Rise of The Abandoned Husband

I felt Shu Yin's cold fingers tracing down my neck toward my chest. The paralysis from her technique held me immobile, my muscles locked in place despite my desperate attempts to move.

"Such a waste to dismember a specimen like you," she murmured, drawing a razor-sharp ice dagger from thin air. "But business before pleasure."

Her eyes gleamed with cruel anticipation as she pressed the freezing blade against my skin. I concentrated every ounce of my willpower into breaking her technique. The paralysis was like iron bands wrapped around my limbs, but I had faced worse odds before.

"Your resistance is admirable," she whispered, leaning closer. "I can feel you fighting my Frostlock technique. No one's ever managed that before."

I didn't waste breath responding. Instead, I channeled my energy inward, focusing on the meridian points she had sealed. One by one, I sent pulses of my cultivation through them, fighting against her icy energy.

Just as she began to cut into my flesh, I broke free.

My hand shot up, grabbing her wrist with crushing force. Her eyes widened in genuine shock.

"Impossible!" she gasped.

I twisted her arm away and kicked upward, catching her midsection. The blow sent her tumbling back several feet. I rolled to my feet, muscles screaming in protest as circulation returned.

"Impressive," the man, Zhao Kwan, finally stepped forward. "No one has broken Shu Yin's Frostlock in three hundred years."

"There's a first time for everything," I spat, tasting blood in my mouth.

Shu Yin rose gracefully, her surprise replaced by cold fury. "You'll regret that."

Before she could attack again, Zhao Kwan raised his hand to stop her. His gaze fixed on me with clinical interest.

"The mask," he said simply. "Hand it over, and we'll consider letting you live."

I laughed, though it hurt my bruised ribs. "You've been trying to kill me since you arrived. Why would I believe you now?"

"Because the alternative is far worse," he replied, raising his hands to reveal ornate silver gauntlets that gleamed with ancient runes. "These are the Frostfall Titan's Gauntlets, forged in the heart of the Divine Ice Mountain. Few have felt their power and survived to speak of it."

I glanced briefly toward The Man with the Mustache, who was still working frantically at his array. Whatever he was planning, I needed more time.

"If your gauntlets are so impressive," I taunted, "why send her to do your dirty work?"

Anger flashed in his eyes. "Shu Yin enjoys playing with her prey. I prefer efficiency."

"Yet here we are, still talking," I goaded, shifting my stance to prepare for his attack.

His expression hardened. "Enough."

He moved with frightening speed, crossing the distance between us in a blur. The gauntlet-covered fist slammed into my hastily raised defense. The impact was like being hit by a mountain—it shattered my guard and sent me flying backward.

I crashed through three trees before finally stopping, embedded in the trunk of a fourth. Pain exploded through every nerve ending. Before I could even pull myself free, he was there again, his gauntlet grabbing my throat.

"The mask," he demanded, tightening his grip. "Where is it?"

"Go to hell," I choked out.

His eyes narrowed. "I've been there. It's actually quite pleasant this time of year."

He hurled me across the clearing. I tumbled across the ground, losing my grip on my bronze sword. It clattered away, far out of reach. I pushed myself up, spitting blood.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked, stalling for time as I assessed my options. "What's so special about this mask anyway?"

"It's not for you to know," Zhao Kwan replied, advancing slowly. "Your ignorance of its value only proves you don't deserve to possess it."

I had only one real option left. Closing my eyes briefly, I activated the Astral Titan technique. My body expanded rapidly, growing to thirty feet tall, skin hardening to a cosmic-patterned surface that gleamed with starlight.

Zhao Kwan paused, genuine surprise registering on his face for the first time. "The Astral Titan form... impossible. That technique was lost centuries ago."

"Surprise," I growled, my voice deeper and resonant in this form.

I swung a massive fist at him. He blocked with his gauntlets, the impact creating a shockwave that flattened vegetation for a hundred yards around us. For the first time, he was forced back, his feet carving furrows in the earth.

"Shu Yin!" he called sharply. "Enough observation. Assist me!"

"With pleasure," she purred, appearing behind me.

I sensed her too late. A spear of ice the size of a small tree pierced through my Astral form's back. Even with my enhanced durability, the pain was excruciating. I roared, swinging around to attack her, but she danced away effortlessly.

"My, my," she laughed. "Bigger doesn't mean better, it seems."

