Chapter 185 - Chapter 185 Support

"Bing'er, if you find it difficult..."Snow Empress seemed to see through the Ice Empress's hesitation and spoke softly, stopping halfway—she knew the Ice Empress wouldn't give up, but she didn't want her to feel forced.The Ice Empress took a deep breath and shook her head: "It's not difficult."She turned around and looked at Ao Yao, her gaze becoming serious: "Ao Yao, for the next trial... I might have to trouble you.""As I should. Since I've accepted the Top-tier First Trial's Legacy, I should be assisting you. However..."He paused, the Ice God's meaningful words flashing through his mind as he asked tentatively, "Are you sure you want to start now? Do you want to... prepare first?"The Ice Empress fell silent for a moment, then suddenly gave a soft laugh: "Prepare for what? It's just something that has to be experienced sooner or later."With that, she stepped toward the underground Ice Chamber.Snow Empress wanted to follow, but was blocked by an invisible barrier at the entrance of the Ice Chamber."It seems... only you and Ao Yao can enter the Fourth Trial." Snow Empress's tone held a hint of helplessness, but more so trust in the Ice Empress. "Bing'er, I'll wait for you outside."The Ice Empress nodded and walked straight into the Ice Chamber without looking back.Ao Yao followed behind her. The moment he crossed the barrier, he clearly felt a strange chill surging from all directions—it wasn't a cold that affected his status panel, but a chill that reached deep into his Soul, as if even his thoughts were being frozen.But just a moment later, a mysterious aura dispersed the chill completely.Seeing this, Ao Yao frowned, a look of confusion appearing on his face.So... was this a convenience granted to him by the Ice God as a companion in the Top-tier First Trial?The space inside the Ice Chamber was roomier than it looked from the outside. On the surrounding Black Ice walls, those pale golden Divine Patterns flowed slowly like living things, emitting a faint but steady glow.The ice platform was located in the very center of the Ice Chamber, emitting a ghostly blue-white cold mist.The Ice Empress stood before the ice platform, remaining silent for a long time.Ao Yao tactfully did not urge her. Instead, he turned his back to the ice platform, his gaze falling on the Divine Patterns on the wall, pretending to study their patterns.Soon after, the faint sound of rustling finally came from behind him.The soft sound of clothes hitting the floor.And... the Ice Empress's deliberately suppressed breathing.Ao Yao stared at the Divine Patterns on the wall, trying his best to focus his attention on the complex flow of the lines."...Alright."The Ice Empress's voice was very soft, carrying an imperceptible tremble.Ao Yao turned around.The Ice Empress was already lying on the ice platform.Her body shimmered with a faint, translucent white luster in the cold Ice Chamber. The cold mist from the ice platform was Binding around her body, making her look as if she were enveloped in a hazy layer of frost.Her gaze was turned to the side, not looking at Ao Yao. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, betraying her inner tension.Ao Yao walked to the side of the ice platform and noticed that the grooves and patterns on it had begun to emit a pale golden light—the light spread along the patterns, eventually converging on nodes on the surface of the ice platform, which happened to correspond to various key parts of the Ice Empress's body."So... what exactly am I supposed to do?"Ao Yao whispered to himself, his gaze scanning back and forth between the ice platform and the Ice Empress.The moment his words fell, the pale golden patterns on the ice platform suddenly brightened.Points of light abruptly lit up on the Ice Empress's body, located on the palms of her hands, the soles of her feet, her lower abdomen, the center of her chest, and... her forehead.Seven points of light in total.A bold guess immediately rose in Ao Yao's heart—could the so-called support be for him to touch the locations of these seven points of light?Ao Yao's lips twitched subconsciously.The Ice Empress also seemed to realize something. Her cheeks, which had been turned away, instantly flushed a faint red, which even the cold mist on the ice platform couldn't hide.But before she could speak, the patterns on the ice platform suddenly flashed violently—the Ice God seemed no longer willing to give them time to hesitate.The Ice Empress's body jerked.An unimaginable chill surged from within the ice platform. It wasn't ordinary cold, but something that acted directly on the depths of her Origin—every inch of her flesh, every