But before Wangchen could unleash the apocalyptic fury of a protective monster, the echoes of Ji’an’s voice were fully processed in his brain.

’Little Puddle.’

’Freeze him solid.’

’Braised pork belly with the crispy skin.’

Wangchen stood perfectly still. His head was slightly bowed, his dark hair falling forward to shadow his face.

To the audience, it looked like the terrifying calm before a devastating storm. They assumed he was gathering his Qi, preparing to unleash a domain of absolute slaughter to punish the disrespect.

But underneath the curtain of his dark, silky hair, a catastrophic biological reaction was occurring.

Wangchen’s heart, which usually beat with a slow, controlled, icy rhythm, suddenly hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.

A surge of heat, a completely alien, confusing, and overwhelming warmth, rushed up his neck.

His ears were burning.

Literally burning.

Beneath the strands of his black hair, the tips of Xie Wangchen’s ears had turned a brilliant, glowing, unmistakable shade of crimson.

He was flustered.

The cold, emotionless villain of the Celestial Sword Sect, the boy who could freeze a man’s blood with a single glare, was completely, hopelessly short-circuiting because Lin Ji’an had cheered for him.

No one had ever cheered for him before. When he fought, people gasped in fear. His Master nodded in silent, clinical approval.

The sect watched him as one watches a dangerous weapon being unsheathed.

But Ji’an wasn’t watching a weapon. Ji’an was cheering for him and was proud of him. Ji’an wanted him to win so they could eat dinner together.

The sheer, domestic intimacy of the threat to win, or no crispy pork skin, shattered his Heartless Dao into a million glittering, useless pieces.

Wangchen took a slow, deep breath, trying to force the Flawless Ice Qi through his meridians to cool the embarrassing heat in his face.

He kept his head tilted slightly downward, ensuring his hair completely concealed the flushed tips of his ears from Lei Tian and the judging eyes of the crowd.

’Under a minute,’ Wangchen’s inner voice echoed, the murderous intent returning, but this time it was fueled entirely by the desperate need to impress a cook. ’I have to finish this in under a minute. The pork belly requires slow braising. I cannot delay his prep time.’ 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Wangchen slowly lifted his head. His eyes, which had been black voids, ignited with a blinding, ethereal blue light.

The temperature in the ring dropped so fast that the air cracked.

"You," Wangchen whispered. His voice didn’t carry across the arena. It was meant only for Lei Tian. "You have exactly ten seconds to regret your words."

"Arrogant!" Lei Tian roared, unable to withstand the suffocating pressure any longer.

He charged. "Thunderclap Descent!"

Lei Tian leaped into the air, crossing his iron hook-swords. A massive bolt of blue-white lightning tore down from the clear sky, striking his blades and amplifying his descent.

He came down like a meteor, aiming to crush Wangchen beneath a devastating web of electrical voltage.

The crowd screamed. It was a flawless, lethal strike.

Wangchen didn’t move or even blink.

He simply raised his right hand, his index and middle fingers pressed together in a sword mudra.

"Glacial Bloom," Wangchen commanded.

CRACK-BOOM!

He didn’t summon a shield, but a huge forest.

Instantly, from the smooth black stone of the arena floor, dozens of massive, razor-sharp pillars of solid, flawless ice erupted upward.

They didn’t just shoot straight up; they spiraled and wove together, forming a breathtaking, terrifyingly beautiful crystalline lotus flower that was fifty feet tall.

Lei Tian’s lightning strike hit the top of the ice lotus.

Instead of shattering the ice, the Flawless Ice Qi acted as a perfect, frictionless mirror. The lightning scattered, arcing wildly off the frozen petals, completely nullified.

"What?!" Lei Tian gasped mid-air, his momentum entirely broken.

Before gravity could pull the lightning cultivator back down, Wangchen flicked his wrist.

The petals of the giant ice lotus suddenly snapped shut.

SLAM.

The massive slabs of ice closed around Lei Tian like the jaws of a prehistoric beast.

The lightning cultivator was caught entirely within the crystalline structure, suspended thirty feet in the air.

He wasn’t crushed. Wangchen had calculated the exact dimensions required to trap him without breaking his bones, since a messy death would delay the tournament, and therefore delay dinner.

But he was completely, utterly immobilized. Lei Tian was frozen in a block of transparent, diamond-hard ice, his eyes wide with shock, his hook-swords still glowing weakly with fading sparks of electricity.

The entire exchange had taken exactly six seconds.

The arena was dead silent.

The giant, glittering ice lotus stood in the center of Ring Four, catching the sunlight and casting fractured rainbows across the stunned faces of the audience.

Wangchen lowered his hand. He didn’t even look up at his trapped opponent.

He turned his back on the frozen lightning cultivator, his white robes sweeping gracefully over the frosted floor, and looked directly past the runic barriers, past the referee, past the thousands of spectators, straight to the stone bench on the sidelines.

Ji’an was still standing on the bench, her spatula frozen mid-wave, her jaw slightly slack.

Wangchen tilted his head, the red flush entirely gone from his ears now, replaced by his usual, cool elegance.

He looked at Ji’an, and the faintest, most microscopic hint of a smug, satisfied smile touched the corner of his lips.

He didn’t have to speak. His posture said it all:

I won in just six seconds, so start prepping the pork.

"M-Match concluded!" the referee finally stammered, his voice cracking violently as he stared up at the giant ice sculpture. "Xie Wangchen advances!"

The crowd exploded. It wasn’t a cheer; it was a cacophony of absolute, terrified awe.

"Holy...! What did I just see?!"

"He beat Lei Tian in one move! He didn’t even draw his sword!"

"The power of the Ice Demon is limitless!"

"Did you see the ice lotus?! It was beautiful... terrifying, but beautiful!"