Chapter 985 – The Brink of the Divine Way
Ding… Ding… Ding…
The drops of water falling from the heavenly lake made the passing of time seem more fathomable. On the surface of the calm lake, the ice spirits that had been scared away originally were gradually calming down. Then, one by one, under the waves of calm energy that was generated with hard work, they were gradually approaching the different divine hall disciples in confusion and curiosity.
Attracting and controlling low level ice spirits were overly simple tasks to the divine hall disciples but due to the ice spirits within heavenly lake being too pure and their senses being too sharp, simply not being ostracized by them was already extremely difficult. Making contact and attracting them to one’s side, even if it were merely one ice spirit, were tasks far more difficult beyond their imagination.
Fifteen minutes passed… An hour passed… A divine hall disciple in the middle stage of the Divine Tribulation Realm finally managed to attract one ice spirit to his side. At this point, there were two ice spirits dancing around him. However their dancing was slow and the path of movement was constantly changing, as though they might leave at any time.
He let out a long sigh of relief as his concentration began to relax slightly. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the divine hall disciple closest to him only had one ice spirit dancing around. The person next to him had two ice spirits just like him. As his eyes swept around, he saw that there were people who already had three ice spirits.
His heart suddenly skipped a beat as his eyes saw Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue in the distance…
Beside the two of them, there were five ice spirits dancing around each of them. The ice spirits around them were much more lively and he could inadvertently feel the joy of these ice spirits.
The gap was too big… Not only were Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue the two best disciples of Ice Phoenix Divine Hall, they were far better than the rest. When talking about Ice Phoenix Divine Hall, anyone within the sect would only instantly think of Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue and not some other third person.
In this battle for the spot of direct disciple, everyone similarly only thought of Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue. The disciple ranked third in terms of talent… never even entered the picture.
He let out a deep sigh in his heart as he finally gave up. The two ice spirits that he had attracted with difficulty were being dispersed by him and he no longer cared about the ice spirits. Instead, he gathered his energy around his heart and began to use the cold energy of the lake’s water to refine his body and profound veins.
Nearly half of the divine hall disciples had completely given up at the hour mark. To chase after a glimpse of unlikely hope and wasting an hour of their time within the heavenly lake had already made them extremely regretful.
Two hours had passed and eighty percent of the divine hall disciples had already completely given up. However, there were still several hundred disciples who were still trying fervently.
All the elders and palace masters were also quietly absorbing the heavenly lake’s cold energy. However, they were not like the various disciples who completely concentrated but instead left half of their consciousness outside, observing the actions of the various disciples at all times. It was especially so for the ice phoenix palace masters since the disciples of Ice Phoenix Palace were relatively weaker. As time passed by, they would not be able to withstand remaining within the heavenly lake.
At the same time, they were all observing the unprecedented battle of ice spirits. The main points of focus were undoubtedly Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue.
The results were also not surprising. The two of them had attracted the most ice spirits. After two hours had passed, they each had ten ice spirits around them and were evenly matched. Although the other disciples had done all that they could, the next best only had seven ice spirits around them. Below that, those who had five ice spirits were also few and far between and the gap between them could be easily seen.
Amongst the seventy-two elders, there were two people who were not within the heavenly lake but instead were high up in the air—Mu Huanzhi and Mu Yunzhi. Mu Feixue and Mu Hanyi; one of them was the granddaughter while the other was the disciple. They were definitely exceptionally concerned and did not even have the heart to enjoy the lake’s cold energy. Mu Huanzhi was still relatively calm while Mu Yunzhi’s eyes constantly shone and her aura did not calm down even for a second. Her hands were clenched tightly together,only occasionally relaxing. Only her mouth remained constantly shut as she didn’t dare to let out any noise that might disturb Mu Hanyi.
“Judging from the situation now, ignoring the Ice Phoenix’s bloodline, Hanyi’s innate talent is not below Feixue’s. Attaining such results with a male body is undoubtedly a thousand year rare find,” Mu Huanzhi muttered to himself with deep lament. From the situation at present, the two were evenly matched. However, he was very clear that after six hours, if the two were still evenly matched, it would undoubtedly be Mu Hanyi who would win… The first reason was due to the fact that he was male. The second reason was due to the high praise that everyone sang for him and the respect that he had earned.
A cry of pain suddenly rang from below. At the edge on the heavenly lake, the body of an Ice Phoenix Palace disciple was twitching vigorously. His face was completely devoid of blood and he was starting to lose control of the cold energy that was entering his body and it was on the brink of going berserk.
The palace master of the Ice Phoenix Palace he resided immediately opened her eyes and flew from the heavenly lake, grabbing him and throwing him to the bank of the heavenly lake. Color instantly returned to the Ice Phoenix disciple’s face and he got up in shame before silently sitting down at side of the lake.
Each person’s profound strength, talent, physique, and ability to withstand the cold energy was different. Once a person’s limit was exceeded, they would have no choice but to leave. If one forcefully tried to re-enter the heavenly lake, they would injure himself instead. However, the cold energy at the side of the lake which was much “gentler” was still exceptionally valuable and no time should be wasted.
As time passed, more and more disciples were starting to be unable to bear the heavenly lake’s cold energy. They could only leave the heavenly lake and come to the bank to calmly refine and maintain the benefits that they had reaped today.
Furthermore, even the Ice Phoenix Palace disciple who stayed in the heavenly lake for the shortest amount of time, a mere two hours, could clearly feel as though he had been reborn.
