Making this decision was not easy.
Xie An instinctively felt that this was dangerous, and an unknown danger.
Xie An felt it was necessary to inform Yuhe.
He turned to look at Yuhe and found her particularly haggard, her face pale, her lips almost colorless, and the breath she exhaled immediately turned into white mist upon encountering the cold air.
Even though Yuhe was a martial master with Second Level Inner Strength, it was difficult for her to withstand the cold here after two days of enduring hunger and cold.
It was too cold here.
If Xie An hadn't cultivated the Bright Jade Skill to the eleventh level, he probably wouldn't have survived until now and would have died of hunger and cold long ago.
You know, both of them were wearing very little clothing, and for the past two days, they had been relying on circulating heat and inner strength to keep out the cold. Such consumption was very high, and even outside, they would need a lot of food supplements to make up for the consumption.
And they hadn't eaten anything for two days.
How could they withstand it?
There was no shortage of water here, and the water from the cold pool was drinkable. But there was no edible food. Apart from stones and ice, there was nothing around...
Eat dirt?
There wasn't even dirt here.
Xie An looked at Yuhe's face, filled with despair and guilt, and couldn't bear it. "Yuhe, you wait here. I'll go look at the shrine over there."
Yuhe shrank her body, turned her head, and glanced at the ice-sculpted temple on the opposite bank. "This shrine looks very strange. I guess Li Changchun and the High Priest came here... to worship that shrine. Master, it's dangerous to go there."
Perhaps because it was too cold, Yuhe's voice trembled slightly.
Xie An saw it and felt very uncomfortable.
If he couldn't find food or a way out, Yuhe would probably freeze to death or starve to death. And after Yuhe died, he would be all alone here and wouldn't last long either.
"There's no other way right now. Let's try it."
Yuhe tilted her head and thought for a while, then happily agreed, "Then Yuhe will go with Master."
"It's dangerous over there..." Xie An wanted to persuade Yuhe to stay here and wait, but before he could finish speaking, Yuhe firmly opposed, "That won't do. I'm the one who implicated Master. I should be the one to explore the way if there's danger."
As soon as she finished speaking, Yuhe jumped into the cold pool and quickly swam to the opposite bank.
Hey.
This girl... doesn't listen to advice.
Xie An didn't hesitate either, and jumped into the water with a "plop."
The moment his body touched the water of the cold pool, he immediately felt a bone-chilling cold sweeping through his body, as if piercing through his bones.
It made Xie An exclaim that it was unscientific.
It is said that water freezes at zero degrees, but the water in this cold pool... is more than zero degrees?
The extremely low temperature made his hands and feet numb, and his movements were not very agile. If it were an ordinary person, they would have been frozen to death. Fortunately, both Xie An and Yuhe had reached the level of martial masters and could resist for a while.
Even so, the two of them did not dare to be careless and accelerated forward. Yuhe, who was in front, kept urging Xie An to hurry up, as it would not be good to be frozen.
Xie An said he knew.
However, Xie An, with his extraordinary senses, felt a special aura under the water.
Huh?
Xie An took a breath, sank into the water, and opened his eyes to look down.
With the faint light of the stalactites, Xie An vaguely saw the scene under the water:
The water was very deep, and the light became dimmer as it went deeper. But it was vaguely visible that the space under the water was very large. The overall structure was similar to a large wine jar, with a small opening, but it became larger and larger inside.
In the deep water, there was a faint shadow fluttering.
But when he sank to five meters, the surrounding water temperature dropped sharply again, and it was piercingly cold. Even Xie An, who had trained his body to be like copper skin and iron bones, couldn't withstand it. He only felt waves of bone-chilling cold entering his body through the pores of his skin, even drilling into the cracks of his bones.
Too cold!
If he continued to sink, his body would be frozen stiff.
Even Xie An felt it was difficult to bear at this moment, and his blood seemed to be about to be frozen.
Blood coagulation is a very dangerous thing.
It would instantly cause irreversible damage to the body's organs and tissues. If the blood coagulated for a few minutes, even a martial master would die.
Xie An decisively gave up sinking and quickly waved his hands and feet to paddle upwards.
