The miniature cosmos had become a battlefield.
Not a battlefield of armies.
Not of weapons.
But of will.
Of endurance.
Of a boy trying to command a power that could erase him.
For what felt like endless days after Tian Wuchen's words about "real training," Lin Shuan finally understood what his master meant.
It was not cultivation in the ordinary sense.
There were no manuals.
No gentle teachings.
No slow guidance.
Only trial.
Failure.
Pain.
And repetition.
At the center of the drifting star-field, Lin Shuan sat cross-legged upon a suspended stone platform shaped from condensed cosmic essence.
Tian Wuchen stood before him.
Hands behind his back.
Expression unreadable.
"Again," he said.
Only one word.
Lin Shuan's jaw tightened.
Sweat already lined his forehead.
His breathing was uneven.
He had been trying for three days—
just to awaken a thread of Frost Divine Heart power consciously.
And he had failed every time.
Some failures nearly killed him.
But he raised his hands again.
Closed his eyes.
Focused inward.
He descended into the familiar inner world of veins and cold.
The frozen channels glimmered before him.
The Frost Divine Heart pulsed in darkness.
Heavy.
Ancient.
Each heartbeat sounding like a drum struck in eternity.
Thump.
Thump.
Tian Wuchen's voice echoed in memory:
Do not force the heart.
Listen to it.
Lin Shuan exhaled.
Slowly—
he touched a thread of cold energy.
Guided it.
Just slightly.
For a moment—
it obeyed.
His eyes widened.
It moved—
Then—
Everything exploded.
CRACK—
Frozen energy erupted backward through his meridians.
Lin Shuan coughed blood.
His body was thrown across the platform.
He hit the ground hard.
Pain shot through every bone.
The frost running through his veins became blades.
He gasped.
Vision shaking.
Again.
Failed again.
Tian Wuchen did not help him up.
Did not comfort him.
Only said—
"What did you do wrong?"
Lin Shuan, breathing heavily, forced himself upright.
"…I pushed."
"Yes."
Tian Wuchen's eyes sharpened.
"You tried to dominate a god's heart."
He stepped forward.
His voice lowered.
"You are not commanding it."
"You are provoking it."
Silence.
Then—
"Again."
Lin Shuan almost laughed bitterly.
Almost.
Instead—
he sat.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Days blurred.
Weeks passed.
Failure became routine.
Sometimes the Frost Divine Heart rejected him violently—
freezing his meridians until his body collapsed.
Sometimes icy backlash split his skin open.
Sometimes blood would run from his nose and ears.
Once—
his consciousness shattered so deeply he slept for nine days.
A sleep like death.
Dreamless.
Cold.
Tian Wuchen watched through all of it.
Never intervening too early.
Never allowing recklessness.
One day, after another collapse, Lin Shuan lay exhausted on the cosmic stone.
His voice was raw.
"…Master…"
"What if…"
He hesitated.
"…what if I can't control it?"
Tian Wuchen looked at him.
Really looked.
Then sat beside him.
Unexpectedly.
For a long while—
neither spoke.
Stars drifted around them.
Then Tian Wuchen said quietly—
"When dragons are born…"
"…do you know how they learn to fly?"
Lin Shuan shook his head.
"They fall."
Lin Shuan blinked.
Tian Wuchen continued.
"They fall from the sky until instinct becomes law."
"Power is no different."
He turned.
"That heart…"
"…was never meant for ordinary beings."
"But it chose to beat in you."
His voice hardened.
"Do not insult that choice."
Lin Shuan stared.
Something inside him stirred.
Resolve.
Again.
He stood.
Again.
Training resumed.
But then—
everything changed.
Tian Wuchen altered the method.
"Today," he said,
"you will stop controlling the heart."
Lin Shuan frowned.
"…Then what?"
"You will listen."
Tian Wuchen raised a hand.
The miniature cosmos dimmed.
Stars slowed.
Even sound faded.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Not absence—
Presence.
Living silence.
"The universe speaks through stillness."
Tian Wuchen's voice seemed everywhere.
"Find its rhythm."
Lin Shuan sat.
Eyes closed.
Breathing slowed.
No forcing.
No guiding.
Only listening.
At first—
nothing.
Only emptiness.
Then—
a pulse.
Faint.
Not his heart.
Something larger.
The cosmos itself.
A rhythm in void.
A silent current.
His consciousness drifted deeper.
And suddenly—
the Frost Divine Heart responded.
Thump.
He froze.
Another beat.
Stronger.
Thump.
But this time—
it wasn't violent.
It was… answering.
