Chapter 194 A Life That Was Stagnant
The huge branches smashed down on his head, tearing away all the wind and snow. Zheng Zheng tried his best to drive the children out of the village, while he focused on resisting the attack of the Snow Demon.

The power of ice is useless against the Snow Demon.

The Snow Flower Demon itself has a lower temperature and is completely unaffected by freezing. Its symbol is even higher than the basic Ice Miracle! Ordinary Ice Miracles simply do not have the capital to fight against it.

After Zheng Zheng realized this, he immediately changed his thinking, gave up freezing, and instead used ice sculpture, using ice to extend the most basic physical attack to deal with it, which slightly eased the offensive.

Snow-white flowers bloomed on the branches, and each flower was the eye of the Snow Demon.

Zheng Zheng looked at this scene and couldn't help but feel desperate.
At the same time, an inexplicable sense of familiarity came over me.

Why... He seemed to have experienced this scene before, as vaguely as if he had dreamed about it. He even vaguely remembered that in that dream, his strength was much weaker than what he could display at this moment.

More desperate.

Suddenly, the flowers on the branches of the Snow Demon began to tremble, and the petals gently closed.

For a moment, the wind and snow seemed to stop.

Nourishes—

Ice-blue rays radiate outward from the pistil of each flower.

The rays penetrated everywhere, sweeping through the village, penetrating the mountaintops, and breaking through the clouds.

The strange thing is that wherever these rays hit, it was as if the pause button was pressed at the moment of the explosion, and everything fell into a state of stillness.

The branches of the Snow Demon swung over and directly shattered the solidified snow mountain.

The snow-capped mountains broke free of their solidified state and turned into heavy snow that fell down.

There is an avalanche.

A pale, icy torrent rushed down from the distant mountains and approached the Snow-covered Village.

Even Zheng Zheng looked pale when facing this scene.

This scene was far more terrifying than his vague memory.

……

The children ran out in panic. Yang Xue stood up at this time and became the leader of the children, preventing the team from dispersing.

When they approached the village entrance, they saw Zhang Ning running over to meet them.

"You're finally here, but don't stop yet, keep running out towards the mountain, there's an avalanche over there! By the way, where are Teacher Zheng and An Ti?" Zhang Ning spoke very quickly, but found that he didn't see any familiar people, so he asked again.

"Father Teacher and Teacher Zheng are both in the back, stopping those bad guys and monsters!" Yang Xue said loudly.

"What?!" Zhang Ning was speechless.

The Snow Demon has come out and the Snow Village is about to be destroyed, but they are still in the village!

"We just separated from Teacher Zheng..." Yang Xue was speaking when Zhang Ning suddenly pushed the children aside and several flower branches stretched out from the snow and grabbed the children.

Zhang Ning used the ice miracle to block them, but found that his miracle could only delay the pace of these things slightly!

When those things were piercing towards him, Zhang Ning could only turn his body in time to avoid the vital parts.

Then severe pain erupted as his flesh was pierced, causing him to scream miserably.

But the pain would soon disappear as the severe cold spreading from the branches would directly freeze the wound, and the low temperature would even spread into his body.

There didn't seem to be many branches coming through, so Zhang Ning gritted his teeth and reached out to grab most of the branches to buy time for the children to leave.

When the children were out of the branch's reach, the branch threw Zhang Ning to the ground. Frozen blood spilled on the ground, and Zhang Ning rolled around in the snow in a panic.

His body was stiff and Zhang Ning felt a strong sense of powerlessness.

Damn it.

These things were not affected by ice and snow, but if he could cast ice sculpture, he could still fight them on a physical level.

Although these things are the branches of the Snow Flower Demon, perhaps because of the dream, they are not as powerful as the imagined Wandering God. But this makes Zhang Ning extremely regretful.

If he had mastered ice sculpture earlier, he would at least have had room to struggle. But at this moment, the freezing ice miracle he had always relied on was completely useless and became a huge weakness.

I can see a glimmer of hope, but I find that because of my stubbornness, I am unable to grasp that hope at this moment.

Zhang Ning's hands, which had been frozen to the point of numbness, trembled as he clenched the ice and snow. The sharp ice fragments pierced his stiff skin, revealing a faint hint of crimson, which was very eye-catching against the white snow.

Suddenly, a streak of deathly gray flashed across the sky, destroying all the branches approaching Zhang Ning.

Zhang Ning was surprised and struggled to get up and look.

Zheng Zheng's figure stood tall in the wind and snow.

For a moment, Zhang Ning thought he saw Professor Zheng twenty years later.

But... doesn't Mr. Zheng currently know how to perform a death-causing ice miracle?

"Zhang Ning..." Suddenly, Zheng Zheng's body shook and he fell to his knees.

Zhang Ning used his hands and feet and moved to Zheng Zheng's side with great difficulty. He could not even stand steadily, but still held on to his teacher.

"Teacher...you!" Zhang Ning looked over and couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Zheng Zheng's hands and feet were cold at this time, and his body was full of holes, but no blood was seen flowing out.

