44: Chapter 42 Extreme Cold Mystic Ice and Fire

"Junior Brother, we can set off now."

After three days of calm recuperation and relying on the formidable self-healing ability of a Spirit Douluo, Zhang Lexuan's injuries had not completely healed, but as long as she did not engage in combat, it no longer affected her normal movements.

Lin Yan nodded slightly, quickly packed up their things, and the three of them followed the winding ice crevice, setting off towards the southeast!

The ice walls on both sides were as smooth as mirrors, and under the rising flame in Lin Yan's palm, they clearly reflected their figures.

After advancing for about two hours, the depth of the ice crevice suddenly and sharply decreased.

Seeing this, since Zhang Lexuan was still severely injured and not yet fully recovered, Lin Yan had no choice but to embrace both of them from left and right, flying upward into the air.

Feeling the warmth of Lin Yan's palm at her waist, Zhang Lexuan couldn't help but recall the accident from three days ago.

She raised her eyes to look at the youth's focused and resolute profile, and in this dark, claustrophobic subterranean environment, an indescribable and subtle emotion quietly and slowly spread in the depths of her heart...

After flying upward for about five hundred meters, the steep slope finally gradually leveled off.

But not long after the three of them landed and moved forward, the depth of the ice crevice ahead suddenly plummeted again, looking bottomless when gazing downward!

However, after a brief discussion, they still decided to follow the original plan. Maintaining their vigilance, Lin Yan brought the two of them along, and their figures began to slowly descend.

100 meters... 500 meters... 800 meters...

Lin Yan silently calculated the descent depth in his heart. After descending for about one thousand meters, the three of them finally stepped back onto solid ice.

Confirming that there were no abnormalities around them, the three of them rested briefly for a moment before getting up again to continue moving forward.

As time passed, the bottom of the ice crevice became increasingly narrow, and the top ice layer in some areas had even completely sealed off, turning the entire passage into a gloomy subterranean tunnel.

Suddenly, Lin Yan's footsteps paused abruptly, his pupils contracted slightly, and his expression instantly became vigilant!

Relying on the flickering firelight in his palm, he clearly captured traces of other creatures' activities ahead!

Ahead on the ice wall, a natural ice cave had unexpectedly appeared, and on the ice layer of the ice cave, several winding and twisting crawling marks were distributed all over!

Judging from the segmented impressions pressed onto those crawling marks, it looked like they were left by some kind of soft-bodied creature.

Seeing Lin Yan suddenly stop, Zhang Lexuan and Jiang Nannan beside him immediately looked along his line of sight, instantly noticing the abnormality of the ice cave as well.

In an instant, the three of them exchanged glances, all holding their breath and raising their vigilance to the maximum.

The next moment, the second spirit ring on Lin Yan's body lit up slightly, and a Flame Spirit burning with orange-red flames quietly flew out, probing toward the depths of the ice cave.

Relying on the shared vision of the Flame Spirit, Lin Yan also saw the full picture of the interior of the ice cave.

Although similar crawling patterns still existed on the ground of the ice cave, there were no signs of any living beings recently moving about or inhabiting it.

As the Flame Spirit continued its deep exploration, a full quarter of an hour passed, and still no traces of any living creatures were observed, allowing Lin Yan to breathe a sigh of relief.

Presumably, creatures might have existed here once, but they should have left by now.

This was also normal; along the way Lin Yan and the others walked, apart from snow and ice filling the eyes at the bottom of the ice crevice, there were no other animals or plants in existence.

In such a barren, desolate environment with no food sources, it was inherently unlikely to support creatures in inhabiting and surviving for the long term.

Although it had been confirmed that there were no other living threats, Lin Yan did not leave immediately, because he had just discovered something else inside this ice cave!

Informing the two women beside him—who were still maintaining high vigilance and caution—of his discovery, Zhang Lexuan and Jiang Nannan heard this, and a hint of curiosity surfaced in the depths of their eyes.

The three of them walked slowly into the ice cave following the crawling marks on the ice surface. The further inward they went, the narrower the space became, and in some cramped road sections, it was even necessary to widen the ice layer in order to pass through smoothly.

After passing through another narrow crevice, the view suddenly opened up before them. They saw that amidst the ten-thousand-year cold ice ahead, a translucent pillar of ice standing over half a meter high had forcefully "squeezed" out.

Inside the ice pillar, a milky-white liquid circulated and flowed, its veins undulating as if it possessed life, slowly pulsing.

Terrifying cold Qi continuously undulated and diffused around the ice pillar, freezing the surrounding air until it became stagnant and viscous, with a bone-chilling coldness.

"ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow!?"

Hearing Zhang Lexuan's exclamation, Lin Yan instantly recalled the relevant records about the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow in the original work.

At the same time, he also noticed that beside this petite ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow, there stood an even thicker and similar ice pillar, except that its interior was long empty, and its essence had completely vanished!

ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow... subterranean ice crevices... crawling marks of soft-bodied creatures... These clues were instantly connected in series, and a segment of the plot from the original work slowly emerged in Lin Yan's mind.

Could this place be the very ice cave that directly promoted the Tianmeng Iceworm into a million-year-old Spirit Beast back then?!!

