Chapter Three: A Hundred Ways to Savor Muyang (With Gratitude for Qianshang Hanyan’s Four Recommendation Tickets)

After three minutes, Muyang’s body had fully restored itself, yet the lingering agony left him teetering on the edge of collapse. It took him a full half hour to regain his senses. He picked up the Tang blade, named “Human Heart,” from the ground, remained silent, and continued onward.

The wind and snow lashed against him, but Muyang felt no chill; becoming stronger was now his sole ambition. He could not bear to experience again the helpless torment of being devoured alive.

Food—this was a task Muyang could handle. The Extreme North abounded with ice silkworms and snow silkworms, both plentiful sources of nourishment. However, Muyang knew nothing of their habits and could only search blindly.

His undying evolution quickly accustomed him to the biting cold of the Extreme North. Though the blizzard obscured his vision, his hearing grew sharper, though most of what he heard was still the howling wind and driving snow.

Suddenly, Muyang thrust his Tang blade into the ground. When he withdrew it, a small scorpion clung to the blade, its green blood instantly freezing in the bitter air.

Muyang hesitated, then closed his eyes and bit down. The shell was crisp, the crystalline flesh tender, but soon his mouth filled with sticky green fluid.

In the end, he fainted—after all, not all scorpions are harmless.

What he had just eaten was called a snow scorpion, a creature formed entirely by the harsh elements. Its tender flesh was a delicacy favored by many, but the reason snow scorpions survived was the deadly ice venom suffusing their bodies—venom as potent as purest ice. Thus, when snow scorpions reach thirty thousand years, they are hunted down.

After Muyang collapsed, swarms of snow scorpions surged from beneath the snow, injecting his body with frenzied poison. At last, a massive snow scorpion emerged, devouring Muyang bit by bit, thereby consuming the venom of all its kin.

Three minutes later, Muyang awoke once more.

“Congratulations, Host, on completing the mission: Food. Reward: One week of soul power.”

His body felt as if it had been cleansed, the pain eased somewhat. This only deepened his resolve to become stronger.

A month passed. Upon the endless white expanse, two Iceburst Bears lumbered by. Suddenly, a Tang blade shot up from beneath the snow, instantly killing one bear. Muyang sprang forth, blocking the other’s paw with his leg while slashing with his blade.

The Iceburst Bear fell dead, but Muyang’s leg was shattered by the blow.

“This time I’m lucky—it’s a bear. I can eat well for several days,” Muyang remarked, paying no mind to his broken leg.

After all, over the past month, he had been devoured over a hundred times; most unforgettable was when he was swallowed whole by a Frostland Tyrannosaurus.

The agony of being dissolved by stomach acid was not something he ever wished to endure again. Fortunately, Muyang had managed to cut open the beast’s stomach with his blade; otherwise, he would have had to wait until the creature relieved itself to escape.

“Congratulations, Host, on completing the mission: Survive! Reward: Two months of soul power.”

A warm current spread from his abdomen, and Muyang felt his body grow stronger.

Two yellow soul rings appeared above the corpse of the Iceburst Bear.

Shaking his head, Muyang sighed, “A pity I haven’t awakened my martial soul. Otherwise, these two soul rings would be the ideal age for a first soul ring.”

With some regret, Muyang dragged the corpses of the two Iceburst Bears into an ice cave. The cave had originally belonged to a ten-thousand-year Snow Leopard, which Muyang had coveted for some time. Eventually, the leopard was killed during a hunt by an Arctic Frostbird, and so Muyang claimed the lair for himself.