The searing winds pierced through the mist, blowing at her face, but quickly faded away. The snow they carried melted even before reaching her, being swallowed by the monotone whiteness that surrounded her.

Her blue clothes were drenched and clung tightly to her body, making her movements clumsy and sluggish. Her wet hair was sticking to her face and her back, and her whole body was covered in droplets of water that dripped down on to the ground below her unceasingly, as if she had just jumped in a lake.

She did not mind it one bit, however, as she was a Water Cultivator. This was a state so natural to her that she barely even realized it anymore. Her true concern lied with the task at hand. She still did not manage to have a grasp of that elusive moment of balance between ice and fire.

She never managed to make the elements coexist without mutual destruction. She knew from the beginning it would be hard, but failing repeatedly still made her increasingly frustrated and somewhat irritated.

She knew better than anyone else did what this Trial meant for her. The steps she would take after the Trials all would depend on the answer she found now. Anna Hale was truly lost, and she realized that she would never be able to move forward while ignoring the conflict inside of her. If she did not solve it, it would consume her.

More than anyone else, Anna struggled. She opened her eyes, still hidden behind that shroud of mist that she never dispersed. No matter what she did, no matter how much she tried to control the ice or how hard she tried to capture that single moment of balance, it was all futile.

She looked at her surroundings in a daze. What she wanted was a perfect balance between ice and fire where neither of them would change. There was no middle ground in such a balance, there was just a perfect coexistence.

Such a balance, however, lasted for no more than a fraction of a second. A window of time so small it could be completely disregarded. Its existence made no difference, because it was such a fragile balance that any interference, no matter how small, would make the scales tip to one side or the other.

Maybe her pursuit was futile. Fire and ice could not truly coexist, at least not without change.

The billowing mist surround Anna made her mood turn sour. She did not want that. The endless mist surrounding her blocked her view, and all she saw was pure whiteness whenever she looked around. All she saw was emptiness.

That mist was the true balance between ice and fire, the remnant of their mutual destruction. A middle ground that she knew would never satisfy her, because she did not want her fire to die. She did not want to waste the burning pa.s.sion inside her to melt that coldness, that stillness.

That fire was all that kept her from being frozen in place. That fire was what made her feel alive.

If balance was not possible, then she would have to choose a side.

She lowered her gaze, looking at the blue clothes clinging to her body. Truth be told, she really hated that color. Whenever she wore such clothes, she felt that she was bound by heavy chains rather than wearing comfortable silk. Over time, she even came to hate the color of her eyes whenever she looked at the mirror.

She extended her hands to her neck, grabbing a thin chain of silver that hang from it. A silver ring with a small sapphire embedded in it sparkled brightly under the white light that managed to get pa.s.s the mist around her.

It looked like a small star under that tiresome sky. A glistening light that shone with a beautiful light, but one that she would never be able to reach. No more than an idea, a dream shattered long ago.

Anna gently caressed the ring with a wistful look in her eyes as she reminisced. The ring suddenly seemed to become unbearably heavy as she held it, making her hands tremble. She closed her eyes as she put the ring away, and her expression turned solemn, yet mournful.

The answer was an easy one. She had known it all along, but she always avoided it. Making that choice would be the same as inviting a change she would never be able to control. It would set her in a path she would never be able to return from.

She had also been hesitant because, no matter what had happened, she could not help but hold some things dear to her. That decision would bear a heavy price.

Nevertheless, a choice was made.

She knew of her duties, but she also knew what her bottom line was.

She silently stood up, waving her hands and blowing all the mist surrounding her away. Her wet clothes released steam as the temperature rose, and soon started to flutter under the a.s.sault of the hot winds as they dried up.

Her black hair whipped behind her back as a sea of fire rose from the ground and the ground quaked. The white sky started distorting and twisting around itself, being torn apart as the flames devoured all the ice in that world.

The balance had been broken. Even if the ice weakened the flames, it was not enough to extinguish them.

Soon, all of the whiteness of the world gave way to a h.e.l.lish red, and the coldness was overtaken by unbearable heat.

As the flames rose to the skies and the ground cracked under her feet, Anna straightened her back.

The mist was still covering her face, somehow unaffected by the overwhelming heat that had spread through the world. That mist was enough to hide the satisfied smile Anna had on her face as the fire reached her.

Just like that, her figure disappeared under the flames, right before the world broke apart.

---

As a particular section of the pool made of the Ashen Heart Tree's sap rippled wildly, blurring Anna's image, Sarah gave a very long sigh.

Her wrinkles suddenly seemed to be even more apparent, and her back slightly arched somewhat as her shoulders drooped. There was no trace of a smile on her face as she looked at Anna being engulfed by the flames she spread through the world.

Her eyes showed nothing more than worry, and she had a tired expression. Just like that, Sarah seemed to have aged decades, as if the flames engulfing Anna were burning Sarah's life away.

"If you made your choice, you can only follow it to the bitter end." Sarah whispered with a serious voice, as if talking to herself, but also trying to reach Anna somehow.

Sarah knew all too well of Anna's struggles, as she knew of her personality. It was a regrettable matter, but also unavoidable.

While Anna was the daughter of the Noan River Sect's Sect Master and the inheritor, she was also herself. She had given almost everything she had to the sect without ever complaining, but she would never give up the only thing that remained.

Anna made the choice Sarah knew she would make, even if she hoped otherwise. Sarah also knew she would never change her mind about it.

Sarah sneaked a glance to the Leonard, the High Elder of the Roaring Mountain Sect, and saw him looking at a particular disciple of the Roaring Mountain Sect with a strange look on his face.

The boy he was looking at was the same boy that had questioned the delay of the Storm Peak Sect's representatives, and that completely ignored Leonard's reproaching gaze. Reynard Stark, the most likely successor to the Roaring Mountain Sect.

Sarah furrowed her brows as she looked at that confident young man. Reynard was walking through a vast expanse of green, moving towards the mountains that could be faintly seen in the distance. He was already at the Trial of the Mind.

Sarah sighed yet again, looking even more tired. Trouble would certainly come.

The Noan River Sect had pushed Anna into making a decision that would not benefit anyone. Sarah knew that the Sect Master would certainly come to regret this.

All of that because, unlike her mother, Anna Hale was the kind of person that would rather die than regret her choices.

She would rather set the world ablaze than give up on herself.

She was truly very stubborn.