A blizzard stung his eyes. Cheng Weicai shuddered with a sudden chill, hurriedly pulled his coat collar shut, and hunched forward to survey his surroundings —

He was standing on ice.

Thick, endless ice stretching in every direction. Dimly visible beneath the surface: the wreckage of ships, frozen planks of wood, broken masts, and bodies swallowed by the deep water below…

Where was this place?

So cold…

Teacher Cheng exhaled a puff of visible breath and rubbed his hands together, unable to make out any direction.

He walked blindly forward a few steps and eventually saw a massive silhouette through the blizzard.

Cheng Weicai walked directly toward it. As he drew closer the shape clarified: a castle built entirely of ice and snow.

Even having witnessed all manner of strange and wondrous things in these games, when Cheng Weicai laid eyes on a castle of such majestic and breathtaking beauty, he couldn’t stop himself from exclaiming in admiration.

Cheng Weicai sighed with feeling: “Celestial jade and fine white jade — snowflakes drifting like goose feathers!”

A voice reached him from afar: “Is that old man out of his mind?”

Cheng Weicai: “…”

He looked in the general direction of the voice. He wasn’t the only one in the blizzard — blurry figures in the distance were also moving toward the castle.

Cheng Weicai didn’t dare linger. He quickened his pace.

The north wind howled. The cold bit to the bone. By the time he reached the castle gate, the other three had just arrived as well.

Everyone looked a bit disheveled — eyelashes caked with snowflakes, hair crystallized with ice, faces pale and shivering.

No time for greetings. The castle’s towering crystalline gates slowly swung open, as if welcoming guests who had just arrived.

As those great doors opened, two pieces of information surfaced in Cheng Weicai’s mind:

【Mission: Retrieve the King’s sword.】

【Rule: You may not kill anyone.】

The other three received the same message.

Evidently, their game would take place behind that door.

Without exchanging many words, all four walked through in silence — it was simply too cold, and they were desperate to find somewhere sheltered to warm up, even if this castle was built from ice.

Just inside the gate was a vast, circular hall.

At the center was a circular pool — the only place not frozen over. Everything else — the soaring columns, the elaborate vaulted ceiling, the floor tiles underfoot — was all crystal ice.

The four of them drifted to the edge of the pool without planning to.

The water’s surface was perfectly still, not a ripple. Looking down, the depth was impossible to gauge.

A man with a full beard crouched, dipped his fingers into the water, and tasted it.

“Seawater,” the bearded man said quietly. “This castle is built over the sea. The water here should connect to the outside.”

“Don’t tell me the game wants us to compete in the water,” said another slightly shorter man. “In a place this cold, falling in would kill me.”

The bearded man stood. “In any case — let’s look around first and see if there’s a sword here.”

“The sword is with me,” a woman’s voice cut in unexpectedly.

Everyone startled.

They turned toward the sound — and found a woman standing in one corner of the hall, who had not been there a moment before.

She was a woman of extraordinary, striking beauty.

Her long hair was swept up and pinned into a high bun. Her shoulders were draped in white fox fur trim, which set off the cold brilliance of her pale complexion. Below, a white gown with a long trailing hem swept the floor, its skirt seeming to be scattered with thousands of tiny chips of ice — catching the light as she moved, shimmering with every step.

— The Snow Queen.

The name surfaced unbidden in everyone’s mind.

In the fairy tale, the Snow Queen was as beautiful as snow — and as cruelly indifferent.

She held an ice crystal scepter and walked slowly toward those who had intruded upon her domain. Her voice was as cold as the air itself:

“I have a rose garden. The roses have not bloomed in a very long time. Whoever among you can make the roses bloom — I will give the sword to that person.”

It dawned on everyone: the trial was not about competing in the water. It was about growing flowers.

But Cheng Weicai felt a flicker of puzzlement. This woman… looked oddly familiar.