They flew towards the light and ran into the end of the neatly formed tunnel. It transitioned into the back of a roughly shaped cave filled with thousands of icicles of every imaginable size. They took a zig zagging path through the veritable forest of icicles and stepped out of the cave into the open air. The sky was still a purple color, shielded by the miasma, but they no longer had a mountain of ice over their head. They traveled up a short ridge and found themselves at the edge of a steep cliff.

The parthenon?

A majestic structure was placed in the center of a circular valley in front of him. Enormous pillars held up a sloped roof with sculptures of various mythological beasts placed in a row just beneath the eaves of the roof. Looking closer, Sage could see the sculptures and their extreme strangeness made it obvious that this wasn’t just a replica of that legendary greek building. In fact, the whole building was not made of marble or concrete, but cloudy white ice. The decorative statues were made of clear blue ice and made for quite a contrast with the white building.

“The Temple of Icefire Valley. Let’s head inside.”

Song Lu Tian was the first to speak this time and the two Elders nodded their heads. They leapt off the cliff and used their various methods to slow their falls again, landing softly upon a light layer of snow upon the ice. It crunched under their feet as they walked, the snow an indicator that this area of the Icefire Valley actually had some weather, in comparison to the giant ice blocks they’d tread upon outside. They moved with little caution, and Sage soon found this core of the valley was also lacking danger. They walked up the giant ice steps and walked between the giant columns of ice. Once they stepped inside, Sage got a good look at the interior and it was essentially a gigantic open hall.

The hall was longer than it was wider and it led straight towards a gigantic statue. The statue was not the goddess of war, but of a man and woman. They were hugging one another quite passionately, but with a look of distress and desolation upon their faces. The giant ice sculptures had such an incredible level of detail that Sage could even make out the pores on their skin. If it weren’t for them being made of ice and twenty feet tall, it would be easy to mistake them for two real people.

All around the room, there were many braziers, burning with small bonfires. Just as the rest of the Icefire Valley, this temple maintained the same strange inverse of temperature. The ice of the floor and columns was warm to the touch, hot enough to burn a mortal human, while the flames were cold enough to freeze water. In front of the giant statue there was a shallow pool of swirling red and blue water, only two feet deep with a few steps leading down into it. Moving closer, Sage saw that the pool was actually a fountain, fed by a soft trickle of water that came from the statues. He tracked the tiny trickle of water and it originated from the eyes of the two statues. Red droplets from the man, and blue droplets from the woman. When the water trickled into the pool, the colors didn’t mix, the many drops of color swirled and danced like a school of millions of tiny fish.

“The Pool of Eternal Tears.”

Elder Meng broke the silence among the quartet, startling them all from their examination and admiration of the place they had arrived at. He turned towards Song Lu Tian, “You’re up first. Enter the pool and sit comfortably. Clear your mind and be ready. You must endure the pain, and also search for opportunities. This is why we brought you here after all.”

Song Lu Tian nodded and rolled his neck and shoulders. The sound of cracking joints filled the room, and then the large bald man walked down the few short steps and slowly took a cross legged position with the water of the Pool of Eternal Tears reaching up to his chest. He closed his eyes and then a moment later, his whole body convulsed. His teeth were gritted, but he stayed still and seemed to be embracing the pain he was facing.

Sage knew this was the core of Icefire Valley and the reason they’d come so far, but he didn’t actually know what was here, or what this experience would represent. He had come to help his friend reach this point, and the rewards he would reap from the poison miasma in the future were great. He didn’t bother to ask the two Elders about the details of this place. Not only because he didn’t care all that much, but also because that might make them think he was greedy and aiming to steal them away.

Song Lu Tian seemed to eventually calm himself, with a placid look coming across his face, but at the same time, his body still seemed to be suffering. His muscles were twitching at some times, and at others he would clench and curl up, crossing his arms and hugging his chest as if he was fighting off a great coldness with chattering teeth. Then a few moments later his body would relax and his shoulders would slump. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and given the name of this place, Sage guessed he faced waves of hot and cold, even though those outside of the pool felt nothing at all beside the warm ice beneath their feet and cold draft from the braziers.

After a few hours in the Pool of Eternal Tears, the red and blue coloring of the pool seemed to greatly fade. The droplets of color in the pool were bright and vibrant, but now they had grown dimmer, less colorful. Song Lu Tian slowly opened his eyes and no longer seemed to be undergoing any pressure. He walked out of the pool just as casually as he walked into it, but then he let out a deep breath and Sage felt a great pressure emitted from him.

Elder Zhong started laughing and he wrapped an arm around Song Lu Tian’s shoulders and led him outside, “Come along, this temple isn’t suitable for breakthroughs!”

The two of them disappeared, Elder Zhong brought Song Lu Tian outside in a flash of speed and at that point Sage’s bald friend released his full power. Sage felt the whole sky move and the energy from Song Lu Tian rapidly multiplied. His swords appeared around him, facing their blades outwards and spinning around him like the metallic petals of a flower. Then blades shimmered and dozens more of them appeared, soon hundreds of swords were sweeping around him, flowing and churning with perfect harmony emitting power that tapped into the energy of the world. Sage felt a great buildup of law power in the air and the energy of the heavens and earth grew thicker and thicker. He could feel it coming from every direction, being drawn towards Song Lu Tian. A massive vortex of power formed around him, all of that energy was forced into the man’s muscled body and disappeared without a trace.

Sage recognized the same fluctuations of power that he’d felt back when he’d become a Nascent Soul. The two Elders of the Song Clan stepped in front of him, standing shoulder to shoulder and shielding Song Lu Tian from him. Sage felt their movement was unnecessary, but touching. Even now, the two were on guard against him, with all of their focus upon raising this great genius of their Sect and Clan. Sage didn’t move from his position, merely watching the many movements of the energy of the world and taking this chance to observe the formation of a Nascent Soul from the outside. At the time he’d been focused on the changes in his own body, but now he could watch what happened to the world around Song Lu Tian.