Chapter 9: Rising Heat

Inside Li An’s home, Frost Snow had already stepped out of the shadows and was standing beside Li An in the morning sunlight.Her eyes held both courage and fear, two conflicting emotions fiercely colliding within her. However, as long as she held onto Li An’s hand, the turmoil in her heart would calm slightly.At this moment, Li An touched her forehead, his brow furrowing.Her temperature was roughly ten degrees.This was already bizarre—completely unlike a living person’s temperature. But shockingly, this was much higher than before.At first, Frost Snow’s temperature had been near zero.Now it had risen by ten degrees, and her complexion no longer looked so icy cold; she even seemed to have a faint trace of life.“How are you feeling now?” Li An asked seriously.Frost Snow lowered her head and softly replied, “It doesn’t feel as cold.”“Does it feel a little better?”“Yes.” Her voice was soft and sweet, with an unexpectedly pleasant tone.However, Li An, being a straightforward and clueless man, didn’t think much of it. His mind was entirely occupied with the thought that perhaps the first step to saving Frost Snow was to raise her body temperature and stabilize it to a normal range.“I’ve got an idea!”“Huh?” Frost Snow looked up, her delicate eyebrows curving.Li An’s eyes sparkled with determination. “Practice martial arts with me!”Though Frost Snow didn’t understand what practicing martial arts meant, she didn’t hesitate and nodded with a simple, “Okay.”Then, Li An brought Frost Snow to the basement.Frost Snow let out a sigh of relief.In truth, she hadn’t felt very comfortable standing under the sunlight earlier. She hadn’t been exposed to sunlight for many years, and her own attributes made her inherently sensitive to light.The basement had no sunlight, and she found herself liking this environment.Then, without hesitation, Li An removed his shirt, jumped up and down in place twice to warm up, and said to Frost Snow, “Follow my movements.”Frost Snow nodded slightly and immediately began to remove her long blue dress.Seeing this, Li An hurriedly stopped her. “Not this part!”“Oh.” Frost Snow nodded.Then, she began clumsily mimicking Li An’s movements, lightly bouncing in place.“How does it feel?” Li An asked.Frost Snow shook her head and replied, “I don’t feel anything.”“No problem.” Li An smiled. “You’ll feel something after a while.”The two of them warmed up as they chatted.Li An’s movements became more intense—shifting rapidly side to side, swaying, and occasionally turning to observe Frost Snow. To his astonishment, she kept up with his speed!What’s more, her posture and movements were identical to his.“Have you practiced martial arts before?” Li An couldn’t help but ask.“No,” Frost Snow replied, shaking her head.Li An felt exasperated. Perhaps this was what true talent looked like.Next, Li An demonstrated how to punch by striking a punching bag lightly.Frost Snow, standing beside her own punching bag, imitated him.She threw her first punch.Crack crackThe punching bag immediately froze over.Li An was about to make a comment but reconsidered. It didn’t matter. “Keep punching. Let’s see if you can break the bag.”But Frost Snow’s small fists lacked any strength.At this point, Li An delivered a heavy punch, causing his punching bag to shake violently.“Can you do it?”Frost Snow remained expressionless as she punched the bag.It didn’t move.Yet she didn’t complain, nor did she stop. Following Li An’s lead, she threw another punch.When the bag still didn’t budge, Frost Snow’s delicate brows furrowed slightly, a hint of frustration surfacing.Then, she gathered all her strength and punched again!The bag merely swayed lightly, far from the dramatic shaking caused by Li An’s punch.What was notable, however, was that Frost Snow’s eyes no longer appeared so unfocused. They sharpened slightly as she stared at the bag, a faint anger simmering within her.Watching this, Li An wasn’t alarmed; instead, he was pleased.Anger, at least, was an emotion!For Frost Snow to be human, she first needed to have seven emotions and six desires!A few minutes later, Li An confirmed that Frost Snow had become absorbed in her task.Without using her elemental powers, she continued punching purely with physical strength. Each punch grew stronger, and her gaze became increasingly focused.She glared at the stubborn punching bag with dissatisfaction.Finally, she summoned all her might and landed a powerful punch!The massive punching bag swayed high into the air before falling straight toward her.Li An didn’t intervene.But the next second, his expression changed.Bang!Frost Snow’s slender body was sent flying by the punching bag, landing on the ground in a heap. Her blue dress bunched up, revealing patches of snowy white.Li An thought to himself, This can’t be right.Surely, she could have used a little of her elemental power to avoid this outcome.“Are you okay?” He walked over.Frost Snow quickly sat up, her expression dark.“I’m fine.”She didn’t look at Li An and instead approached the punching bag again, her steps heavy.Li An chose to observe in silence, practicing his punches while pondering.Frost Snow had emotions, but they were faint and needed to be drawn out.Additionally, the higher her body temperature, the stronger her vitality.But could this really improve her condition?He recalled Frost Snow saying that if her entire body warmed up, it could endanger her lifeAs he contemplated, suddenly—Boom!A loud bang startled Li An. He turned sharply to see Frost Snow standing before a burst punching bag, a slight smirk curling the corners of her lips.She stared straight ahead, her breathing heavy.Then, she let out a faint hum.“I’ve finished,” Frost Snow said coolly, glancing at Li An. “It wasn’t that hard.”Her tone was no longer as cold as before. With his heightened perception, Li An could tell she felt a little proud, perhaps even slightly smug.Li An grinned. “Whether it was difficult isn’t important. What’s important is—how do you feel now?”“Me?” Frost Snow blinked her large eyes, her lips curling into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.“I don’t feel as cold anymore.”“Do you feel better?”“Yes.”“Li An, are there more punching bags?”“Of course! My house never runs out of punching bags!”With a flourish, Li An brought out ten more punching bags from the storeroom.“500 pounds, 1,000 pounds, 1,500 pounds—take your time.”Frost Snow nodded silently.Li An suddenly asked, “You don’t have any martial artist training, do you?”“I do,” Frost Snow replied. “My ice freezes my body and spiritual world.”“The longer the time, the stronger the ice. If my body and spiritual world aren’t strong enough, I’ll be completely frozen to death.”Li An raised an eyebrow. “So that’s the cause of your condition?”“As long as your body and spirit are stronger than your ice, you won’t feel cold anymore?”“No, that’s just the surface issue,” Frost Snow replied calmly. “My father told me the root cause lies in my soul.”“My soul is frozen.”Li An nodded silently.The concept of a soul was too advanced for him to grasp yet.But he could see that Frost Snow’s vitality was steadily growing stronger.Here's the English translation of the provided text:Then.She continued to throw punches, her movements extremely precise, exactly the same as Li An's.At this moment, Li An discovered that Frostsnow's physical realm was actually higher than his, the initial stage of the Fourth Realm!However, her strength was only slightly greater than that of an average person.This was extremely abnormal.Li An continued to observe.As Frostsnow vigorously threw punches, the temperature within her body was rising at an extremely slow rate, and her strength was also gradually increasing.This caused Li An to suddenly realize the truth.He could train his endurance in dreams, so he had once tried to create a world of icy rivers.When the entire body is frozen stiff, a person simply cannot exert any strength.This was the reason for Frostsnow's lack of strength.She was too cold.She had to cultivate her body extremely diligently just to have the strength of a normal person.