Chapter 380 |
At present, the affairs of Maple Prefecture had little to do with Wang Yu.
After a long journey, what met his eyes was a single line of pure white that seemed to connect heaven and earth. In the beginning, the vast ice plains still appeared wrapped in silver and covered in snow.
But if one looked farther into the distance, it became obvious.
The deeper one went into the ice plains, the thicker the dark clouds became, blocking out the sunlight completely and casting everything into a mystery akin to an eternal night. Icy winds and freezing rain blew without pause.
From time to time, these forces would gather into blizzards that raged across this ancient permafrost, sweeping away every trace of vitality and life.
Gray, deathly silent, and cold.
Those were Wang Yu’s first impressions the moment he arrived.
The stone tablet had once recorded that before the ancient Immortal Dynasty, this world had been nothing but frozen earth. Perhaps that was where the name Ice Prison Realm originated.
To be chosen as the prison of ancient fiends, it was hard to say whether that was fortune or misfortune.
Once swept into one of them, even immortals could not save you.
He remembered that within the Taihu Spiritual Domain, there was a force known as the Northern Suppression Tower, established along the outer perimeter of the Endless Ice Plains. Their entire cultivation relied on resources gathered from the ice plains.
He did not know whether he would run into them.
While pondering the route on his map, Wang Yu’s ultimate destination was the Frost Demon Sealed Ground. As long as he drew near that area and absorbed a wisp of the leaking Frost Demon qi, it would be enough to meet his requirements.
Moreover, he was still continuously purifying his mana, so he was not in a hurry.
On the way, he would pass through a region known as Silver Frost Mountain. According to the records of Cold Blood Peak, this was the most suitable place for cultivators entering the ice plains for the first time to cultivate in seclusion.
It would not be too cold, yet the effect would not be too weak either.
He planned to go there and refine most of the Human Pills within his body, truly pushing his cultivation to Core Formation peak. With a Nascent Soul Condensation Pill in hand, only then would he be fully prepared to begin collecting Frost Demon qi in earnest.
As time passed.
Two months later, enduring the endless wind and snow, Wang Yu finally arrived at the foot of Silver Frost Mountain. Cultivators could easily lose their sense of direction within the Endless Ice Plains, so his pace had been extremely slow.
The harsh weather caused by the environment itself delayed him even further. It severely interfered with visibility, though the temperature had little effect on him.
Since Silver Frost Mountain was acknowledged by Cold Blood Peak cultivators as a cultivation ground, it naturally bore traces left behind by seniors. Abandoned caves, ruined palaces, and deserted cultivation sites could be seen here and there.
Occasionally, remnants of old activity remained. There were also fresh tracks left by ice beasts. After sweeping the area several times with his divine sense, he did not discover a single human presence.
Wang Yu then climbed to the summit.
The environment of Silver Frost Mountain was very similar to Crimson Snow Mountain within the Blood Abyss, but the strange soul freezing wind that existed in the latter was truly absent here.
What existed here was pure extreme cold power.
After sensing it for a moment, Wang Yu raised his brows slightly. He could only say that Silver Frost Mountain lived up to its name. What he lacked most was precisely an extreme cold aura to purify his mana.
He used the Cold Absorption Technique and the Heavenly Frost Secret Art simultaneously.
In an instant, those strands of cold current that had been invisible before, once mixed with spiritual activity, immediately bloomed into a deep azure radiance, forming a vortex shaped like an inverted funnel.
Wang Yu swallowed it all like a whale, drawing it into his body and refining it completely.
With a powerful physique, his meridians were naturally tougher as well. This caused the commotion from his cultivation to grow rapidly. Under the shroud of extreme cold aura, one could see upon inward inspection of his qi sea that within that blue-black ocean of mana, there were threads of blood mixed in.
This made that portion of mana unstable and difficult to control. Once washed by the cold currents, the blood threads quickly dimmed, and his mana became much easier to manipulate.
While cleansing it, Wang Yu also pinched out Human Pills and swallowed them, giving him the strange sensation of poisoning himself while detoxifying at the same time.
