Shua!
With a gust of cold wind, a young girl in a white dress appeared inside a chamber. She looked like a holy woman with a beauty that could topple empires if she appeared in the outside world.
"Sigh!" A white-haired woman radiating intense coldness was sitting in the meditation pose. Hearing this, she sighed and opened her eyes.
Her cold expression became gentle as her eyes landed on the girl in front of her. If the people who knew this white-haired woman saw this change, they would be astonished.
"You silly child, why do you keep thinking about that guy? He isn't worthy of you." The white-haired woman shook her head, dissatisfied.
"Master~~" The girl suddenly yelled as her face became red in anger hearing this and said, "I've told you countless times, I don't want you to talk bad about young master, or I won't talk to you again."
"Okay-okay, I won't talk bad about him." The silver-haired woman said in a dotting voice.
"Good. So, can I go now, master?" The girl asked again.
This beautiful girl was Lilly, who had come with this white-haired woman to the 'Ice sovereign mountain.'
Although her strength grew rapidly after coming here under the guidance of the white-haired woman, she missed Max day and night and wanted to go back to meet him.
"No, you can't. At least not right now." The white-haired woman shook her head.
"Why? I want to." Lilly's expression became sad, and her eyes turned misty.
"Come here." The white-haired woman sighed in her heart and gestured toward Lilly to come near her.
Lilly went ahead and stood in front of her. The white-haired woman lovingly patted her head and slowly said,
"It's because Master is going to join others to fight against people from 'other side.' So, I can't accompany you, and you aren't strong enough to travel alone. When I come back, I'll accompany you to meet him."
"Master, are you really going to enter the battlefield?" Lilly worriedly asked.
"Silly child, don't be worried. With my strength, there is a quite high chance for me to come back alive." The white-haired woman smiled.
"You focus on cultivating and mastering the [Ice world]. You need to break through to mortal boundary as soon as possible." She added.
"Yes, master." Lilly nodded with a resolute expression and walked out of the chamber.
Watching her leave, the white-haired woman sighed. 'With your talent, it's not hard to reach the peak. I just hope that brat won't drag you down with him.'
After, she closed her eyes once again in meditation.
…
Weng~
The door to one of the training rooms on the first floor opened, and Max walked out with a smile on his face.
'I only need twenty seconds to cast the [Calidus Brachium] without preparing in advance now. If I were to compress the Mana in advance, I only need a little more than ten seconds.' He thought.
Moreover, he could use a total of two-thousand Mana in a single cast which caused its power to rise by another level. He was sure that if he encountered a beast on the same level as the wolf leader, he could kill it in one shot.
After exiting the building, he walked toward another building. It was also a training ground.
He quickly reached the building. It was a two-floored building but it was larger in size however, unlike the other training ground, it was almost completely empty.
Max wasn't surprised by this because this training facility was specially designed to train physical attributes such as strength and agility.
Therefore, it wasn't as popular since there weren't many disciples who had awakened such attributes.
Max came here because he was going to increase his strength and agility stat. Therefore, this training facility will be perfect for him to get used to the improved attributes.
After entering the building, he went to the reception, where a fierce looking burly middle-aged man was dozing off in the chair with his feet resting on the desk.
"Excuse me, Elder. May I get a training room?" Max politely asked.
The Elder opened his eyes and looked at him up and down before extending his hand. "Your badge and 50 Mana stones."
Just as Max was about to give his badge, he paused. "Aren't these training grounds free for all inner and core disciples?" He asked.
"Tch, Not all, you smart pants." The Elder clicked his tongue and then waved his hand impatiently, "Are you going to train or not, if not, then go away and let me sleep in peace."
Max shrugged his shoulders, took out fifty Mana stones, and gave them to the Elder along with his badge.
The Elder quickly stored the Mana stones and gave the badge after giving it a glance. He then took out a token. "Here."
Max extended his hand to take the token when the Elder suddenly grabbed his hand. Max was surprised by this and he tried to use force to free himself, but obviously, he couldn't.
The Elder then said in a low voice, "Little guy, do you wish to train more than two hours?"
Max was surprised by this question but he hurriedly nodded "Of course, I do." He knew that usually, disciples were only allowed to train for a maximum of two hours a day.
However, this Elder was asking him if he wanted to train more. This signified that he could allow him to train more and this is what he wanted as two hours might not be enough for him to get used to his improved stats.
"Hehe, I wasn't wrong. You are indeed a hardworking guy." The Elder laughed weirdly which gave Max shivers.
Seeing Max's expression, the Elder coughed and raised his fingers "How about I allow you to train here as much as you want, and in return, you give me fifty no thirty Mana stone per hour?"
"Oh, you can do it?" Max asked as if he didn't believe him.
"I'm in charge of this place. Of course, I can do it." The Elder said proudly. Suddenly he put on a smile and asked "So, what do you think about my offer little guy?"
Max acted as if he was thinking and then looked at the Elder and shook his head "No, it's too expensive. I can't afford it."
"Expensive huh?" The Elder's eyes twinkled hearing this and he asked "Tell me, how much can you afford? As your elder, I'll give you some discount."
Max smiled and raised one finger. "Ten."
"Ten? No, it's very low. How about twenty-five? You should know that it's a very good deal and I'm only offering you this because I happened to like you." The Elder shook his head.
"Forget it then. Two hours a day are enough for me." Max shrugged and walked toward the training room.
Seeing this, the Elder quickly grabbed his shoulder "Wait little guy. Let's discuss it further. I can you allow you to train for twenty Mana stones per extra hour. How about it?" He asked.
"No. I can't give you more than ten." Max shook his head resolutely. Although he still had around 200 more, he needed them to replenish his Mana inside the training room. Moreover, he knew that this Elder was going to keep them for himself.
"Tch, stingy brat. Then give me five hours' worth of stones in advance or forget about it." The Elder said, annoyed.
"Okay." Max smiled and took out fifty more stones and gave them to him.
After that, the Elder gave him a different token. Max took it and walked toward one of the rooms on the first floor.
The burly Elder watched him go and murmured "This little guy is interesting. He doesn't have a physical element awakened but he is still so powerful."
He then sat down on the chair and closed his eyes once again.
...
As Max entered the room, he found that the room was at least two times larger than the room in the other training ground and there were a total of one hundred human-shaped wooden puppets standing there motionlessly.
Weng~
Just as he was thinking about how he was going to train, the formations in the room buzzed and the wooden puppets seemed to come to life as they moved and surrounded him.
Then without giving Max any time to react, one puppet closest to him started attacking him.
It moved at a very fast speed and threw a punch at his chest. Although the punch was pretty fast, it didn't seem to have much strength.
Seeing this, Max also punched at the incoming fist with 60% of his total physical strength.
Bang! Crack!
As their fists collided, the wooden puppet's fist cracked into splinters and it was pushed a few feet back.
Max looked at the puppet with a surprised look.
Although he was victorious in the first round, he realized that these wooden puppets' fists were as tough as steel and their seemingly normal punch contained a lot of power and his knuckles were hurting slightly.
'What if all of these puppets attacked me at the same time?' Max took in a cold breath.
