Chapter 832: Into the Ice Valley

BOOM!

The moment he swung, the valley shook. Mack’s colossal axe—glowing with fire and weighed down by earth’s essence—slammed into Max’s flaming sword with the force of a meteor. A deafening clang echoed through the frozen cliffs.

The power of their clash shattered the silence, and the surrounding snow instantly vaporized under the immense pressure and heat. The frozen ground beneath their feet cracked and caved in like shattered glass.

Max’s arms shook from the shock, his muscles screaming from the strain—but he didn’t step back. Not a single inch. He held his ground, teeth clenched, eyes locked forward like a beast.

On the other side, Mack’s face twisted into disbelief. "How can you be so strong?!" he roared, shocked beyond words. His axe should have cleaved through that sword. He’d used everything—his concepts, his bloodline power, his best technique—but the man in front of him stood like a mountain.

Max’s lips curled into a cold smirk. "You haven’t even seen the best of it yet."

Then, the Blue Dragon Sword in his hands began to glow. Its body trembled with a deep roar, like a dragon awakening from slumber. Black flames around it turned blacker, hotter, more ferocious—twisting and snarling.

Suddenly, the sword elongated, transforming into a massive battle weapon radiating the full might of Max’s Flame Tyrant Inheritance. Its shadow cast across the ice like the silhouette of a dragon spreading its wings, and in the next instant, Max brought it down in a wide arc that tore through the air with thunderous rage.

Senior Brother Mack’s eyes widened. For the first time, he saw death in front of him. He wanted to dodge, to retreat—but the walls of the ice valley were too close. There was no space to move. And worse, if he tried to retract his axe now, the backlash from his own technique would crush his core. He was caught—no choice but to swing.

He roared and committed, bringing his glowing axe down to meet Max’s dragonblade once more.

BOOM!!!

A blinding flash. Sword light and axe light collided in a titanic explosion that shattered the walls of the valley. Shockwaves spread like thunder, tearing apart ice, splintering stone. The pressure erupted upward, and the ceiling of the cave groaned under the force.

"Not good...!" both men muttered under their breaths.

And then the mountain roared.

A deafening rumble echoed as the entire cliffside collapsed. Tons of snow broke free, surging downward in a white tsunami. Snow waves like mountains tumbled down, burying everything in sight. Max’s pupils shrank. He braced himself as the avalanche thundered toward them, swallowing the valley in a storm of ice, sound, and chaos.

Even with their strength, neither of them could ignore it—because this was nature’s fury unleashed, heavier than ten thousand blades.

Max was in front of Senior Brother Mack and so he didn’t hesitate and rushed down to the ice valley.

As Max landed deep within the torn-up remnants of the ice valley, his boots pressed onto a jagged floor of translucent frost. He didn’t expect what lay beneath.

Cracks in the valley’s foundation had led to the reveal of a hidden realm—a cavernous underwater-like world beneath the glacier, yet somehow without water. It stretched wide and far like a concealed sanctuary buried under layers of snow and stone.

Massive crystal-like ice rocks dotted the surroundings, their surfaces glowing in gentle hues of blue and white, casting radiant reflections along the glassy walls and ceiling. The air was frigid but pure, and the entire chamber glowed like a sacred palace of light and cold, mysterious and untouched by time.

But Max’s attention was quickly pulled toward something else—an intense fluctuation of mana. It was sharp, dense, and ancient. His senses instantly locked onto its direction.

"What?" he muttered, narrowing his eyes. Deep within the crystalline maze, an eerie chill radiated from a particular stretch of glowing ice. From inside that depth, thick streams of mana with faint smell of blood pulsed outward with every breath of cold wind, as if some ancient relic was exhaling power from its long slumber.

He glanced back.

Senior Brother Mack was still several paces behind, panting slightly, face pale, his momentum sluggish. The battle had exhausted him—his mana reserves were low, and the bloodthirst in his eyes had dulled into stubborn resentment.

The massive ten-foot body he had morphed into earlier had faded away, shrinking back to human form, and the golden axe had vanished. He now gripped a long spear tightly, knuckles white, but the pressure in his aura had dimmed.

Max didn’t hesitate.

Without a word, he turned and walked toward the source of the mana fluctuations, every step confident. His instincts told him this cold, glowing ice wasn’t just random terrain—it was hiding something important, maybe even a treasure left behind by the ancient expert themselves.

"Where do you think you’re going?!" Mack’s voice echoed sharply behind him. Seeing Max calmly striding away infuriated him—he thought Max was trying to escape. Gritting his teeth, he forced his sore body to move, and charged forward again with a growl, ignoring the way his limbs ached and mana flickered unevenly.

High above them, above the broken sky of the valley, a figure silently landed.

Kevin Voss.

The cold-faced genius from the Void Soul Tower floated down, the dark glow of his mana swirling around him like mist. His eyes were cold as ice, lips curled into a faint sneer. "I hope those two monsters buried each other," he whispered, surveying the shattered battlefield below.

The corpses of snow bears were still scattered around, the Snow Bear King nowhere in sight. His gaze turned toward the gaping crack in the valley floor—the same one Max and Mack had fallen into.

With a wave of his hand, a sphere of pitch-black light enveloped him, and he descended into the hidden world without a sound.

Unaware of this, Max pressed forward through the wide ice cave, his every breath forming frost in the air. The deeper he went, the colder it became, and the fog of mana in this place thickened until it was nearly tangible. He was in the belly of Azure Cloud Mountain now, where even light moved slowly.

But his soul was strong, and his body was unlike a normal person’s. With his Three-Dimensional Body and honed senses, he could still see clearly through the icy haze. His steps didn’t falter. He knew something incredible lay ahead.