Of course,
Wang Yu would wait until the issues in his Qi sea were fully settled before consuming Human Pills to increase his cultivation. Then he would absorb cold currents again to scour the qi sea and purify his mana.
Maintaining this cycle,
in the blink of an eye, a full year passed.
On this day, Wang Yu, having grown back to the age of five, had reached the peak of his aura. Although Silver Frost Mountain did not raise the quality of his mana any further, it perfectly resolved the side effects caused by frequently consuming Human Pills.
The Core Formation within his body had reached complete perfection. If he wished to break through again, it would require the third “Core Strengthening”, pushing beyond the limit, shattering and then rebuilding to form a Nascent Soul.
If Core Formation could still be forced through by piling up heavenly treasures and earthly wonders, then the requirements for the Nascent Soul realm, aptitude, comprehension, opportunity, willpower, and countless other factors, were outrageously high. Anyone who could achieve it was unquestionably an outstanding figure who had risen above billions of living beings.
Right now, he was only one final step away.
Shattering the Core, Fusing the Soul, Condensing the Nascent Soul, Awakening the Spirit.
These were the four steps to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
The first two steps were not difficult for Wang Yu.
The crucial parts were the third and fourth steps: Condensing the Nascent Soul and Awakening the Spirit. The Nascent Soul Condensation Pill could help him solve the third step, but Awakening the Spirit depended entirely on one’s own will and mind.
Huang Jiu had fallen at the final step.
He had condensed a dead Nascent Soul, unable to awaken his own spiritual nature. His dao path ended in regret at that point.
Wang Yu prided himself on possessing cultivation in the second realm of the mind path.
He believed Awakening the Spirit would not be difficult for him. The key challenge of this stage lay in breaking through that hazy sense of concealment, allowing one’s consciousness to awaken from within the Nascent Soul.
Unifying all things into one, taking full command of the flesh.
From that moment onward, the Nascent Soul became a cultivator’s “Dao Fruit”. It was extremely important, and it would generate unique realm mysteries, all centered around the Nascent Soul itself.
First.
The Spatial Shift Technique!
Only after the Nascent Soul left the physical body could it be executed. In less than half a blink, one could traverse space and flee three thousand li, praised as the number one life-saving escape technique.
But its side effect was abandoning the physical body.
Second.
Nascent Soul Dao Transformation.
This was a passive ability similar to an Undying Bone or a Vajra Body. A cultivator’s life-bound divine ability fused with the Nascent Soul, giving rise to a higher-grade energy that surpassed mana itself.
When using techniques of the same attribute again, their power would undergo a heaven-shaking transformation. This was what was known as the choice of the Dao.
The demonic path produced demonic essence.
As for the righteous path, it varied endlessly. Sword essence, law essence, divine essence, fire essence, and more. It mainly depended on one’s inheritance and where one cultivated.
Some said that only upon reaching the Nascent Soul realm did one truly step through the gates of cultivation.
That was not without reason.
As all these thoughts flowed through his mind, Wang Yu quickly recovered from contemplation. With a ripple of divine sense, he looked toward a black speck in the distance.
Judging by the aura and demeanor, it did not seem to be someone from the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain.
Cultivators from the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain generally had vicious auras, and most were people with malicious hearts. The mind’s aspect influenced the face, and at a glance, they gave the impression of being no good.
Physiognomy was not without its own learning.
As the black speck drew closer, it flew straight toward the mountaintop. Behind it trailed a sea of blue flames that possessed both extreme cold and extreme heat.
“Stop.”
Wang Yu barked the command through divine sense. Divine sense nearing mid-stage fourth-rank was released in an instant, startling the person into stopping immediately. Yet his voice carried a trace of delight.
“Fellow Daoist, please lend a hand and help me with something. I will definitely offer a reward.”
This person was wrapped in a tattered black robe. His cultivation realm, revealed unintentionally, was early-stage Nascent Soul. His features were aged and worn, his beard and hair completely white, and he wore a broken bamboo hat.
Truly unrestrained.
