Power of Laws

It was an ice-blue sphere of light, roughly the size of a human head.

It was not still, but slowly, rhythmically flowing and rotating.

Like a living heart formed from liquid ice and pure light.

Its color was so pure, so profound, surpassing every definition of blue in the world. It was the color embodied by the very concepts of "ice" and "absolute zero."

Within the sphere of light, countless incredibly intricate law runes seemed to emerge and vanish, flowing endlessly as they radiated an ancient, vast, supreme aura of majesty.

The energy it contained could no longer be described as merely "dense." It was an almost tangible, most primordial power of the ultimate ice element laws!

Visible to the naked eye, milky-white streams of energy, seemingly solid, flowed out of the ice-blue sphere in fine threads.

Like the roots of a tree, they slowly entered the surrounding ice walls, nurturing the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow as it grew and strengthened without end.

Jiang Zhen stood before the ice-blue sphere of light, as tiny as a speck of dust, yet as though he stood at the center of the universe.

The Ultimate Water Martial Spirit within him resonated with unprecedented intensity. It was no longer operating on its own, but throbbed wildly as if on the verge of losing control, yearning to merge with that sphere of light.

As if drawn by the power within him that shared the same origin and longed to evolve, the slowly rotating ice-blue sphere suddenly paused slightly.

The next instant, an incomparably condensed, indescribably pure ice-blue beam shot out from the sphere without warning, instantly engulfing Jiang Zhen completely!

"Ugh!"

Jiang Zhen let out a muffled groan, feeling an unimaginable torrent of extreme cold surge violently into his body!

This was not merely low temperature, but terrifying energy containing the most ancient, primordial Ice Law!

It swept tyrannically through every one of his meridians and every cell, seemingly intending to freeze, assimilate, and annihilate him completely from the inside out!

At that critical moment, the spot between his brows burned fiercely!

Deep Sea's Eye opened on its own, beyond his control! That deep-blue Vertical Pupil emerged, and the rotating deep-sea vortex in its depths spun madly at an unprecedented speed.

A faint yet extraordinarily high-grade, cold and pure energy was also stirred from the depths of the Vertical Pupil.

It was precisely that trace of extreme-cold origin that the sphere of light had injected into his body beneath the deep sea.

It did not resist the terrifying cold current flooding into him. Instead, it swiftly merged with it and released a unique, gentle "aura."

Like a letter of recommendation, this aura exchanged information with the ice-blue sphere of light.

After coming into contact with this strange energy, the originally tyrannical and destructive ice-blue power underwent a wondrous transformation.

Its destructive chill receded, replaced by a gentle yet deeper fusion and cleansing.

The vast, endless Ice Origin Energy no longer caused destruction. Instead, like a mother embracing her child, it gently yet irresistibly wrapped around Jiang Zhen's consciousness and drew him into an indescribable state.

Jiang Zhen's body stood frozen within the beam, his eyes tightly shut. Yet all his senses were instantly heightened to their limits, then exploded with a roar, transcending the restraints of his flesh.

He entered a profoundly mysterious state.

Before his "eyes" was no longer the endless Ice Marrow vein, but a stretch of the most primordial, chaotic blue.

He felt "coldness"—not merely a drop in temperature, but an absolute law that brought all movement toward stillness, plunged energy into silence, and returned everything to "nothingness."

It was the ultimate order, eternal tranquility.

He felt "solidity"—not the hardness of matter, but an absolute "existence" and "definition" that rejected change and resisted external forces.

It was the anchor of space, the measure of time.

He felt "silence"—not the absence of sound, but an ultimate calm capable of smoothing even the ripples of thought, allowing the soul to glimpse the essence of the universe.

It was the beginning of wisdom, the source of power.

These were all the true meanings of the laws of "ice."

But just as he immersed himself in this ultimate "ice," that thread of energy originating from the Plane Consciousness began to circulate silently once more.

Its aura was older and more embracing. It guided Jiang Zhen's perception into a wondrous "return to the source."

