Chapter 153: The Winter Trial

Catching sight of the familiar figure, the White Dragon Lord guessed the gist of what had happened. His face flushed blue, then purple.

The thought of Motznovi hiding on the sidelines, gloating as it watched the show, made Amos grind his teeth in anger.

"Congratulations on passing the first extra stage."

Before the White Dragon could speak, Motznovi raised a hand and extended a single finger. Energy surged from its fingertip, forming a spinning black hole with an ice-blue border. The black hole expanded continuously as it spun, rapidly growing from the size of a disc into a massive, vortex-like abyss.

Motznovi smiled playfully.

"You are about to face the Winter Trial."

Without waiting for the White Dragon to agree, the black hole erupted with suction, violently pulling the nearby White Dragon Lord inside.

It all happened so fast. Before the White Dragon Lord even had time to express his anger and dissatisfaction over Motznovi's vile behavior, he was swept into the black hole.

In the instant he was swallowed by the Portal, the White Dragon raised a middle finger to express his deep "respect" for the Winter Commander.

Motznovi did not understand the specific meaning of the White Dragon's gesture, nor did it care.

Looking at the vanishing Portal, it recalled the ancient era when it was still a lowly Master rank Ice Elemental. It had encountered a great existence back then, and the scene of that entity tossing it into a Portal was incredibly similar to this very moment.

"Master..."

Naturally, the White Dragon Lord was unaware of Motznovi's emotional murmurs behind him. Exiting the brief teleportation, he felt his body begin to fall and hastily spread his wings, arresting his downward momentum.

From a distance, an ice-blue Portal appeared high in the sky. After spitting out the White Dragon, it vanished. Spreading his wings among the clouds, he stopped his descent and hovered in midair, assuming a defensive posture.

The White Dragon Lord found himself high in the sky. Faint white clouds drifted below him, while an apple-sized sun hung high overhead.

This was absolutely the smallest sun the White Dragon had ever seen—so tiny it looked as though it were drifting away from this plane altogether.

The amount of heat provided by such a tiny sun was exactly what one would expect. Even bathed in its sunlight, the White Dragon Lord could not feel the slightest warmth.

Amos estimated that even at noon, the warmest time of day, this plane's temperature was comparable to the coldest winter night on the North Wind Ice Plain—roughly a hundred degrees below zero.

Of course, this kind of extreme cold, which could freeze an ordinary person to death in an instant, was nothing to the White Dragon Lord.

After receiving the blessing of the Winter Legion's commander, Amos's already monstrous frost resistance had increased by a large margin. The White Dragon was not worried about this level of cold, but he was concerned about his current situation.

After confirming he was safe for the time being, the White Dragon Lord could not resist calling out and "praising" each of Motznovi's ancestors by name.

"~!@#¥%...&*."

Suddenly, the White Dragon paused. Elemental creatures were born of heaven and earth; they had no relatives to speak of. He could only wrap up his curses resentfully and begin carefully analyzing his current predicament.

The Winter Trial?!

Sure enough, the Silver Dragon Scholar was right. This was a trial similar to the Elemental Trial.

Generally speaking, passing any kind of trial came with great benefits. Those who qualified might directly gain greater strength, receive treasures to enhance their power, or obtain certain indirect advantages. Only a very small minority turned out to be complete traps.

But regardless of what the reward was, he still had to clear the trial first. Moreover, the difficulty of major trials varied greatly. Rashly participating in a completely unknown trial was an incredibly dangerous move.

After thinking carefully for a moment, the White Dragon rapidly chanted a magical incantation. Once finished, he found his spell vanishing like a stone dropped into the ocean.

The teleportation spell had failed!

Amos's expression shifted. With teleportation rendered ineffective, his only way to leave was to clear the trial.

"@#¥%...&*! Motznovi! You bastard, you'd better not fall into my hands, or I'll make you taste the torture of foxtail grass!"

Then, the White Dragon remembered that elemental creatures did not have nerve endings. He let out a depressed sigh and began thinking of a way to break out of this situation.

Since it was a trial, there were bound to be stages.

Looking around, the White Dragon did not spot anything unusual, meaning the key most likely lay on the ground.

The White Dragon Lord flew down through the white clouds. At a glance, he saw eight towering snow-capped peaks below him. The peaks were entirely blanketed in ice and snow, and their summits pierced straight into the sky, looking as though they had been cleaved by blades.

Even more breathtaking than the peaks were their bases. From the foothills to their midsections, the eight snow peaks merged into one, forming a massive circular mountain range. In the central depression between the peaks, cradled like the moon surrounded by stars, lay a giant circular platform.

