Chapter 142: Good News

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Good News

Damon could feel it through their bond.

Shiro was getting closer to his potential.

Not there yet.

But closer.

The light around him slowly faded.

Shiro opened his eyes.

His deep blue eyes looked sharper than before.

Damon walked over and crouched beside him.

He gently ran a hand over Shiro’s head.

"Good job."

Shiro lowered his head slightly into the touch.

Damon smiled.

He was genuinely proud.

Shiro had become stronger again.

Not because Damon had forced him to.

He had done it himself.

And that mattered.

"You really wanted to help me, didn’t you?"

Shiro’s tail moved slightly.

Damon laughed.

"Yeah. I figured."

The familiar feedback soon reached him.

His Aether capacity increased.

His control became sharper.

His cultivation rose again, pushing him closer to the peak of the Lord rank.

Then he felt the change within his Spirit Origin.

It had grown again.

Damon’s smile widened.

That was the part he loved the most.

"Thanks, Shiro."

He gave the Frost Qilin another gentle pat.

"You really helped."

Shiro looked at him quietly.

Damon could feel the pride through their bond.

He stood.

The fatigue from earlier suddenly felt much smaller.

His motivation had returned.

If anything, he felt even more eager than before.

Caelia noticed.

"You’ve recovered already?"

"Not completely."

Damon looked toward the Zone Heart.

"But enough."

Caelia sighed.

"I knew it."

Damon smiled.

"Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing."

"That’s what worries me."

He laughed.

Then he returned to his position.

This time, everything felt different.

His cultivation was stronger.

His Spirit Origin was stronger.

His control had improved.

And Shiro’s growth had given him another boost.

Damon began the process again.

The White Core rotated.

Corrupted Aether immediately rushed toward him.

More than before.

Damon absorbed it and moved it toward his Spirit Origin without hesitation.

The Spirit Origin responded faster than before.

It rotated and purified the corruption, sending the refined Ice Elemental Aether toward the Zone Heart almost immediately.

The Zone Heart absorbed it.

Another pulse spread through the cavern.

Then another.

The pulses were becoming stronger.

More importantly, each one carried more pure Ice Elemental Aether.

The corrupted Aether coming back through the channels was also decreasing.

Damon noticed.

"You’re running out of it."

The Zone Heart pulsed again.

Damon smiled.

"Good."

He continued.

The corrupted Aether came faster, but Damon was faster too.

He no longer needed to think about every small movement.

His body had started getting used to the process.

His Spirit Origin had adapted.

His Aether Veins had adapted.

Even the White Core was becoming easier to control while handling the corruption.

The process that had once required all of his concentration was slowly becoming something he could maintain naturally.

And the difference was beginning to spread beyond the cavern.

The Ice Elemental Aether moving through Frostveil became cleaner.

The unstable pressure around the zone began to weaken.

The mutation didn’t disappear.

Not yet.

But it was no longer spreading as quickly.

Damon continued feeding the Zone Heart purified Aether.

The frozen roots slowly brightened.

The darkened channels became less noticeable.

And far beyond the underground cavern, the first signs of change began to reach the surface.

Frostveil was starting to recover.

The process continued for days.

Damon stayed beneath Frostveil with Caelia and the spirits while the Zone Heart slowly recovered.

The changes weren’t immediate across the entire zone.

But they were spreading.

Little by little, the unstable Aether became calmer.

The mutation slowed.

And eventually, the first reports began reaching Winterbourne.

Cornelius received most of them in the same hall where he had spent the past several days.

There had been a lot to prepare.

He had ordered more elemental users into Frostveil so they could challenge the beasts, gather resources, and grow stronger before another major outbreak happened.

If the zone continued expanding, they needed enough people to deal with it.

The reports he received at the beginning weren’t encouraging.

The beasts were still aggressive.

The Aether remained unstable.

Some areas had become even more dangerous.

Cornelius could only continue preparing.

At the same time, he kept waiting for news from Caelia and Damon.

He had placed the investigation in their hands with little more than hope.

It wasn’t much.

But at this point, hope was better than nothing.

The last report he received hadn’t helped either.

Shiro had lost the trail again.

They had been forced to change direction and start searching another part of the zone.

That was all Cornelius had.

Days passed.

No new report came.

Cornelius began to worry.

It wasn’t because he doubted Caelia.

He knew her well enough to understand that she wouldn’t abandon an investigation once she had committed to it.

And Damon...

Cornelius had seen what Damon could do.

If even he hadn’t returned with good news by now, then whatever they had found must have been more complicated than expected.

Still, Cornelius trusted them.

"They’ll contact us when they have something."

He said it quietly as he looked over the latest reports.

Then the reports started changing.

At first, it was only one.

Then another.

Then several more.

The elemental users exploring Frostveil were reporting that the Aether was becoming more stable.

The sudden surges had become less frequent.

The violent changes in the environment were calming down.

Even the areas that had been dangerous to approach were becoming easier to explore.

Cornelius read through the reports again.

"Stable?"

That word had appeared more than once.

He picked up another report.

Some of the beasts were still aggressive.

That hadn’t changed completely.

But the number of mutated beasts had begun to decrease.

And they were starting to encounter normal Frostveil beasts again.

Cornelius leaned back slowly.

It was almost as if Frostveil was returning to what it had been before the mutation.

His expression changed.

Could it really be?

Had they actually found something?

His eyes moved toward the reports from Caelia and Damon.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Then a thought came to him.

"Don’t tell me..."