Boom!
Yan Shaozhe crashed down at the entrance to the second floor of the internet cafe like a human cannonball.
The Ma Xiaotao in his arms was in terrible condition. Her skin was flushed an unnatural crimson, while violent dark-red flames erupted uncontrollably from her pores, warping the surrounding air with heat.
"Boss! Hurry! She's going to explode!" Sweat beaded on Yan Shaozhe's forehead. He could no longer maintain even an academy dean's composure.
If this had happened anywhere else, that Evil Fire would have been enough to burn down half a street.
But within Origin Internet Cafe's Absolute Domain, the flames were snuffed out by invisible laws the moment they left Ma Xiaotao's body by three inches, unable to stir up the slightest ripple.
"Don't panic. She won't die."
Lu Yuan calmly walked up to the second floor and pointed at a silver-white egg-shaped pod at the far end.
"Put her inside. She may have lost her reason right now, but her body's instincts remain."
Yan Shaozhe froze. "That thing can suppress the Evil Fire? Ordinary ice water is completely useless on her. Even the Sea God Pavilion's Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Bed can barely hold it down anymore!"
"The ice bed is dead. But the ice here is alive."
Lu Yuan smiled mysteriously and moved to the control console, his fingers flying across it.
"System, activate the Monster Hunter: World DLC expansion package—Iceborne—for this VIP customer."
"Map locked: Hoarfrost Reach."
"Environment setting: extreme cold weather, blizzard level MAX."
Following Lu Yuan's commands, the silver-white game pod slowly opened. Visible white frost spilled out at once, dropping the temperature across the entire second floor by several degrees.
"Put her inside. In that world, she won't need to suppress her flames herself. The environment will physically cool her down."
Although Yan Shaozhe remained doubtful, Ma Xiaotao's suffering left him with no alternative. He carefully placed her inside the pod, treating a dead horse as if it were still alive.
As the pod door slowly closed, the suffocating heat finally vanished.
Meanwhile, downstairs.
"Damn! What was that red light just now? A meteor crashing into the earth?"
Xu Sanshi dragged Jiang Nannan into the shop, his face still full of lingering fear.
At the entrance just moments ago, they had nearly been blown away by the shockwave from Yan Shaozhe's landing.
"That was... Dean Yan's aura." Jiang Nannan frowned. As a core disciple of the outer academy, she was very familiar with the dean's presence. "And there was an extremely terrifying fire-element fluctuation too... Could it have been that senior from the inner academy?"
"Who cares who it was? As long as it doesn't delay my gaming."
Xu Sanshi skillfully slapped down several Gold Soul Coins, looking every bit like a nouveau riche. "Yuhao! Start a machine! Today, I'm going to show Nannan my absolute defense! I've figured out a new way to use that Gunlance!"
Huo Yuhao was currently wearing an apron and holding a rag as he poked his head out from behind the counter, looking helpless. "Senior Xu, the boss is hosting an important guest upstairs. Sit anywhere on the first floor. Just leave the money on the table."
"Oh? Junior Yuhao, you've already become the assistant manager?" Xu Sanshi teased, then pulled Jiang Nannan over to find a pair of connected seats.
"Nannan, put on the helmet! I'm telling you, that Gunlance was made for me! I'll tank the monster later, and you can deal damage from behind me!"
Though Jiang Nannan remained skeptical, she still put on the helmet when she saw how excited Xu Sanshi was.
Second floor, virtual world.
Ma Xiaotao felt as though she had been trapped in a long nightmare.
The dream had been filled with fire. It burned her internal organs with pain, devoured her reason bit by bit, and left her wanting only to destroy everything before her.
Then, suddenly.
Whoosh—!
A biting, bone-piercing gust of wind mixed with ice shards slapped violently across her face.
Ma Xiaotao opened her eyes.
There were no flames, no oppressive heat.
Before her stretched a world of ice and snow wrapped in silver.
The sky was gray-white. Goose-feather snowflakes fell like blades, while howling winds reduced visibility to less than ten meters.
