Chapter 175: Claimed

Chapter 175: Claimed

After ignoring the cold air that acted directly on his body, the threat of these Ice Spiders dropped sharply. The two group-attack axes in his hands swung fiercely. Dozens of ordinary Ice Spiders could hardly harm him. Even when his outer skin froze stiff, these Ice Spiders couldn’t deal any direct damage to him.

Zheng Yichen’s attacks, however, could shatter one Ice Spider with a single axe strike. The shattered body of the Ice Spider vanished into thin air, leaving only a snowflake-shaped Ice Crystal behind. The moment this Ice Crystal touched the ground, the snow in the area gathered on its own, reforming into a new Ice Spider.

“Oh? This is amazing too!” This discovery made Zheng Yichen, after attacking again, shake his axe instead of letting the Ice Crystals fall to the ground. He scattered the Ice Crystals and caught them all in his hand. These crystals felt extra icy cold, ten times colder than the free-floating chill in the air. But this cold sensation soon turned into a normal chill, as Zheng Yichen had already grabbed hold of the Ice Crystals…

“Strange, this is actually a crystallization of some kind of power .” Anything that could be affected by his ability was surely some form of energy. These Ice Crystals were filled with a large amount of Mana and contained a Magical Structure within. Having a solid form was like a Magic Artifact, but Zheng Yichen couldn’t identify which specific type of Magical Structure it was by any recognizable features.

Even as he observed it, the Magical Structure felt very natural, like some beautiful patterns on a stone—purely born of nature.

After some thought, Zheng Yichen tossed the few Ice Crystals in his hand back onto the snowy ground. As soon as these crystals touched the ground, they gathered power again and quickly transformed into new Ice Spiders. The difference was, they didn’t attack Zheng Yichen directly but instead fought against the other Ice Spiders. Faced with the attacks from their “companions,” the other Ice Spiders were also confused. Weren’t they supposed to be on the same side? Why were they fighting each other?

After a brief moment of confusion, they began to fight back. But with a bunch of unkillable things going at it, the fighting seemed endless. Destroying the Ice Crystals wasn’t easy either. He had tried earlier—the things were unusually sturdy, and as long as there was sufficient Mana, they had strong self-repair abilities. Like ice, even if shattered, as long as the surrounding temperature was low enough, they could freeze back together completely.

And from the behavior of these Ice Spiders, their intelligence was no less than that of low-level Alchemical Puppets!

Perhaps there were even more powerful ice creatures here? With such curiosity, Zheng Yichen stopped tangling with the Ice Spiders. After retrieving the Ice Crystals from those few Ice Spiders, every Ice Spider he shattered along the way, he collected… less than half!

That was about twenty-one or so. The remaining Ice Spiders, after being defeated, had their Ice Crystals break apart into countless tiny dots. Upon landing, they turned into a swarm of tiny Ice Spiders that quickly scattered in all directions. This discovery made Zheng Yichen realize that there must be an owner in this Snow Mountain… or perhaps these Ice Spiders had an extra controller who, upon seeing that Zheng Yichen could collect the Ice Crystals, decisively gave up on intercepting him.

But when Zheng Yichen reached a certain depth within the Snow Mountain, the intensity of the cold air suddenly increased sharply. The speed at which his body’s Mana assimilated the cold air slowed down, and his surface Scales even showed slight cracks from freezing. A terrifying will then descended upon Zheng Yichen.

—Leave this place.

The voice held no extra anger, nor was it threatening—it was very calm, like unchanging ice… No, wait, the other party didn’t actually speak at all. The voice simply bypassed Zheng Yichen’s hearing and was firmly imprinted in his mind. Such behavior wasn’t very moral. An ordinary person encountering this would either faint from the shock or be left with an unforgettable shadow in their heart, likely never daring to come to such a place again.

Zheng Yichen wasn’t particularly bothered, of course, but he also stopped in his tracks. Since the owner of this voice could exert such a powerful will, how strong must their individual power be? Zheng Yichen didn’t know, but he was sure he couldn’t win. At this point, he should leave immediately.

Pursing his lips, Zheng Yichen no longer had any intention of staying. He turned around and left right away. Perhaps recognizing Zheng Yichen’s compliance, the will emanating from the massive Snow Mountain didn’t trouble him further. As he left, the ever-present icy cold air and the Ice Spiders all disappeared.

At the same time, the owner of this will didn’t say anything about Zheng Yichen keeping the Ice Crystals he had collected. Leaving the range of the Snow Mountain, Zheng Yichen slightly pursed his lips again and took out the map to look at it. His expression was somewhat… helpless. What kinds of places did this map record anyway? Why was every particularly noticeable place so bizarre?

The previous Stone Forest was manageable and relatively normal. But in this Snow Mountain, he directly encountered an unknown old monster. Though he hadn’t even seen their face, they probably weren’t a Witch. A Witch’s Power was very special—even if they pressured others directly with their will, it would carry the Witch’s characteristics, but this one was pure, without any additional effects.

They must be some special kind of existence.

Shaking his head, Zheng Yichen continued to examine the map in his hand, pondering his next destination. Hah, finding a suitable temporary base was really difficult. The Stone Forest wasn’t bad, but it was too weird. Zheng Yichen wasn’t arrogant enough to ignore everything. Without a deep or sufficient understanding of the Stone Forest’s characteristics, staying there would just be asking for trouble. The Snow Mountain was actually good—that cold air that ignored resistance, along with the ever-present, unkillable Ice Spiders, made for the best barrier. Staying there, even if someone came looking for him, just this natural barrier alone would be enough to give them a hard time.

Surround and attack? Hah! In such an environment, aside from some sufficiently powerful individuals who could move freely, others? Even Professionals coming here, if their strength wasn’t enough, would turn into ice blocks in minutes!

Too bad it was claimed.

The Stone Forest… the Snow Mountain, next would it be a Volcano? Staring at the next location on the route he had chosen, Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but mutter, “Given the nature of this lousy map, that Volcano probably has some special existence too, right?”

Even though he thought so, Zheng Yichen felt he should still go take a look. After all, he didn’t have any suitable place to go right now. If he stayed in an inappropriate place, even in an uninhabited area where no one appeared for decades, he might still encounter the annoying situation of trouble falling from the sky while he sat at home.

Life is about movement, humph. The more places he passed through, the more those tracking him would have to pass through these places too. In such places, he could remain fine, but others? How many could actually endure?