Chapter 101: Frost Spirit Water
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Amidst the dark and stormy night, two monstrous creatures on Demon Mountain fought with increasing ferocity.
Perched atop a paper crane, the two elders—one clad in black, the other in white—watched anxiously as the battle neared its end. Yet, seeing Jiang Chen seemingly lost in thought, they dared not disturb him.
After a while, an unusual chill rose from the mountain. The battling white turtle and black serpent suddenly changed their expressions. The serpent coiled around the turtle’s body, while the turtle pressed down on the serpent. They entwined in a strange posture, each restraining the other.
At the same time, the cold energy that should have dissipated was instead trapped within their intertwined forms. The turtle and serpent opened their mouths simultaneously, greedily drawing in the chill, each afraid the other would consume more.
It was at this moment that Jiang Chen finally withdrew his spirit from wandering.
“Mist and rain shroud the vast expanse; turtle and serpent lock the great river. Motion and stillness reside within; stillness within motion,” he murmured.
As the turtle and serpent intertwined, the secret art of guarding the heart through their combined essence that Jiang Chen had been cultivating reached a new level of perfection.
“This Demon Mountain truly holds marvels,” he thought, his mind clear and free of hesitation. With a gust of wind, he rose into the air.
Seeing this, the two elders swiftly followed. Meanwhile, the turtle and serpent, still intoxicated by the sensation of absorbing the cold energy, suddenly regained clarity.
A hiss and a growl broke the silence. The turtle demon and serpent demon glared fiercely at the intruders who had interrupted their cultivation. Yet, wary of each other, neither dared to strike first, each fearing a sneak attack or that the other would seize the opportunity to absorb more of the cold energy.
This hesitation was the opening Jiang Chen needed. With the crane’s cry piercing the sky, the turtle and serpent demons faltered momentarily. In that instant, a pure white sword light tore through the storm before them.
Life and death hung in the balance. The demons’ hearts shattered as they tried to react, but it was too late. The sword light flashed, piercing their protective demonic auras, each receiving a red mark on their foreheads—and they died.
In the next moment, the sword light reversed, and Jiang Chen appeared atop the mountain.
“The mastery of the Qi Thread Technique has greatly enhanced my control over the Immortal Crane’s Crying Needle. Not only has the effective range extended to two hundred paces, but its power has also increased significantly. I wonder how it will evolve at the perfect level.”
His gaze fell on the two demons, still entwined in death’s embrace, their faces frozen in unwilling repose. Jiang Chen felt no great emotion.
At twenty-one energy orifices, he had already used the Immortal Crane’s Crying Needle to slay Luo Qiao, who had just achieved the Qi Refinement stage. Now, with thirty orifices cultivated and the Qi Thread Technique perfected, killing two demons with only ten orifices each was hardly a challenge.
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Of course, if the two demons had not guarded each other so cautiously, he might have needed more than one strike. But that was the way it was; these two creatures were mediocre at best, lacking formidable bloodlines or powerful spells, their cultivation relying only on mixed qi.
Jiang Chen had long assessed their strength. Had they truly been powerful, the two elders would never have been able to fight them evenly.
“Soul Illumination!”
Binding the souls of the two demons, Jiang Chen began to probe their memories. Yet he gained little, for even the demons themselves were unaware of what secrets lay hidden within Demon Mountain. They had only remained because of the benefits they drew from it.
“I want to see what this mountain truly conceals.”
Spreading his perception, Jiang Chen traced the source of the chill by following the demons’ memories.
After some time, the two elders arrived, having pushed their paper crane to its limits.
They stared at the fallen black serpent and white turtle, their faces betraying shock that could not be hidden.
“Dead… dead?”
Their pupils contracted, and the concentrated true energy in their palms began to wane. This was completely unexpected.
They had prepared for a hard battle. Their original plan was for both of them to hold one demon, allowing Jiang Chen to focus solely on the other. If Jiang Chen could slay one, the tide of battle would turn.
But reality had been different. Jiang Chen moved first, and the two demons died. As longtime rivals of the serpent and turtle demons, the elders knew their strength well. While not the strongest among their peers, they were far from weak. Especially their true energy, which contained a strange chill that made their spells troublesome—one slip and an opponent could fall victim.
“It’s not that the turtle and serpent demons are weak—it’s that our sect leader is too strong.”
Suppressing their shock, the two elders looked towards Jiang Chen’s retreating figure, their faces filled with reverence. The more they interacted with him, the more extraordinary he seemed.
“A hidden dragon lies beneath the depths. Whether it was us before or outsiders, we all underestimated the sect leader. With him, the Taiping Sect might one day rule over Qingyuan County.”
Thoughts swirled; the white elder, always contemplative, pondered deeply in this moment.
Jiang Chen paid little heed to their thoughts. At this time, he had already pinpointed the source of the chill. Through true energy detection, he roughly identified the treasure nurtured within Demon Mountain.
“Centennial Mystic Ice—a first-grade spiritual material used in forging magical artifacts. Though not highly valuable, it is rare in the southern four counties. But the true treasure lies within this ice.”
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“Who would have thought this place nurtures a cold-attribute spiritual water?”
Turning over this thought, Jiang Chen seemed to glimpse something beneath the thick ice and snow.
In the next instant, with a flick of his sleeve, sword light appeared again, slashing multiple times. Each strike targeted a weak point in the soil layer. As his final sword fell, the ground trembled as if a house had lost its beam. Thick ice and rock shattered, revealing a fissure before Jiang Chen.
At the deepest point lay a grinding stone-sized ice stone, shimmering faintly with a pale, bluish glow—the Centennial Mystic Ice.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen’s eyes shifted slightly, confirming his earlier guess.
“Rise!”
With true energy flowing, countless threads wove together, forming a hand that lifted the extraordinarily heavy Mystic Ice from the crevice.
As the ice touched the ground, a chilling aura burst forth. The two elders, standing somewhat nearby, instantly felt their blood flow freeze. Their faces whitened with frost as if frozen solid, and they staggered back, terrified.
Only Jiang Chen, shielded by his true energy, remained unaffected.
“Frost Spirit Water—a rare first-grade spiritual substance containing yin-cold power, excellent at freezing blood and qi. Cultivators with true energy protection can resist it, but warriors without such protection risk being frozen alive, their flesh and bones torn apart.”
Seeing the true form of the spiritual water contained within the Mystic Ice, Jiang Chen confirmed its identity. It was a translucent blue with sparkling snowflakes drifting inside, exquisitely beautiful.
“No wonder the turtle and serpent demons fought endlessly here. They were using their duel’s force to shake the glacier, slowly siphoning the dissipating power of the Frost Spirit Water.”
Enlightened, Jiang Chen understood their strategy.
This Frost Spirit Water was hidden beneath the glacier. Without strong perception, it would be difficult to locate and extract accurately. With the two demons evenly matched, neither could overpower the other, so they resorted to this method of drawing power.
Though slow, it was steady and safe. After all, this Frost Spirit Water was not easily absorbed.