Chapter 29: Demonic Ice

Damon still held back a half-smile, trying to appear more confident than he actually was. His heart was pounding beneath his skin, and sweat was beginning to trickle down the side of his face in discreet drops. The guards remained motionless, but the tension was palpable, like taut ropes about to snap.

“I only followed orders, I didn’t do anything,” he repeated, his voice thick with frustration, slamming his palm against his leg.

However, something began to shift in the air. Damon, focused on trying to justify himself, didn’t notice it immediately.

The heavy wooden door behind him—the same one that had slammed shut like a prison seal—began to creak softly. The sound was strange, harsh, like the snap of twigs breaking in the cold. Small, translucent crystals appeared at the edges of the structure, then spread out like shimmering veins. The air suddenly cooled, making even the sweet scent of incense seem to freeze in the air.

Damon continued speaking, gesturing with his hands.

“Come on, don’t play hard to get, I’m not here to screw anyone’s life. I just came, had a drink, and left. Simple as that. Pretend you didn’t see me, how about that?”

He held up his wrist, showing the magic bracelet.

“This is just so no one can identify me. I just followed orders, I didn’t do anything! Come on, you extremely hot lady with the evil face who looks like she wants to kill me just by thinking about it.”

It was then that the sound became deafening.

CRACK!

The door behind him exploded into thousands of shards of glistening ice, sending shimmering shards throughout the room. The shock was so intense that even the trained guards instinctively recoiled.

Damon whipped around, his eyes wide.

There, framed by a storm of frozen crystals still falling in slow motion, Ester appeared.

She walked calmly, as if the destruction were merely a breeze. The sound of the ice shards crunching beneath her feet sounded like crunching glass. Her black kimono fluttered around her slender body, covered in intricate details that resembled frozen petals. With each step, small ice flowers formed and crumbled, leaving the floor framed by a lethal beauty.

Her silver hair slid like an icy waterfall to her waist, reflecting the golden light of the lanterns. But it was her eyes—blue, intense as glaciers under the sun—that crushed the room with their presence.

Lin Yue didn’t move.

Still reclining on the luxurious sofa, she slowly drew another drag from her pipe. The smoke rose in lazy spirals, contrasting with the harshness of the cold that now invaded the room.

Ester, without even looking at Damon on his knees, blurted out a comment, her voice calm but laced with irony.

“A weakling like you, with no cultivation and nothing but willpower, is withstanding so much demonic pressure? This is new.”

Damon felt a shiver run down his spine. It was as if she had measured the room, Lin Yue’s energy, and at the same time assessed his resistance to remaining conscious.

He opened his mouth, but before he could respond, Ester turned to Lin Yue.

Her icy gaze met that of the courtesan-brothel-owner, and in that instant, the entire air seemed to creak. The incense extinguished, swallowed by the cold. Even the smoke from her pipe lost its shape, dissolving into the frozen air.

“Are you looking to die, demonic plague?”

Her voice cut through the space like a blade.

Immediately, the floor began to be consumed by ice. A circle expanded from Ester’s feet, covering the expensive carpets, the carved woodwork, even the ornate columns of the room. The cracking sounds were like bones breaking, filling the entire space. The golden lanterns flickered violently, some going out.

The guards instinctively backed away, their hands tightening on the hilts of their weapons, but they didn’t dare advance. Lin Yue’s eyes, until then calm, narrowed for the first time.

“You dare…” she began, but her voice was swallowed by the sound of ice expanding even faster.

The sofa beneath Lin Yue cracked. Parts of the velvet and wood began to crystallize, as if the cold were devouring even the furniture. Still, the woman remained seated, holding his gaze with the same aplomb.

Damon, on the other hand, didn’t know what to do. His body trembled, but not just from the cold. The pressure of those two women—Ester’s lethal beauty and Lin Yue’s suffocating presence—was beyond human.

“Ester… what are you doing…?” he murmured through gritted teeth.

She didn’t answer.

His eyes remained fixed on Lin Yue, as if Damon were nothing more than a disposable detail in the scene.

Lin Yue raised her pipe slowly, even as her fingers began to be coated with a thin layer of ice. And then, for the first time, she smiled.

“General of Eternal Ice… Ice Queen…” she murmured, almost as if reciting an old memory. “I heard you died. But now I see you only hid in maid’s clothes.”

Damon blinked in surprise, turning sharply to Ester.

“General of what?”

She ignored him again.

Ester took a step forward. The ice responded, climbing the walls like crystal claws.

“You think you can play with my mistress’s slave in front of me? You think we don’t know about your existence in our county?” Her voice was lower now, almost a growl, but it held pure fury.

Lin Yue let out a soft laugh, muffled by the smoke still escaping from the pipe.

“Intention? I didn’t even have to move. He only had to enter my brothel to reveal what he truly is. You should put a collar on him, don’t you think?”

Ester raised her hand, and ice spikes emerged from the ground, pointed directly at Lin Yue.

“Don’t test my patience, demon. If I had my way, your head would already be adorning these walls.”

The cold was now almost unbearable. Damon could barely breathe, each inhalation burning his lungs as if he were breathing sharp snow.

He coughed, trying to rise from his knees, but slipped on the ice that covered the floor.

“Fuck… are you two going to kill each other right here?” he huffed, his voice hoarse. “You’re going to freeze the entire brothel and—”

No one heard him.

The focus was solely on the clash of titans.

Lin Yue tilted her head to the side, her half-lidded eyes reflecting the bluish light of the ice.

“What if I want this incubus for myself?” she taunted, blowing smoke directly at the advancing stakes. Strangely, the smoke resisted, as if it had a life of its own, slowing the freezing.

Damon froze at that.

To her, am I just a toy to be fought over?

Ester narrowed her eyes.

“Then I’ll have to rip out the heart of a demonic phoenix today.”

The stakes advanced a few inches, clinking like sharp blades clashing.

The silence that followed was almost deafening.

Damon, feeling the crushing pressure, finally raised his hands in the air.

“WAIT! FUCK!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the hall. “I’m not your auction prize! You want to fight, fight outside! But I’m not going to stand here between an ice psychopath and a demonic queen fighting over who gets to kill me or keep me as a pet!”

Her chest heaved, and for a moment, the ice seemed to waver. Ester glanced at him briefly—only for a split second, but it was enough for Damon to realize his outburst had had some effect.

Lin Yue, for her part, chuckled, tapping her pipe lightly against the edge of the sofa to knock out the ash.

“He’s got a sharp tongue, at least…”

Ester, still motionless, finally spoke, her voice as cold as the storm surrounding her:

“Get up, Damon. The time for playing with courtesans is over.”

[Progress… -30%]

[Legendary Quest Completed!]

[Quest rewards will be delivered upon return to Elizabeth Wykes’s main mansion]

“Fuck, what kind of reward is this? I get -30% progress for completing the quest???!!!”

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