They coordinated their attacks with the precision of longtime partners. While I focused on blocking Zhao Kwan's devastating gauntlet strikes, Shu Yin would attack from behind or the sides, her ice weapons finding weak spots in my defenses.

Despite my Astral form's power, I was being overwhelmed. Blood—starlight-infused in this form—flowed from multiple wounds. My movements slowed as the damage accumulated.

"The legendary Astral Titan," Zhao Kwan remarked, landing another crushing blow to my chest. "Once the terror of the Divine Realm. Now reduced to this pathetic display."

I caught his next punch in my massive hand, squeezing with all my strength. "Don't count me out yet."

For a moment, we were locked in a test of raw power. The ground beneath us cracked and caved, forming a crater that deepened with each passing second. I poured everything I had into crushing his gauntlet.

Then Shu Yin struck.

"Frostfall Secret Art: Winter's Heart Piercer," she intoned.

A lance of concentrated ice energy shot through my shoulder joint, severing tendons and freezing the wound simultaneously. My grip faltered, and Zhao Kwan wrenched free.

Before I could recover, he slammed both gauntlets into my chest. "Frostfall Titan's Verdict!"

The force was catastrophic. My Astral form's chest caved inward, cosmic energy spilling out like spilled starlight. I crashed backward, my gigantic body carving a trench through the earth.

"Finish him," I heard Zhao Kwan command coldly.

Shu Yin appeared above me, hands forming complex seals. "Frostfall Forbidden Art: Thousand Years of Winter."

The temperature plummeted to impossible levels. Ice formed instantly over my Astral body, creeping inward from my extremities toward my core. Each inch of advancing frost brought excruciating pain as my cells crystallized.

I fought desperately, channeling what remained of my energy to break free, but the ice was unnaturally strong, infused with ancient power far beyond normal cultivation techniques.

"It's useless," Shu Yin called down. "This technique froze an entire kingdom solid in the age of the First Emperor. Your borrowed Astral form is nothing before it."

She was right. The ice had reached my torso, constricting my movements completely. I could feel my Astral form beginning to falter under the combined assault of their techniques. Soon I would be forced to revert to my normal size—and in my current state, that would mean instant death.

Through the pain and encroaching frost, I turned my head toward where The Man with the Mustache was working. He caught my eye, his face pale with fear but hands still moving in complex patterns over the array.

"Is it done?" I managed to ask, my voice strained and cracking as ice formed in my Astral lungs.

"Almost," he called back, desperation clear in his voice. "Just hold on a little longer!"

"He can't save you," Zhao Kwan stated, walking casually across my ice-covered chest. In my Astral form, he looked tiny, yet he held absolute power in this moment. "Nothing can."

With methodical precision, he raised his gauntlet and drove it down into my frozen shoulder. The ice cracked, and beneath it, my Astral flesh tore open. The pain was beyond description—like having a star explode inside my body.

I roared, the sound distorted by the ice filling my throat. My Astral form flickered, dangerously close to collapse.

"Where is the mask?" Zhao Kwan demanded again, twisting his gauntlet deeper into my wound.

Through the haze of agony, I saw Clara watching in horror from the edge of the clearing. I couldn't let them find her—or the mask she now carried.

"Go to hell," I repeated, blood bubbling past my lips.

"Wrong answer," he replied calmly.

He raised both gauntlets and brought them down with earth-shattering force on my chest. The ice shattered, and with it, my ribs cracked. My Astral form convulsed in agony.

"Perhaps we should simply carve him open," Shu Yin suggested, landing lightly beside Zhao Kwan on my chest. "The mask could be hidden inside his spatial storage."

"Perhaps," he agreed, raising his gauntlet again.

In that moment of desperation, I locked eyes with The Man with the Mustache across the clearing. "Is it ready?" I gasped out, barely able to form the words through the pain.

The array beneath him suddenly flared to life, ancient symbols glowing with blinding intensity. Two male corpses—disciples we had killed earlier—lay at strategic points within the formation, their remaining energy being channeled into the complex pattern.

The Man with the Mustache's face lit up with the reflected light from below. A triumphant smile spread across his face as he looked up at me.

"It's done!" he shouted. "The array is complete!"

Zhao Kwan's head snapped toward the sudden burst of energy. "What is this?" he demanded, momentarily distracted from his torture.

The Man with the Mustache stood in the center of the glowing array, looking at the two corpses positioned at key points. The light intensified, pulsing with a rhythm like a heartbeat.

"It should be enough now..." he murmured, his mustache twitching with anticipation as the array reached full power.