Several meters of snow lay beneath her feet. Every step sank her halfway to the knee.
"Where is this...?"
Ma Xiaotao instinctively tried to circulate her Soul Power to ward off the cold, only to discover that the violent Evil Fire inside her had been firmly suppressed by the world's extreme chill!
In this forbidden land known as Hoarfrost Reach, heat was an extravagance of the highest order.
[Warning: Body temperature rapidly decreasing. Stamina recovery speed reduced.] [Status: Extreme Cold.]
The game's notification sounded beside her ears.
An ordinary hunter would have already taken out a Hot Drink and gulped it down.
But Ma Xiaotao was different. This bone-deep cold felt like sweet dew in a desert to her current self!
"So comfortable..."
Ma Xiaotao greedily breathed in the frigid air, feeling the burning in her lungs rapidly fade.
Boom!
The snow beneath her feet suddenly exploded.
A gigantic beast covered in sharp ice armor burst from beneath the snow like a shark. The horn atop its head gleamed with cold light.
Beotodus!
"Is that... a soul beast?"
Ma Xiaotao instinctively tried to unleash Phoenix Sky-Howl Strike, but only a pitiful wisp of flame appeared in her hand before the blizzard instantly blew it out.
"No Soul Power?"
Ma Xiaotao froze. Before she could react, Beotodus's snow-covered tail had already swept toward her.
Bang!
Ma Xiaotao was sent flying, crashing fiercely into a snowdrift and swallowing a mouthful of ice shards.
Yet that pain and cold instantly cleared her previously muddled mind.
At the Sea God Pavilion, she had been passively suppressed. It was safe, but suffocating.
Here, however, this was a battle between life and death! A clash between extreme cold and blazing fire!
"Good! Very good!"
Ma Xiaotao climbed out of the snow, spat out a mouthful of blood, and a fighting spirit unlike any she had ever felt ignited in her eyes.
She drew the Long Sword from her back and charged forward into the blizzard.
"Whoever you are! You dare hit me? I'll turn you into sashimi!"
In the real world, on the second floor.
Yan Shaozhe's palms were drenched in sweat as he watched the scene on the Screen.
On-screen, Ma Xiaotao, who normally only knew how to bombard everything with brute force, was now using the snowy terrain to nimbly evade Beotodus's attacks amid the blizzard.
Every swing of her blade carried unwavering resolve, yet her gaze was terrifyingly calm.
Under the combined consumption of the extreme cold environment and intense battle, the rampaging Evil Fire had miraculously stabilized.
"It's held down... It's really held down!" Yan Shaozhe's excited voice trembled. "And it's not just suppression. She's using the environment to vent her excess fire energy!"
"This is called the Ice-Fire Tempered Body!"
Lu Yuan leaned against the railing, casually swinging an unopened bottle of Sprite in his hand.
"At the Sea God Pavilion, she was merely a patient who needed to be cared for. But here, she's a hunter fighting to survive. That shift in mentality is the key to suppressing the Evil Fire!"
An hour later.
The pod door slowly opened.
"Whew..."
Ma Xiaotao sat up inside the pod, soaked in cold sweat and gasping heavily.
Her eyes were somewhat dazed, as though she had yet to recover from that world of ice and snow.
"Xiaotao! How do you feel?" Yan Shaozhe hurried over and pressed one hand against her pulse.
The next second, Yan Shaozhe's pupils shook.
Stable!
Far too stable!
The Evil Fire within Ma Xiaotao, which had once been like a volcano on the verge of eruption, now flowed through her meridians as gently as a lamb.
The burning heat had completely vanished, replaced by a clear and refreshing coolness.
"Teacher..." Ma Xiaotao turned toward him. Her voice was slightly hoarse, but her eyes were bright. "Just now... I killed a fish that swam through the snow. The snow there was so cold... but I felt... amazing!"
That chill seeping from deep within her bones was something she had never experienced in twenty years.
