Chapter 74 – The Ice and Snow Pact

With the appearance of this new specialty, the prestige and status of the White Villa once again rose to a higher degree. Although the White Villa’s prices were exorbitantly expensive, to be able to eat such specialties in Holy Light was worth it, regardless of how high the prices went. These delicacies in particular were not available in any of the other shops in the city. No matter how they were compared, no one would dare utter the word expensive.

On the evening of that same day, Suo Jia hurried to the Emma’s household and successfully helped her with the Weight Loss Technique. As the night passed, the Shar Pei lady ceased to exist. Instead, a cute, blushing pink Emma was brought into this world.

She didn’t possess Wen Ya’s heart-stopping beauty, however Emma’s current cuteness made all those around her feel the urge to embrace and cuddle her. Even her previously overbearing temper now simply appeared to be a cute tantrum, as no one would blame such a cute girl.

Looking at her completely new appearance, Emma’s reaction was even worse than Wen Ya’s had been, and she cried until her whole face was wet with tears. “This is too perfect, even when I cry I am so beautiful; so cute, this is simply too amazing!”

Slowly turning around, Emma spoke to Suo Jia with tears still in her eyes, “Thank you, thank you so much. Being able to receive so much, no matter how much I pay it’s still not enough. No matter what, Emma still wants to thank you one more time. From now on, you are Emma’s closest friend, and Emma will forever treat you well.”

“This…” Suo Jia suddenly began to burst with sweat and started scratching his head. If this was the Emma from before who had spoken these words, he would have immediately felt nauseated and started vomiting. Looking at the extremely cute Emma now, however, he could not muster up a single ounce of disgust.

Emma’s stature was not tall, similar to her father. They both had small skeletal frames, and once she slimmed down, she immediately transformed from a Shar Pei lady into a loli. Although in reality, Emma already neared twenty years of age, from a height perspective, no matter how one looked, she appeared to be an innocent and cute thirteen year-old girl.

She had rosy and delicate cheeks, as well as a slim figure. She appeared so innocent that others could not help but want to embrace and take care of her, especially when she laughed. Even when she was angry, her faintly pouting rosy lips would cause people to hold their breaths and secretly be delighted.

If they weren’t in the same room the whole time, Emma’s father and mother would have found it impossible to believe that the cute and lovely girl in front of them was their daughter Emma. Seeing the intensely sobbing Emma in front of them, the two adults felt something stirring inside of them. They held Emma within their arms, and gently patted her while softly comforting her.

Feeling the love from her mother and father, Emma could not help but feel shocked. Why… She was already almost twenty; there was no need to be treated this way. Then again, this type of feeling was really comfortable! Seeing the kind expressions on her parent’s faces, Emma’s eyes became even more moist. She couldn’t even remember how many years had passed since she had last received this type of kindness from them.

Seeing the family of three joyous and harmonious, Suo Jia did not disturb them and quietly left the room. At this moment, Suo Jia finally felt relieved. Although it might be impossible to completely fix Emma’s temper, as the saying goes, it is easier to change mountains and rivers than to alter one’s character. However, from the start, Emma was not a bad person; she was simply a bit too headstrong. Combined with her current looks, others would only think that she was cute and innocent, not hating her in the slightest.

Gently nodding his head, Suo Jia smiled and hurried back towards his home. By helping others, he received things that he needed as well; there really weren’t many things better than this.

When he arrived home, Suo Jia once again entered the underground training area. Upon entering, he was greeted by Eldest Sister’s smile. “I have already completed the tasks you requested of me. Would you like to take a look?”

Hearing Eldest Sister’s words, Suo Jia’s eyes lit up. He quickly took the objects from Eldest Sister’s hands and closely examined them.

In his hands was a three finger thick sapphire flannel headband. On the outside, it simply appeared to be an ordinary blue flannel headband. In reality, however, within the blue flannel was the Atlantis’ Wisdom.

