Ruins

Jiang Lin knelt on one knee, gasping for breath.

Sweat slid from his temples, quickly condensing into tiny ice crystals in the low temperature.

Killing seven frost ghosts in a row consumed far more physical strength and magic essence than imagined. Even with his breathing techniques constantly restoring him, he still felt waves of exhaustion through his limbs.

He took out high-energy nutrition paste from his storage space, tore open three tubes, and swallowed them at once.

The cold paste quickly transformed into a warm stream of energy within his body, traveling along his meridians to relieve his physical fatigue.

Then, he took out two bottles of light blue magic restoration potions and drank them down.

The potion was slightly bitter, but the pure magic essence within quickly replenished his nearly depleted magic essence.

Three breathing techniques operated simultaneously. Holy light circulated through his body, repairing minor frostbite and internal injuries; the elemental breathing technique regulated the elemental disorder caused by mobilizing ice soul power; and basic meditation calmed his slightly agitated mind from the high-intensity combat.

After resting for nearly an hour, Jiang Lin slowly stood up.

The egg-sized ice-blue crystal in his dantian was suspended quietly, its deep blue light flowing inside like liquid, forming a strange balance with the holy light magic essence.

He could clearly feel that his affinity for the ice element had reached a considerable level. Every gesture could now draw in the surrounding cold air.

"Let's see what I can do now."

With a thought, Jiang Lin extended his right hand.

Above his palm, the air quickly condensed, and a palm-sized, sharp-edged hexagonal ice crystal appeared out of thin air.

The ice crystal was translucent, with faint deep blue patterns visible inside, emitting a bone-piercing chill.

With a flick of his wrist, the ice crystal shot out as a streak of blue light. With a "pssh," it embedded itself into a nearby ice wall, leaving a hole half a foot deep with thick frost condensing around the edges.

"The power is roughly equivalent to a 2nd-rank ice spell."

Jiang Lin made a rough assessment.

This was only a preliminary mastery. As the crystal grew and his understanding of ice soul power deepened, the power he could unleash in the future would surely be even greater.

He withdrew his hand and turned his gaze toward the depths of the East Gallery.

Having resolved the threat of the frost ghosts, it was time to explore this passage that his predecessors had warned "not to go" to.

The frost giant ruins were not a single building but a large complex.

Most of the buildings here were originally built on the surface but had eventually sunk underground due to various reasons: earthquakes, geological changes, external forces, magic...

So, if Jiang Lin wanted to get out now, he had to find a path leading to the outside world.

Or pray that the palace he was in had parts that were not buried by the blizzard, allowing him to successfully find a way out after some exploration.

...

The East Gallery was even deeper and more winding than the previous passages.

The frost-tongue runes on the ice walls were so dense they covered almost every inch of the surface, and the patterns were more complex. They were no longer simple waves and fang patterns but were woven into continuous images that seemed to tell a story.

Jiang Lin carefully identified these runes as he advanced.

After absorbing the essence of the seven frost ghosts, he seemed to have developed a vague resonance with the frost-tongue runes left by the frost giants. Although he couldn't fully understand them, he could capture fragments of emotions and information contained within.

The first image:

A group of frost giants knelt before a towering ice peak. Floating at the peak was a giant, diamond-shaped ice crystal emitting a soft blue light.

The second image:

Giant priests held a ceremony around the ice crystal. A complex array was drawn on the ground, and seven deep blue shadows rose from the center of the array.

Those shadows were seventy percent similar to frost ghosts but more solid and majestic, like loyal guards.

The third image:

Countless pitch-black cracks suddenly burst out from within the ice crystal. The seven deep blue shadows let out silent wails, their forms twisting and dissipating, finally turning into the translucent, horrific appearance of the current frost ghosts.

The fourth image:

Frost giants fled through snow and lava. The altar cracked, the ice peak collapsed, and the entire tribe turned into ruins.

Those twisted deep blue shadows wandered among the ruins, preying on the giants who couldn't escape in time.

"Frost ghosts... were originally 'ice soul guards' created by the frost giants?"

Jiang Lin realized.

No wonder these frost ghosts appeared in the ruins, and no wonder they possessed such eerie soul attack abilities.

They were special beings created to protect the sacred object, but they went out of control during that devastating disaster.

The passage continued to extend upward.

The closer to the surface, the lower the temperature.

The frost-tongue runes on the ice walls gradually became blurred, covered by a thick layer of myriad-year profound ice.

