In all the time that Lei Xinfeng spent at Hanya Castle, he still hasn’t seen a single Ice Beast, only heard of it from the words of others. He didn’t know how strong they were, but he was very confident in his abilities. Ever since he reached Sixth Ring, he gained the ability to fly. The space where he could fight in increased by a whole dimension. He had much more freedom whether it’s in offense or in retreat.
As a result, he wasn’t really scared of Ice Beasts.
The white fog continued to expand. “I think it’s a zeshe!” said Song Qiao.
The name was strange, and Lei Xinfeng didn’t understand. “Zeshe? What’s that?”
“It’s a type of Ice Beast. It has a weapon consisting of extremely cold white fog. It’s nowhere near as powerful as those present during the Frost, but it’s still able to slow a person’s movements. If the victim isn’t strong enough, he might freeze to death.
“Ah Feng, you stay back. You probably wouldn’t be able to handle his fog. Everyone else get ready.”
Lei Xinfeng was a little disappointed, but he understood that in the Outer Worlds, he wasn’t strong enough. Only when he was an Eighth or Ninth Ring Sage can his strength be considered sufficient. As he was now, even if he was able to chase away a Ninth Ring Sage with his Chaos Ring, he still had no way of competing with someone fighting seriously. The difference in cultivation levels was hard to ignore.
Xin Zhaolun’s eyes shined. “Zeshes aren’t bad. As long as you can avoid the fog, it’s not scary.”
Song Qiao smiled. “Yes, I was a bit over cautious. Ah Feng can also fight. He has his Chaos Wheel. It should be pretty effective.”
Lei Xinfeng became happy. He also wished to fight, mainly because he wanted to practice using his Chaos Wheel. After the two tests before, he found that the Chaos Wheel was a very good ranged weapon. He believed that once he completely mastered the weapon, he’d never need to get into dangerous close-combat scruffles again.
However, he didn’t rush. He waited to see how Xin Zhaolun attacked. Song Qiao also stepped back. With his rank, stooping to attacking such a weak opponent was completely out of the question. Unless an Ice Beast that even Xin Zhaolun and the other Ninth Ring Sages can’t defeat appears, he’ll continue to only watch.
With Song Qiao supporting, Xin Zhaolun and the others could go all out. There weren’t many chances to do so. This time, they could completely disregard any dangers, and their attack power was even stronger than before. Without wasting a single bit of energy on defense, they attacked with all their might.
The zeshe was hidden in the fog cover, obscuring his form. Sometimes, his shadow appeared. From the shape, Lei Xinfeng felt it was like a toad, squatting on the ground, fog billowing from his mouth.
A toad?
Lei Xinfeng felt surprised. Even though he could only see the silhouette, he really thought it was a toad. However, if it was a toad, then it would be a toad that’s as tall as two people. Who’s ever seen a toad that big?
Boom!
Jin Daya attacked first. That strike blew away some of the fog, revealing the zeshe’s true form.
It really looked similar to a toad. However, it still had a tail, and its mouth looked like an alligator’s. With a wide and long mouth, it had long and sharp teeth lined closed together. A hole at the top of its head continuously emitting fog. There was a layer of ice armor on the zeshe’s body, glowing blue and white.
A lizard?
Lei Xinfeng didn’t know how else to describe the beast in the only way he knew: comparing to animals in his previous world.
Shu!
Under the combined attacks of five Ninth Ring Sages, the fog disappeared completely. However, they realized that the zeshe was gone. None of them thought that its speed would be so quick, and all were surprised. “Where is it, where is it?” Hongjie asked.
Lei Xinfeng didn’t know why, but he felt something. He looked up and found the zeshe hiding in the ice ceiling above them like a gecko would. He didn’t even have the chance to point when he launched his Chaos Wheels.
The zeshe jumped off the ceiling, target locked on Lei Xinfeng.
Lei Xinfeng also made his own attack. The Chaos Wheel slammed into the zeshe’s body, wreathed with thick lightning flow. The zeshe was way worse off than Lei Xinfeng after that attack. Lei Xinfeng didn’t stop at that either. Whenever he made an attack, it would be followed immediately by a flurry of blows reminiscent of a hurricane.
As Lei Xinfeng yelled, the Chaos Wheel became line after line of blue light with the crack of lightning bolts. The zeshe let out a pitiful cry after being attacked so many times and was struck back a hundred meters, his entire body bleeding with blue blood.
In the instant that the zeshe was pushed back, Jin Daya shouted, “My turn!”
