Golden Guardian

In the inn's living room after Sion left, Mei Li remained silent, understanding what she felt as she looked at the door Sion had passed through.

She understood that they really didn't have anything special, but she didn't want to accept it. She felt weak, confused, and useless for not being able to help him again.

'Will I ever see him again? What if he goes into the forest and never comes out…'

Mei Li was upset at the possibility of never seeing him again.

Then, while she was thinking, Deacon Fei and the Ji brothers approached her.

"Explain everything you know about the Snow Spirit, and also why you are here." Deacon Fei spoke.

Mei Li knew she had no choice, and it was best to just obey.

"He has a name, it's Sion. I found him yesterday in front of the Golden Hall branch. He seemed lost and curious, so I helped him. He wasn't hostile towards me, in fact, he was friendly, nothing like what you had told me about them."

The Ji brothers, hearing this, connected the dots.

"So he was the one who caused that commotion in front of the Golden Hall. A man lost his hand completely and had to have it amputated after just touching him, and you call that being friendly?" the younger of the brothers said.

"I was there and saw that it was the man who attacked Sion first, he only fought back," Mei Li retorted, leaving her brother Ji red-faced with anger at seeing her defending Sion so fiercely.

"I don't know why the snowstorm happened, but I know he didn't do it on purpose…" Mei Li said.

Then Elder Wei interrupted the conversation.

"It doesn't matter anymore, forget about the Snow Spirit. It's nothing we can interfere with."

A few seconds after Sion passed through the door, the voice of an old woman sounded again in Elder Wei's mind. She told him to fulfill his duty to organize the city and keep the citizens safe. Matters of the Ice Forest were beyond his authority. The voice told them to stay out of it.

"Come on, Mei Li, now that your eyes are finally fully awake. We can complete the mission, so follow me!" Elder Wei said in a serious voice, leaving no room for refusal.

Mei Li followed him outside with the others.

"Finally, I'll get what you've been hiding, and finally I'll recover and get out of this shitty town," Wei thought, clenching his remaining hand tightly.

***************************

At the edge of the frozen forest, there was an old woman with a golden plaque in her hand.

She sent her Qi to the plaque, which lit up instantly.

"Reporting, I am the guardian who watches over the Frozen Forest for the city of Coldri in the Rhyne Kingdom. I have a new report."

"The Snow Spirit did indeed cause the blizzard, possibly an attack on the human race. All mortals without cultivation died due to the intense cold. After that, it left the city and entered the Frozen Forest again. I followed it here. What are your orders?"

The old woman did not wait long before a voice different from the one before appeared in her mind.

"Where is the target now?"

It was an extremely cold female voice, devoid of any emotion.

"Reporting to the Golden Guardian, the target has left the city and entered the Frozen Forest," the old woman replied respectfully.

"And why didn't you stop him?"

The old woman hesitated and replied.

"The target, as powerless as he may seem, managed to bring on a blizzard that affected several kilometers, killing many people. I didn't know if he could cause more destruction if I stopped him before he entered the forest or if he had an even stronger protector," said the old woman.

There was no response from the Golden Guardian.

"What are your orders?"

"Don't lose sight of him under any circumstances, or your head will be lost. But don't interfere until I arrive. I'm half a day away."

"Understood."

The golden plaque returned to normal as the old woman sighed. She looked at the forest before entering with her Qi covering her entire body.

***********************************

Sion walked with heavy steps. Gradually, the snow on the ground grew thicker. His steps were heavy. Sion was allowing his legs to sink into the snow.

The silence of the forest and the cold were not comfortable as before, but painful.

After two hours of walking in the forest, Sion felt something approaching. From his left, an even bigger, ferocious bear appeared, running quickly toward him.

As soon as it got close enough, the bear raised its paw with huge claws and lunged toward his face.

Sion raised one of his hands and placed it in front of him, completely holding the bear's paw. Then, with his other hand, he pulled it back slightly and punched the bear in the stomach.

The beast, three times larger than Sion, was sent flying with its organs completely mangled and all the bones in its chest broken. It only stopped flying when it hit a tree.

Blood stained the snow.

Sion looked at his hands.

'To have this strength… was it worth it?'

Sion let his body fall backwards onto the snow. The sky was completely overcast, as always. Sion's vision was now different. There were countless white particles that seemed endless no matter where he looked. Sion would have found it beautiful if his mind hadn't been completely occupied right now.

Sion then closed his eyes briefly, and suddenly recent images flashed through his mind, several frozen children's bodies and screams of pain. The face of the elder Wei, telling him that thousands had died.

Sion clenched his hands.

"Maybe I shouldn't have left the forest."

'But if I had stayed, I would never have met Mei Li… but maybe it would have been better that way. Maybe I'll never see her again.