Jiang Lin activated his constant-temperature protective suit, sealing out the extreme cold.

Finally, after turning the last corner, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

It was a massive, shocking underground ice cave.

The cave was over two hundred meters in diameter, with a ceiling over thirty meters high, supported by twelve thick ice pillars.

Each ice pillar was over three meters in diameter, carved with lifelike images of frost giants.

They stood solemnly with spears or knelt in prayer, their expressions grave and sorrowful.

In the center of the ice cave was an ancient altar five meters high.

The altar was cast from a mixture of blue-black cold iron and deep blue ice crystals. Its surface was covered with dense frost-tongue runes, with faint deep blue light flowing through them as if they were still weakly operating.

The altar was in the shape of a hexagram, with a statue of a frost giant priest standing at each of the six corners.

The statues were about three meters tall, their hands holding a fist-sized deep blue crystal.

They were somewhat similar to the ice-blue crystal in Jiang Lin's dantian, but the color was deeper and the light inside was more solid.

At the very center of the altar was a massive magic array about ten meters in diameter.

The patterns of the array were complex to the extreme, divided into three layers from the inside out:

The innermost layer was a heptagram, with a fist-sized space crystal embedded at each of the seven points.

The middle layer consisted of twelve nested circular rune rings, each engraved with ancient teleportation runes.

The outermost layer was thirty-six ice soul crystals of varying sizes, arranged in a ring, emitting stable ice magic essence fluctuations.

"This is a... long-distance teleportation array."

Jiang Lin stepped onto the altar and squatted at the edge of the array to observe closely.

Although the array was covered in dust and many runes showed signs of damage or breaks, the overall structure was still intact. Especially the seven space crystals in the innermost layer, which still emitted weak but stable spatial fluctuations.

"And the rank is very high.

"Looking at this complexity and energy fluctuation, it's at least an ultra-long-distance teleportation array capable of spanning thousands of kilometers."

Jiang Lin was shaken.

Teleportation arrays of this level were rare even in the Royal Capital of the Saintas Kingdom, generally used to connect important strategic locations or secret outposts.

He didn't expect to find one in the frost giant ruins in this extreme northern land.

He walked around the altar, his gaze falling on a ring of frost-tongue runes at the edge.

These runes were even more ancient and complex than those he had seen before, seemingly recording some important information.

Jiang Lin pressed his hand against the runes and mobilized the ice-blue crystal in his dantian.

The crystal vibrated slightly, and a surge of ice soul power flowed into the runes through his palm.

Suddenly, those frost-tongue runes that had been dormant for thousands of years seemed to be activated, beginning to emit a soft deep blue light as images and information fragments flooded into Jiang Lin's mind.

The majestic King's Court of the frost giants was surrounded by twelve ice peaks. Suspended at the top of the largest central ice peak was the giant diamond-shaped ice crystal named "Eternal Ice Soul," the sacred object and source of power for the tribe.

Seven of the strongest frost giant warriors volunteered to be sacrificed, their souls merging with the ice soul power to become "ice soul guards," protecting the sacred object for all eternity.

They possessed nearly immortal ice crystal bodies, a freezing breath that could freeze souls, and absolute hostility toward all intruders.

Later, a Great Ice Age and crustal movements erupted simultaneously. Volcanoes erupted from the depths of the ice fields, and lava and ice clashed violently, turning the entire area into an ice-and-fire purgatory.

Countless lava monsters rushed out, and even dragons inhabiting the underground lava appeared.

The frost giant tribe suffered heavy casualties, and the King's Court collapsed.

"Eternal Ice Soul" developed cracks during the violent earth vein changes, its internal balance was broken, and the berserk ice soul power backlashed.

The seven ice soul guards were the first to be affected. Their souls were twisted and contaminated, transforming from loyal guards into monsters that knew only to devour souls to replenish themselves... and so, frost ghosts were born.

The subsequent images showed the remaining frost giant priests activating the teleportation array on this altar to send the tribe's survivors and important supplies to the "Ancestral Land further north."

This was a secret refuge hidden within the Extreme Ice Abyss.

But the teleportation array was damaged after its last activation, and the connection to the Ancestral Land became extremely unstable.

The final piece of information:

This teleportation array was one-way, only capable of teleporting from here to the Ancestral Land. However, if the corresponding array in the Ancestral Land was actively activated, a two-way channel could be established.

Activating the array required injecting pure ice soul power and obtaining the recognition of the ice soul guards.

The information stopped abruptly.