Suo Jia clearly understood that if he simply walked out with such a precious crown outside, he would lose possession of it in just a few days. This piece of magical equipment was simply too eye-catching. Anyone with some insight could tell that this was no ordinary item, and once someone recognized it, there would definitely be desperate individuals who would kill him for the treasure.

But Suo Jia was not willing to own such a precious item and not use it all the time. This object could actually allow Suo Jia to constantly preserve a state of meditation, and quickly help him improve. Naturally, it was better to wear it on his head all the time, and after thinking about this for a long time, Suo Jia finally came up with this solution.

This Atlantis’ Wisdom was only roughly three fingers thick, and with the blue flannel wrapped around, it now became a blue headband. Lifting up his hair, it fit just right on his forehead. For camouflaging purposes, Suo Jia had added some water element gems into the headband. On the surface, this headband only seemed to be something used by beginner mages. Even if it was robbed, it would not be a big deal. They would simply think that the Atlantis’ Wisdom inside was some steel plate or something, and definitely would not think that an Epic-ranked magical item was hidden within.

As for the Faerie’s Soul, Suo Jia was not too concerned. That item was something that he carried around with him personally. Unless Suo Jia revealed it openly, it was not possible for it to be seen, and so it was not necessary for Suo Jia to act any further.

Wearing the Atlantis’ Wisdom, Suo Jia once again entered that mystical state. On the surface, he could continue his normal thinking and activities, but within a hidden layer of his consciousness he already entered the meditative realm. As long as he wore this crown, then no matter what Suo Jia was doing, he was still rapidly improving. As for how frightening he would be in the future, it would become increasingly apparent.

However, ever since Suo Jia wore this Atlantis’ Wisdom, he suddenly realized that he didn’t know what to do with all the time on his hands. Every day, he only repetitively used the Ice Sphere, Swamp, and Moisture Techniques to harass the little pet, without knowing what else to do.

After several weeks, Suo Jia had already reached an extremely high realm regarding the Ice Sphere, Swamp, and Moisture Techniques’ uses for fighting. However, Suo Jia understood that simply relying on this training was not enough.

After contemplating this for a long time, Suo Jia finally decided that he would still continue going to his classes, however… what he needed to learn was not merely how to use the Swamp and Ice Sphere Techniques. Even though he didn’t have the ability to use these techniques yet, he wanted to begin studying the ice magic system.

Early the next day, Suo Jia hurried to his school. Once the bell rang, Suo Jia immediately opened his magic manual and began to study with unwavering focus. The reason he had come to school rather than staying at home was only because the school had a good studying environment, allowing him to study at ease. If he was at home, this atmosphere would be non-existent, as there were always things that needed his attention.

In terms of first-ranked ice magic, Suo Jia had already grasped the Ice Sphere Technique. He was on the verge of understanding the Glacial Armor. This same Glacial Armor used ice to make a set of sturdy armor. Encompassing the surface of the body, the armor’s strength and sturdiness increased as the temperature of the armor decreased.

After only looking at it for a little bit, Suo Jia immediately noticed one line of description in particular. “Ice magic is simply using water in its solid form. When facing an enemy, in order to harm or even to impact them in some way, the ultimate obscure truth is that it reflects the ice’s temperature.”

Water is a really strange substance. Other substances all increase in power as heat increases, and decrease as temperature lowers. However, water is exactly the opposite, with heat reducing its formidability and coldness improving it. In addition… as temperature decreases, the ice’s strength and sturdiness all gradually inversely increase. Other substances, upon entering a cooler state, will immediately become weak and brittle. For example, metal; once it enters an ultra-low temperature, it will become fragile and can easily fragment.

The formidability of ice magic is directly correlated with the temperature of the ice. The lower the temperature, the firmer the ice will be. Once the temperature drops below a certain point, it becomes even harder than steel. Whether one uses ice to attack or defend, both are more reliable than steel.

       Chapter 75 – Cultivation Successful

It can be said that training in the ice arts is really just training in temperature. If, for example, the fire arts is training how to raise temperature, then the ice arts is training how to lower temperature.