bone, and every Meridian was being frozen, shattered, and decomposed bit by bit in that chill."Ugh—!"The Ice Empress gritted her teeth, her hands clenching involuntarily, her nails nearly piercing her palms.That kind of pain was far beyond what the previous Body Tempering trial could compare to.In the previous trials, she hadn't even felt much pain. Although her cultivation was suppressed, her foundation was still there, so she wouldn't have felt this kind of pain at all.But this time, the pain was particularly intense.Moreover, this pain erupted from within her body, from the depths of her Origin—as if someone were using an extremely fine blade to dismantle every inch of her body, and then reassembling it the moment it was dismantled, over and over again.Fine cracks began to appear on the surface of her body. These weren't wounds, but traces of her original body being decomposed.Most lethally, during the decomposition process, the energy within her body fell into complete chaos. She had no way to alleviate the pain, and even staying conscious became extremely difficult.Although the Ice God hadn't explicitly said so, the Ice Empress knew.Once she lost consciousness, her Fourth Trial would only end in failure."Ao... Ao Yao..."The Ice Empress's voice was intermittent, carrying pain suppressed to the extreme.Ao Yao didn't hesitate anymore. He took a deep breath and pressed his right hand onto the node on the Ice Empress's forehead.The moment Ao Yao's palm made contact, the Ice Empress gasped sharply—the warmth and power coming from his palm were magnified countless times in her perception.That feeling... was very strange.It wasn't pain.But rather... an inexplicable warmth.Like trekking through a frigid ice field for ten million years and finally finding a fire to warm oneself.Ao Yao's power spread from her forehead. Wherever it passed, the agonizing pain of being decomposed seemed to lessen slightly.But at the same time, that warmth also brought an indescribable tingling sensation, causing her nerves to tremble slightly.However, this warmth and the feeling of pain relief didn't last long.Soon, an even more intense wave of pain struck again.Unprepared, the Ice Empress almost fainted from the pain. Fortunately, her will was tough enough to force her through it."Ao Yao... continue..."The Ice Empress's voice suddenly rang out, tight with tension.Ao Yao didn't hesitate and pressed his left hand directly on the node on her lower abdomen.This time, the Ice Empress's body arched for a moment out of pure instinct.The sensation brought by Ao Yao's palm pressing here was much stronger than at her forehead.The warm energy, guided by the Divine Patterns, slowly traveled through her body, forming a delicate balance with the extreme cold force that was decomposing her body—the extreme cold was responsible for decomposing her "mortal body," while Ao Yao's support stabilized her Origin, ensuring she wouldn't completely collapse during the decomposition process.But this process required Ao Yao's power to accurately cover every corner of her body.This meant... he couldn't just keep his hands still on the nodes.In other words, his hands needed to constantly move between the seven points of light on the Ice Empress's body.A layer of fine sweat broke out on Ao Yao's forehead.Not because of nervousness, but because his control over his power had to be precise to the extreme—a little too much force would interfere with the process of reconstruction, and a little too little would cause her Origin to dissipate.He moved his left hand from her lower abdomen to her right palm, injecting power palm-to-palm. Her fingers curled subconsciously, her fingertips touching the back of his hand with a chilly sensation.Then the left palm.Then the sole of the right foot.With every move to a new node, Ao Yao could feel the slight reactions from the Ice Empress's body—sometimes a gentle shudder, sometimes a sudden acceleration of her breath, sometimes an involuntary tensing of her muscles.And when his left hand landed on the point of light on her chest.The Ice Empress's body suddenly froze.That position... was too close.Ao Yao's palm could feel her rapid heartbeat from less than an inch away.His fingers were long and powerful. As they covered that point of light, they almost enveloped the entire central area of her chest in the warmth of his palm.Her breathing instantly became erratic, her chest rising and falling violently. Her fingertips subconsciously gripped the edge of the ice platform."Don't... don't move..."Her voice was squeezed out from between her teeth, carrying a hint of trembling and shame.Ao Yao's movements stiffened for a moment.But he didn't