Chapter 405 - Scroll of the Flowers of Snow
Moment later. Bai Shuyue and Zhong Yue reached the front of an ice palace. The surroundings grew colder as they walked through a few doors. Zhong Yue glanced around and found that all of the buildings were made from pure ice. They seemed cold and frigid, but yet, stronger than the typically-constructed buildings. Within the ice were also the abstruse and obscure totem patterns.
These totem patterns were very profound, left behind by the gods of the Bai Zhe Clan. Furtively, Zhong Yue slashed the Golden Peng Sword at the wall, but only a little piece crumbled away from the wall before new ice formed over the damage to return it to its original state.
“Going further, it will be the core of the ice palace. We need to be careful when we reach there.”
Bai Shuyue led the way, and suddenly, Zhong Yue exclaimed in shock. They had walked for more than fifteen minutes, but with their speed, they had already traveled for more than a hundred miles, and the end of the corridor was still nowhere to be seen!
“This ice palace is not that huge, we can literally move through the whole palace in just one step if we want to, but why is this corridor so long?”
The two of them continued moving forward, and the surroundings slowly turned wider. Soon, they were inside a world of ice and snow.
Snow fluttered down from the sky, and the breeze was still cold like it could freeze their bones.
Bai Shuyue and Zhong Yue trekked across the snow, and all of a sudden, a nearly imperceptible sound rang in their eyes. A thin, narrow line of blood then appeared on Zhong Yue's cheek – a falling snowflake had cut the side of his face.
Zhong Yue locked his brows, and he cast out the divine third eye and stared into the falling snowflakes.
All of a sudden, he raised his hand and gripped a snowflake in between his fingers. Contrary to his expectations, the snowflake didn't melt upon touching his hand and was still emanating the same frigid air.
Zhong Yue then looked at the snowflake and found that it seemed identical to the ordinary ones, but in his divine third eye, it appeared totally different.
It looked ordinary but was made of abstruse and profound totem patterns. The myriad totem patterns formed an intricate fractal network that went on to create the snowflake's shape and surface!
“This is … a skill?”
Zhong Yue startled, he raised and looked at the falling snow. These snowflakes have been mixed with the ordinary snowflakes, making them difficult to distinguish fr
om the latter!
Fortunately, these special snowflakes were few in number. Otherwise, the two youngsters would be in great danger.
"This is a skill of the Bai Zhe Clan. We call it the Flowers of Snow."
Bai Shuyue exhaled a breath of air, and her inner core flew out of her mouth, turning into the crystal-white Bai Zhe beast. Then, snowflakes of the same skill started flowing out from the Bai Zhe beast to counteract the incoming snowflakes. "We are now at the outer rim of the ice palace. The first layer of seals is the Flowers of Snow. The further we venture, the stronger the snowflakes would be. Senior Martial Brother Zhong, do you have any way to defend against it?"
Zhong Yue stared at the snowflake in his hand. Suddenly, a surge of psyche emanated around him, and snowflakes were then formed, flowing outward and clashing with the falling snowflakes.
Bai Shuyue was shocked, and she said, "Senior Martial Brother Zhong has learned the Bai Zhe Clan skills before?"
Zhong Yue shook his head and responded, "No, but this skill isn't too difficult to deduce anyhow."
Bai Shuyue was shocked, she thought, I needed to use half a month to learn it. There was even an elder guiding me along the way. But this human only needed to look at the snowflake's totem patterns for a few minutes and was able to learn it? Is all-encompassing knowledge really the key to omnipotence, or is it something else?
As they walked deeper into the core of the ice palace, the snow began to grow heavier, blowing on their faces like billowing waters and obstructing their visions.
Zhong Yue turned his head back, and the corridor they came from had turned into a tiny black dot. Soon after, it had disappeared entirely from his vision.
In front of them, the Flowers of Snow had gotten more powerful and vicious. Sparks of fire could be seen, and raucous screeches could be heard as the snowflakes continually collided with one another.
Zhong Yue and Bai Shuyue struggled, and their pace greatly slowed. At this point, the snowflakes were as powerful as Inner Core Qi Practitioner soul weapons!
With the countless snowflakes blowing at them, it was tantamount to hundreds of the soul weapons relentlessly attacking them.
Even Zhong Yue was shocked; he never thought that the young lady would still be in such decent condition after all of that!
He then looked carefully at her and immediately, he discovered the little tricks she used; Bai Shuyue's control of power was exceptionally fine. The little snowflakes she let out did not only clash with the incoming snowflakes, but they have also redirected the other snowflakes to clash with the others. Like this, each snowflake of her's would counter two or more snowflakes in the ice palace, allowing her to save a whole lot more energy.
On the other hand, Zhong Yue had been relying on his abundant arcane energy to neutralize each snowflake individually.
All of a sudden, an ice statue appeared in front of them – a Bai Zhe beast that was frozen in ice.
Bai Shuyue's beautiful countenance then turned gloomy, and she said, "He is one of ours, a senior that had entered the ice palace for Lord Bai's heritage; but now, it seems like his prowess was lacking and is now sealed in the ice forever."
The two of them continued going, and they then saw another young lady that was frozen in the ice. She was incredibly beautiful and was donned in a flowery dress.
The further they went, the more Bai Zhe Clan seniors they could see. For the past 50,000 years, an uncountable number of experts tried to enter the ice palace for Lord Bai's heritage, but none have ever succeeded.
“A Heavenly Dharma expert!”
Zhong Yue and Bai Shuyue reached the front of another ice statue. It was a thousand-foot tall Heavenly Dharma Bai Zhe Clan member. He had morphed into the state of [Atman Body as One] but still died of exhaustion.
