That night, a bitter wind raged. Far fewer people walked the streets than usual, and the gray-white snowflakes beneath the streetlamps looked quiet and forlorn.
In the bitter cold of Harsh Winter, even the shade-loving Luminous Spirit Plants had grown listless. Their light had dimmed, and some had simply retreated into the soil beneath the snow, waiting for the next year to emerge.
Only a handful of Spirit Plants that had followed the Frostcap Mushroom's example and begun adapting to Harsh Winter remained active amid the Ash Snow and freezing cold.
But they all knew that once they embraced the wind and snow, they would struggle to endure the summer heat. They would become seasonal Spirit Plants for good.
Even so, some Spirit Plants were willing to accept it.
Three months of blooming through Harsh Winter, standing proud against the cold, was enough for them to write a hymn to their own lives.
Of course, Longwind City had its own way of making up for the Luminous Spirit Plants that had gone dormant.
The Energy Research Base had found a way to generate electricity from Ash Snow. First, its researchers purified the chaotic energy within it. Then they fed that energy into an Ash Snow generator that used the conditions of Harsh Winter to produce a steady supply of electricity.
By the second day after the Ash Snow began falling, Longwind City's central district and poorly lit streets had switched to Ash Snow power.
The Lantern Mushrooms, dimmed by the cold and entering dormancy, had been replaced by large crystal lamps arranged neatly along both sides of the streets.
These were not lightbulbs from the Old Era. Made by smelting trimmed branches and leaves from the Crystal Ring Mother Tree and the Crystal Orchid Giant Tree, they were called Shattercrystal