Refining the pure cold energy from the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake was far superior to even consuming thousands of elixirs.
Gradually, four hours had passed. All three thousand five hundred disciples from Ice Phoenix Palace had been forced out of the heavenly lake and remained at the bank of the lake. Within the heavenly lake, only the various disciples from the divine hall still remained.
Due to the tremendous lead that Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue had, there were fewer and fewer disciples trying their best to attract ice spirits. From a few hundred to several dozen to the final few… When the final divine hall disciple opened his eyes, he saw that around both Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue had twenty ice spirits dancing around them. When he looked up and only saw fourteen ice spirits surrounding him, he became disheartened and sighed lightly. Accepting his fate, he waved his hand, instantly dispersing all the ice spirits around him.
There were no lack of geniuses in the world. However, there was an insufficient number of unparalleled geniuses. In front of these unparalleled geniuses, the other geniuses could only become the supporting cast.
Two-thirds of the way into this battle of ice spirits, it had already completely turned into a battle between Mu Hanyi and Mu Feixue… This result however, was completely unsurprising.
Yun Che did not know any of this. At this time, he was already in an extremely unique… or perhaps strange, world.
The channeling of the Great Way of the Buddha caused the cold energy within the heavenly lake to enter Yun Che’s body through the pores of his body at a rate beyond human comprehension. The other disciples had used their profound energy to lead the cold energy to enter their bodies to refine their bodies and profound veins but Yun Che was directly guiding the energy into his profound veins. As more and more cold energy entered his body, the flow of profound energy within his body and profound veins became even faster. Yun Che’s consciousness completely sank as he focused on guiding the external cold energy to fuse with his own profoudn energy.
Under such conditions, as his consciousness sank more and more, he could no longer feel the flow of time. Just like this, after an unknown amount of time had passed and the profound energy circulated up to a thousand cycles, it suddenly stopped. All the profound enegy completely stopped moving and it was so calm that it seemed as though time itself had suddenly stopped.
Yun Che’s consciousness was suddenly stunned. Then, the profound energy surrounding him suddenly surged, like a raging stream that was returning ferociously into his profound veins. His consciousness also entered his profound veins but even before he could see if there were any anomalies, a loud noise echoed throughout every corner of his consciousness.
At the core of his profound veins, it seemed as though something had exploded and the inner world of his profound veins became chaotic. Pale white mist filled it entirely and this mist moved about crazily, continuously dispersing and gathering. Occasionally, it flashed with a blue glow. Occasionally it surged with flames. Occasionally it flashed with purple lightning. Occasionally it was completely black.
Just like a small world that had suddenly fallen apart due to a calamity…
In the end, it completely fell apart and all the origin profound energy in his profound veins dispersed, rushing away…
This shock was not trivial either. The dispersion of the origin profound energy… this meant that one’s cultivation thus far had gone down the drain. To any profound practitioner, this was undoubtedly a nightmarish scene. Despite his shock, Yun Che suddenly realized that speaks of strange starlight shone at the center of his profound veins that was swiftly becoming empty.
It was like a nebula in the dark sky that was shining weakly, yet the speaks were exceptionally mysterious.
An unusually mysterious feeling suddenly spread from within his body and consciousness. This feeling was peculiar and indescribable. It was a feeling as though… everything was being upgraded, like one’s entire body and soul were now in a world completely unlike before. As if they were enjoying the aura and hearing the voices of another world…
Within his profound veins, the four colors, blue, red, purple and black lit up once again. The strange nebula at the center was also spinning slowly. With each round, it would grow larger and the glow of the stars would also become brighter. At the same time, the strange feeling within his body became even more intense. His veins, skeleton, blood, hair, and even every single cell throbbed with intensity… Even his consciousness was constantly capturing different images.
These images began from when he was sixteen. They began from the day his profound veins were restructured, replaying every step he treated on the profound way…
All the training, every breakthrough, every unusual encounter, every danger, every peril, every life and death situation…
Within these images, it was as though he had walked through his entire life once again. Eight years… from the perspective of the profound way, eight years was but a very very short amount of time. However, all the life and death encounters he had experienced would probably exceed what others would experience within a thousand lives…
At the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake, up in the sky above the enormous Frost Dragon, a strong gaze suddenly shot downwards from behind the mist and landed on Yun Che.
At this time, Mu Bingyun also turned and looked at Yun Che in a flash… On him, countless profound streaks of profound energy were being released but did not disperse. Instead they turned into a ring shape and spun rapidly around him, causing the surrounding air to also turn chaotic.
At the same time, his body began to tremble violently and ripples that seemed like water ripples appeared on his body.
Yun Che and Mu Xiaolan were extremely close to one another and the intense change in aura caused Mu Xiaolan to jolt back to consciousness. She saw Yun Che’s condition and was about to say something when Mu Bingyun’s voice rang in the depths of her soul, “Don’t say anything… he’s about to break through!”
Mu Xiaolan reached up with her hand and pressed strongly on her lips before retreating carefully. Her pupils expanded as she stared wide-eyed at Yun Che.
Yun Che’s transformation instantly attracted the attention of all the Ice Phoenix Palace disciples on the side of the lake.
This was no ordinary breakthrough.
It was a profound practitioner’s advancement from the mortal realm into the divine realm!
It was a true advancement and rebirth!
Finally, for the first time, Yun Che who had arrived in the Snow Song Realm three months ago, under circumstances that he completely did not expect, was taking his first actual step into the divine way.