When they reached halfway up the mountain, a thunderous rumble suddenly erupted from the summit, shaking the entire peak. Goldwing immediately shouted, "Boss, run! Avalanche!"
"Avalanche? Damn it, of course something like this had to happen to me," Evan Chu muttered speechlessly, then dashed downhill at full speed.
As for Jenny Sima, he wasn’t too worried—her body was protected by the purple barrier, but he and the others were in real danger of being buried alive.
Climbing up had been slow, but getting down was a whole different story—Evan kept using Shifting Position nonstop, never caring whether the ground was flat or a sheer drop, just desperate to escape.
The Violet Thunder Fox and Goldwing were just as fast—right behind Evan, they all bolted for safety as quickly as possible.
Looking back, Evan saw countless giant snowballs rolling down the mountain, growing larger and larger as they went. The avalanche surged like a tide, quickly swallowing the spot where they’d paused just moments ago.
Jenny Sima couldn’t match Evan and the beasts for speed, but she still managed to reach their shelter before the avalanche buried her.
"This avalanche is seriously terrifying. If you get buried, it’s definitely not going to end well," Evan said.
"If you really get buried, anyone weak will just freeze to death inside. Once you’re under more than a meter of snow, it’s basically like entering a tenfold gravity zone—the deeper you go, the worse the pressure gets.
If we got buried thirty meters down, it’d be a nine-deaths-one-life situation. Judging by this avalanche, I think it’s just a small one—we got lucky. If it was a big avalanche, who knows what’d happen," the Violet Thunder Fox said.
"Lucky? More like unlucky—after all that climbing, suddenly there’s an avalanche. But there’s one thing I’m sure of: there’s no night here. That’s kind of weird," Evan said, voicing his doubts.
By now, the roar of the avalanche had faded, and everything was calm again. Looking around, it was still endless white everywhere, as if nothing had happened at all.
Only the bone-chilling wind and swirling snowflakes kept blowing, leaving everyone feeling helpless.
"The avalanche’s over. Let’s get moving! Hopefully we won’t see another one," Evan said.
The four of them continued onward, taking nearly four hours to reach the summit. The closer they got, the fiercer the wind and snow became—one wrong move and they could be blown right off the mountain.
Evan was the first to reach the top. Looking up, he saw the summit was still a field of white, but there were plenty of jagged ice pillars everywhere—though the flying snow made it hard to see clearly.
The wind on the summit was on a whole different level from the base—Evan felt that if he didn’t use stellar power to anchor himself, he’d probably get blown away.
Goldwing and Jenny Sima reached the summit too. After scanning the area, Goldwing said, "Boss, the astral wind here is brutal—we need to be careful. Sometimes you’ll run into Coldflame. I got hit by it once, and it nearly froze me to death."
"Got it. It’s insanely cold here, and the astral wind is crazy strong—there’s definitely something unusual going on. You guys wait here, I’ll go check ahead," Evan said.
The Violet Thunder Fox flashed with purple light, reverting to her beast form. "Big Brother, I’ll go with you. I’ve been here before, though I didn’t get very far in. I know the basics about this place."
"You guys feeling cold?" Evan Chu glanced around. Except for Jenny Sima, who was protected by the purple barrier, both Goldwing and Macy Mei were shivering.
"The astral wind here is brutal. Feels like knives slicing your face—of course it's freezing, and it hurts! Boss, you seriously don't feel anything?" Goldwing squawked, incredulous.
"Nope, nothing. Just feels like the wind's strong—hard to walk, gotta anchor myself with stellar force or risk getting blown off the mountain." Evan shrugged, totally unfazed.
Goldwing and Macy both stared at Evan like he'd grown a second head. The astral wind here hit like a full-powered Earth Martial Realm attack, but Evan acted like it was nothing. Unreal.
"Jenny, you and Goldwing wait here. Macy and I will check it out. Feels like this summit's just the starting line—there's gotta be something hidden up ahead." Evan didn't even wait for Jenny's reply before heading off.
Macy, now back in her true Violet Thunder Fox form, moved even faster than Evan. "Big bro, see those ice pillars? Whatever you do, don't touch them. Some have Coldflame inside—seriously deadly stuff."
"Coldflame? Got it. Weird, though—I really don't feel cold. What's going on?" Evan wondered, baffled. Was it his Pure Yang Constitution, or his Starforge Body's third-layer defense kicking in?
Soon, Evan and Macy disappeared from Jenny and Goldwing's sight. The blizzard and howling winds kept raging. Goldwing had no choice but to huddle behind Jenny's purple barrier, grateful for any relief from the pain.
A little farther on, Evan spotted an ice pillar glowing faintly up ahead. His heart skipped—could this be what he'd been searching for?
Macy saw it too. "Big bro, you want the Ice Crystal in that pillar? Trust me, don't even think about it. Any pillar with an Ice Crystal has Coldflame inside—it's insanely dangerous."
"So that glowing thing is an Ice Crystal? Must be worth a fortune!" Evan blurted, eyes wide with excitement.
"Ice Crystals take millions of years to form and are packed with energy—almost like your human Starstones. But they're not the same. Absorb one the wrong way and it's a death sentence," Macy explained.
"What do you mean, death sentence? Macy, how do you know? Have you tried absorbing one yourself?"
"Of course I did—once. Never again. The energy inside is crazy, enough to match mid-grade or even high-grade Starstones. But it's so cold, I barely lasted five minutes before I was almost frozen solid.
My meridians locked up, a thick shell of ice covered me, and it took three days to thaw out. I was basically an ice statue, totally helpless. So, boss, forget about those Ice Crystals."
At first, Evan was stoked hearing Ice Crystals rival Starstones. But Macy's next words hit him like a bucket of ice water, snuffing out his hope in an instant.
"And there's more. If you want an Ice Crystal, you'll have to face Coldflame. If it touches you, you turn into an ice statue—maybe forever. With the temperature this low, the snow could just keep piling on, making the ice thicker. It's almost certain death here."
The more Evan listened, the more nervous he got. Macy was a ninth-rank beast—still way stronger than him, even after dropping a rank for Jenny's sake. If even she was terrified, this place had to be deadly.
Evan wrestled with himself. If Ice Crystal and Coldflame were this brutal, then the Iceflame Crystal he truly needed must be even harder to get—maybe right in front of him, but impossible to touch.
"Big bro, seriously, let's just go back. Sure, there might be something here you need, but it's way too dangerous. No point making Jenny worry herself sick." Macy's voice trembled—she clearly wanted out of here, fast.