Chapter 48 Avalanche
It felt something tiny and sharp drill deep into its mouth, and then a sharp pain struck!
It was as if countless red-hot needles were frantically churning and tearing deep within its throat, tongue, and palate!
That pain went deep into its marrow, causing its entire head to start convulsing!
"Awoo—!"
The Ice Dragon let out a discordant howl, its massive body rolling and struggling violently in the air!
It shook its head frantically, trying to spit out the foreign object in its mouth, but the Dragon Beard Needle had already embedded itself deep into the flesh; the more it struggled, the more the curled needle body tore at it!
Now is the time!
A cold light flashed in Jiang Bai’s eyes. He gripped his right hand in the air, and blazing fire-attribute Soul Power gathered frantically, condensing into a giant crimson-gold flame sword!
"Slash!"
He stomped his feet hard on the ground, and his whole body shot into the sky like a cannonball!
Holding the giant flame sword high above his head, he slashed down fiercely at the Ice Dragon, which had lost its balance due to the intense pain, accompanied by a whistling sound that tore through the air!
The Ice Dragon wanted to block, but the intense pain in its mouth made its reaction several beats slower.
It barely managed to lift its dragon claw, hastily condensing an ice shield.
"Crack—!"
The giant flame sword struck the ice shield, and the shield shattered upon impact!
The sword’s momentum did not diminish, and it struck heavily at the base of the Ice Dragon’s left wing!
"Puchi—!"
Dragon scales shattered, and flesh curled outward!
"Roar—!!!"
The Ice Dragon let out a shrill scream, its left wing hung limply, its posture completely lost balance, and its massive body plummeted toward the ice surface!
"Boom—!!!"
The Ice Dragon slammed heavily into the forest of ice pillars at the edge of the ice lake, breaking seven or eight huge ice pillars before it finally came to a stop. It collapsed into the ice shavings and broken ice, its left wing twisted at an unnatural angle. Blood mixed with ice shards constantly overflowed from its dragon mouth, and its dragon eyes were filled with pain, anger, and—a trace of unbelievable shock.
It could not understand why this human, who looked so tiny, possessed such terrifying power.
And those golden needles that drilled into its mouth, what on earth were they?
Jiang Bai landed slowly, and the giant flame sword dissipated.
He walked in front of the Ice Dragon and looked down at the behemoth collapsed on the ground.
The state of the three dragons possessing him slowly dissipated.
Crimson, earthy yellow, and cyan lights flew out from his body, landed on the ground, and transformed back into three dragon beasts, surrounding the Ice Dragon in a triangular formation.
The Ice Dragon struggled to lift its head, looking at the human before it, then at the three dragon beasts surrounding it, a trace of confusion flashing in its pupils.
It sensed the aura of its own kind from these three dragon beasts, but there was something different about them.
Jiang Bai spoke directly, his voice calm and clear: "Sacrifice yourself to me. You can retain your Soul and continue to survive, and even—Cultivate faster than you do now."
The Ice Dragon let out a low, pained dragon roar.
"I am a noble Ice Dragon, a pure-blooded Dragon Clan member! How could I submit to—"
"You have no choice."
Jiang Bai’s voice turned cold.
"Either sacrifice yourself now, or—I will pierce your heart with one sword strike. Sacrifice will at least spare you the pain before death."
The Ice Dragon fell silent.
Its dragon eyes flickered with struggle and unwillingness, but more than that—was the fear of death.
Just then, the three dragon beasts let out low roars simultaneously, transmitting information to the Ice Dragon using Mental Energy.
The Ice Dragon’s gaze gradually changed from initial resistance to suspicion, and finally—a trace of wavering appeared.
But then again—
If—if what these three dragon beasts said was true—
It wouldn’t truly die after sacrificing itself, but would just exist in a different form, and could continue to Cultivate, and even Breakthrough the ten-thousand-year mark faster—
It sounded like—it wasn’t entirely unacceptable?
After all, compared to true death, this was already the best ending.
The Ice Dragon’s gaze shifted back and forth between Jiang Bai and the three dragon beasts, struggling for a long time.
Finally, it closed its eyes and let out a long, sigh-like dragon roar.
It had accepted its fate.
It opened its eyes and looked at Jiang Bai; there was no more unwillingness or anger in its dragon eyes, only the calmness of acceptance.
Then, it slowly mobilized all the remaining Soul Power and life force within its body.
The sacrifice began.
The Ice Dragon’s massive body began to emit a soft, ice-blue light.
The light grew brighter and purer, and finally, the entire dragon body turned into countless points of light, like stars of ice-blue filling the sky, slowly drifting and rising.
Where the dragon body had completely dissipated, a deep purple spirit ring slowly rose.
