Icebound Forest

Two and a half months slipped by quietly in dedicated cultivation.

Early morning, Dragon City, Cedar Inn.

Jiang Bai sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes slightly closed.

Within his Spiritual Sea, the phantom of the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda floated silently. The three levels of the pagoda shimmered with crimson, earthy yellow, and jade-green light respectively.

Below its base, Soul Power slowly swirled like a vortex, already reaching a critical point of fullness, ready to overflow.

Suddenly, Jiang Bai's tightly shut eyes snapped open!

A sharp gleam seemed to flash through the depths of his pupils.

At the same time, the invisible barrier within his body shattered with a boom!

"Buzz—"

Jiang Bai's aura rose and solidified at a visible pace, finally stabilizing at an entirely new level. "Finally... level forty."

Jiang Bai murmured softly, a trace of relief in his voice, though anticipation outweighed it.

Two and a half months of arduous cultivation, combined with the transformation of his physique by ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber, had made his cultivation speed far exceed expectations.

He rose from the bed and stretched his body, which had grown somewhat stiff from sitting in meditation for so long.

His joints cracked crisply, and every inch of his muscles brimmed with explosive power.

He walked to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room. The youth in the reflection had grown a little taller than he had been two months ago, his figure straighter while his features remained delicate.

Yet the steadiness between his brows had deepened, and his gaze had become sharper and brighter.

After washing up, Jiang Bai changed into a dark blue fur coat and went downstairs to the inn's main hall.

Several tables were already occupied, mostly by adventurers preparing to enter the mountains to hunt or travel to the Far North. Over hot porridge and flatbread, they quietly discussed their respective plans.

The firewood in the fireplace crackled, filling the entire hall with warmth.

Jiang Bai found a window seat and ordered a steaming bowl of meat noodle soup, two baked flatbreads, and a small plate of pickled vegetables.

Northern food was hearty and generous in portion. The hot broth warmed his stomach and drove away the morning chill.

Jiang Bai quietly finished breakfast, packed some durable dry rations, paid the bill, and left the inn.

By the time he stepped out of Cedar Inn, the sky was already fully bright.

There were more pedestrians on Dragon City's streets, though it was still far less bustling than southern cities.

Jiang Bai did not linger in the city and headed straight for the south gate.

He planned to try his luck in the Icebound Forest first. If he could not find a suitable soul beast there, he would head north to the Far North.

After leaving the city, he found a secluded spot and summoned Wind Dragon.

"To the Icebound Forest."

Wind Dragon spread its wings, carrying him into the sky as it flew south.

After roughly half an hour of flight, a forest blanketed in silver appeared in his field of vision.

It was a scene entirely different from the forests of the south.

Most of the trees were cold-resistant conifers. Their canopies were covered in thick snow, while their branches and trunks were wrapped in ice crystals.

The forest floor was also blanketed in snow, with thin ice forming in places and reflecting a cold, pale light.

The Icebound Forest.

This forest was far less vast and boundless than the Star Dou Forest, but its frigid and harsh environment made it a natural habitat for ice-attributed soul beasts.

For the same reason, only a small number of soul masters with cold-attributed Martial Souls, or those who needed ice-attributed Spirit Rings, dared venture here.

Wind Dragon landed in a relatively open clearing in the forest.

Jiang Bai jumped from its back, his boots crunching into the snow.

The chill instantly wrapped around his entire body.

The temperature here was far lower than in Dragon City. His breath instantly turned to white mist, and a fine layer of frost quickly formed on his eyelashes and hair.

But Jiang Bai did not mind.

After being tempered by ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber, his resistance to the cold had greatly improved.

He looked around.

The forest was quiet. Only the mournful whistle of wind sweeping through the treetops and the occasional cries of unknown birds in the distance could be heard.

The air carried the fresh scent of ice, snow, and pine needles, but beneath it was the faint trace of soul beasts.

"Eldest, Second."

Jiang Bai called softly.

Crimson and earthy yellow lights flew from his body and landed on the ground.

"Master!" the two dragons answered in unison.

"We'll search separately," Jiang Bai said. "The target is a pureblooded draconic ice-attributed soul beast, preferably over five thousand years old but under ten thousand. If you encounter an especially suitable mixed-blood dragon species, note its location as well.

"Do not act rashly after finding a target. Return and regroup first."

"Understood!" The three dragons nodded, then each chose a direction and silently vanished into the depths of the forest.

Jiang Bai also chose a direction and began searching on foot.

The terrain of the Icebound Forest was more complicated than he had imagined.

Beneath the snow lay hidden ravines and ice caves. A single careless step could lead to danger.

He did not walk quickly, carefully sensing the surrounding auras as he went.

There were indeed quite a few soul beasts in the forest.

Before he had gone far, he discovered a herd of Ice Plain Elk digging through the snow for food.

They were herbivorous soul beasts ranging from ten to a hundred years old, snow-white all over, with antlers as crystalline as ice.

They sensed Jiang Bai's aura and raised their heads warily, but soon lowered them again and continued foraging.

As he went deeper, the soul beasts he encountered gradually became stronger.

At the edge of an icy lake, Jiang Bai saw an Ice Giant Python hunting.

Jiang Bai observed it from afar and judged that the giant python was around two thousand years old. Since it was not a dragon species, he quietly went around it.

On the afternoon of the second day, he discovered the first soul beast with dragon bloodline in an icy valley: a Frost Dragon Lizard.

It was a creature somewhere between a lizard and a dragon, roughly three meters long, with short, thick limbs, a row of ice-crystal-like bony spines along its back, and a hammer-shaped tail.

Jiang Bai hid behind a snowdrift a hundred meters away and observed it carefully.

The Frost Dragon Lizard's bloodline was very thin; it could only be considered mixed-blood.

Moreover, this one was only around two thousand years old, still far from his ideal of more than five thousand years.

He silently noted the location and continued onward.

Over the next two and a half days, Jiang Bai and the three dragon beasts conducted a carpet search through the Icebound Forest.

They discovered more soul beasts with dragon bloodlines.

An Ice Soul Dragon Turtle, a turtle-type soul beast with a shell as heavy as ice rock, fine dragon scales covering its limbs and head, and a talent for defense and icy breath.

It was around three thousand years old.

A group of Frost Wing Flying Bats, small flying soul beasts with bat-like membranous wings and dragon heads. They moved in groups, and their frosty breath could freeze prey.

An individual might only be a few decades old, but a swarm posed no small threat.

They also encountered some non-dragon soul beasts of good quality with ice attributes, such as Snow Shadow Leopards and Aurora Foxes—

One evening, Jiang Bai even spotted a Mirror Image Beast from afar.

It was an exceedingly rare and marvelous soul beast capable of copying a target's abilities and appearance.

In the original story, Oscar's sixth Spirit Ring had come from a ten-thousand-year Mirror Image Beast, granting him the ability to copy others' Martial Souls and soul skills through the "Mirror Image Sausage."

Jiang Bai stood there watching it for a long time.

The Mirror Image Beast's Spirit Ring was indeed rare and powerful. If he could absorb it, he might gain some form of copying or mimicry ability, making it extremely valuable to an auxiliary-type soul master.

But in the end, he merely shook his head and quietly left.

His target was the Ice Dragon.