If you cannot touch the Frost Snow Wolf’s heart, then ten thousand words and the most gorgeous phrasing in the world will leave it unmoved. If you can touch its heart, then one sentence — a few words — is already enough.
Words can lie. Expressions can lie. Tears can lie… but the look in a person’s eyes can never lie.
What moved the Frost Snow Wolf was not what Su Feifei said, but what was in her eyes while she said it — the heavy grief and the longing, and a sincerity that came from somewhere real.
And so it believed her completely. It believed she truly was willing to save its child, and to treat the child well afterward…
That small ball of white light was the power the Frost Snow Wolf had been using to protect its child, and inside the white light the little Frost Snow Wolf lay sleeping. For a hundred years it had been held frozen in a single moment, with no life draining away — which was why it had never grown.
The ball of white light drifted down to Su Feifei’s feet, and she crouched and reached out toward it, guided by a strange feeling… Slowly the white light faded, and what appeared was a snow-white wolf cub about the size of a young puppy… If you had not known beforehand that it was a wolf, you would have called it a dog without a moment’s hesitation.
The little Frost Snow Wolf’s eyes opened slowly and looked at Su Feifei, a strange light moving in them.
“Ding… The Frost Snow Wolf (Juvenile) wishes to make you its master. Accept?”
“Ding… If you accept, your party will have successfully completed the Huaxia battle region’s Pet System Quest, ‘Sorrow of the Frost Snow Wolf.’ If you decline, you abandon completion of the quest.”
“Accept.”
The white light wrapped around the little Frost Snow Wolf vanished entirely. The cub closed its eyes, dissolved into a burst of white radiance, and merged into Su Feifei’s body — and in that same moment an enormous System prompt rang out across the whole World of Fate.
“Ding… Worldwide Announcement: Huaxia battle region players ‘Su Causeway in the Misty Rain,’ ‘Xietian’ and ‘Shield That Breaks a Thousand Armies’ have successfully completed the battle region Pet System Quest, ‘Sorrow of the Frost Snow Wolf.’ The Huaxia battle region’s Pet System is now open. Huaxia players may learn Basic Capture from any class instructor; Capture carries a certain probability of taking a dying monster as one’s own pet, and defeating monsters carries a certain probability of yielding a pet egg from which a pet may be hatched. The Huaxia battle region has the honor of being the first battle region in the world to open the Pet System. Battle Region Honor Value +200. Huaxia battle region players ‘Su Causeway in the Misty Rain,’ ‘Xietian’ and ‘Shield That Breaks a Thousand Armies’ have the honor of being the world’s first player party to complete the Pet System Quest. Player Su Causeway in the Misty Rain gains Renown 200 × 5 and receives additional rewards: Immortal Spirit-grade pet, the Frost Snow Wolf, and Immortal Spirit-grade item, the Scroll of Kindred Minds. Player Xietian gains Renown 200 × 2.5 and receives the additional reward of the Immortal Spirit-grade item, the Scroll of Kindred Minds. Player Shield That Breaks a Thousand Armies gains Renown 200 × 2.5 and receives the additional reward of the Immortal Spirit-grade item, the Scroll of Kindred Minds.”
(Note: the Renown granted on completing a System Quest is the Honor Value × 10. That figure is the total Renown; if one person completes it, that one person takes all of it, and if ten people complete it, the ten divide it up. In this quest Su Feifei accomplished the last and most crucial step, so she received the largest share.)
“Ding… Worldwide Announcement…”
“Ding… Worldwide Announcement…”
The players of the world had not yet finished absorbing the shock of Xietian completing Huaxia’s Mercenary System Quest single-handed; the talk about Xietian being the first person in the world to complete a System Quest had not cooled in the slightest. And now five consecutive prompts sounded — more than enough to stun every player who heard them into blankness.
Battle Region Honor Ranking:
First place: Huaxia battle region. Honor Value: 300.
Honor summary: On 17 July 2210, Huaxia battle region player Xietian successfully completed the Mercenary System Quest. The Huaxia battle region became the first battle region in the world to open the Mercenary System.
Honor summary: On 18 July 2210, Huaxia battle region players Su Causeway in the Misty Rain, Xietian and Shield That Breaks a Thousand Armies successfully completed the Pet System Quest. The Huaxia battle region became the first battle region in the world to open the Pet System.
The focus of all the talk turned once again, through a boiling clamor and through the unease and envious resentment of a number of nations, toward the nation of Huaxia… and toward that Immortal Spirit-grade pet, and the sheer shock of it.
If people had known that the reward for being first to open the Pet System was an Immortal Spirit-grade pet… then beyond any doubt, countless players would have thrown everything aside to complete that quest first, even knowing perfectly well they were going to their deaths for nothing.
“Young Mistress Su, you did it! You did it!” Zuo Pojun shouted excitedly, having finally got his wits back. Before this, it had never once crossed his mind that the one to finish this quest would turn out to be Su Feifei, who was there in a supporting role.
Ye Tianxie tapped his own forehead with a finger, a small smile at the corner of his mouth. He had said a great heap of things and the Frost Snow Wolf had not reacted in the slightest. Su Feifei had said a bare handful of sentences, and it had brought the cub straight to her without a moment’s hesitation, and watched it become her pet.
And with that, the Frost Snow Wolf’s long-cherished wish was complete… which meant it, too, should now disappear.
