Joy, Joy!

After about ten minutes, Wang Wu could no longer keep licking.

Like a lickspittle frozen stiff, he lay on the ground, cold air seeping from every inch of him. A layer of frost and snow hung over his black fur, his frozen mouth would not close, and his face had twisted out of shape. Yet an eerie gleam of joy still shone from his tiny eyes.

It carried the feeling of, who could understand the joy of being a lickspittle?

"You have been afflicted with Frostbite by Profound Ice Cold Qi. You have taken 30 Frostbite damage."

"Your Level 3 Self-Healing Talent has been activated. You need to consume 50 Satiety to recover from your injuries. Required time: 30 minutes."

"You have absorbed a certain amount of Premium Pure Water. Your Growth Rate has increased by 0.2%. You have gained 20 Satiety."

"You have gained 3 Spiritual Qi."

It was simply blissful beyond words!

A few minutes later, Wang Wu's body gradually recovered. Then his tongue, lips, and even his entire face turned painful, itchy, and numb, as though he had been put through torture. The agony made him groan and bounce wildly all over the ground.

That was the consequence of being burned by Profound Ice Cold Qi!

But it was truly irresistible.

About half an hour later, Wang Wu's lost Health Points had recovered, and his body returned to normal. Then, as expected, a message silently drifted past.

"Due to your Level 3 Self-Healing Talent, your body has slightly adapted to the invasion of cold qi. Your Ice Resistance has increased. (1/10)!"

There was nothing more to say. The White-Haired Rats were the mentors of his life, his benefactors. Wang Wu's eyes immediately lit up, and he pounced at the thick ice layer that was giving off wisps of cold air.

This Profound Ice Cold Qi was not easy to deal with. Even if ordinary Sprites coveted the energy and Spiritual Qi within the Mystic Ice, once they were burned by its cold qi, they might not recover for three to five days.

But Wang Wu's Self-Healing Talent had already risen to Level 3. It was simply the sturdy backing that let him do whatever he pleased.

"Ah!"

He let out a satisfied sigh. This was not something that the icy refreshment of eating a popsicle in the height of summer could compare to. Especially now that he had a bit of Ice Resistance, he could savor it more carefully, boldly, and thoroughly.

This crystalline ice layer, clear as jade, was like the long legs of an iceberg goddess!

Exhilarating!

This time, he held out for about fifteen minutes before the cold qi seeped through his body and froze him stiff once more.

Cold qi whooshed out of him. He toppled onto the ground with a bang, his entire body glistening snow-white, like a white ice bear.

"You have been afflicted with Frostbite by Profound Ice Cold Qi. You have taken 40 Frostbite damage."

"Your Level 3 Self-Healing Talent has been activated. You need to consume 80 Satiety to recover from your injuries. Required time: 40 minutes."

"You have absorbed a certain amount of Premium Pure Water. Your Growth Rate has increased by 0.3%. You have gained 30 Satiety."

"You have gained 5 Spiritual Qi."

The rewards were piled high.

Wang Wu could only grin foolishly.

Outside, a few fireballs occasionally exploded. The battle between the White-Haired Rats and the Flame Scorpion King was still ongoing, the two sides trading blow for blow in a fierce deadlock. After all, the Flame Scorpion King was a formidable creature capable of driving away the Black Snake Clan. How could it be defeated so easily?

Still, its defeat was only a matter of time.

The five White-Haired Rats had plotted for days, even calculating Wang Wu into their plans as a free thug. This round was already theirs to win.

Wang Wu had no time to care about what was happening outside, and no one knew of his joy.

About forty minutes later, he recovered again. As expected, his Ice Resistance increased by another point, reaching (2/10).

The thick ice before him still showed no change, so Wang Wu continued licking it with gleaming eyes.

This time, the sensation became more delicate, more real. Even the cold qi formed by the Mystic Ice seemed to have layers to it, while that clear, pure freshness was elevated even further. It was as though the goddess Tifa had stretched a real long leg out from the computer screen. Wang Wu dearly wished he could burst into song.

