Chapter 7.1 – Fusion of Ice and Fire
Zha Ji walked in front of Hua Tian, took the precious ice-cold knife and gave it to Nian Bing. “We won’t be courteous then. However, don’t you have a sheath to go with the knife?”
Hua Tian looked at the knife for a while as if reluctant to part with it before he turned to walk back into the house. As he came back out he tossed a rusty sheath at Nian Bing. “This sheath was made using cold steel. After specially enhancing it, the sheath is compatible with the icy blade. When you insert the knife into the sheath, the blade will not touch the sheath at all. This sheath also has the ability to hide the icy nature of the blade. It looks like this time I really made a huge loss.”
Nian Bing inserted the Knife into the sheath. The teal aura emitting from it decreased and the coldness had disappeared. The Ice and Snow Goddess’s stone shone a blue light as per usual. After looking at the knife in his hand, Nian Bing respectfully bowed deeply towards Hua Tian. “Thank you senior for giving me this knife. Senior, since this knife is different after it had the gemstone embedded in it, please give the knife a name.”
A dim radiance glimmered from Hua Tian’s eyes. “Pure dew from limpid autumn waters, chilling the sky and freezing the earth. Let’s call it, Morning Dew Knife.”
Zha Ji praised, “Morning Dew? That’s a great name!”
Nian Bing gripped Morning Dew tightly. He thought, ‘Mom, I placed the Ice and Snow Goddess’s stone that you had given to me in this knife. Will you blame me? I remembered that when you were leaving, you sighed. This knife also uses the Ice and Snow Goddess’s stone as its spirit. Let’s call it the Ice and Snow Goddess’s Sigh. Ice and Snow Goddess’s Sigh—Morning Dew Knife.’ Just like that, a peerless treasured knife had appeared in the world.
Hua Tian looked exhaustedly towards Zha Ji. “You should head back already. After that light ray emitted into the sky, it should have attracted the attention of martial artists. You must be careful when heading back. However, a kitchen knife? It is really lamentable for such a precious knife to be used as a kitchen knife. Damn it!” Hua Tian shouted his dissatisfaction before staggering back to his dark house.
Zha Ji pulled on Nian Bing’s little hand as he found that what Broken Knife said was right. “Let’s go! Let’s not attract more attention. You really reaped a huge profit today.” As he said that, he tore a portion of his clothing to wrap it around the handle of the knife. After covering the radiance from the Ice and Snow Goddess’s stone, he gave the knife back to Nian Bing and pulled him along as he walked briskly away.
Most of the people in the Ice and Snow City had turned in for the night already. The streets were a little chilly. As they walked, Nian Bing whispered to Zha Ji, “Teacher, does Senior Hua Tian practice martial arts?”
Zha Ji smiled. “You can say that he does, but can also say that he doesn’t. Even though he practices Dou Qi, he doesn’t know any martial art techniques. With his Nine Leaving Dou Qi, he should have already reached the level of a great sword master and can also possibly reach the Martial Saint realm; without knowing any martial techniques. His Nine Leaving Dou Qi came purely from his training. You have already seen that the fire from Dou Qi is of the best quality. So what could be a more suitable way in using it, other than to craft weapons?”
“Teacher, is it impossible to use Dou Qi for cooking? There should be different types of Dou Qi!” Nian Bing asked curiously.
Zha Ji shook his head in disagreement. “The power of the Dou Qi is too overbearing, particularly because of its explosive nature. However with magic, we can control it as we please. Let’s stop talking for now and continue after returning to the inn. We will head back to Peach Blossom Forest early in the morning tomorrow. On our journey back, don’t ever remove the knife from its sheath. If someone saw it, we won’t be able to protect your precious knife.”
After they got back to the hotel, it was already late in the night. Zha Ji was already exhausted after walking for an entire day. After sending Nian Bing to his room, he went to his own room to rest for the night.
Although Nian Bing was tired, he had aquired a new treasure. With a youngster’s temperament, he didn’t feel like sleeping. He took Morning Dew knife out to play. If it weren’t for Zha Ji’s warning, he would definitely have taken the knife out of its sheath to see its teal aura. A loud snoring from next door was heard. It was obvious that Zha Ji had fallen asleep. Nian Bing struck out his tongue and muttered, “I’m lucky that I am in a separate room. If not, I won’t be able to sleep at night as teacher’s snores are really loud.”
