245: Chapter 245 The Icefield Bear!!

The dawn of hope, no matter how faint, possesses infinite power.

Qin Yan gripped his long spear tightly as a new surge of energy welled up within his exhausted body. His fighting spirit, like a fed wildfire, blazed fiercely once more.

After a brief moment to adjust his breathing, he took even firmer steps, advancing toward the depths of the gradually narrowing canyon.

April 22nd.

The changes became increasingly apparent.

The path ahead suddenly became exceptionally narrow; even at its widest point, it was barely more than a foot across.

The towering rock walls were nearly vertical, and the sense of oppression intensified sharply.

Looking up, one could only see an even narrower, gloomier sliver of the sky.

However, the narrowing of the path did not lead to a decrease in Evil Spirits.

On the contrary, perhaps due to the compression of space, the frequency of Evil Spirit appearances seemed even higher!

They lunged out incessantly from the corners ahead.

Qin Yan's room for maneuver was severely restricted, making it difficult to execute many of the wide-sweeping Spear Technique moves.

The combat became more perilous and compact.

By nightfall, Qin Yan could not even find a sufficiently flat or hidden patch of ground to pitch his tent.

He had to find a corner where the rock wall recessed slightly. Leaning against the cold, hard stone and clutching his long spear, he entered a shallow sleep.

April 23rd.

The narrowness intensified further.

The path had shrunk to the point where only one person could pass; in some sections, he even had to turn sideways to squeeze through.

The rock walls on both sides were within arm's reach, and light had almost completely vanished. Qin Yan could only rely on his keen martial artist's vision to barely discern his surroundings.

The Evil Spirits remained like shadows, charging out from ahead in a never-ending stream!

All he could do was grip his long spear tightly, aim the spear tip at any surging black mist or crimson glow ahead, and then—thrust!

Boom!

Infused with blood and qi, Spear Light flickered as the power of forty-eight streaks of Spear Aura and Blood Gang converged into a single point.

A blurry silhouette of an Evil Spirit exploded into black smoke before the spear tip.

Boom!

Without stopping his stride, he retracted the long spear half a foot before it shot out again like a venomous dragon leaving its cave.

Another Third-Rank Peak Evil Spirit attempting to pounce was run through the chest, dissipating with a screech.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The monotonous yet lethal explosive sounds echoed repeatedly within this suffocatingly narrow passage.

Dense black dust nearly condensed into substance, permeating the air, obscuring vision, and irritating the throat.

Like an untiring icebreaker, Qin Yan used the long spear in his hand as the prow, chiseling forward inch by inch through the "hard ice" composed of Evil Spirits!

Every step was accompanied by battle.

Every breath was mixed with the ashes of dissipated Evil Spirits.

He didn't know how many spears he had thrust or how many Evil Spirits he had defeated.

Qin Yan's arms were numb, and the webbing between his thumb and forefinger had been torn by the recoil.

His breathing was as heavy as a bellows, and the veins on his forehead throbbed, yet his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

Finally, after one more all-out effort that caused the last Evil Spirit blocking the way to explode into a sky full of black ash, Qin Yan leaned on his long spear and stopped.

He gasped heavily, his chest heaving, and sweat had long since soaked through his inner shirt.

Ahead, the dense black smoke slowly dispersed.

The passage... seemed to have reached its end.

Looking ahead, there was not a single Evil Spirit in sight.

The narrow path seemed to come to an abrupt halt here, replaced by a tiny, extremely inconspicuous crack in the rock wall ahead.

From within the crack, an incredibly faint yet indescribable hazy glimmer—starkly different from the gloom inside the valley—shone through.

After resting for about fifteen minutes and feeling his breathing steady and most of his energy return,

Qin Yan gripped his long spear and walked toward that crack.

Up close, the crack appeared even narrower than it had from a distance.

Qin Yan could only put away his long spear and strap it to his back.

Then, turning sideways and aligning his shoulder with the crack, he carefully squeezed inside.

The icy rock walls pressed against his body, rubbing against his clothes.

He shuffled inward bit by bit.

The light seemed to grow a bit brighter.

The air also seemed to have a hint of... something different?

With one final forceful squeeze,

Pop!

It was as if he had broken through an invisible membrane.

Qin Yan's body finally passed completely through that Sliver of Sky crack.

The view before him suddenly opened up, yet it plunged into another kind of grim scenery.

He found himself positioned midway up an extremely steep cliff.

Below his feet was not solid ground, but a boundless sea of black vines!

As far as the eye could see, the vast ground below had no soil and no rocks.

There were only countless black vines of varying thickness, intertwined and twisted together!

Upon this "earth" composed of black vines, figures were moving and patrolling with a slow and eerie rhythm.

Those were Evil Spirits of an even stranger form—the majority of their bodies were connected to the black vines on the ground, or they were simply humanoid or beast-shaped entities formed from several thick, intertwined black vines.

Their eyes were still the signature crimson, and their auras were generally powerful, almost all at the third grade late stage or above.

Quite a few of them had reached the Third-Rank Peak level.

However, seeing this scene, Qin Yan did not feel fear; instead, he let out a long, heartfelt sigh of relief.

The heartstrings that had been taut for fourteen full days finally managed to loosen slightly.

“I'm finally... out.”

He murmured to himself, his voice carrying a hint of fatigue that was hard to hide.

Although this sea of vines and the patrolling Evil Spirits looked even more bizarre and powerful than those in the valley,

at least this was no longer that hopeless, seemingly endless enclosed valley.

More importantly, the number of Evil Spirits!

Looking out, although this vine area was fraught with peril and the Evil Spirits were quite strong,

the density of their distribution was far from comparable to the terrifying army of thousands that had been packed together like a black mass at the valley's perimeter.

The Evil Spirits here at least gave one the possibility of maneuvering, hiding, or even forcing a breakthrough, rather than the absolute despair of facing human-wave tactics.

Qin Yan took a deep breath of the air that carried the scent of decaying vines, and his gaze became sharp and focused once more.

Using both hands and feet, and with the help of protruding rocks on the cliff and those relatively stable vine roots, he began to move downward cautiously and slowly.

He strove for stability with every step, minimizing noise to avoid attracting the attention of those Vine Evil Spirits below.

Meanwhile, deep within this vast and eerie sea of black vines, another battle was unfolding.

Five massive geniuses of the Icefield Bear Clan were being besieged by more than ten Vine Evil Spirits.

The Ice Field Bears generally stood over three meters tall.

Their bodies were covered in thick, snow-white fur, which made their silhouettes appear exceptionally striking in this dark-toned environment.

They roared repeatedly, their heavy bear paws carrying a biting chill and colossal force; every swing brought forth a violent gale.

“Bang! Boom! Rip—!”

Bear paws collided with the black-misted bodies of the Vine Evil Spirits, producing dull, heavy thuds.

The slightly weaker Vine Evil Spirits were often shattered directly by a single palm strike, turning into dissipating black smoke;

the stronger ones would have parts of their bodies frozen by the icy aura, their movements slowing down before being torn apart by subsequent attacks.