Chapter 601 – Frozen Cloud Crisis
To the knowledge of all profound practitioners, the place with the most extreme flames would undoubtedly be a volcano. Within the violent fiery mountain, there would be roiling lava and, from time to time, there’d even be a sea of fire that stretched as far as the eye could see. A place like this would occasionally yield precious fire-attribute spirit treasures while it was simultaneously acted as a favored cultivation spot for some high-level profound practitioners who specialized in fire elements.
The Illusory Demon Realm and Profound Sky Continent both had volcanoes of various sizes scattered all around, but it wouldn’t be the least bit exaggerated to say a corner of this Sea of Death held a much greater area than all of these volcanoes combined.
Even an almighty Monarch would immediately turn pale when a discussion arose regarding the Sea of Death; it was a place that none dared to approach.
The activity of the fire element in this place was far beyond the limit of any profound practitioner’s imagination.
After Yun Che checked up on the Little Demon Empress’ condition, he immediately heaved a huge relieved sigh. Under normal conditions, even if he activated the Great Way of the Buddha with his full strength, it would still be difficult for him to stop the Little Demon Empress’ life from slipping away. But right now, since nature energy was ten times richer in this place, not only could he swiftly heal her injuries, he could also safely ensure she’d preserve her life… Even though her lifeline had been broken, as long as he did not lose access to the energy of heaven and earth, the last remnants of her vital energy would not fade away.
Now, he no longer worried whether he and the Little Demon Empress could survive. However, they could not leave the Sea of Death for now as it was extremely likely that Duke Ming and Duke Huai were waiting for them just around the corner. Yun Che began to focus and observed his surroundings… It was as though he had entered a world that consisted solely of flames because there was nothing else here other than an extreme fire element blazing in his vicinity.
As he possessed the Evil God’s Profound Veins and the Evil God’s Fire Seed, Yun Che had a perfect affinity with the element of fire. No matter the strength of a flame, as long as it was composed of pure flame energy, it would not bring him the slightest bit of harm. Even if he faced an extremely abstruse fire-based profound art, he would be able to handle it easily within a short period of time… However, this was the first time he had come in contact with such an intense environment of fire ever since obtaining the Evil God’s Fire Seed.
To other people, this was truly the sea of death.
But to Yun Che, whose inclination with fire nearly reached perfection, this was instead a paradise.
Yun Che held out his hand and it passed through the protective barrier, disappearing within the sea of fire. Immediately, what rushed into his body was not only the energy of heaven and earth but also an extremely rich and thick fire energy. It responded to the affinity he had with fire and it quickly rushed into his arm. Before the inducement of the Evil God’s Profound Veins themselves, it automatically spread towards his profound veins.
This was an extremely wondrous sensation that words could barely describe.
But what caused Yun Che to be truly astonished was that the fire energy retained all of its concentration and potency as it spread towards his profound veins, and it seemed that it did not want to leave as it slowly entrenched itself in his profound veins. As the fire energy slowly merged with his body, it caused his profound strength to undergo a slight… but completely noticeable growth.
The fire energy in this place… could actually be absorbed… and directly converted into profound strength?!
Refining and absorbing a fire spirit could increase one’s profound strength. However, without even taking into account the rarity of fire spirits, if a profound practitioner wanted to refine even a single one, it would require a significant amount of resources and effort, and it would even come with a great amount of danger as well. But at present, Yun Che had only absorbed some fire energy from this place yet it actually caused his profound strength to increase… This was simply outrageous! This was definitely something profound practitioners of this world could not possibly comprehend.
Moreover, not only did this process come with no side effects or risks, there was not even a trace of pain or difficulty involved at all.
Yun Che placed the barrier solely around the Little Demon Empress’ body before he submerged half his body into the sea of flames. Immediately, the thick and rich fire energy seemed to be inexorably drawn towards him and multitudinous streams of fire energy arose all around him as they rushed towards his body. The fire energy flowed into every artery, vein and drop of blood in his body. He induced the fire energy to circulate through every nook and cranny of his being, and gradually, he felt his whole body and even his soul enveloped in a thick and extremely warm sensation, as if all his blood and cells were starting to burn.
It felt as though he had morphed into a spirit of flame.