With Suo Jia’s Ice Sphere Technique, the lower the temperature, the harder the Ice Sphere would become, and more frigid air would be emitted. It should be pointed out that the Ice Sphere does not only rely on physical contact to inflict harm on others, rather, it relies on the frigid air within it to kill the enemy.

Once it made contact with the enemy, the Ice Sphere’s inner frigid air will be released and cause the enemy to suffer from severe frostbites, to the point of even completely freezing the enemy temporarily. At the very least, it would slow down the enemy’s speed as they enter a sluggish state due to the extreme cold. If the opposing party was too weak, then one Ice Sphere alone could completely kill the person.

The Glacial Armor was similar. Even if one learned the Glacial Armor, the most basic Glacial Armor was not hard enough to be of any use. Only by lowering the temperature could one fully make use of the Glacial Armor. Once the temperature is lowered to a certain point, the centimeters thick Glacial Armor can become even harder than metal; the defense it provides is beyond measurement.

In general, ice magic’s power relies on temperature. The other aspects are just activation methods, so….all ice mages have to first learn the magic—– Ice and Snow Pact!

The Ice and Snow Pact is a rank-less magic, similar to water manipulation techniques. It does not require drawing out a magic diagram; it is only a type of interactive link with the water elements. By using this method to link with the water elements, a type of pact will gradually form. As the pact slowly becomes deeper, the ice magic’s power will also gradually be increased.

If manipulating water was a type of interaction with water, then the Ice and Snow Pact was a more in-depth type of interaction with the water elements. Unless one had already achieved meditation and could sense the water elements, then the activation method of ice magics cannot be learned or trained in.

However, this Ice and Snow Pact conflicts with meditation. The Meditation Technique requires the person to enter a state of emptiness and oblivion, while the Ice and Snow Pact requires a subjective awareness in order to manipulate the elements. Thus, the two techniques cannot be performed simultaneously.

If one wanted to increase magic or spirit powers to activate higher ranked ice magics, then long periods of meditation were necessary. If one wanted to increase the strength of the ice magics, then more interaction with the water elements by training the Ice and Snow Pact was unavoidable. These two were difficult choices to choose from.

Whether to choose to focus on the Ice and Snow Pact or the Meditation Technique had always been the most difficult choice for all ice mages. Choosing one of them meant giving up on the other.

Training in the Meditation Technique meant that one could activate higher ranked magics with greater power. On the other hand, although training in the Ice and Snow Pact meant that spirit and magic powers were limited in that they could only activate mid-ranked magics, the magics’ power became much greater.

In general, no matter which training path was chosen, both were equally strong. The only thing was that the Meditation Technique was more appropriate for community large-scale battles, whereas the Ice and Snow Pact was more appropriate for individual mage duels. Thus, the choice simply depended upon the person’s individual interests.

However, to Suo Jia, this problem didn’t exist. He already no longer needed to enter the meditation state. Because of Atlantis’ Wisdom, Suo Jia was constantly kept in the meditative realm. He had plenty of time to train in the Ice and Snow Pact.

“Hehe….” Seeing the Ice and Snow Pact’s activation methods and the inner methods, Suo Jia could not help but laugh. This was to be expected of Atlantis’ Wisdom; its results were really amazing. With it, Suo Jia had the ability to activate high-ranked techniques as well as the ability to utilize the full strength of ice magics. He had managed to get ahold of both the fish and the bear; this was really too awesome!

The only thing was that the Ice and Snow Pact was not that easy to train in. It required painstaking efforts to train monotonously for long periods of time, as only then would the results gradually come into effect. Reaping as much effects as how diligent one worked. Without working hard, nothing could be gained.

Now that he had a direction to work towards, Suo Jia was no longer at a loss. Since then, during the following month, Suo Jia used all of his spare time to train in the Ice and Snow Pact. The results of the training gradually began to show.

