"These wave-like glows, are they the Northern Night Aurora? The world is vast, truly a strange celestial phenomenon."
"Hehe, luckily this phenomenon only affects divine sense. It seems it will dissipate on its own in at most half a day. We just need to wait a little longer, and we won't get lost again."
The group looked at the scene in the sky and sighed with emotion.
Zhang Ling sent out his divine sense, which normally spread out over a hundred miles without any abnormalities. But after sensing for a while longer, he noticed that the power of his divine sense would inexplicably shift.
If you weren't careful, you wouldn't even notice it. And the wind and snow that trapped them below didn't seem to have any abnormalities.
Of course, the area covered by the wind and snow was indeed vast. Coupled with the deviation of their respective divine senses, they would unknowingly lose their way upon entering it.
After watching the Northern Night Aurora for a while, the group landed on a high mountain a hundred miles away to rest temporarily.
Calculating the time, they had already been deep in the ice plains for a month. They had traveled a distance of a million miles. To cross the ice plains, at their speed, they would need at least another half a month.
To reach the Ice Sea.
Several hours later, the strange phenomenon in the sky disappeared, and the group set off again. The next journey was relatively smooth. Apart from occasionally encountering some high-level demon beasts, they did not encounter any demon beasts at the Transformation stage.
Of course, this was also because they were cautious and hurried along the way. During this period, they had actually sensed the aura of transformed demon cultivators twice. They concealed themselves and avoided them.
They even discovered an ice jade mine. The group was busy rushing on their way, and none of them entered to mine the ice jade. But they agreed that if everything went smoothly on this trip, they would definitely explore this ice jade mine when they returned.
If they could find mid- to high-grade ice jade, the value would be considerable.
After another seventeen or eighteen days, the group, travel-worn, finally approached the Ice Sea.
It was bitterly cold here, an extremely cold environment. They hadn't encountered a single demon beast for several days. The entire Ice Sea was a black-blue color, with many ice floes floating on it.
In this extremely cold environment, the sea surface was not completely frozen, which was also a strange phenomenon.
The Ice Sea, no one knew how vast it was. This was the area in the Northern Origin Cultivation World that cultivators had explored the least.
A layer of faint white mist floated above the entire Ice Sea. This was a layer of frost mist. Low-level cultivators who entered it would be immediately frozen to death.
Cold winds howled everywhere in the air. Upon arriving here, everyone felt their spiritual power flowing away faster.
Although it wasn't much, it wasn't a good sign.
After entering the Ice Sea, the group flew for nearly a day and saw a glacier island about a hundred miles wide.
This island was somewhat strange. The closer they got, the more they could sense a strong fire spiritual power. After flying around the island, the group discovered that there was an ice volcano on the south side of the island.
They had passed several such ice volcanoes along the way in the ice plains. Although rare, they were not surprising.
"Fellow cultivators, this is where the ancient cultivator ruins that this old man discovered are located," Real Person Shi Yun flew towards the ice volcano, saying with a smile.
"Oh, you were able to discover it in such a remote place, Fellow Daoist," Old Madam Miao chuckled.
"Hehe, don't laugh at me, fellow cultivators. I discovered this place by chance. I was refining a pot of pills before, and I was missing a demon core of an Ice Soul Bird. So I came here to hunt demon beasts, and that's how I accidentally discovered this place."
The bald old man next to him pondered for a moment and said, "Ice Soul Bird, the demon core of this bird can be used to refine Ice Soul Pills. This is a special fifth-grade pill that can help Golden Core cultivators condense their Nascent Soul and reduce the interference of inner demons. It is said that the demon soul can also be used to cast an ancient ice curse."
Real Person Shi Yun did not explain further. With a flash of his figure, he landed tens of miles below the ice volcano.
"Fellow Daoists, it's inside this ice volcano. But there is an Inferno Hoof Beast living inside. We must solve it first before we can safely explore the treasure."
Hearing this, Zhang Ling's eyes lit up. He released his divine sense and explored the ice volcano.
This ice volcano was not large, only five or six hundred zhang high. The crater at the top looked like a volcanic crater, with wisps of red light emerging from it.
But it had long been frozen into a thick layer of ice. He could still keenly feel the fire spiritual power inside, as well as traces of ice spiritual energy, and a faint fishy wind.
In order not to disturb the Inferno Hoof Beast inside, Zhang Ling did not directly probe into it with his divine sense. He just sensed it slightly and quickly withdrew his divine sense.
The expressions of the others did not change. They had learned about these situations before they set off.
The dark-faced man stroked his beard and said with a smile, "It is said that the Inferno Hoof Beast is a demon beast with both wind and fire attributes, and its strength is not small. But with so many of us, killing this beast is definitely easy. Why not just attack directly, all at once, and kill this beast."
"Absolutely not."
