When Chen Bugu opened his eyes, he felt his mind in a daze.
The ice shards on his skin were slowly melting, and his numb body gradually regained sensation.
He looked down and saw Amon constantly rubbing against his leg, a joyful emotion coming from his mind.
Chen Bugu stroked Amon's head as usual.
The process of absorbing the Source of Freezing Water had been full of twists and turns, but fortunately, Amon had taken away some of the energy at the last moment, allowing Chen Bugu to complete the absorption smoothly.
At this moment, with a thought, the blue Water Element light particles in the air transformed into a deep black.
The black light particles gathered together to form a jet-black ribbon of water, flowing 靈動地 between Chen Bugu's fingers.
Chen Bugu twisted his finger, and the water ribbon quickly solidified into ice, encasing his entire hand.
"Is this Rin Water?" Chen Bugu murmured to himself.
"Chen Bugu!"
As Elder Zhou's voice broke his thoughts, the door was suddenly pushed open.
As soon as the two elders entered, they saw the black obsidian ice in Chen Bugu's hand.
In Elder Sun's eyes, black light particles flowed within the black obsidian ice, a strange Water Element he had never seen before.
Chen Bugu retracted his thoughts, and the black obsidian ice in his hand turned back into black water, then dissipated.
"You kid, you've been in seclusion for so long, and all you've managed to make is some ink?" Elder Zhou looked at the dissipating Rin Water in Chen Bugu's hand, guessing that this was probably the new ability he had concocted.
"Sorry for making you worry."
"By the way, how much time have I spent?"
"Counting today, it's the 15th day."
"What! 15 days?"
Chen Bugu was stunned at the words; constantly extracting and absorbing the Source of Freezing Water had long made him lose track of time.
Although he had guessed that this process would probably be much longer than three days, he hadn't expected it to have been so long.
"Then the Alliance meeting..."
"It's already over, but don't worry, nothing went wrong. Hurry up and tidy yourself up, come out and eat something. I don't know if you're hungry or cold, your face is so pale."
"Old Sun, you take this kid to eat. I'll go find the Hall Master first."
Seeing that Chen Bugu was fine, Elder Zhou left with relief. He needed to let Liu Chengfeng know this news as soon as possible.
After Elder Zhou left, Chen Bugu followed Elder Sun back to the Inner Hall to eat something and then found a place to wash up.
During this process, Elder Sun also recounted everything that had happened in Obsidian Town during Chen Bugu's absorption of the Source of Freezing Water.
When he learned that he had inexplicably become the Outer Hall Master, he found it somewhat amusing, but on second thought, he could roughly guess Liu Chengfeng's intentions.
"Will Xie An get mad at me when he finds out?"
"No, that kid was brought up by Old Zhou himself. Even if he doesn't understand, are you worried that Old Zhou won't understand? You, just rest assured and be a hands-off boss."
Elder Sun smiled; he was one of the few who knew Xie An's true identity.
"That's good. I've wasted too much time; I need to hurry to High Heaven City."
"But you might have to delay for two more days."
As Chen Bugu finished speaking, a voice came from outside the door.
Looking back, it was Liu Chengfeng, bringing Hong Ziyu and Elder Zhou, hurrying in.
Liu Chengfeng picked up the tea on the table and drank it all, then, without any pleasantries, directly informed Chen Bugu of the latest situation regarding the beast horde.
In Chen Bugu's memory, at this time in his previous life, he had just arrived at Obsidian Town, but there had been no beast horde then.
Due to the "butterfly effect," many things were already beginning to not align with his memories.
"Hall Master Chen, you emerged from seclusion at just the right time. This beast horde is your chance to make a grand display."
Liu Chengfeng had a faint smile on his lips; Chen Bugu emerging from seclusion at this time was indeed good news for him.
"Hall Master, don't tease me. Just tell me about the beast horde's situation."
Chen Bugu had indeed wasted a lot of time. If he didn't know the situation was special, he would have wanted to set off for High Heaven City immediately.
