The Fifth Ring: Frost Giant Dragon
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At the end of the official road outside the Heaven Dou City lies a desolate wasteland. The withered grass of late autumn lies flat against the ground, and the wind carries the dry, cold air unique to the Far North. Nan Feng has been away from Heaven Dou City for a year. In this year, he has hardly set foot in any town, spending most of his time cultivating in a secluded valley on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest. The time flow rate in the Tower Spirit Space is stable at three to one; one year outside is equivalent to three years inside the tower.
Over three years, his Soul Power slowly climbed from level 56 to level 60. Stuck at level 56 (not a multiple of ten), he pushed it to level 59 through accumulated cultivation. Then, one late night, the nascent Golden Core core in his dantian suddenly surged under the continuous compression of Primordial World Power. The instant his Soul Power broke through level 60, the fifth level of the tower completely opened. Space-Time Power poured out from the door, and the time flow rate in the Tower Spirit Space increased from three to one to four to one. The door on the sixth level, which was nearly half-cracked, continued to expand under the impact of the Soul Power breakthrough, and the amount of Power of Return to the Void seeping out increased even more. The black annihilation patterns on the tower's surface increased from two to three.
Level 60. Soul Power reaches a multiple of ten. According to the ironclad rule, without absorbing Soul Ring, Soul Power cannot continue to increase.
When Nan Feng opened his eyes, the snow in the valley was already above his ankles. It was deep winter. He stood up from the bluestone, his dragon wings unfolding and then folding behind him, the dark golden wing bones gleaming coldly in the snow. The nine lotus seeds of the Soul-Suppressing Azure Lotus in the Tower Spirit Space pulsated steadily, perfectly synchronized with his heartbeat. The black Spiritual Power of the Chaos Stone swirled quietly in his dantian, and the spatial law of Shrinking the Ground to an Inch had been settling in his meridians for three years. He had already grasped seventy or eighty percent of the threshold of the third level.
"It's time to go." The Old Huai poked its head out from the immortal tree. "The Frost Giant Dragon is in the Far North. Your Soul Power is exactly level sixty; after absorbing the fifth ring, you can directly break through to sixty-five. But I must remind you—"
Old Huai's tone turned somber.
"The Frost Giant Dragon is a 58,000-year-old sub-dragon, approaching the 100,000-year level. Its breath can freeze Soul Power, its wings can stir up blizzards, and its scales are harder than ten-thousand-year-old black iron. You have many trump cards now, but the Far North is not the Star Dou Great Forest —there, the wind and snow are endless, directions are hard to discern, and the temperature is so low that an ordinary Soul Master would freeze to death after three days. Moreover—"
The Old Huai paused for a moment.
"The Frost Giant Dragon is the lord of the social Soul Beast. It has a group of ice-attribute sub-dragons as its guards. If you want to hunt it, you must first pass through the dragon herd."
Nan Feng remained silent. He retrieved the Starfall Iron Staff from the Tower Spirit Space, its silvery-white starlight shimmering in the snowy light. He then channeled the black Spiritual Power of the Chaos Stone from his dantian and circulated it through his meridians, Shrinking the Ground to an Inch Qi Induction Technique to flow smoothly within his body.
"That's enough," Nan Feng said.
He took a step, activated the Shrinking the Ground to an Inch technique, and his figure left a trail of afterimages in the snow, instantly appearing a hundred paces away. One step, a hundred paces—the spatial laws of the Chaos Stone had advanced the Shrinking the Ground to an Inch to an even greater distance from one step to eighty paces. Although he hadn't officially broken through to the third level, he was already infinitely close.
Three days later, the Nan Feng entered the Far North. Snow and wind swept in from the north, like a white wall pressing down on the horizon. The temperature plummeted, his outer robe fluttered in the wind, and his breath instantly condensed into frost. The Tower Realm automatically unfolded, and a bluish-gold light membrane kept the snow and wind out, but the surface of the light membrane quickly formed a layer of ice in the extreme cold.
"The Frost Giant Dragon's lair is on the edge of the Extreme North Core Circle." Old Huai used his spiritual senses to pinpoint the direction, "About two hundred miles from you. But before that—deal with the dragon horde first."
Nan Feng walked for half a day in the wind and snow, his Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light spreading out a Spiritual Power map within a radius of five hundred paces in his mind. He saw it—three hundred paces ahead, seven icy blue Soul Power points were scattered on both sides of an ice hill. Seven ice-attribute sub-dragons, aged between eight thousand and fifteen thousand years. They were coiled on the ice hill, their dragon breath condensing into ice crystals in the air, their wings folded and pressed against their backs, like seven ice sculptures.
Nan Feng didn't take a detour. He walked up from the front.
