45: Chapter 45 Ice Wall

Wang Sheng's injuries were recovering faster than expected.

The physique of a Holy Light Warrior was renowned for its restorative powers, and with the precise delivery of Moonlight Blessing from Shen Xun'er over two consecutive days, combined with the healing elixir concocted by Hua Jieyu,

by the time he opened his eyes on the morning of the third day, the fractures in his ribs had completely healed, and the finger bones of his right fist had recovered by eighty or ninety percent.

He tried clenching his fist; golden holy light flickered slightly between his fingers, and the pain was now negligible.

Outside the tent flap came the sounds of a busy camp. Some were hauling Savage Beast hides, others were watering the Spirit Garden, and the crisp laughter of Zhao Linger pierced through the morning breeze, echoing like a string of silver bells along the banks of the Lingxi River.

Wang Sheng sat up, his gaze falling upon the low stool beside the bed.

The low stool had just been made by Rune Forgemaster Xu Mohan yesterday. It had a wide seat, a backrest curved to fit the waist, and the cushion was stuffed with Savage Beast fur—it was far more comfortable than the hard bench Frost Mage Lin Shiyun had sat on while keeping watch.

He saw the thoughtfulness of Shen Xun'er, but what truly weighed on his mind was that old low stool. The Frost Mage had sat by his bed for ten hours, refusing to leave even though the hard bench made her lower back ache.

He thought for a long time.

Then, he got up and walked out of the Chiefs Tent.

The morning in the Bright Tribe was shrouded in a thin layer of spiritual mist. The vapor rising from the Lingxi River mingled with the pollen drifting from the Spirit Garden of Su Mengyao, refracting faint rainbows in the morning light.

The tent flaps sewn from Savage Beast hides swayed gently in the morning breeze, and culinary smoke rose in wisps from Hua Jieyu's medicinal cuisine tent, carrying the unique bitter-sweet scent of spirit herbs.

Wang Sheng stood outside the Chiefs Tent and took a deep breath. The air of the wilderness was crisp and pure; every breath felt like drinking a glass of iced mineral water, the coolness spreading from his throat down into his chest, making him feel invigorated.

He scanned the crowd for that silvery-white figure.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun was not in the center of the camp.

She wasn't by the Lingxi River, not at the Ancestral Spirit Altar, and not in the defense wall patrol squad. She was usually in these places, either cultivating her Frost Spell alone or patrolling with a cold face, freezing every slacking girl until she cried out.

Wang Sheng's gaze finally landed on the northernmost side of the camp, where there was an ice-blue tent slightly larger than the others. The outer walls of the tent were frosted with silvery-white frost flowers, appearing like a frozen gemstone in the morning light.

The territory of the Frost Mage.

He walked toward that tent.

Before the tent flap was even lifted, a biting chill rushed toward him.

It wasn't the kind of bone-piercing cold, but rather a coolness that permeated from all directions, as if stepping into an ice cellar. The tent walls were covered with silvery-white frost flowers, like icicles on a winter window lattice, each piece as delicate as if carved by hand.

In the center of the tent, a Savage Beast hide was spread on the ground, and upon it lay a few notebooks bound with Savage Beast hide.

Those were Frost Mage Lin Shiyun's Frost Spell cultivation notes, densely covered with ice-blue Spirit Rune symbols that glimmered with a cold light in the morning sun.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun sat on an ice platform in the corner of the tent—a translucent dais she had condensed using her Frost Spell, crystalline and clear, as if carved from a single block of blue ice.

She sat cross-legged, hands resting on her knees, her long, silvery-white hair cascading over her shoulders like snow, her ice-blue pupils half-closed as she was in a state of cultivation.

Her mage robe had been changed; it was no longer the one stained with frost fragments and dried blood from that day, but a brand-new ice-blue mage robe.

The fabric of the robe was as thin as gauze, clinging to her tall, slender figure and outlining her stunning waist-to-hip ratio in full view, her slender waist resembling a willow branch,

yet the curve of her chest was breathtakingly full, the fabric of the mage robe stretched into a graceful curve at that spot, like snow-covered mountains, every undulation making it impossible for one to look away.

