“Up ahead is the Ice-Bone Severed Road I was telling you about. Get ready… The cold in there is terrifying, and it strips 10% of your health every second. Don’t push it. If you really can’t stand it, don’t try to tough it out.” Ye Tianxie’s face was grave as he warned them. He had learned firsthand exactly how terrible the cold ahead could be.

“Heh. I’m Zuo Pojun — seven feet of man. Am I supposed to be scared of a little cold? It’s not often I get the chance to help Second Brother out. If I get frozen out and have to run for it, that dead ladyboy Fourth Brother will laugh at me for the rest of my life.” Zuo Pojun thumped his chest.

“Tianxie, I’m not afraid of the cold. Don’t worry about me.” Su Feifei pulled her Snow-Fleece Coat tighter. Her face had gone a little pale in the cold, but there was a resolve in it that would not turn back.

“Mm… don’t push it.” Ye Tianxie said it smiling. Then he took his own Snow-Fleece Coat off and put it into Zuo Pojun’s hands. “Put it on.”

“Ah… Boss, I…” Zuo Pojun hurriedly tried to shove the coat back at him. How could he wear the man’s own cold-proof coat and leave him to freeze?

“Put it on… I know exactly how cold it is up ahead. In there your movement gets cut down badly. And you have to stay as agile as you possibly can, or we won’t get through.” Ye Tianxie said it in earnest.

Put like that, Zuo Pojun could only draw the Snow-Fleece Coat around himself, uneasy about it. Su Feifei’s lips moved — it pained her to see it — but in the end she said nothing. Whatever Tianxie decided… she thought it best not to interfere.

“And this.” Ye Tianxie called up his mount space and traded Zuo Pojun a White Dragon Horse that added 50 movement speed, then summoned another of the same and mounted it. Beside them, Su Feifei called out her own White Dragon Horse and got up as well. Zuo Pojun caught on too, and mounted up quickly.

A road out of hell is best crossed as fast as possible.

Preparations complete, Ye Tianxie summoned Yaoyao and set it on his horse’s head, and three riders charged into the Ice-Bone Severed Road.

In the instant they crossed into it, a cold that felt like a drop into hell struck them from every side. Ye Tianxie’s teeth clenched hard, and Zuo Pojun’s and Su Feifei’s breathing stopped entirely.

One second was all it took to understand exactly what they had walked into — the cold that could hobble even Ye Tianxie’s movements, that had sent even him home with nothing…

Terrible cold… cold beyond any limit. A cold that soaked straight through into the blood and the marrow in a single moment. For the first time in their lives, they understood that cold could be as terrible as this.

A low-level Priest cannot cast from the back of a mount, so while they were riding she could not use Basic Healing at will. Which meant every heal had to come from Yaoyao, standing on the horse’s head.

Yaoyao swung its tail freely, a holy white light shining from it without a break. Of all of them, only Yaoyao was completely untouched by the cold.

“S… Second Brother… is that… is that the little fox you told me about? Its healing… that’s… that’s just broken!” Even inside the Snow-Fleece Coat, every part of Zuo Pojun was shuddering violently. His teeth chattered hard enough that they seemed liable to come loose at any moment.

The healing numbers kept floating up above their heads — enormous was the only word for them — and even in that killing cold, Zuo Pojun and Su Feifei were astonished past all measure. Su Feifei’s healing already far outstripped any Priest of her level, but set against this little fox’s, there was simply no comparison to be made. And by Ye Tianxie’s account, this little fox he had picked up by accident was a Tier-3 pure support pet… A Tier-3 pet could have power this frightening?

Ye Tianxie nodded slightly and said nothing. He was hardly having an easier time of the cold himself. With no Snow-Fleece Coat on him, what he was enduring was worse than anything Zuo Pojun or Su Feifei felt.

“Feifei, are you cold?” Ye Tianxie moved closer and asked it quietly.

Su Feifei’s face had gone entirely white, but she forced up a thread of a smile and shook her head. “Cold… but I’m not the least bit afraid. This much cold… I… I’m not afraid of this.”

The cold shook her voice as she said it. Looking into eyes full of stubbornness and resolve, Ye Tianxie smiled at her.

Only a bond that has been through hardship, only one willing to go through hardship together, ever becomes truly unbreakable. Ye Tianxie bringing Su Feifei to a map this brutal and this dangerous, of his own choice, was in its way a push forward for the two of them… and, in a small way, a test of her.

She really was no ordinary rich man’s daughter. She gave Tianxie her whole heart, and he would give her back everything he had, and give it as truly and as honestly.

