Chapter 143 — Here I Come, Papa Ice Dragon

The wind and snow howled, the vicious beast roared—the battle had reached its most critical moment.

Once in close, the Jiuli Battle Beast and the King Kong Ape, enduring their frostbite, unleashed a frenzied barrage upon the Frost Ancient Tree!

The whole ice field suffered terrible devastation in that moment. Had a battle of monarchs taken place within Pingcheng, a great stretch of city blocks would surely have been reduced to ruins.

"The Iron-Eating Beast's evolved form really is formidable," Lu Heng remarked from the sidelines.

Worthy of a race whose evolution materials alone cost hundreds of millions—this kind of strength was worth the investment.

Shi Li: "Formidable it is, but a king-tier Frozen Ancient Tree—what a waste, what a waste…"

Shi Qi watched with a twitching mouth as the Frozen Ancient Tree up ahead was set upon from all sides by the Jiuli Battle Beast and the King Kong Ape.

Beaten that savagely?

He glanced at Feng Ying and Commander He, both possessed of ice-type enhancement talents.

Neither of them showed the slightest inclination to form a contract.

So it seemed both were rather traditional beast tamers, unwilling to risk the enormous danger of directly contracting a wild monarch that had already grown to maturity.

"The battle's almost over. Let's head over too," Lu Heng said.

……

[Confirmed for inclusion]

[Skill]: Energy Fruit

[Skill Tier]: High-tier

[Description]: A wood-type skill. An energy fruit created from wood-type life force, which can be infused with powers of various attributes; within a certain range, the creator may detonate the fruit at will to produce various effects.

[Status]: Teachable

A moment later.

Amid the roars of several vicious beasts, the Frozen Ancient Tree toppled.

Everyone rushed over at once, and the Frost Moon Ice Wolf and the Blizzard Monster came dashing up too, drooling.

A plant-type monarch like this was treasure from head to toe.

If it truly weren't nutritious, what wolf would drool over grass?

Shi Cen came over as well, casually touching the remains of the dead Frozen Ancient Tree, and shot a glance at the still-shaken Ginseng Baby.

I'll teach you when we get back!

Ginseng Baby: "Ee…"

Ginseng Baby was still reeling from the battle—humans were terrifying.

A monarch this huge, and they'd wiped it out just like that.

Eleven and Buggy, by contrast, watched with open curiosity as the ice wolves and other pets gathered around the Frozen Ancient Tree, eating the leaves of its remains… Could this stuff be eaten?

The ice field was a scene of utter wreckage now. Feng Ying and Commander He looked at the dead Frozen Ancient Tree, then turned to Lin Yu with considerable feeling.

"Old Lin, that's you all right."

Pingcheng had originally been a rather backward outlying district, where even master-level beast tamers were on the weaker side. But now, with Lin Yu, Pingcheng's overall strength could rank among the notable in Icefield City.

"Awoo~~" "Grrr~~" The Frost Moon Ice Wolf and the Blizzard Monster greeted the Jiuli Battle Beast as well—big brother.

A fellow king-tier creature, and you're this strong!

They were in for a treat.

Those broken scraps of material were a rare delicacy to them as well.

"Awoo!!" The Jiuli Battlebeast declared that this was all the power of the young miss's dowry.

"Heh, you all go gather the materials," Lin Yu said to Feng Ying and Commander He. "I'll apply medicine to them first."

Right now, the Jiuli Battlebeast and the Golden Ape King were covered in frostbite wounds. Having resisted the blizzard's assault head-on, they had clearly taken no small amount of damage themselves—damage of a caliber that ordinary healing skills could not even treat.

It was only because their bodies were of monarch-rank toughness that the injuries seemed inconsequential. Had any commander-rank creature been in their place, its flesh would by now have been frozen dead through and through.

Master Lin took out the frostbite salve he had prepared in advance and began applying it to the Jiuli Battlebeast and the Golden Ape King.

Shi Jin, meanwhile, was considering whether to copy any of the other skills—and in the end, chose to give it up.

There were still super-tier skills left, but he could not teach them at present anyway, and copying them over would just waste slots.

Besides, he had no beast that specialized in the ice element.

Chongchong could only count as half an ice-type; it was not worth occupying a skill slot for a single ice-element skill.

After all, the Ice Dragon Phantom was only a transitional stage—there was no need to obsess over perfecting it. Its ceiling was merely overlord race. Who knew? Perhaps after Chongchong evolved, it would become one itself.

Shi Jin admitted to himself that he had gotten carried away.

He was even turning his nose up at overlord races now.

If he wanted Chongchong to pour massive effort into cosplaying, and himself to pour massive effort into adding points to perfect it, then a mere giant dragon would not do—at the very least it had to be a mythic-tier divine dragon.

"Pure bliss…"

The more he thought, the more Shi Jin could not help but grin.

That smile promptly drew several looks such as one might give a fool.

Lu Heng stood with arms crossed beside the frozen ancient tree, observing this monarch. The other three masters and their beasts were busily dissecting materials. Seeing Shi Jin standing there laughing to himself, they could not help but cast him puzzled glances.

Shi Jin: "…"

"Seeing how strong the Jiuli Battlebeast is, I got a little excited," Shi Jin said, gazing at the sky.

"Let's keep moving," Lu Heng said after a glance at Shi Yun. To her, encountering a monarch-rank creature was merely an interlude; what mattered most was the Ice Dragon Ruins ahead.

"Right!!" Feng Ying and the others dissected with even more vigor—as for these materials, they would sort them out in detail once they were back!

……

An hour later.

The five of them left the blizzard zone.

Whether it was because of the battle just now or not, even though the Azure Spirit Wind Bird released no further intimidation during the flight, not a single fierce beast was seen along the way.

This left Chongchong deeply depressed.

The leader had finished its fight—it wanted to fight too.

Though not fighting was fine too… after flying the whole way, Chongchong felt it was about to drop dead from exhaustion.

Were it not for the Ginseng Baby and Absolute Sleep propping it up, it definitely could not have kept pace with the other beasts.

"Chirp!!"

Finally out of the blizzard zone, Chongchong gasped for breath.

"Mew." Eleven looked at it with disappointment—what a fine training opportunity, and it still complained of being tired.

Its ideological awareness had room for improvement.

Eleven had wanted Shi Jin to ride it and race against these flying beasts, but Shi Jue refused, finding it uncomfortable.

Chongchong: QAQ, I was wrong.

"Eek!" The Ginseng Baby snickered.

Outside the blizzard zone, the sky instantly recovered.

White snow mountains, blue sky—everything looked incomparably beautiful.

This also meant the Ice Dragon Ruins were almost upon them.

The Ice Dragon Ruins were located at the summit of a snow peak.

It was a semi-developed ruin zone.

It looked like a sealed structure built from countless stones of eternal ice.

Dragon might drifted out from within and without the structure from time to time, which meant that apart from humans, no creature dared to come into contact with this place—even monarch-rank creatures were no exception.

"This is the place."

Above the Ice Dragon Ruins, with Lu Heng at the lead, the group slowly descended toward the outside of this complex of ice-stone buildings.

In the past, many researchers and archaeologists had come here to study it. Unfortunately, the vast complex of buildings had not yielded a single useful clue.