Fang Fang, though unaware of what exactly had transpired between Ye Huohuo and the others, maintained her usual caution. She slowly and carefully approached Ye Huohuo. Soon, she too felt the biting cold.
The chill seemed to permeate the entire hillside, but unlike Ye Huohuo, who had lost her composure in her haste to rescue someone, Fang Fang was different.
Fang Fang, devoid of the same level of emotional attachment, was even calmer than Ye Huohuo at this moment.
As she ascended a short section of the slope, feeling the cold, she slowed her pace. She continued upwards slowly, meticulously sensing the differences around her.
She quickly discovered the anomaly. Although the entire slope appeared to be enveloped in cold, not every part of it was at the same temperature. In other words, the higher she went, the colder it became.
Just as Ye Huohuo had previously estimated, the temperature in the lower and middle sections of the slope was at least minus thirty to forty degrees Celsius. It grew colder as she went higher, with the upper parts likely reaching minus fifty degrees Celsius.
That was a temperature that allowed nothing to grow, yet the trees and grasses on the slope seemed unaffected, still lush and green, without a single frost flower.
Only Ye Huohuo, A Cheng, and the skeleton man were frozen on the hillside.
This was peculiar; did the slope only freeze people?
What kind of sorcery could freeze only people?
Despite having lived for a thousand years, Fang Fang was a魅 (mei), possessing skills of enchantment and what practitioners of the mystic arts called demonic arts. She was unfamiliar with mystic arts themselves. With this thought, she stopped about ten meters away from Ye Huohuo.
Fang Fang appeared to enter a trance, closing her eyes. After a moment, her entire being was enveloped in a layer of pink light. Then, she raised her right hand and made a grasping motion in the air towards Ye Huohuo.
A phantom image of a pink palm emerged from her hand, growing larger and extending towards Ye Huohuo. It eventually transformed into a giant shadow hand that seized Ye Huohuo and pulled her back.
Ye Huohuo, who had been immobile on the ground, was now grasped by the large pink hand as if she were a palm-sized doll and lifted up.
Fang Fang made a backward-throwing motion with her right hand, and the pink hand mimicked the action.
Ye Huohuo was flung to the foot of the hill like a discarded toy.
Frozen in place, she couldn't even blink. Watching herself fall towards the ground, helpless, she could only curse her bad luck. A loud "bang!" echoed in her ears, followed by the sensation of hitting the ground hard, with no cushioning whatsoever. She landed squarely.
It nearly made her spit out a mouthful of blood and lose consciousness. In her mind, she cursed Fang Fang to the highest degree.
As Ye Huohuo’s body was thrown from the slope, the pervasive bone-chilling cold vanished. Her body instantly warmed up, and the frozen state quickly returned to normal.
"Ow! That fall nearly killed me!" As her bodily functions recovered, the pain from the fall immediately returned to her brain's pain receptors.
The impact had been so severe that she felt as though her internal organs had been dislodged. The pain caused Ye Huohuo to groan incessantly. "Fang Fang, you wicked woman, you're trying to kill me!"
"Be content, young lady. Look at what I've become trying to save you!"
Hearing Fang Fang's words, Ye Huohuo struggled to get up and look at her. However, upon seeing Fang Fang, she couldn't help but be startled. Fang Fang was also frozen on the hillside. Perhaps due to her slightly lower position, she wasn't completely frozen like Ye Huohuo had been. Her head could still turn, and her mouth could still speak.
"Fang Fang?! You, how did you get frozen too?"
It seemed Ye Huohuo had judged Fang Fang with a narrow mind. It wasn't that Fang Fang hadn't wanted to place her gently on the ground, but rather that the situation was beyond her control. She herself was in peril. Grabbing Ye Huohuo from the slope had already taken all her strength.
Midway through the transfer, she realized she too was immobilized and had no choice but to throw Ye Huohuo down the slope.
"I'm sorry, I thought..." Ye Huohuo's face flushed with embarrassment as she apologized.
"It's fine, why should I bother with a mere girl like you? Let's quickly find a way to resolve the current situation. This is truly strange. Do you know any magic that can freeze people but has no effect on plants and trees?" Fang Fang didn't dwell on the matter.
Prompted by Fang Fang, Ye Huohuo looked around carefully and finally noticed the situation Fang Fang had described.
She mused: I was truly blinded by the situation. How did I not notice this earlier? Magic that only freezes people?
Ye Huohuo's eyes suddenly lit up. "Is this... is this... could it be him..."
"Who? Do you know who is attacking us?" Fang Fang's heart leaped with joy. "Quickly take down that person. He's caused me so much trouble; being frozen into an ice sculpture is an unbearable feeling! Hurry, if you delay any longer, my meridians will freeze. And your friend here, he's a mortal. After being frozen for so long, be careful he doesn't become a vegetable."
"If I'm not mistaken, all of this is because..." Ye Huohuo spoke, her gaze drifting towards the top of the slope.