Eternal Beast Taming Family

On the mountainside where the cold wind howled, Chu Jingyu leaned against a thick tree, preparing to rest.

From his direction, one can see the huge, icy blue rings released from the icicles.

It seemed to be sending some kind of signal, as a slender bird, hidden among the dark clouds in the sky, began to reveal itself.

They have slender wings and long legs, their feathers are grayish-white, their eyes are narrow and gleaming with a sharp light, and their crests seem to be made of irregular prismatic protrusions composed of ice crystals.

With the keen eyesight of a contract master of a different rank, Chu Jingyu instantly recognized what kind of source beasts these birds were.

The "Cold-Calling Strange Bird" is a type of source beast that prefers to live in icy and snowy places. Its most outstanding ability is to track down lone individuals with strong energy fluctuations in the icy and snowy places and then hunt them in groups.

Chu Jingyu cursed inwardly. Just as he had predicted, the Liu family did not intend to let go of any wild contract master.

If killing all the contract masters in the town isn't enough, then the town mayor's mansion and the members of the Shi and Zhang families will likely not escape either.

The "Golden Jade Beast" appeared beside Chu Jingyu, then burrowed into the snow beside the tree roots. In just a short while, a deep hole large enough for one person to pass through appeared next to the tree roots.

As Chu Jingyu watched the "Cold-Calling Strange Bird" getting closer and closer to him, he turned and jumped into the burrow.

A golden pair of pincers emerged from the burrow, and moments later the burrow was flat again, covered with a thin layer of snow.

A "strange bird of cold" landed on the giant tree where Chu Jingyu had just been leaning, shaking off the snowflakes from its branches.

It looked strangely at the spot where the snow was significantly thinner than the surrounding area, tilted its head as if thinking about something, and then flew off to the other side.

About thirty meters underground, Chu Jingyu didn't know if his current location was absolutely safe, or if the Liu family had any other means of finding him.

He could only have the "Golden Jade Beast" turn a corner and move the cave to a more distant location. It took a lot of effort for the man and the beast to finally stop in one place to rest.

……

In Heyu Town, at Liujia Square.

Tang Cheng was ultimately no match for the combined might of four, six, and eight people. His body was bruised and battered, and he was bound to the side with a rope that could restrain the energy within him, so he could watch the ceremony proceed.

Although Tang Cheng was already over forty years old, he had always lived in the family. Who knew he would encounter such a thing on his first visit?

This undoubtedly gave him a great shock, and he looked at the more soul ice crystals drifting in from the air with a somewhat gloomy gaze.

The initially blurry figure within the icicle became increasingly clear, suggesting that the ritual was nearing its final stage.

By this time, the hunt outside had been going on for most of the day, and after a surge in the number of soul ice crystals, the speed of the hunt had slowed down again.

The Liu family patriarch sensed that the source beast he had contracted with within the ice pillar was just one step away from undergoing a complete transformation, but he couldn't bring himself to take that final step.

His gaze swept across two directions of the town, his expression turning grim and solemn. "The Shi family and the Zhang family, I need the spirits of two Spirit Rank Contract Masters. Each family should contribute one."

Although he stood beside the icicle, his voice carried far to the locations of the Shi and Zhang families, like ice crystals falling from the sky, striking the hearts of the two families.

In the distant stone house complex where the Shi family lived, an elderly man who seemed to be in charge stepped out of a house and bowed respectfully towards the direction of the icicles in the sky.

"Please forgive me, Patriarch Liu. My Shi family is merely a minor ninth-rank clan. How could we have ever sent a Spirit-Rank Contract Master to perform a sacrifice for the Liu family?"

The old man was trembling and respectful, but his words did not satisfy the head of the Liu family.

The head of the Liu family gently waved his arm in the direction of the Shi family, and a giant ice sword, more than ten meters wide, floated above the entire Shi family.

"If you don't have a Contract Master, a Spirit-Rank Source Beast for protection will also work."

The old man's expression changed drastically from trembling to horrified at the Liu family patriarch's calm words. The Liu family was truly terrifying; they even knew the strength and resources of the family's last reserves.

