The fifth part of the ancient road was an ice snow world.
As he looked around, Ding Hao could see that snow was swirling in the sky; the place had a great many ice mountains of unsurpassed beauty, which were like giant crystal pillars reaching the sky. The ice had existed for at least tens of thousands of years. Except for the dazzling white, there were no other colors in that world.
Ding Hao walked through ice and snow, singing with swords!
Unlike the hot desert space, the current road was full of Icing Qi elements of ancient times, which was highly beneficial for Ding Hao to practice his Hell Ice Qi. They were almost of the same kind.
Ding Hao used the skill, A World inside the Body, to completely relax, continuously absorbing the ice element between heaven and earth through each pore of his body. He allowed the Icing Qi pass to pass through his Qi channels, integrating into his Qi Seed, and then purifying it.
“This is really a strange space. There is essence power mixed with the ice element!”
Ding Hao was surprised to find ice essence within the ice and snow of that ancient road, which was a variation of the pure water element. It was of great use to his Hell Ice Qi cultivation. Ding Hao guessed that it should be a result of the incomplete ancient rule when it was integrated into the natural element, thus creating that singular space.
It was difficult for ordinary warriors to assimilate ice essence in their bodies, even if they could find it.
However, it was an easy task for Ding Hao, since he had mastered the Mind Essential of the Invincible Fighting Method.
The skill, A World inside the Body, could turn his body into a miniature universe. The energy could cycle inside it. His limbs and internal organs had begun to change. The energy absorbed through the pores of his skin could be circulated inside his body to nourish it. That was one of the many mysteries of A World inside the Body.
The north wind whistled and snowflakes flew.
Ding Hao walked step by step on the ice as if appreciating the wind and snow, but in fact, he was performing the Mind Essential. His entire body was like a bottomless pit, constantly absorbing the ice essence in that world and turning it into his Hell Ice Qi to strengthen his Qi channels and apertures with that extreme cold power.
“Hey! Click!”
The baby dolphin Adorable was cheering.
Finally, they had left the vast desert area and there was no need to endure the heat. Adorable felt that he had gone from hell to heaven. Although the cold ice snowflakes were not liquid, they belonged to the Water Element. Being born close to that element made it feel extremely comfortable; it fluttered excitedly both in the air and in the ice.
In comparison, Fat Cat Evil Moon was suffering at the moment.
“Achoo… It’s so cold…” Fat Cat’s body curled into a ball. Ice crystals hung on his white fluff and his whiskers froze into white ice pillars. He said while shivering, “It’s too cold, too cold. Let me go back to the fourth road. I would rather be killed by the heat… What’s going on? The slit of the underground ice of Snow Dragon Mountain wasn’t as cold as this. These doors are so evil!”
Ding Hao laughed.
There was a natural permafrost in the ice crack beneath the soil of the Snow Dragon Mountain, but the ice in this place was made by a trace of an ancient rule. That was the unique work of a rule. Otherwise, Fat Cat would never feel cold, considering his thick fur.
Ding Hao walked for a long time in this vast world. At one point he was suddenly dumbfounded, only being able to stay rooted in place.
Because… he found himself lost again.
As a man with no sense of direction, that was really sad.
The previous foggy world and the desert world had already tested Ding Hao’s sense of direction, but in the end, he finally came out by mistake; at the moment, this white world had basically no point of reference. Ding Hao soon was unable to tell where the southeast and northwest were.
As he looked up, he found that the snow had covered the sky and there was no sunlight.
“When I first entered here, the wind was blowing head-on. That is, if I keep going against the wind, I might walk to the end of this ancient road…” Ding Hao could only improvise and try other methods.
But unfortunately, the plan had failed this time.
He found himself back where he was before after walking for more than four hours.
From the misty world, the third ancient road, there was an invisible strength that made flying for long periods of time impossible. This undoubtedly caused greater difficulties for Ding Hao.
“What should I do?”
Ding Hao was a little annoyed.
He was originally a man with no sense of direction in his previous life, and unexpectedly, when he received that new body, he found the former owner of this body was even worse than him. The memories of the two road-idiots were combined. Obviously, it wasn’t just one plus one equals two. Ding Hao originally thought that he would not encounter such a thing if he had a 100,000th of the talent of practicing saber techniques and swordsmanship.
At this rate, he would be far behind Song Que and the others, and the benefits would end up divided amongst them.