Thinking up to this point, a few new doubts arose deep within Lin Yan's heart.

This place was a full thousand-plus meters deep from the ground. If this really was the ice cave where the Tianmeng Iceworm had stayed, how could it have fallen from such a height back then without turning into silkworm paste, and still manage to live?!

Or was there another ice crevice that also connected to this place? Or perhaps during the changes of tens of millions of years, the terrain of this place had undergone drastic shifts?

Although there were some doubts in his heart, these were not important at the moment.

Because if this truly was the ice cave where the Tianmeng Iceworm had stayed, even if the original ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow had long been completely consumed and devoured by the Tianmeng Iceworm,

as long as some had been nurtured anew during the long years after it left, that would still be a huge harvest for Lin Yan today!

Suppressing the speculation in his heart, Lin Yan immediately took action. Using the hard ten-thousand-year cold ice of the ice cave as a medium, he quickly carved some sealing and energy-locking Soul Guidance Arrays, temporarily crafting an ice freezer capable of storing the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow.

Although this temporarily crafted freezer could not completely lock in the energy and would inevitably cause the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow to lose a portion of its essence, under the current limited conditions—and with none of the three possessing Ultimate Ice—they could only make do with it for the time being.

With this kind of harvest, the three's enthusiasm for continuing to explore the ice cave became even stronger!

Unfortunately, the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow was a wondrous item of heaven and earth's creation. After the three walked through the entire ice cave, they ultimately only managed to find two newly born pieces of ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow once more.

Reaching the deepest part of the ice cave, apart from the biting cold Qi that had precipitated for tens of millions of years, there was nothing else here.

However, just as the three of them were preparing to turn around and leave, the Spirit, Di Yan, floating beside Lin Yan, suddenly jumped violently without any warning.

The restless Di Yan released Ultimate Heat, colliding violently with the eternal cold Qi inside the ice cave, instantly producing bursts of "sizzling" melting sounds.

Seeing this, the two people beside Lin Yan hurriedly glanced over and asked vigilantly, "Junior Brother, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

Sensing for a moment, Lin Yan waved his hand, and then under the gaze of the two, he slowly closed his eyes, gathered his focus and calmed his mind, beginning to investigate the cause of the unusual movement following the connection between himself and his Spirit.

As his perception deepened continuously, the root cause of Di Yan's unusual movement gradually became clear. The source was deep underground—there, something was attracting it!

"There is something below!"

Lin Yan suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze locked tightly onto a piece of ice-covered ground, his tone resolute.

Hearing this, Zhang Lexuan and Jiang Nannan immediately looked along his gaze, yet they could not see any differences in that layer of ice at all.

However, although they had not detected the slightest abnormality, Lin Yan unhesitatingly chose to believe the guidance of his own Spirit!

Lifting his hand and waving it, Di Yan suddenly surged, landing on the ice layer not far away. For a time, the entire ice cave was left with only the harsh sound emitted by the collision of Ultimate Fire and ten-thousand-year cold ice.

"Hiss——!"

The hard and thick ten-thousand-year cold ice melted rapidly in front of Di Yan like butter, steaming up a large amount of white mist.

As Lin Yan continuously urged his Soul Power for reinforcement, Di Yan's temperature climbed step by step, and the scorching fire pillar continuously burned downward.

One meter, five meters, ten meters...

Finally, the hard ice layer more than twenty meters thick was completely burned through, and a pitch-black, deep, nearly straight downward-slanting crevice instantly appeared before the eyes of the three!

At the same time, an even denser and older Ultimate Cold Qi, carrying the terrifying might of freezing all things, spewed out from the depths of the crevice!

Having reached this step, it was naturally impossible for Lin Yan to give up just like that.

But the situation below was unknown, and he absolutely could not act rashly or recklessly.

After a brief contemplation, Lin Yan once again dispatched his loyal Flame Spirit subordinate!

Using Ultimate Fire to disperse the biting cold Qi rushing towards them, and under the vigilant gaze of the three, the Flame Spirit bird restrained the scorching aura on its body and quietly dove toward the depths of the crevice.

The crevice was much smaller than the ice cave above, yet it was even deeper and gloomier.

The interior of the crevice was steep and winding. After diving downwards for nearly five hundred-plus meters, Lin Yan finally saw the full picture of the end of the crevice through the vision of the Flame Spirit bird!

And the instant he saw the scene below, Lin Yan couldn't help but hold his breath instantly!

They saw that in another ice cave at the end of the crevice, a giant ice lotus was growing!

The entire ice lotus seemed to be condensed from the world's purest Ultimate Ice, with thirty-six layers of petals piled on top of each other, crystal clear. The surface of every petal circulated a faint ice-blue halo, both holy and ancient.

At the same time, the dense root system of the ice lotus plunged deep into the underground depths, extending who-knows-how-far, as if it had long since merged into one with the entire subterranean ice layer!

And most eye-catching of all, right in the center of the lotus heart of the ice lotus, a clear and translucent ice-blue flame was burning quietly, blooming with a faint, cool, eternal flame light within the pitch-black, lightless ice cave!