Above the mage

Chapter 248 The Dawn of Evolution

Two minutes later.

Gao De opened his eyes and stopped triggering the forbidden ice needles.

It wasn't that his willpower couldn't withstand the pain caused by Zhenbing.

The main problem is that after triggering the forbidden ice needles, the coldness released by Zhenbing not only brings extreme cold, but also directly damages his body.

The body has the ability to recover; minor injuries are not a problem and can even promote the body's recovery ability through [adaptation].

However, there is a threshold. Once this threshold is exceeded, the body's load capacity will be overloaded, and then it will no longer be just a matter of minor injuries.

It’s too late.

Gaode must wait until the accumulated frostbite has almost healed before it can begin the next adaptation.

This process of recovering from injuries is also the golden period for [Adaptive] enhancement of the body's recovery ability; it's not simply about waiting passively.

After resting for a while and recovering some of his energy, Gaode also began to rest.

I slept without any dreams.

Perhaps due to mental exhaustion, Gao De slept exceptionally soundly until he was woken up by Loych the next morning.

"You're quite carefree, sleeping so soundly," Loich teased after waking God.

Gao De smiled shyly. The information that appeared in his consciousness showed that the value of his body's ability to recover from injuries had reached 7.1% after one night.

Before reaching the bottleneck, the adaptive progress always improves very quickly.

The stronger the body's ability to recover from injuries, the shorter the time required for Gaode's body to heal itself.

The shorter the interval, the higher the frequency at which he can adapt.

If this continues, it is foreseeable that after a few days, his ability to adapt will improve to an extremely high level.

After a quick breakfast, Loich and Catherine summoned two spirit mounts again using the [Summon Mounts] feature, and then took God to change course and head towards the old site of the Snowflake Clan.

As for the Seven Night Owl, it leaned against Catherine's shoulder, like a wooden sculpture, and entered a state of motionless hibernation.

As typical nocturnal birds, even owls with extraordinary abilities still maintain the habit of being active at night and sleeping during the day.

However, the Seven Nights Owl is named as such because it can go seven days and seven nights without sleep or discomfort when necessary.

Of course, this ability is also extremely energy-consuming.

Therefore, unless there are special circumstances during a mission, Catherine usually lets the Seven Night Owls maintain a normal routine.

With a mount, the travel speed is much faster than using Gaode Maps itself, and traveling hundreds of kilometers a day is no problem at all.

If the weather is good and one has enough magic power, traveling two hundred kilometers is no problem.

This is one of the reasons why the two were able to quickly track down Gaode in the vast snowfield.

How can two legs outrun four legs?

Therefore, the three of them should be able to return to the old site of the Snowfield clan within four or five days.

The closer Gao De got to the Snowflakes clan, the more helpless he felt, realizing that after traveling for almost half a month, he was about to have to go back to the starting point.

Why are there so many twists and turns when I want to plant a tree?

But it's better than being taken directly back to the Snowfield Guardian Headquarters.

Therefore, although Gaode was helpless, he was still in a relatively good mood.

In addition, although he was once again a "prisoner", the two of them treated Gao De quite well.

They ate whatever they ate, and Gao De didn't have to do any of the chores at the camp himself; the two of them took care of everything.

The problem is that Gaode Maps has never been able to see Catherine's face under the mask.

As if there was something hidden, even when eating, Catherine would turn her back and remove her mask.

We spent the entire day traveling.

As dusk approached, Catherine gently patted the Seven Nights Owl, which had been sleeping on her shoulder all day. It immediately awoke from its deep sleep, flapped its wings, and soared into the sky.

"The seven-night owl has excellent vision and hearing, which helps us find prey. It's like we have two extra flying eyes," Loich explained to God.

Soon after, the Seven Nights Owl that had soared into the sky returned, flapping its wings. This time, however, it did not perch on Catherine's shoulder but instead flew low, leading the way.

Loich and Catherine followed the Seven Nights Owl without hesitation.

Led by it, after only ten minutes of running, the three of them came into view of a ringed snow wolf that was a whole size larger than an ordinary snow wolf. For some reason, it had become alone and was wandering on the snowfield.

Catherine immediately charged towards the ring of ice wolves.

The snow wolf reacted quickly; the moment it saw Catherine charging towards it, it bared its fangs and assumed a fighting stance.

However, in front of Catherine, the resistance of an ice wolf seemed meaningless.