The Endless Ice Plains were perilous. Aside from that group from the Northern Suppression Tower, nearly everyone who deliberately entered to seek opportunities did so only after reaching the Nascent Soul realm.
After all, this was one of the few places where they could obtain opportunities.
Resource control in Taihu was even stricter than in the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain. Part of the reason was simply the sheer number of people and the fierce competition.
For low-level cultivators who wanted to rise, the only options were to enter the Endless Ice Plains, or head south to the Ancient Desolate Plains to search for cultivation resources.
However, being able to break through to the Nascent Soul realm already meant one had established oneself.
In a single thought, the Ice Chi Pill Flame suddenly erupted, colliding with the blue sea of fire and tangling into a chaotic mass. Only when he drew closer did Wang Yu realize that the blue flames were actually countless dazzling butterflies.
Blue flames rose from their wings, and combined with their overwhelming numbers, it formed the blue sea of fire he had seen.
He seemed to have encountered this before in the Five Poisons Scripture.
“This is… an Iceflame Butterfly?”
That old man dressed like a scavenger also saw Wang Yu’s true appearance. Seeing that he looked like a five-year-old child, he did not seem overly surprised, and instead said,
“Fellow Daoist, sharp eyes indeed. They truly are Iceflame Butterflies.”
The so-called Iceflame Butterfly ranked thirty-sixth on the Ancient Marvelous Insect List. It was a rare insect species that had nearly gone extinct. Its appearance was breathtakingly beautiful, and it was born with the ability to manipulate ice flames.
Once their numbers grew large, they could almost burn the heavens and boil the seas, or freeze the seas into ice.
They were an extremely powerful marvelous insect.
The number this scavenger-like old man had provoked was no less than a hundred thousand. Their strength varied greatly, and Wang Yu naturally focused on those fourth-rank individuals.
He said casually,
“Fellow Daoist, you are leading disaster toward me, and you still have leisure to stand here and watch?”
“Not so, not so.”
The old man shook his head rapidly and explained,
“Some time ago, this old man already noticed that a fellow Daoist was cultivating atop this mountain. With your divine abilities, you will certainly be able to deal with these Iceflame Butterflies. A crisis is danger, yes, but it is also an opportunity!”
“You’re serious?”
Wang Yu narrowed his eyes, and his aura instantly turned dangerous.
The Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet, draped in a Blood-Sac Robe that concealed its body from head to toe, appeared behind the old man at some point without him even noticing, forming a pincer attack from front and rear.
Only then did the old man realize that the slick-tongued tactics he had always used against righteous-path cultivators had failed this time. And although he could not see through the Ice Demon Child’s cultivation realm, whether it was the sheer scale of his divine sense or the fourth-rank spiritual flame he controlled, everything about him screamed Nascent Soul.
On top of that, the turbid-aura figure behind him also felt like an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Two against one. Picking a fight here would be profoundly unwise!
“Hehehe, fellow Daoist, you misunderstand.
“As for these Iceflame Butterflies… if you have the means to subdue them, then that is naturally your opportunity. But what this old man meant by offering you an opportunity is in fact something else.”
“Take it out and let me see.”
This old man clearly had done something to provoke the Iceflame Butterflies into chasing him relentlessly, but taming mature individuals of this sort was far too difficult.
When it came to nurturing rare insects, it was best to start from the egg-sac stage. Only then could one ensure they would not turn on their master, and could be driven as smoothly as one’s own limbs.
Although the Iceflame Butterflies ranked far above the Immaculate Jade Toad, they required numbers to display their true might. Therefore, Wang Yu planned to prioritize capturing them alive.
Pair them up.
Whether he raised them himself or sold them off, they would fetch a considerable price in spirit stones. As his hand seals shifted, black-ice chains rapidly condensed and shot out from all directions into the sea of blue flames, precisely locking onto one robust butterfly after another.
His hands never paused, and the conversation between Wang Yu and the old man continued as well.
“Fellow Daoist, take a look.”
What the old man produced was a token-like object. It was oval in shape, and engraved with an Ice Phoenix pattern. It was extremely similar to the Heavenly Palace Holy Token in Wang Yu’s possession.
