Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Searching for the Snow Soul Iceheart Lotus

Stepping onto the Slanting Mountain Icefield, silver snowflakes fell in thick swirls, as if the same land had been split into two worlds: one side sealed in ice for miles, the other full of green life.

The wind was bitter and sharp, whipping the falling snow into messy streaks that crossed the sky like white lines.

The Slanting Mountain Icefield was not very steep, but it stretched upward without end until it seemed to touch the sky, and no one knew where it ended.

Walking there, she heard only the soft crunch of her steps and the hush of snow landing. The endless white view made a quiet loneliness rise in the heart.

Shen Sang Ruo wrapped Spiritual Power around herself to block the wind and pushed on up the slope.

By height, the Slanting Mountain Icefield was divided into lower, middle, and upper parts.

In the lower part, it only snowed lightly and the ground lay under fluffy drifts; in the middle part, blizzards appeared from time to time, the snow kept piling up, and the ground froze into thick ice.

In the upper part, storms raged without rest. Big, feathery flakes blocked sight until it was almost zero. One misstep could bury a person in snow or send them rolling off the slope.

She was sure the ice cave she sought lay in the middle to upper region of the Slanting Mountain Icefield.

In her past life she had heard the icefield had a single source. All ice and snow here came from that source. At first only a small patch was frozen, then the cold spread and spread until it became the boundless Slanting Mountain Icefield of today.

Maybe the cave she wanted was that very source.

That guess shrank her search a lot. She only needed to find a place that felt far colder than everything around it.

But ice and snow restrained Shen Sang Ruo’s Fire Spiritual Power, so this task was very hard for her.

She narrowed her eyes, full of resolve. The Spiritual Power covering her body glowed a faint but stubborn red, and she moved steadily across the endless ice plain.

As she walked, she compared tiny shifts in temperature, heading wherever it fell lower. Aside from an Ice Spiritual Root, only a Fire Spiritual Root was so sensitive to cold.

She did not know how long she walked before reaching the center of the middle region.

The red glow around her body grew even dimmer. The extreme cold here almost devoured all the heat her Spiritual Power gave off.

The chill pierced her barrier and made her muscles and bones shiver, yet it also meant she might be closer to the icefield’s source.

Her eyes suddenly caught a small mound, like a little hill less than a meter high.

It was buried under bright snow and blended into the white world around it. If she had not watched so carefully, she would have missed it.

Joy flashed in her eyes. She ignored the sharp drop in temperature and hurried toward the unremarkable hump.

A team led by a Flying Cloud Sect disciple was also moving toward the middle region of the Slanting Mountain Icefield.

The Thousand-Year Cold Ice they needed formed only in the middle region.

To stay safe, they planned to linger at the border between the lower and middle parts.

Going any higher was not just risky; the biting cold alone was too much for many disciples.

For Luo Chu, a Mid Golden Core cultivator, collecting Thousand-Year Cold Ice was very easy.

He had joined the team mainly to protect Bai Mu Mu. In less than a quarter hour he had gathered enough for them both.

The other disciples were still chipping ice slowly.

“Junior Sister, how do you feel, any discomfort?” Luo Chu asked, looking at Bai Mu Mu’s slightly pink nose with concern.

Bai Mu Mu pulled her cloak closer and smiled, cheeks rosy as she said, “I’m fine, Fourth Senior Brother. After breaking through to Early Golden Core, I handle snow and ice better.”

“Oh.” Luo Chu glanced at the disciples still digging for Thousand-Year Cold Ice and said, “Who knows how long they will take.”

“Maybe one or two days,” Bai Mu Mu answered smoothly, then added, “You’re amazing, Fourth Senior Brother. You finished in a blink.”

“Of course,” Luo Chu said, lifting his chin with smug pride.

After showing off, Luo Chu changed the subject and said, “But watching them for two whole days is too boring.”

“How about I take you somewhere else to look around?”

He was playful by nature. Wherever he went, he liked to explore and look for new and curious things.

With such a huge Slanting Mountain Icefield in front of him, he had no wish to be tied to a simple, dull task.

Bai Mu Mu wanted to raise his favor toward her, so she agreed to whatever he liked and said, “Since Fourth Senior Brother invites me, Mu Mu will gladly accept.”

The two of them slipped away from the Flying Cloud Sect team and headed higher, above the middle region of the Slanting Mountain Icefield.

Shen Sang Ruo reached the small mound, tossed back a handful of Spirit Restoration Pills to refill her fading Spiritual Power, then swept out a fire whirlwind to melt the snow, exposing the clear ice beneath.

Without another word, she lit flames in her palms and began to melt the ice.

Right then she felt grateful she had a Fire Spiritual Root. Otherwise, even clearing this layer of ice would cost half a life.

With cold so rich here, the ice was harder than anywhere else.

To save Spiritual Power, she melted only a narrow shaft, just wide enough for one person.

She burned her way down hundreds of meters, sealed in clear ice on all sides. One Spirit Restoration Pill after another went down. Her body tempered as a Body Cultivator was gnawed by the cold, yet she clenched her teeth and refused to stop.

The Spiritual Power in her dantian and meridians kept draining dry and filling up again.

If not for her past Quenching, she would have blown herself apart by now.

[Almost there, almost there.]

She bit her lip hard.

At last the final chunk of ice cracked. The ground under her feet vanished and she dropped into a cave the size of a room.

The Thousand-Year Ice Cavern was found.

She had no time to feel happy. The freezing chill wrapped her at once, like countless unseen ice spikes stabbing into her body.

Even when she drew up all her Spiritual Power against the cold, it did nothing.

Her body heat was plunging fast. Ten-thousand-year ice was not something a small Mid Golden Core cultivator could resist.

If she stayed only a quarter hour, she would be frozen into a solid block.

With danger this close, Shen Sang Ruo had to find the Snow Soul Iceheart Lotus right away, or she would die here too.

Her limbs were already stiff. Every step sent drilling pain through her, yet she forced herself to search the cave.

Luckily, the ice cave was not large. Soon she found a lotus on the ice wall.

To be exact, it was a lotus shape formed from ice crystals, not a living spirit plant.

But in a place this cold, there was no dew on the Snow Soul Iceheart Lotus at all.