Lin Shuan's breath caught.
He could feel resonance.
His heart.
The universe.
Same rhythm.
Tian Wuchen opened one eye.
A faint smile appeared.
"…Good."
Then—
"Now borrow one thread."
Lin Shuan reached inward.
Touched frost energy.
It flowed.
A thin stream.
Cold mist formed around his hand.
He opened his eyes.
Looked.
His hand—
wrapped in silver-white frost.
Controlled.
For one second.
Two—
Then exploded.
BOOM.
He was blasted backward.
Again.
But—
He laughed.
Actually laughed.
"I touched it!"
Blood on his lips.
But smiling.
Tian Wuchen almost smiled too.
"Again."
From then—
progress came.
Painfully.
Slowly.
Real.
Months passed.
Lin Shuan learned first to release a thread of Frost energy.
Then hold it.
Then shape it.
At first—
only enough to freeze a pebble.
Then a floating meteor fragment.
Then entire rivers of cosmic essence.
But each success carried cost.
Sometimes activating the Frost Divine Heart too long shattered his body.
He would collapse.
Forced into deep healing sleep.
Days.
Sometimes weeks.
Each awakening—
stronger.
Changed.
The training became brutal.
Tian Wuchen summoned storms of cosmic force.
Made Lin Shuan survive in frozen void currents.
Forced him to circulate Frost energy while meditating inside collapsing spatial fractures.
Failure meant injury.
Success meant harsher trials.
One day—
Tian Wuchen stood before him.
"Today…"
"…freeze me."
Lin Shuan nearly choked.
"Master…?"
Tian Wuchen folded his arms.
"Attack."
Lin Shuan hesitated.
Then activated Frost Divine Heart.
Cold surged.
White markings crept faintly along his arms.
The air crystallized.
He thrust his palm.
A lance of freezing force shot forward.
Tian Wuchen stood still.
The attack struck—
and froze space around him.
For a breath—
success.
Then—
CRACK.
Tian Wuchen walked through it.
Breaking the frozen field by presence alone.
Lin Shuan stared.
"…Impossible…"
Tian Wuchen shook his head.
"No."
"Small."
He stepped forward.
"You freeze objects."
"You must freeze laws."
Lin Shuan stood stunned.
Freeze…
laws?
That night—
he meditated for seven days without moving.
Trying to understand.
And during that meditation—
he saw something.
Within inner darkness—
a frozen lotus.
Sealed in ice.
At the heart's core.
A deeper power.
Untouched.
He told Tian Wuchen.
The ancient master's expression changed.
For the first time—
serious surprise.
"…You saw the Frost Origin."
Lin Shuan blinked.
"The what?"
But Tian Wuchen only said—
"Not yet."
Then training intensified again.
Months flowed by in relentless training, and soon half a year had passed within the miniature cosmos.
Outside—
Two months had not even passed.
Inside—
Lin Shuan was changing into something else.
His body had become tempered by divine frost.
His will sharpened.
His control grew.
One day—
while training alone—
he raised a hand.
Activated the Frost Divine Heart.
No backlash.
No blood.
No pain.
Only calm.
Cold spread across his palm.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
A snowflake formed.
Then another.
Then an entire spiral of frost orbiting his hand.
Controlled.
Perfect.
Lin Shuan stared.
Disbelieving.
"…I did it…"
Behind him—
Tian Wuchen spoke.
"No."
Lin Shuan turned.
The ancient master smiled faintly.
"You have taken the first step."
Then—
his expression shifted.
"There is one final lesson."
Lin Shuan felt danger instantly.
"What lesson?"
Tian Wuchen looked into endless stars.
"The heart can freeze time."
Silence.
Lin Shuan thought he misheard.
"…Time?"
Tian Wuchen nodded.
"But to touch that…"
"…you must stand at death's edge."
A chill moved through Lin Shuan.
Even after all this—
there was worse.
Of course there was.
Tian Wuchen turned.
Eyes ancient as creation.
"Prepare."
"Tomorrow…"
"We begin your true Frost Divine Heart training."
Lin Shuan froze.
After all this—
THIS had only been preparation?
He almost protested.
Almost.
Instead—
he smiled.
Because now—
he understood.
Pain was the path.
Failure was refinement.
And terror—
was the gate.
He bowed deeply.
"Master…"
"…I'm ready."
Tian Wuchen watched him.
Then nodded once.
Far above—
stars drifted silently.
And within Lin Shuan's chest—
the Frost Divine Heart beat.
Steady.
Awake.
Waiting.
As though it too knew—
its true master…
was finally beginning to emerge.