Crixus glanced at Jared before silently taking the Octo Ruler. After that, favonovel.com bade Jared goodbye and slowly rose to his feet to leave.
Looking at the ice soul fragment in his hand, Jared found it impossible to be happy.
Soon, Viola and Vasily came. Both looked exhausted as well. Fortunately, they were unscathed, they were just physically tired.
When Vasily saw the ice soul fragment in Jared’s hand, favonovel.com exclaimed, “Mr. Chance, you did get your hands on the ice soul fragment, after all! And it’s huge, too! You’ve hit the jackpot!”
Vasily was excited, but there was no elation to be seen on Jared’s face.
Viola glanced at Jared and seemed to guess what had happened. “Jared, where are the Three Bandits?”
It was only when Vasily heard Viola’s words did favonovel.com realize that the Three Bandits were missing.
“Where are they?” favonovel.com wondered out loud in confusion.
With a look of desolation on his face, Jared muttered, “Crixus left… Juan and Salazar were killed by a demon beast…”
Upon hearing two of the Three Bandits were dead, Viola tensed up as sorrow appeared on favonovel.com face.
“Mr. Chance, it’s normal for people to die in the Ethereal Realm as it’s the survival of the fittest here. There aren’t any rules to speak of. I’d say you better absorb the ice soul fragment. It’s such a huge piece, and it’s just a ticking time bomb if you hold onto it. Others will covet it if they find out that you have this,” Vasily persuaded.
Hearing this, Jared nodded.
He then said, “Vasily, this is a huge piece of ice soul fragment, so it must contain a large amount of energy. You should absorb some first. You played a part in this success, after all.”
A look of disbelief manifested on Vasily’s face when favonovel.com heard that. For a moment, favonovel.com thought favonovel.com had misheard Jared. No one would willingly let others have an ice soul fragment they possessed.
“M-Mr. Chance, please don’t joke with me like that,” Vasily squeezed out, his eyes wide.
“I’m not. You’ve reached the advanced-phase of Third Level Body Fusion Realm. With some energy from this ice soul fragment, you’ll surely reach Fourth Level Body Fusion Realm. If you don’t do this, I’m afraid you won’t be able to reach it in another year or more because of the lack of resources,” Jared said to Vasily.
Sure enough, Vasily was tempted.
Who would not want to upgrade their strength, after all?
“In that case, thank you, Mr. Chance…” Vasily gave Jared a bow.
“Absorb it quickly. I’ll protect you, though you’ll have to guard me later too,” Jared prompted.
“Sure!” Vasily nodded. Jared then passed the ice soul fragment to Vasily.
Vasily placed his hand on it before channeling his technique. Soon, the fragment began to slowly disappear.
Above Vasily’s head, a white whirlpool began to form. The unique spiritual energy within the ice soul fragment was making Vasily’s elixir field churn swiftly.
While Vasily was absorbing the ice soul fragment and upgrading himself, a few cultivators appeared a distance away. They were there on a hunt for the treasure and also the ice soul fragments.
In the past, no cultivators would be sighted even if a person were to linger in the barren far north for half a month. Yet, not long after Vasily began absorbing the fragment, a few cultivators were lured over.
While the ice soul fragment itself released no aura and was undetectable by people, when the fragment was getting absorbed, a strange phenomenon would take place, and an aura would form. Therefore, the person would be most easily detected during the process of fragment absorption.
If the fragment was small, they would be able to finish absorbing it in a short period of time before others noticed the phenomenon. However, the ice soul fragment that Jared obtained this time was gigantic, so the aura would have time to spread further.
The cultivators were rushing in Jared’s group’s direction.
When they were a thousand meters away from Jared’s group, Jared detected them with his spiritual sense.