When the first dragon spotted him, it let out a sharp roar, spewing out a beam of icy blue light that shot straight at Nan Feng's face. Nan Feng dodged to the side, the dragon's breath grazing the light membrane of the Tower Realm, instantly thickening the ice shell on its surface by three inches. He took a step forward, Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, and appeared directly beside the dragon. He swept his Starfall Iron Staff horizontally, the rod slamming into the dragon's neck. A cracking sound rang out, and the dragon was sent flying, shattering the ice pillar behind it.
The remaining six sub-dragons pounced simultaneously. Nan Feng abruptly expanded the Tower Realm, a cyan-gold light membrane covering an area of a hundred paces, increasing gravity suppression within the domain by forty percent. The speed of the six sub-dragons decreased simultaneously, their wing flapping frequency slowing by three-tenths. Nan Feng used the Shrinking the Ground to an Inch to flash continuously within the domain, his Starfall Iron Staff combined with Bone Spike shattering them one by one. Within less than twenty breaths, all seven sub-dragons collapsed, shards of ice and dark red blood scattered across the ice surface.
The ice shell on the Tower Realm's light membrane shattered and reformed during the battle, and Nan Feng sensed that the extreme cold was taking a greater toll on the Tower Realm than he had anticipated. He withdrew the Tower Realm and used his Primordial World Power to form a thin golden protective membrane on his body, continuing his advance towards the Frost Giant Dragon's lair.
The lair of the Frost Giant Dragon lies in the center of a vast Ice Valley. The valley is surrounded by Ice Valley walls hundreds of feet high, and at its bottom lies a flat ice plain. In the center of this plain lies a colossal creature: the Frost Giant Dragon. Its wingspan exceeds twenty meters, and its body is covered in massive, ice-blue scales, each scale the size of a shield. Its head is lowered, and its vertical, ice-blue pupils gleam coldly in the snowstorm. Its breath exhales from its nostrils, condensing into fine ice crystals that flutter down onto the ice surface.
Standing at the entrance of the Ice Valley, Nan Feng 'Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light locked onto the Frost Giant Dragon. 58,000 years old, its Soul Power concentration far exceeded that of the Shadow Leopard Emperor, approaching the level of the Golden-Eyed Peng King. This was a true sub-dragon lord.
The Frost Giant Dragon raised its head, its vertical pupils contracting. It sensed the ancient aura emanating from Nan Feng that did not belong to the Douluo Plane.
The dragon's head unleashed a deafening roar, shaking the snow from the walls of the Ice Valley and sending Xue Beng cascading down from the top of the ice walls. The Frost Giant Dragon spread its wings, its twenty-meter-long ice-blue wings stirring up a storm in the snowstorm. Its breath shot towards the Nan Feng —a thick, ice-blue beam of light, as thick as a palace pillar, freezing the air into ice crystals wherever it passed, and cracking the ice surface with spiderweb-like patterns.
The Nan Feng did not recede. The Tower Realm was fully activated, and a three-layered shield of cyan-gold light formed on his body. The first layer shattered the moment the dragon's breath touched him, the second layer cracked, and the third layer barely held on. His outer robe was swept by the edge of the dragon's breath, and the corner of the robe instantly froze into ice shards. The power of the dragon's breath pushed his feet backward several feet, and his heels plowed two deep grooves into the ice.
"Its dragon breath can freeze Soul Power!" Old Huai roared, "Use your Primordial World Power to protect yourself!"
Nan Feng forcefully poured the Primordial World Power from his dantian into the Tower Realm. A layer of dark golden luster appeared in the cyan-gold light membrane, and the ice attribute erosion in the dragon's breath was devoured and transformed by the Primordial World Power, increasing the Tower Realm's resilience. He took a step forward, activated the Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, and appeared to the side of the Frost Giant Dragon.
The Starfall Iron Staff slammed down with all its might. The rod struck the base of the dragon's left wing, shattering several of its icy blue scales. However, the scales were far thicker than expected, and the iron rod only broke through the surface. The Frost Giant Dragon swung its tail, whipping it into a blizzard that swept towards Nan Feng. Nan Feng moved sideways with Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, the dragon's tail grazing his side, the icy wind it generated freezing the sleeve of his left arm to shreds.
The dragon soared into the sky. Its twenty-meter wings flapped, and a blizzard raged through the Ice Valley. Nan Feng's vision was obscured by the wind and snow, but he had not yet obtained the Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light and the Peng Eye. He used his multi-color spectrum perception to lock onto the dragon's location. The Frost Giant Dragon circled high in the sky, its breath falling like rain, and pillars of icy blue light exploded into deep craters on the ice surface.