Jiang Lin withdrew his hand, a sense of understanding flashing in his eyes.

"So that's it. Frost ghosts were originally ice soul guards protecting the sacred object, but they went out of control because the sacred object was damaged.

"This teleportation array connects to the last refuge of the frost giants—the Ancestral Land in the Extreme Ice Abyss."

As for where this Extreme Ice Abyss was, he had no idea.

After all, that was a name from thousands of years ago.

He looked at the array in the center of the altar, his gaze finally landing on the thirty-six ice soul crystals on the perimeter.

"Activation requires pure ice soul power and the recognition of the ice soul guards."

Jiang Lin rubbed his chin.

The crystal in his dantian should be able to provide the pure ice soul power.

As for the "recognition of the ice soul guards"...

He looked at his dantian and thought of the deep blue light filaments the crystal had absorbed when he killed the seven frost ghosts earlier.

"Could it be... since I absorbed the power of the frost ghosts and have the aura of their power in my body, the array defaults to me having 'recognition'?"

This speculation was reasonable.

Jiang Lin walked to the center of the array and sat cross-legged.

"Little Black, can you try to activate this teleportation array?"

Little Black looked at Jiang Lin in confusion:

"Are you sure you want to activate this teleportation array?"

Jiang Lin looked at the thirty-six ice soul crystals on the perimeter:

"The ice soul power contained in these crystals is quite pure. Even if we don't activate the teleportation array and just slightly activate the array to let them release some energy, it will be of great benefit to the growth of the crystal in my dantian.

"Besides, I also want to confirm if the array in the Ancestral Land still exists and if there is still energy to maintain it."

Little Black thought for a moment:

"I don't think it's a big problem."

Jiang Lin nodded:

"Then let's not perform a full teleportation. Just inject a small amount of ice soul power to 'half-activate' the array and see if we can sense the situation on the other end."

He extended his hands and pressed them in the center of the heptagram at the innermost layer of the array.

The ice-blue crystal in his dantian vibrated slightly, and a wisp of pure ice soul power flowed out along his meridians, injecting into the array through his palms.

At first, the array didn't react.

But after three breaths, the seven space crystals in the innermost layer suddenly lit up simultaneously, emitting a soft silver-white light. Immediately after, the twelve circular rune rings in the middle layer began to rotate slowly, and the teleportation runes on the surface lit up one by one.

"Hum..."

A low resonance echoed in the ice cave.

The array was activated, but the level was very weak, only equivalent to about one-tenth of a full activation.

Jiang Lin could clearly feel the array attempting to establish a connection with a distant coordinate.

It was an extremely weak and distant spatial fluctuation, as if separated by a thick veil, making it elusive.

He continued to inject ice soul power, increasing the activation level to one-fifth.

Suddenly, the array's light intensified, the rotation speed of the twelve rune rings increased, and the thirty-six ice soul crystals on the perimeter also began to glow, providing stable energy support for the array.

The connection became clearer.

Jiang Lin "saw" that in the extremely far north, in a place of eternal darkness and extreme cold, there existed another array similar to this one.

That array was even larger and more complex, and relatively well-preserved, though its surface was covered with a thick layer of myriad-year profound ice, appearing as if it hadn't been activated for a long time.

"The other end indeed exists, and it's well-preserved."

Jiang Lin felt slightly relieved.

However, just as he was prepared to withdraw his ice soul power and end this trial, a sudden change occurred!

The array in the distant north suddenly lit up as well!

It wasn't a passive reaction like the one he had activated here, but a strong silver-white light bursting forth actively from its core!

"What?!"

Jiang Lin's pupils contracted.

He could clearly feel that the array on the other end was being actively activated!

Someone was at the Ancestral Land, attempting to establish a two-way teleportation channel!

"Vrrr—Vrrrrrr—!!!"

The array on the altar vibrated violently.

The rotation speed of the twelve rune rings soared to a level hard to capture with the naked eye, and the light from the thirty-six ice soul crystals on the perimeter exploded, illuminating the entire ice cave in deep blue.

Silver-white spatial fluctuations poured out from the center of the array like a tide, forming a spatial vortex over five meters in diameter above the altar.

Inside the vortex, the scene on the other side was vaguely visible.

It was an endless ice field, the sky an eternal dark blue, with no sun, moon, or stars—only the aurora flowing across the ceiling.

Twelve towering ice peaks stood on the ice field, each with a building of a different style at its peak. In front of the central building, a figure was standing!