How long it went on, none of them could have said — perhaps as long as a century. And then, in the world of ice ahead of them, six shadows appeared side by side.

Six Snow Wolves… these were the ones. These were what had sent Ye Tianxie home with nothing the day before.

“Pojun, is your Mass Taunt up? Go — get their aggro, and remember, you have to get all of it… then run circles for everything you’re worth!” Ye Tianxie caught hold of Su Feifei and shouted it to Zuo Pojun through his teeth.

“Un… understood!” Zuo Pojun answered at the loudest volume he could still produce, then, with enormous slowness, raised an arm that had almost lost all feeling and had gone heavier and harder than stone. The White Dragon Horse beneath him charged the pack, and at that same moment all six Snow Wolves came rushing in, exactly as they had the day before.

“Feifei, put your horse away, quickly… and be careful not to stop healing me and Pojun,” Ye Tianxie called.

Su Feifei dismissed the White Dragon Horse under her, then, arms shuddering, hauled her staff up with difficulty and began casting healing alongside Yaoyao… and as she cast Basic Healing, the colored bracelet on her right wrist gave off a splendid, many-colored light.

Zuo Pojun’s Mass Taunt successfully pulled all six Snow Wolves’ aggro onto himself, and they turned as one and charged him. Zuo Pojun was a Guardian, but against the attacks of six level-25 monsters he could not have survived a single exchange. Seeing the aggro fully taken, Ye Tianxie let out a quiet breath and shouted, “Pojun, run! Take them in circles, and remember not to leave Feifei’s and Yaoyao’s healing range.”

With that, the White Dragon Horse under him shot forward, straight after Zuo Pojun.

A mount is completely protected while it is being ridden, so the horses felt nothing of the cold here either, and their movement was entirely unaffected. That was one of the reasons Ye Tianxie had made sure of mounts before coming. Hearing him, Zuo Pojun at once steered his horse around and set off dragging the six wolves behind him… With the White Dragon Horse’s 50 points of added speed, Zuo Pojun’s movement speed just barely beat the Snow Wolves’, and the six of them, aggro locked, gave frantic chase without being able to close the gap.

“Good!” Ye Tianxie murmured, set his teeth, gripped the Hour of Fate in his hand with every scrap of strength he had, ran the six wolves down from behind, and swept out one flat, ordinary attack that caught three of them at once.

Ye Tianxie’s ordinary attack took better than a third of each wolf’s health, and still did not shift their aggro; they stayed hard on Zuo Pojun’s heels. Zuo Pojun had been frozen a bruised shade of blue, but all he actually had to do was steer the White Dragon Horse’s course with his mind, and looking back at the string of wolves trailing him, he was frankly rather enjoying himself. He had worked out exactly what Ye Tianxie was doing.

Force would not answer here, so Ye Tianxie could only use Zuo Pojun to pull a train. In this environment a person’s movement was heavily compromised and a mount’s was not — so the mount pulled the train, while the others came in alongside and took the pack apart one at a time. Ye Tianxie had thought about it for a long time, and this was the best method he had been able to come up with.

Going head-on, even with his health pool and his attack, would have been suicide.

After the ordinary attack came Ye Tianxie’s first Dragon Rend Slash, which chopped one of the wolves he had just hit to the ground, health bar emptied. He steadied himself, forced his stiff body to raise the Hour of Fate again, and Dragon Rend Slash came down hard on the second wolf.

Ten seconds — normally time enough for a dozen and more attacks — got him three Dragon Rend Slashes this time; but each one landed precisely on a wolf he had already caught with the ordinary attack. Three slashes, three Snow Wolves dead.

The remaining three went on chasing after Zuo Pojun without a word of complaint, and went on failing to catch him. Movement speed, as an attribute, is very often the first thing that decides a fight. With that speed gap, and with three wolves of visibly limited intelligence that knew nothing about cutting a corner to head him off, they had no hope of catching Zuo Pojun unless he chose to stop.

“Tianxie, you can do it!” Su Feifei bit down on lips already frozen bloodless and cast Basic Healing with everything she had, topping her mana back up as she went.

With the three wolves down, Ye Tianxie swept another ordinary attack across the remaining three and did the same thing again; a short while later the last three Snow Wolves lay dead as well.