In these years with the Evil God’s Fire Seed and the Phoenix flames in his possession, he had never experienced such a delicate sensation.
In the end, this fire energy obediently rushed into his profound veins and began to circulate and slowly merge with them…
Yun Che’s current feelings were undoubtedly that of extreme joy and astonishment. He divided ten percent of his concentration to maintain the barrier around the Little Demon Empress, another ten percent to infuse the energy of heaven and earth into her body, and used the remaining eighty percent to absorb and guide the blazing hot, boundless, thick and rich fire energy that originated from this Sea of Death…
Even to a strong profound practitioner who could look down on all mundane things, this extremely high-class fire energy was the essence of death for them. At this moment, however, it was being greedily absorbed by Yun Che as tonic of the highest grade… Streams of fire energy began to circulate in his body twice, then thrice… and after the third circulation, Yun Che’s profound energy had already increased by ten percent and he had become completely immersed in the process.
As his profound strength was in the process of being strengthened, Yun Che could vaguely sense that his understanding towards the laws of fire had undergone some sort of faint and indistinct change.
Jasmine naturally observed Yun Che’s activity and current status. She focused on him right now, and her eyes ceaselessly flashed with astonishment. After a long while, she muttered to herself in a low voice, “The legends were indeed correct… This Sea of Death is a place that isn’t even supposed to exist on this plane. It actually went as far as to trigger the heaven-defying ability of the Evil God’s Profound Veins…”
“It is simply the world’s most shameless cultivation method that draws the resentment and envy of all others.”
“And the reason why it had not been triggered before is because the levels of those flames he had come into contact with previously were simply not high enough…”
“If he one day arrives at the Flame God Realm, and enters the Ancient Inferno Burial Ground of Gods…”
Jasmine did not make a sound so as to avoid disturbing Yun Che. Instead, she simply wordlessly observed every single change that occurred to his body… The Evil God, the most unique god that had existed in the mythological era of the primordial gods, did not belong to any faction and was not controlled by any other god. He did not even respect the primordial God Emperor and he was even unwilling to comply with the laws of primal chaos. The power that the Evil God left behind had been extremely elusive and when it had finally surfaced once more, it had driven countless people to engage in a crazy struggle… until it finally landed in her hands.
At the same time, it had nearly cost her own life.
But in the end, it was Yun Che who had inherited it.
Moreover,in the span of just a few short years, the strength of the Evil God’s power and its ‘heaven-defying’ attribute that allowed it to ignore to laws of heaven and earth were beginning to show themselves… such as being able to grant complete elemental immunity, such as being able to combine the two completely polar energies of fire and ice, and also such as being able to directly absorb elemental energy and make it a part of one’s own strength.
Or perhaps, the way he could easily endure the legacies of all his various divine powers was also because of the Evil God’s unique ability to ignore all natural laws.
Profound Sky Continent, North of the Blue Wind Nation.
“This place is the Snow Region of Extreme Ice?” A middle-aged man who was robed in green and looked to be around fifty years of age spoke as he looked at the boundless icy world before him, “The scenery isn’t all that bad.”
“This should be your first time ever stepping foot into the Blue Wind Nation, correct?” A purple-clothed old man said placidly as he stood by the side of the green-clothed man.
“Hmph!” The green-clothed man gave a cold and dull snort and his eyes glinted with deep arrogance and contempt, “If not for the instructions of the Young Master, why would I even deign to step into this lowly space. However, with such scenery to admire, coming here wasn’t a complete waste of time after all.”
This was a party of twenty people and the ones leading it were the green-clothed man and the purple-clothed senior. They were dressed in tight clothes of a single color and no distinctive feature or symbol could be seen on their attire.
But what was truly shocking was that all twenty people released a profound aura that was undoubtedly incomparably frightening. Especially the green-clothed man and purple-clothed senior, their bodies clearly exuded the aura of the Tyrant Profound Realm… and it was an aura that approached the mid stages of the Tyrant Profound Realm. Even the weakest of their followers exuded the aura of a level eight Throne!
The strongest person in the Blue Wind Nation, Ling Tianni, was a level six Throne, yet any one of the twenty people present was greater than him! Any one of them had the qualifications to rivaled in the entire Blue Wind Nation. These two Overlords were terrifying existences that were akin to gods in the Blue Wind Nation, they could easily blot out the sky of Blue Wind’s profound cultivation world with one hand.
