117: Extreme Ice Snow Lotus
For Heyu Town and indeed the entire Zhiyao County, the beginning of the year 3398 was not a good start.
The rift passages opened wide, and various Source Beasts rampaged through the mountains and wilderness; some even entered villages to harm people.
The Noble Families only cared about their own small plots of land, ignoring whether the common people below were suffering in dire straits.
In the mountains and wilderness, one could see Young Masters and young misses of the Noble Families bringing Guards along to hunt the Source Beasts that had run in from Beyond the Border for amusement. However, they only pursued the rare and hard-to-find ones,
while choosing to turn a blind eye to the common Source Beasts that were rampant and wreaking havoc among the villages and farmland.
This situation continued until January 17th, nearly half a month later, when the rift passage opened once again.
This time, the rift was not the usual minor disturbance; a rift spanning the entire firmament was torn open in the sky.
The sun, trailing long ribbons of light, appeared, and its brilliant sunlight, which gave the Source Beasts Beyond the Border endless vitality, spilled into the Inner Realm.
It was as if some kind of divine punishment had descended. Wherever the sunlight fell, the earth instantly cracked, revealing deep chasms. If an ordinary person were struck by it, it would be like being seared by a red-hot iron; faint white smoke would rise from their entire body, as if their soul and spiritual form had been scorched.
However, this light that spilled in lasted only for an instant. Almost at the very moment it cracked open, a figure appeared in the Void Realm, and then a phantom seal emerged.
It pressed down from high in the sky towards the direction of the rift. An inscription grew against the wind, eventually transforming into a canopy that firmly stamped itself onto the rift that pierced the firmament.
It was astonishing to say that after the inscription fell, the rift that had just torn open in the sky closed up in an instant, leaving no trace in the sky at all.
Only the searing pain of that moment and the cracked earth could prove that what had happened just now was not a dream.
A crisis that was about to erupt seemed to have been resolved by the big shots above, but all the ordinary civilians under the firmament did not know why they lived or why they died.
Chu Jingyu was currently in the Ice Valley, watching the rift in the firmament being closed by the inscription. He looked at the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" in the cold pool, which had only twelve petals left.
A smile curled on the corner of his mouth. "It seems your last hope is gone. With the passage between the Inner Realm and Beyond the Border unable to open, you are just exhausting your reserves, but I have enough time to wear you down."
The remaining twelve petals of the Ice Lotus trembled rapidly, as if it were quite angered by Chu Jingyu's words, but the facts were indeed so.
In just these few days, this was the fourth time Chu Jingyu had come, and each time it came, it needed to sacrifice a few petals to withstand his attacks.
Its own state was becoming increasingly weak, while Chu Jingyu and his Source Beasts were becoming increasingly spirited. Later on, his other Source Beast even advanced to High-level Uncommon Rank, constantly releasing feather blades from high in the sky, which was extremely annoying.
Having experienced long-term grinding and the shattering of this last hope, the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" finally felt a bit disheartened.
The shield protecting the space above the cold pool shattered into pieces of ice crystals, then re-fused into five petals, returning to the body of the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus".
Seeing this scene, Chu Jingyu timely stopped the attacks of the "Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast" and the "White-Browed Mountain Eagle". He wanted to see what else this "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" wanted to do.
After a while, a cold voice rang in Chu Jingyu's mind. "I... can contract..."
The words were quite intermittent, but the meaning was conveyed very clearly.
Chu Jingyu suspiciously glanced at the Ice Lotus in the cold pool. Could this guy be setting a trap? It actually agreed just like that.
It seemed that Chu Jingyu's inner struggle was quite evident on his face; the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" couldn't help but transmit a thought over again: "Human... what are you... waiting for?"
Putting away the suspicion in his heart, Chu Jingyu forced a drop of fresh blood from his fingertip, then connected a wisp of his Mental Energy to attach to it, and flicked his finger. The blood slowly drifted from the air towards the "Ultimate Ice Lotus".
"If you are truly willing to sign a contract, then absorb this drop of blood and the Mental Energy within it."
It seemed it was truly willing to sign the contract; this drop of blood landed on the heart of the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" without any interception, and then merged into the body of the Ice Lotus.
After another moment, strands of white icy threads spread out from the Ice Lotus and then connected to the palm of Chu Jingyu's right hand.
During this process, the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" in the cold pool slowly shrank, and finally disintegrated into pieces of ice crystals, drilling into Chu Jingyu's palm along with the icy threads.
With this, the contract was completely concluded.
Chu Jingyu could feel a brand new, somewhat cold thought appearing in his mind.
He opened his right palm, and an Ice Lotus without roots or stems quietly floated above his palm. It was only the size of a palm, and around it was a scene of falling white snow.
Since its appearance, the temperature in the surrounding space had dropped by several degrees. This was not the effect of it using a skill, but the subtle influence it brought to the surrounding environment itself.
[Race: Extreme Ice Snow Lotus, Rank: Spirit Rank Middle Stage, Aptitude: Transcendent, Status: Helpless, dejected, Attribute Affinity: Ice, Light, Skills: 1. Petal Ice Shield: Transforms the petals on its body into a shield to protect an area for a long time. 2. Ice Crystal Storm: Condenses ice crystals, snowflakes, and ice debris to form a storm. 3. Lotus Shadow Phantom: Releases light and shadow to form a huge Ice Lotus phantom; this phantom can dissolve and absorb some light-element attacks. 4. Glacier: Condenses a winding river of ice and snow that leads to the distance. The glacier contains the will of the snow lotus, which can not only explore environments it cannot see but also mobilize the ice and snow within the glacier to attack targets. 5. Extreme Ice Tundra: The Extreme Ice Snow Lotus releases extreme ice Qi to the surroundings, transforming the surrounding environment into a tundra environment. In this environment, the various attributes and skill strengths of the Extreme Ice Snow Lotus receive a significant boost. 6. Cold Bone Ice Crystal: Corpses buried in the ice field will have their flesh and blood absorbed by the Extreme Ice Snow Lotus to serve as nutrition for its growth, and their bones will grow into bone crystals of different attributes within the ice field.]
Some information was similar to what Chu Jingyu had looked up when he went back, but much more was kept reserved.
For example, the skill "Cold Bone Ice Crystal" had no information leaked out at all. As one of the previous iconic Source Beasts of the Liu family, it must have kept a great deal in reserve.
However, now that this Source Beast had become his own, these secrets would also become secrets he had to Guard.
"Take... them... away..."
The cold thought came again.
Chu Jingyu knew who the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus" was referring to by 'them'.
The seemingly cold and ruthless Snow Lotus was actually the Source Beast that valued its race's Bloodline the most, even more so than many Human Race who valued Bloodline Legacy the most.
Chu Jingyu hovered above the cold pool. Although the temperature of the pool water was extremely low, it had not frozen into ice, but instead emitted a cold air capable of freezing other objects into ice sculptures.
However, the "Ice Lotus" growing within it were still full of vitality, flexibly swaying their bodies.
The aura on Chu Jingyu's body was now integrated with the "Extreme Ice Snow Lotus". Regarding his action of digging the "Ice Lotus" out of the cold pool, they did not resist, and even faintly showed signs of cooperation.
Soon, six "Ice Lotus" of Uncommon Rank and nine "Ice Crystal Flower" of Mortal Rank were all dug out by him and put into his space jade pendant.
Now, apart from those bone crystals, there was nothing else of value in the entire Ice Valley.
The bone crystals could be harvested by those Guards later; there was no rush. He now wanted to return home quickly and plant these new Source Beasts he had obtained.