of the lords' business!" The bandit chief pulled himself off the young woman, fastened his trousers, and glared upward.
The girl, freed from the fiend's grasp, quickly pulled her clothes on and huddled in a corner, sobbing quietly.
Gao Han scanned the horrific scenes around him and shook his head in resignation. "I had half a mind to let you live. But as things stand, death is your only fate."
"Hahaha! Boy, do you hear how arrogantly you speak?" The bandit chief snatched his double-handed axe from the ground with one hand.
"Speak your name. The lords do not slay nameless ghosts beneath their axes!" He raised the axe and pointed it at Gao Han, dripping with contempt.
Gao Han did not draw his sword. He stared at the man coldly and spoke softly: "Gao Han."
The bandit chief's eyes darted as he muttered: "Gao Han… I swear I've heard that name before."
At that moment, a bandit on horseback cried out in terror: "The Ice Hero Gao Han! He's the Ice Hero—the champion of the Spirit Kingdom's Grand Tournament!"
Gao Han's victory had spread his title far and wide. Everyone who had witnessed the tournament became his herald, singing of his fearsome power.
Tales of his talent and strength grew more legendary by the day, elevating him almost to mythic status.
He had dominated opponents of his own rank, defeated warriors of the second layer of True Essence, pushed back third-layer experts, and even vanquished the direct disciples of the Western Sword Clan and the Southern Valley Duan Clan.
Though neither great clan had yet formally ascended to seven-star power, they were at the very peak of eight-star forces.
To defeat their heirs was no small feat. And to break through mid-battle, ultimately claiming the championship at the second layer of True Essence…
When the villagers learned their would-be savior was the Ice Hero Gao Han, they all knelt before him, tears streaming as they begged for mercy, kowtowing violently.
The bandit chief's gaze turned grave. A reputation such as his was not earned lightly. A tournament champion with a heroic title could not be a mere pretender—unless Gao Han was a disciple of some colossal power.
Yet rumor held he was from a minor clan, merely an outer-sect disciple of the Misty Sect. That left only one explanation: his strength matched his fame.
The chief exhaled deeply and forced a greasy smile. "Lord Ice Hero, surely you have no wish to fight us to the death. Here is my proposal: we shall plunder the village, and split the women and treasure with you. How does that sound?"
Gao Han appeared to consider it seriously, then nodded. "Your idea does sound rather tempting."
The bandit chief beamed, while the villagers plunged into despair. Their savior had turned out to be another devil. Half their women would now be at this man's mercy.
A storm of curses erupted from the crowd.
"Gao Han, you cur! How dare you bear the title of Hero!"
"Vile wretch! You shall die a horrible death! I will haunt you even as a ghost!"
"A hero? You are nothing but a shameless dog!"
The insults grew fouler by the second.
Fearing Gao Han might reverse his decision to preserve his reputation, the chief quickly waved his hand. "Gag all of them! They are the Ice Hero's property now—how dare they speak to their master this way? I shall teach them some respect."
He dragged the weeping young woman from the corner, tore open her clothes, and pushed her toward Gao Han.
The girl was fair of face, yet paled in comparison to beauties like Situ Yan.
As she sobbed uncontrollably, Gao Han let out a scornful laugh. "I do not want half of these people. I want…"
A glint of frost flashed in his eyes, sending a shiver down the chief's spine. "I want everything—the women, the men, the elders, the children, the grain…
And your lives. I shall take those too."
"Frost Forged Mountain!"
Without giving the bandits a moment to react, Gao Han slammed his palm toward the densest cluster of men.
For all his power, he dared not underestimate this horde. Roughly two hundred strong: eighty at the eighth layer of Qi Condensation, fifty at the ninth, twenty first-layer True Essence experts, fifteen second-layer, and four third-layer.
Taking on such a force alone would prove challenging. Fortunately, he had just broken through. At the second layer of True Essence alone, the fight would have been nearly impossible.
A thick, condensed pillar of frost coalesced before his palm, forming a colossal ice mountain that crashed down upon the bandits.
"No! What is that? A mountain? His true essence has taken physical form to such a degree?"
"So cold! Why is the temperature plummeting? It is spring!"
"I can't move… my body is freezing over!"
"So sleepy… why is my strength fading away?"
Panic erupted among the bandits. The frigid Ice Momentum of Frost Forged Mountain sent the temperature across a hundred zhang plummeting. Those in thin clothing were already frozen stiff.
Those closest to the ice mountain fared far worse. Low-rank warriors were encased in layers of ice, their true essence frozen solid, their very life force snuffed out by the bitter cold.
Eighth-layer Qi Condensation warriors were shattered completely, their bodies turning to icy shards.
First and second-layer True Essence experts, with stronger inner power, endured longer, yet frost still invaded their bodies and locked their true essence in place.
The ice mountain crashed down violently. Ice shards and blood sprayed everywhere, accompanied by the sickening crunch of splintering bones.
BOOM!
The mountain slammed into the earth, splitting open deep fissures that snaked toward the cottages, bringing entire structures crashing down in a thunderous roar.
With no frost from Gao Han to sustain it, the ice mountain dissolved into thin air, leaving only cracked earth and ruined buildings.
In that single strike, nearly thirty bandits lay dead—around ten of them first or second-layer True Essence experts.
"You little devil! You dare declare war on us?" The bandit chief flew into a rage, stunned that Gao Han had attacked without warning.
"Fighting here will only destroy our spoils. Why not withdraw and meet in open battle?" Gao Han said calmly.
The chief thought it over. He was right—even if they won, the village would be ruined, along with their plunder.
"Twenty of you, herd the villagers outside and guard them. Kill anyone who tries to run!" He assigned twenty men, only one of whom was a first-layer True Essence warrior.
"The rest of you, with me! Cut this boy down!" He waved his hand, and all the bandits filed out of the village to do battle in the open.
Before the fight began, Gao Han turned to the True Essence warrior guarding the villagers. "Lay a finger on my spoils, and you will be the first to die."
Frost flickered in his eyes, and a thin sheet of ice instantly formed over the twenty guards' bodies.
The lust and greed in their eyes vanished at once. They stared at Gao Han in terror and nodded numbly.
"Frost Forged Mountain!"
Facing hundreds of foes, Gao Han unleashed the technique again, sending the ice mountain hurtling toward the chief.
The bandit chief roared and hacked a massive axe shadow toward the oncoming ice.
CLANG!
The axe shadow froze solid the moment it made contact, then was ground to powder beneath the mountain's weight.
Horrified that his full-strength strike had done nothing, the chief grabbed a subordinate and used him as a shield, fleeing the blast zone himself.
"Ice Momentum, Unleash!"
Before the mountain struck the ground, Gao Han pressed his fists to the earth. His Ice Momentum and soul power erupted outward, covering the ground in a sheet of ice that sprouted ten-foot-long ice spikes. Many bandits were impaled instantly.
The onlookers felt a chill run down their spines at the sight of the dense forest of spikes, just as the ice mountain crashed into the ground once more.
In the blink of an eye, over eighty more bandits lay dead—most of them Qi Condensation warriors, yet the slaughter was still terrifying to behold.