Her long legs were crossed on the ice platform, the hem of her robe slightly splayed, revealing a section of her calf that was white as jade. Against the backdrop of the ice platform, her skin looked like white jade soaked in moonlight, exuding a cold and astonishing beauty.

Her collarbones were faintly visible beneath the slightly open neckline of the robe, like two shallow ravines buried under snow and ice, extremely alluring.

Wang Sheng stood at the tent flap and watched her for three seconds. In those three seconds, he saw a lot:

the faint dark circles under her eyes, marks that only come from not sleeping well for two consecutive days;

the involuntary slight trembling of her fingertips, a sign that her mental energy had not fully recovered after cultivation;

and her lips, the pale pink petals pressed slightly together—not in the usual cold, stern manner, but in a way that bore slight bite marks, as if she were struggling with something even in her dreams.

"Shiyun." He lifted the tent flap and walked in.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun's ice-blue pupils snapped open, like two ice lakes shattered by a pebble, ripples spreading outward from the center of her pupils.

She saw Wang Sheng's figure standing at the tent flap, the morning light shining in from behind him, enveloping his entire person in a golden silhouette,

like the first ray of sunlight rising over the Wilderness, piercing through the frozen tent, piercing through the ice wall she had carefully maintained for four years.

"You," she stood up instinctively, the frost flowers condensed on the ice platform shattering slightly from her movement, the sound like breaking glass, exceptionally clear in the silent tent. "Why are you here?"

"I came to see you." Wang Sheng's voice was very calm, as if he were stating something perfectly normal.

"Your mental energy hasn't recovered yet, right? Hua Jieyu said you haven't gone to collect any spirit medicine for mental energy recovery these past two days."

"Not necessary." Frost Mage Lin Shiyun turned her head away, her long silvery-white hair drifting like snow in the morning light, her ice-blue pupils deliberately avoiding Wang Sheng's gaze.

She let her gaze fall upon the frost flowers in the corner of the tent, as if those icicles were more worthy of observation than the person in front of her,

"I can recover my own mental energy; I don't need anyone else to worry about it."

"Oh." Wang Sheng nodded, then found a spot to sit down opposite the ice platform, his movements as natural as if he were finding a sofa to sit on in his own home.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun stiffened. "Why are you sitting down?"

"To chat with you."

"I have nothing to chat about with you."

"You do." Wang Sheng raised his head to look at her. Golden morning light shone in through the gap in the tent flap, landing in his deep pupils like two pieces of amber lit up by the sun,

"That night, you kept watch over me all night."

The temperature in the tent plummeted by several degrees. It wasn't a physical drop in temperature, but rather the Frost Mage's emotional fluctuations triggering a weak resonance of the surrounding spiritual energy.

The frost flowers on the tent walls spread by a few inches at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun's back stiffened.

Her long silvery-white hair remained motionless in the morning light, as if she had been cast with a freezing spell.

In fact, she was indeed using her Frost Spell to control her body's reaction; those visibly spreading frost flowers were proof of her spiritual energy overflowing.

"...So what?" Her voice tried hard to maintain its coldness, but there was an imperceptible tremor in her tone—a kind of guilty conscience that had been called out, with nowhere to hide.

"I told you, it's because you are the Chieftain,"

"Shiyun." Wang Sheng interrupted her.

It was not a questioning, not a forcing, and not even the kind of gentle persuasion.

His voice was very soft, so soft that it was almost drowned out by the sound of the Lingxi River outside the tent, but every word was as clear as runes carved onto an ice surface.

"You kept watch over me for ten hours."

"You held my hand, holding it for ten hours."

"Your mental energy was exhausted. Hua Jieyu gave you spirit medicine, and after you drank it, you came back."

"You said you were helping to warm my hands, yet the Frost Mage's hands are colder than anyone else's."

"You said it was because I am the Chieftain. A Frost Mage keeping watch over the Chieftain for ten hours, not even changing her mage robe, not even collecting the spirit medicine for mental energy recovery, just sitting on a hard bench,"

"Enough!"

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun turned around abruptly.