Chapter 137: A Difficult Choice

Chapter 137: Chapter 137: A Difficult Choice

Damon’s expression changed.

"Caelia."

She followed his gaze.

The channel was different from the others.

Dark cracks covered almost its entire length.

The Ice Aether inside was being violently mixed with unstable energy.

And the amount of corrupted Aether flowing through it was far greater than the others.

Caelia stared.

"That’s..."

"From the passage."

Damon nodded.

He didn’t take his eyes away from it.

"That’s where it’s coming from."

Another pulse moved through the channel.

This time, the corrupted Aether spread even farther.

Damon’s mind immediately connected the pieces.

The unstable Aether wasn’t appearing randomly inside Frostveil.

It was entering through the connection between zones.

And Frostveil’s Zone Heart had been trying to deal with it ever since.

Caelia slowly looked around the cavern.

"So Frostveil wasn’t isolated."

"No."

Damon shook his head.

"None of them are."

The words were simple.

But the weight behind them was enormous.

For days, they had suspected that the Distorted Zones could influence each other.

They had seen the unstable Aether around the passage.

They had noticed how the conditions changed depending on how close they were to it.

They had even theorized that the Zone Hearts might be connected.

Now they were looking directly at the proof.

Damon looked at the enormous channel again.

"And Tempest Hollow is sending the worst of it."

Caelia’s expression became serious.

"If that keeps happening..."

"Frostveil will keep getting worse."

"And Tempest Hollow too."

Damon nodded.

"Which means stabilizing one zone won’t be enough."

Caelia looked at him.

"We need to deal with the connection."

Damon remained silent for a moment.

The Spirit Origin inside him pulsed again.

He looked toward the Zone Heart.

They had finally found what they were searching for.

They also finally understood what they were dealing with.

But instead of making things easier, the discovery made the situation much more urgent.

Damon looked at the damaged channels.

"We need to act soon."

Caelia nodded.

"Before the Heart gets overwhelmed."

"Yeah."

Damon took a slow breath.

"We’ve got our answer."

He looked at the massive frozen tree once again.

"Now we need to figure out what to do with it."

The group remained silent as another pulse passed through the Zone Heart.

Pale blue light spread through the cavern.

But among the clear channels, more and more dark cracks were beginning to appear.

And Damon knew they couldn’t afford to ignore them anymore.

Damon and Caelia took another deep breath before moving toward the Zone Heart.

The closer they got, the heavier the pressure became.

Caelia looked at Damon.

"Do you think you can fix it?"

Her voice was quiet.

After seeing the Zone Heart in person, the problem looked much worse than they had imagined.

Damon didn’t answer immediately.

He kept watching the Heart.

It continued to pulse as it struggled to circulate the Ice Aether.

Caelia understood the danger now.

It wasn’t just about Damon providing enough pure elemental Aether.

He would also have to deal with the unstable Aether moving through the Heart.

And there was a lot of it.

Too much.

Damon had already realized something else.

The unstable Aether wasn’t simply spreading because the Distorted Zones were somehow trying to corrupt each other.

They were trying to survive.

Frostveil was receiving more unstable Aether than its Heart could handle.

So it pushed part of that burden through the connected channels.

The other zones did the same.

They were passing the problem around.

Each zone was buying itself more time, but none of them were actually solving it.

And eventually, all of them would suffer.

Damon finally looked at Caelia.

"I’ll try."

Caelia frowned.

"You know how dangerous that is, right?"

"Yeah."

"If it’s too much, stop."

Damon looked back at the Heart.

"We found the problem. That’s already more than we had before."

Caelia stepped closer.

"We can go back and think of another method. We can talk to the other families. If their Distorted Zones are connected too, they might be able to help."

"I know."

"Then don’t force yourself."

Damon smiled slightly.

"I won’t."

Caelia stared at him.

She clearly didn’t believe him.

Damon chuckled.

"I’m serious."

He paused.

"Mostly."

Caelia sighed.

"That’s exactly what worries me."

Damon laughed quietly.

But his expression soon became serious again.

They didn’t have much time.

The damaged channels were already carrying more unstable Aether.

The longer they waited, the worse Frostveil would become.

And if the same thing was happening in Tempest Hollow, there was no telling how bad things could get there.

Damon looked at the resources they had brought.

They had gathered a large amount of Ice Elemental materials during their exploration.

Caelia had also emptied a good portion of their supplies.

It was enough for an experiment.

Maybe not enough for the solution.

But it was enough to find out what they were dealing with.

Damon sat down near the Zone Heart.

He entered a cultivation pose.

Caelia stayed nearby.

"Ready?"

Damon nodded.

"Let’s see how much it can take."

He began with the same process he had used with Snow.

A small amount of Ice Elemental Aether was drawn from the resources around him.

It entered his body.

Damon guided it toward his Spirit Origin.

The familiar sensation appeared.

The Ice Elemental Aether entered the Spirit Origin and began to change.

The impurities were stripped away.

The unstable parts were filtered.

What remained was much purer.

Damon carefully separated the refined essence.

He had done this many times now.

With Snow.

With Shiro.

Even while cultivating inside Frostveil.

This part was no longer difficult for him.

The difficult part came next.

Damon extended the purified Ice Elemental essence toward the Zone Heart.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the Heart reacted.

The compressed Ice Aether around it moved.

The pure essence was pulled toward it.

Damon’s eyes widened slightly.

"It really wants it."

Caelia watched closely.

The Zone Heart absorbed the purified essence almost immediately.

Then something changed.

The next pulse was stronger.

The Heart pushed against the corrupted Aether moving through one of its damaged channels.

The unstable energy was forced backward.

Only slightly.

But it was enough for Damon to notice.

"It worked."