"As long as it feels good! As long as it feels good!" Yan Shaozhe was moved to tears.
"Have some water."
Lu Yuan handed her the bottle of green beverage, still giving off a chill, at just the right moment.
Ma Xiaotao accepted it instinctively and tipped her head back, taking a large gulp.
Fizz, fizz, fizz!
The icy liquid and countless bubbles burst across her mouth. That heart-piercing chill rushed down her throat into her stomach, then instantly spread through every limb and bone.
"Ah—!"
Ma Xiaotao could not help letting out a long, comfortable sigh. Her entire body went limp in the chair, and she wore an intoxicated expression like someone who had inhaled catnip.
"What kind of divine nectar is this? It's so stimulating!"
"This is called Sprite!" Lu Yuan smiled as he held out his hand. "That'll be 100 Gold Soul Coins for this VIP Iceborne experience and the drink."
"Take it! I'll pay right away!"
Without another word, Yan Shaozhe pulled out a stored-value card and slapped it onto the table.
"Add another ten thousand! Xiaotao will come here every day from now on! Book that Hoarfrost Reach place for her all year round! She can live there if she wants!"
Lu Yuan accepted the card, delight blooming in his heart.
Just then, Huo Yuhao happened to come upstairs carrying a mop.
The moment he approached, Electrolux suddenly gave a soft sound of surprise in his mind.
"Hm? There's something interesting about this little girl..."
Electrolux's aged voice echoed in Huo Yuhao's mind.
"Yuhao, the black fire within this girl isn't merely a martial soul defect! I can smell a trace of... fallen death energy within it. It's faint, but if she spends more time in that extremely cold world, perhaps that evil energy can be washed away and refined."
Huo Yuhao froze and asked inwardly, "Old Electrolux, are you saying she can become stronger?"
"Stronger? It goes far beyond that." Electrolux sneered. "If that black fire is cleansed, this little girl's martial soul may become genuine Ultimate Fire—a Fire Phoenix! The owner of this internet cafe truly possesses heaven-defying methods!"
Downstairs.
"Ahhh! Xu Sanshi, you liar! Didn't you say you could block it?!"
Jiang Nannan tore off her helmet, her pretty face red with fury. She grabbed a pillow beside her and hurled it at Xu Sanshi.
Just moments ago, Xu Sanshi had confidently claimed he could withstand Anjanath's fire breath. But because he greedily went for an extra attack and tried to use Wyvernfire, he failed to raise his shield in time. Jiang Nannan, hiding behind him, had been directly burned back to camp.
"A mistake! It was purely a mistake!" Xu Sanshi hugged his head and begged for mercy. "Nannan, give me one more chance! This time, I definitely won't fire the cannon! I'll tank it with my face!"
"Get lost! I'm never teaming up with you again!"
Jiang Nannan rose angrily to her feet, only to spot Ma Xiaotao coming down from the second floor.
In that instant, the entire first floor of the internet cafe fell silent.
At that moment, Ma Xiaotao exuded a lazy yet icy aura. Her long red hair hung wet over her shoulders, and she still held a bottle of Sprite, her face full of satisfaction.
That intense contrast left everyone present staring in stunned silence.
"Is that... Senior Ma Xiaotao?" Xu Sanshi's mouth fell open. "Why does she... Why does she look so..."
So gentle?
Why had the usual fiery female tyrannosaurus turned into an icy beauty today?
Ma Xiaotao glanced at the stunned crowd downstairs, then waved the Sprite in her hand in an exceptionally good mood. "What are you staring at? Never seen a beautiful woman drink water before? The boss said this is heart-cooling and spirit-soaring."
With that, she strode away on her long legs under Yan Shaozhe's escort, looking utterly carefree.
She left behind nothing but a roomful of stunned onlookers.
Xu Sanshi swallowed and turned toward Huo Yuhao behind the counter. "Junior Yuhao... Is there any of that green water left? I want to try that spirit-soaring feeling too!"
Before you continue