Nan Feng blasted the Tower Return to Origin to Origin beneath his feet, the Return to Origin Power repairing his meridians eroded by the extreme cold. He looked up, locked onto the dragon's location, Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, and rose from the ice, hurling the Starfall Iron Staff from his hand. The rod, imbued with both Primordial World Power and Power of Return to the Void, pierced through the wind and snow like a dark golden meteor, embedding itself in the dragon's right wing. A bloody hole burst open in the icy blue scales on the dragon's wing, and the dragon let out a painful roar, its body plummeting from the sky.
The dragon crashed onto the ice, creating a massive crater. Nan Feng landed at the edge of the crater, Bone Spike springing from his palm, imbued with dark golden Primordial World Power. The Frost Giant Dragon struggled to raise its head from the crater, its breath coalescing once more. But this time, its breath did not strike Nan Feng —it raised its head to the sky and let out a long, drawn-out roar.
The snow on the walls of the Ice Valley collapsed again, but this time the Xue Beng was mixed with countless icy blue specks of light—those were dragons. The Frost Giant Dragon was summoning all the ice-attribute wyverns within its territory.
"It's calling for reinforcements!" Old Huai's voice was filled with unprecedented urgency. "You must take care of it before the dragons arrive!"
Nan Feng did not hesitate. He fully activated the Primordial World Power in his dantian, causing all nine levels of the tower to tremble. The door on the sixth level, which was nearly half cracked, suddenly expanded under the impact of the Primordial World Power. The Power of Return to the Void poured out from the door, forming a fourth black annihilation pattern on the surface of the tower. Nan Feng poured all the Power of Return to the Void into the Starfall Iron Staff, and all the silver-white starlight on the rod lit up. The space around the rod was slightly distorted under the erosion of the Power of Return to the Void.
He took a step forward, Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, and appeared directly above the Frost Giant Dragon's head. The dragon raised its head, and its breath surged forth. Nan Feng did not dodge; he concentrated all the Primordial World Power in the Tower Realm into his left palm and struck down with it.
Dragon-Suppressing Divine Inscription.
The lines on the sixth floor of the tower condensed into a dark golden word "Zhen" in the palm of the hand, and the power of returning to ruins and the power of prehistoric times were poured into the forehead and heart of the giant dragon at the same time. The frost dragon's dragon breath collapsed in the middle, the ice blue vertical pupils in the dragon's eyes suddenly shrank, and the dragon scales all over the body exploded, but its body froze for a moment under the suppression of the Dragon Suppressing Divine Marks.
In an instant, Nan Feng thrust the Starfall Iron Staff into the dragon's jaw, the rod piercing through its skull and emerging from the top. The Frost Giant Dragon let out a short, mournful cry, its massive body convulsing violently on the ice a few times before coming to a complete stop.
When the dragon herd arrived, the Frost Giant Dragon was already dead. Nan Feng stood on the dragon's corpse, the Starfall Iron Staff embedded in its head, dark golden bloodstains spreading along the ice. The dozen or so ice-attribute sub-dragons that had surrounded him stopped a hundred paces away from Nan Feng. They looked at the Frost Giant Dragon's corpse, then at the Primordial World aura emanating from Nan Feng that instilled instinctive fear in them, and finally let out a low whimper before turning and disappearing into the snowstorm.
A dense black Soul Ring slowly rose from the corpse of the Frost Giant Dragon. The Soul Ring was 58,000 years old, with a faint red edge amidst its blackness. Nan Feng sat cross-legged and used his Soul Power to guide the Soul Ring into his body.
The moment the black Soul Ring entered his body, icy blue energy surged like a glacial river, pouring into his meridians from the top of his head. Nan Feng's entire body froze, a layer of ice forming on his skin, even his eyelashes turning white. But the Primordial World Power in his dantian circulated wildly under the impact of the glacial river, and the first to sixth floors of the tower lit up. The Return to Origin Power surged from the fourth floor to repair the meridians damaged by the ice, the Power of Devouring transformed ice attribute energy into tower energy from the second floor, and the Power of Creation tempered the violent energy of the ice Soul Ring step by step from the third floor.
For three days and three nights, Nan Feng's consciousness fluctuated between freezing and thawing. At dawn on the third day, the Frost Giant Dragon's Soul Ring was finally completely absorbed. Nan Feng opened his eyes, exhaled a breath of white air, and his Soul Power soared from level sixty to level sixty-five. His meridians had become more resilient through the tempering of ice and fire, and the liquid Primordial World Power in his dantian had gained a layer of icy blue luster. During the process of the Ice River Shrinking the Ground to an Inch an Inch, and his stride was no longer a hundred steps, but one hundred and twenty steps.
The fifth Soul Skill materialized.
Tower Suppression - Space-Time - A large-scale area suppression effect, halves the speed of Soul Skill release and reduces movement speed by 30%. The Space-Time Power can temporarily freeze the flow of time within the area. When released through the tower, it can cover a radius of 300 steps, and the suppression effect lasts for ten breaths.