This circular stone platform was completely free of snow. Four giant statues stood upon it, facing the four cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north.

Seeing this, how could the White Dragon not realize that this circular platform was the key to the Winter Trial?

The White Dragon Lord flew down, flapping his wings to hover above the stone platform. He observed the four statues, finally realizing that all four giant sculptures, each reaching three hundred meters in height, depicted the same entity in different postures.

The figures were all of the same woman. Though their poses varied, every statue exuded the same characteristics: majesty and cold. It was a pure cold, untainted by anything else, as if she were the very incarnation of winter itself.

The White Dragon Lord had never seen such peculiar statues. Even knowing they were inanimate objects, he could not help but feel a sense of reverence and an urge to prostrate himself in worship.

Amos could swear that these were absolutely not statues a mortal sculptor could carve.

An invisible force field influenced the White Dragon Lord's mind and body. Clenching his jaw, he forcibly suppressed the urge to bow down and kneel before the statues, instead landing right in the center of the circular plaza.

The moment the White Dragon landed, two braziers at the base of the statues abruptly ignited. Ice-blue spectral flames shot ten meters into the air.

In the White Dragon's eyes, the statues before him seemed to come alive.

A majestic, freezing voice echoed from the bottom of the White Dragon's heart.

"The first stage of the Winter Trial—Wisdom."

The White Dragon Lord tensed. He had not expected the trial to begin the moment he landed. He rapidly chanted a spell while remaining alert to his surroundings, fully prepared for battle against any sudden enemies.

"For every question, you will have one minute to answer."

The White Dragon, who had not even finished his incantation, almost planted his face into the ground. 'I got all geared up for a fight, and this is what you show me?!'

"Now, listen to the first question. What is something that can only increase and never decrease?"

Isn't this a popular brain teaser on the Blue Star internet?!

The White Dragon felt too drained to even complain. But since this was the exam question, he had no power to change it; he could only choose to solve it. Amos calmed his mind, lowered his head in brief thought, and answered.

"Age."

"Correct. Now, listen to the second question."

The freezing, majestic voice rang out once more, but this time, the White Dragon found it slightly comical.

"The Mogfen Adventurer Party encountered danger inside some ruins, resulting in the deaths of all members. Why was Mogfen fine?"

The White Dragon Lord frowned slightly. After ten seconds of deep thought, he replied.

"Because Mogfen didn't go on this adventure."

"Correct. Now, listen to the third question."

A Spellbook suddenly appeared in front of the White Dragon. Seeing the winding, distorted script on the massive book—which was large enough to serve as his pillow—the White Dragon's pupils contracted.

He could not help but exclaim in shock.

"The Myriad Laws Book!!!"

The Myriad Laws Book was the exclusive Divine Artifact of Isis, the long-fallen natural-type deity and ancient magic goddess. It recorded every single magical incantation Isis had collected since antiquity.

Even though the White Dragon did not recognize the distorted script on the floating tome at all, he immediately understood what it meant upon seeing it. This was divine script—the Myriad Laws Book. Such was the power of divine script.

Although divine script bore the name "divine," it was not actually created by the gods. It was named as such because the text itself possessed a peculiar power.

This peculiar power allowed those who did not recognize it to instantly grasp its meaning.

The script conveyed certain information. Its contents could be bizarre and varied—it could be a world-shaking secret or just an irrelevant string of words.

This kind of text could not be actively written out; it would only appear in a certain place through sheer chance.

No one knew when it would appear, nor when it would vanish. It was as miraculous as a natural-born deity, hence the name divine script.

However, there were entities capable of utilizing divine script and permanently fixing it onto the surface of objects. Such entities were none other than the great natural-type deities born at the very beginning of the world's creation.

The White Dragon Lord closed his eyes, savoring the magical fragrance exuding from the Myriad Laws Book. The Myriad Laws Book held a fatal attraction for the White Dragon Lord, akin to a man dying of thirst in the desert suddenly receiving a bottle of purified water.

"Please finish reading this book, then answer my question."

The White Dragon Lord was taken aback. To think there was such a generous stage! A challenge like this might be a severe test for others, but for the White Dragon, who possessed the system, it was a pie falling straight from the sky.

Amos could not wait. He reached out a dragon claw, intending to record the Myriad Laws Book. Suddenly, the White Dragon's heart jolted in alarm, and he hurriedly halted his hand.

Something was wrong!

