"Frosty block..."
Little Li suddenly felt a lump in his throat.
At least our Autumn Water Pavilion still had one reliable person.
He lifted his foot, intending to jog over, but after a moment's thought, he trudged forward with great effort, moving slowly before plopping heavily into a chair by the table. His body relaxed as if he had just shed a thousand-pound burden.
"Huh? This kid was practically sprinting earlier—what's wrong now?"
"Did his condition worsen?"
Shang Wu and Qin Yuzhi exchanged awkward glances.
They had assumed Li Mo wasn’t in serious trouble. Had they known, they wouldn’t have teased him.
"Let’s check his temperature first."
Ying Bing unscrewed the head of a doll-shaped container and pulled out a bronze object covered in tiny holes, resembling a feather shaft stripped of its plumage.
It was a little trinket she had acquired as spoils during her demon-slaying exploits in the southern borderlands.
The moment Li Mo gripped it, frost began spreading across its surface, transforming it into an icy feather—proof that his body temperature was dangerously low.
"Hold it in your mouth," Ying Bing instructed.
Li Mo obeyed, only for the feather to instantly turn red, flames flickering from the bronze shaft—now proof of an alarmingly high internal temperature.
"So... he’s caught in an ice-and-fire paradox?" Shang Wu blinked.
"Like cures like..." Qin Yuzhi smacked her forehead. "You did sneak those Snow Spirit Ginseng roots yesterday, didn’t you?!"
"......"
Li Mo ignored them, stealing a glance at Frosty Block’s expression instead.
"How do you feel now?" Ying Bing asked softly, lowering her gaze.
"I... I’ll manage."
Li Mo—the so-called "Hammer Tyrant" whose physique rivaled that of a calamity beast—forced a frail smile. "Maybe it’s just a minor cultivation misstep. I know my own body best."
"Wuwu, my precious disciple, don’t you dare collapse on me!" Shang Wu panicked.
Qin Yuzhi raised a finger, finally offering something sensible:
"Given his current state—internal heat raging while externally frostbitten—treatment should follow the principle of 'inside out.' So, we tackle the yang energy first?"
"But how...?"
She blinked, turning to Frosty Block for answers.
Li Mo’s eyes widened slightly. Since when had Qin Yuzhi become so... perceptive? Or rather, so enlightened?
This was downright terrifying.
Not to be outdone, the inaugural Best Actor of the Golden Statue Awards refused to fall behind.
Li Mo shook his head and sighed. "Maybe I just need to sleep it off. I’ll recover on my own."
"?"
Ying Bing remained expressionless, gathering a wisp of inner energy at her fingertip to probe his meridians and diagnose the issue properly.
But before her hand could reach him, Li Mo intercepted it, clasping her palm weakly.
Little Li seemed utterly drained, his gaze dimming slightly.
"If... just if... something really is wrong, promise me you’ll take care of Hammer Baby. I swore I’d find it a pretty little companion..."
"Disciple dear, take a swig of firewater! Whenever I’m sick, sweating it out always does the trick."
Shang Wu hastily poured him a cup of liquor.
Giving a patient strong alcohol? To "sweat it out"? Well, coming from his master, this was somehow perfectly logical...
Cough!
The moment the liquor touched his lips, Li Mo erupted into coughs.
The spilled drink hit the ground—first freezing into frost, then... bursting into flames?!
What kind of flammable ice was this?!
Honestly?
The Golden Statue Awards’ Best Actor was slipping today. His performance felt over-the-top, almost... guilty.
Even a child faking a cold to skip school could’ve done better.
But there’s a saying: "Fear breeds blindness."
"Let Xiao Yue play with it then..."
Frosty Block suspected Little Li was faking—he had tricked her into feeding him for three days back in the southern borderlands, after all.
Yet, seeing him so listless, her usually calm eyes flickered with unease.
What if it was real?
He had been forging in lava veins daily, wearing that indestructible pure-yang robe (because nothing else survived the heat).
Even an Inner Landscape Realm cultivator would struggle without proper protection...
"What in the world... is this performance?"
Xue Jing strode into the courtyard, medical kit in hand, and froze at the sight of Autumn Water Pavilion transformed into an emergency ward.
He turned to Elder Hanhe and Elder Zeng, baffled.
"What’s going on here?"
Elder Zeng paused. "Huh? He was like this when we carried him over."
Elder Hanhe nodded. "Doesn’t seem any worse than before..."
"Old Xue, thank heavens you’re here! Quick, examine him!"
Shang Wu hurriedly vacated her seat.
Li Mo: "!"
Oh no. The actually competent one had arrived.
Elder Hanhe and Elder Zeng... so they hadn’t fled? They’d gone to Dan Ding Peak to fetch backup?
Did they have to be this reliable?!
"Hmm... These symptoms... peculiar."
After a thorough inspection, Xue Jing frowned.
"Logically, with yang energy this rampant, external frost shouldn’t form. How can he be freezing outside while burning inside...?"
"Oh, that! Almost forgot."
Elder Zeng smacked his forehead, suddenly remembering.
He reached into Little Li’s pocket and pulled out a frigid, intricately patterned ore—ten concentric rings marked its surface.
Xue Jing stared. "Millennium Frost Silver Ore? Why in the world did you two put this on him?!"
This stone, found in the icy depths of lava veins where extreme yang birthed yin, was a rare forging material—used in weapons like the Heavenfrost Sword. Its counterpart was Blazing Copper Ore.
"The kid was scalding us!"
Elder Hanhe grumbled, showing his slightly reddened palms. "Carrying him burned my hands! Had to cool him down somehow."
"...So his 'external frost' was manually induced...? Seriously?"
Mystery solved: Li Mo’s icy condition was the result of literal ice therapy.
Silence engulfed Autumn Water Pavilion.
Dead leaves rustled in the cold wind. A stray crow flew overhead, its grating caws almost like mocking laughter...
The atmosphere couldn’t have been more awkward.
"Oh... so that’s it... I’m fine, haha! Told you..."
Without the frost ore suppressing him, Li Mo’s body temperature skyrocketed again, yang energy radiating heat.
Yet somehow, he now felt an inexplicable chill.
He turned stiffly—only to meet Frosty Block’s serene, utterly expressionless face.
Not good.
"It’s good that you’re alright."
Ying Bing spoke softly, then turned and walked upstairs.
"It’s over..."
Little Li muttered. Maybe he wasn’t completely unharmed after all...
Xue Jing scribbled a prescription. "Here, take some cooling herbs. You’ve been overindulging, and your yang is out of control. Rest properly for a few days, understood?"
"Right. I still have a weapon to forge—gotta go."
"Take two days off."
Elder Hanhe and Elder Zeng chimed in.
"Thank you for your concern, Elders."
"Ah, no need for thanks. Just doing our duty."
The two elders tactfully retreated from the scene of the crime.
"Hmph." Even though Shang Wu wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, she could tell her disciple had been faking it earlier. With a disgruntled snort, she retreated to her room.
"Tsk."
Qin Yuzhi glanced at him and shook her head—looks like the young lad had crashed and burned.
In the end, only Little Li was left standing there, frozen like a statue, utterly alone.
A song involuntarily rose in his heart:
"Snowflakes drift~ the north wind howls~~"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