Before he had began to train in the Ice and Snow Pact, Suo Jia’s Ice Sphere would explode once in contact with the wall into pieces, as a typical ball of ice would be. However, after training in the Ice and Snow Pact for an entire month, although the Ice Sphere still couldn’t be completely maintained, the wall no longer went off unscathed after coming into contact with the Ice Sphere. Now, the wall sported numerous small depressions and sunken cracks. This was the greatest gain Suo Jia had earned this past month!

A month later, the fire wind girls had rushed back, completely travel-worn. The 36 boxes of lychees were delivered to the White Villa, and seeing the well preserved appearances of the fresh lychees, Suo Jia knew that everyone had definitely worked hard this time.

In order to confirm that the lychees would stay fresh enough, the fire wind warriors didn’t just transport the lychees; they cleverly decided to deliver the branches and leaves the lychees were on as well. The lychee branches inside the bag were extremely long, and each one was covered in at least 1kg of lychees.

Based on the local farmers’ instructions, they had placed the lychee branches inside a container of saltwater. Although the distance had required 2 weeks of journey, these lychees not only didn’t lose its freshness, they even continued to flourish and mature. The lychees on these branches were not any different from the local lychees.

The 36 fire wind warriors delivered 36 branches of lychees in total. Although because of the weight and the amount of space the branches took up, they hadn’t been able to transfer a lot of pure lychees, in terms of value, it far surpassed those that didn’t have branches.

Originally, based on their previous plans, the lychees would be placed on trays and sold to the customers. However, after seeing the lychee branches, Eldest Sister changed her idea. She re-combined these tree branches and once again arranged and assembled them to form a lychee tree. What would be sold would be the entire lychee tree itself.

“Lychee gathering!” This was the White Villa’s newest assembly name. Those that wanted to attend the lychee gathering had to first pay a 10,000 gold entrance fee first. This wasn’t even the expensive part, since it was only the entrance fee. Those that wanted to actually pick a lychee and eat it had to pay even more money.

100 invitations were soon sent out. Although 10,000 gold was a bit expensive, it must be pointed out that even ordinary shops would accept these prices. How could personally picking fresh lychees be exchanged for money?

It should be known that even the high-ranking aristocrat officials had never been able to eat these lychees before unless they had personally visited the south. Even those that had tried them before most likely hadn’t had fresh ones. Lychees like these that had not even left their branches yet had never been seen or heard of before.

That same day during the evening, all of the guests were within the White Villa. In the garden in front of the White Villa, all of the guests stared in praise at the enormous lychee tree, especially at the lychees that were like glittering jewels within their eyes. From the fresh, green leaves, everyone knew that this tree did not wither or suffer any sort of harm after being transported over such a long distance. Instead, it was full of life, and these lychees were just as rare and delicate as before.

The number of VIP guests numbered at a total of a hundred. This was the current White Villa reception limit. All of those who had the privilege of entering here were definitely wealthy and powerful distinguished individuals, as ordinary people did not even have the right to enter through the front door.

Suo Jia did not actually attend this party. After all… even though he was an eighth-ranked noble, in front of those guests, he was simply nothing. This was not even somewhere that he was worthy of speaking at. As for the aristocrats, the most important part was watching his attitude and understand what sort of position he currently held. If he even slightly crossed the line and uttered some careless words, then he would immediately be despised.

On the White Villa’s third floor, Suo Jia and the group of fire wind warriors were currently drinking fine wines and looking at the lively gathering outside the window. The fire wind warriors were exceptions, since they were unwilling to eat the lychees they had painstakingly transported back. However, Suo Jia did not consider this at all, and heartily ate a branch of lychees. Suo Jia had never eaten lychees, let alone ones as fresh as these. Actually, not only eating, Suo Jia hadn’t even seen them before. Now that he had the chance, nobody could keep him from eating them. To children, eating was the most important thing.

Despite seeing Suo Jia eat them so heartily, the girls still didn’t feel any loss. Although transporting them had required a lot of effort, if it hadn’t been for Suo Jia, how much could these lychees have been really sold for?

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