He held a steel spear the width of an egg and threw it. It stabbed through the zeshe’s neck, pinning it against the ice wall behind it.
It struggled and wailed for several minutes because it finally died.
“Your Chaos Wheel is so powerful, Ah Feng,” Xin Zhaolun said. “It couldn’t resist at all.”
“The zeshe was probably numbed by the lightning, or I wouldn’t have been able to hit it so easily,” Jin Daya said.
After killing the zeshe, everyone was smiling. Lei Xinfeng went over next to the corpse and saw that it was around five meters long, half of which is its tail. Its legs were short and stubby, and it did not have claws. Instead, it had pads of suction cups on the bottom of its feet. After its death, the layer of ice armor broke and fell off, revealing white skin underneath.
Song Qiao was very familiar with zeshes and took out a two foot long knife. He opened the skull of the Ice Beast easily and dug out a bead the size of a fist.
“Is this bead a material too?”
“It’s not a materia,” Song Qiao said, smiling. “It is utterly useless. Here, at least. However, if you bring it to a hot location, it is infinitely valuable.”
“What is it used for?”
“As long as you can build a rack to hold this, you can cool an entire room with just this bead, even if it’s extremely hot outside,” Song Qiao explained.
“That’s nice,” Lei Xinfeng said. A condenser, he thought.
Song Qiao tossed the bead to Lei Xinfeng. “You can have it. I have plenty of these already.”
“Is there anything else we can harvest from the body?”
“None. The zeshe’s skin is fused with the ice. Once the ice falls off, it’s utterly useless. Indeed, except for that bead, its body is completely useless.”
“You can’t eat it?” Lei Xinfeng asked.
Jin Daya answered. “The meat of zeshe is not edible. If you put it in hot water, it will melt immediately, leaving nothing behind. The average practitioner avoids battle with zeshes, since it leaves nothing but the bead behind.”
“Oh,” Lei Xinfeng said, understanding. “Even if you win, there’s not much to gain, but if you lose…I’ll stay away next time too.”
“Not really,” Song Qiao said. “Even if the zeshe has no materials worth harvesting, just the bead is sufficient gains to justify attacking. This is called a frost pearl, a type of pearl treasure. When you go to a hot region, this is more valuable in trade than most anything else.”
Lei Xinfeng agreed. With this bead, one could sleep comfortably in a hot region. It was quite the luxury item.
“Well, then we might as well find some more. The attack power of a zeshe isn’t high. The only thing you need to be wary of is the white fog and its high speed. With Lei Xinfeng’s attack, we can easily kill them,” Xin Zhaolun said.
“If there’s one, then there’s others nearby. Zeshes are Ice Beasts that like to gather; herd animals, if you will,” Song Qiao said.
The group followed the traces left by the zeshe and entered a deep cave.
There are two worlds within the Ice Cave Plains. One of them was the upper layer with powerful winds and countless pitfalls on the ground. The other was the labyrinthine cave system below, filled with Ice Beasts waiting in ambush.
Following the tracks, they walked for over an hour. When they finally came out, they saw a giant cave made up of several smaller caves joined together. Large ice pillars stood in the center, formed unnaturally. The surface was filled with countless scars, left behind by something unknown.
There was large white and yellow plants growing on the ground. There was a few zeshes walking among them.
“Do they eat plants?” Lei Xinfeng asked.
“Their main diet consists of mineral rich water. The plants are supplements,” Song Qiao explained.
“Fascinating.”
“This cave is probably formed by zeshes’ activities. Because they like mineral rich water, they’ll slowly expand the cave, as you can see from the marks on the walls and pillars. They’re left by zeshes,” Song Qiao said.
“Oh, I thought they were left by man,” Lei Xinfeng said.
Song Qiao continued. “Although zeshes don’t have any hunting value, they’re important in that they expand possible living locations for other Ice Beasts. Of course, they’re prey for other Ice Beasts too.”
“I can see around seven zeshes here, no, eight. They’re spread out, so let’s hunt them one by one,” Xin Zhaolun suggested.
“Let’s work together,” Jin Daya said.
As I was translating, I put on some music. I got to this one, and I literally started crying because all my friends I made there are gone, and I’ll never get them back. It was my first MMO, but it’s not fun anymore, but I keep wanting to go back and play. I wish they’ll make a better clone, or reboot it with a publisher that isn’t money-grubbing.
Also, yay for another chapter, and the start of a new book. Let’s hope there’s less mining. I’m getting a little tired of it, to be honest.
Also, I may or may not get DMCA’d. I got an email from a questionable source. We’ll just wait and see.