Beside the corpse of the Frost Giant Dragon, a piece of ice-blue Soul Bone floated. Right Arm Soul Bone, 58,000 years old, with dragon scale patterns Shangqing. Nan Feng guided the Soul Bone into his body, and the bones of his right arm emitted a series of cracking sounds as the Soul Bone merged with it. After the Soul Bone and his right arm completely fused, the strength of his right arm surged. The bone density of his dragon arm far exceeded that of his left arm, and the power he wielded when swinging the iron rod was 30% stronger than before.
Dragon Arm - Mountain Suppression - Right Arm Soul Bone Skill. When releasing the suppressive power with the Dragon Arm, the suppression intensity is increased by an additional 20%, which can temporarily suppress the flow of Soul Power at the Titled Douluo level.
When absorbing the Right Arm Soul Bone, Nan Feng used the tower's Return to Origin Power to stabilize his foundation, and his Soul Power increased by an additional level, reaching level sixty-six.
The Old Huai poked its head out from the immortal tree, watching Nan Feng sitting cross-legged on the ice to stabilize his Soul Power, and remained silent for a long time.
"Your Soul Power jumped from sixty to sixty-six, an increase of six levels." Old Huai's voice deepened. "You'll need at least a year to consolidate your strength. Although your meridians have thickened considerably under the tempering of the Frost Giant Dragon's Soul Ring and the dragon arm Soul Bone, your level sixty-six Soul Power foundation still needs time to solidify. After a year, your Soul Power will naturally stabilize at around level sixty-eight. Only then should you consider the Sixth Soul Ring."
Nan Feng stood up. His right arm was noticeably thicker than his left, with dragon scale patterns extending from his shoulder to his wrist, gleaming with an icy blue light in the reflection of the snow. He moved his right arm, and the strength of the dragon arm made the Starfall Iron Staff feel almost weightless in his hand.
The changes to the tower were equally dramatic. The Space-Time Power of the fifth level was fully released, and the time flow rate of the Tower Spirit Space increased from four to one to five to one. The door on the sixth level, which was nearly half cracked, expanded further under the impact of the Frost Giant Dragon Soul Ring, and the Power of Return to the Void became even more abundant. The black annihilation patterns on the tower increased from three to four, and the star patterns and dark gold patterns intertwined, with the black hole patterns on the sixth level faintly visible as they were being conceived.
Nan Feng stood in the center of the Ice Valley, the corpse of the Frost Giant Dragon already mostly covered by snow. The wind and snow were blowing in from the north, fiercer and colder than before. But in Nan Feng's perception, there were two extremely powerful ice-attribute Soul Power fluctuations deeper in the north—more than ten times stronger than the Frost Giant Dragon. One was as cold and violent as icy iron, and the other was as pure and cold as solidified snow.
Ice Empress. Snow Empress.
Nan Feng retrieved the Starfall Iron Staff into his Tower Spirit Space. He stood at the edge of the Ice Valley, looking at the icy plain shrouded in wind and snow deep within the Extreme North Core Circle. The two auras existed quietly in his perception, as if they were asleep, or as if they were waiting.
"Let's go," Old Huai said. "You're level 66 now, take a year to settle down before coming back. Ice Empress and Snow Empress aren't in a hurry—they've been guarding there for decades, they won't run away."
Nan Feng turned and walked south. Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, his figure leaving a trail of afterimages in the wind and snow, taking one hundred and twenty steps at a time. In the Tower Spirit Space, the nine lotus Soul-Suppressing Azure Lotus- Suppressing Green Lotus pulsated steadily, the Soul Ring of the Frost Giant Dragon quietly settled in his dantian, and the ice-blue Soul Bone patterns on the dragon's arm glowed slightly on his right arm.
The red ribbon on his left wrist fluttered in the frigid wind of the Far North. As Nan Feng walked out of the Ice Valley, he glanced back—the corpse of the Frost Giant Dragon was gradually buried in the snowstorm, but the dragon horde did not reappear. After he left, the sub-dragons gathered again at the entrance of the Ice Valley, watching from afar as this human, imbued with the aura of the Primordial World, disappeared into the distance at the edge of the snowstorm.
The auras of the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress gradually faded away in his perception. Nan Feng walked south, and the ice field beneath his feet gradually turned into frozen soil, where moss and withered grass began to appear. The Power of Return to the Void the six layers of the tower slowly flowed through his meridians, while the power of the dragon arm slumbered in his right hand. The level 66 Soul Power circulated steadily in his dantian, waiting to settle.
Return to the Far North a year later. At that time, the story of Ice Empress and Snow Empress will truly begin.