Ashen Snow: Frost as Bone, Flame as Scales

The young man with his eyes lowered looked as if he were asleep.

Bennigo remembered when the projection appeared out of nowhere. At first, it was just a blurry black shadow. It wasn't until he sensed a familiar soul fluctuation on the shadow and could no longer contact Ronan that he realized something might have happened outside.

But there was nothing he could do. He could only watch as the shadowy figure grew more stable and clearer, gradually taking on Ronan's likeness, unable to communicate, until now.

Gradually, Bennigo got used to standing here quietly for a while every day.

Sometimes Bennigo couldn't help but think back to that sunny afternoon many years ago, when he first met Ronan.

At that time, he was just a boy, his eyes firm yet wary, like a wolf that had just emerged from the forest to fend for itself.

In some ways they are similar, and over the years, their partnership, which was based on mutual benefit, has evolved into a subtle yet stable relationship.

Bennigo initially only wanted to resurrect Fiona, but gradually he also became interested in seeing just how far she could go.

Ronan, to a certain extent, embodied many of the hopes that Bennigo himself had failed to achieve and could never achieve. Although he said nothing, Bennigo could sense it—

Every step he took upwards was difficult.

"Buzz—"

A strange fluctuation of soul energy suddenly emanated, pulling Bennigo back from his reverie.

The young man before him slowly stood up from the ground, and the entire hut woven from the branches of the Saint Blood Tree suddenly dispersed, with countless roots and vines dancing joyfully around him.

He let out a long sigh of relief, as if waking from an extremely long sleep.

His gaze fell upon me, carrying a familiar gentleness and tranquility.

Bennigo a quiet sense of relief.

He knew.

He's finally back.

How long has it been since we last met?

Ronan looked around and asked Bennigo in a low voice.

"Nine years and seven months."

Bennigo answered.

"Has it been that long?"

Ronan murmured, bent down to stroke the head that Dodol III had brought to him, and greeted the Saint Blood Tree.

The woman beside him, also in a spirit form, surprised him. As he looked at her, Ronan's gaze slowly softened.

"Kosti"

Ronan reached out, his semi-transparent palm gently tracing the smooth cheek of the equally intangible woman. "How did she end up here?"

"I don't know."

Bennigo shook his head. "In the third year after you appeared, she broke free of the magic circle and came to your side, where she has stayed ever since."

"It seems the magic array has reached its limit in terms of the help it can provide her..."

Ronan looked at Kosti in front of him, his eyes flashing slightly.

Kosti's soul was much more solid than before, but her self-awareness had not yet returned. She still could not recognize Ronan, and her eyes only held a trace of longing from the instinctive soul brought about by her memories of her past life.

"We need to find a suitable body to transfer Kosti's soul before we can proceed with the next stage of healing."

Ronan shifted his gaze from Kosti back to Bennigo.

Looking around the entire Mist Space, everything presented a thriving scene, seemingly having completely returned to the state before Hecalto's rampage.

"Thank you for your hard work, Bennigo."

Ronan spoke from the bottom of his heart, "All these years, you've been alone."

Bennigo shook his head, his eyes scanning Ronan up and down. "So, you now..."

"It's just a spell that Soul Projection."

Ronan smiled and said calmly, "I have indeed encountered some issues, but now..."

He paused for a moment, then said calmly, "It's almost resolved."

Bennigo nodded, and was about to ask something else when Ronan suddenly vanished like smoke.

Ronan was nowhere to be seen in the Mist Space, leaving only a bewildered Kosti staring blankly at the spot where Ronan had disappeared.

On the endless ice plains.

Ronan awoke from the throne forged from ice crystal thorns.

The nineteenth snow-covered sun overhead seemed much closer than when he first received the Ice Emperor Inheritance.

Each round seemed so close, as if you could reach out and touch it.

Like enormous frost meteorites, you can almost see the undulating, rune-like ice crystal patterns on each one.

There are also nine crimson meteorites with flames attached.

A total of twenty-eight meteorites hung in the Sky Dome, whistling and orbiting above Ronan's head.

Ronan gazed at the twenty-eight meteorites and heard a faint hissing sound.

He lowered his head, and a tiny snake silently emerged from under his hand. It had nine heads and looked like Hecalto shrunk countless times.

It nestled obediently around Ronan's arm, licking Ronan palm with the tip of its tongue.

Ronan gently stroked the snake's head, then slowly rose from his throne.

The moment he stood up, the twenty-eight meteors circling overhead accelerated, reaching their maximum speed in an instant.

The powers of ice and fire reached a strange balance here, merging with each other. The crimson, snow-white, and ice-blue colors gradually faded, and finally, a huge vortex appeared above Ronan's head.

"Waaah—"

An ancient and distant whale cry echoed between heaven and earth, and the ice field beneath their feet trembled.

The frost on the entire ice field rose up together, revealing the enormous Snow White Baleen Whale.

