Wang Wu lay low in his cave dwelling for an entire month.
He 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 treating himself harshly, but that he needed enough food to heal in case of accidents or sudden emergencies.
Otherwise, in this frozen, snowbound wilderness, where could he possibly 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 the depths of winter. The cave dwelling had still been warm the previous month, but now even it was beginning to freeze over, and he could feel the chill.
So without question, this was the right time.
He took out some food that was afraid of freezing, such as Yellow Ginger, and ate it in small, slow, silent bites until his Satiety reached 500 points.
This was excellent.
Thanks to his Self-Healing Talent, this Satiety was equivalent to the health packs he carried with him. Very useful.
To be safe, before setting out, Wang Wu deliberately extracted 20 points of Spiritual Qi and raised his Level 4 Self-Healing Talent to Level 5, the current maximum.
Level 5 Self-Healing Talent was undoubtedly overbearing. 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.
All in all, it was very good.
Having made every possible preparation, Wang Wu slowly crawled out of the tunnel and arrived at the hidden door. It had already been buried beneath thick snow. Over the past month, he had usually come here every other day and poked several inconspicuous holes with branches to allow air through.
He did not know whether it was a bear's natural gift, his body being too powerful, or his own precautions, but he had never felt stuffy.
At that moment, Wang Wu listened beneath the hidden door for a long while. After waiting about an hour, and finding nothing wrong with his Level 5 Danger Sense, he finally pushed the hidden door open with force. A little of the thick snow fell, but not all of it. Clearly, the snow above had already hardened.
Before he had even poked his head out, he heard the howling winter wind. The temperature suddenly plunged, and icy cold swept through his entire body.
Wang Wu did not continue moving. He simply lay there in the snow and ice. He had only come out to grind ice resistance, not to go wild, so staying here was fine too.
He lay quietly for about an hour. Aside from feeling extremely cold and having his Satiety rapidly drop by 30 points, nothing else changed. There was not even an information prompt.
It seemed his current seven points of ice resistance were doing their job. Besides, he was a bear, and bears naturally had great resistance to cold.
So he began trying to eat snow. Hah, it was icy cold, yet it tasted rather good. Once melted, the snow flowing into his stomach could actually count toward his Satiety.
But after he ate more of it, the effect finally showed itself. A line of information appeared.
"You are currently in an environment of minus fifty-five degrees. The current environment has inflicted 18 points of Frostbite damage on you. Due to your 7 points of ice resistance, you have negated all Frostbite damage, but your Satiety will be consumed at twice the rate."
--
No loss of Health Points?
It seemed he had to turn up the heat.
After thinking it over, Wang Wu climbed to his feet and poked his head out of a snow hollow nearly a meter deep.
"Whooo, whooo!"
The fierce whiteout wind blew so hard that he could barely keep his eyes open. He could see nothing. The sky was a vast gray haze, the earth a boundless white expanse. Other than wind, there was only snow.
With the whiteout wind's boost, the effect immediately rose to another level.
This intensity was more like it.
Wang Wu immediately crawled out and stood upright. In an instant, the freezing wind passed straight through his body, blowing through his already none-too-thick fur.
He shuddered violently. So cold!
This time, it was truly cold.
His body's surface felt as though countless steel needles had pierced into it, passing through his skin, through his flesh, and all the way into his bones.
In less than a few seconds, a layer of frost covered Wang Wu's body like a suit of ice armor. He trembled without end. Every moment was agony; 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 minus fifty-five degrees. The current perceived temperature is minus sixty-five degrees. You have suffered the assault of the special weather phenomenon—Cold Air Gale. The current environment has inflicted 26 points of Frostbite damage on you. Due to your 7 points of ice resistance, you have negated 21 points of Frostbite damage. Your Satiety is being consumed at twice the rate, and you are suffering 5 points of continuous Frostbite damage per second." "You have suffered 5 points of continuous Frostbite damage!" "Your Level 5 Self-Healing Talent has activated!" ...
At first, Wang Wu was quite happy. He could finally start grinding. But a moment later, he was dumbfounded, because the Frostbite damage was not increasing steadily. Instead, it kept climbing higher and higher.
In the first second, it was only 5 points of Frostbite damage.
By the third second, it had become 6 points of Frostbite damage.
By the tenth second, it had already become 8 points of Frostbite damage.
He only held on until the fifteenth second before he could no longer endure it, because it suddenly jumped to 10 points of Frostbite damage.
Even his body was beginning to disobey him.
Fortunately, the tunnel was right beneath his feet. He desperately clawed away the snow, then drilled inside.
In that brief span, his original 220 Health Points had already dropped by 110.
Even more terrifyingly, no matter how desperately he ran back, even after returning to the cave dwelling, the Frostbite continued. Only after quite a while did the Frostbite damage gradually fall to 1 point per second.
Fortunately, his Level 5 Self-Healing Talent's rapid recovery period continuously restored his Health Points. Otherwise, he would definitely have frozen to death alive.
At the most terrifying moment, his Health Points had actually fallen below ten.
Too terrifying.
When the Frostbite damage finally stopped, his Health Points began to slowly rise again, but the suffering had only just begun.
Earlier, Wang Wu's body had completely lost feeling. He could only watch the numbers in the Attribute Bar, so the pressure had merely been numerical.
Now that his body was slowly recovering, agonizing pain, numb itching, soreness, and every other sensation imaginable came flooding in.
Wang Wu had thought he could endure it, but moments later, tears streamed from his eyes. He truly could not take it.
It was worse than death, dying and coming back to life again and again, as if he had been cast into Purgatory.
He was the very model of asking for trouble and bringing death upon himself.
At that moment, he regretted it beyond measure.
This Purgatory-like torment lasted for two whole days.
Yes, two full days and two full nights. During that time, Wang Wu endured the excruciating pain, numb itching, and soreness as he ate like mad three times, consuming food that could replenish nearly 1,500 points of Satiety. Only then was it enough to sustain the operation of his Level 5 Self-Healing Talent.
During that time, terrifying chilblains appeared across nearly 95% of his body's surface, followed by ulceration.
Those chilblains and the subsequent ulceration continued to drain his Health Points like mad. From the beginning to two days later, he had lost at least 800 Health Points. Without Level 5 Self-Healing Talent, without sufficient food, even four lives would not have been enough.
Finally, on the third day, after Wang Wu gained 500 points of Satiety through eating once more, his Level 5 Self-Healing Talent finally seized the initiative.
His Health Points, which had not exceeded 20 for the past several days, began to rise.
The ulcerated chilblains on his body also began to improve.
He had merely become incomparably ugly. Almost 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!
Before you continue