He felt rather as if he were tasting tea.

Such tea should exist only in heaven; who would have thought he would be fortunate enough to taste it in the mortal world? Joy, joy!

Two points of Ice Resistance were remarkably effective. This time, Wang Wu licked without pause for half an hour before the cold qi in his body finally accumulated to its limit, freezing him completely into an ice block. He fell to the ground with a bang.

Then several lines of information flashed past.

"You have been afflicted with Frostbite by Profound Ice Cold Qi. You have taken 60 Frostbite damage."

"Your Level 3 Self-Healing Talent has been activated. You need to consume 180 Satiety to recover from your injuries. Required time: 60 minutes."

"You have absorbed a certain amount of Premium Pure Water. Your Growth Rate has increased by 0.8%. You have gained 50 Satiety."

"You have gained 10 Spiritual Qi."

It was quite interesting. After his Ice Resistance increased, the damage caused by Frostbite actually grew worse.

Wang Wu found this perfectly understandable instead.

It was much like how those who drowned in water were usually people who could swim.

When he had no Ice Resistance, his body's limit was low. Once he reached that limit, he would forcibly lose control.

But once he had Ice Resistance, that limit kept rising. Yet precisely because of that, once he exceeded the limit, it became rather deadly instead.

If this had been any other situation, Wang Wu would not have dared to do this even if beaten to death.

But there was no problem now. In fact, because he had gathered another 20 Spiritual Qi, he decisively upgraded Level 3 Self-Healing to Level 4. This talent was very useful for improving resistance to negative effects.

Just like that, in less than forty minutes, he was lively and vigorous again.

His Ice Resistance had also successfully been raised to three points.

Awesome!

Wang Wu felt that he could now share a bed with an ice goddess.

There was nothing more to say. He put that big tongue to work and got down to it!

The sensation clearly rose to another level. The cold qi dealt less and less damage to him, while the joy he gained only increased.

But this time, to ensure his safety—and mainly because so much time had already passed—he licked for about thirty minutes. When his Health Points dropped by 30, he immediately stopped, hurriedly ate to replenish his Satiety, rested for a while, and once his condition recovered, pounced again like a starving tiger, feasting to his heart's content.

Joyous, truly joyous!

Thus it went, and so it went.

By the time Wang Wu had gathered another 20 Spiritual Qi, 1.5% Growth Rate, and raised his Ice Resistance to (4/10), the thick ice layer that had once seemed indestructible suddenly collapsed.

Bright sunlight shone down, dazzling Wang Wu into a daze. He nearly thought there was something wrong with his brain and that he was hallucinating.

But it was not an illusion. The sky had cleared, the clouds had scattered, and beneath the warm sunlight, even though the five White-Haired Rats were formidable, they could no longer maintain the foggy, rainy weather, much less sustain the ice layer.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

A huge chorus of Gray Rat Knights suddenly rang out from outside. Then two fireballs, each as large as a human head, flew over from above the cliff in succession, tracing parabolic arcs as they fell into the valley.

"Boom!"

Like thunder exploding from level ground, flames surged and scattered. The flowers, grass, and a whole group of Gray Rat Knights within dozens of meters were blasted apart, their corpses falling with splatters like dumplings dropped into a pot.

The Flame Scorpion King was actually still alive?

How savage!

Even though he could not witness it with his own eyes, Wang Wu could tell how magnificent the Flame Scorpion King's bearing must have been atop the cliff at this moment!

So without another word, he immediately went silent where he stood. Three seconds later, he entered Level 5 Stealth.

He did not even spare a glance for the shattered Mystic Ice right before him.

Of course, the facts proved that he had worried too much. Until all the shattered Mystic Ice had melted into trickling streams, the Flame Scorpion King never charged down from the cliff, nor did he see the five White-Haired Rats.

Instead, the corpses of Gray Rat Knights covered the ground, left unclaimed.

Perhaps this, too, foretold the decline of the Gray Rat Clan?