Chapter 12: the city
After I left the training ground, my steps carried me toward the edge of the Rin Clan estate.
I reached the massive exit gate—towering, ancient, and etched with countless symbols of protection. The metal shimmered faintly under the morning sun, a mix of silversteel and enchanted frostwood, bound together by runic forgemarks.
I looked up at the colossal structure, and for a brief moment, a strange feeling surged through me.
A pressure.
A presence.
Like one misstep... and life itself could be stripped away.
It wasn't just imagination.
That feeling wasn't wrong.
This gate—this threshold—wasn't just an exit. It was a guardian in itself. One forged by generations of clan ancestors, imbued with arrays so deadly, even a Nascent Sky cultivator would hesitate to force their way through.
"Defense Array: Frost Lock, Tier Five."
"Lethal Protocol: Ice Rend Pillars, Activated on Hostile Aura."