Chapter 463: Ice and Snow World

Chapter 463: A World of Ice and Snow

The wind howled, a relentless banshee's cry.

The northernmost ice plains were a realm of perpetual torment, swept by blizzards that bit to the very bone.

Should even an extraordinary pathfinder lose their bearings within this blinding vortex, the odds of a frozen grave were nigh absolute.

For hundreds of miles, the white fury raged, swallowing all sight and sound, transforming every step across the drifts into a gamble with some unseen, catastrophic doom.

Boom!

A streak of fire, like a falling star, pierced the suffocating veil of the storm and plunged headlong into the trackless white expanse.

Boom! Sizzle!

Li Wei struck the snowpack, the sheer force of his descent gouging a crater dozens of meters deep into the frozen earth.

The surrounding drifts and ancient ice hissed fiercely, melting into torrents under the radiant heat of the flames wreathing his flesh.

Yet, no sooner had the water pooled than the intense thermal energy flash-evaporated it into plumes of scalding steam.

But before this vapor could even escape the mouth of the pit, the primordial chill of the wasteland robbed it of its heat, condensing it back into heavy droplets that rained down once more.

In this endless, cyclical war of elements, a dense shroud of icy mist choked the opening, quickly buried by the drifting snow until the hollow became a sealed, subterranean sanctuary.

Surveying his makeshift redoubt, Li Wei extinguished his mantle of fire, dampening his core to a low simmer just sufficient to stave off frostbite.

He could not afford reckless expenditure, lest the heat dissolve too much of the surrounding structure and bring the roof crashing down upon him.

He cast a calm glance toward the blocked exit; there was no cause for panic.

Having achieved the absolute state of an elemental vessel, oxygen was no longer a prerequisite for his survival.

"I should have shaken them by now."

Li Wei reflected on the desperate pursuit through the blizzard.

Those hounds on his heels undoubtedly possessed some manner of artifact capable of pinning down his location.

However, amidst a super-blizzard spanning hundreds of leagues, even Li Wei’s own spiritual perception was severely stifled.

It stood to reason that the enemy's tracking devices had similarly faltered, rendered blind by the overwhelming chaos of the storm.

Otherwise, that persistent, pricking sensation of being hunted would not have vanished so cleanly after he had flown through the gale for a time.

He resolved to hole up here for a spell, waiting to see if those pursuers had truly lost his scent.

"Phew..."

Li Wei exhaled a plume of white mist, rubbing his arms against the chill.

Looking around, he noted that the cavern had expanded considerably under the initial wash of his flames, though the runoff had already frozen solid against the walls, hardened by the encroaching frost.

What had begun as a fragile snow pocket was now a reinforced grotto of solid ice; there was no longer any fear of a cave-in.

Even so, the cold here was an aggressive, living thing.

To keep it at bay, Li Wei was forced to channel a continuous stream of mana.

Worse still, the ambient fire elements in this desolate reach were practically nonexistent, making the natural regeneration of his reserves an agonizingly slow process.

He could, theoretically, draw upon the abundant ice elements to replenish his energy.

Yet, the conversion efficiency was a far cry from the swift affinity he enjoyed with fire.

Weighing his options, Li Wei came to a swift decision.

With a flick of his wrist, he invoked the spell "Mystra’s Magical Cottage," tearing open a shimmering spatial portal before him.

Li Wei slipped through the threshold without delay, stepping into the cozy sanctuary of the cottage. As the warm, gentle air enveloped him, the tension left his shoulders, and a smile touched his lips.

"Nothing beats the comfort of home."

Whoosh!

A pale blur launched itself at him, and Li Wei hastily extended his arms to catch the tumbling form of Shen Xi.

"Waaah, it’s so boring in here! I want to go out and play!" Shen Xi whined, squirming in his embrace.

Li Wei shook his head, his tone firm but gentle: "You’ll have to endure it a while longer. It’s too dangerous for you to roam outside right now."

The Church of Light was turning over every stone in search of her.

Granted, she bore a concealment ward left by Toresta, designed to mask the telltale aura of a Divine Holy Dragon, but Li Wei preferred not to tempt providence by letting her leave the cottage.

