Chapter 95: Goddess sister, I think you don't want to stay here forever either

After pushing open the gate, which was also made of frozen stone, a spacious hall appeared before Su Hao's eyes.

When outside, Su Hao thought it was a two- or three-story building, but upon entering he found the interior consisted of only a single spacious hall.

The structure of this hall is very simple; aside from the doors, windows, and walls, everything else is basically empty.

Only on the wall opposite the gate stands a giant ice sculpture seven or eight meters tall, emitting a faint azure light.

This ice sculpture is in the likeness of a human woman, carved with exquisite detail; even as an outer sect disciple, Su Hao could tell it was the work of a master.

The proportions are just right; she wears a simple crown on her head, holds a staff in her right hand, and her left hand is slightly open, with twelve ice blocks floating above it, slowly rotating clockwise.

Yet this perfect statue has its facial features extremely blurred, as if covered with a mosaic.

Clang—Ding!

Suddenly, the ice gate behind Su Hao closed on its own, the temperature in the hall began to plummet, and wisps of white cold air spread everywhere.

"Not good!"

Seeing this, Su Hao realized something was wrong; he immediately took out his Gravity Rock Axe, intending to forcefully break open the gate and leave the hall.

However, Su Hao had just drawn the Gravity Rock Axe from his Storage Bag when he hadn't even had time to turn around.

He saw the twelve ice blocks in the statue's hand form a neat ring, which shot a azure blast of cold air at him.

Almost as soon as that cold air was released, Su Hao felt his body become immobile; he lowered his head with difficulty and discovered a layer of blue frost on his clothes and skin.

Moreover, this frost was turning into chunks of azure ice at a visible speed.

Before long, Su Hao's blood stopped flowing, his heart stopped beating, his consciousness grew fuzzy, and his entire body was frozen into an ice statue.

Crack—! Crack—! Clear ringing sounds echoed throughout the hall, and black cracks of various sizes appeared on the ice statue that was Su Hao's body.

Immediately after.

With a bang, these cracks ran through Su Hao's whole body, tearing it into hundreds of ice chunks of various sizes that slammed heavily onto the ground.

Even just his head shattered into a dozen pieces, one eye landing beside the gate and the other rolling to the center of the hall.

At the same time.

The azure light on the ice statue gradually faded, finally disappearing completely; even the blurred features on its face vanished, leaving only the outline of the visage.

The twelve ice blocks floating above her left hand, after emitting that cold air, seemed to have exhausted all their energy.

They fell from the air, rolled a few times, then lay still on the ground, emitting a faint azure glow.

As the twelve ice blocks stopped rolling, the hall fell into silence, and the wisps of white cold air gradually dissipated.

Only the eternal flame remained, still floating in the air, absorbing energy from the energy crystal and radiating light and heat, slightly dispelling the surrounding chill.

On the ground, Su Hao's completely frozen body fragments, warmed by the energy crystal's light and heat, began to show signs of melting.

But this process was very slow, with only a drop or two of water occasionally falling from the ice sculpture.

Drip—drip! In the quiet hall, the sound of water droplets falling onto the floor echoed from time to time.

……

The sun rose and the moon set.

Before he knew it, a day had passed.

The ice on Su Hao had melted only a thin layer; if he relied solely on the flame's light and heat, completely melting his ice would take at least a week or two.

But even that thin melted layer allowed some of Su Hao's blood to flow again, and the consciousness lost to the extreme cold returned briefly.

Su Hao, frozen into ice chunks, had his head fragments roll to the gate's edge, and his eyes suddenly twitched.

"Blood Flame Technique!"

He struggled to mobilize a portion of his mental energy, sending it into the blood-element rune deep in his soul, then lost consciousness again.

The next moment.

Within Su Hao's ice-encased body fragments, threads of blood-red flame ignited the small portion of thawed blood and began to burn slowly.

The temperature of the Blood Flame was several times higher than that of the eternal flame, markedly speeding up the melting of the ice.

Moreover, as the ice gradually melted, more and more of Su Hao's blood resumed flowing, and the Blood Flame burned even more vigorously.

During this period, Su Hao regained consciousness several times, igniting all the body fragments with restored blood flow in Blood Flame.

After about three hours, all of Su Hao's bodily tissues were ablaze with blood-red flame, maximizing the acceleration of ice melting.

This continued for four or five hours; when the blood in Su Hao's body was nearly burned away, only a thin layer of ice remained on his body.

Finally, under the continual burning of the Blood Flame, that thin layer of ice completely melted into water, which flowed onto the ground.

After the ice was completely undone, Su Hao, while controlling his body fragments, reassembled them together.

At the same time, he took out a vial of Crimson Blood from his Storage Bag, and without hesitation used the Blood Flame Technique's blood-control ability to stuff it into his mouth.

