Chapter 6: Bloodline and Betrayal
Liu Feng's sword had left more than just physical wounds.
As I limped away from the arena, every muscle burning, something else gnawed at me—instincts that weren't mine. Images flashed behind my eyes: glaciers cracking, battles beneath the northern lights, a voice roaring in a language I shouldn't understand.
"They betrayed us."
I shuddered. Great. Now my bloodline came with dramatic monologues.
The Bloodline's Whisper (AKA: Bear PTSD)
Elder Liang's quarters were sparse—cold stone, a single brazier of ever-burning blue flame, and the faint scent of medicinal herbs. He tossed me a jade vial.
"Drink. Unless you enjoy internal bleeding."
I gulped it down. The liquid burned like vodka and liquid nitrogen had a hate-child. "Gah! What the hell—"
"Qi-restoring elixir. Also sterilizes wounds. And, ah… *loosens* the mind for bloodline visions."
I froze. "You knew this would happen."
He smirked. "I hoped. All Frostbears awaken ancestral memories after near-death. Yours were just… delayed."
A pressure built behind my eyes. The room blurred—
Memory Fragment 1: The Frostbear Clan's Fall
Snow stained crimson. A valley littered with* *corpses* of bears like me, their fur matted with frozen blood. Humans in white and gold robes stood victorious, their leader—a man with the Sect Master's eyes—plunging a jagged ice crystal into the earth. The ground* screamed. The last Frostbear, a titan with glacial tusks, roared as chains of light wrapped around it—
"THEY SEALED US!"
I gasped back to reality, my claws embedded in the stone floor. Elder Liang watched, unreadable.
"…The Northern Ice Sect's founding," he murmured. "Sealing the Frostbear Clan's power into their sacred glacier."
I bared my teeth. "So I'm a damn battery?"
"No. You're a key. The last pureblood Frostbear."
The door burst open. A junior disciple, panting. "Elder Liang! Elder Mei's faction—they've activated the *Soulfrost Spires!*"
Liang's face darkened. "She's impatient."
[Quest Update: Stop Elder Mei's Ritual]
[Objective: Disrupt the Soulfrost Array before midnight]
[Failure Outcome: Your soul gets siphoned into the glacier]
I stood, ignoring the pain. "Explain. Fast."
Liang grabbed his staff. "The Sect's 'holy' glacier? It's a prison. Mei's faction wants to drain its power—and they need a Frostbear's soul to do it."
"And you
*knew* *this when you brought me here?"
He had the decency to look guilty. "I also knew you'd survive."
I growled."Tactics. Now."
1.Distraction:Liang's allies would cause chaos at the main gates .
2. Infiltration: I'd use my Frost Cloak*ability (newly unlocked) to sneak past wards.
3. Sabotage: Shatter the central spire's core—a Frostbear's fang from the massacre.
Simple. Right
Unless Mei had backup plans.
The Frost Cloak ability wasn't perfect.
It made my fur ripple like heat haze over tundra, bending light just enough to blur my outline—if I moved slowly. If the moonlight stayed behind clouds. And no one looked directly at me for more than three seconds. Than I will become invisible.
So of course, the Northern Ice Sect's third courtyard had:
1. Floodlights of Eternal Frost (floating ice orbs brighter than stadium lamps)
2. Patrols of eagle-eyed disciples(their eyes literally glowed with Qi-enhanced vision)
3. A f***ing snow peacoc that hissed when I crept past its perch
Phase 1: The Wall
The outer perimeter was easy—just a 20-foot barrier of enchanted ice. I **dug my claws in**, letting the Frost Cloak muffle the scraping sounds. Halfway up, my system pinged:
[Alert: Detection Ward Detected]
[Type: Sound-Siphon Rune]
[Weakness: Only triggers above 60 decibels]
I held my breath and pressed a paw against the rune. Frostbear physiology had perks—my pads were naturally silent. The ward stayed dormant.
Phase 2: The Courtyard of a Thousand Mirrors
The second courtyard was a maze of polished ice pillars, each reflecting movement. One wrong step and I'd look like a disco ball with a bear inside. Waited for cloud cover (28 agonizing seconds)
Moved only when the patrol's footsteps echoed (masking my crunching snow)
And Used Glacial Rend discreetly—not to attack, but to frost over the nearest mirrors in a "natural" way
The peacock noticed.
It cocked its head, iridescent feathers puffing up. I slowly raised a claw and hissed back in its own language.
[Beast Tongue Proficiency: 12%]
The bird blinked, then preened like nothing happened.
And than I left the it territory
The third courtyard was too quiet. No patrols. No lights. Just a perfect path to the spire's base.
"Yeah, no."
I pawed up a snowbal* and lobbed it forward.
SCHINK!
Invisible ice wires sliced the snowball into cubes.
[Hidden Mechanism: Frostwire Grid]
[Trigger: Weight >15kg + Body Heat]
Exhaled a concentrated Frost Claw breathto freeze the wires brittle Shattered them with a subsonic growl that I learn from the bloodline (thank you, bloodline resonance) and Belly-crawled under the remaining stubs
I'd just cleared the grid when my **own bloodline betrayed me**.
The spire's core—that damned Frostbear fang—pulsed. My veins burned with kinship. The Frost Cloak flickered.
And there stood Disciple Lan, mid-pee behind an ice shrub, pants down.
We stared at each other.
"Uh," he said.
I headbutted him into a snowdrift—but not fast enough. His dropped lantern clanged.
[Stealth Rating: 0/10]
Alarms blared. The floodlights swiveled. And Elder Mei's voice screeched from the spire:
"KILL THAT BEAR!"
A pulse of energy ripped the frost from my fur, revealing me mid-step. Five Mei-loyalists snapped their heads toward me.
"INTRUDER!"
[Combat Initiated: 5x Iceblade Disciples (Qi Condensation Peak)]
I dug my claws into the ground.
[Glacial Rend: Terrain Alteration]*
The courtyard exploded upward in a spike forest of ice, separating the disciples. Two impaled themselves on their own rushed strikes. The rest?
I charged.
One swung—I ducked, letting his blade shatter on a spike, then crushed his ribs with a shoulder-check.
The second tried a Frozen Needle technique—a barrage of icicles. I rolled(graceful as a falling boulder), then pounced, pinning him with one paw.
"Where's elder Mei?"
He spat ice. "Rot, beast—"
THUD.
A well-aimed snowball to the head knocked him out. I turned.
Liu Feng stood on the wall, arms crossed. "You're loud."
The central spire loomed ahead, pulsing with eerie light. Mei stood atop it, her hands weaving seals.
"Frostbear!" she sneered. "Right on time—your soul will—"
I ignored her and slammed into the spire's base.
CRACK.
The structure trembled. Mei staggered. "You idiot! You'll kill us all!"
"Promises, promises." I struck again.
The ancient Frostbear fang embedded in the spire's core shattered.
The ground heaved. A roar older than the sect shook the mountains.
The glacier cracked.
Mei screamed as a titanic paw of blue ice erupted
from the fracture, swiping her aside like a gnat.
[Warning: Ancestral Frostbear Spirit Released]
[Status: HELLA PISSED]
Liu Feng landed beside me. "Run. Now."
We ran.