Yuhe's anxious cry came from the water.
"Master, Master..."
Splash!
With a splash, Xie An poked his head out of the water. Yuhe breathed a sigh of relief and quickly swam over to grab Xie An's arm, "Master, you scared me to death. Why did you run down when you're not good at swimming? I'll take you over there."
Xie An said, "I'm good at swimming. I just saw a treasure plant underwater."
"Treasure plant?" Yuhe was very surprised. She took a deep breath, put her head into the water to check, and after a while, she surfaced, a glimmer of light flashing in her desperate eyes, "An underwater plant that can grow in this kind of place may really be a treasure plant. It's just that the deeper you go, the colder the water... I can't go down. Otherwise, I could dig up the treasure plant to fill my stomach."
Speaking of the end, the glimmer of light in Yuhe's eyes dimmed again.
Treasure plants are very rare treasures, which can not only fill the stomach, but also greatly nourish the body and are of great benefit to martial masters. Even some powerful treasure plants can change a person's foundation. Even ordinary people who eat it will have extremely high martial arts foundation, which is really magical.
It's a good thing that you can't buy with money on the market.
Xie An comforted Yuhe, "Don't worry, let's go take a look at the ice-sculpted temple."
The two of them spent a lot of effort to reach the opposite bank.
Before they had taken two steps ashore, their wet clothes had solidified into hard ice, making them feel uncomfortable as if they were wearing a layer of ice armor.
Yuhe sat down cross-legged and circulated her inner strength. Her whole body immediately emitted bursts of heat, melting the ice on her clothes and then drying them. After she finished her work, she planned to dry Xie An's clothes, but found that Xie An was actually like her, drying his clothes with a burst of heat.
"Hey, Master hasn't broken through to Inner Strength... how did he do it?"
Xie An said, "I have cultivated the Bright Jade Skill, and there is a burst of heat in my body. I probably have the means of Inner Strength, but I can't use it for killing."
Regarding Inner Strength, Xie An had carefully asked Liu Chun, and he had a general understanding in his heart:
Inner Strength is a special power that can be extracted from the blood after breaking through the Blood Rushing Realm.
Once you enter Inner Strength, you will be reborn.
In battle, you no longer need to compete in strength, but in the inner strength of qi and blood.
Before Inner Strength, women suffered a lot, and women of the same level were difficult to compare with men. But after tempering the inner strength, this gap is smoothed out.
As for the effect of Inner Strength, Liu Chun had previously given a simple demonstration - holding a glass of cold water in his hand, and after urging the Inner Strength, the cold water quickly heated to boiling, and he was not afraid of scalding his hands.
For example, ordinary martial artists can also exert force when pressing on marble with their hands, but the maximum limit of force will not exceed a person's weight. This is in line with physics.
But when an Inner Strength martial master presses on the marble, he can urge Inner Strength and directly press a hole in the marble.
These are all the wonderful uses of Inner Strength.
It is said that after cultivating to the Seventh Level of Inner Strength, you can also release Inner Strength externally, killing people ten steps away. It's unpredictable.
And although Xie An's Bright Jade Skill has a burst of heat running through his body, urging the Bright Jade Skill can make the heat flow rapidly in his body, like an engine running wildly. But he can't break the marble.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Yuhe was greatly surprised after hearing this, "So that's how it is. I've long heard that cultivating health-preserving skills to the extreme can exert all kinds of unpredictable means. Even a Great Martial Master can't compare. Li Changchun and the High Priest cultivated the Bright Jade Skill, which is why they lived longer and could even return to their youth. Master, maybe... maybe you can return to your youth in the future. But, Master is not old in the first place..."
Xie An smiled lightly and did not explain anything, "Let's go, let's go see the ice-sculpted temple."
"I'll walk in front and explore the way for Master. Master, please follow me closely." Yuhe pulled out her dagger and led the way towards the ice-sculpted temple.
Xie An looked at Yuhe protecting him in a serious manner, and while his heart was warm, he couldn't help but feel amused.
If they really fought, Yuhe would definitely not be his opponent.
Moreover, her slightly thin frame looked... very pitiful.
Walking for tens of meters, the two arrived at the ice sculpture temple.