With the energy provided by the Crimson Blood, Su Hao's shattered body quickly knit itself back together, and soon no wounds were visible on his skin.

Even so, Su Hao's upper and lower teeth still involuntarily chattered.

"Holy crap, others can easily avoid the traps they encounter, but the traps I run into are always these lethal ones!!"

Su Hao glanced warily at the statue ahead, recalling the recent traps he'd faced, and felt somewhat speechless.

So far, Su Hao has encountered two kinds of traps.

Back when he was at Andrew Grandpa's house, he was either turned into a hedgehog by Lethally Poisoned Arrows or nearly crushed by a gray-rock boulder.

Moreover, those traps only triggered when he reached the middle of the passageway, leaving him nowhere to dodge.

If Su Hao weren't a blood-flesh controller with terrifying regenerative abilities, he would have been dead and unable to die again.

But this situation was even more dangerous: after Su Hao entered the hall, the gate slammed shut with a clang.

Then he was sealed in ice by that cold air, with no chance to react.

After his whole body was frozen, most of his tissues were killed by that extreme cold, his heart included, which stopped beating entirely.

If he hadn't tossed a piece of heart fragment outside the hall before entering, he would now be a corpse.

Even the soul deep in his mind had nearly been frozen.

If not for having used twin souls yesterday, which strengthened Su Hao's soul strength, and having a spirit-body cloak protecting his soul, Su Hao would probably have lost consciousness even if he managed to survive.

This is the closest Su Hao has ever been to death so far.

Even if in the withered forest, being whipped by that Third Tier tree demon, or even in the monastery seeing an inverted black cross, none were as dangerous as this time.

The recent freezing almost let Su Hao see Death waving at him, but after the thaw he did not rush to leave.

Instead, relying on having a backup outside, even if frozen again he would not die.

Thus, Su Hao took a mouthful of scarlet essence blood into his mouth, a scorching blood flame ignited on his body, and he slowly walked toward the statue.

Having been frozen for over a day, wasting a day's synthesis opportunity, and almost coming to grief here, if he didn't take some interest and leave, how could Su Hao be willing? 'It seems... that was also a one-time trap?'

Walking all the way to the ice sculpture's front, the statue showed no movement; Su Hao could basically confirm that the trap here, like Old Andrew's house, is one that can only be triggered once.

"Since you have no more moves, then I won't hold back."

Su Hao grinned, picking up a chunk of ice from the ground.

The chilling energy that had frozen Su Hao originally came from these twelve chunks of ice.

Even after emitting that chilling energy, these ice chunks have darkened considerably, but they are likely still supernatural items.

Immediately, Su Hao focused his thoughts and used the Item Appraisal Technique on the ice chunk in his hand. 【Ice Snow Gem】

Supernatural Grade: First Rank

Effect: Within the Ice Snow Divine Realm, a gem commonly found there, it can increase the surrounding ice element concentration, boost ice element affinity, and also isolate fire and heat, reducing damage from fire-attribute skills.

……

"Hmm… decided, I'll use this ice snow gem to build a refrigerating ice pillar!"

Originally, Su Hao was torn between using the synthesized ice-ghost chill or the synthesized ice-freeze stone to build the refrigerating ice pillar.

Now there's no need to waver; it's obvious the ice snow gem's effect is better, as it can isolate fire and reduce fire-attribute skill damage.

It can also increase the surrounding ice element concentration and boost ice element affinity.

In the future, when Su Hao's domain has ice snow creatures, this can also be used to enhance their strength.

Therefore, synthesizing the ice snow gem and then using it to build the refrigerating ice pillar is naturally the best choice.

Of course, the reason Su Hao so quickly decided to use the synthesized ice snow gem to build the refrigerating ice pillar is mainly because the ice snow gem comes from the Ice Snow Divine Realm.

Even if the ice snow gem is just a commonplace thing in the Ice Snow Divine Realm, and Su Hao doesn't even know what the Ice Snow Divine Realm is.

But the two characters 'divine realm' already explain a lot.

Literally understood, a divine realm is the domain where deities reside.

If converted to supernatural grade, deities would at least be eighth or ninth rank supernatural beings.

In Old Andrew's house, Su Hao learned that Old Andrew addressed a mysterious existence as 'my lord', which is likewise a person of divine level.

Being able to be called 'my lord' by a sixth-rank supernatural necromancer, and having Old Andrew transferred away, the other party's supernatural grade certainly isn't just seventh rank.

Even the trash in a deity's abode is probably better than many things outside!

"Divine realm?"

Suddenly, Su Hao slightly furrowed his brow, looking at the ice sculpture seven or eight meters tall.

If these ice chunks are items from the Ice Snow Divine Realm, then the subject carved into this statue probably isn't a deity from that realm, right?