Ye Tianxie, Zuo Pojun and Su Feifei all stopped and looked at one another, victory in their faces. The six Snow Wolves that had beaten Ye Tianxie back the day before had been put down perfectly this time by the three of them working together, without one of the three taking so much as a scratch. Yaoyao, which had never once stopped healing, wagged its fluffy tail happily too. Truth be told, the greatest share of the credit belonged to it: without its outrageous healing, Su Feifei and Zuo Pojun might still have withstood that 10%-a-second devouring of their health, but Ye Tianxie could never have reached this place at all.

“That was great… heh, I finally got to be some use to Second Brother.” Zuo Pojun let out an excited shout, and immediately the freezing air pouring into his chest had him wincing and baring his teeth. The coldest reaches of the poles were probably about this bad.

Ye Tianxie gathered the pelts off all six Snow Wolves, then quickly drained a mana potion to restore Yaoyao’s mana (Note: a pet’s or a mount’s health and mana can be restored, point for point, by its master using recovery items). Yaoyao’s formidable Mystic Spirit Body restored 5% of its health and 5% of its mana every second, but with Mystic Spirit Cure and Mystic Spirit Restoration going without a break, Ye Tianxie still worried its mana might not keep pace.

“Hold on… it should be more dangerous ahead. Be careful.” Ye Tianxie said it with his brows drawn together, and rode out in front.

“Feifei, are you cold? Don’t force it. If you don’t think you can take it, go back first — with Yaoyao here it should still be manageable.” Ye Tianxie squeezed Su Feifei’s freezing hand and asked it quietly.

Su Feifei’s Spirit stat was 75, and Basic Healing restored Spirit × 2; the Intermediate Healing that restored Spirit × 3 could not be learned until level 30. Adding the Seven-Colored Bracelet’s doubling, Su Feifei’s healing currently came to — 75 × 2 × 2 = 300. Three hundred health every five seconds.

Yaoyao’s magic attack was still below Feifei’s, but a single Mystic Spirit Cure restored 580 health, and with Mystic Spirit Restoration returning 30% of health once every ten seconds on top of that, its overall healing came to more than double Su Feifei’s even with the Seven-Colored Bracelet.

But Su Feifei’s presence mattered enormously all the same, because Yaoyao’s outrageous healing was exactly enough to hold Ye Tianxie’s health loss in check — and if he took a hit on top of that, the situation turned dangerous fast. That was where Su Feifei’s healing came in.

Watching Ye Tianxie take Su Feifei’s hand so intimately, his face gentle, his voice full of a concern that came from somewhere real… Zuo Pojun could finally be certain. This time, Ye Tianxie was serious.

Hoo… He blew out a long breath in secret. Mentioning this to Fourth Brother was one thing — but should he tell Big Sister or not? And if he did tell Big Sister, what would come of it?

“I… I’m perfectly fine,” Su Feifei answered stubbornly. She had been raised in silk and fine food; when had she ever known suffering of the kind this cold inflicted? In a brief silence she drew a few light breaths, then looked into Ye Tianxie’s eyes and said softly, “Tianxie, at least let me stay and finish this quest with you… because, when you think about it, this is our first time… fighting side by side. Hee…”

Zuo Pojun: “……”

That beautiful smile of Su Feifei’s caught hold of Ye Tianxie, and the cold on him thinned slowly under a warmth rising from somewhere inside. He nodded and gave a soft “mm.”

The Ice-Bone Severed Road is very long. Everyone who comes into it thinks so — because every second and every minute inside it drags like a year.

A few minutes later the sustained, savage cold was pressing up against the limit of what the three of them could bear, and still there was no end to the Ice-Bone Severed Road in sight; and into a field of vision that was beginning to blur, a row of snow-white shapes rose once again.

Six more Snow Wolves, standing in a line, blocking the way through completely.

All three of them worked to gather their focus, and Ye Tianxie said, “Pojun, get ready… go. Same as last time.”

“Understood.” Zuo Pojun worked his hands hard to make sure there would be no error in the range or distance of his Mass Taunt, then spurred his horse forward.

Mass Taunt went out and once again took all six Snow Wolves’ aggro cleanly. Zuo Pojun wheeled his horse and bolted, then cheerfully threw Ye Tianxie a somewhat misshapen victory sign.

Ye Tianxie let out a breath as well, ran down to the back of the wolf pack, and prepared to take them apart one by one, exactly as before…

Ordinary attack, Dragon Rend Slash. The first Snow Wolf went down.

And just as Ye Tianxie’s second Dragon Rend Slash was about to fall, a noise that did not belong came suddenly from behind him. The freezing environment had not dulled his perception; he whipped around and saw, to his horror, another six snow-white wolf shapes bursting out from behind a bank of ice — two charging at him, four charging toward where Su Feifei stood.

