The cold kept surging toward him.
But it was all repelled by the power of chaos.
It was impossible to break through his base defense with this little cold alone.
However, as he descended the spiral staircase formed from ice containing dark-red flowing light within it, Zong Shen could clearly feel the surrounding temperature plummeting.
This cold was utterly different from the natural chill he had experienced before.
It was not merely low temperature, but an erosion imbued with the essence of laws.
Even space itself showed signs of freezing beneath the cold.
The ice walls on either side of the staircase were not transparent.
Instead, they were an exceptionally deep dark blue.
Countless tiny silver specks of light, like starlight, drifted slowly within them.
Like a frozen galaxy.
With every breath, the white vapor he exhaled instantly condensed into icy crystal dust and fell with a soft rustle.
The grayish-white shield of chaotic divine power that automatically emerged around him gave off a faint hum.
It immediately shut out the extreme cold, though a pale-blue layer of frost continuously formed on the shield's surface before being melted away by divine power.
This stretch of stairs was exceptionally long, as if it led to the center of the earth.
Zong Shen walked at an unhurried pace, his footsteps echoing through the silent passage.
The sound waves he produced along the way were absorbed and refracted by the ice walls.
This created a hollow, distant echo.
As he walked, he sorted through the newly acquired fragments of information in his mind.
[Everfrost Nightmare Yggdrasil], [True Winter Core Fragment], [End Ritual].
All these terms, linked together, pointed toward the circumstances behind the fall of the Slavia Empire.
This had been a disease born deep within the empire's power system.
It was also