126: Chapter 126 The Beginning of Their Rise

Given the cultivation and speed of Lu Jing, Wang Donger, and the Snow Empress, the journey that would take an ordinary Spirit Master several days to trek was merely a matter of one or two hours of travel for them.

Before the sun had reached its zenith, they had already crossed vast plains and hilly regions, arriving at the outskirts of the Sunset Forest.

The Sunset Forest, while not as vast and boundless as the Star Dou Great Forest with its rampant fierce beasts, nor as harsh in environment and powerful in Spirit Beasts as the Far North, was still considered a dangerous place where Spirit Beasts gathered within the Heaven Dou Empire, allowing the vast majority of Spirit Masters to find suitable spirit rings for themselves.

At this moment, the silhouette of the lush, ancient, and towering forest appeared before them, the air filled with the rich scent of vegetation and a faint, musky odor of Spirit Beasts.

The Snow Empress stopped, her ice-blue eyes gazing at the forest before her, which was full of life yet harbored hidden dangers; for the first time, a look of distinct confusion appeared on her stunningly beautiful face.

She tilted her head slightly, looking at Lu Jing beside her, her cold, clear voice tinged with a hint of bewilderment: "The treasure land you mentioned that contains the origin of ice... is it really in this forest?"

In her past understanding, the most yin and cold wonders of the world were mostly born in the bitter, cold Far North, ten-thousand-year ice caves, or certain special subterranean yin eyes.

A Spirit Beast forest like the Sunset Forest, located in the temperate zone of the continent and dominated by low-to-mid-level Spirit Beasts, did not seem to have much to do with terms like the origin of ice.

Lu Jing nodded, his gaze cast toward the depths of the forest, where the dense canopy obscured the view, making it appear deep and unfathomable.

"Indeed. That place is somewhat special; it can be considered a blessed land of good fortune. It is hidden in the core area of this Sunset Forest, making it extremely difficult for ordinary Spirit Masters to discover or even approach."

Wang Donger added with a smile from the side, her tone relaxed: "Don't worry, Big Sister Snow Empress. We have been to that place once before, and it definitely won't disappoint you. Not only is there spring water formed by the purest power of extreme cold, but accompanying it is an equally overbearing force of intense heat. The most amazing thing is that these two naturally opposing forces, with completely contrary attributes, have reached a subtle balance in that treasure land, coexisting and living together without affecting each other, and even promoting each other, forming one of the three world-famous treasure basins!"

"Extreme cold and intense heat coexisting? Opposing attributes reaching a balance? One of the three great treasure basins?" In the Snow Empress's ice-blue eyes, the light of interest grew increasingly intense.

As the controller of Ultimate Ice, she possessed a perception and understanding of the power of ice that surpassed ordinary people, but precisely because of this, she understood even more clearly that to be able to perfectly balance the two forces of Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Heat in one place, and to form a treasure basin effect that spawns countless rare treasures, what a miraculous land of fortune that must be!

This had completely exceeded her general understanding of the laws of nature.

"Interesting." The Snow Empress parted her red lips slightly, uttering these three words. Although there was still no expression on her cold, clear face, the look of inquiry in her icy eyes already revealed her current mood.

If such a place truly existed, perhaps it was as Lu Jing said, and it would have immeasurable benefits for her cultivation.

"Let's go, seeing is believing." Lu Jing smiled slightly, said nothing more, and took the lead, rushing toward a specific direction in the forest.

Wang Donger and the Snow Empress followed closely behind.

The three of them were all top-tier powerhouses of the current age; Lu Jing and the Snow Empress were, respectively, a Titled Douluo and a fierce beast nearing seven hundred thousand years of age. With their auras slightly released, the weak ten-year and hundred-year Spirit Beasts on the outskirts of the Sunset Forest were already terrified to the point of their livers and gallbladders splitting, fleeing far away, not daring to offer even a shred of obstruction.

Even if they occasionally encountered some blind thousand-year or even ten-thousand-year level Spirit Beasts, upon feeling the terrifying pressure inadvertently leaked from the Snow Empress—a pressure stemming from the level of life and ultimate attributes—they would all tremble, prostrating themselves on the ground, not even daring to raise their heads.

Therefore, their speed of travel was extremely fast, like three ghostly shadows weaving through the dense forest, encountering almost no obstacles.

About half an hour later, Lu Jing's speed gradually slowed down.

The surrounding air began to change; it was no longer just the freshness and humidity of the forest, but faintly mixed with a strange, hot-and-cold air current.

The further they went, the more obvious this feeling became, and the vegetation in the forest began to thin out, with some ordinary trees gradually being replaced by plants with peculiar shapes that emitted faint spiritual energy fluctuations.

Finally, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

A valley that was not particularly huge, but with exceptionally lush and colorful vegetation, appeared before them. In the center of the valley, the most eye-catching feature was that peculiar spring eye.

The spring eye presented as a regular circle, with a diameter of about one hundred meters.

The most bizarre thing was that the spring water was clearly divided into two halves!

One half was a milky white as pure as ten-thousand-year black ice; even from far away, one could feel the extreme chill that rushed toward them, as if it could freeze the soul!

The surface of the spring water was shrouded in curling white mist, and on the ground near its edge, thick frost had condensed.

The other half was a fiery red as hot as molten lava, bubbling with scorching bubbles and emitting an astonishing high temperature, scorching the surrounding air until it twisted slightly.

The red and white spring water, like the yin and yang fish in a Taiji diagram, blended with each other yet remained clearly distinct, forming a breathtakingly spectacular sight!

And within a radius of several hundred meters centered on this strange spring, countless plants of various shapes and imbued with intense spiritual energy were growing!

There were lingzhi mushrooms shaped like red clouds, medicinal herbs exhaling rosy light, and vines Binding like dragons... Every single plant radiated a rich vitality and medicinal fragrance, clearly all rare treasures seldom seen in the outside world!

"Is this... the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well?" In the Snow Empress's cold, clear voice, there was a rare trace of fluctuation.

She stood at the edge of the valley, her ice-blue eyes fixed unblinkingly on that strange spring, especially the milky white cold spring part.

With her control and perception of the power of ice, she could clearly feel just how pure and how vast the power of ice contained within that cold spring was!

It was almost not just simple low temperature, but rather touched upon the origin aura of the laws of ice!

Its level was so high that it even faintly exceeded some of the ice power she had felt in the core area of the Far North!

What was even more rare was that although this force was extremely cold, it was not violent; instead, it carried a gentle vitality that nurtured all things, achieving a perfect yin and yang balance with the hot yang spring!

"Correct, this is the place." Lu Jing nodded, looking at the familiar scene before him, his heart filled with emotion.

This place could be considered one of the starting points of his and Wang Donger's rise in the true sense.