“What is this supposed to mean?”
“This item is a legacy token of the Ice Phoenix Clan from the Endless Ice Plains. The reason the Northern Suppression Tower persistently explores the ice plains is, at least half of the time, for the sake of this very thing.
“There are a total of seven hundred and twenty legacy tokens, each pointing toward one of the seven hundred and twenty Ice and Snow Halls that were once laid out during the era of the Ice Phoenix Holy Lord’s rule. This old man is willing to explore such a place together with fellow Daoist. How about it?”
After hearing this, Wang Yu immediately understood.
He had long heard the legends of the Ice Phoenix Holy Lord. After all, he himself possessed a Heavenly Palace Holy Token, one of the keys to opening the Heavenly Palace Treasury.
Now that he heard this, that Ice Phoenix Holy Lord might not have been some so-called fire phoenix mutation as most believed. It was far more likely that it had been an Ice Clan being, who had deliberately arranged seven hundred and twenty inheritance sites.
Ice Clan beings came in all manner of strange forms. The existence of a phoenix-shaped Ice Clan was not unusual at all.
Compared to the Heavenly Palace Holy Token, this Ice Phoenix legacy token was only a minor opportunity. Wang Yu also did not lack divine abilities or profound arts. He already had more than he could possibly master, so there was no need to invite additional complications.
Therefore, after the old man finished speaking, the atmosphere fell into silence.
Before he could speak again, Wang Yu raised his hand toward the blue sea of fire formed by the Iceflame Butterflies and gave it a gentle squeeze. In that instant, it was as if an invisible force gathered them all together.
Pure brute force crushed countless Iceflame Butterflies into pulp.
After selecting enough to use for breeding, he stored them properly inside the Human-Seed Pouch. As for the rest, there was no need to hold back.
The strength domain granted to him by Silver Blood Divine Power allowed him to push the advantages of Body Refinement to the absolute limit. No matter how many divine abilities and profound techniques you possessed, a single punch could block them all.
The many wondrous uses derived from it were in no way inferior to Nascent Soul techniques. In Wang Yu’s view, the abilities of a pure Body Refiner could even hold the advantage in Nascent Soul-level battles.
Especially the Demonic Dragon Armor within his Silver Blood.
Ever since his advancement, it had fallen into a dormant state. This bloodline true vessel had always been stuck in an awkward position.
Against opponents of the same realm, he could sweep them aside. There was no need to use it.
Against opponents above his realm, the danger was extreme. Even if he used it, it would not be enough to block the blows.
Thus, it became rather useless. Wang Yu mostly treated it as a physical amplification tool. As for the dragon-vein treasure he had fused into it in his early years, he had yet to see the slightest effect.
But this time, with his Body Refinement cultivation breaking through to fourth-rank, the dragon armor, nourished by Silver Blood, naturally entered a transformation state as well. Once it completed that process, it would become a fourth-rank bloodline true artifact. When that time came, no matter what, it would be able to provide him with real utility.
It would also be more compatible than the Three Foot Snow Dao Robe he wore.
Witnessing the terrifying might Wang Yu displayed with every casual movement, that tyrannical and unmatched power that so easily dealt with the Iceflame Butterfly swarm, the scavenger old man was so stunned his mouth hung open.
“Fellow Daoist… your strength is truly astonishing.”
Every craft had its specialty.
The danger of the Iceflame Butterflies lay in the iceflame they controlled. Once they formed into a scale, they would burn whoever they caught, making them the undisputed bullies of the ice plains.
And Wang Yu’s Ice Chi Pill Flame was in no way inferior. After suppressing their strongest ability, handling the rest with other methods naturally became far easier.
“Stop wasting words.”
The moment his killing intent domain opened, that bone-chilling sensation of being stared at by a ferocious beast instantly enveloped the old man. In truth, he had already realized that Wang Yu was not a Taihu cultivator.
But fortune was found in the midst of danger…
“Gulp.
“Fellow Daoist, listen to my explanation.”