Chapter 176 : Upon the Ice Plain
Upon the ice plain, a vista of snow and wind stretched endlessly, with fierce gales carrying massive snowflakes that crashed into their faces.
The group consisted of cultivators whose physical constitutions far surpassed those of ordinary mortals, having long reached the point where they feared neither heat nor cold. But just as the little white tiger had felt the scorching heat in the desert, the cold in this secret realm's ice plain seemed enhanced by some unknown force. The frigid air seemed to penetrate through the crevices of their bones—not only affecting their flesh and blood bodies, but even causing their high-grade magical robes to lose their basic temperature-regulating effects.
Bei Luo exhaled hot breath onto his frozen hands, grumbling involuntarily: "What kind of place is this? It's not just freezing—it even prohibits flight! Fortunately, we haven't encountered any spirit beasts along the way; otherwise, fighting would be troublesome."
Bai Xu was probably the most composed person in the group. He cupped a small flame in his hand, with warmth continuously spreading from his palm throughout his body: "Senior Brother, stop complaining. Weren't you quite happy when we dug up the Frost Rhinoceros Horn from the ice abyss earlier? The ice plain may be cold, but it's not short of treasures. Once we leave and exchange these resources, it'll be more substantial than anything else."
This assessment was quite apt, and Bei Luo didn't refute it. He just envied Bai Xu's casual demeanor as he walked with that flame in his hands. He moved closer to warm himself by the strange fire and shamelessly suggested: "It's too cold. Why don't you enlarge this strange fire, Brother, so everyone can warm up?"
Bai Xu sighed helplessly. Though he had indeed tamed this strange fire, maintaining even this small flame in such cold weather consumed a large amount of spiritual energy. He was already taking pills to sustain it; how could he make it larger? Speaking of which, he felt somewhat envious of Yun Qingyue—not only did she have an ice spiritual root that made her immune to cold, but she was also carrying the fluffy Jianbing, which looked so warm!
In reality, Jianbing wasn't warm at all. The little white tiger, watching the swirling snow and wind before her, felt as if her entire body was about to freeze solid. Her limbs curled up in Senior Sister's embrace as she silently erected a spiritual energy barrier to block the wind and snow, yet she was still severely chilled.
Seeing this, Yun Qingyue rummaged through her storage ring for a long while before finally finding several fur cloaks—these cloaks were made from the fur of the Crimson Flame Lightning Marten. Despite its impressive name, this creature was merely a third-grade spirit beast. However, the Crimson Flame Lightning Marten's fur was exceptionally beautiful, soft, and lightweight, making it highly favored by female cultivators.
With Senior Sister Yun's cold temperament, she would never specifically purchase these fur cloaks that were good for nothing but appearance. However, she had raised many Junior Brothers and Sisters who occasionally brought gifts back for their eldest senior sister when they went out. Unknowingly, she had accumulated several of these marten fur cloaks.
Now Yun Qingyue took out these cloaks, unsure of their effectiveness, and after putting one on, she wrapped the little white tiger inside it as well.
The effect of the marten fur cloak was surprisingly good. Although Yun Qingyue herself had an ice spiritual root and didn't fear the severe cold of the ice plain, she felt a noticeable warmth the moment she donned the cloak. This surprised her slightly, but she then unhesitatingly took out the remaining cloaks and shared them with the others.
Bei Luo was the first to refuse. He looked at the fire-red beautiful cloak, measured it against his body, and finally smiled while touching his nose: "Junior Sister Yun, I know you mean well, but this isn't necessary. It's not that Senior Brother finds your cloak too feminine, but with my height, your cloaks simply wouldn't cover me." Besides, if fifth-grade magical robes were ineffective, what use would the fur of a third-grade spirit beast be?
However, everyone else accepted the cloaks, not only to acknowledge Yun Qingyue's goodwill but also because she wasn't one to act without purpose. If the cloaks were useless, she wouldn't have bothered taking them out.
Sure enough, as soon as the others touched the fur, they felt a long-absent warmth, and they expressed their thanks as they put them on.
Bei Luo looked at one person, then another, and noticed that even Bai Xu had put away his strange fire flame. He immediately realized these cloaks were indeed effective. Hurriedly smiling awkwardly, he accepted the last one: "I'll graciously accept Junior Sister's kindness."
The little white tiger, nestled in Senior Sister's embrace with only her head exposed, rolled her eyes dramatically at this.
Bei Luo saw this but didn't take it to heart; he had contradicted himself first. Yun Qingyue, however, noticed and lightly tapped the little white tiger's head, softly admonishing: "Don't make such uncouth gestures. It's unsightly."
The little white tiger flattened her ears backward and made a grumbling sound in her throat, obediently retreating into the cloak.
