Leon looked at Amon.
"Even you don’t feel it? I thought you would notice it before anyone else. After all, your power is the exact opposite of your father’s, and you have always been far more sensitive to the cold than the rest of us."
However, the answer he received stunned both him and Caria. Amon stared at him.
"You just noticed?"
Leon blinked.
"Noticed what?"
"From the moment we stepped into the Celestial Realm, none of us have felt the cold."
Leon’s eyes widened in realization.
"Now that you mention it... you’re right!"
He froze for a moment as the implications sank in.
"Wait... does that mean your father is protecting us? Cold is his domain!"
"Oh my gosh!"
He quickly covered his mouth in shock.
If what he was saying was true, then Uncle Kyle was definitely alive!
Not only alive, but somewhere nearby!
A surge of excitement rushed through Leon’s body as his heart began pounding wildly. But his excitement vanished when Caria smacked him.
"Stop shouting, will you? There are too many people here. Who knows how many of them are enemies? Let’s go through the gate first, then we can talk about this."
With that, the three vanished through the gate alongside the pushing crowd.
The massive gate, covered in ancient patterns, flickered with a strange, cold radiance the moment Amon, Leon, and Caria stepped through it.
The sudden, subtle change did not escape the notice of the Rulers, who were watching every participant in the test through the glowing mirrors suspended around them.
As the gate flickered with a different light, several gazes immediately sharpened.
Mirabel’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"What was that?"
She rose from her throne, followed by the other Rulers. Their senses spread outward, sweeping across the area as they searched for the cause of the unusual change in the gate—an anomaly that had never occurred before. Yet despite their efforts, they found no explanation.
Mirabel’s expression darkened.
"Go and investigate."
Hearing her command, one of the Rulers immediately left the floating structure and headed toward the gate to investigate the anomaly firsthand.
However, the moment he arrived near the massive gate, his expression changed.
He had sensed something.
A powerful treasure.
It seemed that an extraordinarily rare treasure had just been born somewhere beyond the gate. His breathing quickened slightly as he felt the treasure’s aura. It was surely a peak Celestial-rank treasure! Greed immediately flashed across his eyes. The power the treasure exuded was enough to make even a Ruler’s heart tremble!
He glanced back at the distant floating structure where Mirabel and the others were watching. Quickly suppressing the excitement in his eyes, he sent a message to them.
"It doesn’t seem to be anything serious. The source of the disturbance appears to be inside the gate. I’ll go in and investigate further."
Mirabel frowned at his words. Something about the situation felt odd, but after failing to find any abnormalities herself, she ultimately nodded.
"Go."
With that, the matter was temporarily set aside, and the other Rulers gradually withdrew their attention, no longer paying much mind to the strange incident.
The man secretly smiled before vanishing through the gate in search of the treasure.
It seemed that his long-awaited chance to become the strongest had finally arrived!
***
Meanwhile, after Amon, Leon, and Caria entered the gate, Amon’s heart skipped a beat. No, more specifically, it happened when he felt the strange emptiness in the air around him. It felt oddly familiar...
What made the feeling even more familiar was the way the space reacted when it touched his skin. It wavered slightly, as if hesitating, before completely slipping past him without causing him any harm.
Unlike Amon, Leon, and Caria, the other Celestials appearing around them were trembling like leaves caught in a storm.
Amon raised his gaze to examine his surroundings, and his eyes widened in shock.
Countless tiny ice butterflies drifted through the air around him, their crystalline wings glowing with a soft blue light. Towering ice formations rose from the frozen ground like natural sculptures, reflecting the butterflies’ radiance and bathing the entire world in an ethereal glow.
The scene was breathtakingly beautiful.
Yet there was something strange about it.
The concentration of natural energy in this place was extremely low.
Of course, that was to be expected. When Kyle and Azazeal had fought here, the clash between their powers had severely damaged the natural energy of the region. Even after all this time, it was still slowly recovering. All the natural treasures born within this region were the result of the lingering cold and dark powers left behind by that battle.
But that wasn’t what shocked Amon.
It was the butterflies.
They were familiar.
Painfully familiar.
How could he ever forget them?
After his birth, when a cocoon had formed around his body to prevent his overwhelming natural power from tearing his fragile body apart, he had spent his days in a silent world. Then, one day, these same butterflies appeared in that endless silence and remained by his side until the day he woke up. Though many of his memories from that time were vague and fragmented, he still remembered those tiny figures fluttering around him throughout the darkness of his long slumber.
A strange feeling rose within his chest.
As if he had finally returned to a place he had once called home.
Just then, one of the tiny butterflies drifted toward him and gently landed on his nose, as if greeting him.
Amon blinked.
For the first time since entering this realm, he felt a trace of cold.
It wasn’t painful.
Instead, it felt oddly gentle.
Behind him, Leon suddenly cried out.
"These little creatures! I’ve seen them before! After our parents sealed us away, these creatures were always around us!"
His voice trembled with disbelief as he watched the countless butterflies dancing through the air.
Caria was equally stunned.
"Me too..."
She slowly reached out toward a nearby butterfly.
"I had the same butterflies around me. But after I woke up, I never saw them again."
The butterfly landed on her fingertip.
Her eyes widened.
"But how is this possible...?"
Suddenly, Leon let out a laugh.
"Does that mean Uncle Kyle has been looking after us all this time? It was just us who couldn’t see it and kept blaming him!"
His eyes lit up with excitement.
"This is huge news! I need to tell my dad, Uncle Jian, and the others about this!"
He immediately took out his communication device, along with several other contact artifacts. However, after trying multiple times, his expression froze.
He couldn’t contact anyone.
Not a single message went through. It seemed that such artifacts didn’t work here.
Meanwhile, Amon muttered quietly,
"That can’t be possible, right? Maybe it’s just a coincidence."
Leon immediately slapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, there’s no such thing as a coincidence in this world! Just admit you were wrong!"
He smiled and pointed a finger at Amon.
"I’m telling you, Uncle Kyle must have had his own difficulties, so this was the only way he could watch over us. Stop blaming your father already!"