Godslayer: Reincarnated with SSS Rank Cultivation System-Chapter 150: The Lotus Between Us

I can't go on like this... I will die...

Wen Ran laughed bitterly in his mind, the sound twisted and hollow. His exhausted body dragged through the snow, each step leaving a jagged trail — a path so obvious that even the blind could track it. Each breath felt like he was inhaling ice itself, sharp and biting, yet somehow... somehow, he felt good.

He felt alive.

As if this brutal struggle — this endless push against death — was the correct way to live.

I'm not ready to die again... Hahaha! Let the world call me crazy... but I'll survive, even if death claims me!

With those thoughts burning in his heart, Wen Ran pressed on. Time itself felt frozen, the minutes stretched into eternity as the winds howled like tortured spirits. Each gust was a blade of ice that sliced his skin, cutting deep enough to leave him shivering violently, yet still he kept going. His body seemed to crack and freeze with every step, and yet his spirit energy worked desperately to sustain him — ice energy cloaking his skin like armor, while the flickering warmth of his inner flame kept his heart from freezing over completely.

His tired feet trudged forward, carrying him up the treacherous mountain path. He could feel it — the Ice Spirit Lotus was close. The system's guidance told him that much. The flower was just ahead, waiting for him.

But the mountain fought back. His foot slipped. He tumbled down the slope, rolling through the snow in a flurry of ice and frost. Snow stung his face, forcing him to spit out the freezing slush that filled his mouth. But he got up.

And he climbed again.

Again he slipped — again he fell.

But he spat the snow out, stood up, and pressed on.

I won't stop. Not now...

"How many times has it been now?" Wen Ran muttered under his breath, a shaky, bitter chuckle escaping his cracked lips. Somehow, the whole situation felt comedic — absurd even.

I was a man who once climbed the heavens... and now I can't even climb a damned mountain?

The thought made him scoff, but there was no strength left to laugh. His limbs trembled with exhaustion, and the strength he once believed he controlled seemed to seep away with every breath.

I'm running out of time...

"Damn that old man..." Wen Ran muttered darkly. "This is all your fault... pushing yourself past your limits... You should just die... but not yet…"

His fingers curled into the snow as he forced himself upward. His gaze darkened.

Not until I forge that damned pill to bring you back to the next realm...

His breathing hitched.

Not now... not before I save you.

For a man like Wen Ran, who once valued power over people, who believed that strength was the only bond worth forging — such words seemed alien. If someone had told Wen Ran a month ago that he'd risk his life for someone else, he'd have called them insane.

Yet here he was.

With raw determination driving him forward, Wen Ran finally reached the mountain's peak. His foot touched solid ground, but his body betrayed him. His legs buckled, and his exhausted frame collapsed face-first into the cold snow.

Don't fall asleep... don't fall asleep...

He repeated the words like a desperate mantra.

If I sleep now... I'll never wake up.

With sheer will, he forced his head to rise — and that was when his heart sank to the pit of his stomach.

Someone else was already there.

A young woman, no older than twenty, stood before the Ice Spirit Lotus. Her presence was otherworldly — her figure bathed in an ethereal glow, as though the cold itself had carved her from ice and starlight. Her crystal-blue dress clung to her form, revealing enough to leave one's imagination adrift, yet she seemed untouched by the biting cold.

Her frozen blue eyes, sharp as sapphire, held no warmth — yet the way she knelt before the lotus seemed almost... reverent.

Wen Ran's gaze shifted to the flower — his Ice Spirit Lotus. Its crystalline petals shimmered like glass, each one as delicate as a shard of frozen dew. The petals sparkled beneath the sun's faint light, radiating a bluish-white glow that seemed to hush the air around it. Its frost-patterned edges were intricate, like spiderwebs woven from ice.

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At the heart of the flower, a radiant diamond-like gem pulsed faintly, exuding a cold so intense that Wen Ran swore he could feel the air freezing just from its presence. When the wind stirred its petals, the flower emitted a faint chiming sound — a delicate, haunting note that echoed like icicles breaking in the winter breeze.

The woman knelt before the lotus, plucking it from the snow with graceful fingers. She lifted the flower to her face, closing her eyes as she inhaled its scent.

In that moment, she looked like a goddess — an immortal blessing the world with her presence, her beauty enhanced by the mythical aura of the lotus. Her hair swayed in the icy wind, yet it moved gently, like a delicate veil. The chiming sound of the flower lingered around her, blending with the wind as though nature itself bowed to her presence.

And when she opened her frozen eyes... they shone with a warmth and tenderness that no man would dare look away from. The way she gazed at the lotus — so lovingly, so intimately — was enough to make anyone believe that the flower had been hers all along.

But to Wen Ran... it was not beautiful.

It was infuriating.

His bloodshot eyes locked onto her, rage boiling in his chest. His breaths grew heavy, and his muscles trembled — not from exhaustion, but from fury.

How beautiful…

The scent of the lotus washed over her like a frozen breeze — cold, yet strangely comforting. It carried the purity of an endless ice domain, crisp and untouched. The fragrance was delicate, yet powerful, seeping into her senses as if the very essence of winter had bloomed within her soul.

So pure... so innocent...

It's all mine…

But as her fingers lingered on the crystalline petals, a violent presence crashed against her calm serenity.

How dare she steal what is mine…!

Wen Ran's exhausted, bloodshot eyes locked onto her own — crimson meeting ice-blue in a collision of raw emotion.

In that frozen moment, time seemed to stop. The wind howled around them, yet neither of them moved.

For a fleeting heartbeat, their gazes pierced deeper than sight — their very souls brushing against each other.

She felt the storm within him — a raging inferno barely held together by sheer willpower, burning hotter than any flame. The pain in his eyes, the exhaustion, the pride — it was a fire that refused to die, no matter how cruel the world had been to him.

And Wen Ran, for just a breath, felt something equally powerful stir within her — a cold so vast and still that it swallowed every flicker of warmth like a frozen abyss. Her calm, unshakable presence seemed to stretch across endless winters, yet beneath that ice... something else flickered — distant yet strangely familiar.

They stood there, frozen in place — two forces so opposite yet inexplicably intertwined — feeling each other's hearts without a word spoken.

No matter how mysterious it seemed... in that moment, they understood each other.