Taking massive leaps across the snowy terrain, Bonjour charged directly toward the three monkeys positioned higher along the cliffside, while Caelum activated his [Air Steps] and swiftly crossed the steep mountain wall toward the remaining four monkeys.

Even though the two of them had technically attempted a sneak attack, the monkeys noticed their presence before they could properly close the distance.

"Kwok! Kwok! KWOK!"

Sharp cries echoed throughout the snowy mountains as the monkeys immediately turned toward the approaching intruders with alarming speed.

At the same time, dense frost-filled fog rapidly gathered around the area, reducing visibility almost instantly while layers of icy frost spread across the monkeys’ pale fur.

However, Bonjour was faster than their response.

BOOOOM!

He crashed directly against the mountainside like a cannonball.

By pure coincidence, he narrowly avoided slamming into the strange fruit trees themselves, though considering how unstable the cliffside looked, that was probably a fortunate outcome.

The sheer impact alone caused several monkeys to lose their footing and collapse violently across the snowy slope.

Meanwhile, Caelum had already reached the remaining monkeys by using Aura to cling directly onto the mountain wall.

One of the monkeys screeched furiously before raising its claw as ice rapidly condensed around its arm.

In the next moment, it slashed toward Caelum with surprising force and speed.

CLANG!

The attack landed successfully, yet it failed to pierce through Caelum’s Aura protection.

"Aren’t you much weaker than I expected?" Caelum muttered honestly before casually throwing the monkey downward.

CRASH!

The creature smashed directly into two others below.

At this point, Caelum still had not fully realized just how much his physical strength had increased after reforging his body.

Although these creatures were technically only Lesser Beasts, their physical abilities were already comparable to some ordinary Greater Beasts, and more importantly, they possessed strange elemental abilities connected to frost and snow.

SMASH!

Bonjour crushed two monkeys with his bare fists while dark-orange Arder enveloped both of his arms.

Afterward, he casually tossed his axe into the air before catching it again with a savage grin spread across his face.

"Kwok! Kwok!"

Seeing their companions fall so quickly, the remaining monkeys rapidly communicated with one another through sharp cries before seemingly reaching a conclusion.

The five surviving monkeys instantly formed a circular formation.

A dome of frost materialized around them while enormous icy spikes extended outward from its surface.

Then the spikes shot toward Bonjour like gigantic frozen serpents attempting to impale him from multiple directions.

However, instead of dodging, Bonjour laughed loudly and allowed the attacks to strike him directly.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The icy spikes merely produced metallic crashing sounds upon impact with his body.

At that exact moment, Caelum appeared above the frost dome.

Blue Sword Qi erupted from his blade as he slashed downward with great force.

BOOOOOM!

The entire frost dome shattered apart while three monkeys were sent flying violently, in near death condition.

Then Bonjour jumped high into the air.

Dark-orange Arder wrapped around his axe before he hurled it downward with overwhelming force.

THUNK!

The spinning axe embedded itself directly into one monkey’s chest.

"HHHAAAA!"

At the same time, Bonjour clenched both fists together before smashing downward onto another monkey’s skull with overwhelming strength.

CRACK!

Just like that, the battle ended almost completely one-sidedly.

"Even though they were Lesser Beasts, they were stronger than I expected," Bonjour commented while retrieving his axe from the corpse.

"Indeed," Caelum muttered thoughtfully while observing the frozen battlefield.

"And those frost abilities were surprisingly strange."

However, his attention quickly shifted toward the white fruits growing from the cliffside trees.

"But more importantly, let’s collect our harvest first." he said with visible excitement.

He plucked one of the strange fruits before immediately handing it toward Bonjour.

Bonjour looked confused.

"Why are you giving it to me first?"

"Well..." Caelum replied while avoiding eye contact slightly.

"What if it’s poisonous? I should properly utilize the advantages of having a barbarian friend."

He muttered the final part quietly enough that it almost sounded reasonable.

Or at least reasonable to him.

After all, Caelum himself was confident that he could remove ordinary poison through cultivation, but Barbarian vitality and digestion were naturally absurd.

Bonjour simply shrugged before taking a large bite from the fruit.

A sweet fragrance spread instantly.

"It tastes good," he commented casually.

Seeing that nothing disastrous happened to Bonjour, Caelum finally took a fruit for himself and bit into it as well.

However, the moment the fruit entered his body, Caelum immediately sensed something unusual.

An intense chill spread throughout his entire system as though streams of frost were flowing directly through his veins.

For a brief moment, it even felt as though his body was beginning to freeze from within.

But then cultivation technique [Myriad Heavenly Ascension] activated automatically.

The icy energy contained inside the fruit was rapidly refined before condensing directly into his Primordial Chaos Core.

Within the darkness of that mysterious core, a faint icy star slowly began forming beside the other two.

Caelum’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

And unlike ordinary energy, this strange frost essence proved astonishingly easy for him to refine.

"What an unexpected boon..." he muttered softly.

Then he turned toward Bonjour.

"Quick, gather every single fruit you can find."

Bonjour looked at him oddly.

"You want all of them?"

"Yes," Caelum replied without hesitation.

Interestingly, Bonjour himself did not seem to experience any special reaction after eating the fruit.

Thus, for nearly twenty minutes, the two of them moved across the snowy cliffs collecting almost eighty percent of the strange white fruits growing along the mountain walls.

Resources that Caelum would later use extensively for cultivation.

Then suddenly, a tremendous noise echoed throughout the snowy mountains.

It was not simply noise.

It was the dramatic arrival of two terrifying beings.

BOOOOM!

Snow exploded into the air as two massive figures descended from the upper mountain ranges and landed directly before Caelum and Bonjour.

Both creatures possessed enormous muscular bodies covered in thick white fur, while violent energy radiated from them strongly enough to shake the surrounding atmosphere.

They were giant frost gorillas.

And judging from their expressions, they were furious.

The two gorillas looked exactly like homeowners who had returned only to discover that thieves had robbed their entire orchard clean.

Which, technically speaking, was exactly what had happened.

The moment the male gorilla saw the corpses of the smaller monkeys scattered around the cliffside, its already savage expression twisted further in rage.

Meanwhile, the female gorilla suddenly began screaming furiously at the male gorilla in what sounded like an extremely accusatory tone.

Apparently, the orchard of Ice Fruits had originally been intended as a gift from the male gorilla after successfully courting her during spring season.

And now, nearly the entire orchard had vanished.

Only a few miserable leftovers remained hanging from the trees.

The female gorilla shrieked even louder while repeatedly smashing the male gorilla’s shoulder in anger.

The male gorilla himself looked as though his soul was leaving his body.

Then, the female gorilla suddenly locked onto Caelum and Bonjour.

Her killing intent exploded instantly.

Without hesitation, she leaped directly toward the two children with the obvious intention of tearing them apart.

At the same time, the male gorilla finally reached the peak of being rage-baited.

"GROOOOOOOOHHHH!"

He beat his chest violently while roaring toward the sky, swearing revenge against the two strange little "hairless monkeys" who had ruined his spring season.

After all the male gorilla had never truly cared about the fruits themselves, what he had wanted something else.