Chapter 230: Snowfall
A few moments ago, in another part of Stone Claw City…
“Hey I’m going home for the day, you sure you don’t need any help cleaning up?”
“Nah, it’s cool. You just go on home and rest.”
“Okay, see you later boss.”
Once Louis’s assistant left for home for the evening, he began to crunch the numbers of how they did today in terms of sales.
‘Alright you managed to sell one hundred bowls today…that deserves a smoke!,’ Louis said to himself as placed the last of the dishes into his cart.
Louis was a simple man, having been born and raised in the frontier of Stone Claw, with a simple desire: to manage the best noodle cart in all the land.
While others may have had dreams to becoming Aether Gods, or become kings in their own rights, Louis was happy just selling his noodles, getting enough money to pay for ingredients and how own wellbeing, and maybe splurge on something he could smoke.
With this cart fully packed at this point, he took out his pipe and loaded up with some smoking herbs.
“Alright, this is gonna feel so-” *ROOOOARRR!* “what the fuck?!”
The sound of a giant roar echoed in the distance for a brief moment before suddenly fading away just as quickly.
Louis stared to see what could be the cause, until concluding that it was probably just a fight gone wrong or something.
“Yeesh. This is why I avoid power politics…,” Louis grumbled to himself as he lit his pipe.
During the process of lighting and smoking his pipe, a sudden coldness overcame him. Not that he was dying or anything like that, more like the temperature around him suddenly dropped even lower than normal.
“Man, I know desert nights got cold but this is ridiculous…huh?”
Illuminated by torchlight, Louis was rendered speechless as he saw a tiny white speck suddenly fall from the sky, fall to the ground, and melt into water. He had heard about snow from travellers before, but he never seen a snowflake until now.
As he looked up into the sky, he saw… thousands of them.
“What the fuck?”
At this exact moment, covering the entriety of Stone Claw City, a gentle snowfall was happening in the middle of a desert wasteland.
The cause of it? Only known to a few.
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“I-is it over?,” Zhen Lao asked.
“Judging by the fact that Harold Wolfe, the Aether Lord of the Wolfe family is now a fucking icicle in his own courtyard…yes, yes it is,” Zhen Long answered.
“Huh…we should probably go check on father. Right now,” Zhen Hou said as he moved ahead.
“Agreed!”
“Xiao Liu, you stay here and rest up,” Zhen Yan instructed.
“Fine by me,” Zhen Liu managed to croak out.
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‘Oh shit, you don’t think grandpa is gonna tell the uncles and dad that we’re responsible for the power-up, right?’
=It would be illogical for him to do so.=
[Nah, maestro. Old fellows like him know how to take certain secrets to their deathbeds. Bet you he still has a big one about why he and the missus had to ditch Roaring Tide,] Hurricroak observed.
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The Zhen Clan elders had watched from afar as their father had essentially summon a giant serpent made of ice, snow, and pure rage, and used it to absolutely annihilate Harold Wolfe, who moments ago was the most powerful warrior in the entire city.
Now, he was encased in ice with the look of primal fear plain on his face. Whether or not he was dead was kind of up to debate.
As Zhen Liu clan elders approached their father, the latter let out a sigh, creating a block of ice for himself to sit on before doing so.
‘Was that my doing so, or you?’
[Yes.]
‘Ominous little-‘
“Father!”
‘Will circle back to you later.’
Even while sitting down, Zhen Shi’s current form made him tower over his sons in a rather imposing manner.The fact that snow was falling around them added a touch of mysticism to the whole scene, a gang of adventurers meeting the king of winter as it were. If it weren’t for the obvious air of familiarity around them and the looks of confusions on the mens faces, one would think that latter should be kneeling.
“Father, why are you this big? What happened to your armor? And did-did you breakthrough in the middle of the fight?!,” Zhen Long asked with a shocked expression. The others were gonna ask somewhat similar questions, but since their eldest had already beaten them to the punch, they just added additional shocked looks and/or looked over Harold’s frozen body. They still couldn’t tell if he was dead or not, because all aether in the area was pure ice right now.
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[Before you say anything, can you attribute everything that had occured to mi-Zhen Liu’s master?]
‘Huh? Why?’
[Zhen Liu hasn’t been keeping what he knows and can do secret for no reason. You saw, and felt, what happened when did do his thing. I know you trust your sons not to blab on purpose, but…he doesn’t want to risk anyone who knows with his secrets if he can help it.]
‘Ah…well then.’
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“Well, for starters, Zhen Yan.”
“Yes, father?”
“Your son is a surprisingly lucky individual.”
“Pardon?”
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During the middle of my fight with Harold over there, the bastard managed to get me into a headlock of all things. Zhen Liu and his puppet over there were the only ones left in the area who tried to do something.
Before your son could do something stupid, a robed man with a weird mask and an aether tool I had never seen before showed up out of nowhere.
“Master!,” I heard Zhen Liu cry out with relief.
This figure was… intimidating to say the least. Not in his look, but just his mere…presence. It was like staring up at giant warrior of old, the kind who’s existence was all storms and mysteries.
Next thing I know, Zhen Liu’s master shot me in the chest with that weird aether tool and fobbed off.
I don’t know what it did, but it somehow affected me down to my formula and even the beast core embedded in it.
And well…you see the results.
I somehow broke through, I somehow bulked up, and I fucking deep freezed the asshole who murdered your mother, my beloved.
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[Nice lie.]
‘Thanks, I had to learn that when I was dating Bai Hua in my youth…wait, am I able to change back to normal or…’
[Oh yeah, no problem I can just go and your armor will slim back down. The, uh…spirit evolution might be permanent.]
‘Oh shit,’ Zhen Shi said deflated.
[It’s fine, it just raised your upper power limit by a couple grades.]
‘Oh shit,’ Zhen Shi said elated.
[There is…one other side effect, but… it’ll be fine.]
‘Which is…’
[You’re about to find out. Oh! And make sure to check your immediate left once you change back.]
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After regaling his sons with his “totally accurate” recount, Zhen Shi’s body began to glow.
“Ah, looks like whatever that old enigma did is starting to wear off. Shame. I kinda like the bulk,” Zhen Shi sighed.
Everybody shielded their eyes as the glowing intensified into a short flash. Unbeknownst to all of them, a little toy elephant had popped out of Zhen Shi during this moment and left a small flower of ice by Zhen Shi’s side.
When the flash ended, Zhen Long and the others had to blink a few times to get their sight back. Granted, once they did get their sight back, their jaws dropped to the ground.
“Phew! Man I feel significantly lighter now,” Zhen Shi’s said as he stretched his now slimmer form, “What’s everyone staring at?”
Without saying anything, Zhen Lao pulled out a small mirror and presented it to Zhen Shi.
“Huh? Who’s the middle-aged…hold up.”
Zhen Shi had entered this fight looking like a seventy year old elderly man.
He was now looking about forty something.
“Huh…”
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‘Was…was that supposed to happen?’
=Chaos is a random force of nature. It was either the reversal of one’s age or…any other number of mutations, or just nothing.=
‘That gonna happen everytime, or…’
=Are you going to use a kaijin to force a breakthrough to occur again?=
‘Probably not…’