What's going on? What happened to Teacher Zheng?
Zhang Ning's mind was in a mess. "Where are the children?" Zheng Zheng asked weakly.

"I asked them to... run out of the village..."

"Oh, I see. You helped me protect them. Thank you." Zheng Zheng smiled faintly.

Zhang Ning had hardly ever seen Zheng Zheng smile, but at this moment, he had no intention of paying attention to him. He could not understand what kind of injuries Zheng Zheng had suffered at this moment, but he was sure that Zheng Zheng's vitality was rapidly declining!

The teacher is dying!
Impossible! If the dream existed according to the history of twenty years ago, the teacher should be the last survivor of the Snow-covered Village!
Yes! After all, it was just a dream, just a dream!

So... even if the teacher dies... the teacher won't die...

tick-

Zheng Zheng's already somewhat dilated pupils moved slightly as he looked towards Zhang Ning.

Tears kept flowing on Zhang Ning's dull face, freezing and piling up on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, it must hurt, don't be afraid... I still have some strength, you hold on to your wound... I'll take you out..." Zheng Zheng's body moved again, and a deathly gray mist rose from his body.

Icy mist, extreme cold, leading to death.

After being hit by the Snow Demon's power of silence, Zheng Zheng, who was seeking survival from death, used his understanding and talent to support him in finding death in stillness.

This is the "death" that Zhang Ning has always been pursuing.

This was the closest Zhang Ning had ever gotten to the power he wanted.

However, the gray and misty figure in front of him, the cold hands and the words just spoken seemed to tear a bloody wound in Zhang Ning's heart.

He doesn't deserve it.

Zhang Ning is not worthy of Zheng Zheng at all, someone like Teacher Zheng risked his life to save her.

If he had listened to the advice earlier, he would not have been unable to fight back when facing the branches of the Snow Flower Demon, and would not have suffered such injuries. If he had studied the basic symbols seriously and studied steadily, perhaps he would have already memorized them by now, and could even truly help the teacher and Anti, and fight alongside them.

Relying on his youth and the protection he received during his college years, he thought he had enough time and confidence to sprint towards the elusive "death".

The reason why an accident is an accident is, of course, because it is unreasonable.

"Teacher... I'm sorry... I should have listened to you earlier... I'm sorry! I'm sorry!... It's all my fault!" Zhang Ning cried out.

Zhang Ning's already immature heart wall collapsed and he almost broke down.

Zheng Zheng stared at the crying Zhang Ning in a trance, listening to his confession and narration, and the sense of familiarity in his heart surged more and more.

His thoughts and memories seemed to transcend time for a moment.

He saw his "real self" and his real memories.

...Two years of compromise gained nothing. When he woke up one night, he found that all the people in the Snow-covered Village, including the children he wanted to protect the most, had been killed by the wandering god.

When the Snow Flower Demon was born, he fled in a panic.

Hit by the force of stillness, life comes to a standstill.

Even though he had initially broken free from the stillness by realizing death, he was still on the verge of collapse, just like he is now.

Finally saved him...

It's those kids.

Those children controlled the branches of the Snow Flower Demon, but in the end they did not harm him and sent him away. Then the help he contacted arrived and wiped out the Snow Flower Demon.
Since then, his body and memory have been stuck in the snow. He has returned to the place several times to look at the empty snowfield, and he is determined to go to the forefront of research on the miracle of ice, hoping to make up for something. He has made many achievements, won many awards, and even became a professor, but those achievements have never made him smile again.

Because those children can never come back.

The future he promised them did not come true, but those children gave him the future instead.

"Zhang Ning." Zheng Zheng looked at Zhang Ning and spoke slowly.

Zhang Ning also looked at Zheng Zheng, and felt vaguely that Zheng Zheng's tone seemed to have become more familiar. However, he was so confused at the moment that he had no time to think about it.

"It was just a dream."

"teacher?!"

Zheng Zheng put his hands on Zhang Ning's shoulders, and the mist on his body spread towards Zhang Ning.

“So this is an opportunity.”

"Teacher, you... are awake?" Zhang Ning then realized that Zheng Zheng seemed to have awakened as the master of the dream, although he could not understand why Zheng Zheng was the master of this dream.

"This is the life I left behind here, my past." Zheng Zheng said calmly with a trembling voice, "Affected by the Snow Flower Demon, I stayed in my past for twenty years."

Zhang Ning opened his mouth to speak, but Zheng Zheng continued not to give him a chance: "Don't say too much, feel it carefully, this is the 'death' you want. I am here, using my past as a model to teach you. And you, promise me, help me protect those children, even if this is just a dream."

The gray mist on Zheng Zheng's body dissipated completely, and then he pushed Zhang Ning away with force.

"When you come back, I hope to hand you your diploma in person."

As he spoke, Zheng Zheng's mouth corners slightly raised.

Bang!
The thick branches fell down and crushed Zheng Zheng into pieces.

(End of this chapter)