Now, as the Bangor Festival was about to begin, Garon left the ice cliffs and arrived at the location of the Ice River tribe.
A circular clearing over 200 meters in diameter had been cleared here, surrounded by the northern ice spirits, their gender-indistinguishable faces filled with joyful anticipation.
Roy Ice River stood in the center of the circular clearing, waving his arms, reciting some traditional festival blessings.
Upon seeing Garon's lithe dragon body, Roy Ice River showed a look of reverence, bowing his head in awe like the other northern ice spirits, and said, "Thank you, master, for attending our festival. Your presence brings glory to the Ice River tribe."
Garon nodded lightly, his gaze calm, "Proceed with the celebration according to your customs, do not mind my presence."
Turning his gaze, Garon spotted an icy throne exuding chilliness, seemingly fused to the ground, standing not far to the side.
This was a viewing seat prepared by the northern ice spirits for him, crafted through their ability to manipulate ice crystals, fitting for a dragon's body.
Though not finely crafted, the rugged and crude appearance instead carried a natural, wild charm.
Garon settled on the ice crystal throne, interestedly watching the northern ice spirits, curious to see how they would proceed.
According to his understanding, the northern ice spirits did not differentiate by gender, being neutral creatures with bodies made entirely of solid ice crystals, almost as if carved from the same mold, lacking reproductive organs.
As time trickled by, the faces of the northern ice spirits grew solemn and dignified.
Roy Ice River raised his arms, his voice bright and expansive, "Bangor!"
The hundred northern ice spirits surrounding the circular clearing echoed in response, their voices overlapping incessantly, "Bangor! Bangor! Bangor."
The word Bangor, filled with special meaning, began to echo over the territory of the ice cliffs, gradually reaching far and wide.
Meanwhile, as Garon watched the northern ice spirits, he playfully teased two furry bear cubs with his tail, pushing them back and forth.
After surviving their initial critical period, he had brought them from the ogre basin, sustained by the milk of a white hound and a little meat. They were now capable of eating meat, though not much yet.
With the blizzard ceased, the current weather temperatures no longer posed a threat to the bear cubs.
Now that they had opened their eyes and viewed Garon as family, they were very affectionate towards him.
Apart from Garon, the bear cubs appeared fierce towards everyone else.
However, Garon simply treated them as pets, occasionally playing with them, mostly letting them roam free.
The bear cubs enjoyed these little games with Garon, trying to cling to his tail, always being flipped over but tirelessly scrambling back up, full of energy, showing no interest in the northern ice spirits.
Garon watched intently, curious about the next developments of the Bangor Festival.
Soon, all the northern ice spirits entered the circular clearing.
Simultaneously, the surrounding elemental energy began to stir, and a visible layer of elemental luminescence emerged on each of the northern ice spirits, with numerous mysterious runes appearing faintly in the circular area beneath their feet.
Amidst the solemn yet joyful shouts of Bangor, Garon noticed thin lines of light emerging from the bodies of the northern ice spirits.
The positions and numbers of these lines of light varied across different northern ice spirits, but no more than four lines appeared, with most having only one.
Some of these lines of light completely split their bodies in half, while others only separated the size of an arm.
The greater the division, the more lines of light there were, and the more excited and joyful the expressions on the faces of the northern ice spirits appeared.
This seemed to be a good thing for them.
At this sight, Garon was slightly startled, vaguely guessing their mode of reproduction.
Sure enough, as the shouts of Bangor grew more intense, the light splitting their bodies gradually brightened, the milky light almost becoming tangible.
Crack, crack, crack.
A dense sound of splitting rang out.
One by one, the bodies of the northern ice spirits began to crack along the milky lines of light, but their faces showed no signs of pain, only uncontrollable joy—the joy of witnessing the birth of new life.
The gathering elemental energy drew the attention of the bear cubs.
They paused their playful struggle with Garon's tail, blinked their round eyes, and curiously watched the northern ice spirits slowly splitting.
As time passed, the complete northern ice spirits were divided.
Following that, the separated bodies began to change, elemental energy converging into them, growing clusters of ice crystals that rapidly formed human-like limbs, soon becoming new northern ice spirits, though much smaller in stature, slowly opening their icy eyes.
Beside the newborn northern ice spirits, the splitting northern ice spirits also grew ice crystals,
almost simultaneously restoring completeness.
However, this method of giving birth was not without cost; the elemental luminescence on them was noticeably weaker, and the larger the body of the split northern ice spirits, the more their luminescence faded, naturally weakening their strength.
Garon could tell from the fluctuations of their elemental luminescence that this weakening was not permanent.
It would not take long to recover.
"Using elemental power for self-splitting reproduction. As solid elemental beings, this method of reproduction is the most effortless for northern ice spirits."
"Even failed experimental creations possess the instinct to continue their species."
Garon didn't see the scene he imagined, but he wasn't disappointed.
Overall, he felt he had broadened his horizons, witnessed more miracles of life, gained some thoughts, and a bit of useless knowledge.
On the other side, Roy Ice River, who had completed reproduction, appeared somewhat weak but still made it a priority to show respect to Garon, approaching with his two new, somewhat bewildered northern ice spirits, sincerely saying, "Great master, these newborns will all become your followers in the future, fighting for you."
The new northern ice spirits looked somewhat dazed, more like lifelike ice sculptures than intelligent beings.
If not for the occasional glint in their eyes, it would be hard to tell they were actually alive.
Northern ice spirits lack the ability to pass down knowledge; the newborns need to learn everything from scratch from the elders.
In the many endless worlds of various planes, magical creatures born with the ability to inherit knowledge aren't limited to true dragons alone, but without exception, they are all very powerful beings, and northern ice spirits do not belong to this category.
Garon observed the dazed northern ice spirit newborns, sensing a faint dragon vein aura from them.
The identity of dragon vein creatures had been passed down, saving Garon the effort of transforming them again.
The northern ice spirit newborns looked at Garon, their eyes flashing with a natural fear due to his imposing aura, while also unconsciously casting reverent glances at him due to the sense of belonging in their bloodlines.
They understood nothing; their reactions were purely instinctual.
The two bear cubs curiously crawled over, sizing up the northern ice spirit newborns.
The northern ice spirit newborns noticed the bear cubs' gaze and looked down curiously at them.
After a few seconds of eye contact, the bear cubs immediately switched to a fierce expression, growling softly as if warning the northern ice spirit newborns not to stare any longer.
The northern ice spirit newborns were intimidated, shyly shifting their gaze away.
"How long will it take for these newborns to grow to be like you northern ice spirits?"
Garon asked.
Roy Ice River's face still bore signs of fatigue and weakness, but his joy was more apparent as he began to reply, "Only one—"
Before he could finish, Garon suddenly changed expression, abruptly standing up and turning his head to look south.
This action startled the northern ice spirits at the Bangor Festival site, attracting a lot of attention.
But before they could ask about the disturbance, they were shocked to see the southern sky above the northern ice fields, now tinged with a layer of crimson, like a roiling, burning cloud of flame.
The two usually fierce bear cubs sensed something, burying their heads in the ground snow, trembling like ostriches.