At the same time, the shadow of a giant bird appeared in the sky, its body engulfed in blazing orange-red flames, with Golden Plume, and an indescribable noble and magnificent appearance.

"Nine years..."

Ronan stood between the Frost Whale and the Undying Bird, watching the two ancient and enormous creatures slowly approach each other, muttering to himself.

At the instant the two shadows touched each other.

"Boom!"

Endless gray light erupted from the vortex, and all illusions seemed to vanish.

Snowflakes fell in a flurry from the empty sky.

Ronan reached out and gently caught one of the petals.

The snowflakes were burning with gray flames, their irregular shapes resembling completely burned paper.

It's like...

A small, scattered piece of ash, gently carried by the wind.

Ronan carefully examined the snowflake that resembled ashes, and finally, a sense of relief and ease, as if he had finally achieved his goal, appeared in his eyes.

"Ashen Snow".

"Splash—"

In a bright red space, on the ever-surging surface of magma, a hand suddenly reached out, breaking through the scorching waves of lava, and then a tall and slender figure slowly emerged from the magma step by step.

"Call--"

The figure emerging from the lava exhaled a long breath, the exhaled breath dispersing the distorted heat waves in front of it. The breath landed on the surface of the lava, and a piece of flowing lava quickly dimmed in light, then solidified into a black rock, with even a thin layer of frost on its surface.

Even temperatures of hundreds or thousands of degrees Celsius around it could not melt this layer of snow-white frost.

The solidified magma became the only floating island in this space, and a figure landed on it and stood still.

Only then could I see the full figure.

His entire body seemed to be cast from molten lava, crystals, and metal. Every bulging, full muscle shimmered with an orange-red glow, and some of the flesh had not yet fully grown out, revealing the ice crystal bones inside that radiated a blue-gold luster.

As he stood there, he unconsciously emanated a strange fluctuation, like the wondrous creation of heaven and earth. The void around him naturally collapsed, and all the Fire Element energy in this space gathered towards him, paying homage and replenishing his still-growing flesh and blood.

The flowing flames behind him coalesced into the shape of a cloak and a crown.

"Frost forms bones, flames form scales."

Ronan looked down at his current appearance. In the nine years that he had been reborn in the flames repeatedly in the collapsing Fire Leaving Realm and at the bottom of endless lava, the life level of his body seemed to have reached an incredible height.

Ronan couldn't describe his current state in detail, he just felt that he was doing well.

Very good.

Easily bring up your Character Panel.

Name: Ronan Damien

Age: 44

[Talents: Ice Attribute Control, Fire Attribute Affinity, Innocent Body (Active), [Clarity Extreme Thought] (Active), Soul Projection (Active), Primordial Frost Whale Bloodline (4%), Ancient Phoenix Bloodline (63%).]

[Strength: Level 5 Official Wizard (51%)]

[Skill:

Spirit Heart Amber (Proficient 160/200)

Ascetic Body Forging (Grandmaster 356/3200)

Nine years of pain, countless times of being burned inch by inch by flames, resulted in the fusion of all the Primordial Frost Whale Bloodline in the blue-gold droplet between his eyebrows, with a bloodline concentration of 4%, and the Ancient Phoenix Bloodline a concentration as high as 63%!

"The concentration of the bloodline of ancient creatures in a wizard cannot reach 100%. The limit varies from person to person and from the type of bloodline. The Phoenix Bloodline in my body has absorbed countless Fire Element energies from the Fire Leaving Realm and undergone countless rebirths. It has almost reached its limit."

The next step is to advance to the Primordial level.

Ronan stared at the bloodline markers on the panel, deep in thought.

Alazan said that the Undying Bird is the only powerful creature that can potentially reach the Mythic rank through self-evolution, and its bloodline can continuously advance.

Although the bloodlines of the Primordial Frost Whale and the Undying Bird have now achieved coexistence within him, this balance is only temporary. After all, the Phoenix Bloodline is still somewhat inferior in terms of quality. Once the Primordial Frost Whale Bloodline improves, this balance will be immediately broken. At that time, Ronan will once again experience the predicament of the two bloodline powers vying for dominance within his body.

"Therefore, we still need to upgrade the Phoenix Bloodline to the Primordial level as soon as possible."

"With both ice and fire ancient elements, even if one side is slightly weaker, it won't have a significant impact on me; the balance can still be maintained."

Ronan wasn't sure if the Saint Blood Tree would have any effect on enhancing the Phoenix Bloodline, but the Phoenix Bloodline itself had already shown him the way forward.

He was constantly receiving a call from his bloodline, a call that urged him to go somewhere.

"The Land of the Undying Bird, the birthplace of the Phoenix Family?"

Ronan stared in a certain direction, his eyes gleaming.

He didn't know.

But I definitely have to go.

Not only for the Phoenix Bloodline within him, but also

"Moriel Moriel Phoenix"

Ronan reached out and pressed his hand against his heart, murmuring a name.

