Chapter 416: The Frozen Door!

The ice crystal shattered, and the mighty power stored within burst forth, wrapping the White Dragon Lord in countless silken threads of energy. A blinding flash flared, and he vanished from where he stood.

His guess had been correct. The ice crystal given by the Winter Empress could take him out of the prison that was the Stomach of the Abyss.

Freezing winds howled. Faintly crimson snowflakes, each the size of a baby's palm, drifted down to blanket the blood-red, snow-covered earth, adding yet another layer to the frozen ground.

Amid this endless crimson blizzard, the White Dragon Lord felt something wrong with his body. He couldn't quite pinpoint the problem, but a growing irritation gnawed at him.

"Protection from Evil!"

"Heart of Steel!"

"Malicious Energy Detection!"

The White Dragon Lord layered himself in defensive magic and cast over a dozen investigative spells, yet he still could not discover what exactly was wrong. He had no choice but to set the issue aside.

He looked around. On this layer of the Bottomless Abyss, there was not a single plant to be seen, let alone a Demon. It was nothing but an endless expanse of ice and snow.

He reached out a claw, scooped up a handful of snow, and crushed it. The snow melted in his grasp, water dripping through the gaps between his talons while a faint crimson demonic aura drifted up into the sky.

This snow had been completely corrupted. His judgment made, the White Dragon Lord flapped his wings and flew at a low altitude. He landed on a protruding ridge to survey his surroundings from a higher vantage point, but all that greeted his eyes was the same ocean of ice and snow.

"Is this the plane where Mohotlond fell?"

He took out an ice-blue gemstone. The Winter Empress had given him this jewel as well. It shared a mysterious connection with the Winter Crown and would react if brought close enough to the artifact.

Gripping the gemstone tightly, the White Dragon Lord glided aimlessly through the sky, hoping to find a useful clue.

A day passed without a single discovery. It was as if this land held nothing but ice and snow. He looked up at the sky. The ominous crimson snowflakes continued to fall, and the clouds above were as dark as lead, blocking out all sunlight. Even so, he could sense that a sun truly existed beyond the dark canopy.

The White Dragon Lord's eyes flickered with uncertainty. After a moment of thought, he flapped his wings and soared higher. He wanted to see what lay above the clouds.

The higher he flew, the denser the abyssal demonic aura became. As he approached the cloud layer, the aura thickened until it felt almost tangible. Sensing his magical defenses wearing thin, the White Dragon Lord quickly halted to cast more protective spells against the encroaching corruption.

After layering on a Legendary Rank defensive spell, he plunged into the clouds. He held his breath and pushed upward. A dozen seconds later, the path ahead grew brighter, lifting his spirits. With one final burst of effort, he broke through the canopy.

Above a sea of crimson demonic aura, a giant white beast breached the surface.

The White Dragon Lord scanned the clouds beneath him. The dark canopy was actually a vast ocean of abyssal energy, churning and surging with an ominous crimson aura. He looked up. The cold sun in the sky radiated brilliant light, but it carried absolutely no warmth.

Suddenly, he spotted a tiny black speck in the distant sky. He immediately flew toward it.

As he drew closer, he realized it was no mere speck, but a floating island suspended in the sky.

However, this floating island was completely devoid of beauty. It was barren, covered entirely in exposed bedrock and dead, corrupted demonic soil.

The White Dragon Lord flew directly over the island and scanned its corrupted surface. Suddenly, near the center, he spotted a White Dragon. More accurately, it was the corpse of a White Dragon.

The body was nearly thirty meters long, indicating that the Dragon had possessed considerable strength in life—it had definitely stepped into the realm of a High-Tier Legend. Its flesh was perfectly preserved. The beast lay motionless on the ground, looking exactly as if it had simply fallen asleep.

To guard against undeath, the White Dragon Lord activated Soul Sight. Seeing no trace of residual soul energy within the corpse, he let out a sigh of relief and descended toward it.

He landed on the floating island, kicking up a ring of dust, and studied the Dragon's corpse to determine the Forerunner's cause of death. There were no wounds on the body, nor were there any signs of a struggle nearby. The Dragon's expression held no agony; instead, it carried a serene look of quiet release.

It did not look like murder.

The White Dragon Lord furrowed his brow. What could possibly cause a High-Tier Legendary Dragon to die so silently in a place like this?

Deeply puzzled, he examined the body closer and measured its length. It was twenty-nine meters long. Based on the natural growth cycle of a White Dragon, he deduced that this Forerunner's Creature Level had been around Level 26 while alive.

In any plane, a Level 26 Dragon was a mighty overlord, perhaps even the ruler of a world. The White Dragon Lord pulled out a curved blade, planning to cut the corpse open for a closer look.