An ice blade, cast with the power of the Ascension Ring, effortlessly and precisely killed him, turning him into a living corpse lying on the snow.

This monster-killing efficiency made Gaode extremely envious.

Naturally, tonight's dinner will be roasted wolf meat.

After having dinner at the makeshift campsite, the moon was already high in the sky.

The moon is full today, and its light is very bright. Even at night, visibility is still very high.

However, Loich and Catherine were clearly unaffected by these things.

They fell asleep within minutes of lying down and closing their eyes.

The seven-night owl, just like last night, flew to a higher point, its piercing eyes scanning its surroundings and Gao De.

Gao De remained calm.

While traveling today, he followed the example of the Seven Nights Owl and entered a resting state.

Although the journey was bumpy, Gao De had long since mastered the technique of quickly entering a meditative state through his experience in meditation. Similarly, falling asleep quickly was not difficult.

After a day's rest, he is now full of energy.

In this way, Gao De can take advantage of Loich and Catherine's rest time to adapt for a longer period of time, instead of resting after one adaptation session as they did last night.

After waiting another ten minutes, he calmed his mind, circulated his internal magic power, and once again touched the forbidden ice needle that was inserted in the magic power circulation path.

A moment later, beads of sweat began to appear on Gao De's forehead, and his face turned deathly pale.

Two and a half minutes later, he opened his eyes again, covered in sweat.

The frostbite inside his body is about to reach the threshold that his body can withstand.

Gaode began to patiently wait for his body to heal itself.

Of course, you don't have to wait until you are fully recovered.

After waiting for about an hour, Gao De began to circulate the magic power in his body once again.

This time, before his body had fully recovered, he could only hold on for half a minute before stopping.

Throughout the night, Gao De circulated his magic power for half a minute every hour, repeating this process over and over again.

By the time dawn broke, he had already circulated his magic power five times in this manner.

Including the first time, Gaode triggered the forbidden ice needle for more than five minutes that night.

Compared to yesterday, the time has increased by more than double.

After all this, his cold resistance has increased by 112%, his pain tolerance has increased by 74.5%, and even his physical injury recovery ability has reached an extremely high efficiency of 14.7%.

It seems that because the body's injuries are always on the edge of a threshold, it can trigger the body's self-healing ability to the maximum extent.

Just like exercising to exhaustion is the best way to promote muscle growth.

Moreover, the body's ability to recover from injuries can continue to improve during the daytime recovery process. Although the efficiency will decrease rapidly as the injury improves, it is better than nothing.

The results of that night made Gaode momentarily dazed, and he almost couldn't help but laugh.

If things continue like this, it seems that the intermediate-level Ice-Blessed Body will be within easy reach.

Moreover, after his cold resistance increased to 100%, he evolved into a rudimentary Ice Body.

Once the ability to withstand pain and the ability to recover from physical injuries reach 100%, can the corresponding abilities also evolve?

The thought of this possibility gave Gaode a surge of motivation, and even the pain brought by Zhenbing turned into sweetness.

After waking up, Loich began preparing breakfast.

Gao De got up, stretched his body, and carefully assessed his current physical condition.

Because the chill in his body had not completely subsided, his blood and muscles were still somewhat stiff, his heart rate had even dropped to an extremely low level, and there was also obvious frostbite inside his body.

But after only a short while, Gao De could feel that his physical condition was better than before.

The body's recovery ability may seem to have only improved by 14.7%, which is not an exaggerated number, but the actual changes in physical sensation are quite obvious.

After breakfast, the three of them set off again.

Meanwhile, Gao De, who hadn't slept all night, began to meditate and rest on the mount summoned by Loych.

Four days later.

Whoosh!

A shard of ice crystal sliced ​​through the air.

The ice crystal shard instantly pierced through a distance of tens of meters, penetrating the head of a gazelle that was searching for moss under the snow, causing a spray of blood to erupt on the snow.

Immediately afterwards, three figures appeared.

"Wild goats, we're in for a treat today. On the snowfields, wild beasts are far rarer than creatures from the ley lines," Loich exclaimed.

First, the harsh environment makes it difficult for wild animals without extraordinary strength to survive in the North.

Secondly, even if wild beasts without extraordinary powers manage to withstand harsh environments, they are often hunted and eaten by carnivorous leyline creatures.

As he spoke, Loich stepped forward and skillfully began to dissect the fallen gazelle.

These miscellaneous tasks are usually handled by Loych.

