Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Cultivator's Revenge: Kabanata 181 - Kabanata 190

The next morning, as the first light of dawn touched the snow-covered peaks, Rayden was already by the frozen lake. He hadn’t slept. He sat cross-legged on a wooden platform extending over the mirror-smooth surface, meditating. The air was so pure and cold that each breath felt like it was cleansing his spirit. Yet within that stillness, his heart was restless.A graceful shadow approached without a sound. Lady Anya arrived, her white robes drifting lightly in the morning breeze. She stopped behind him, observing in silence for a few moments.“Your first lesson,” she said, her clear voice breaking the quiet, “is not about how to create ice, but how to understand it.”Rayden opened his eyes and stood. “I’ve spent ten years in the coldest places of my world,” he said, a faint trace of impatience in his tone. “I understand ice.”“Do you?” Anya’s lips curved into a faint smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes. “Then this should be an easy lesson for you.”Training began, but it was nothing

High Elder Valerius stared at Rayden with eyes as cold and sharp as night-frozen steel. Beside him, Lady Anya stood perfectly still calm, composed, and unshaken by the tension that filled the great chamber. The air smelled faintly of sandalwood and frost. Silence pressed heavily between them, broken only by the distant whisper of wind against the ice-glass windows.“You will have access to our knowledge,” Valerius said at last, his gravelly voice carrying the weight of command. His gaze never left Rayden’s face, measuring him as one might measure a blade that could either defend or destroy. “But remember this well, boy. Your failure will be Lady Anya’s failure.”Anya did not flinch. She simply bowed with graceful precision, her voice quiet but unwavering. “I accept this responsibility, High Elder.”Her silver eyes turned toward Rayden, their depths unreadable. “Come, Heir.”Rayden gave a small nod, wordless, and followed her out of Valerius’s chamber. They walked down a long corridor

“Disgrace?” Rayden repeated, his calm voice now edged with cold fury. A faint tremor ran through the wooden platform beneath them as a spark of his golden aura escaped control. “My father was no disgrace.”Lady Anya regarded him steadily, her pale blue eyes unflinching against the weight of his anger. She could feel his turbulent aura, a storm of emotion that betrayed a heart still chained to its pain. “In your eyes, of course not,” she said softly. “But you must understand, Rayden. You see him through the eyes of a son. This clan sees him through the eyes of history.”She continued before he could reply, her voice pulling him, reluctantly, into the memory of a past that refused to thaw. “Liana was our greatest pride,” Anya said, her gaze drifting over the frozen lake, as if she could see the ghost of that time reflected upon the mirror-smooth surface of the ice.“She was the most gifted in five centuries. Her mastery of ice, her control of essence, flawless. Her betrothal to Young Ma

Anya’s voice was soft, almost reverent, as she spoke. After Liana left for good, Orion did not do what everyone expected of him. He did not declare war. He did not demand reparation from the Eternal Snow Clan. He simply, broke. The brightest prodigy of his generation, the man whose every step had been praised and every word obeyed, became nothing more than a hermit with a shattered heart.“The Silver Wind Sect was furious,” Anya continued. “They ordered him to return, to marry another woman and erase the shame of it all. But he refused. He refused every woman offered to him. He abandoned his position as heir of the sect. The only thing he asked of High Elder Valerius was permission to remain here, in the Silent Valley, the last place he had known happiness with Liana.”A loyalty that went unanswered. Rayden found himself confronting an uncomfortable truth, the man who should have been his enemy, the symbol of the old traditions he despised, was another casualty of the same cruel fate.

“She hated the herbal tea the elders were so fond of,” Orion said, a faint, bitter smile tugging at his lips. “Said it tasted like boiled sock water. Once, she switched High Elder Valerius’s tea with saltwater. I’ve never seen him that pale in my life.”Rayden listened silently, drinking in every word. In his mind, the image of his mother, the tragic figure who had always existed as an echo, was filling with color. He could finally imagine her not as a ghost or a legend, but as a mischievous, brilliant young woman who laughed behind the backs of the rigid elders.“Her eyes would shine the brightest,” Orion continued softly, “not when people praised her, but when she mastered a difficult ice technique. At those moments, she didn’t look like a noble’s daughter. She looked like a goddess of war who had just conquered a star.”As he spoke, the hatred in his eyes slowly melted away, replaced by a tenderness so deep it was almost painful. Rayden felt something shift inside him. For the firs