During the nine years he [Depravity] into the lava, in endless pain, Moriel was always by his side, like a clear spring that supported him to keep going.

She was capricious and unpredictable; her love was fiery, obsessive, and unreasonable, like a curse that didn't even give Ronan a chance to refuse.

She accompanied Ronan through twenty-three lifetimes in the Dream of Reincarnation.

In every reincarnation, Ronan would meet her, and she would eventually become Ronan wife and partner.

Twenty-three lifetimes, more than five thousand years of dreamlike time, this curse remains ever new, deeply etched into Ronan's soul, and he can no longer let go of it.

Ronan pressed his hand to his heart, as if Moriel were living inside it.

"Undying Bird Undying Bird."

Only after he truly merged with the bloodline of the Undying Bird did he realize that Moriel might not actually be dead.

There might still be a chance for things to turn around, but of course, Ronan needs to find the answer himself.

"Twenty-three Reincarnation into Dream have only increased my mental strength to the mid-stage of level five. The leap from level five to level six is far greater than the leap from level four to level five..."

"Perhaps it's also related to the fact that I've achieved the Nine Star Elemental Spirit level..."

Ronan stretched out his hand, and nine Elemental Spirit Crystal materialized one by one.

They have all grown much larger than they did nine years ago.

The largest of them, the Elemental Spirit Crystal containing the seed of law, exists between illusion and reality. It is translucent yet covered with many mysterious and complex patterns, like the most precious gemstone, or some kind of magical and plump fruit.

Ronan gently touched it, his fingertips creating subtle, invisible ripples on its surface.

His eventual understanding of the Ice-Fire Fusion is inextricably linked to this unactivated seed of law.

Ronan couldn't describe its mystery, only knowing that it was far more precious than he had imagined.

Even in its current "dormant" state, it possesses incredible and magical power.

In those nine years, he discovered and learned far more from himself than anyone could have imagined.

After advancing to the Level Five Wizard, he had no time to reflect before being drawn into one event after another. The nine years he spent submerged in the magma perfectly filled in the gaps in this process.

Perhaps the only thing that made Ronan slightly dissatisfied was that Grandmaster mastery of Ascetic Body Forging had not increased as much as he had imagined.

Although Grandmaster proficiency of over 300 points is quite considerable, it is still less than the suffering and torment he has endured over the past nine years.

Perhaps it's due to the method of cultivation.

Suffering is not everything. In the "Innocent Body" stage, what truly promotes the rapid growth of "Ascetic Body Forging" is the power of the curse.

Burning the body with flames doesn't count as a proper curse.

Ronan tidied himself up a bit and sat cross-legged on a solidified rock block that was drifting with the lava.

Now, the vitality within him is boundless and intense, far surpassing its previous strength. The mysterious power that Lindis had bestowed upon him, specifically targeting the Holy Shrine, has long since vanished. Under the power of the Healing Holy Shrine, his still-unrepaired flesh and blood are quickly growing back.

The newly born Ronan was fiery and flamboyant, his eyes like fiery drills, like a piece of iron heated to a red-hot color.

But it quickly cooled down, and the color of its pupils faded back to its original azure blue, with a hint of orange-red and blue-gold hidden in its depth, like two carefully polished colored diamonds. Only at a specific time and from a specific angle can one truly glimpse its mysterious and beautiful full appearance.

"Pop—Pop—Pop—"

Around the floating rocks, surging magma produced one viscous, crimson bubble after another, from which large amounts of golden-red crystals emerged.

Ronan gently raised his hand, and the crimson gold crystals collided with each other, transforming into a dazzling river of crystals, which he continuously absorbed into the Mist Space.

At the Fire Leaving Realm, too many high-quality Magic Crystal have been deposited.

Of course, it is Magic Crystal formed from pure Fire Element energy, which is different from normal Magic Crystal. Ronan is not sure if it can be used as a normal currency in the Wizard World, but it would be perfect for exploring the Mist Space.

He kept collecting those special Magic Crystal as compensation for the endless suffering and torment he had endured for the past nine years.

He then began searching for a way out.

"Lindis, Juventus, Gorini, the White Wizard King..."

Ronan's mind raced through names, his gaze growing colder.

Whether for Moriel's sake or for his own, he had every reason to demand everything back from those people.

Of course, the first step is to leave this place.

The Fire Leaving Realm, which was completely detonated by Moriel nine years ago, is still in the process of fission and collapse, but it is much calmer now.

In certain areas where Fire Element energy is highly concentrated, the power of spatial collapse is mixed in, and the area is filled with a terrifying aura of destruction. It possesses the terrifying power to easily destroy level six or even Level Seven Wizard, and it is still an area that Ronan dares not approach.

He carefully maneuvered the rock beneath him, as if piloting a simple boat on water, slowly drifting forward.

The original entrance to the Fire Leaving Realm had long since collapsed, and Ronan dared not attempt spatial teleportation. He could only try his luck and see if he could find another way out.