As soon as he finished speaking, Real Person Shi Yun's face darkened. "When I came last time, I observed it for a while. Although the Inferno Hoof Beast's own realm is at the eighth level, its strength is definitely no weaker than a ninth-level demon cultivator. It must be proficient in wind and fire escape techniques. If it escapes, it may cause trouble. It's better to set up a formation first to trap and kill this beast to ensure everything is foolproof."
Real Person Shi Yun directly threw out several cyan small flags and three black jade plates engraved with runes.
"For this operation, this old man has made ample preparations. I have prepared this set of Ice Cloud Formation. By setting up this formation and leading the Inferno Hoof Beast into it, we can easily kill this scourge."
The dark-faced man laughed dryly, "Hehe, Brother Wang is well-prepared after all." Old Madam Miao, the bald old man, and the black-robed cultivator, who was basically not useful, did not object.
As for the middle-aged cultivator Fellow Daoist Chen, he was Real Person Shi Yun's clan brother, and he had been listening to Real Person Shi Yun's instructions all the way.
Zhang Ling would not object either. It was his most important goal to safely solve the Inferno Hoof Beast and obtain the wind and fire demon core.
A moment later, Real Person Shi Yun completed the layout of the Ice Cloud Formation. There was only some extra frost around, and there was not much change in the environment.
After doing all this, the group secretly hid next to the formation and discussed which cultivator would lead the Inferno Hoof Beast into the formation.
As soon as they started discussing, Zhang Ling directly said, "I need this beast's demon core. If you have no objections, I will lead the Inferno Hoof Beast into the formation." As he spoke, he looked at Old Madam Miao and the black-robed cultivator surnamed Wan.
The expression of Cultivator Wan could not be seen at all. Old Madam Miao glanced at him and said with a strange smile, "Since Fellow Daoist Ding is willing to take action, this old woman will not interfere."
As for Real Person Shi Yun, he also nodded with a smile and did not object.
The remaining three, the dark-faced man, had slightly lower cultivation levels and also responded with a smile.
Then, after discussing the specific time of action, Zhang Ling began to act.
He concealed his figure and aura. In a moment, he sneaked onto the ice volcano crater. Looking down, it was somewhat dim inside, and it was filled with a hot and cold wind pressure.
Zhang Ling carefully descended, not releasing his divine sense, only using his eyes to observe the situation inside. In the blink of an eye, he had descended most of the distance, and he couldn't help but frown slightly, feeling a bit strange.
He accelerated, and in a few breaths, he landed on the ground. Inside the ice volcano crater, it was actually a jade stone ground. The ground was generally black and red, as smooth as a mirror. The surrounding stone walls were also like this, but there were many cracked mountain peaks.
In those mountain cracks, wisps of firelight could be seen. But it seemed to be imprisoned by some force. Those firelights did not pass through the body and release it, only fire spiritual power was emitted from time to time.
At the bottom, there was also a small pool fifty or sixty zhang wide, half ice-blue and half dark-red, surrounded by two layers of mist. At the intersection of the water surface, there were also two stone pillars.
The two stone pillars were the same style, most of them submerged in the water, but the exposed part, one was engraved with a golden-blue coiling dragon, and the other was engraved with a fire phoenix soaring high. This looked like a formation.
"Ice Fire Eye."
When Zhang Ling saw the two layers of color in the pool, he realized that this was an Ice Fire Eye earth vein.
But it seemed that most of its power was sealed by some kind of formation power. Otherwise, with the characteristics of the Ice Fire Eye, it would definitely emit strong ice attribute spiritual power and violent fire spiritual power.
It would never be so calm.
Next to the pool, there was also a large open space with a few short trees and some small blue grass growing on it.
Zhang Ling recognized the blue grass at a glance. This was a fourth-grade spiritual medicine, Blue Ice Grass. Those few trees were only two zhang tall, with many intertwined branches below, and some blue-red small fruits hidden among them.
"It's actually Ice Fire Dates."
Ice Fire Dates were also fourth-grade spiritual fruits with great value. They were rare in the outside world. The ice and fire spiritual power contained in these spiritual dates was somewhat overbearing. Ordinary cultivators could hardly take them, but for body refining cultivators, swallowing Ice Fire Dates could use the ice and fire dual spiritual power inside to temper their physical body.
Seeing these, Zhang Ling did not show any signs of joy, but frowned. He did not find the Inferno Hoof Beast.
A fishy wind was lingering around, which was obviously the aura of a demon beast. Zhang Ling no longer concealed his figure. He immediately released his divine sense to check the information below.
The surrounding space was only two or three hundred zhang in size. He immediately discovered a few more Ice Fire Date trees opposite the Ice Fire Eye pool. One of them was the largest, ten zhang tall.
Behind the date tree, there was a cave. Zhang Ling flashed and came to the cave. He entered it without hesitation. The fire spiritual power inside was extremely abundant, and the space was not large. The ground was covered with many white-gray licorice, like a demon beast cave.
In a corner, there were also many demon beast bones piled up.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's expression changed. With a wave of his hand, many cyan hairs shot out from the licorice on the ground. These hairs had a weak wind and fire aura, as if they were the hairs of the Inferno Hoof Beast.