The spirit ring floated in front of Jiang Bai, slowly descended, and settled onto the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, becoming his fourth spirit ring.
Jiang Bai immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to absorb it with all his might.
The absorption process was smoother than expected.
The Ice Dragon had sacrificed itself willingly; its Origin Soul merged actively, and the spirit ring energy was extremely docile.
Coupled with Jiang Bai’s powerful physique, which had been tempered by ten-thousand-year whale glue, the entire absorption process had almost no obstacles.
Two and a half hours later.
Jiang Bai slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils, a flash of ice-blue light vanished.
Success.
He raised his right hand, and with a thought.
The crystal-clear Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda appeared in his palm.
The four-story pagoda had the first three floors glowing with crimson, earthy yellow, and cyan light respectively, while the fourth floor was now emitting a pure ice-blue luster.
"Come out."
Jiang Bai said softly.
The fourth floor of the pagoda shone brightly, and an ice-blue stream of light flew out from it, landing on the ground.
The light converged, revealing the figure of the Ice Dragon. It was exactly the same as before, but the violence and pain in its ice-blue dragon eyes were gone, replaced by a bit more spirituality and—curiosity?
It looked down at its own body, then looked up at Jiang Bai, and let out a tentative low roar.
"How is it? I didn’t lie to you, did I?" Jiang Bai laughed.
The Ice Dragon nodded.
It could feel that it had indeed retained all its memories and intelligence, and its body had also recovered to its best state.
Moreover—the dense energy environment inside the pagoda, which was suitable for Cultivation, gave it a vague premonition that perhaps it wouldn’t be long before it could Breakthrough nine thousand years and launch an assault on the ten-thousand-year mark!
"From now on, you are Number Four." Jiang Bai gave it a simple name.
The Ice Dragon tilted its head, seemingly unsatisfied with the name, but eventually nodded and accepted it.
It appeared somewhat "shy", or rather, it was not quite used to this state of communicating with a human as an equal.
After all, in its cognition, the Dragon Clan was arrogant, and humans were tiny.
Now that it had suddenly become a human’s "spirit ring" and had to be given such a casual name—
The Ice Dragon flicked its tail, turned into an ice-blue stream of light, and voluntarily returned to the space inside the pagoda; it needed time to adapt to this new identity and environment.
Seeing this, the Earth Dragon and Wind Dragon also looked at the Fire Dragon, exchanging a glance: Good luck, we leave this to you!
Then they also turned into streams of light and returned to the space inside the pagoda.
They really couldn’t stand this extremely cold environment anymore.
Fire Dragon:
It was cold too!
But its master was still outside; it couldn’t just run back, could it?
Jiang Bai saw the Fire Dragon’s embarrassment and smiled, stroking its somewhat dull scales: "Thank you for your hard work, Number One."
"In a while, we will go to a place that will guarantee your cultivation will soar, ensuring at least a Breakthrough of ten thousand years; if we’re lucky, even one hundred thousand years is not impossible."
The Fire Dragon’s eyes lit up instantly, and the fatigue and discomfort from just now seemed to ease significantly.
It rubbed against Jiang Bai’s hand and let out an expectant whimper.
"Let’s go, we should leave here first."
Jiang Bai flipped onto the Fire Dragon’s back, "The Far North is not a place to stay for long, in case we attract even more troublesome guys—"
Before he could finish—
"Rumble—!!!"
In the distance, deep within the Snow Spirit Mountain Range, a dull roar suddenly erupted, as if the earth itself were splitting open!
Immediately after, the entire ice plain began to tremble violently!
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the ice surface beneath Jiang Bai’s feet, and on the distant ice peaks, large chunks of accumulated snow and ice rocks began to peel off and slide down!
"What’s going on?!"
Jiang Bai’s expression changed.
The Fire Dragon also lifted its head alertly, its crimson-gold dragon eyes looking in the direction the sound came from.
Then, they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
At the peak of the thousand-meter-high Snow Spirit Main Peak, the thick layer of accumulated snow that had built up for many years began to slide slowly, as if it had been suddenly pushed by an invisible giant hand!
At first, it was just fine snow particles rolling down, but in the blink of an eye, the collapsing snow layer turned into a white torrent that had broken its dam, gathering into a wall of snow several zhang high that blocked out the sky and sun!
The snow wave carried ice rocks the size of millstones, broken ancient trees that would require several people to embrace, and countless uprooted ice pillars, crushing toward the direction they were in!
Avalanche!
One of the most terrifying natural disasters in the Far North!
And looking at this scale, it was definitely a super-sized Avalanche!
Everything in its path would likely be completely buried, even Spirit Beasts!
"Number One! Take off quickly—!!!"