This pavilion was not large, only about ten meters in radius, constructed and carved entirely from ice blocks. The four massive ice-sculpted pillars were engraved with various intricate patterns.
At the end was a two-meter high and one-meter wide black shrine. Outside the shrine, two spirit tablets were placed, one on the left and one on the right, forming a gateway.
On the surface, there was nothing special about this shrine, but Xie An, due to the vibrations of the road, "saw" more than seven thousand wisps of undead energy gathering within it. The closer he got, the more he felt the vast and majestic nature of this undead energy.
When they were about five meters away, Yu He stopped, clearly sensing an inexplicable danger. "Master, there are words engraved on the two spirit tablets of this shrine."
"I see them."
Xie An moved closer to Yu He and strained his eyes to see.
On the right spirit tablet, the horizontal inscription at the top read four large characters: "Eternal Prosperity."
On the far left side of the spirit tablet, vertically written, was: "Erected in the 303rd year of Tianbao." Further to the right was another column: "May countless descendants flourish." Corresponding to the innermost column on the far right: "May generations of ancestors be ever-present."
In the middle of the spirit tablet was a conspicuous column of large characters: "Spirit Tablet of the Third-Generation Ancestress, Old Madam Jin."
To the right: "Born in the 3rd year of Tianbao, Died in the 303rd year of Tianbao."
Xie An looked at the spirit tablet and couldn't help but wonder, "Who is this Old Madam Jin?"
Yu He shook her head. "I don't know either. It's too far back. Could she be the Great Priest's mother?"
The Great Priest's mother?
Xie An felt that this conjecture had a certain degree of rationality.
This world was different from his previous life. Upon entering the Martial Master realm, one would have a lifespan of one hundred and fifty years. If one entered the Martial Dao Grandmaster realm, one could live for three hundred years. And this Old Madam Jin happened to have lived for three hundred years.
That was in line with the lifespan of a Martial Dao Grandmaster.
From this, it could be seen that this Old Madam Jin... was a Martial Dao Grandmaster. She later fell.
But Xie An also had doubts in his heart: The Tianbao dynasty spanned three hundred years, so where did the three hundred and three years come from?
Or was it that the three hundred years of the Tianbao dynasty was just a rough quantifier, not an exact figure? After all, so much time had passed, and Xie An had not obtained accurate information.
He put away his thoughts and looked at the right spirit tablet, the core information of which was as follows:
Erected in the 300th year of Tianbao.
Born in the ancient calendar, Died in the 300th year of Tianbao.
Spirit Tablet of the Third-Generation Ancestor, Hai Ming, Duke Chen.
At Xie An's age, he had some understanding of the etiquette surrounding spirit tablets.
"Bi" referred to a deceased mother, while "Kao" referred to a deceased father. The left spirit tablet was engraved with a phoenix, and the right spirit tablet was carved with a golden dragon. Carving dragons and phoenixes symbolized a married couple, which made sense.
This Old Madam Jin and Duke Chen should be a couple.
"Yu He, do you know who this Duke Chen is?"
Yu He shook her head. "I don't know."
Xie An wasn't surprised by this. After all, hundreds of years had passed, and finding some information wasn't that easy.
Counting the birth times of this Old Madam Jin and Duke Chen, it was four hundred years ago.
What's more, the Great Priest was deliberately concealing it.
Xie An wasn't in a hurry. He squatted down and stared at the shrine for a long time, but didn't find any other useful information.
Yu He reminded him, "Master, these two spirit tablets seem to be a gateway. Should I try to push them open?"
Xie An also thought that was the way to go. "Don't use your hands, use your whip."
"Understood."
Yu He took out the whip tied around her waist and flicked it forward. With a sudden "whoosh" sound, the whip was infused with internal energy and straightened out, like a stick, pushing the spirit tablets open.
Crack, crack, crack!
With a series of sounds, the two spirit tablets slowly pushed open to the sides. The two saw what was inside the shrine:
It wasn't a spirit tablet at all, but a person!
A fresh and beautiful woman!
