C976 Reincarnated!
Whoosh!
The Soulforge Pool materialized within the well, settling at Yu Yuan's feet. The ancient engravings on the pool's walls, filled with ink-colored Soul Power, began to whirl frenetically.
The residual souls of numerous Frostreavers were instantaneously drawn into the pool.
Ruan Fu, having just taken form from the well water, witnessed the Soulforge Pool effortlessly penetrate the layers of the Frost Well's defenses and infiltrate the world within the well, causing his expression to darken abruptly.
"Frost Freeze."
From his sleeves, shards of Celestial Ice Crystal emerged, aligning themselves in formation across the void.
This caused Yu Yuan's thoughts to slow, his Mindscape shrouded in cold fog that seemed to seep into his soul and consciousness.
Even the mysterious glyphs on the Soulforge Pool's walls, alive with the flow of ink-colored Soul Power, were hindered.
"This still isn't enough."
Yu Yuan looked up at the well's mouth, pitch-black as if stained with ink, gazing at the sky obscured by darkness.
He sensed that the Soulforge Pool's emergence had triggered many of the Moonfall Sanctuary's concealed barriers and walls.
The ancient patterns on the pool's walls were, in fact, channeling the sanctuary's latent forces with the infusion of ink-colored Soul Power!
Whoosh!
A beam of wildly turbulent light burst forth from a deep pit underground, originating from a fragment of shattered meteorite. It soared skyward, claiming the lives of three Spirit Walk cultivators from the Cloudwater Sect, before adjusting its trajectory and plummeting at an angle.
It descended upon the Frost Well, hovering midair.
Chief Elder Ruan Fu of Winter's Bite had already entered the well, leaving behind only the peculiar well, encased in a thick layer of ice, suspended in space.
Crack! Crack!
The ice at the well's rim was instantly chiseled away by the chaotic light.
The light, relentless in its force, cleaved through the extreme cold defenses like a razor-sharp blade, impaling Ruan Fu from head to toe.
Ruan Fu's newly formed body, akin to that of the Frost Queen and crafted within the well, shattered upon impact, bursting into a scatter of crystalline ice fragments.
Then, as the pieces tumbled into the well water, Ruan Fu uttered a stifled groan and once again harnessed the waters to reconstruct himself.
Rising anew from the well, Ruan Fu stood, drawing upon the Frost Well's waters to gather his vitality and spiritual energy once more.
Boom!
Another towering column of Soul Power erupted from the well's mouth like a raging waterfall, shattering the newly formed Ruan Fu into oblivion.
His soul, like fragments of torn curtains, fell into the waters of the well.
Beneath the surface, his soul coalesced time and again, revived through the chilling waters of the Frost Well.
The third, the fourth, the fifth!
Three more streams of bizarre psionic power cascaded from the forbidden area outside, relentlessly tearing apart Ruan Fu's reconstituted form, scattering his essence.
The Chief Elder of Winter's Bite, a cultivator of the Unbound realm and master of the Frost Well, perished and was reborn in this cycle within his own little world.
"This is my instrument of Dao Integration; this is the world within my instrument. Here, I cannot die!"
Ruan Fu's defiant howl echoed from the clusters of Frost Spirits within the well, as seven or eight silhouettes of himself moved beneath the water, eventually merging into one.
Yu Yuan hovered above the well's surface, his gaze icy and detached, refraining from plunging into the waters to attack.
"You're quite astute."
Canli of the Dawnbringers, radiant as a miniature sun, spoke softly from above, "Since he has refined this Frost Well, if you were to be fully submerged, it's highly likely he could transport you to the dreaded Frozen Abyss, albeit at a steep price."
"Yes, Master," concurred the Frost Queen.
"I'm aware," Yu Yuan responded.
The burst of memory sparkles within his Lunar Spirit alerted him to the perils at the well's bottom. Ruan Fu, the Frost Well's master, could send even those who dare to enter its depths straight to the Frozen Abyss, a realm so fearsome even the Shura regard it as a forbidden zone.