"I know it wasn't intentional… but still, I caused this, it's… really hard," Sion whispered softly.

"It seems that being free doesn't come with only good things… but now, I have to at least bear the weight of my actions, but they seem too heavy…"

Sion stared at the sky for a while longer, part of his hair falling in front of his eyes. Sion realized that they were still completely white.

Sion thought about opening his status and seeing what had changed. But even that he didn't feel like doing at the moment.

Then time passed.

Sion continued lying in the snow until nightfall, then got up and slowly began walking deeper and deeper into the forest.

**********************************

It was the middle of the night when suddenly.

A golden light appeared on the horizon of the city of Coldri, tearing through the air at high speed, passing over the city, and heading straight for the frozen forest.

The Golden Guardian had arrived.

Without even looking at the city, she headed straight for the forest until she suddenly stopped when she found an old woman standing on top of a tall tree.

As soon as the old woman saw the guardian approaching, she bowed in respect as she waited.

"Report."

"He continued walking south, he seems to be heading straight for the inner part. I didn't see even a sign of allies even coming here. I believe he is alone. I was going to continue following him, but I'm running out of Qi to protect myself," said the old woman.

"Good, the path to the inner part of the forest is long, I have enough time to catch up with him. You are dismissed, return to your post. When I return, I will report your contributions, and you will be highly rewarded."

Upon hearing this, the old woman smiled broadly as she bowed deeply.

"Thank you, Golden Guardian."

The woman did not respond and just flew south again.

The old woman then began to jump from tree to tree, returning to the city.

…

..

.

At a considerable distance, Sion ran, neither slow nor fast, his feet stepping on the snow as if he were stepping on the ground.

His mind was still wandering, thinking about everything he had done in this world so far.

When, a sense of imminent danger was sent to him. As if the snow was warning him. Sion suddenly jumped, landing several meters behind him.

Then, an aura with terrible pressure came from the skies, and suddenly a golden light arrived at a speed that Sion couldn't see.

A loud bang rang out as the snow was completely scattered to the sides, creating a crater several meters wide.

When Sion realized it, in the place where he had been standing just a moment ago, there was a large, completely golden spear. The tip of the spear was stuck in the frozen ground, causing numerous cracks many meters wide.

If he hadn't jumped back at that moment, his body would have been split in two.

Suddenly, a person fell onto the spear, balancing perfectly on the tip.

Sion saw a tall woman with a cold expression on her face. She had blonde hair and wore heavy, golden armor that covered most of her body.

"Oh, you dodged that? Impressive!" The woman said in a completely emotionless voice.

Sion felt his body shiver as he saw the woman's cold gaze pass over his body.

This was definitely the strongest person he had ever encountered. And by far.

Sion then decided to speak.

"Who are you?"

Suddenly, the woman's eyes seemed to land on Sion's eyes.

As soon as she saw Sion's different eyes, a cold smile appeared on her face.

"So, you're a Royal Snow Spirit. You're really far from home, aren't you, little one? I'm so lucky." The woman spoke as her smile grew wider and wider.

Sion didn't understand what she meant by that, but he felt that it wasn't good. His mind calculated at top speed any way to get out of the situation, but there seemed to be none.

Then, suddenly, the golden woman jumped to the ground, her hand grabbed half of the spear, detaching it from the ground with ease.

Raising her hand, she pointed the spear at Sion.

Sion felt the urgent sense of danger again.

Suddenly, Sion felt his eyes burn as all the blue veins in his body stirred. On his forehead, the snowflake tattoo glowed brightly. Sion felt that he had become one with the snow.

At that moment, the woman threw the spear toward Sion, and the golden spear flew toward his head even faster than before.

Sion's eyes shone brighter than ever, and at that moment, the spear that he had been unable to see before due to its speed seemed to slow down momentarily before his eyes.

That tiny moment was enough to say in his mind.

'Dodge!'

Sion then saw the countless mysterious white dots he could see in the air gather on the left side of the spear.

Then.

A sharp sound rang out.

The spear was pushed slightly, just enough to miss Sion's head.

Sion felt his cheek burn as blood began to flow.

Despite surviving, Sion could see no way to live. It was just a casual blow, he didn't even feel any Qi in the spear, and yet if it had actually hit him, he would have died without a head.

The woman looked at Sion this time, truly surprised in her mind. Someone as weak as an ant to her had actually dodged her strike twice? Even if it was just a casual strike, it didn't make sense, even for a Real Snow Spirit.

Then she saw something that reminded her of a terrible story from ancient times.

On Sion's forehead, the mark glowed intensely, giving her a slight pressure. It was completely useless, and she could break it instantly, but.

After seeing the mark, she finally stopped playing around when her cultivation pressure was fully released and her killing intent struck Sion.

"The mark of the Snow King has reappeared. You cannot live for the sake of humanity."

"Die!"