We followed the sect leader silently, our group tense. My mood in particular was soured, but I had calmed down somewhat from my reunion with Jia.

I didn't understand what was wrong, or why she had turned me away. I wasn't so weak that I couldn't protect myself! Plus how come she got to look all cool up there and then dramatically disappear in a mini blizzard?? That was so cool! When did she even practice doing that?? I was mad at how impressed I was with it, even if she was obviously being over dramatic on purpose.

I tried not to think about Jia until I got an explanation from sect leader Yuefan about what was going on, but the walk through the frozen forest was mind numbing when I was still feeling so anxious.

I tried to distract myself by watching Shimmer run around in the snow, the little fox clearly trying to cheer me up after what had happened. She chased after various icy woodland critters, though she didn't kill any of them, not that that made their fears any less real at the predator chasing them down. At least a few of them warmed up to her playing and took turns with her chasing and running away. Despite my soured mood I did find the play heartwarming, at least one of us had good luck with friends today.

Partway through our journey, Alice once again needed warming up so I dutifully recharged her warmth plates with Divine Flame qi which, now that I thought about it, might have been a somewhat silly use for it, but I didn't really care about that when I thought about it a little more. The Divine Flame was all about making sure everyone could feel its warmth, and I thought Alice was definitely feeling its warmth right now, the slightly contented look on the girl's face all the reason I needed to continue doing it.

I was still bored but spent some time with Text analyzing everything I could see, though the research ship's knowledge of the local flora and fauna didn't amount to more than 'tree' or 'rock'. Though the medicinal herbs around the area, all infused with potent ice qi, were fun to read the descriptions of. I even asked Shimmer to grab some of the ones farther from the group for me, wondering if we could somehow cultivate them back at the sect for Elder Miao.

This continued for the remainder of the trek until finally we reached a line of ethereal icy blue crystals—or maybe it was just ice?—jutting out of the ground and creating a makeshift wall that continued off into the distance in both directions. The wall was tall enough that I couldn't see anything beyond it—it was nearly four times taller than I was—and the crystals were so numerous that the light they diffracted made it impossible to see through them, despite their relative clarity. I watched in awe as we approached and movements flickered across the various surfaces, reflecting our group and making it seems like the wall was filled with hurried movements. There was a small gap in the wall that we were heading directly towards and I analyzed the wall, expecting to see some information about the type of crystals it was made of.

When the analysis popped up in my vision though, I marveled at the information, my former sadness forgotten for the moment.

"Wow! So the entire ice wall is a massive formation?? That's so cool!"

Sect Leader Yuefan froze in place, turning around and fixing me with a steady stare. I opened my eyes wide and looked to the others, unsure of what I had done wrong now, but they didn't seem to know either.

"What do you mean it is a formation? I feel no expenditure of qi, nor any fluctuations nearby. Are you sure, Astra?" She sounded much calmer now, so close to the sect, but if she didn't know the ice wall was a formation, then maybe Text had been incorrect? I decided to just read out the formation's information, maybe that would make things more clear.

"Analysis Complete - Mid Solidification Level Supreme Barrier of Hoarfrost's Embrace (poor)

Effects: This formation acts as a natural barrier against the elements and wintry storms. As long as this barrier remains intact, no winter storm below the strength of the domain solidification realm will affect the area within the formation. The accumulation of ice qi within the formation is drastically increased, and life naturally growing within the formation will become suffused with ice qi, warping over time to become more attuned to its environment.

This formation was first created by Celestros the Eternal Winter after the death of the human who called Celestros his spirit companion, Miren Dawn. Thus so wrought with grief, Celestros consecrated the final resting place of his master with the first incarnation of this formation, ensuring his memory, and tomb, would be safe for millennia to come.

This formation's quality is poor, any further deterioration will result in the formation breaking down," I parroted, her eyes going wide at my explanation.

She walked to the nearest of the icy crystals and placed her hand on it for a few moments, frowning. Then shook her head.

"I do not believe you are lying, Astra. But should this truly be a solidification realm formation, I would be unable to detect it, so we may never know. What I do know is that the Celestial Rimewood sect has never had fear of the year long storm that occurs every five years, so perhaps there is truth to your words, though I wish to learn more about its history if that is so. The Celestial Rimewood sect has long been my home, and should the protection of that home have such a storied past, I would like to know more."

She looked out past the frozen barrier, toward what I assumed was the sect and then back to us.

"We'll have to worry about that later, for now at least the formation seems stable if it indeed one. Come along, we have much to discuss, and I'm sure you all are weary from your travels. I had hoped Jia would be the one to say this to you all, and you especially, Astra, but welcome to the Celestial Rimewood sect," She said and beckoned us forward and through the small gap in the barrier that was nearly as deep as I was tall.

The light died down when I walked through the gap, the translucent ice somehow not letting enough light through to prevent a marked change and then I stepped out through the barrier and gazed upon a wintry city nestled in a shallow valley where massive crystal like trees towered above the surrounding landscape.

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The trees looked to be large enough that the surrounding structures built around their base looked like blades of grass at the bottom of a normal sized tree. The frozen giants stretched far above the ground, but I estimated they weren't as tall as their girth would imply from what my intuition about trees told me. It was difficult to see clearly so far away so I channeled my body cultivation technique to improve my eyes further. With new clarity I took note of the myriad details that were fuzzy from so far away. The crystalline trees truly were massive, much more so than the limited perspective from so far away would indicate. I couldn't accurately count how many of the crystal giants there were, but clear in the center of the grove of crystal colossi was a tree thrice as wide as the others.