Just as the giant ice sword was about to fall on the Shi family's buildings, a giant rock inside the Shi family changed, transforming in an instant into the shape of a giant stone man.

Although its appearance is not exquisite, a rugged and wild aura emanates from it, indicating that it belongs to the Spirit-rank Source Beast.

He clasped his hands together and crushed the giant ice sword into pieces from the blade, shattering it into countless ice crystals.

Although the giant stone man did not speak, its defiant attitude added a touch of dissatisfaction to the face of the Liu family patriarch.

The voice carried an icy chill, "It's just a low-level spirit item. Qiancheng, bring it back to me."

Upon hearing this, a middle-aged man who was waiting outside the square clasped his hands in a gesture of respect and, with the ice fox beside him wearing ice crystal earrings, headed towards the Shi family's direction.

Before long, the sounds of battle came from the direction of the Shi family. Although the stone golem was over ten meters tall and looked imposing, it quickly fell into a disadvantageous position under the Ice Fox's attacks.

Even the aftershocks of the battle between the two source beasts destroyed the Shi family's ancestral home, and many members of the Shi family were injured or killed in the battle.

The head of the Liu family turned his gaze towards the Zhang family and spoke again, "Does the Zhang family require me to make a trip there personally?"

Not long after, a very old man came out of the Zhang family's house. His face was covered with a thin layer of skin like the bark of a withered tree.

He didn't seem like a living person, but rather a dried-up corpse that had crawled out of a coffin; his extremely hoarse and dry voice seemed to be coming from his abdomen.

"This old man... is willing to contribute to the Liu family's promotion ceremony, but I hope that the Liu family head will not make things difficult for my Zhang family's sons."

Seeing that someone was finally willing to cooperate, the head of the Liu family finally showed a calmer expression. "If you are willing to offer your sacrifice, I will not make things difficult for the rest of the Zhang family."

The withered old man neither believed nor disbelieved the words of the Liu family head. At this moment, everyone in Heyu Town was nothing more than fish on the Liu family's chopping board.

It's just a matter of seeing how much the Liu family needs to be fed. The old man's current initiative is simply to put the Zhang family last, so they can have a chance to survive.

The old man turned around and looked at the Zhang family members kneeling behind him, a forced smile appearing on his lips.

"I am leaving. From now on, you must work together and never let the Zhang family bloodline die out in your hands. Only by living can there be hope."

As he spoke, amidst the swirling snow, the old man slowly closed his eyes, his withered body falling backward, and bright, smooth, palm-sized ice crystals of his soul flew out from his forehead.

Upon seeing this scene, the Zhang family members kneeling on the ground all let out a wail, "Ancestor~"

The highest-ranking members of the Zhang family caught the old man's body and, with expressions of grief and humiliation, slowly lowered it into the luxurious coffin.

The soul of the Zhang family patriarch calmly merged into the ice pillar, transforming into the brightest pearl on the skirt of the humanoid source beast within.

Finally, as the stone golem was also decapitated, the remaining human spiritual power within it merged into the ice pillar, and the figure within the ice pillar then fully opened its eyes.

"Click, click,"

Fine cracks appeared on the ice pillar, and then at a certain moment, they all shattered, turning into ice crystal flowers that bloomed in the air.

The figure that had been dancing with its eyes closed inside the ice pillar now emerged into reality. Its body resembled that of a human, but its entire body was covered in an ice-blue skin.

It is seven or eight meters tall, with a crown of "ice crystal lotus" petals on its head and sparkling shattered ice crystals on its forehead.

Her flowing, long dress made her resemble a lotus flower blooming amidst the cold earth, and her deep blue hair spread out on the hem of her dress like ripples on water.

It walks silently through the air, instantly drawing everyone's attention, like the sole protagonist of this world.

Its gaze swept silently across the world, like a holy goddess surveying her domain.

At that moment, the falling snow seemed to freeze in mid-air, as if time had been stopped for half its duration. However, everyone soon realized that this was just an illusion.

Because people can still move freely, but the wind and snow in the world are controlled by that mysterious figure with a single thought.

"The original Ice and Snow Woman".