As Nian Bing hugged the Ice and Snow Goddess’s Sigh, he gradually closed his eyes and started his daily practice, meditation. After a moment, he had already entered a meditative state. Nian Bing’s spiritual power slowly drew fire and ice elements toward his body to condense. It seemed that he was really exhausted today and was too jubilant after getting the Morning Dew knife. It had made him forget that his ice and fire magic powers were already very unstable and weren’t under much control. The magic elements just naturally gathered towards his body.
As always, the Ice and Snow Goddess’s stone and Flame God’s stone helped Nian Bing to accelerate the rate at which he condensed magic elements. He had quickly recovered the magic power that he had used during the day. However, at this moment, both the ice and fire magic elements started to subtly fight against each other. Nian Bing had continuously used this two best quality gemstones to help him daily for a year. This had made his magic power to accumulate to an extent that it inevitably led to a change in his magic power. If it was ordinary magicians, when they continued to train, their power would break through to a higher level. However, Nian Bing was different as he had two magic elements that countered each other. The two magic power had already reached a bottleneck. Special changes had occurred in Nian Bing’s body as the two elements filled half of Nian Bing’s body respectively and had started to fight against each other for more space in his body. The ice magic power attacked from the left side of his body to the right and likewise the same with the fire magic power to his left. Under the gradually increasing power between the two magics, there was an obvious change happening to Nian Bing’s body. The center of his body became a dividing line with the left side of his body becoming blue while the right side was red. The two auras unceasingly surged against each other. Because of the battle between the magics becoming increasingly violent, Nian Bing was woken up from his sleep when he felt that both sides of his body had become intensely cold and hot, which had caused acute stimulations to be sent throughout his body.
After Nian Bing woke up, he immediately found that something was wrong with his body. As of this moment, regardless of whether it was the ice or fire magic powers, they had reached a never before seen level of chaotic interaction. The two magic powers fought against each other and neither yielded. The Ice and Snow Goddess’s stone and the Flame God’s stone simultaneously let out a faint aura and poured their accumulated magic power into Nian Bing’s body. It seemed as though they were aiding their own magic elements to overwhelm the other.
The conflict between the ice and fire elements had put Nian Bing’s body into a state of continuous intense pain and caused Nian Bing’s body to constantly spasm. The situation was totally out of his control. He wanted to scream out, but found that he couldn’t even open his mouth. He could only helplessly watch his body suddenly turning red and blue as the magic powers’ conflict continued unceasingly. As the battle between the two magic powers became increasingly chaotic, the left side of Nian Bing’s body became covered in ice while the right side of his body became so scalding hot that his clothes were burnt off, leaving a faint smell of scorched clothes.
As the intensely cold and hot magic powers fought, Nian Bing’s consciousness gradually became hazy. He thought of his father, he thought of his mother and thought of all that had happened at the Ice God’s Pagoda.
“Mother, Father, am I going to die? I am going to die, but I don’t want to. Father, didn’t you say that ice and fire doesn’t completely counter each other? Why am I suffering so much then? You were fire and Mom was water. You could get together, but why can’t both my magic powers do the same? Father, Mother, please teach your son what he should do right now?”
A human’s physique was predetermined when they were born. If their heredity was different from their parents, their body’s attribute would also be different. The suitability to train in a particular magic or Dou Qi depended upon the attribute which their body had. If a fire attribute person wanted to learn ice magic or ice Dou Qi, it would be impossible. Even if they tried to train harder, it would be useless. There would only be a small accomplishment even if that person used his entire life to train in it. However, Nian Bing could use the two magic powers because he had the Ice and Snow Goddess stone and Flame God’s stone that his parents had given him. Under the influence of the stones, it became impossible to know the attribute he was born with. In normal cases, if the husband’s and wife’s attributes were different, their child would inherit only one of their attributes.
However, Nian Bing’s parents’ attributes were extremely strong. It could be said that they were two extreme attributes, so when Nian Bing was born, he had two attributes and became a dual attribute person. Not even a single person among millions could be found to have dual attributes. If the two attributes didn’t counter each other and were simultaneously trained to the point where the person became a dual attribute magician, he would become well known in the world. However, Nian Bing’s dual attributes just happened to counter each other. The ice and fire magic elements viewed each other as rivals. Nian Bing had tried to train the two countering magics by trial and error as he didn’t have anyone to teach him in that year. Initially, he was able to balance the powers as his magic powers weren’t strong; so it didn’t cause any problem. However, after a year of training under the help of the two best quality gemstones, his magic powers had met a bottleneck. Thus, it resulted in his magic powers being unbalanced during the day. It was a sign that it would gradually lead to the current situation of the battle between the ice and the fire elements.