“Huh? Is that the smell of blood? I’m salivating now. That is blood and flesh…” The fat cat, which had been lying and shivering on Ding Hao’s shoulders, suddenly opened his eyes wide and sniffed. He said excitedly, “Haha, there must be a fight between the Surviving Species of the Untainted Land on the snowfield… I’m hungry. Woohoo! Let’s go! Now that we can’t find the way, we’d better find something to eat first!”
“Hey, quack!” Adorable flicked his tail cheerfully, too.
“Two morons.”
Ding Hao thought helplessly.
In the end, he decided to take a look at the bloody smell.
If he could catch one or two wise Surviving Species of the Untainted Land, maybe he could coerce them into giving him directions. Well, Ding Hao had never hated his poor sense of direction as much as he did at the moment!
In the back mountain of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.
At the stone cliff, the garbage area.
“What? They’re all the magical crystal mines? Down there? Top-grade magical crystal mines?” Li Jianyi and others were greatly shocked by the news. As the master, even if he was usually unmoved by either gains or losses, Li Jianyi’s face still showed a touch of joy. He quickly asked, “How many?”
The man who returned to the ground level to report the news was an elder, who was well-known among the elders for having no real power in his hands. He was cautious and mature, named Wang Ning, whose strength was around the two-apertured great grandmaster realm. He was old, with white beard and white hair. He was thrilled by the news and could not restrain his excitement, replying excitedly, “A total of ten magical crystal channels were found, and there are at least about 1000 meters from top to bottom. There are mysterious crystals condensed around the walls. Their quality is high and the depth is unpredictable. Roughly calculating, it is at least 10,000 square meters!”
That answer took everyone by surprise.
Exclamations were heard from all directions.
Although many people had great hopes before, they had never imagined that there were so many mysterious crystal mines.
At least 5000 standard mysterious crystals could be mined from one mysterious crystal mine. 10,000 square meters would be 50 million top-grade mysterious crystals. There had never been such reserves in the history of the Snow Province. All those crystals were much abundant than the whole wealth of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect since its foundation!
Some people couldn’t help cheering.
That was a treasure trove that came from nowhere, enough for thousands of people in the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect to use for hundreds of thousands of years, and that was just a rough estimate. Maybe there would be more.
Li Jianyi, Tang Folei, and Qi Qingshan looked at each other, but they looked worried.
When something happened in an unusually manner, bad things were likely to happen.
No one knew better than them about the situation beneath the rock cliff.
Down the cliff there was only an ordinary maze-like of aperture, and it had been abandoned for thousands of years. Down there, the wind was roaring and the strange mist was rolling. It was definitely a terrible place. There had been no signs of the large number of mysterious crystals at all. Wasn’t it odd that the purple dragon Qi rose, and then those top-grade mysterious crystal mines were simply exposed?
What was hiding behind all this?
“Where did the purple dragon Qi come from?” Li Jianyi continued to ask. He thought of something.
“Master, Senior Brother Tianfeng and I went deep into the tunnels at a distance of thousands of kilometers, and then we were blocked by the purple dragon Qi sprayed from the tunnel and could not make a further exploration…” Elder Wang Ning described what they had encountered in detail.
Li Jianyi and the other leaders became more worried after hearing this.
The appearance of the mysterious crystal mines had to be related to that purple dragon Qi. What happened in that maze of the underground abyss? How could it turn the ordinary channels into mysterious crystal mines overnight? That was a miracle and humans were unable of such a feat.
“I’m going to go in person!”
The old monster Qi Qingshan looked serious. He then turned into a streamer and flew down the stone cliff.
All the others were waiting quietly, with different moods.
After about 30 minutes, Qi Qingshan returned with ten other sect elders.
Under everyone’s gazes, he said something blankly in Li Jianyi’s ear, and then the controllers of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect released their power, cutting off the voice to deliberate, and then the head Li Jianyi made the decision directly—
Seal the Sect!
The truth of the matter was known to only a dozen Sect elders.
Others could only secretly guess.
On this day, the Protective Shield of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect was activated.
Colorful sword lights above the Sect filled the air, completely shrouding the whole Sect. The shield was releasing a terrifying power and kept all the breath of the Sect inside, including the purple dragon Qi. The purple flame gradually disappeared in the sky, but the rich aura was still diffused, being much thicker than in other places.
Within two hours, such a change had already attracted the attention of the outside world.
A group of looming figures had appeared outside Swordsmanship-seeking Sect, constantly observing its changes.