Although both are hunters, Catherine's status is clearly higher than Loich's.

It's even more than that, because Gao De always had a vague feeling that Loych was somewhat like Catherine's "servant" in many ways.

Of course, this was none of his business, so he didn't pay much attention to it, let alone ask any questions.

While Loich was cutting up the mutton, Catherine took out a map of the North drawn by the Snowfield Guardian from her bosom and began to study it carefully.

"They should arrive by tomorrow night." After watching for a while, Catherine said calmly, addressing both Loich and God.

"After so much time, is there anything left to find out?" Gao De frowned slightly and asked another question.

This is his concern.

Snow and time will bury many things.

"The abilities and methods of the Snowfield Guardian Hunters are beyond your imagination." Catherine's eyes, hidden behind her mask, glanced sideways at God.

Gao De shrugged, secretly hoping that Catherine's abilities were as reliable as she claimed.

Beside the campfire.

As Gao De turned the lamb chops in his hands to ensure they were heated evenly over the fire, he chatted with Loych.

"By the way, could you tell me how you differentiate between hunters and guardians? There seems to be quite a difference between the two."

After traveling together for four or five days, he had become quite familiar with the two of them. Even though Catherine was mostly quiet and not as talkative as Loich, God could clearly sense that their attitude towards him had softened considerably.

This made him more natural, and he would even occasionally take the initiative to ask about things inside the Snowfield Guardians.

As long as it doesn't involve secrets, Loich usually answers.

"It's actually quite simple. Most hunters and guardians are orphans taken in by the cult. Those with Iceborn blood or who have talent will be picked up by headquarters."

"Then we receive training and instruction, and finally we split into two factions based on the principle of voluntariness."

"Those who are willing to dedicate themselves to wandering the snowfields and have little desire for power will generally choose to become guardians, and the rest will become hunters."

"Of course, some people will change their minds after making their choice. For example, after being a Guardian for a while, they may find it too hard and want to switch to being a Hunter."

Or perhaps after being a hunter for a while, they felt that constantly accepting and completing tasks assigned by the cult was not free enough, and they were exhausted from running around, so they wanted to become guardians.

Both are possible, and religious sects generally allow them.

"The Snowfield Guardians respect everyone's choices."

"I see." Gao De nodded, then glanced at Catherine, who was standing silently to the side.

Although most of the Snowfield Guardians are orphans they have taken in, a small number of them come from extraordinary backgrounds.

Clearly, Catherine was one of this small group.

Because of her demeanor, she doesn't seem like someone who came from an orphan background.

After finishing their dinner, Loich and Catherine began their practice of the cultivation method.

Gaode took the opportunity to take a nap.

Although he could catch up on sleep during the day, the quality of his sleep was still somewhat unsatisfactory, and besides, he couldn't go too far.

After all, if someone can sleep all day, it must mean that they didn't sleep well at night.

After the two finished their cultivation and lay down to rest, Flora quietly woke Gao De up, as Gao De had instructed.

Upon regaining consciousness, Gao De immediately redirected his magical power without saying a word, channeling it into the five forbidden ice needles within his body.

After four days of adaptation, he can now endure the chill of Zhenbing for a full ten minutes at a time.

The intervals between rest periods were shortened to half an hour, while the duration of each rest period was extended to two minutes.

Gaode Maps finally stopped completely at the crack of dawn, ending its daily setup.

[By withstanding the extreme cold, your cold resistance increases by 157%]

[The ability to withstand extreme cold is increased by 86.2%]

[You are currently suffering from the effects of extreme cold; your body's recovery ability has increased by 39.3%].

The improvement in cold resistance is still increasing at a steady pace.

Because even with its current high cold resistance, Gaode is still unable to withstand the chill of Zhenbing, and it is far from reaching its limit.

However, the rate at which one's pain tolerance increases has slowed down considerably.

It seems that it is only 13.8% away from the 100% threshold, but Gaode knows that the difference is actually much larger and cannot be reflected by a simple number.

Fortunately, the body's ability to recover from injuries is still improving rapidly because it's in the "newbie bonus period".

In comparison, Gaode is more eager to see the abilities that can evolve once the body's recovery capacity reaches a critical value.

After all, according to conventional thinking, the constitution that the former evolved is only related to enduring pain, and its function is limited.

The latter, however, has infinite possibilities. While it may not be as exaggerated as limb regeneration, it might actually become an "indestructible cockroach."

(End of this chapter)