Chapter 535: Prevention Wasn’t Very Useful

Chapter 535: Prevention Wasn’t Very Useful

“So… big?” Looking at the Ice Soul the size of an adult fist that Annie had taken out, Irene was a bit stunned. Ice Souls were extremely rare, similar to Annie’s Essence of Life or Irene’s Supermagic Crystal. While similar, there were differences, but that didn’t deny the precious properties of an Ice Soul. The piece Irene had owned before was only about the size of a thumb.

That one piece had lasted her a very long time. Yet now, Annie had taken out an Ice Soul the size of an adult fist. Did she rob the Lord of the Snow Mountain or something?

“It’s alright. Back then, for some research, I went to find the Lord of the Snow Mountain. He was quite reasonable, so he gave me this big piece. But this thing really wasn’t very suitable for my research. Trading for it felt a bit wasteful.” Annie said with a hint of regret. The extreme cold power of the Ice Soul was too overwhelming. Even a Witch’s Power coming into contact with it would become sluggish and freeze. Using it in her research at the time not only failed to produce the expected effect but also ruined many of her materials, leaving Annie frustrated for quite a while.

After that, she wanted to go to the Volcano to find the Lord of the Volcano and get something of similar value. Unfortunately, the Lord of the Volcano had a bit of a temper. At the time, she still carried the aura of the Ice Soul on her. She went, but didn’t even get to see the Lord of the Volcano before getting a Fireball to the face. Of course, the Lord of the Volcano paid a price afterward. In his own lair, he had to deal with ‘weeds’ for several years.

These were plants that fed on Fire Elements. In the volcanic environment, they truly grew like weeds. If left unchecked even slightly, they would run wild all over the mountains. And even a little leftover could stage a comeback. As long as the Lord of the Volcano didn’t diligently weed, those plants could turn the volcano into an ordinary mountain!

That was Annie’s revenge… After that, whenever she passed by the Volcano, even the short-tempered Lord of the Volcano would avoid hitting her with a Fireball without a word. After all, the weeding experience was genuinely an extremely physically and mentally exhausting task for the Lord of the Volcano. Of course, Annie never saw the Lord of the Volcano again after that. Adopting a “better avoid than provoke” attitude, the Lord made it impossible for Annie to meet him again.

After that, and after that, this Ice Soul was completely abandoned in Annie’s hands, stored away until now.

“Huh, the way you describe it, I feel like I got a terrible deal.” Zheng Yichen muttered. Annie threw him a pair of exasperated looks.

“A terrible deal? If you weren’t willing to trade, I’d give this back to the Lord of the Snow Mountain before giving it to you. Otherwise, it would feel too unfair to the things I traded for it back then!” Annie snorted lightly and tossed the Ice Soul to Zheng Yichen. “Here!”

Zheng Yichen reached out and caught it. A thick layer of ice immediately formed on his claws. The Extreme Cold power seeped through his Dragon Scales into his skin, slowing his Mana. “Whoa…!! So powerful!? Is my Magic Resistance fake!?” Zheng Yichen quickly shook off the Ice Soul in his hand and rapidly took out several hair dryers from his Personal Space. He used the basic airflow to lift the Ice Soul into the air.

“Oh? That’s a clever method. You solved the problem of others having difficulty touching the Ice Soul directly.” Annie looked at the hair dryers Zheng Yichen had placed on the ground. Their orderly positioning made the airflows converge, suspending the Ice Soul steadily in mid-air.

“Just a common trick. Low-key, low-key.” Zheng Yichen moved his claws. After losing contact with the Ice Soul, the power of the ice layer was quickly assimilated by his ability, turning into controllable Ice-type Power. The ice shattered and disappeared, and the sluggish feeling from his entire body’s Mana also vanished.

“Easy to say.” Annie shook her head. Natural air flow… If she used wind created by Magic to hold the Ice Soul, it would be useless. The thing would still free-fall. That kind of wind, infused with Mana, would freeze upon touching the Ice Soul. In fact, due to the purity of the Ice Soul, if you used it to hit some Fire Magic, it wouldn’t cause an explosion. Instead, you’d get an extra ice ball with frozen flames.

“How come you can hold it without a problem? What’s the method?”

“Very simple. Just protect your palm with Mana.”

“……” Zheng Yichen looked at his own claws. He had tried that just now too. After a moment of slight frustration, Zheng Yichen let go of his minor annoyance. It was probably like an ordinary person grabbing a regular piece of ice. You could hold it for a while without issue. Wearing gloves would make it even less effective.

For a Witch protected by Mana, the Ice Soul was like ordinary ice to a normal person. Holding it for a short time was fine. For Zheng Yichen, it was like an ordinary person grabbing a red-hot iron. Pleasant! Steady!

