"Xiao Chen! Get behind me!"
Xiao Bai roared, her enormous body ready to shield Xue Chen from the avalanche's impact.
She stared fixedly at the oncoming wave of snow, every muscle in her body tensed.
But no reply came from behind her.
Xiao Bai's heart gave a sudden lurch. She whipped around—there was nothing behind her.
Where had that brat Xue Chen gone?!
Xiao Bai's enormous bear eyes instantly widened, filled with confusion and disbelief.
Xiao Bai: "???"
"Xiao Chen?! Xiao Chen—!!!"
Her massive roar sounded frantic and bewildered amid the avalanche's thunderous rumble.
Her little brother, Xue Chen, who had been bouncing around on her back just moments ago, had vanished into thin air in the brief instant she'd transformed to shield him from the avalanche?!
Watching Xue Chen disappear right under her nose, possibly swallowed by the terrifying avalanche, sent a surge of fury and panic erupting in Xiao Bai's chest!
Her gentle bear eyes instantly turned bloodred.
"Roarrr!!!"
Xiao Bai threw her head back and roared. Her enormous body unleashed a fierce, savage aura.
She rose onto her hind legs and raised both forepaws high. The vast reserves of frigid Soul Power and blood energy within her body surged wildly into her paws!
"Demon Bear's Fury!"
"BOOM—!!!!!!
The instant her paws slammed into the ground, it was as if heaven and earth fell silent for a heartbeat! Then a white shock wave abruptly expanded outward from Xiao Bai!
"Crack... Rumble!!!"
Where the shock wave passed, the snow at the front was forcibly compressed by its tremendous force, piling higher and higher before... coming to an abrupt halt!
It wasn't pushed aside. A force even more domineering had simply pinned it in place, halting it along its entire path!
The shock wave rapidly expanded, covering an area thousands of meters around Xiao Bai.
Within that vast area, the churning snow and ice could no longer move a single inch.
But the terrifying force contained in the shock wave hadn't fully dissipated. It continued to carry onward into the distance!
"Rumble—!!!"
A series of deafening booms came from far away. Several towering peaks, already tottering in the avalanche, were struck directly and collapsed. Countless rocks and snow cascaded down, triggering a second collapse and making the scene even more chaotic and horrifying.
But Xiao Bai, who had caused all this, didn't care in the slightest.
She stared fixedly at the vast expanse of snow behind her. "Xiao Chen! Where are you?!"
She had only one thought now—find Xue Chen!
As for how much commotion she had caused or how far the mountains had collapsed, she couldn't care less.
Soon, she had cleared all the snow and ice within several hundred meters, exposing the cracked ice beneath. But... there was no sign of Xue Chen.
Xiao Bai stopped moving. Her huge body stood motionless as she turned her head in bewilderment, surveying the wreckage across the ice plains and the peaks still collapsing in the distance.
As her anger faded, deeper confusion and worry took its place.
She raised a paw and rubbed her enormous head, letting out a puzzled rumble:
"That's strange... Where is he?
It's not even that big an area. Where could he have fallen?
Don't tell me... the avalanche carried him far away?"
She looked around at the empty landscape, her massive bear face plainly showing that she couldn't make heads or tails of it.
After a brief pause, Xiao Bai started walking again. Using the spot where Xue Chen had disappeared as her center, she began carefully searching the surrounding area.
"Xiao Chen—! If you can hear me, answer!" Her voice echoed across the empty ice plains.
Xue Chen's disappearance made her feel uneasy.
The Far North Ice Plains seemed peaceful, but they concealed too many unknowns. Where exactly had Xue Chen gone?
Meanwhile, Xue Chen was having the worst luck imaginable.
The instant the avalanche hit, he felt the ground give way beneath him. Before he could even duck behind Xiao Bai, his small body was swept away by the wave of snow, leaving him completely helpless.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa...!"
As the world spun around him, all he could do was cry out incoherently.
Just as the snow beneath him sent him tumbling head over heels, it suddenly gave way!
He had plunged straight into darkness through a hidden fissure!
"Ah—! Ugh—! Oof—!"
The inside of the ice crevasse was rugged and uneven, packed with sharp icicles and jagged rocks.
Xue Chen kept slamming and bouncing against the steep, vertical ice walls as he tumbled downward. His screams of pain and helplessness echoed through the narrow crevasse.
All he could do was desperately shield his head and face, spreading his Soul Power throughout his body to withstand the impacts.
He had no idea how long he rolled for...
"Thud—!!!"
With a dull crash, he finally stopped falling, slamming hard into the bottom of the crevasse.
"Cough, cough... Ptooey, ptooey...!"
Xue Chen struggled out of a snowdrift shaped like a person, spitting out the icy mixture in his mouth. It felt like every bone in his body had been knocked loose.
He wiped his face and couldn't help cursing aloud:
"Damn it, my luck is really rotten! Which idiot caused an avalanche this huge?!"
He had lived in the Far North for six years and had seen his share of storms, but he had never encountered an avalanche this violent or widespread.
After grimacing through the pain for a while, he finally managed to stand, bracing himself on a waist that felt like it was about to snap.
"Gah... Ah... My poor back..."
He rubbed his lower back, sucking in sharp breaths from the pain.
Luckily, the tempering of his body by the lightning tribulation and the strengthening of his blood energy after the seal shattered had made him far tougher than an ordinary person. Otherwise, a tumble from such a height would have left him smashed to pieces long ago.
He raised his head and looked up.
On either side of him stretched smooth, nearly vertical walls of dark blue ice. He couldn't see where they ended; they seemed to lead straight into the underworld.
"Holy crap... It's that high?!"
Xue Chen sucked in a breath, and the last of his hope vanished.
"Good thing I'm tough, or I'd really have bought it down here."
But relief gave way to a more pressing problem.
"How the hell am I supposed to get out when it's this high?"
He frowned tightly, muttering to himself.
He couldn't fly, and his Thunder Dragon Emperor Martial Soul hadn't granted him the ability to fly.
The ice walls were so smooth he could barely find a foothold. Was he going to be trapped beneath this lightless crevasse until he died?
Xue Chen sat slumped at the bottom of the crevasse for a long while, rubbing his still-aching back and shoulders and grimacing.
After catching his breath, he refused to give up. He craned his neck and shouted up with all his might:
"Xiao Bai!!! Xiao Bai! Can you hear me?! I'm down here!!!"
"I'm down here, down here!!!..."
The only answer was a faint echo from the sheer walls of the crevasse.
Apart from that, all was dead silent.
The thick snow and ice above, along with the immense distance, completely muffled his cries.
He shouted himself hoarse several more times, until his voice grew raspy, but there was still no answer.
At last, Xue Chen gave up and plopped back down onto the cold snow, looking rather dejected.
"If I'm counting on Xiao Bai to find me, I'll probably starve to death down here first..."
He muttered to himself, rubbing his growling stomach.
His body might be strong, but he was still made of flesh and blood and needed food to replenish his blood energy.
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