The dozens of kitsune froze in shock. At first it was because this was the first time they had seen Ri's full features. Could a beauty of this level really exist in the world?

But then, it was because of the shocking words she had said.

The Snow Clan, despite being a lowly clan of the kitsune, was not to be underestimated. To still be a part of the 13 main classes of kitsune, a Supreme Level Beast, how could their lineage be simple? If the Snow Clan chose to leave the 30th ranked quadrant, they could become overlords of any one of the quadrants ranked 40th or below.

With this level of power, their core teachings were also adequately amazing.

Ice Queen's Dance was a set of techniques that Ri's mother had imparted to her. Originally, she had only been taught the sword dance portion of the technique, however, after re-entering the Snow Clan, she was given the entire inheritance.

However, as Ri was learning the techniques, she suddenly realized that there had to be more. At that time, she began to deeply reflect upon her own heritage, constantly studying her bloodline to become more in tune with it.

Unlike Kukan's faith seed, Ri's bloodline would never harm her future. In fact, by focusing equally on both Kukan's legacy and her own, she could eventually combine the two to forge her own path, bringing her to the peak of the martial world.

At first, it was difficult. Much like Dyon's master, the Snow Clan's bloodline had dwindled with every passing generation. In fact, they were very close from falling out of the ranks of Supreme Beasts and into the ranks of Transcendent Beasts. If that happened, they would no longer be birthed as humans, but would instead be birthed as beasts who had to cultivate to earn the right to become human.

Unfortunately for the Celestial Deer, this had already occurred to them, which was why the First White Mother had lost hope in her lineage. However, the Snow Clan still had a shred of hope and it wasn't until Ri's mother came along that they began to firmly grasp it.

It was thanks to Ri's mother than Ri, despite being only half a member of the Snow Clan, was able to firmly establish a connection to her bloodline. What she was able to find out was that faith seeds actually had a secondary purpose that was perfect for seeking the origin of one's bloodline!

Faith Seeds were actually kernels of martial intent, filled with the will of an expert and passed along the stream of time. When it entered into the body of an individual, its intended purpose was to help along the path of cultivation, not become a pillar to be relied upon.

If one learns to wield that martial intent, it could actually work to tease apart the truths of the world, and one of those truths were the limits of one's own bloodline.

When Ri learned this, the first person she went to was Madeleine and they began to cultivate together, testing the truths of their hypothesis. It wasn't long before they realized that they were right in their assumptions!

It was only then that Ri learned that Ice Petal's Dance was only a derivative of Ice Queen's Dance, a lower Mystic level technique that was once the pillar of the mighty Snow Clan before their decline.

Of course, as things stood now, Ri had no business using this technique, lest she want to implode from the inside out. However What she could do was make use of this ice filled extreme climate to imitate 0.001% of the intent behind the technique!

"NO!" The kitsune cried out as the shivering cold spiked upward.

However, it was already too late.

Pillar after pillar of ice erupted from the ground, encasing them all, one after another.

Aiya's fierce expression was preserved perfectly, but even her, as a king, was simply not qualified to act against Ri. What did a mere lower saint mean in the face of an 11th stage saint?

Dyon coldly watched this scene. He felt that Ri was being much too lenient with them, but he couldn't tell if those were truly his own thoughts, or if it was the Demon Sage's blood influencing him.

Ri sighed and lightly stroked Dyon's face through his mask. "Even though I didn't kill them, without the help of a celestial adept in ice intent to clear their meridians of the cold qi, they won't be able to cultivate for the rest of their lives. The only three clans of the kitsune alliance with that ability would be the Ocean Clan, the River Clan and the Snow Clan. Both the Ocean and River Clan owe my mother a heavy debt and have also allied with my Snow Clan. Even under the pressure of the three top clans, they'll turn a blind eye for at least a decade. After all, what celestial isn't training and away constantly?"

"Are you sure? That annoying little girl seemed to have some relation with Aki. With eight tails, she's pretty important." Dyon hovered in the skies, staring at the human ice pillars.

"She's Aki's younger sister, Aiya." Ri sighed. "She's just an ignorant little girl. She should be almost 50 years old already, but she has the disposition of a 12-year-old. There's no point in punishing her any further. Just let her suffer for a few days. They didn't manage to send a message to Aki because that little girl is too stupid and too full of herself, if we're lucky, it won't be until months have passed and the valley has closed that they think to check here."

Dyon took a deep breath to calm himself and lightly nodded before shooting off into the distance.

In the distance, just outside the range of Ri's divine sense, was a bare-chested young man with brown skin and blue eyes leading a group of about a dozen. His muscles towers atop of one another, fighting and twitching for supremacy It was as though he didn't sense the mind numbing cold at all.

"Big Brother, it seemed they didn't need out help after all." Another young man standing in the group spoke out.

The bare-chested young man laughed heartily. "No matter. We only came here as a favor to Little Sister Saru, who would have known that her friends were so powerful despite coming from such a weak quadrant."

"Well, that quadrant isn't exactly so weak anymore." The young man responded with a light chuckle.

"You're not wrong To explode from the 100th rank to the 51st only using of the younger generation on saint floors Their younger generation is definitely among the best. I guessed we worried for nothing."

The group nodded. Everyone knew that the true rankings were fourth for on the celestial and dao floors. To be able to cause such a change on the mere saint floor, this was a feat rarely seen.

"What do you think Big Brother? Will little sister Saru get over her feelings after exiting her trials?"

"Hmph, it doesn't matter. Whomever my little sister likes, she can be with. I dare anyone to say otherwise!"

The group laughed in unison before heading off toward the entrance. They had long since become used to Saru's elder brother's eccentric personality.

...

Deep within the land of ice, a gathering of millions of geniuses was taking place.

In every direction, as far as even the eye of a saint martial warrior could see, there was endless white and cold. However, that didn't dampen the excitement of those that came.

The Valley of Geniuses didn't open often, with each iteration being decades apart. Because of this, many young geniuses missed their opportunity to enter, either as a result of them being within their trial worlds, or for various reasons related to the difficulty of reaching the entrances for this grand event.

Many, though, saw this as an opportunity they would rather slow their cultivations down for than miss. In the end, there were no shortage of geniuses who refused to break into the celestial tier before they could first enter the Valley of Geniuses.

It wasn't that the saint floors didn't allow celestials to enter, because they did. The only limiter for a given floor was your age, and for higher floors, there was also the matter of the prestige of your clan that meaning that it was impossible to raise to the level of the dao floors without a King level clan, and without an Emperor level clan, one could not step onto the very top floor.

The reason why geniuses suppressed their cultivation in order to enter the Valley was precisely because of the pressure distribution.

Unlike the trials which only looked at age, the Valley was trial specifically tailored for sainthood cultivators. While it also, obviously, took into account talent, an event on a given floor would always be reserved for those who shared the majority cultivation of the floor, with the only exception being those who fell below that majority standard which was why some essence gatherers would participate this time around, as well.

This was because these events were much like the Gates. They required 'off' periods where they would slowly re-accumulate strength before being opened once more.