“Pojun!!” Ye Tianxie went white with shock, then forced himself calm and roared it at Zuo Pojun.

“This is bad… Second Brother, my Mass Taunt has a ten-second cooldown, I can’t use it yet… Second Brother, go and cover Feifei first!” Zuo Pojun, who had already registered the danger, was equally appalled. With Su Feifei’s fragile health pool, any casual blow from a Snow Wolf stood a chance of one-shotting her. His head was in chaos, but his wits held; he did not dare so much as slow, because the moment he stopped he would certainly be buried under the wolves’ claws himself.

Without a mount, Ye Tianxie could have used Dragon Shadow Slash to close to within a short distance of Su Feifei — but the White Dragon Horse was not a combat mount, and could not support the launch of a Dragon Shadow Slash… All he could do was drive the White Dragon Horse into a headlong run. Once he reached her, he could throw up the Soul of the Evil Dragon and shield her… Even if today ended in another retreat with nothing to show for it, he would sooner accept that than let Su Feifei die under a Snow Wolf’s claws.

“Feifei, run!” Ye Tianxie bellowed.

But even with the White Dragon Horse’s speed, it was plainly not going to be in time. Watching the wolves close, Su Feifei went white with terror; between a body stiff with cold and a heart hammering with fear, moving her feet at all was difficult, let alone getting clear.

Seeing that there was no way at all to get in front of Su Feifei in time, everything in Ye Tianxie clenched… and at that moment Yaoyao, standing on the White Dragon Horse’s head, broke off its healing, and its small body shot toward Su Feifei trailing a streak of white light.

Yaoyao’s base movement was very nearly double Ye Tianxie’s — 180!

Thud!!

That small body slammed hard into the Snow Wolf that had just leapt in front of Su Feifei. The wolf stalled a moment — and Yaoyao took the claw meant for Su Feifei full across it, and better than half its health vanished.

“Yaoyao!” Ye Tianxie shouted, judged the distance, sprang violently off the horse’s back, launched Dragon Shadow Slash in midair and drove down at an angle, and at last closed to Su Feifei’s side. And by then two more Snow Wolves were on her — from the front and from the right, both at once.

Ordinarily, Ye Tianxie would have swept an arm around Su Feifei and carried her clear in an instant. But the body he had now, frozen stiff and numb, could not begin to perform a movement like that. He blocked the one in front with his own body and had nothing left with which to stop the one on the right…

A Priest is the guardian spirit a battlefield cannot do without, and also its most fragile. To guard others, they must first have strong protection laid over them.

And what blocked the second Snow Wolf was Yaoyao again.

The two wolves’ attacks came barely a second apart, and Yaoyao had no time at all to heal itself; it threw itself into the path of the wolf on the right regardless. With no attacking ability of its own, all Yaoyao could do was ram with its body. It was protecting Su Feifei on instinct alone, because she was the person its master wanted protected.

What met it was a second strike from a wolf’s claw… and there was no suspense at all about it. Its health dropped in one stroke to a complete blank.

“Yaoyao!”

Before its consciousness blurred out, it heard Ye Tianxie’s and Su Feifei’s voices calling, laid over one another.

I am the Mystic Spirit Snow Fox. I was born in a wondrous place, and after ten million years and more I still do not know of whom I was born, or for whom.

Great power was mine from birth. However grievously I am wounded, I can recover completely in a single instant. I knew very early that I, having no power to attack, might never win — but I would never lose either… because as long as I willed it, I could never die.

I could not win… but my power could help my companions win. As long as I was there, my companions would not fall, and they would come into greater strength besides… only, those companions were not truly companions. I had merely been born there, and met them, and so become one of them.

And it was because I appeared that the dragon race, which had never known defeat, was utterly beaten by us. And when we had pressed the dragons almost to their last extremity, the mighty Dragon God spent every scrap of his power and his life to imprison me in a terrible place… From inside that transparent world I watched my companions collapse under the dragons’ counterattack… I was not troubled by it, and I did not even grieve for them, because they were not truly my companions, my friends…

What I grieved for… was my own fate.

The Dragon God’s power was far beneath mine, and when my own power was at last about to break the Dragon God’s Stone open, every generation of Dragon Gods that found the stone’s power weakening would always pour in fresh dragon force… My power could not stand against that, generation after generation, against Dragon Gods without number…

And so, in despair, I was imprisoned for seventy million years…

Seventy million years of imprisonment, of my power being devoured, brought me from my peak down to a feeble lowest point… barely enough to sustain my life and my thought.

