Chapter 423 - Mystic Realm

"It's here…" having almost exhausted every last bit of his strength, the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall felt a new wave of energy wash over him as he saw a large frozen lake in front of him.

The lake itself did not look anything like an ancient forbidden zone and just looked like any normal lake that had been frozen over.

The young man already knew this and hoped that the Nascent Soul Realm Expert following him would not find anything odd about the frozen lake and just kill him to prevent him from having a chance to escape.

Crack~

Rushing out onto the frozen lake, the young man immediately used the last bit of his strength to crush the frozen lake water before directly jumping into the frozen water below.

Splash!

Along with entering the frozen water of the lake, the young man saw the Nascent Soul Realm Expert launch an attack over towards him before a weird energy engulfed his entire body and prevented the Nascent Soul Realm Experts attack from approaching.

The last thing the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall managed to see before he lost consciousness, was the shocked expression on the Nascent Soul Realm Expert's face before a fearful expression soon replaced his shocked expression.

This was also understandable. After all, the weird energy had completely erased his attack with no effort whatsoever…

"What in the world was that…?"

Having been left staring speechlessly as the person he had been playing with for the last few minutes was suddenly engulfed by a strange energy strong enough to easily erase his attack before disappearing into the lake water below, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert soon began to investigate the frozen lake he was currently standing on top of.

Searching around for a few minutes for any traces of where the young man might have disappeared to together with the weird and powerful energy from earlier, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Azure Sky Kingdom suddenly realized something as he quickly left the frozen lake.

Crack~

Bang!

Not a second later, the frozen surface of the lake suddenly cracked a part before a large quantity of the weird energy that had engulfed the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall began to radiate out from the bottom of the lake.

"A… A mystic realm?!"

Gulping audibly upon realizing just what he had stumbled upon as he fearfully look towards the origin of the weird energy where a dark blue whirlpool of energy could be seen swirling around, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert felt a terrifying pressure suddenly seal his movement.

Whoosh~

Slowly, he felt himself being drawn down towards the dark pool whirlpool lurking at the bottom of the frozen lake…

I have to get out of here!

Realizing just how dangerous his current situation was, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Azure Sky Kingdom didn't dare hold back, as he tried his best to struggle free from the invisible force that had begun dragging him down towards the dark blue whirlpool!

"No!"

Bang!

Executing a secret technique, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert barely managed to break free from the force that had been slowly dragging him down towards the dark blue whirlpool!

Whoosh!

Not looking back, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert directly left the frozen lake.

As for finding out about the young man's situation? In his eyes, the young man was as good as dead!

A mystic realm was different from a secret realm that was created by a powerful cultivator in the past.

On the other hand, a mystic realm was not created by a powerful cultivator and was instead a naturally occurring. This in turn had resulted in there often being a large number of both natural treasures and spiritual herbs, but it also meant that a mystic realm had not been set up with any restrictions that a powerful cultivator might place on a secret realm…

For the mystic realm, this meant that there were no restrictions on the lifeforms developing inside of it that had fallen in over time.

If one was lucky, the strongest demonic beast inside would only be at the Domain Lord Realm, but in most cases, the demonic beasts inside a mystic realm would have reached the Soul Ascension Realm. In some cases, even above that depending on the age of the mystic realm!

Therefore, it had been widely acknowledged that a mystic realm was no different than a death trap in most cases!

Even if the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had no idea about most of this, he very clearly knew how dangerous a mystic realm was for someone like himself. This was also the reason why he had treated the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall like an already dead person!

Given the injuries he suffered along with the dangers of a mystic realm, there was no way that young man would survive!

Whoosh whoosh!

Shortly after the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had escaped from the frozen lake, several figures appeared around the lake. All of them were covered in pure white robes with a beautiful snowflake symbol on it. From their auras alone, one could tell that every single one of them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm!

"Someone entered the ancient forbidden zone…"

Standing out among the crowd of people who had appeared, an old woman narrowed her eyes as she scanned over the dark blue whirlpool located at the bottom of the frozen lake.

Thump~

Walking over the mostly shattered ice that covered the frozen lake, the old woman soon arrived directly above the dark blue whirlpool. The binding force that had almost managed to drag down the Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Azure Sky Kingdom seemed to have no effect on her.

Glancing down towards the dark blue whirlpool, the old woman's eyes shone in light blue colour for a short moment before the whirlpool below seemed to have calmed down before it disappeared and merged into the surrounding lake water.

Completely disappearing from sight!

"Hah… It looks like one of our disciples were forced to enter the ancient forbidden zone… Given the fact that the disciple knew about this place in the first place, it should be one of our core disciples…" A solemn expression appeared on the old woman's face upon saying this.

""…""

The other people who had arrived together with her were the same as a clear killing intent could be felt from some of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts.

"Grand Elder! Who is it!? Who dared to force our disciple into such a desperate situation!?" Gritting his teeth, one of the elders could not hold himself back as asked the old woman.

"Hm… I have no idea… But that person should be in the Nascent Soul Realm and from what I can sense, he is still somewhere nearby, I will be back shortly…!" Narrowing her eyes as she said the last part, the old woman soon disappeared from the top of the frozen lake.

Whoosh!

Seeing their grand elder suddenly rush off, the other people who had arrived beside the frozen lake were all shocked for a short moment before they soon left the frozen lake to chase after their grand elder.

From their expressions alone, it was obvious they had not expected for their grand elder to act!

…

At the same time that all of this was happening in the Azure Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao was watching the second stage of the alchemy competition together with the rest of the elders from his sect.

All of them were currently extremely excited as they had just watched how Qing Yi easily picked out the spiritual herbs that she needed out of the few that were available for them during the second stage of the alchemy competition!

From this alone, they could all tell that Qing Yi already had a potion recipe prepared! She did not have to wait around and think about what she wanted to make like most of the other participants were currently doing!

This was an especially good thing considering that other than limiting the spiritual herbs available to them during the second stage of the alchemy competition, the Artisan Alchemist, Fang Shi, had also limited the time they had to pick out the spiritual herbs they needed for their pill or potion!

At this moment, the participants who had chosen to partake in the buffet just a moment ago, were filled with regret, as they had less than five minutes to figure out what pill they wanted to make out of the spiritual herbs that were available to them!

Not only did they need to make a pill from the few available  spiritual herbs, but they would also need to make a pill strong enough to qualify them to the third stage of the alchemy competition!

This was not something that could be done by just making a random pill using the two Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs! For them to move onto the third stage of the alchemy competition, they would most likely have to use the Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb available to them in some way!