Chapter 525: One Day and One Year

Chapter 525: A Day and a Year

After using the Super Ice Dragon Tornado spell to kill most of the corrupted magical beasts,

Li Wei, in order to prevent the residual power of the demonic seeds from affecting other creatures,

burned all the corrupted magical beasts to ashes.

Only after confirming that not a trace of demonic aura remained did he feel at ease.

Li Wei and Sheng Xi stayed at the mine for most of the day.

A vast mine was eaten by Sheng Xi until there was almost nothing left.

Li Wei was very curious—where had all those magical ores gone after being eaten by Sheng Xi?

The weight of the magical ores Sheng Xi consumed must have exceeded her own body weight by dozens of times.

Yet her figure showed no change whatsoever.

Come to think of it, Li Wei recalled that last time when Sheng Xi had just emerged from the Time Secret Realm, she had also frenziedly devoured a large quantity of ores.

That time, she had completely emptied the ore deposits within a mountain's belly.

And yet, there had been no visible changes in Sheng Xi then either.

Li Wei speculated that Sheng Xi might possess a special spatial stomach pouch for storing food.

Seeing Sheng Xi fly back, Li Wei asked, "Full?"

Sheng Xi nodded. "I can't eat another bite. I'm completely stuffed."

Li Wei looked at her curiously and said, "By the way, where did all those magical ores go after you swallowed them?"

"Your stomach shouldn't be able to hold that much magical ore."

Sheng Xi lowered her head and pondered for a moment before saying, "I'm not entirely sure either. Anyway, whatever I eat will continue to provide me with energy over a long period of time in the future."

"Oh, so perhaps you have an independent space inside your body similar to a spatial ring for storing food," Li Wei guessed.

Since even Sheng Xi herself was vague about it—only knowing how to use it but not understanding the principle—

Li Wei didn't bother thinking too much about it. As long as it worked, that was enough.

He certainly couldn't dissect Sheng Xi to study the mechanism.

Simply using spiritual perception, he could not detect any hidden spatial stomach pouch within Sheng Xi.

Otherwise, Sheng Xi would have discovered it herself long ago.

"Since you're full, let's go back," Li Wei said.

The two returned to the Ice and Snow City.

As Li Wei flew past the city wall, he glanced at the increasingly scarred ice walls.

Recently, the number of corrupted creatures attacking Forreth City had been increasing.

Tribes coming from all directions to seek refuge in Forreth City were also growing in number.

Few tribes could migrate intact to Forreth City like the Snow Bear Tribe.

Most tribes chose to migrate only after being attacked by corrupted magical beasts.

Some came willingly; others were forced.

Those who came willingly had successfully repelled the corrupted beasts, while those who came unwillingly had been overrun—the survivors fleeing to the Ice and Snow City.

Besides the ever-increasing number of corrupted beasts attacking the Ice and Snow City,

Li Wei was also worried about the food supply issue.

With the population of the Ice and Snow City growing larger, the already scarce food situation would inevitably become more severe.

More critically, the flesh and blood of corrupted beasts could not be consumed.

A crucial source of food had thus been cut off.

It wasn't that the meat of corrupted beasts couldn't be eaten.

Rather, consuming it posed enormous potential dangers.

If the corrupting force could spread through food and infect those who ate it,

then eating the flesh of corrupted beasts would be tantamount to seeking one's own slow death.

Moreover, this would bring great uncertainty to the stability of the Ice and Snow City.

Li Wei was deeply concerned about such possibilities.

He knew that if food truly ran out,

even knowing that eating corrupted beast meat would lead to slow death, some people would still choose to eat it.

To die now from starvation or possibly become corrupted and die later—

There would be no choice.

Returning to the magic cottage,

Sheng Xi transformed back into her dragon form, preparing to receive Li Wei's Minor Time Art.

Li Wei concentrated fully as he cast the spell.

Once the Minor Time Art was completed,

the seven-colored Time Dragon Reverse Scale on Sheng Xi's forehead shimmered with light.

A faint layer of seven-colored radiance enveloped her entire body.

Then, motionless, she stood like a statue in place.

Li Wei gazed at Sheng Xi, communicating with her soulfully in his heart.

Through repeated testing, Li Wei had come to understand the effect of the perfected Minor Time Art.

The perfected Minor Time Art accelerated time three hundred and sixty times.

In the Heavenly Dome World, three hundred and sixty days equaled one year.

This meant that for every real-world day that passed, Sheng Xi aged one year.

After observing for a while and confirming everything proceeded smoothly, Li Wei left the magic cottage.

"Li Wei!"

Just as Li Wei stepped out of the magic cottage, Gusewei hurriedly found him.

Seeing Gusewei's anxious expression, he felt somewhat surprised and asked, "What's wrong?"

Gusewei quickly said, "Come with me quickly. Monise, she..."

Li Wei followed Gusewei to the room where Monise was detained.

This was a solitary cell within the Jade Ice Palace.

Gusewei treated Monise extremely well—in addition to being unable to leave the cell, everything else inside resembled her original room layout.

Even when Monise wished to speak with Gusewei, she could ask the guards to contact Gusewei anytime.