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While the Xuanqing Sect group and the two monks were struggling through the ice plain, there were others in the same ice plain who were in an even more desperate situation.
On the vast ice plain, two figures supported each other as they trudged forward with great difficulty. Facing the bone-chilling headwind, each step was extraordinarily arduous. Occasionally, they would trip over ice blocks hidden beneath the thick snow layer and fall. If they were unlucky and failed to hold onto each other, both would tumble and roll in the snow, ending up covered from head to toe.
At this moment, the two had just fallen and lay disheveled in the snow, not moving for a long while. Were it not for the warm breath they exhaled and their slightly rising chests proving they were alive, one might have mistaken them for two corpses collapsed in the snow.
After a long time, one person struggled to rise and forcefully pulled at their companion: "Senior Brother, Senior Brother, get up quickly. We need to keep moving."
The person lying down paused for a moment longer, finally exhaled a long breath, and with their companion's help, struggled to their feet.
After a brief rest, the two once again supported each other and continued their journey across the seemingly endless ice plain. These two bedraggled figures were none other than the unfortunate duo who had recently parted from Yun Qingyue's group: You Yi and Ruan Le.
After separating from Yun Qingyue's group, the two had rejoined their sect-mates—unlike Xuanqing Sect and Buddha Sect, because Tiandao Sect had been the first to discover the Canglán Secret Realm, they had sent the most disciples in. So even with some missing or in trouble, You Yi had checked and found that there were still quite a few fellow disciples left, enough when gathered together to resist the pursuit of demonic cultivators.
With this belief, he had confidently led his Junior Sister away from the Xuanqing Sect team and subsequently met up with nearby Junior Brothers as planned. Everything had seemed fine, but on the very night of their reunion, You Yi discovered he had been poisoned.
The person who poisoned him was his Junior Brother, or more accurately, his Junior Brother who had been turned into a puppet!
This discovery had horrified You Yi, and he soon realized that he and his Junior Sister were once again surrounded by demonic cultivators. The feeling of despair at that moment aside, after a bloody battle, the brother and sister pair had barely broken through the encirclement. Finally, in their disoriented escape, they had accidentally arrived at the ice plain and, thanks to the numerous restrictions of the ice plain itself, had barely managed to shake off their pursuers.
However, the demonic cultivators could catch up at any moment. With one poisoned and one injured, it was already a miracle they had come this far. As for where to go next and how to escape their predicament, the two had no plan at all.
Ruan Le's breathing grew heavier, her footsteps increasingly sluggish, and even heavier than her breathing and footsteps was her heart: "Senior Brother..."
You Yi's face was pale with a tinge of dark blue. The continuous fighting and fleeing had left him no time to expel the toxins in his body. His remaining spiritual energy was used to suppress the poison, making his steps increasingly faltering: "Mm, Senior Brother is here. It's alright."
"Senior Brother..." Ruan Le called again, her voice filled with confusion and helplessness.
You Yi knew what she was thinking. This Junior Sister, who had grown up pampered and protected in the sect, had never experienced such setbacks. But since entering the Canglán Secret Realm, not a single moment had gone well for her—when she wasn't being chased by Flame Fire Scorpions, she was being hunted by demonic cultivators. It was bad enough that she was unfortunate, but she had also dragged her senior brother down with her. The self-reproach in her heart was beyond words.
It would be a lie to say You Yi didn't harbor any resentment or regret, but at this point, his Junior Sister had remained loyal to him through thick and thin, so he couldn't really say he was angry. He sighed inwardly but showed no trace of it outwardly, saying to Ruan Le: "Don't overthink it. Senior Brother is poisoned and injured now and still needs your care."
Hearing this, a glimmer of light seemed to reignite in Ruan Le's dark eyes, and she nodded firmly.
With injuries and poison limiting their strength, coupled with the difficult terrain of the ice plain, the two soon fell silent. Besides the howling wind, there were no other sounds until they heard two resounding beast roars.
You Yi paused his steps, looking up in the direction of the sound, and said with a pale bluish face: "There are spirit beasts ahead. We can't fight them; let's change direction."
Ruan Le nodded, and as she and You Yi supported each other to turn around, she suddenly spotted several black dots slowly approaching in the distance. Her expression immediately changed, and she anxiously told You Yi: "Senior Brother, it's bad—those demonic cultivators seem to be catching up again."
You Yi heard this and looked back, immediately cursing silently. Disregarding everything else, he pulled his Junior Sister and hurriedly rushed toward the direction of the beast roars—judging from the two roars they had heard, there was clearly more than one beast. Hopefully, two beasts were fighting each other, allowing them to slip away in the chaos and escape the pursuit of the demonic cultivators.
At this moment, You Yi dared not consider whether, given their streak of bad luck, things would actually go as planned.