The massive central tree stretched far into the sky, far enough that I should have been able to see it from beyond the barrier, but we hadn't. It's broad canopy somehow didn't prevent the sunlight from filtering in from above despite how dense the growths of crystalline leaves were. The light bounced off the leaves flowing through the wind and created a mesmerizing twinkling effect like that of looking up at the night sky.

Carved into the bottom of the tree, an intricate castle with uncountable pavilions and spires stood in the center of the massive city that wove between the trees within the wintry grove and spread outward to the far crystal wall I could see to the sides. On our side of the city, vast farmland spread out, the qi infused wintry vegetables cultivated there providing the inhabitants of the sect all of the necessary nutrition to survive in this otherwise inhospitable tundra.

A deceptively tepid breeze flew by our group, rustling my hair in the wind and warming me slightly, though not enough to chase off the multi-day long chill, though Alice looked pleased by it.

Sect Leader Yuefan strode through the plentiful fields inside the formation down a well paved path consisting of deep blue stones laid in an angular pattern with images of snowflakes carved into each rectangular brick. I only inspected a few hundred of the bricks but each snowflake seemed to be shaped completely differently on each brick.

As we stepped on the stones, the snowflakes would light up for a moment before a small puff of wind erupted from them and pushed a small amount of snowflakes along with it, creating the illusion of kicking up snow with each step. It took some time to reach the sect proper, our pace of travel much more sedate within the relative safety of the city, though the formation hadn't said anything about protecting from monsters or animals so how safe were we truly?

The city laying at the feet of the crystalline trees, its streets and thoroughfares like invisible roots radiating out from the massive structures, was abustle with bundled up people traveling to and fro, going about their days. A gaggle of children ran by us and waved furiously at the sect leader when they saw her. She waved her hand and a flurry of giant snowflakes as big as my hand floated over to the children, the kiddos giggling and screaming in delight as they snagged their new toys and ran off. The nearby townspeople all smiled at the tykes and then to the sect leader as she led us through to the massive palace in the center of it all.

As we walked into the palace at the bottom of the tree, I took note of how immaculate the entire structure was. It was carefully sculpted out of the crystalline wood and a sonorous and warbling whistle reverberated through the air as it passed through the building's open design.

I wondered just how long it had taken whomever had built the palace to do so, and took my chance to analyze the structure.

"Analysis Complete: Celestial Rime World Tree.

The Celestial Rime World Tree is a singular species of ice affinity flora and the Mother tree to a planet's entire colony of Rimewood trees. Due to the nature of the Rime World Tree's existence. Only one may exist on a planet at once, and this tree can only be planted in a location with abundant wind and water qi.

As an evolution of the Rimewood species of tree, its bark is made of a unique material which matches the properties of both crystals and wood, and are abundant in ice qi. Burning the wood of a Celestial Rime World Tree produces Rimewither, a potent ice affinity poisonous gas that chills the victim's qi to a point that it almost ceases flow altogether." It read. Well that was scary to think about, but knowing it was technically a different kind of tree from its surrounding Rimewoods was interesting.

We strode through the entrance hall of the palace and immediately caught the attention of disciples as we walked.

Compared to the kind eyes of the townspeople outside, the disciples garbed in the white and blue robes of the Celestial Rimewood sect were either indifferent, or passively curious to our group as we passed by them. It seemed roughly split down the middle, but the single similarity I noticed in all of the disciples was how adoringly they looked at Sect Leader Bing. Both women and men alike swooned as she passed them, greeting each by name, and smiling warmly.

She led us up myriad winding and crossing staircases within the sect, the circuitous routes confusing me and making me wonder how anyone found there way around this place.

Finally, we arrived at what I assumed was the top of the sect building, a set of massive double doors carved out of the wall at the top of nearly one hundred steps waiting for us.

Sect Leader Bing threw the doors open and walked not to the intricate throne in the center of the back of the room but to some doors on the side of the room instead. She hurried inside, our trio and one fox following and finding my worst upholstery nightmare.

Sect Leader Bing must have been this era's incarnation of Alexis Everwood because each and every piece of furniture in the plush sitting room was a different shade of pastel pink. Somehow, by the barest of margins, none of it actually clashed with each other and fit together nicely, but it sent a pang of sadness through me at the thought of the kind older woman from the past.

She sat down on the large plush couch in the center of the room and then motioned for us to take the other couch across from it. We did so, and when we all sat down and she activated some kind of formation around the room and then she visibly deflated. She sunk into the couch and plopped down on her side, stretching out lithely and in a way I thought her advisers would have chided her for.

"Mmmph!" She groaned into one of the light pink pillows on the sofa.

"All that walking and fighting is such a bore, It's so much better to stay inside and relax." She continued.

I looked to the others, Alice being useless in this type of situation, but Wei Lin gave me a look that I matched. Where in the worlds did the regal sect leader of one of the strongest sects on the planet go??

I coughed to try and bring her back on track, the woman lazily looking to me and sighing deeply.

"I'm sorry for my behavior. I know I should act all prim and proper like some 'proper sect leader' but that's all so stifling. Plus, I have to be true to my true self, lest I succumb to the Primordial Ice Coffin Body." She said, puffing out her cheeks and blowing a raspberry at some imaginary point in the air.

The name of the constitution she and Jia shared brought me back to why I had come to the sect.

"The Primordial Ice Coffin Body is the constitution Jia has right? That's what made her so…different?"

She sighed deeply.

"Yes, though that's a tough subject. I suppose I should start at the beginning and apologize first and foremost for Jia's current state. I…didn't expect her to have such strong side effects. But first, I need to explain exactly what the Primordial Ice Coffin Body is."

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