move his hand away—because the guidance of the Divine Patterns clearly told him that this node was one of the most critical points in the entire transformation process.He had to continue, or her Origin would go out of control in the next decomposition cycle.And the Ice Empress understood this too.She bit her lip and forced herself to relax.That feeling... was very contradictory.The pain of decomposition and the warmth of Ao Yao's power were intertwined, like an ice river and a warm current meeting, colliding, and Fusion within her body. And the temperature and touch from his palm became exceptionally clear in her magnified perception.The patterns on his palm.His slightly elevated body temperature from nervousness.Even... the frequency of his pulse.These details were infinitely magnified in her perception, clearly transmitted to the depths of her consciousness.And on Ao Yao's side, things weren't much better.Although he tried hard to focus his attention on controlling his power, the sensations from his palm—the frequency of the Ice Empress's body trembling from pain, the cycle of the thin layer of ice mist on her skin melting into water droplets and then freezing again under the influence of her body heat and his palm's temperature, the subtle shifts caused by the rise and fall of her chest with every deep breath.These details were inevitably perceived by him.His Adam's apple bobbed, but his movements didn't falter in the slightest.Time passed slowly in the dark Ice Chamber.Under the dual effects of the extreme cold force and Ao Yao's help, her body began the long and painful process of reconstruction. Her original body was decomposed bit by bit and then reconstructed at the moment of decomposition.New flesh, new Meridians, and new bones slowly took shape in the ice-blue light.And the deeper this process went, the stronger her dependence on Ao Yao's help became.Later on, whenever Ao Yao's hand moved away from one point of light to move to the next, her body would instinctively feel a sense of "loss."And the moment his hand landed again, that sense of loss would be filled."Ao Yao..."Her voice was very soft.Ao Yao subconsciously looked down at her.Her eyes reflected the pale golden light of the Divine Patterns in the chamber. Those usually cold eyes were now covered in a thin layer of mist—a result of pain, sensitivity, and some inexplicable intertwined emotions."I'm here."Ao Yao's voice was low and steady.His right hand was again pressed against the node on her forehead, while his left hand remained on the center of her chest—these two nodes were the core of maintaining her Origin's stability and required the most continuous and stable support."Almost there."Ao Yao's gaze fell on the cracks on her body—the cracks were gradually decreasing, replaced by a more crystalline texture.Her already extremely fair skin became even more... ethereal after the reconstruction, like a work of art carved from the purest ice essence, every inch emitting a faint ice-blue fluorescence.That was the sign that the Ice Spirit Body was taking shape.But the final stage of transformation was also the most painful."Ah—!"In the next instant, she finally couldn't help but let out a suppressed cry of pain. Her body trembled violently, and her hands instinctively reached out to grab something to combat the pain.Her right hand suddenly gripped Ao Yao's arm.Her nails dug into the fabric of his sleeve, her fingertips turning slightly white from the force.Ao Yao didn't dodge, instead knitting his brows and fully immersing himself.At this moment, he had no indecent thoughts in his mind.Her body continued to tremble under his support. Her breathing was completely erratic, and her rapid breaths were mixed with cries of pain suppressed to the extreme.Her consciousness became blurred under the dual impact of pain and warmth, leaving only the most instinctive reactions—her grip on his arm grew tighter and tighter, as if it were the only piece of driftwood she could catch in a surging tsunami."Ao Yao... Ao Yao..."She repeated his name over and over, her voice getting softer and more dependent."I'm here."Ao Yao responded every time, his voice steady and firm.His movements didn't hesitate. The warmth of his palms seeped through her sensitive skin. His fingertips occasionally touched some overly private areas by accident, but in this situation, both chose to ignore it.Because her body was undergoing the final stage of "death before life"—every inch of skin, every bone, and every Meridian was being crushed in the extreme cold and Rebirth under the protection of Ao Yao's power.This process required his support to cover every inch of her body.No exceptions.