If anyone else at First Rank encountered something possibly related to a deity, they would surely perform a respectful salute and then hurry away.

But Su Hao had no thought of leaving; instead, he eagerly rubbed his hands together and used the Item Appraisal Technique on the statue before him.

The material used to build a deity statue must be a good thing! 【Ice Snow Goddess — ***** Statue】

Supernatural grade too high to be fully appraised.

Introduction: A statue containing a wisp of the Ice Snow Goddess's divine power, capable of greatly enhancing ice-attribute beings.

……

"Cannot be appraised… that means this ice sculpture's supernatural grade already exceeds third rank?!"

Su Hao's eyes widened; he currently hardly has any Third Tier supernatural items, and he never expected this seemingly ordinary statue to actually be at least a fourth-rank supernatural item.

Even though the statue's supernatural grade is too high for Su Hao to know its abilities, how to use it, or what precautions to take when using it.

But just having that supernatural grade sitting there is enough to show its value; it definitely couldn't be trash.

Moreover, from the appraisal's introduction we see that the statue depicts the Ice Snow Goddess, and its interior still contains her divine power.

Through the two characters 'divine power', it's not hard to guess that this is a power related to deities.

Since the Ice Snow Goddess is a deity, then a statue containing her divine power could also be called a divine artifact?

Such a good thing left in a dungeon is pure waste! Su Hao looked at the Ice Snow Goddess statue, clasped his hands, and said sincerely:

"Hmm… Ice Snow Goddess elder sister, I imagine you don't want your statue to stay in this lightless dungeon either; I can help by taking your statue outside to bask in the sun."

"If you disagree, shake your head; if you agree, stay silent—I understand your meaning!"

After saying that, Su Hao stood still, waited about a minute, then waved his right hand and stored the Ice Snow Goddess statue in his Storage Bag.

Since the Ice Snow Goddess statue gave no response, that indicates the Ice Snow Goddess has agreed to the proposal.

What? You say the statue can't move? What a joke—this is a statue containing the Ice Snow Goddess's divine power; how could it not move?

If anyone really said that, I'd sue them for slander! Su Hao grinned and also stored the remaining eleven ice snow gems in his Storage Bag.

Afterward, he glanced at the empty ice snow hall, pondered a moment, and then took the Ice Snow Goddess statue out again.

Again he clasped his hands and said solemnly:

"Ice Snow Goddess elder sister, to help you adjust to life back on the surface, I plan to move this ice snow house to the ground as well; if you disagree, shake your head."

Su Hao stood still, waited about a minute, saw the Ice Snow Goddess statue had no reaction, and then nodded to himself.

"All right, I understand—I'll start dismantling…"

"Cough cough, no—I'll start moving house."

Having said that, Su Hao once again stored the Ice Snow Goddess statue in his Storage Bag.

He first took down all the doors and windows of this house.

Then he picked up the Gravity Rock Axe that had fallen near the doorway, went outside the ice house, lifted the Gravity Rock Axe, and struck an ice wall with the back of the axe head.

This ice house was merely built by stacking frozen stones, and even the connections between the frozen stones relied on water that had frozen.

It had hardly any solidity; Su Hao's axe blow shattered the entire wall.

Next, Su Hao followed the same method, giving each wall of the ice house an axe blow.

In a short while, all the walls of the ice house were smashed down by Su Hao, and the roof also crashed to the ground with a loud "Bang!"

Fortunately, the hardness of these frozen stones is a bit greater than ordinary stone, so they were not damaged by this.

Afterward, Su Hao broke all the collapsed walls and roof into small pieces and neatly placed them into an empty Storage Bag.

Even the foundation and floor made of the same frozen stones were pried up piece by piece by Su Hao and all placed into the Storage Bag.

Just loading these frozen stones nearly filled the Storage Bag.

Looking at the ice house that had originally been nearly ten meters tall, now turned into a pit two or three meters deep, Su Hao nodded slightly.

"For the Ice Snow Goddess Elder Sister, to have the habit of living on the ground, I've done my best; she'll surely thank me!"

Su Hao, smiling with feeling, walked toward the direction where he remembered the ice wolf's corpse lay.

During the more than a day that Su Hao had been frozen, the ice wolf's corpse had surely been fully refined.

At the same time.

On a snow-covered mountain, there was a woman wearing a white long dress, with snow-white long hair, and a slender figure.

She sat tranquilly on the cliff edge, slowly swaying her slender legs, occasionally revealing a fair ankle.

Suddenly, she turned her head and glanced toward the direction of the dungeon.

"Hmm? This feeling..."

Her delicate brows furrowed slightly; she always felt that something very important to her had appeared in that direction.

After sitting on the cliff and wavering for a while, she eventually rose reluctantly, riding the wind and snow, and flew toward the direction of the dungeon.

This time I must not get lost again...

(End of chapter)