“Alright, I’m going to process this thing.” Zheng Yichen said and took the Ice Soul away. He had a method for processing it. He just needed to assimilate part of the Ice Soul’s power, then use that assimilated portion to process the rest, completely assimilating the Ice Soul and turning it into a material controllable by his own power.

That was a bit difficult. The power of the Ice Soul was too pure. Mana touching it would become greatly slowed. Infiltrating bit by bit, a portion of Mana could only assimilate a tiny part of the Ice Soul. The remaining large portion, due to its pure nature, would quickly ‘pull back’ the assimilated part, since the Ice Soul was a single entity.

For example, the Magic or ordinary power-infused things Zheng Yichen encountered could be seen as stones, or maybe harder things. He could easily crush stones, but he couldn’t crush a piece of refined steel! Maybe later, but not now.

What Zheng Yichen needed to do was slowly peel off a part of it. The property of the Ice Soul was ice… ice that does not melt. Even if peeled into ice shavings, if placed together, they could still merge. Otherwise, Zheng Yichen really couldn’t use this thing. Holding it for more than a minute, and he’d end up with his entire Mana completely frozen, unable to flow. Then, without Mana protecting his body, he’d quickly become a vivid dragon ice sculpture.

“Magic Resistance, real or fake!” Zheng Yichen muttered while carefully peeling off ice shavings. Previously, he had been most proud of his strong body. He wasn’t a chromatic dragon, yet his Magic Resistance surpassed even chromatic dragons. Ordinary Magic hitting Zheng Yichen was basically useless. Low-level Magic could be ignored. Mid-level Magic cast by ordinary Spellcasters, Zheng Yichen figured, could only exert one or two tenths of its effect on him.

If it was very specialized Magic, then hitting him and managing to exert three-tenths of its power would already be considered excellent. As for Witches… Zheng Yichen didn’t want to take a small Fireball from Irene. He had tried that once. Under Irene’s exquisite Magic skill, even a “small” one hitting him made Zheng Yichen feel intense pain. But Irene’s evaluation of Zheng Yichen’s Magic Resistance at that time was ‘quite good’.

He had resisted about a few percent of that Fireball’s power.

Darn. Facing an existence with 100% Magic penetration, what use was Magic Resistance? But a few percent was a few percent. According to Irene, if Zheng Yichen could resist half the power of Magic she cast, then Zheng Yichen could rely on his ability’s influence on himself to wander around recklessly even at the Witch level.

As for improvement? Improving by one percent in ten years would be considered fast.

After carefully peeling off enough Ice Soul shavings, Zheng Yichen carefully controlled these shavings, shaping them into a frost-white sphere. The color of the Ice Soul wasn’t ice-blue, but an extremely pure frost-white. Even though Zheng Yichen made the sphere quite thin, its transparency was still not high, like frosted glass. Compared to the clarity of the World Barrier Fragment, it was far behind.

But it was enough.

“Hmm, not bad.” Zheng Yichen nodded. He had this ability to process a sphere in a short time. If humans were to process it, comparing it to the records in that book about Magic Arms, even gathering enough craftsmen, it would take more than half a year to process a complete sphere.

To process it faster, one either needed to find a Witch or go to the Lord of the Snow Mountain. Through the Ice Soul, Zheng Yichen roughly estimated the Lord of the Snow Mountain’s strength… Tsk, better not estimate. Even with constant overestimation, it would probably still be an underestimate. Just as Dan Marina said, he had never truly gauged the full strength of a Witch.

After the container was ready, Zheng Yichen picked up the book recording ‘Nightmare’ again. The book contained many annotations and some usage insights left by Irene, allowing Zheng Yichen to learn while also performing like an experienced veteran, achieving results beyond a beginner’s.

If this Magical Grimoire were to fall into the outside world, it would be priceless. A group of Spellcasters would definitely fight tooth and nail to seize it. No doubt. The ‘Nightmare’ Magic recorded in the Magical Grimoire, once learned, could be seen as a powerful, all-purpose Magic. Of course, if Irene’s annotations and insights were removed, it would just be a lost High-Level Magic.

In the Town, Oro looked at Zheng Yichen’s still-closed door. He paced back and forth in front of his own door several times, then slightly pursed his lips, took out his smoking pipe, and started walking out… only to be stopped by his bodyguard, a man. “It’s not good to go out now.”

“Ah, actually, going out or not is the same. It’s not very meaningful. We’re not That Dragon, and we don’t have a Dragon Soul. With my level of strength, I can’t resist a Witch’s Power at all.” Oro wrote in a small notebook. “Also, writing now can be seen as just comfort… Like using hot water for disinfection… Hmm, somewhat useful against ordinary poison, but not against the serious stuff.”

“If that’s the case, why do you still write?” The man raised an eyebrow and returned the small notebook to Oro.

“Well~ Having prevention is better than having none. Come on, let’s go out for a walk. I’ve been cooped up for these two days, driving me crazy.”