"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~~"
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
reezy rom-com) Good news: Jiang Liu is quite the ladies' man. Bad news: He’s lost his memory. Lying in a hospital bed, Jiang Liu listens to a parade of goddesses spouting "absurd claims," feeling like the world is one giant game of Werewolf. "Jiang Liu, I’m your first love." "Jiang Liu, you’re my boyfriend—she’s your ex." "Jiang Liu, we’re close friends who’ve shared a bed, remember?" "Jiang Liu, I want to have your baby." The now-lucid Jiang Liu is convinced this must be some elaborate scam... until someone drops the bombshell: "The day before you lost your memory, you confessed your feelings—and got into a relationship." Jiang Liu is utterly baffled. So... who the hell is his actual girlfriend?! ... Before recovering his memories, Jiang Liu must navigate this minefield of lies and sincerity, fighting to protect himself from these women’s schemes. But things spiral even further out of control as more people show up at his doorstep—each with increasingly unhinged antics. On the bright side, the memories he lost due to overwhelming trauma seem to be resurfacing. Great news, right? So why are they all panicking now?
Heart] Chen Yi traversed the cultivation world for eight hundred years, charging his way to the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Just as he was outwitting his 81st Heavenly Tribulation to ascend to immortality, he was suddenly pulled into a chat group called the "Multiverse Transmigrators Support Group." To his surprise, the group was filled with nothing but fresh-faced newbies who had just transmigrated. [Help! I transmigrated into a disgraced concubine in the cold palace, and the tyrant emperor is about to execute me!] [I ended up as a cannon-fodder villain, and the protagonist is still chasing me—WTF!] [I woke up as the protagonist’s father, but I’m about to be sacrificed in a ritual! What do I do? Urgent!!!] Chen Yi stared at the chaotic flood of desperate pleas in the group and fell into deep thought. "Seriously? You drag me into a newbie transmigrator chat group… only after I’m one step away from becoming an immortal?"
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