The Frost Snow Wolf’s body lay where it was, but the half-transparent wolf-shadow had begun to blur. Its gaze had followed the cub as it moved, and when the cub finished acknowledging its master and dissolved into white light to merge into Su Feifei, the shadow raised its head and let out a soundless howl. It had nothing left to hold it here. At last it could be released.
Its power was scattering, and its consciousness and body were vanishing fast with it. The Frost Snow Wolf looked at Su Feifei one last time, and in the moment its body disappeared entirely, a shaft of ice-colored light came down out of the sky and settled gently over her.
“Ding… You have received the life-blessing of the Immortal Spirit Beast, the Frost Snow Wolf. Luck +3, Strength +10, Constitution +10, Agility +10, Spirit +20, Water resistance +20%, and a small increase to your resistance to cold environments.”
The prompt sounded in Su Feifei’s ear and faded, and the Frost Snow Wolf’s body at last vanished completely from the place where it had lain.
“Thank you,” Su Feifei said quietly.
The Frost Snow Wolf’s disappearance left all three of them low for a moment. But Zuo Pojun was in front of Su Feifei almost at once, too impatient to wait, eyes shining. “Young Mistress Su, quick, let me see that little wolf… Bloody hell, it really is an Immortal Spirit-grade pet… Is anyone else even allowed to live?! With that System announcement out, heaven knows how many people are going to die of pure envy!”
Ye Tianxie nodded along with him. He wanted a look at an Immortal Spirit-grade pet’s attributes himself.
Su Feifei put out both hands, and a wolf cub that looked more like a puppy than anything appeared in a ball of white light, cradled in her palms. A full-grown Frost Snow Wolf far exceeded ordinary wolves in size, and in its juvenile stage it was just as plainly smaller than them.
Frost Snow Wolf: Immortal Spirit-grade pet. Level 0. Master: Su Causeway in the Misty Rain. A king-class wolf conceived in an environment of extreme cold, with powerful resistance to cold and powerful command of ice and snow, and also the gentlest in temperament of all wolf kinds.
Attributes: HP 500, MP 500, Physical Attack 150, Magic Attack 180, Defense 120, Accuracy 10, Evasion 10, Attack Speed 120, Movement Speed 120. Rideable from level 30.
Innate — Frost-Cold Body: Complete resistance to cold environments of moderate severity and below. In environments of ice and snow, ice-and-snow skills gain a 10%–30% effect bonus. Immunity to 60% of any Water-attribute damage.
Skills — Ice Ball: Summons a ball of ice to attack a single enemy. Base attack power equal to magic attack × 120%. Costs 12 mana. No cooldown.
Ice Shards: Condenses the icy power of water into countless shards of ice, which scatter into the enemies ahead. At present a maximum of ten shards may be condensed at once, each with base attack power equal to magic attack × 35%. Each shard costs 5 mana. Cooldown 5 seconds.
Frost Wolf Shadow: Condenses the icy power of water into the image of a wolf, which charges through every enemy in a straight line five meters ahead. Deals Water-attribute damage equal to magic attack × 150%, with a 5% chance of inflicting a frozen state lasting 3–7 seconds. Costs 30 mana. Cooldown 5 seconds.
“That’s strong!” Zuo Pojun exclaimed once he had read the little Frost Snow Wolf’s attributes through, and the envy in him was such that drool was leaking out of the corner of his mouth. The Frost Snow Wolf did its Immortal Spirit-grade name no disservice at all — level 0 or not, what it had was absolutely enough to shock any player alive, and then drive him up the wall.
What has to be said, though, is that the Frost Snow Wolf was a perfectly normal Immortal Spirit Beast, and its skill effects came nowhere close to those of the thoroughly abnormal Tier-5 Mystic Spirit Snow Fox. So with a little monster like Yaoyao standing next to it for comparison, Ye Tianxie finished reading the Frost Snow Wolf’s attributes and, beyond being happy for Su Feifei, felt no surprise at all.
“Tianxie… this little wolf, can it really be mine? Should I…” Su Feifei said it uneasily. All the way here, it had been Ye Tianxie and Zuo Pojun opening the road, while she had done only a little to help and brought on rather more danger. And now she had ended up with the largest share of the rewards, which left her unable to feel easy about any of it. Still more, she felt… the highest Renown reward ought to belong to Ye Tianxie, and this precious Immortal Spirit pet ought to be his too, to make him stronger.
With Ye Tianxie and Zuo Pojun both staring at it, the little Frost Snow Wolf seemed frightened; it glanced at them timidly a few times and shrank quietly back against Su Feifei.
“Of course it’s your pet already,” Ye Tianxie said, smiling, understanding perfectly well what was on her mind. “The greatest share of the credit for finishing this quest is yours, Feifei. Without you, never mind talking the Frost Snow Wolf round — we would never have got past the entrance. The cub is a pure attack pet, and paired with your healing it will multiply your overall strength several times over. You can hold your own now, which means I’ll be able to stop worrying when you’re out there by yourself… And don’t forget the promise you made the Frost Snow Wolf. It handed its child over to you and set its mind at rest; you remember what you said, and be a good companion to it.”
“Mm!” Su Feifei broke into a smile. “I know. I’ll definitely be good friends with it… Oh — I haven’t given it a name yet… Mm, it’s grown so white, and its fur is just like snow. Let’s call it Little Snow.”
Ye Tianxie: “……”
Zuo Pojun: “……”
Little Snow. A very poetic, very pure, very feminine name — but on a wolf it just sounded wrong…
“Mm. Little Snow it is, then.”
(End of Chapter 205)