To soothe the young dragon’s restless spirit—and to quiet the rumblings of his own stomach—Li Wei retrieved an assortment of ingredients and began to prepare a meal.

A simple roast, enhanced by a blend of aromatic spices, soon had Shen Xi drooling in anticipation.

By the time Li Wei had eaten his fill, Shen Xi’s stomach remained a veritable bottomless pit; she continued to devour everything in sight, seemingly incapable of satiety.

He could only watch in wry amusement.

Eventually, abandoning all pretense of culinary refinement, he simply tossed slabs of raw magical beast meat directly to her.

Shen Xi snapped them up greedily, showing no aversion to the raw feast.

Watching her bolt the food down, Li Wei suddenly realized that she was at a critical juncture in her physical development.

While a dragon of her lineage could subsist entirely on holy energy to sustain its life force, true growth and rapid maturation demanded a massive intake of physical nutrients.

The realization brought a bittersweet smile to his face.

"Raising a dragon is an expensive affair."

It took three full hours of continuous eating before Shen Xi finally collapsed, clutching her distended belly. The little dragon had visibly thickened, looking for all the world like a round, scaled ball.

Li Wei checked the provisions stored within his spatial ring.

If she kept up this frantic pace, eating like this every day...

His hoard would last a week, perhaps eight days at most.

Her appetite was monstrous; she could likely demolish three or four prime bulls in a single sitting without breaking a sweat.

The meats in Li Wei’s possession were merely incidental spoils collected from past battles; he rarely went out of his way to hunt beasts solely for their flesh.

Furthermore, the meat he did keep consisted almost entirely of the choice, energy-rich cuts.

He seldom stored an entire carcass within his spatial ring.

Magical beasts were typically colossal creatures, far too bulky for standard spatial storage.

One could only harvest the most valuable portions.

Gazing at the snoring Shen Xi, Li Wei resolved to be far more frugal with his resources moving forward.

After the feast, Li Wei took his ease within the cottage, resting until he felt sufficient time had elapsed.

Judging the moment ripe, he stepped out of the magical haven.

Returning to the biting, frigid expanse of the ice plains, he projected his spiritual awareness outward, threading it through the thick layers of snow and ice.

Even his mind’s eye could feel the sharp sting of the ambient frost.

Piercing through the dozens of meters of snow packed above his head, Li Wei discovered that the apocalyptic blizzard that had blotted out the heavens had finally run its course.

Without a moment's hesitation, he surged upward toward the sky.

Huff!

A ball of flame soared out from the snow-covered ground.

Soon, the flames extinguished, and a figure landed in the floating snow, vanishing instantly from sight.

Moments later, a figure radiating blue magical light appeared on the snowy ground.

Li Wei Xu stepped onto the snow and looked around.

In the direction he had flown from, there stretched a massive mountain range extending for thousands of miles.

This mountain range blocked the bitter winds and blizzards of the Far North ice plains from sweeping southward.

It was this barrier that had granted the orc tribes living in the northern territories a place to catch their breath.

All other directions revealed endless white ice plains stretching to the horizon.

Li Wei didn't know which way to go.

However, after waiting for a long time without seeing any pursuers appear, it meant they had indeed lost the ability to track him.

Li Wei let out a sigh of relief.

He opened his magical cabin and released Saint Xi.

"Saint Xi, where is the Time Dragon's treasure?" Li Wei asked.

At present, stumbling blindly in darkness, Li Wei could only rely on Saint Xi to determine their direction before proceeding.

Saint Xi had just emerged when she felt the bone-chilling cold of the icy wilderness, causing her to shiver violently.

But soon, she adapted to the surrounding cold.

She joyfully rolled around in the snow.

After playing for a while, under Li Wei's renewed urging and questioning, Saint Xi finally took out the Time Dragon's reverse scale to sense the location of the Time Dragon's treasure.

Moments later, Saint Xi raised her finger and pointed northward.

"It's over there."

Li Wei glanced behind him and murmured, "Do I have to continue heading north?"

"Could it be at the deepest heart of the Arctic ice plains?"

That was an uninhabited wasteland, a death zone never visited by any living creature.

To this day, no one knew what lay at the furthest depths of the Arctic ice plains.

(End of Chapter)