Shen Lu: I've Mutated into Multiple Game-Breaking Abilities

Chapter 41: The Ice Emperor

Here was a barefoot woman soaring through the air. She was about 1. 7 meters tall and appeared to be around twenty-five years old. She had long, snow-white hair, a beautiful face, and a long, ice-blue gown—these were Ling Yi’s first impressions of her. Immediately afterward, he began to examine her carefully from head to toe. Her white hair fell past her waist, parted at the nape of her neck, and cascaded down on either side. Two strands of hair framed her forehead, resting gently on her straight, delicate eyebrows. Beneath those delicate eyebrows lay a pair of striking, round eyes; her pure white irises were beautiful, though the outer corners of both eyes were obscured by the hair in front. Beneath her dainty nose were two full, plump, and dewy lips of a vivid red, faintly reflecting an alluring sheen. Below her snow-white jade neck was an ice-blue long dress that fell to her knees; below that were a pair of delicate white jade feet, as exquisite as perfect works of art. Her hands hung naturally at her sides; her fingers were plump, lustrous, and quite slender. As Ling Yi looked up to size her up, she also looked down at him. Her face showed neither joy nor sorrow; she wore a completely blank expression. “It’s actually a humanoid summoned beast!” Only then did Ling Yi realize it. In Shen Lu, there was no such thing as a so-called humanoid summoned beast. Without exception, summoned beasts were all monsters. Some players dreamed of obtaining a humanoid summoned beast, but that was merely a fantasy. Now that he had mutated into a humanoid summoned beast, it truly came as quite a surprise to him. After all, when he mutated, his only thought was to make this skill stronger; he really hadn’t given much thought at the time to what form the summoned beast would take. —All this thinking and observing took only a few seconds. Ling Yi still remembered that group of wind elementals charging toward him. Just as he was about to turn around and have the Ice Emperor attack, she seemed to read his mind and swept her hand forward. The next moment, a fan-shaped cold blast of ice and snow materialized out of nowhere in the air and shot off into the distance at an ever-increasing speed. As it flew, the fan-shaped cold blast grew larger and larger. Every wind elemental it came into contact with was, without exception, encased in a thick layer of ice. It wasn’t until it reached nearly two hundred meters away that the cold front quietly dissipated. “Wow, that power...” Ling Yi turned back to see the scene and couldn’t help but look astonished. Freezing monsters within a two-hundred-meter radius in an instant—that was something players at his current stage simply couldn’t achieve. Even though he had mentally prepared himself, he still couldn’t help but be surprised at the sight. However. What surprised him even more was yet to come. The Ice Emperor extended her hand, spread her delicate white fingers toward the monsters, and then clenched her fist suddenly. In that instant. A series of crisp “clinks” echoed from the blocks of ice. Ling Yi looked in the direction of the sound and saw that, as the sound reverberated, intricate cracks began to form in the ice blocks trapping the wind element. In the very next second, all the ice blocks shattered simultaneously! Crack, crack, crack... The shards of ice fell to the ground and melted into puddles of ice water within seconds. The ice water radiated a chill upward, turning the area as cold as winter in the blink of an eye. [You defeated a Wind Elemental (Lv15), +3 EXP] [You defeated a Wind Elemental (Lv13), +1 EXP] Kills made by summoned beasts naturally count toward the master’s total. Seeing the kill notifications appearing one after another before him, Ling Yi felt more surprise than joy. “So many Wind Elementals—just like that?” “This seems... even more powerful than I imagined.” He turned to look at the Ice Emperor floating beside him, curious about her attributes and skills. Don’t let the fact that he could easily one-shot monsters with [Starfall] fool you. But those were “ten times larger”! Under normal circumstances, let alone players—even Boss monsters would struggle to instantly kill ordinary monsters of the same level. Take the Boss of Breeze Canyon, the Gale Manipulator, for example. If it were to fight a Level 15 Wind Elemental, it would undoubtedly crush the latter with ease. But to instantly kill a Wind Elemental in a single blow would still be very difficult. Therefore. It was truly astonishing to see the Ice Emperor casually wipe out so many Level 14 and 15 Wind Elementals. It was a pity that summoned beasts didn’t have stat panels; otherwise, he would have loved to open one up and see exactly what stats she possessed. He pushed his thoughts back a bit. Ling Yi recalled the scene from earlier when the Ice Emperor had acted on her own before he’d even said a word. He couldn’t help but fold his arms and ponder, “I hadn’t even said a word yet, and she already acted.” “Is she able to read my mind, or is it because of a summoned beast’s instinct to protect its master?” As far as he knew, summoned beasts could act on their own based on their master’s commands. For example, if the master told it to fight, it would fight on its own and cast skills by itself. Until the master issues a command, they’d stand there motionless like wooden statues. Unless the master was under attack. Ling Yi wasn’t entirely sure which reason had applied just now, so he decided to try it again. He turned around, his gaze sweeping over the Wind Elementals two or three hundred meters away, then mentally selected one of them as his target. Immediately afterward, he turned to look at her. The Ice Emperor was still floating in the air about a meter away from him; upon seeing him look her way, she turned her head to look at him as well. Like a detached, emotionless girl, her face remained expressionless. The two locked eyes for quite a while before the moment ended when Ling Yi turned away again. ‘It seems it really is due to the master-protection mechanism...’ Summoned beasts would never defy their master’s will. If she had heard his inner thoughts, she would certainly have acted accordingly. Just as he was still thinking this. The Ice Emperor, however, turned her gaze toward the wind element he had just identified as his target. As her eyes took on a faint blue hue, the wind elemental in the distance dissolved into a speck of light and vanished. [You defeated the Wind Elemental (Lv13), +1 EXP] The sudden notification startled Ling Yi. He instinctively looked toward the distance. At a glance, he saw that the wind elemental he’d just identified as his target had vanished. Seeing this, he instantly understood. Just as he thought. The Ice Emperor could hear his thoughts! As for why she hadn’t intervened immediately, Ling Yi couldn’t figure it out—nor did he want to dwell on it any further. Now, he was ready to start farming monsters in earnest! “Hey, hey, hey, is there some kind of commotion coming from in there?” On the Swiftwind Grasslands—the first stage of the main path—over two thousand players were currently battling the monster Vine Tree Spirits. The Grassland Wolf Camp is the preliminary stage of the main path, and the Wolf King serves as its gatekeeper. After defeating the Wolf King, players can enter the first stage of the main path—the Swiftwind Grasslands. As early as the second day, some players had already begun eliminating monsters on the outskirts of the Swiftwind Grasslands. Today, on the third day, even more people have arrived. The monsters here are generally between levels 5 and 10; even the stage’s boss, the “Vine Monster Tree,” is only level 10. Although the monsters’ levels are generally higher than the players’ the players enjoy beginner perks—including 100 times the stamina and no penalty for death—so they’re all fighting with fierce intensity. Monsters on the Main Path do not respawn when killed. As the number of monsters dwindled and the number of players grew, there are now more players than monsters on the Gale Grasslands. And because of this. In between battles, they even have time to chat.