"My apologies."

"Create Water!"

A small stream of clear water manifested in the air and washed over the dead Dragon's scales, clearing away the surface dust.

As the water washed the grime away, the White Dragon Lord instantly noticed something wrong. The scales beneath the dirt were still a dull, dusty gray—a lifeless, desolate gray.

The White Dragon Lord's eyes widened in disbelief as a thought struck him: this Dragon had died of old age.

A High-Tier Legendary Dragon possessed a lifespan of a full hundred thousand years. If a Dragon managed to live until the very end of its natural life, it would reach the Peak High-Tier Legend stage at Level 29 even if it did absolutely nothing but sleep. Its body would be far larger than this.

Suddenly remembering the lingering unease in his own body, the White Dragon Lord immediately focused his attention inward. He finally realized what was wrong. His body was aging at an unnatural speed. The process had just been slow enough that he hadn't noticed it at first.

No! That wasn't right! It wasn't aging!

The flow of time itself had accelerated!

A bead of cold sweat rolled down the White Dragon Lord's forehead. The accelerated flow of time was a disastrous sign. Even if he didn't face the bottleneck of becoming an Ancient Giant Dragon, he still needed to absorb enough elemental energy to reach that stage. This rapid time drain drastically reduced his window to accumulate that energy. He hurriedly activated his Gold Finger.

"Calculate the rate of physical aging."

The Gold Finger provided the answer. Time was flowing nearly a hundred times faster for his body. This meant that while he originally had a lifespan of a hundred thousand years, he would only live for a thousand years in this place.

The White Dragon Lord took out the corpse of a Legendary Rank Demon. He observed that the flow of time on the dead body remained completely normal.

"It seems this bizarre time dilation only affects the living."

The White Dragon Lord's eyes shifted unpredictably as he considered his next move. He decided to spend one year searching this plane. If he still found nothing after a year, he would use the Coin of Fate.

Still, a year was more than enough time to thoroughly scour the entire plane.

Meanwhile, the moment the main body was swept into the Stomach of the Abyss, the White Dragon Lord's avatar instantly felt his connection to his true self sever. Unsure of what had happened, he immediately teleported to Sky City and sought out Merlin Heavenly Principle to ask about the situation.

"Amos, I am deeply sorry. On the Blood War Battlefield, your main body was ambushed by the Blade Sovereign, Nayinduo. He was swept away by a vortex, and his current fate is unknown."

"Swept away to where? Is there any intelligence on this?"

"I don't know either. The Blade Sovereign fled with severe injuries, and no one knows where that vortex leads. I have already contacted a familiar deity and asked Him to use a Divination Spell to pinpoint your main body's location. But you must prepare yourself mentally. If your main body has unfortunately fallen, then you..."

The White Dragon Lord's avatar nodded. A main body falling and its avatar ascending to take its place was a common occurrence in the history of gods. The main body and the avatar shared the exact same memories and the exact same will. Aside from a difference in raw strength, they were completely identical.

Naturally, the avatar did not want the main body to die. They were one and the same; they would flourish together and perish together.

The White Dragon Lord's avatar returned to the Afiaiv Kingdom. Through Merlin Heavenly Principle, he had learned the outcome of the battle in the blood war. After the White Dragon Lord's main body was sucked into the vortex, an enraged Winter Commander shattered the Blade Sovereign's avatar. With its fury unquenched, the Ice Elemental slaughtered the Demons in its path. The Viper Temple was destroyed, countless Demons perished, and the Blade Sovereign fled heavily injured after losing two of her arms. The Allied Forces had won a decisive victory.

Since the Winter Commander had been summoned by the White Dragon Lord, this monumental military merit was credited to him. However, his avatar didn't care about the merit in the slightest. If the main body died, no amount of glory could ever compensate for the loss.

"Come to the Winter Temple!"

Receiving this message from the Winter Empress, the White Dragon Lord's avatar went to the Teleportation Chamber in the White Tower and inputted the coordinates for the Winter Temple.

In the center of the roofless temple, surrounded by a forest of colossal pillars, the Winter Empress, Lissandra, and three Winter Commanders stood before the statue of the Goddess of Winter. Their faces were as dark as still water as they watched the White Dragon appear in the middle of the grand hall.

"The Teleportation ice crystal I gave him was triggered. He went to that place."

The moment the avatar arrived at the Winter Temple, he was greeted with this news. He lowered his head, a strange look crossing his face as he pondered. No one understood his own thoughts better than he did. The main body carries a Coin of Fate. No matter how dangerous the situation is, he has at least a fifty percent chance of escape. He likely just didn't want to waste the Coin of Fate solely on running away.

