River

Sion ran through the frozen forest for several days.

It felt like he was walking on an endless snowy path. The surroundings were always the same, just trees and more trees—white trees everywhere. Snow fell constantly.

The temperature dropped lower and lower as he ran.

Jonas ran ahead of Sion, guiding him deep into the forest. During those days, Sion didn't encounter a single living thing, as if all creatures were avoiding him.

Sion had rested for a few hours before starting to run today. He had been running for eight hours, but he wasn't tired at all. His body absorbed the icy Qi around him, replenishing his spent energy.

During those days, Sion learned to guide the Qi to different parts of his body. Not his innate icy Qi from his physique, but the Qi distributed in his roots, his cultivation.

Sion sent this Qi to his legs, accelerating even more.

After another three hours, Sion suddenly had a different vision.

"Jonas, do you see that? Finally, after several days, something different from these trees, I was really bored," Sion laughed as he held Jonas with his hands.

As soon as Jonas went to lick his face, Sion put him back on the ground.

In the last few days, Sion had become attached to Jonas, the little ball of fur that he had no idea what it was.

If Jonas hadn't been with him, his mental health would have been much worse. As the days went by, whenever Sion thought of something bad, Jonas somehow managed to get his attention, making Sion forget his thoughts.

Sion already considered Jonas his friend, talking to him the whole way. Sion also realized that the little one was very intelligent, understanding everything he said.

Sion had already begun to understand and communicate with Jonas in some way. Now it was possible to have short conversations and understand some things that Jonas wanted and did.

The two quickened their pace until they reached a change in the environment.

Gradually, Sion's steps slowed as he could see what lay ahead in the forest.

In front of him was a gigantic river, its width bizarrely large, the banks of the river formed by blue ice, and the water flowing at an even more absurd speed.

If he fell there, Sion didn't know if he would survive, let alone if he could get out of such a strong current. He would probably be dragged away forever until he died.

"Actually, there's a river here. But how am I going to cross it?" Sion said as he thought about something.

Jonas didn't seem to care about the river as he continued jumping toward the bank. Sion saw this and instantly grabbed Jonas by the arms.

"What are you doing? Do you want to get swept away?" Sion said, looking into Jonas's big blue eyes.

"Hik-hik."

"What are you doing, hik-hiki? Stay there and don't even think about jumping into the river." Sion said, putting Jonas on the ground and pointing at him.

Sion then walked to the riverbank.

His hand touched the water and felt the force of the current, suddenly the innate icy Qi of his physique emerged. The water around his hand seemed to freeze, but in an instant it was completely broken by the current.

"Of course it wouldn't work…"

While he was focused on the river, thinking about something, he heard a small noise coming from the other side of the river.

Sion looked over immediately.

His vision suddenly became much clearer as his eyes momentarily glowed.

"That's a person, there's a person on the other side of the river." Sion said excitedly when he finally saw another being besides Jonas on the other side of the river.

The person was moving away from the river, but Sion could still see a female silhouette walking away. Gradually, Sion could no longer see the person at all.

'Person? No, it was like a white ghost… is it a snow spirit?'

"Well, at least I know there are people on the other side, maybe I'm getting to the center of the forest. But first I have to cross this river."

While thinking of a way to cross, Jonas suddenly approached the riverbank. Sion was about to tell him to stay away when, suddenly, a terrifying coldness came over the little boy.

His big blue eye suddenly changed when a huge black snowflake appeared in his pupil.

Sion's eyes reacted to this, sending a sense of danger to Sion.

"That's the Snow Eyes, no, it's similar, but it's not, what is it?"

As Sion stood there confused, he saw that the white particles he saw suddenly began to accumulate in front of Jonas's eye, only to gradually become darker and darker.

After a few seconds, a terrible icy energy came from Jonas as he blinked his eye once.

A black light shot out at a speed even faster than Ling Xue's spear.

Sion then saw a path freeze above the river, wide enough for two people to pass through together.

Sion decided to think about it later, when he suddenly ran as fast as he could down the path. He didn't want to waste the path Jonas had opened.

When he was halfway across the river, the path began to give way to the pressure of the water, and water began to flow over the ice path, hindering Sion.

Then, Sion concentrated all of his Innate Ice Qi, the Qi from his cultivation, and the surrounding snow Qi into his legs.

His speed increased exponentially as the path began to crack completely. Sion and Jonas ran as the ice crumbled.

At the last second, Sion and Jonas jumped high, landing on the other side of the river.

"Safe! Safe! That was easy, wasn't it, Jonas?" Sion said, looking at Jonas with a strange smile.

'So, you're strong, much stronger than me, why does practically everything in this place seem stronger than me? Just wait, soon nothing here will be able to stand against me,' Sion thought as he clenched his hands.

'Hik-hiiki'

"I knew you'd agree with me. Come on, Jonas, we have to find that person I saw before," Sion said as he took a step forward. 

At that moment, Sion felt his body absorbing the icy energy several times faster. The cold was much more intense. The icy Qi was dense and abundant everywhere. Everywhere Sion looked, there were white and blue particles, and now there was another one, but this one was minimal, and its color was a dark blue similar to the ice that the being who saved him had used.

At that moment, a thought came to Sion.

"Have I arrived in the central area of the forest?"

Sion was excited as he moved forward with Jonas, this time the environment was different.

The forest was denser.

As they walked, Sion passed small streams in the forest, which were unbelievably not frozen.

Here, Sion constantly heard noises from animals or beasts, which was rare in the forest before the river.

But despite this, he again saw no beasts nearby, nor was he attacked.

When he saw a deer two meters tall, white with transparent antlers, he was incredibly surprised, but before he could look at the deer any further, it seemed to sense him, looked at them, and ran away at the same moment.

"Why does everything seem to be afraid of us, Jonas? Well, I don't think it's bad, at least nothing will attack us suddenly."

The two then continued on for hours. Sion found strange frozen fruits, flowers, and plants of all kinds.

"This fruit is really good. Well, if a normal person tried to eat it, they would probably freeze to death, but it's good," Sion said as he took another bite.

Sion then left the dense forest and saw what was in front of him. Mountains, there were many absurdly high mountains, the largest he had ever seen. The mountains occupied all the paths ahead, as did the river that seemed to have no visible end.

"Well, at least it's something different from the flat forest with only white trees from before. Maybe on the other side… are those who live here."

Sion looked excited as he held Jonas in his arms.

"Come on, I feel like we're getting closer to our goal."