According to the fusion method, the heart of the Fire Lizard was the first and easiest step.
Two lizard hearts rolled through the air, surrounded by a faint glow of green and pale red.
Xu Zimo formed seals with both hands as waves of spiritual energy surged around him.
The fusion stones nearby began to tremble, and with a series of cracking sounds, they shattered.
Invisible energy burst forth, merging and enveloping the two lizard hearts.
As Xu Zimo activated the fusion technique, the two hearts tumbled continuously.
It seemed as if souls inside were struggling, and there were faint howls and roars.
Two spiritual energies were forcibly fused together, mixed with the power of the fusion stones.
At first, the hearts resisted fiercely, but under Xu Zimo’s suppression, their resistance gradually weakened.
Eventually, with a faint chime, a flame ignited on the heart’s surface.
"Did it work?" Xu Zimo let out a sigh of relief.
He examined it carefully and saw the two lizard hearts had merged into one, now deep red in color.
Vein-like patterns ran throughout it, and faint flames burned atop it.
Holding the heart in his hand, it wasn’t hot, just warm.
Succeeding on the first try put him in a good mood.
The next step was to find a thousand-year-old Yellow Lizard and fuse it with the Fire Lizard Heart to create the Jade Lizard.
Xu Zimo returned to the canyon. What had been an empty passageway was now crowded with Red Lizards.
As soon as they saw Xu Zimo, all the Red Lizards knelt down and shouted loudly, "Thank you, benefactor! Your grace will never be forgotten. We are eternally grateful!"
"Get up," Xu Zimo waved his hand and turned to Green Yun. "Let’s go find the Yellow Lizards."
After explaining things to the people, Green Yun nodded and set out with Xu Zimo once again.
The Red Lizards waved goodbye, though they didn’t dare celebrate too early. The Black Dragon had yet to be dealt with, anything could still happen.
After leaving the canyon where the Red Lizards lived, Green Yun looked at the map and said, "The Yellow Lizards like the cold. We head north, they live on the snowy mountains."
"This Particle World of yours even has distinct seasons," Xu Zimo laughed.
"Not exactly. That mountain was created by the ancestors of the Yellow Lizards," Green Yun explained. "Before the Black Dragon came, our four tribes fought among ourselves a bit. But after it arrived, everyone had their own problems and didn’t bother with conflict anymore."
"Who’s the guardian for the Yellow Lizards?" Xu Zimo asked.
"The Black Tortoise," Green Yun said. "It’s the oldest and strongest of the four guardians."
They rode the Darksky Tiger on another long journey.
After traveling all night, when the eastern sky was just turning white and night hadn’t completely faded, they arrived at the Black Tortoise’s dwelling.
It was a pool of water, a few hundred square meters in size.
Above it was a waterfall. The current wasn’t strong, flowing gently with occasional ripples.
The pool was filled with jagged rocks and crystal-clear water.
"Go ahead," Xu Zimo commanded the Darksky Tiger.
With a roar, the tiger shot a blast of spiritual energy into the water, causing it to explode with sprays of waves.
But the pool remained still.
A few ripples later, it was calm once again.
Despite repeated attacks from the Darksky Tiger, which nearly destroyed the pool, no sign of the tortoise appeared.
"What’s going on?" Green Yun asked, puzzled. "Is it not here?"
Xu Zimo smiled. He could clearly sense a life force at the bottom of the pool, but since it didn’t want to come out, he didn’t want to waste time.
"Let’s go," he said, and they rode the Darksky Tiger safely past the pool.
Following the waterfall upstream, they headed toward the Yellow Lizard’s territory.
Only after they had completely left and the wind and water settled, did a tortoise shell slowly rise to the surface.
With a "plop," a little head popped out of the shell.
"Dammit, that scared Grandpa Tortoise to death," the tortoise muttered, flipping itself over. "That beast’s aura is almost equal to Lord Black Dragon. Good thing old tortoise me has always been cautious."
It looked solemnly in the direction Xu Zimo had disappeared and murmured that this outsider might change the fate of this Particle World.
Then it retracted into its shell and sank back into the water. As far as it was concerned, none of this had anything to do with it.
It only needed to guard this passage symbolically, no need to get involved in anything else.
...
After entering the Yellow Lizard’s territory, Xu Zimo could clearly feel the temperature dropping.
The ground beneath their feet turned white with snow, and their breath became visible.
The Yellow Lizard’s territory wasn’t very large. Among the four tribes, they had the fewest numbers.
Directly ahead stood a snow-covered mountain.
Upon entering the Yellow Lizard’s land, Xu Zimo sensed the long-lost mist again.
That same mist which the Strange Meridian Sutra could absorb had reappeared.
Looking up at the increasingly mysterious snow mountain, Xu Zimo walked forward slowly.
He had only taken a few steps when the surrounding wind and snow suddenly went berserk.
From the blizzard, figures began to take shape, snowmen formed from the snowstorm.
They were massive, beating their chests with exaggerated and hideous expressions as they charged forward.
With each step, they left deep footprints behind, and booming crashes echoed through the air.
"What are those?" Green Yun cried out in panic.
"This mist is interesting, it can even mutate snow," Xu Zimo replied with a smile.
Back in the Misty Forest, mutated plants and trees made sense, since they were living beings.
But now even lifeless things were mutating.
Though there were many snowmen, they were weak.
The Darksky Tiger easily slapped them apart with its claws, reducing them to scattered snowflakes.
With the tiger clearing the way, they soon arrived at the foot of the snow mountain.
There, a snow-covered stone tablet stood.
Green Yun brushed away the snow and revealed a poem carved into the stone.
"Yellow clouds stretch for ten thousand miles, stirring the wind, White waves surge in nine streams, flowing through the snow mountain."
In front of the tablet, steps stretched upward, climbing toward the sky above the snow mountain.
Behind them, countless snowmen continued to charge fearlessly. When they died, they simply turned into fluttering snowflakes.
"Let’s go up and take a look," Xu Zimo said.