The Frozen Abyss was a domain Ruan Fu longed to explore, yet lacked the credentials to dare venture into.
"The wall of the Everlands is no longer impervious; it is riddled with cracks," Canli added softly. "These fissures allow the Frost Well to secretly connect with the Frozen Abyss."
Yu Yuan nodded in acknowledgment.
"Furthermore, he's correct. It's exceedingly difficult to kill him within this Frost Well," Canli continued.
Yu Yuan's brow furrowed in contemplation.
He could see that Ruan Fu's soul consciousness, along with his refined vitality and the pure spiritual energy of the bitter cold, had indeed become one with the Frost Well.
One could even say that the Frost Well had become an extension of his very being.
When Ruan Fu completed his merge with the Dao, a magical transformation enveloped him. His Lunar Spirit, his Solar Spirit Body, and his dominant soul were all anchored to the Frost Well.
As long as he was within the well's domain, even if his soul shattered or his body burst, he could be reforged through the waters of the well.
Likewise, should the Frost Well suffer grave harm or destruction, Ruan Fu, despite being merged with the Dao and even if he were millions of miles away in a different Domain, would sustain grievous injuries instantaneously.
Death was even within the realm of possibility.
"His power, his very life and death, are intimately bound to this singular object," Yu Yuan mused before adding, "Rather than attempting to slay him within the well, perhaps..."
"You'll find it quite challenging to leave," Canli interjected.
"I won't leave; I'll stay within the well's domain and destroy the well itself," Yu Yuan declared, his eyes narrowing with determination.
His remnant soul reached out, attempting to connect with Yu Yiyi on the Dragon Slaying Stage.
"I am present."
"Go to the Dragon Slaying Stage where the frost wyrm lies buried."
"Understood."
After their brief exchange, Yu Yuan could sense that Yu Yiyi, the cauldron spirit, had dutifully moved from the Dragon Slaying Stage where the golden dragon lay to a smaller stage, the final resting place of the frost wyrm.
As Yu Yiyi entered, a flash of enlightenment seemed to sweep through Yu Yuan's Mindscape.
Suddenly, led by Loong Jie, the giant dragons that had burst into the forbidden area detected a fearsome scent capable of annihilating their kind.
The blood and Dragon Souls of every dragon shuddered at its presence.
Loong Jie, with his golden scales, was the first to prostrate himself on the ground, coiling and pressing close to the earth atop the Dragon Slaying Stage, his body quivering incessantly.
The other dragons followed suit, lying low and scarcely daring to draw breath.
Beneath them, the Dragon Slaying Stage that cradled the frost wyrm gently brushed against another stage, the resting place of the Chronowyrm.
In the instant the two stages made contact, a surge of space magic was unleashed.
Then, in a blink, the Dragon Slaying Stage housing the frost wyrm vanished into thin air.
In the confines of the little world within the well, Yu Yuan unfolded his hands, revealing a swirling ball of time magic in his palm, which materialized into a jagged, grey-white stone.
"Dragon Slaying Stage!"
Canli, a member of the Dawnbringers, inhaled sharply, her gaze fixed on the storied artifact, her mood growing somber.
Ruan Fu, emerging once again from the waters of the well, gazed blankly at the rare stone in Yu Yuan's hand. A sudden realization struck him that the ice magic he had mastered, along with the numerous arcane techniques of Winter's Bite, had become ineffective.
His soul, emanating an Arctic Breath, was seized with fear upon beholding the rare stone—a fear that seemed innate and deeply ingrained.
"The spell practiced by Winter's Bite and the deep understanding of ice force it has developed stem from a Dragon God of the tenth level," Yu Yuan explained to Ruan Fu, their eyes unwavering from the stone, as if they could see the long-deceased frost wyrm within it.
"I'm curious to see if this Frost Well you've refined can withstand its power."
The palm-sized, grey-white stone began to shift of its own accord, taking the form of a colossal dragon, its body sheathed in silver frost, scales shimmering with a pearly, cold light.