"One good news, one bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" Hong Ziyu, sitting to one side, suddenly spoke.
"The bad news, I suppose."
"This time, the beast horde numbers around seventy thousand, two thousand more than the last time."
Chen Bugu frowned and then continued to ask.
"And the good news?"
"The good news is that this time there are no intelligent magical beasts organizing it. The beast horde is coming from the southeast, so we only need to defend the east and south city gates. Also, there aren't many high-level magical beasts; there are only three Nine Star ones, so you see why the boss said you woke up at just the right time, right?"
Hearing this news, Chen Bugu breathed a sigh of relief. Although the beast horde this time was larger in number, its high-end combat power was not extensive, and without organization, it was even less dangerous than the previous beast horde.
"Understood. When will the beast horde arrive? Has the defensive plan been finalized yet? Where should I be?"
"According to the reconnaissance department's feedback, at the current speed of the beast horde, it will likely arrive at the east and south city gates before noon tomorrow. Therefore, at the latest by tomorrow morning, the Awakeneds of various races organized by the Alliance will need to ascend the city walls to prepare."
"The preliminary defensive plan has been set, but at that time, I didn't know you had emerged from seclusion, so you weren't included in the original plan. As for where you should be, honestly, I'm not sure, as I'm not quite clear about your current combat power," Liu Chengfeng added.
"Does the Hall Master mean...?"
Chen Bugu looked at Liu Chengfeng in surprise, unsure if his thoughts were accurate.
"It's just as you think. I want to test your ability, but with the beast horde imminent, a full fight isn't necessary. How about this: we exchange one attack?" A hint of fighting spirit subtly emerged in Liu Chengfeng's tone.
"Since the Hall Master has spoken, I can't refuse."
Chen Bugu smiled, his eyes also filled with surging fighting spirit.
He knew that Liu Chengfeng's combat power was not comparable to an ordinary Nine Star, but he was also very curious about how his current level compared to Obsidian Town's strongest individual.
"No problem, but I heard you have a large-scale Water Element arrow rain attack. I know your Water Element affinity is very high, so I hope you can use that move, as I want to know the combat power you can exert during the beast horde."
Chen Bugu nodded, indicating his agreement.
Hong Ziyu, Elder Zhou, and Elder Sun also became interested, as they too were curious about the outcome. If the situation hadn't been inappropriate, Hong Ziyu would have even wanted to start a betting pool.
Subsequently, Elder Zhou first went to the training ground and cleared out all members present that day.
This was a match between the Inner Hall Master and the Outer Hall Master of Unyielding Hall; regardless of the outcome, the fewer people who saw it, the better.
Ultimately, besides the two combatants, only three people and one turtle remained in the arena.
Upon seeing Amon follow along, Liu Chengfeng did not forget to remind Chen Bugu that although Amon was a battle pet, Chen Bugu must remind Amon not to interfere during the upcoming battle.
After all, during the days Chen Bugu was absorbing the Source of Freezing Water, Liu Chengfeng had already roughly understood Amon's combat power; it was the first time he had seen such a peculiar fighting style.
Amon seemed to understand Liu Chengfeng's words, raising his head high and turning it to the side, indicating that he understood the situation and needed no reminding.
Thus, under the observation of the three people and one turtle, Chen Bugu and Liu Chengfeng exchanged one attack.
That day, a huge bang echoed from the Unyielding Hall's training ground.
After the bang, a massive saber mark appeared horizontally in the middle of the wall bordering the alley of the training ground.
The saber mark was smooth and clean, splitting nearly fifty meters of the wall in two down the middle.
Passersby in the alley gathered to watch, some peering through the broken gaps in the wall's cracks, only to see ice mist pervading the training ground, with a biting cold in the air.
Through the hazy ice mist, one could seemingly see ice spikes growing everywhere, and within them, a blurry figure.
At this moment, he looked somewhat disheveled…