The ice dragon lazily half-closed its eyes, giving its excited friend a moment to brag about himself.

"The power is in my body!" said Ed, "it's just...... Once I cast a spell, it will be absorbed by the greater forces around me, like I blow a blister in the water, but what if I don't blow it out?......"

He chattered and gestured, and even if the ice dragon couldn't see it, he could feel his excitement. His power still flowed through its body, and the small whirlwind still held its wings strongly. Gradually, it sensed the pattern, sneered, and poured a basin of cold water on its head.

"You're just allowing your power to circulate, aren't you?" it said, "and put a barrier on the loop...... It's still far from the 'rules' or something!"

Ed, who was devastated by the blow, couldn't help but be a little discouraged, but quickly picked himself up again.

"Just use it!" he said.

The ice dragon fell silent. Its human friends once held up a small world in the endless void, and I don't know how long...... It wasn't surprising that he could come up with the idea of relying entirely on himself rather than "borrowing" the power of the source of magic like a normal mage or priest—even a little jealous.

It hated Xingyi's evaluation of them, her undisguised dislike, but she wasn't wrong. They are so powerful...... But it still comes to such a desperate situation today.

As the old mage in Yuanzhi Valley sarcastically said, after such a long time and so much accumulation, they are just self-contained...... And then bring about their own destruction. Compared to humans who have a short lifespan but run all the way forward, they are simply two extremes.

And the most disappointed about this ...... Maybe it's Xingyi.

.

The "barrier" that Ed set up is actually a bit leaky...... He couldn't completely stop his power from being absorbed, but fortunately, as long as he had a little time to rest, the ice dragon could quickly recover his strength. And when it continued to fight upward, Ed could take a small break.

It's just that the stars above their heads still look so far away that no matter how hard they try, they can't seem to close the distance even a little bit.

None of them asked the slightest question, and none of them said they were going to give up—Xingyi seemed to be quite unreliable, but she wouldn't lie to them about this.

So, it can only go up, and then up......

Then, all of a sudden, they leapt above the stars.

Ed involuntarily held his head. He felt a strong feeling of dizziness, as if the whole world was turned upside down in an instant, and even his heart rushed to his throat...... But he was reluctant to close his eyes.

It was a very short moment, but it seemed like an eternity. The stars twinkled at their feet, one after another, like white shells on the beach, which could be picked up by leaning over. The silent waves of the sea of nothingness rang in his ears, grand, vast, empty and gentle.

And above them, there is another sea of stars. The brilliant starlight connected into a river, across the black void, and farther away, countless fragments of stars condensed into a cloud of bright mist, which seemed to change slightly all the time, indescribably magnificent, far more wonderful than his most wonderful dreams.

This is not the empty and dead sea of nothingness that Ed imagined to devour everything...... It is cold and silent, vast and mysterious, but also full of infinite life.

When the ice dragon flapped its wings again, Ed realized that for a brief moment, the ice dragon did not move, and they were neither up nor down, just hanging there, like a speck of dust floating in the air.

And they do...... Small as dust.

He was still a little confused, but the direction of the ice dragon was clear. When the heavy water vapor rushed into his nasal passages, he coughed unexpectedly, and he knew that the next half of their journey would only be more difficult.

Water vapor becomes water mist, and water mist becomes water droplets...... When flying upwards in the face of heavy rain, the ice dragon even had the strength to complain.

"It doesn't make any sense!" it said, "and the sea is just coming down the edge...... Why are they all over the place now!"

It's ready to fight to the end, but if it can be opportunistic, such as bypassing a place where there's no water coming down, instead of flying up in the rain all the time...... It doesn't mind.

However, under the black sky, the rain curtain is endless. Ed couldn't help but reach out and take a few drops and lick them - it was salty.

He cautiously allowed his consciousness to reach out. They haven't been able to return to their own world, but they have already left the other side of the world where Xingyi is, at least, he will no longer be in danger of "melting" in it.

No matter how far his consciousness went, it only rained incessantly, falling heavier and heavier.

"It doesn't make sense" is much more than that. Under normal circumstances, shouldn't the water flow further down, the stronger the impact? Now it's completely reversed, as if the water is gradually absorbed in the process of going down.

Thinking of the predicament they were about to face, his heart sank involuntarily.

As he expected, the further up he went, the droplets turned into trickles, and the trickles turned into waterfalls...... When the pouring water fell heavily on the ice dragon's head, it was barely much worse than a rock.

The ice dragon had to close his eyes. It didn't dare to bow its head, the strong current of water had a good chance of breaking its slender neck, and its skull was at least hard enough. But hell, its wings are barely able to spread either......

Before it could hold up, Ed struggled to hold up the barrier, hanging like an umbrella over the ice dragon's head, barely covering its outstretched wings.

The sound of the water roared like thunder. Ed pressed his forehead against the cold scales of the ice dragon, trying to keep himself awake - the sound seemed to resonate in his head, almost shattering him into countless pieces.

But there is no other way to go but to rush out of the sea against the current. If it's some kind of test, they'll have to accept it.

His strength was drying up. Most of the time, the ice dragon can only rely on its own body to resist the powerful impact on its own. For a moment, Ed felt like they were trying their best, but they were just falling a little bit, and they couldn't move forward at all.

He stared at the Staff of Eternity drowsily, almost powerless to think. But he was still safe in the claws of the ice dragon, at least for now—until the ice dragon fell exhausted.

He didn't want to wait until such a "desperate situation".

He struggled to crawl out of the ice dragon's claws. The ice dragon didn't react, and Ed suspected it probably didn't sense his presence anymore. He fastened the Staff of Eternity in his belt, grabbed the thorns on the ice dragon's legs and hung there, stared at its flicking tail, and pounced on it when it got close enough, clung to it.

His plan was to climb the dragon's back along the thorns in his tail and really "face" the water he was supposed to control. However, it seems that ...... There's no need for that anymore.

He was swept away by the water almost instantly, as easily as a rushing river washed away an ant trying to climb the reef.