Monis was also very self-aware.

Ever since the plan had failed and she was overwhelmingly defeated by Gusevi through an absolute disparity in strength.

Monis seemed to have given up all thoughts of resistance.

She had been exceptionally compliant, staying quietly within her cell without any attempt to escape.

Until today—when Monis displayed the slightest anomaly—the guards immediately reported it to Gusevi.

Levi and Gusevi arrived outside the cell.

The guard opened the door, and Levi saw Monis curled up alone on the bed, trembling all over, clearly in great pain.

His first instinct was to sense the aura emanating from Monis.

The demonic energy around her had grown much denser.

Gusevi hurried into the room toward Monis.

Levi warned, “Be careful.”

He kept his eyes fixed on Monis, ready to act at any moment.

Gusevi tried to approach to assess Monis’s condition.

But when Monis saw her coming, she raised her right hand, stopping her in her tracks.

Breathing heavily, Monis forced herself to say, “Don’t… come closer.”

Gusevi asked anxiously, “Monis, what’s wrong with you?”

Levi stepped forward and noticed a black pattern appearing on Monis’s neck.

He had seen similar markings on demonized beasts.

Clearly, the demon seed inside Monis had begun advancing to the next stage.

Her demonization symptoms were worsening.

The demon seed existed in two states—dormant phase and germination phase.

During the dormant phase, the seed caused no effect on its carrier.

The carrier might not even be aware of its presence.

In the germination phase, the seed began sprouting and growing—the process of which was the carrier's transformation into a demon.

Demonization was divided into three stages: early, middle, and late.

In the early stage, the demonized individual would experience a noticeable increase in power.

This was the critical time for identifying carriers of the demon seed.

In the middle stage, obvious physical changes would appear.

Black spots or striped patterns would emerge on the body, sharp black claws, horns, or altered skin.

In the late stage, the demonized being would lose self-awareness, falling into instincts of violence and slaughter, killing every living thing they encountered.

They would gather in groups, seeking new targets.

It was as if they were puppets following a preset program.

What the ultimate goal of these demonized beings was, Levi did not know.

It likely had something to do with why the Demon God had spread the seeds.

Levi suspected there was actually a fourth stage of demonization.

That stage, he believed, was the most crucial.

It concerned the true secret behind the existence of the demon seed.

When he had asked the “Shaman” of the Snowbear Tribe to interpret ancient texts, he learned that demonized individuals eventually disappeared entirely.

He thought those who vanished might have reached this fourth stage.

However, what exactly this fourth stage looked like, Levi didn’t know.

There were no records of it in the ancient texts.

If he wanted to uncover more about demonization and the demon seeds,

Levi felt he might need to make a trip to the Elemental Tower.

The Sacred Library of Saint Velia within held countless ancient books.

Perhaps one of them contained the secrets of the demon seed.

But the problem was, Levi was practically excommunicated from the Elemental Tower now.

How could he return?

Moreover, beyond the Frozen North Plain, the Church of the Light was watching him closely.

Once he left the Frozen North, members of the Church would surely cause trouble for him.

No—in fact, even staying here, the Church might still come after him.

Over a month had passed since Levi killed the legendary paladin.

The Church must have already learned of the paladin’s death.

Most likely, new enemies were already on their way.

Enemies stronger than the legendary paladin.

Of course, it was also possible the Church believed the paladin had died at the hands of a disciple of the Demon God.

“Ahh!”

Monis let out a piercing scream, clutching the bedsheets tightly, her whole body tensing and curling into itself.

The scream jolted Levi from his thoughts.

He redirected his attention to the present.

Monis’s cry startled Gusevi badly. She quickly asked, “What’s happening to you?”

Levi sensed the demonic energy radiating from Monis intensifying.

He pulled Gusevi back a few steps.

“Watch out—she might lose control.”

Bang!

Monis slammed her fist hard against the wall.

The tremendous force cracked the wall into a spiderweb of fractures.

“Hsshhh… hah… hah…”

Monis gasped for breath, seemingly regaining some awareness.

With disheveled hair like a madwoman, she turned to look at Gusevi.

Beneath the tangled strands, her eyes glowed faintly red.

Gusevi trembled under Monis’s gaze. She extended her right hand, voice shaking:

“Monis…”

"Kill me while I'm still lucid!"

Monis gritted her teeth and spoke.

Guthvie couldn't help but weep with sorrow, unable to bring herself to strike.

Li Wei said calmly, "You can still maintain your self-awareness—perhaps there's still hope."

Hearing this, Monis instinctively turned her head to look at him.

Guthvie also quickly looked toward Li Wei and asked hurriedly, "Do you have any way to save her?"

Li Wei replied, "From my research on demonified creatures, I've discovered that demonic transformation affects not only the body, but also the mind and soul."

"If we can separate Monis's soul from her demonified flesh, it should slow down the rate at which her soul becomes demonified, extending the time she can remain conscious."

"This would give us more time to find a way to reverse the demonic transformation."

Guthvie quickly asked, "How do we separate the soul?"

(End of Chapter)