At the same time, a golden circular token was taken into his hand. It was engraved with some patterns and dragon and phoenix patterns, and the words "Dragon Stream" were engraved on the back in ancient immortal script.
It seemed to be the identity token of that cultivator. However, there was a cross-shaped knife mark deeply engraved on it.
This seemed to be a magic treasure. Zhang Ling tried it, but did not activate the treasure. He didn't know if it was damaged, or if it needed to be activated with a special magic formula.
However, he also saw the material of this token. It was actually made of refined gold essence. Just the material alone was worth three or four hundred thousand spirit stones.
Zhang Ling casually put the gold token into his storage bag.
Could it be that Real Person Shi Yun was lying to him? That was unlikely. Zhang Ling immediately thought, could it be that the Inferno Hoof Beast had gone out?
Thinking of this, the spiritual light in his hand flickered, and he gathered the cyan hairs in his hand into a ball, and cast a tracking secret technique.
Immediately, the cyan hair ball trembled slightly and flew out. After shaking a few times outside the cave, it actually fell straight into the Wind Fire Eye.
Zhang Ling's face darkened, and he summoned the cyan hair ball back. Then he cast several other tracking secret techniques. In the end, the hair balls all rushed towards the Wind Fire Eye pool.
It seemed that the Inferno Hoof Beast might have entered it.
But at the same time, he also discovered that when his divine sense probed into it, it was only a zhang deep. The power of ice and fire was chaotic, and he couldn't clearly probe the situation below the Wind Fire Eye.
Zhang Ling thought for a moment. A yellow light flashed on his body to protect his whole body, and he directly entered it.
After a cup of tea, he rushed out again, his face gloomy. He still did not find the Inferno Hoof Beast inside, but he did find a strange restriction.
It seemed to be the restriction that Real Person Shi Yun had made.
After searching carefully again, he still found nothing else. He no longer stayed and flew directly out of the Ice Volcano.
Zhang Ling glanced at the place where Real Person Shi Yun and the others were hiding and said in a deep voice, "Fellow Daoists, come out."
"Why did Fellow Daoist come out alone? Where is the Inferno Hoof Beast?" Real Person Shi Yun's voice immediately sounded in his ear.
Zhang Ling shook his head, "I didn't see the Inferno Hoof Beast inside."
"How is that possible? I just came here a year ago and had a great battle with the Inferno Hoof Beast at that time," Real Person Shi Yun's face froze. Then he said again, "Let's all go down and take a look."
Real Person Shi Yun directly showed his figure and turned into a green light, rushing towards the Ice Volcano. The others followed closely.
Zhang Ling trailed behind, inevitably disappointed. After the seven entered the Ice Volcano, they searched again, but still gained nothing.
Finally, after discussing it, they came to two conclusions. Either the Inferno Hoof Beast had gone out, or the beast had entered the restriction below the Wind Fire Eye.
"Alright, no matter where this beast is now, we should first break the restriction below the water and enter the ancient cultivator ruins," Real Person Shi Yun said.
The others naturally felt relieved and did not object at all. At the same time, this person also transmitted a voice to Zhang Ling, "Fellow Daoist Ding, don't worry, we will explore the ancient cultivator ruins first. Afterwards, Wang will personally help Fellow Daoist search for the Inferno Hoof Beast."
This person's words were sincere, but they were just polite words. Zhang Ling helplessly nodded and had to follow these people into the ancient cultivator ruins first.
Led by Real Person Shi Yun, they entered the Ice Fire Eye one after another.
It was filled with two opposite spiritual powers of ice and fire, but they strangely maintained a gentle state. Entering it was like entering a hot spring, which was very comfortable.
After diving three or four hundred zhang, they reached the bottom again. They were blocked by a layer of blue and red water cover.
"This is the strange restriction that I mentioned. Fellow Daoists, you must listen to my instructions next to safely break the formation," Real Person Shi Yun solemnly instructed the few people, and with a wave of his hand, he took out a pole of formation flags and distributed them to them.
Fellow Daoist Chen, the dark-faced burly man, and the bald old man each received two small yellow flags.
The black-robed Wan cultivator, the white-robed Old Madam Miao, and Zhang Ling and the other three each received a long, blackish-yellow flag.
As for True Person Shi Yun, he held a yellow jade plate in his hand, as well as several yellow orbs.
With a wave of his hand, the several yellow orbs connected in a line, swirling around to form a circle, constantly expanding. A faint yellow light enveloped the blue-red water shield below.
True Person Shi Yun cast several spells, and a large expanse of yellow light illuminated the surroundings. The sound of rushing water intensified, and after a short period, the ice and fire power within the water was isolated to the space above.
At the same time, Zhang Ling and the five others had already occupied six different positions, activating the array flags in their hands, and directly began to break the restriction.
They were setting up a Six Stars Earth Prison Array. As they broke the array, streams of yellow runes spread around, accompanied by rumbling sounds.