At this point, the snowflakes had reached Heavenly Dharma soul weapon levels of strength. Bai Shuyue was now beginning to suffer wounds as blood trickled down from her mouth while Zhong Yue was also feeling the struggle of advancing.
What has Lord Bai left in the ice palace? Why are there such powerful seals? It's like he doesn't even want his descendants to obtain his heritage.
“The Boundless Great Sun!”
Zhong Yue yelled softly and morphed into his Golden Crow form. He spread his wings out, and a great sun was blasted forward, melting the snow away in its path.
He then raised his hand to grab the young lady at her waist, and he then flew into the sun.
Bai Shuyue's body was tensed up at first, but in just seconds, the young lady had relaxed her muscles and allowed Zhong Yue to grab her in his arms.
They flew inside the sun that Zhong Yue powered with his arcane energy, coalescing the sunfire and demon sunfire together so that the snowflakes would be melted before they reached the two of them.
The snow was then heavier, restraining the great sun smaller and smaller while after flying for a few miles of distance, Zhong Yue’s great sun was then compressed to its smallest.
“【Celestial Demon Tai Chi Art】, unleash!”
Zhong Yue yelled and dispersed the Golden Crow celestial being form. The【Celestial Demon Tai Chi Art】then emerged, and those snowflakes that blew on them disappeared in the Tai Chi Art.
“Hm?”
When those snowflakes were disintegrated by the Tai Chi Art, he could feel a surge of energy billowing over him from each snowflake, marginally increasing his cultivation bit by bit while his Yuan Shen was also growing larger.
This….
Zhong Yue was puzzled, the Flowers of Snow was no doubt created as a killing skill, yet, why is it so effective for cultivating when disintegrated?
“Senior Martial Sister Shuyue, look at this!”
Zhong Yue conducted the energy from the snowflakes to Bai Shuyue, and immediately, Bai Shuyue's body quivered as she felt her inner core and cultivation base becoming increasingly stronger. Her eyes were filled with disbelief, and she shouted, "Why is such pure energy contained in the snowflakes? This is even better than medicinal pellets?"
"Has the Bai Zhe Clan never noticed this before?" Zhong Yue asked curiously.
Bai Shuyue then shook her head and said, "It's a skill, how can it be decomposed? The Bai Zhe Clan doesn't have any skills that can decompose other skills. How did Senior Martial Brother Zhong do it?"
"These attributes are typically exclusive to demon cultivation techniques. The Demon Saint's【Heavenly Saint Godly Radiating Art】is a skill that can do this. It is used for decomposing matter into pure energy for the cultivator. But I've incorporated that into my own【Celestial Demon Tai Chi Art】. I think this is why I can do it," Zhong Yue explained out loud.
"Demon cultivation technique?"
Bai Shuyue startled, and she mumbled, "This pure energy can only be obtained by disintegrating the snowflakes, why has Grand Ancestor Lord Bai made such arrangements?"
Zhong Yue cast the【Celestial Demon Tai Chi Art】while they moved forward. Not long after, the snowflakes became as powerful as strikes from magnates themselves. Even Zhong Yue was suppressed on the spot, only being able to move an inch at a time with blood trickling out from his mouth.
However, with the snowflakes getting stronger, the energy in them was also stronger, allowing him to recover from the injuries right after suffering them.
Zhong Yue stood on the spot and continued absorbing the pure energy, strengthening his inner core while channeling the extra energies into Bai Shuyue, helping her strengthen her inner core and cultivation base as well.
The two stood on the spot for four days, and their inner cores had been refined to a nearly flawless degree. Their cultivation base had also been substantially increased.
Their inner cores were basically at the extreme state of the Inner Core level, perfectly refined and to take a step further in prowess would be the formation of their Avatar from the heaven and earth.
"We have accomplished more than a few years of hard works in just days." Zhong Yue said. "However, even if we enter the Heavenly Dharma level, we may not be able to traverse to the end."
Bai Shuyue looked forward and saw nothing but snow for as far as her vision could extend. Her heart then began to sink. Zhong Yue surged out the divine eye and extended his vision past the snow. Abruptly, he said happily, "There are only three miles left, after these miles, we will reach the second seal."
But Bai Shuyue shook her head, and she said, "We can never make it through this three miles…"
“Big, big, big, big, big!”
All of a sudden, Zhong Yue took out the Golden Peng Sword and yelled. The golden sword turned into a 30,000 feet long giant sword, and he laid it horizontally above the ground.
Before Bai Shuyue could react, a muscular arm curled around her waist again and her vision blurred as she traveled through the three miles in just the blink of an eye!
Dong——
Zhong Yue placed the young lady on the ground, Bai Shuyue was still standing on her previous stance and was bewildered.
“Small.”
Zhong Yue kept the sword, and he looked forward - there was a frozen sea in front of them and an elder sitting on a layer of thin air. He had been dead in the case for god knew how long, his smile frozen on his face.
“A magnate, a Bai Zhe magnate!”
Zhong Yue's heart skipped a beat, and he looked around. Not far away from the elder, there were also many other elders, over hundreds of them, on the frozen sea. Each of them had a different stance and facial expression!
Fifty thousand years of time, the Bai Zhe Clan have sacrificed too many magnates in search of Lord Bai’s heritage.
“This is?”
Zhong Yue and Bai Shuyue turned back and were stunned. The snow behind them was all gone, and before them was only a huge picture scroll hovering in the air.
That picture scroll had a world of ice painted on it.
It was the world that they had just walked out of!