They all called me the Mystic Fox.

And now I have a new name — Yaoyao.

I like this name. I like it very, very much.

Because it is the name my master gave me… It was he who delivered me out of seventy million years of despair. I remember clearly every word he said for my sake then, and every single thing he did… He showed me what it is to be moved by feeling.

And so I offered him a Soul Blood Pact of my own accord, and became his pet forever… and I have never once regretted it.

And now I… am I to die just like this?

I am so weak now… but the thing I once was, the Mystic Fox even a Dragon God feared, how can it possibly… die under the claws of one lowly Snow Wolf.

My power… where in the world have you gone…

I beg you, come back… only a little would be enough… at least let me have some power that can protect my master… truly, only a little would be enough…

Yaoyao’s stricken body fell in a textbook parabola, and thoughts spanning seventy million years flashed through its mind in a moment. Time seemed to slow past all measure, the world around it grew perfectly quiet, and its falling body drifted down toward the ground light and slow, like a tuft of cotton.

And at that moment, white light blazed up out of Yaoyao’s body, and a wind of overwhelming power swept outward with that body at its center, driving every Snow Wolf near it away.

Inside the white light, Yaoyao’s falling body stopped and simply hung there in the air. And into Ye Tianxie’s ear came a prompt that shook him to his roots…

“Ding… Your pet ‘Mystic Spirit Snow Fox’ has awakened and triggered its special ability ‘Mystic Spirit Revival.’ The Mystic Spirit Snow Fox has been revived, with all states restored to full.”

“Ding… Your pet ‘Mystic Spirit Snow Fox’ has awakened in ability, for reasons unknown, and advanced to a Tier-4 pet.”

“Ding… Your pet ‘Mystic Spirit Snow Fox’ has awakened in ability and advanced to a Tier-5 pet.”

“Ding… Your pet ‘Mystic Spirit Snow Fox’ has unlocked the skills: Mystic Spirit Wall · Vengeance, Mystic Spirit Wall · Heaven’s Barrier, Mystic Spirit Wall · Heaven’s Grace.”

Mystic Spirit Snow Fox: Tier-5 pet. Level 12. Root and origin unknown. Sealed inside the Dragon God’s Stone by the Dragon God seventy million years ago, escaped with Xietian’s help, its ability fallen to its lowest point; a very small part of that ability has now returned. Delicate in build, gentle in temperament, extremely decorative. Will never initiate an attack on any living creature. Master: Xietian. Having signed the Soul Blood Pact, will never betray.

Attributes: HP 660, MP 2,640, Physical Attack 102, Magic Attack 204, Defense 102, Evasion 36, Accuracy 36, Attack Speed 150, Movement Speed 210.

Innate: Mystic Spirit Body

Mystic Spirit Revival: A heaven-defying privilege granted to the Mystic Spirit Snow Fox by the power of the Mystic Spirit. On death, a 50% chance of reviving where it fell with all states at full.

Skills: Mystic Spirit Self-Healing, Mystic Spirit Cure, Mystic Spirit Restoration

Mystic Spirit Wall · Vengeance: A crimson wall of vengeance forged from resentful Mystic Spirit power, covering an area five meters around the caster. The wall of vengeance flashes once per second; each flash forcibly expels every enemy that has entered it to a distance of three meters and deals non-elemental magic damage equal to magic attack × 3. Consumes 100 mana per second while active; may be interrupted at any time; lasts a maximum of 20 seconds per activation. Cooldown 120 seconds.

Mystic Spirit Wall · Heaven’s Barrier: A yellow wall of protection forged from resilient Mystic Spirit power. Once activated, protects the caster with immunity to all damage from outside. Consumes 100 mana per second while active; may be interrupted at any time; lasts a maximum of 20 seconds per activation. Cooldown 180 seconds.

Mystic Spirit Wall · Heaven’s Grace: A white barrier of blessing forged from merciful Mystic Spirit power. Once activated, covers an area ten meters around the caster; all companions within the Wall of Heaven’s Grace take 50% less damage from any source, and all healing-type skill effects are increased by 50%. The Wall of Heaven’s Grace consumes 100 mana per second while active; may be interrupted at any time; lasts a maximum of 1 minute per activation; may be used a maximum of three times per day.

Origin Barrier: Ability insufficient. Cannot be unlocked.

Light of Origin: Ability insufficient. Cannot be unlocked.

Yaoyao had died under Ye Tianxie’s and Su Feifei’s eyes; and in the space of a blink, under those same eyes, it was reborn like something out of a dream.

(End of Chapter 202)