"I see." The Winter Empress's expression hardened. "Even so, he took far too great a risk! Forget it; what's done is done. It is too late to say anything now."

The Winter Empress examined the White Dragon Lord's avatar. She noticed that the avatar's Creature Level was an impressive Level 23, and his Mage level was exactly the same as the main body's. The only difference was his soul strength, which was significantly weaker than the main body's, though it was still on par with a normal High-Tier Legend.

"As you are now, you are qualified to undertake the second Winter Trial."

"Didn't you say the optimal time was at Creature Level 24, right on the verge of Level 25?"

"Yes, but these are extraordinary times. Her Majesty the Goddess was one of the first natural deities born in this world. Her mighty power can reach anywhere in the multiverse. If you pass the Winter Trial, your main body will benefit as well."

"Then let's do it, Legion Commander!"

The Winter Empress pointed a single finger in front of the White Dragon Lord. Ice-blue energy surged and coalesced into the shape of a Portal.

Without a second's hesitation, the White Dragon Lord stepped inside.

Within the Bottomless Abyss, the White Dragon Lord gripped the gemstone and conducted a carpet search of the entire plane. Along the way, he discovered several more White Dragon corpses, all of which had perished from old age without exception.

Finally, three days later, he made a new discovery. Upon the blood-red, snow-swept plains, a colossal iceberg jutted out from the earth and pierced straight into the clouds. A Magic Barrier seemed to surround the iceberg, banishing both the demonic aura and the pitch-black clouds. Sunlight poured through a massive circular gap above, spilling onto the translucent iceberg and refracting into a dazzling brilliance that looked like a holy sanctuary on Mount Celestia.

At the peak of the iceberg, a massive door stood tall. A thick layer of frost sealed the gateway, and jagged icicles hung down from its frame. A long staircase, resembling a grand path to the heavens, stretched from the base of the mountain straight to the summit.

The White Dragon Lord felt he had found the right place. He glanced at the gemstone in his claws. Sure enough, the ice-blue jewel was radiating a deep, pulsing blue light.

As he flew closer, a tremendous pressure weighed down on his body, forcing him to land on the ground. He had no choice but to ascend the stairs on foot. With every step he took, the crushing weight intensified.

At first, the pressure wasn't enough to hinder his movements. But by the time he neared the summit, he was already panting heavily. He deduced the purpose of these stairs: they were a test of the climber's strength and willpower.

The White Dragon Lord recalled that the Winter Trial had been exactly like this. "Why do these high-and-mighty beings always love pulling these kinds of stunts? They have no originality at all."

Finally, the White Dragon Lord reached the peak. The crushing pressure vanished entirely. It was then that he noticed three more Forerunner corpses lying before the frozen door. Just like the ones he had encountered earlier, they had died of old age.

Shifting his gaze away from the bodies, he looked up at the frozen door in front of him. He slammed a claw into it. The ice shattered and cascaded down with a harsh clatter, revealing the sealed gateway beneath. He reached out and touched the door. It felt rough and freezing cold.

"Is this Void Nether Stone?"

The White Dragon Lord was exceptionally familiar with the material, having traveled to the Star Realm to hunt for Void Nether Stone to forge two horn rings. He was absolutely certain he hadn't mistaken it.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Crafting a door out of divine-grade materials... how utterly extravagant. But what lies behind it?"

The White Dragon Lord searched the area for clues and soon noticed something hidden beneath one of the Forerunners' wings. He nudged the corpse aside, revealing a stone stele that had been obscured. A single line of large text was carved into the stone in ancient dragon language: Push open this door, and I shall grant you power — Mohotlond.

"Acting like a Demon, I see. This predecessor seems a bit melodramatic," the White Dragon Lord couldn't help but mock.

Mockery aside, the White Dragon Lord was still somewhat looking forward to seeing what kind of power Mohotlond spoke of. Of course, it was a common occurrence for dying powerhouses to leave behind traps to seize the bodies of their successors, so he had to prepare for the worst. Gripping the Coin of Fate tightly in his claw, he pushed against the door.

The door didn't budge an inch.

"I knew it wouldn't be that simple."

The White Dragon Lord inspected the gateway carefully. Since Mohotlond had expended so much effort to leave this door behind, there had to be a way to open it.

As for what that method was...

He placed a claw on the door, closed his eyes, and sensed the flow of energy. The elemental aura on the surface felt somewhat abnormal.

"Elemental Sight!"

Found it!

Through his vision, the White Dragon Lord saw ancient dragon language written upon the door in pure Ice Elemental energy: This door is broken. Repair it.