Forging the Nether Frost Source

Luckily, the only resource required to forge the nether frost source was one's alignment with the water or ice element. Every cultivator would either have a Mana or Qi core, and if they had multiple alignments, they would have more than one cores.

The Dylan from his dream was an exception, and was able to bear both Mana and Qi within a single light element core.

Atlas had two cores himself, one of them being the water element Mana core, and the other being the wood element Mana core. That's why, destroying one of his Mana cores wouldn't affect his Mana talent level. Since so, he was willing to take a risk, even if it will make his life multiple times harder in the future, whether he succeeds, or not.

Although no other resources were needed to forge a nether frost source, according to the technique, one must do it in a ice-cold water bath, with water covering their entire body. The temperature must be lower than -0°C. This of course wouldn't have deadly to Atlas, but since he had to let the cold invade his body in order to forge the source, this occasion was more than a little dangerous, and even his life could be at risk if something were to go wrong.

Even then, Atlas still chose to go through with the process. He wouldn't allow for a slight chance to let his friends his family to be harmed.

Atlas quickly prepared the water bath, and by the time he was done, the time showed 23:50. As mentioned before, the diameter of the planet they lived in was a lot larger than that of earth. So an hour in their planet was an hour in hours, but a year in their earth was 10 years in our earth. Days were of the same length, but their earth had a total of 6 seasons. Spring, Summer, Harvest, Fall, Winter, Terminus. (The author is very lazy and isn't willing to actually do math.) There were 4 months in every season totaling to 24 months.

So the time Atlas was finally done preparing was close to midnight. Dylan had also come to check on him during the preparation process, and left after Atlas explained Dylan that he was preparing a simple ice bath. He wasn't technically lying, so there wasn't any reason for Dylan to get suspicious. Luckily, Dylan wasn't really a fan of the cold temperatures, otherwise he would have insisted to go into the bath together with Atlas. (No Bl, straight bromance, please don't make this weird.)

After everything was prepared, Atlas readied himself to enter the bath. He sank his entire body under the water, with the help of his wood elemental mana to form a net over to tie him down, and got into the position mentioned in the technique. Right hand lightly pressing on one's heart, Left hand, pressing lightly on one's forehead between one's brows, meanwhile the rest of the body remains straight while lying down inside the water.

The water was indeed very cold, and since he didn't use mana to maintain his bodily temperature, his body quickly got invaded by the ice-cold temperature. ("Technically its his body that lost hea-" who cares, shut up.) He then moved his water elemental mana like it was mentioned by the technique, and quietly chanted the cultivation technique's mantra.

"Water births life, accompanies it even to death. Water always flows, only still when it is ice. Ice is the sole object to be ever still in all of existence. It will stay still in life, it will stay still in death.... Even when time ends, Ice will remain still. Water will open way to Frost, Frost will dominate all existance! Nine nether Frost Source, form!"

Thus the process had begun, yet an unexpected variable had happened The time was exactly 00:00, when the power of yin-based elements were of their strongest power. With the nether frost being one of the most purely yin-based elements, the process had become a lot more violent and painful.

This much pain was hard for Atlas to bear, and he felt like passing out. Yet, he knew that if he were to pass out, he wouldn't just fail in practicing this technique, but would lose his water elemental mana core for no reason.

He tried his hardest to bear the pain, but it was simply too much. Right when he was about pass out, a crackling sound came from his other remaining mana core, his wood elemental mana core. As the pain he felt continued to increase, the crackling noises continued to got louder. Luckily, his room had noise isolation installed, so this noise didn't wake up Dylan.

But, there was indeed someone else who had heard these sounds. A mysterious person who was sitting in meditating position opened their eyes and showed an amused expression on their face.

"Oh. They say that every circle brings something new... but this really is a sight to see. To think that something like this would actually eventually happen. The prophecy was indeed not false. Let's hope that this time, that person will finally attain their wishes..."

The mysterious person then simply closed their eyes, and their face went blank. They continued to stay on meditating position, as if they were not at all disturbed in the first place. Their figure was covered with mist, as if sensoring their identity from certain people, and only their expressions could be read.

Then the moment the mysterious closed their eyes, Atlas had opened his own. He had barely managed to hold on and not pass out, but he had indeed completed the process. Did he succeed or fail? He didn't know and couldn't care at the moment, as his body barely had any strength remaining to get out of the bath, and cary itself to his bed.

But, if one took a really close look at his body, they could see a faint luster of Bluish Azure colored aura coating his skin.