“If you want to admire the scenery, you will have more than enough time after we complete our mission.” The purple-clothed senior said in a bland voice, “Frozen Cloud Asgard is nestled within this icy region, after we have found that girl called Xia Qingyue, we can return to give the Young Master our report.”
The green-clothed man looked ahead and the direction in which he was looking so happened to be where the Frozen Cloud Asgard was located. This boundless snowy region showed few signs of human life but given the spiritual perception of a Tyrant Profound Realm Practitioner, directly locking on to the location of the Frozen Cloud Asgard within this spacious and empty place definitely was not a hard task. He smiled merrily as he said. “I heard that Frozen Cloud Asgard is one of the four great powers of the Blue Wind Nation and it is only inferior Heavenly Sword Villa. But it seems like the strongest individuals are only at the Emperor Profound Realm, and there aren’t even more than two or three of these Emperor Profound Realm combined. An inferior land is in the end, only an inferior land. I simply cannot fathom why the Young Master would want us to attend to such a trivial matter.”
“Stop complaining already.” The purple-clothed old man said solemnly, “The Young Master has clearly said that this girl, Xia Qingyue, is extremely important to him. If not for the fact that the bottleneck of his devil art had suddenly loosened and required him to go into confinement, the Young Master was even prepared to personally take action. So it should be clear just how important this matter is to the Young Master!”
“Moreover, this mission is far less easy than you seem to believe!” The purple-clothed senior’s expression grew grave, “The Young Master said that Xia Qingyue is twenty-two years of age, yet her appearance is only that of a sixteen or seventeen year old and that she was christened the number one beauty in all of Blue Wind. Besides this, we do not have any other clues. Frozen Cloud Asgard has two to three thousand disciples, and they are all reportedly outstanding beauties, if they insist on not pointing out who Xia Qingyue is, it will definitely not be an easy task to differentiate all of them.”
“Moreover the Young Master has strongly emphasized that we must take Xia Qingyue back alive, and it would be best if we did not harm a single hair on her head! If Xia Qingyue dies, then our heads will also roll once we return! So before we determine who Xia Qingyue is… we cannot be too heavy handed towards any of the female disciples and all our actions must be taken with the utmost caution.”
“Hahahaha!” The green-clothed man gave a great laugh, “When a savage tiger hunts wolves, there will still be an element of risk. But when a fierce tiger rampages among lambs, can there still be any possibility of us suffering a setback? We cannot lay our hands on any young disciples so we will start from the ones who are older and we will slowly kill their sect leader and all their elders, forcing Xia Qingyue to surrender herself, it is that simple. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just knock out every single one of them and bring them all back. Three thousand ice beauties, the Young Master will definitely be delighted if he sees them.”
“Anyways, I’ve also heard that the armies of the Divine Phoenix Empire are less than five hundred kilometers away from Blue Wind Imperial City, so in the matter of a few months, this Blue Wind Nation will be completely done for. Heh, there must also be something wrong in the head of the Divine Phoenix Empire, for them to burn with such anxiety that they would actually mobilize their entire army in a bid to quickly conquer this inferior country which is lacking in resources. And they even signed a nonaggression pact with the other five nations. Could it be because they were humiliated by the Blue Wind Nation during the Seven Nation Ranking Tournament, that they were driven into a frenzy of rage?”
“These are no matters which require our attention.” The purple-clothed senior swiped his hand across his face and immediately his face was covered with a layer of dense, white fog, “Frozen Cloud Asgard is two hundred and fifty kilometers, we can begin our operation. I will repeat myself again, do your utmost to not not expose your identities, these are the Young Master’s orders.”
“Yes!” Their followers all sounded out at the same time and they also swiped their hands across their face, using profound energy to hide their appearances.
The green-clothed man performed the same actions and said disdainfully, “I hope this Frozen Cloud Asgard can bring us some surprises, maybe they’ll even sacrifice some precious treasure and ruffle my clothes a little bit… if not, it’ll simply be too boring.”
Before he had even finished speaking, all twenty of them had taken flight and they darted towards the direction of Frozen Cloud Asgard, quickly disappearing into the boundless sea of snow.