"Huh, what now?" Feng Yao felt her heart skip a beat.
"A Boundless Light, truly a blessing in disguise. Is that what Boundless Immortal means?" Yun Xiao chuckled.
Just as his words fell, his Primordial Sphere seemed to undergo a transformation. With a hum, its efficiency in absorbing and converting celestial energy skyrocketed, becoming a veritable abyss!
Now, the Primordial Sphere was about 100 meters in diameter. As the Boundless Light merged into the Corona, it seemed to radiate an inexhaustible power!
It was boundless indeed. There was no need to worry about running out of energy!
"It's full again..." Feng Yao could tell by looking at the round, overflowing Primordial Sphere that it was on the verge of spilling over again.
Why did Yun Xiao always seem to defy expectations? She was speechless.
"The Boundless Light is pretty nifty," Yun Xiao remarked.
"You're still different from a true, Boundless Immortal, who doesn't need to manually control it. It's automatic," Blue Star scoffed.
"Indeed..."
This thread of Boundless Light felt faint, almost concealed; only when Yun Xiao revealed it did it seem slightly perceptible.
"After the disaster, a bountiful harvest." Yun Xiao dispelled the Primordial Sphere. His Corona returned to its normal state, gradually dimming into obscurity.
"No more showing off?" Feng Yao snorted.
"What's there to show off? Even if we can beat people in the Third Baptism Realm, we're still at the bottom of the rung in the Samsara Galaxy," Yun Xiao thought for a moment, then added, "If you want to do well in the Grand Assembly of Myriad Sects, apart from breaking through in your cultivation, try to find your master and get more celestial techniques and treasures to bolster your arsenal."
"Got it, relax, I'm more reliable now," Feng Yao said.
As they were speaking, a figure approached from the direction of the main peak of Thousand Snow Moon Peak.
Yun Xiao stepped back into the distance.
The newcomer was Feng Yao’s master, the gentle Moon Lemon Valkyrie, Xue Yuening.
This graceful elder landed and asked with a hint of wonder, "I sensed a tremendous surge of celestial energy just now from this direction. Was that you?"
"Yup, it was nothing much!" Feng Yao declared without a blush or a skip in her heartbeat.
Yun Xiao had long since realized that she too had a flair for the dramatic! Her zest for life, aside from serving as his right hand, was mostly found in these rare moments of play-acting, a small reward to herself.
"Truly splendid," Xue Yuening remarked, her heart filled with satisfaction as she spoke softly, "I'm here to share some good news as well."
"What is it?" Feng Yao, ever cheerful and unrestrained, moved closer and affectionately looped her arm through Xue Yuening's, her face bright with curiosity.
Tomorrow morning Feng Yao would test her true talents, and in the afternoon, she would officially enter the preliminary selections, hoping to extricate Yun Xiao from this accursed place.
"But, these are her affairs. I can't just sit here and wait. It’s enough that the pig can fend for itself."
Waiting for Feng Yao to bring back treasures was merely a waste of time.
Now stepping into the Fourth Dao Tribulation, Yun Xiao was eager to advance through the Eight Extremes Celestial Baptisms.
"Sword, Sigil, Martial, and Spirit... I need to find a place to enrich my arsenal and power up," Yun Xiao muttered to himself.
Between sword and sigil, he preferred to focus on his Heaven Burial Sword Soul first, given its offensive capabilities, while the Prison Warden Sigil offered more utility.
Having chosen the sword, Yun Xiao's next destination became clear.
"The Ice Lineage!" Yun Xiao did not set off on his Sovereign Sword. A slave like him doing that in the Harmony Divine Palace was akin to running around naked.
His form wavering, he disappeared into the snowstorm, heading northeast.
The most beautiful sights in the Snow Lineage were the pristine white mountains under a sky filled with drifting snowflakes. And dotting these mountains, the palaces of the Valkyries stood as the most exquisite embellishments.
In contrast, the territory of the Ice Lineage was a frozen expanse spanning thousands of miles, frigid and stern, akin to a forest of ice and swords.
Many powerful female Sword Immortals had emerged from it, and today it stood as the mightiest lineage of the Harmony Divine Palace!
As Yun Xiao crossed over the snowy mountains, a landscape of icebergs, ice lakes, ice caves, ice plains, and ice spires came into view ahead!
This place was colder than the snowy mountains! Not just cold, but also bearing an air of solemn lethality.
Frozen within the ice were numerous clots of blood, evidence of many a life-and-death struggle that had occurred here.
Some corpses were even permanently encased in ice.
"There are far too many Sword Immortals stronger than I am here..."
And so Yun Xiao proceeded with great caution, silently making his way through the ice plains and peaks, gazing up at the ice palaces atop the high mountains.
These palaces surely housed various frosty female Sword Immortals!
"Hmm?" After a while, Yun Xiao suddenly noticed a group of about 100 slaves gathered together on the ice plain ahead.
They huddled for warmth, shivering, their faces pale, some even with frostbitten ears. And more importantly, there were no disciples of the Harmony Divine Palace in sight.
Seeing these men, and recalling the four youths he had encountered before... Yun Xiao could only sigh and made his way toward them.