CHAPTER 296: SECLUSION 2

Now that his Qi had settled and his body had fully recovered its balance, Lucas did not allow himself a moment of idleness. The world beyond his chamber could wait...his first duty was to strengthen the fragile equilibrium he had achieved. For the next few days, he remained within the quiet sanctum of his room, surrounded by the faint shimmer of formations he had carved into the floor himself.

He began each day at dawn, sitting once more in meditation. His breathing was deep and rhythmic, every inhalation pulling strands of ambient Qi from the air, every exhalation refining it into pure energy that coursed through his meridians. The frost that lingered in the room pulsed faintly with each cycle of his breath, as though resonating with the flow of his cultivation.

Though his body had healed, his cultivation realm remained stubbornly unmoved. He was still at the Grandmaster level...a height most cultivators could only dream of...but for Lucas, it felt like a cage. The more he refined his Qi, the more clearly he felt the invisible wall that separated him from the Ascendant Realm. It was not weakness that held him back, but incompleteness.

During his meditation, he noticed it...the subtle imbalance in his Yin and Yang energies. His Yang Qi was dense and vibrant, a product of his own relentless refinement, but his Yin Qi, the energy of serenity and stillness, remained lacking. His previous injuries and the loss of his resonance had weakened that aspect of his foundation. Without that balance, his Qi cycle could not stabilize long enough to ascend.

He tried various methods to compensate: circulating his Qi in reverse patterns, invoking elemental resonance with frost, even drawing upon the Ice Belle’s aura in small doses. Each attempt brought progress, but not enough to shatter the barrier. The Ice Belle often observed him with quiet curiosity, occasionally lending a faint wisp of her divine frost energy, but Lucas never took more than a drop of what she offered. He knew that forcing his advancement without natural harmony could endanger everything he had rebuilt.

One evening, after hours of meditation, Lucas opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of mist. The Qi around him rippled gently, and he could feel it...his cultivation had subtly shifted. Not a full ascension, but a step forward. His Dantian pulsed with deeper intensity, the flow of Qi within him thicker, purer, and smoother than before.

He had advanced to the Third Stage of the Grandmaster Rank.

It was not the grand breakthrough he sought, but it was a clear sign of progress. He smiled faintly, rubbing his thumb across the frost-coated armrest beside him. "Steady steps," he murmured. "Even the tallest mountain must be climbed one stone at a time."

The Ice Belle gave a soft, approving hum, her icy aura shimmering faintly in the dim light.

For now, he knew he would have to pause. Pushing further without adequate Yin energy would only lead to instability. The path to the Ascendant Realm demanded balance, not haste.

So Lucas allowed himself to rest for a time, though his heart still yearned for progress.

As Lucas allowed himself a moment of stillness after days of intense cultivation, he sat quietly within the softly glowing chamber, his mind calm.

Frost had lingered faintly on the walls and thickened without his notice, forming delicate veins of ice that shimmered under the dim lantern light. He rubbed his palms together, intending to dispel the chill that crept into his skin...only to find that the cold didn’t sting anymore. Instead, it felt... natural. Comforting, even.

He frowned slightly and lifted his hand. A faint mist gathered above his palm, coalescing into shimmering crystals that took the shape of tiny snowflakes. They danced for a moment, glittering like stars, before melting into the air. Lucas stared in quiet surprise, his heartbeat quickening.

It wasn’t a coincidence. The sensation was too familiar, too fluid. He tried again, channeling his Qi carefully through his meridians, and this time the frost responded instantly, blooming across his fingertips like living silk. The energy that answered him was gentle but potent, and unmistakably pure.

"Ice Qi..." he whispered. "No... it’s more than that. It’s affinity."

The realization dawned slowly, then fully struck him...he had developed an Ice Affinity. Something that had never been part of his elemental composition before. In his cultivation, he had attuned most strongly to Fire Qi, but this...this was entirely new.

He looked over at the Ice Belle, who was perched nearby, lazily rolling a shard of ice between her tiny fingers as if it were a toy. Her aura pulsed faintly with divine frost energy, calm and serene. She noticed his gaze and tilted her head, her blue eyes gleaming with mischief and innocence.

"You," Lucas murmured, narrowing his eyes slightly in amused disbelief. "You did this, didn’t you?"

The Ice Belle blinked, then turned her face away with an exaggerated huff, pretending not to understand. Her tiny wings fluttered, scattering faint snowdust across the air. Lucas couldn’t help but smile at the act. "Don’t play innocent. I can feel your energy inside my Qi veins. You’ve been with me every moment since that day... it’s no wonder your essence seeped into me."

At his words, she turned back and puffed out her chest proudly, as if to say of course it did. Lucas chuckled softly. "Unintentional or not, it’s a gift," he admitted. "This affinity... it feels alive, like a bond between us."

The Ice Belle hopped onto his shoulder and leaned against his neck, humming contently. A soft, cold breeze brushed against his cheek, and for a fleeting moment, he felt her emotions through their bond...warmth hidden beneath her icy composure, a kind of wordless affection that didn’t need to be spoken.

Lucas rested his hand gently on her tiny form. "You’ve given me more than I realized," he said quietly. "I owe you for this, little one."

The Ice Belle smiled faintly, her frosty aura flaring just enough to make the room shimmer with pale blue light.

Lucas closed his eyes again, feeling the cold energy circulate through him, merging with his own Qi. His cultivation base resonated softly, stabilizing further than before. The ice within him wasn’t foreign...it was part of him now, a reflection of the bond he shared with her.

For the first time in weeks, Lucas felt truly at peace. What began as recovery had turned into something greater...an evolution of both power and connection. The frost around him glowed faintly, whispering in the still air as if affirming his newfound affinity.

The Ice Belle, content with herself, curled up on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Lucas smiled faintly and whispered, "Looks like we’re truly bound by more than just fate now."