As night fell, the presence of other spirit beasts could no longer be felt in the surroundings. Lin Xiao walked out of the Snow Empress's ice house and slightly raised his head to look at the sky.
With a light tap of his foot, his figure rapidly rose into the air. There seemed to be an invisible boundary in the sky; the moment he crossed it, Lin Xiao felt waves of blade-like force slicing across his body.
The cloak on his body was almost instantly shredded into fragments. The frigid wind not only stripped away the warmth from his body but seemed intent on taking the soul power within him as well.
Continuing to ascend, the surrounding wind grew increasingly violent. Lin Xiao did not speak; his brows were tightly furrowed. Even his skin, which had been tempered multiple times by the Gold of Living Creatures and was far tougher than that of other soul masters, was cut open with numerous cracks.
The power of the Gold of Living Creatures spread through his body, but before the wounds could heal, the blood seeping from them had already frozen into ice crystals that clung to his skin.
Lin Xiao had once been to the icy sea, where the depths were similarly cold, but that environment was far less harsh than this place.
The Snow Empress's suggestion was indeed effective. In the process of his body being continuously damaged and repaired, the newly regenerated flesh became tougher than before.
However, to significantly improve his physical strength using this method was something an ordinary person could not endure.
"How is it?"
Ensnaring Lantern had already been protected against Lin Xiao's chest. In such a wind, he wasn't sure whether Ensnaring Lantern's strength could withstand it.
Hearing the Snow Empress's voice, he slightly shook his head. "It's not enough."
With the Gold of Living Creatures inside him, he wasn't afraid of bodily damage. To reach his goal as quickly as possible, it was still a bit short.
"Then keep going higher."
Lin Xiao slightly raised his head to look upward. In the frigid wind, he couldn't clearly see what was in the sky, only a hazy layer blocking the top.
"Mm."
Lin Xiao said no more. His figure rose even higher until, aside from the fierce howling of the wind in his ears, he could hear nothing else. Only then did he gradually stop ascending.
With a flick of his wrist, a hazy mist appeared in the palm of his hand. It looked like a thin layer of faint fog, yet it was completely unaffected by the surrounding wind, simply coiling into a ball in Lin Xiao's palm and slightly wriggling.
Without further hesitation, he raised his hand to his mouth and gently inhaled. The mist then drilled into his mouth.
It was the snow worms he had collected from the Snow Empress's dwelling. Upon entering his mouth, they had no taste, plain as clear water, only a slight coolness striking the inside of his oral cavity. They then fell into his stomach and soon spread throughout his entire body.
The wind blew past his ears, leaving several more wounds on Lin Xiao's skin, but he felt no pain at all. His body merely shivered involuntarily.
The wind of the Extreme North inherently carried extreme cold, and with the snow worms entering his stomach, an even greater chill spread from the inside outward. With the internal and external cold combining, Lin Xiao only felt his hands and feet grow numb, as if he could no longer sense their existence.
Only the warm currents brought by the circulation of the Gold of Living Creatures' power within his body stood out clearly amid this overwhelming cold.
Lin Xiao had slowly closed his eyes, suppressing the flow of soul power within him and relying more on his body's strength to endure the tempering here.
His brows showed no sign of relaxing; the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. He felt as though countless steel needles were piercing through his body, and the high-altitude frigid wind blew through the holes left by those needles, constantly eroding his flesh.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, Lin Xiao finally opened his eyes. He could no longer feel any remnant power from the snow worms within him. It was as if it were an illusion; the wind around him seemed to have lightened somewhat.
But Lin Xiao knew it was not an illusion. For him, the snow worms born alongside the Snow Empress could not change his martial soul's attribute like they could for other ice-attribute soul masters, but they could still enhance his resistance to extreme cold.
Without needing anyone to remind him, Lin Xiao's figure rose higher once more. With another flick of his wrist, another ball of mist appeared in his palm.
Time continued to pass. On the snow plains of the Extreme North, the sun rose as usual, yet it brought no comforting warmth.
The small courtyard where the Snow Empress had once lived remained quiet, as if she had never returned.
At that moment, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the courtyard. It seemed something had fallen from the sky. Looking upward, a figure grew closer and closer before, with a "thud," it landed directly in the courtyard.
It was as if a massive block of ice had fallen to the ground. Countless ice shards flew outward, striking the not-very-high courtyard walls and embedding themselves into the accumulated snow on the wall tops, leaving small shallow pits.
"Cough—"
Lin Xiao coughed lightly and slowly stood up. The ice shards covering his body fell away with his movements, as if a light snowfall had occurred beneath his feet.
Lin Xiao paid no mind to anything else. He raised his hand and lightly clenched his fist. Soon, he felt a brand-new power coursing through his body. He could not clearly sense the change in his physical strength, but just from the increase in power alone, he knew that in this single night, his body had undergone considerable change.
Perhaps this was also related to it being his first time and having absorbed some snow worms, but without a doubt, he was one step closer to his goal.
"Thank you." Picking up the Ensnaring Lantern from his chest, Lin Xiao spoke softly. Without waiting for the Snow Empress to respond, he walked back into her room.
In any case, the current Snow Empress could not cultivate. Lin Xiao simply stayed here to meditate. The dense heaven-and-earth origin energy in this place was quite a good location for cultivation.
Lin Xiao placed Ensnaring Lantern on the table so the Snow Empress could see the scenery outside, then sat on the ice bed nearby.
Although he did not possess an ice-attribute martial soul and the ice bed had minimal effect on him, it also had no drawbacks and could instead help him adapt to the cold. He did not stand on ceremony and slowly closed his eyes.
"How do you feel?"
"Teacher?"
Lin Xiao had only just closed his eyes and had not yet entered meditation when he heard Electrolux's voice.
"The Snow Empress took hundreds of thousands of years to reach the point of moving freely through the wind. Since you've only just begun this cultivation method, there's no need to rush. In any case, there's still some distance between your soul power level and level ninety."
"I feel it's somewhat similar to your meditation; it's impossible to see obvious changes, but rather a process of gradual accumulation."
"I understand, Teacher."
Lin Xiao nodded. "I'm not impatient. I simply want to maximize every bit of this accumulation."
"Haha, that's good." Hearing this, Electrolux laughed. "You understand your own body better than I do. Accumulate slowly."
"Mm."
Lin Xiao responded in his mind and, amid the omnipresent cold, gradually entered meditation.
He understood Electrolux's thinking and knew the principle that haste makes waste. Tempering the body naturally could not be accomplished overnight.
However, what he had not quite expected was that this accumulation would last a full two years.
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