A few days later, some rumors began circulating quietly throughout the Eastern Dark Polar Domain.
The sect master of Misty Forest had his eyes on the resource points of the Alliance of Nature and the many small sects, secretly buying off and plundering, and even openly ambushing and slaying the Alliance of Nature's sect master!
Though the attempt ultimately failed, rumors spread that the Alliance of Nature's sect master Xiling and the newly appointed honorary professor had both been seriously wounded!
At first these rumors only circulated within a small, fixed circle, but they spread wider and wider. Stranger still, Misty Forest made no attempt to deny them, which only fanned the flames.
Propping up proxies, seizing control of profits — while some medium-sized and even large sects also engaged in such behavior, a sect as brazen and shameless about it as Misty Forest was truly rare.
In an instant, every small sect across the entire Eastern Dark Polar Domain was gripped by fear.
In the canyon behind the Great Waterfall — the headquarters of the Alliance of Nature.
Xiling gazed at the laboratory inside an iceberg not far away and let out a sigh.
Ever since returning to the Alliance of Nature, Leilin had thrown himself straight into the laboratory.
"I need time to heal! Don't disturb me for anything — remember, anything!"
Those had been Leilin's words, and the icy chill in his eyes had been enough to make even Xiling shudder with fear.
These rumors in the Dark Polar Domain had, of course, been deliberately planted by Xiling, in the hope of making Misty Forest think twice before acting.
But their response was an unexpected silence, and it weighed heavily on Xiling's heart.
This kind of silence was clearly the last calm before the storm.
"I hope Leilin can recover soon!"
Worry filled Xiling's eyes.
Leilin was now her last hope.
Meanwhile, inside the laboratory that had been transformed into an iceberg, Leilin was leisurely examining his own palm.
On his palm, white as flawless jade, a faint white luminescence emanated softly.
"Frost!" Leilin softly spoke an ancient Byronic character.
Whoosh!
Cold wind howled as numerous hexagonal ice crystals and snowflakes whirled at the center of his palm, forming a small ice vortex.
"I never expected that after the Ice Transformation, it would not only completely heal the damage to my sea of consciousness, but also awaken an ice-related ability within my body!"
Leilin casually toyed with the ice vortex, his gaze growing slightly distant and unfocused.
And within his mind, the Chip had already collected information on his new state and displayed it in a data format.
"Leilin Farell. Warlock Grade 2. Bloodline: Giant Komodo Serpent. Strength: 21.1. Agility: 14.4. Constitution: 27.9. Spiritual Power: 104.3. Magic Power: 104 (Magic Power is synchronously determined by Spiritual Power)."
"Beep! Detected that the subject has awakened a new innate talent. Data conversion in progress..."
The Chip quickly responded.
"Innate Talent Awakened: Frost Control. Grants affinity for frost-type energy particles; the subject is immune to frost-type energy attacks with a power below 40 degrees! Can manipulate various energy forms with frost properties within a small area!"
This level of ability was somewhat akin to acquiring a new innate spell, even if it was only at the first tier.
"No! It's not just that!" Leilin immediately ordered the Chip to bring up his Elemental Affinity Spectrum.
In truth, everyone in the entire Wizard community possessed some degree of affinity for various elements, but it was so minuscule as to be practically negligible.
However, Wizard Apprentices with innate talents far exceeded the normal standard in their affinity for a specific element, typically by at least fifty times, and this was the generally accepted criterion within the Wizard community.
Previously, Leilin's highest affinity was for darkness, followed by fire, with plant affinity being the lowest to the point of being disregardable. As for various other miscellaneous affinities, they were so low they would require dozens of zeros after the decimal point to represent.
Now, the bar chart representing Leilin's own talents had undergone slight changes.
The black bar representing darkness was still the longest, even surpassing its previous length. This was the enhancement gained from Leilin several times activating his bloodline, and since he had elementalized using dark particles, he received an additional bonus in this area, allowing him to far surpass the sum of all his other affinities combined.
Below that was the fire-red bar representing fire, which also showed some growth, but the increase was very slight.
Below the fire attribute was the green bar representing plant affinity, which was very short, indicating Leilin's rather poor talent in this area.
And beneath that, a new, abrupt affinity had now appeared.
It was a pale blue color, representing cold and freezing.
Originally, this affinity index had been so low that the Chip hadn't even represented it with a bar, but now, frost had clearly received a certain boost.
According to the Chip's detection results, Leilin now possessed a minor innate affinity for frost!