Old Wang's First Taste of Wind and Snow

Wang Wu had lain low in his cave abode for a full month.

He had kept his Satiety at only 100 points each day, so after a month, he had gained only 4.1% Growth Rate.

It was not that he was mistreating himself, but to ensure that if anything unexpected happened, he would have enough food to heal his injuries.

Otherwise, in this world of ice and snow, where would he find food?

As for Growth Rate, he did not need to force it.

The moment his total Growth Rate reached 80%, his basic attributes refreshed once more.

Health: 220

Stamina: 140

Strength: 11

Agility: 6

Defense: 13

Satiety Limit: 500 points

--

Not bad. I can go out and grind some Ice Resistance now.

Wang Wu thought to himself. It was now the second month of winter, clearly entering the depths of winter. During the previous month, the cave abode had still been warm, but now even it was beginning to freeze over, and he could feel the cold.

So without question, this was the right time.

Taking out some food that was afraid of freezing, such as Yellow Ginger, Wang Wu ate in small, slow, silent bites until his Satiety reached 500 points.

This was excellent.

With his Self-Healing Talent, this Satiety was equivalent to the health potions he carried around. It was extremely useful.

To guard against every eventuality, before setting out, Wang Wu deliberately extracted 20 points of spiritual energy and raised his level 4 Self-Healing Talent to level 5, the current maximum.

The level 5 Self-Healing Talent was undoubtedly tyrannical. Its specific effect was that it could rapidly consume 200 points of Satiety within half an hour and quickly restore 100 Health Points.

That was right. The recovery efficiency of level 5 Self-Healing had clearly improved. Two points of Satiety could restore one Health Point.

After the rapid recovery period ended, it would slowly restore the remaining missing Health Points at a rate of roughly 20 points per hour.

In short, it was very good.

After making thorough preparations, Wang Wu slowly crawled out of the tunnel and reached the hidden door. It had already been buried beneath thick snow. Over the past month, he had usually come here every other day and used branches to poke several inconspicuous holes for ventilation.

He did not know whether it was a bear's innate gift, his body being too powerful, or the measures he had taken, but he had never felt short of air.

At that moment, Wang Wu listened beneath the hidden door for a long time. After waiting for about an hour, level 5 Danger Sense still detected nothing amiss. Only then did he forcefully push open the hidden door. A little of the thick snow fell, but not all of it. Clearly, the snow above had hardened.

Before he even poked his head out, he heard the howling cold wind outside. The temperature plummeted, and an icy sensation swept through his entire body.

Wang Wu did not continue onward. He simply lay there in the ice and snow. He had only come out to grind Ice Resistance, not to go fooling around, so staying here was fine too.

He lay quietly for around an hour. Apart from feeling very cold and having his Satiety rapidly drop by 30 points, Wang Wu experienced no other changes. There was not even an information prompt.

It seemed that his current 7 points of Ice Resistance were doing their work. Besides, he was a bear after all, and bears naturally had great resistance to the cold.

So he began trying to eat snow. Hah, it was icy and cool, and actually tasted rather good. Once the snow melted and flowed into his stomach, it even counted toward Satiety.

But after he ate more of it, the effects began to show. A line of information finally appeared.

"You are currently in an environment of negative fifty-five degrees. The current environment has inflicted 18 points of frostbite damage upon you. Due to your 7 points of Ice Resistance, you have negated all frostbite damage, but your Satiety will be consumed at double speed."

--

No Health loss?

It seemed he needed to increase the intensity.

After thinking it over, Wang Wu climbed up and poked his head out from a snow hollow nearly a meter deep.

Whoooosh!

The fierce white gale blew so hard that he could barely keep his eyes open. He could see nothing. The sky was a vast expanse of gray, the earth a vast expanse of white. Other than wind, there was only snow.

With the white gale's boost, the effect immediately rose to another level.

This intensity was more than enough.

Wang Wu immediately crawled out and stood upright. In an instant, the cold wind pierced straight through his body, blowing through his fur, which was not particularly thick to begin with.

He shuddered at once. So cold!

This time, it was truly cold.

It felt as though countless steel needles were stabbing into the surface of his body, piercing through his skin, through his flesh, and all the way into his bones.

In less than a few seconds, Wang Wu was covered in a layer of frost, as if he had put on a suit of ice armor. He shivered without end. Every moment was torment, and every second he felt himself freezing stiff.

It was as if even his blood had stopped flowing.

At last, the relevant information arrived belatedly.

"You are currently in an environment of negative fifty-five degrees. The current perceived temperature is negative sixty-five degrees. You have been assaulted by the special weather phenomenon—Cold Air Gale. The current environment has inflicted 26 points of frostbite damage upon you. Due to your 7 points of Ice Resistance, you have negated 21 points of frostbite damage. Your Satiety is being consumed at double speed, and you are taking 5 points of continuous frostbite damage per second."

"You have taken 5 points of continuous frostbite damage!"

"Your level 5 Self-Healing Talent has activated!"

...

At first, Wang Wu had been quite happy. He could finally start grinding. But moments later, he was dumbfounded, because the frostbite damage was not steadily increasing at a uniform rate. It was continuously rising.

During the first second, it was only 5 points of frostbite damage.

By the third second, it had become 6 points.

By the tenth second, it had already become 8 points.

He only lasted until the fifteenth second before he could no longer endure it, because it had jumped straight to 10 points of frostbite damage.

Even his body was no longer quite obeying him.

Fortunately, the tunnel was right beneath his feet. He desperately dug away the snow and burrowed inside.

In that brief span of time, 110 of his original 220 Health Points had already vanished.

Even more terrifyingly, even as he desperately ran back, even after he returned to the cave abode, the frostbite continued. It was only after a long while that the frostbite damage gradually fell to 1 point per second.

Fortunately, the rapid recovery period of his level 5 Self-Healing Talent continuously restored his Health Points. Otherwise, he would absolutely have frozen to death alive.

At the most terrifying moment, his Health Points had actually fallen below single digits.

Too terrifying.

When the frostbite damage finally stopped, his Health Points began slowly rising again, but the suffering had only just begun.

Earlier, Wang Wu's body had been completely numb. He could only stare at the figures in his attribute panel, so the pressure had merely been numerical.

Now that his body was slowly recovering, excruciating pain, numb itching, soreness, and every other sensation imaginable came flooding in.

Wang Wu thought he could endure it, but moments later, tears streamed down his face. He truly could not endure it.

It was worse than death, dying and coming back to life, as though he had been cast into Purgatory.

It was truly a textbook case of courting death by doing the unnecessary.

At that moment, he regretted it beyond measure.

This Purgatory-like torment lasted for a full two days.

Yes, two full days and two nights. During that time, Wang Wu endured the agony, numb itching, and soreness as he frantically ate three times, consuming enough food to replenish nearly 1,500 points of Satiety. Only then was it enough to sustain the operation of his level 5 Self-Healing Talent.

During this period, horrific chilblains appeared across nearly 95% of his body's surface, followed by festering.

These chilblains and the subsequent festering continued to drain his Health Points madly. From the beginning to two days later, he had lost at least 800 Health Points. Without the level 5 Self-Healing Talent, without ample food, even four lives would not have been enough.

Finally, on the third day, after Wang Wu once again gained 500 points of Satiety through eating, the level 5 Self-Healing Talent finally seized the initiative.

His Health Points, which had not exceeded 20 points these past few days, began to rise.

The festering chilblains on his body also began to improve.

But he had become incomparably ugly. Nearly all the fur on his body had fallen out, and now he looked like some fusion monster of Bald Qiang and Bear Two.

But what could he do?

This damned Cultivation World!