A cold sweat broke out over the White Dragon Lord. At the very beginning, the mysterious voice had said the answering time was one minute. If that were truly the case, how had anyone else ever passed this trial?

To memorize the entirety of a book thick enough to use as a pillow in such a short amount of time—it was not that no one could do it, but such individuals were extraordinarily rare. Out of a billion people, there might only be one freak with such a powerful memory.

If that were the case, this trial would lose its original meaning.

The White Dragon Lord lowered his head in deep thought, then looked up and glanced at the Myriad Laws Book in front of him.

"My question."

"Correct."

The Myriad Laws Book vanished. The White Dragon Lord let out a long sigh of relief. He had gambled right.

It turned out that the first and second questions were just meant to confuse the challenger. The real fatal trap was the third question.

It numbed the White Dragon through the first two stages, tempted him with the Divine Artifact he dreamed of, and then left a single sliver of survival hidden within the question's phrasing.

If the White Dragon had not seen through this conspiracy, he would have failed the trial. The consequences of failing the trial were unknown to the White Dragon, and he certainly did not want to find out now.

"You have passed the first stage of the Winter Trial. Remember, wisdom is the shortcut on the path of a powerhouse. Now, you are about to enter the second stage of the Winter Trial—Perseverance."

The moment the voice faded, the White Dragon Lord suddenly felt his body sink, as if an invisible pressure were crushing down on him.

Amos planted all four limbs on the ground, struggling to push himself up. Just as he was about to use magic to relieve the pressure on his body, the White Dragon was shocked to realize he could not chant his familiar magic incantations. When he opened his mouth, no sound came out.

Damn it! This trial did not allow the use of magical power.

Left with no choice, he could only endure it head-on. The White Dragon Lord mentally prepared himself for a battle of attrition.

Minute by minute, second by second, the pressure weighing on the White Dragon grew heavier. Amos's muscles corded tight as he fought to support himself, refusing to let himself be crushed to the ground.

But the trial still had not ended, and the pressure only continued to mount.

Suddenly, a blast of freezing wind swept over him. In the face of this icy gale, the White Dragon Lord's frost resistance was practically made of paper. The cold pierced straight to his bones.

The White Dragon's body shivered from the chill. His legs could not help but tremble, and they immediately buckled under the weight.

'Not good!'

The White Dragon clenched his teeth. Using his wings and tail as extra leverage against the ground, he channeled his entire body's strength to prop himself back up.

Finally, trembling all over, the White Dragon expended an immense effort to straighten his bent legs once more.

The pressure on his body grew heavier still, and the freezing wind blew even fiercer.

The White Dragon Lord endured immense agony. The pressure, which had long surpassed his limits, forced his eyes wide open, his eyeballs faintly bloodshot. The biting cold left his body nearly numb.

"Give up. If you give up, you can cast down this burden and relax."

"Give up. If you give up, you can leave this place and return to your cozy nest."

"Give up. If you give up, you can..."

"..."

The tempting voice echoed constantly in his ears, causing the White Dragon Lord to clench his jaw even tighter.

"I! Will never give up!"

The White Dragon Lord never gave up easily. As of right now, he felt he could still hold on a little longer. If he gave himself a reason to quit before reaching his absolute limit, then after the first time, there would be a second.

Giving up was the beginning of failure.

The White Dragon Lord's persistence seemed to enrage a certain entity. The pressure on him suddenly multiplied, and the biting wind threatened to freeze his very soul. Amos felt his thoughts turn sluggish.

The immense pressure shattered the hard floor beneath the White Dragon's feet. His legs sank into the ground inch by inch, like nails being slowly driven into wood.

Finally, his legs were completely submerged in the ground, and his dragon belly hit the floor.

The pressure was still increasing. The White Dragon's body was being flattened bit by bit, leaving only his wings and tail to provide a negligible amount of support.

Although the White Dragon was usually calm and rational, when pushed to the brink, he was an incredibly stubborn dragon.

The greater the pressure, the firmer his conviction to pass the trial became.

Finally, just when the White Dragon Lord felt as if his eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets, the pressure abruptly vanished.

The White Dragon's entire body went limp. A milky-white energy enveloped him, sinking gently into his flesh to repair the crushing injuries and frostbite caused by the pressure and cold wind.

Amos felt a warm sensation spread through his body. Before long, the White Dragon Lord had returned to peak condition.

Amos leaped up and stretched his body. He could not feel the slightest bit of discomfort, as if everything he had just endured were nothing but an illusion.

"You have passed the second stage of the Winter Trial. Remember, perseverance is the cornerstone for forging a powerhouse."