He "saw" that within the mystical ice that had remained unmelted for ten thousand years, beneath the pressure and extreme cold deep underground over hundreds of millions of years, the faintest trace of its core origin had not completely fallen dormant. Instead, within absolute "stillness," it had nurtured a trace of supremely gentle "motion."

He "saw" that deep within the incomparably hard Ice Marrow, the flowing milky-white energy was, in essence, a form that transcended liquid and solid, one closer to the primordial nature of "water."

Ice was water's stillness, water's solidity, water's definition.

And water was ice's source, ice's transformation, ice's infinity.

They were not opposites, but two sides of the same whole, sharing the same root and origin!

To comprehend the ultimate of "ice" was to touch the complete laws of "water" from the other end!

At that moment, Jiang Zhen's understanding of "Ultimate Water" underwent a qualitative leap.

His Martial Spirit was no longer confined to "flowing water," but began to encompass its other ultimate form—"Eternal Ice"!

Just as his soul merged most deeply with the most primordial ice-water energy between heaven and earth, about to touch the core of the laws...

A vast, hazy, cold consciousness that nevertheless contained boundless vitality lightly touched him.

There were no words, no form.

Only a torrent of the purest information surged directly into the depths of his soul:

It was the majestic force of every river on the continent flowing without cease;

It was the boundless power contained in the ebb and flow of the vast ocean tides;

It was the resilience of underground currents that had ceaselessly carved through rock for ten thousand years;

It was the cycle of rain and clouds in the sky, gathering and dispersing unpredictably as they nourished all things;

It was the immense power of glaciers, silent yet moving slowly over countless ages;

It was the fleeting splendor and eternal silence of snowflakes condensing in the clouds, drifting down, and piling up...

These were the memories of water in this world—the epic of water!

The Plane Consciousness showed him the complete form of "water"—not merely the "liquid state" represented by his Martial Soul, but one of the laws that encompassed all its forms and constituted the Origin of the World!

In that instant, he comprehended the other side of "water," and indeed, all of it.

No one knew how much time had passed.

The ice-blue pillar of light enveloping Jiang Zhen slowly faded away. The glow of the light sphere deep within the hollow seemed to have dimmed slightly, yet it continued to rotate slowly, nourishing the entire mineral vein.

Jiang Zhen slowly opened his eyes.

The hint of sky blue in the depths of his eyes seemed to have settled, becoming deeper and more restrained, as though they contained Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Ice and the Bottomless Deep Sea.

The aura around him was harmonious and natural, with no trace of separation from this land of extreme cold. It was as if he had been born here.

A dazzling sky-blue spirit ring, too brilliant to look at directly, floated quietly behind him, pulsing slowly.

Rather than simple light, the spirit ring was covered in countless tiny ice-blue law runes, like stars being born and extinguished, radiating an aura that originated from heaven and earth!

Fifty-Thousand-Year! Growth-type Origin Spirit Ring!

This was not a spirit ring obtained from Hunting Spirit Beasts. Rather, it had formed on its own after the laws of heaven and earth, origin energy, and his Martial Soul had perfectly aligned!

Its starting Age was an astonishing fifty thousand years, and it possessed terrifying potential to continuously grow as his comprehension of the laws deepened!

At the same time, information about the spirit skill granted by this spirit ring naturally surfaced in his mind.

Fourth Spirit Skill: Eternal Frost Forbidden Domain. Unleash an extreme-cold domain centered on oneself, reducing the temperature within the domain to Absolute Zero.

To a tremendous extent, freezes, slows, and even restrains the movements, Soul Power, and thoughts of all enemies within range.

At the same time, all of one's ice- and Water Attribute abilities receive the utmost enhancement. (Law-type Domain Soul Skill)

Beyond that, his comprehension of the laws of "water" had already crossed the threshold. He was no longer limited to the use of skills and had begun to touch the essence of its rules.

Deep within his Martial Soul, a cold mark quietly took shape. It was the "mark" left behind by the Plane Consciousness, though Jiang Zhen had not noticed it yet.

Jiang Zhen slowly raised his hand. With a thought, a ball of clear water and a cluster of solid ice appeared in his palm at the same time, transforming freely at his will without the slightest hindrance.