Wearing a dark golden dress embroidered with phoenixes, with a head full of golden hairpins, sitting cross-legged inside the shrine. Her skin was crystal clear and delicate. She also had elaborate makeup on, lifelike. Just at first glance, she had an air of imperial dignity.
"Master, be careful!"
Yu He's heart leaped wildly. She took a step forward and stood in front of Xie An, holding the whip in one hand and a dagger in the other, alert and vigilant.
Not to mention Yu He, even Xie An was shocked by the scene before him.
Wasn't this Old Madam Jin supposed to have died hundreds of years ago?
How could she still be so young and beautiful?
Was she dead or not?
Xie An even had an instinctive urge to "go home."
As terrifying as it was, he still had to face it.
Xie An took several deep breaths in a row and immediately adjusted his emotions, opening his energy sense. But he found that there was no human or living energy on this woman's body, so she should be dead.
But... why did this woman contain such a huge amount of undead energy?
The Great Priest disregarded the life and death of the Corpse Refining Hall, collecting large amounts of undead energy... just to nourish this woman?
Could it be that she could come back to life?
Otherwise, the Great Priest wouldn't have gone to such lengths.
Xie An reviewed the course of events in his mind. Suddenly, he remembered what Su Yuqing had said: If the Great Priest collected ten thousand wisps of undead energy, it would mean that the hundred-year plan would be a great success.
Following this line of thought, Xie An felt that the so-called great success should be to resurrect this woman.
Judging from this information, this woman should need ten thousand wisps of undead energy to be resurrected.
But it couldn't be ruled out... that ten thousand wisps was her ideal resurrection condition.
If there were unforeseen circumstances, seven or eight thousand wisps of undead energy... might not be enough for a forced resurrection.
After all, the difference was no longer that great.
Scary!
After weighing the pros and cons, Xie An immediately defined this woman as a threat. "Yu He, this person cannot be left alive. She has no life force now, send her on her way."
Clang!
Without hesitation, Xie An drew his saber. The saber rang out, and he immediately activated the Ninefold Mountain Saber, slashing at the woman inside the shrine. At the same time, Yu He also raised her long whip and struck at the woman.
The peak attacks unleashed by two Second-Level Martial Masters were still quite terrifying. However, as soon as the attacks hit the spirit tablets, they were met with an extremely strong recoil, forcing Xie An and Yu He back a dozen steps.
Boom!
The two spirit tablets flew back and landed on the ground.
"As expected, there's something strange going on. Let's try again." Knowing that the situation was extremely critical, Xie An adjusted his body and continued to attack. Yu He also followed closely behind.
However, there seemed to be a very powerful force within the shrine that constantly protected the woman, no matter how hard Xie An and Yu He tried, they couldn't get close to her, let alone kill her.
After a series of frantic attacks, Xie An and Yu He had to stop to catch their breath.
Yu He even collapsed weakly on the ground, her face pale due to exhaustion. "Master, there's a restriction inside this shrine, we can't break it. What should we do now?"
Xie An, with the blessing of the Bright Jade Skill and the Longevity Skill, had extraordinary endurance, so his situation was much better than Yu He's. Seeing Yu He so weak, Xie An also knew... that he was now Yu He's only reliance.
Xie An had been observing the woman with his energy sense. Although they had just made a lot of noise, the woman's eyes were still tightly closed, and the undead energy surging around her had not changed.
On the other hand, the two spirit tablets that had fallen on the ground were emitting heat, melting the ice on the ground.
Perhaps because the melting ice had disrupted the temperature balance here, Xie An clearly sensed that the woman inside the shrine... had actually regained a trace of life force.
This woman... was resurrecting!
Forced resurrection!?
This made Xie An feel greatly frightened, and he immediately thought of something. "Yu He, take a spirit tablet and see if you can dive deep into the cold pool to dig up precious plants to fill your stomach. I'll keep an eye on this woman."
Yu He had a flash of inspiration and also thought it was a good idea, so she took a spirit tablet and plunged into the water with a "plop." After a while, Yu He poked her head out. "Master, it really works. Look, I dug up a piece of precious plant. It's something like a lotus root. We don't have to worry about starving to death."
---
Still 10,000 words a day, everyone, happy New Year's Eve.
