Chapter 177: A Fiery Temper

Chapter 177: A Fiery Temper

None of them noticed it while cleaning the scene—a dark red wisp silently merged into one of the Sanctuary Church members. That member’s body stiffened slightly for a moment, then continued handling things as if nothing had happened.

At the Snow Mountain, Deya only took a deep look at the area. After searching around the outskirts and confirming traces of Zheng Yichen’s activities there, she gave up on the idea of going deeper to explore. The master of this Snow Mountain did not allow any outsiders to enter, not even people from the Sanctuary Church.

The master of the Snow Mountain was not a Witch, but their power was very strong. However, because they always stayed within the Snow Mountain and never left, they did not attract much attention. Some Mercenaries or Adventurers still operated around the outskirts. In the deeper areas, the ever-present deadly cold was enough to stop most people from venturing further!

Even in the outskirts, within the special environment of the Snow Mountain, there were many unique materials. For instance, some extremely special Ice Crystals contained a unique Magic perfectly suited for Mages who practiced Ice Magic. It could even provide additional benefits.

For example, Mana cultivated using such Ice Crystals would carry a special Ice Attribute, rather than the balanced characteristics typical of ordinary Mana. When casting Ice-related spells, it would require less effort and receive an extra boost in power. Of course, with benefits came drawbacks. While this Mana did not affect the use of other types of Magic, it did interfere with Fire Magic. Mana nurtured with Ice Crystals could unleash 110% of the power in Ice spells, but for Fire spells, it could be harshly reduced to less than 70%.

However, few people cared about this flaw. If one chose to specialize in Ice Magic, what was the point of Fire Magic? Just use a simple Fireball Spell to light a fire. Even if its power was reduced to less than a tenth of the original, it was still a Fireball Spell—enough for lighting a campfire in the wild.

Just that such Ice Crystals were not easy to find. To obtain them, one often had to fight against some ice monsters that roamed the Snow Mountain.

Ice Crystals were good things, but they were of no use to Deya. She did not want to waste her time here, nor did she want her extra actions to cause conflict with the master of the Snow Mountain. Any unnecessary behavior would only delay her. She was gradually closing the distance with Zheng Yichen, so she naturally had to maintain her current efficiency in tracking him.

“Nameless Volcano… Seriously, could the naming be any more random?” Looking at the volcano ahead, Zheng Yichen gave a slight smirk. In terms of scale, this volcano was about the same size as the previous Snow Mountain, giving Zheng Yichen a peculiar feeling. He carefully searched the map, wondering if besides this volcano, there might be a Wood Mountain, Gold Mountain, or Earth Mountain… Well, there weren’t any!

He put away an Ice Crystal he had been fiddling with. Zheng Yichen hadn’t expected that in the past, these crystals would merge. Originally, there were twenty-one, but by the time he noticed, they had become one. Of course, the quality had greatly improved, and it could still be split later, so it wasn’t a loss. Compared to quantity, Zheng Yichen preferred quality!

In this world, superior quality could absolutely overwhelm quantity. If you were overwhelmed by numbers? Then the strength of that quality simply wasn’t enough.

However, unlike at the Snow Mountain, perhaps because his individual presence was too noticeable, he had only been active in the outskirts of the volcano for a short while—not even encountering any local specialties—when a ball of fire erupted from the volcano crater. After being shot out, it flew straight toward Zheng Yichen like a precision-guided cruise missile. Even from a distance, he could feel the scorching heat rushing toward him.

This fiery heat was similar in nature to the cold air he encountered at the Snow Mountain—both ignored an individual’s resistance and directly seeped into the body, making Zheng Yichen very uncomfortable. The cold air just made his skin feel frozen stiff, but the fiery heat made him keenly aware that the moisture in his body was evaporating… In short, for others, the deadly cold might be more harmful.

For Zheng Yichen, however, the fiery heat was actually more dangerous. He couldn’t help but curl his lip. If you don’t want me to enter, just say so—why use such violent means to chase people away? Learn from the master of the Snow Mountain—be reasonable!

But even after Zheng Yichen retreated a good distance, the Fireball relentlessly pursued him. On closer look, there was actually a flame creature moving inside the Fireball. This thing… should it be called a Fire Elf or a Flame Demon?

Scratching his chin, after confirming he was far enough from the volcano’s range, he stopped running. He turned around, ready to fight back. But just as he turned, perhaps thinking the chase was too far and troublesome, the Fireball actually spun in the air and flew back.

“Huh? Wait, don’t run!!”

Seeing this, Zheng Yichen immediately chased after it. Frostmourne materialized in his hand, and he threw it like a projectile at the retreating Fireball. The clash of opposing attributes immediately caused a powerful explosion. The Fireball trembled violently in the air, its outer layer shattered, completely exposing the Flame Demon inside… Well, describing it as a Fire Elf felt too complimentary, so forget it—Flame Demon was more fitting.

Without its fiery shell, the Flame Demon turned and roared at Zheng Yichen. Faced with this creature’s anger, Zheng Yichen naturally did not hold back either. He slapped the Magic Weapon Summoning Book in his hand, and a row of Frostmournes appeared clamped between his fingers. The roaring Flame Demon immediately fell silent!

At this, Zheng Yichen grinned unapologetically and threw all the Frostmournes in his hand. The silenced Flame Demon roared again. If it could speak, Zheng Yichen mused that its roar would definitely include something like “bully!” Unfortunately, it had a mouth but could only bellow.

The Flame Demon was much stronger than those Ice Spiders—it was a quality-type existence. But under Zheng Yichen’s bullying tactics, even as a quality-type entity, facing the self-destruct attacks from over a dozen nearly complete Projection-state Frostmournes, it couldn’t withstand the assault. Soon, it became a Fireball floating in the air. At the center of the Fireball, as expected, was a red flame crystal. Moreover, nearby Mana was rapidly gathering. At this rate, a new Flame Demon would surely appear before long.

Ignoring the flames on the flame crystal, Zheng Yichen rushed forward without a second thought and grabbed it. A searing burning sensation surged up his arms from his hands, but it stopped abruptly upon touching his Mana. He quickly secured the flame crystal, and the flames on it rapidly dissipated, revealing the crystal’s body, which looked very similar to an Ice Crystal. With such similar shapes, could the master of this volcano have some undisclosed relationship with the one in the Snow Mountain?