Vessel of Worlds

The Bitter Cold Flood Dragon—its horns not yet fully grown, having only recently advanced to the tier-two rank—finally breathed its last under the cultivators' combined assault.

"What happened? The jade slip said Bitter Cold Pool only had tier-one high-grade beasts. How did a tier-two flood dragon end up here?" Andy asked, puzzled. His spiritual power was down to barely thirty percent, and he was slowly absorbing spiritual energy from a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand.

Golden Leaf Fairy let out a long breath and said with a frown, "We don't know either. We stumbled across it while searching the pool floor for ice spirit stones. This dragon probably evolved from serpent to flood dragon not long ago—advancing from tier-one to tier-two—or else it migrated here from somewhere else in Dragon Descent Valley."

"Are there other beasts at the bottom of the pool?" Andy asked, getting to the point that concerned him most.

Golden Leaf Fairy smiled faintly. "Don't worry, Junior Brother Zhao. If there were another flood dragon, what would have been the point of all our effort killing this one? Flood dragons are proud creatures by nature and don't live in groups. Even a mated pair goes its separate way after coupling."

She paused and addressed the exhausted group in a clear voice: "Why don't we all meditate here for a few hours? Once we've recovered some spiritual power, we can enter the pool again to search for treasure."

Though phrased as a suggestion, her tone carried an authority that brooked no argument. The cultivators from the various sects all found spots nearby and sat down to meditate.

Andy sat down as well, a mid-grade spirit stone in each hand.

For Qi Condensation cultivators, meditating with even a single mid-grade spirit stone was a luxury. That Andy was using two at once drew sidelong glances from everyone present, Golden Leaf Fairy included.

"Junior Brother Zhao is certainly well-off. But in Dragon Descent Valley, where you can never be sure of anyone's intentions, you'd do well to be more discreet. After all, cultivators killing each other for treasure has been a regular occurrence in every expedition." Golden Leaf Fairy's voice reached Andy's ears through a private transmission—a well-meaning warning.

This technique, known as Voice Transmission, was a common low-grade spell. Unless a cultivator with far superior spiritual power and spiritual sense happened to be nearby, no one could eavesdrop on a conversation conducted this way.

"Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister!" Andy nodded and replied through the same method. He hadn't had much contact with Golden Leaf Fairy, but Jian Xin'er had told him the woman possessed a rare, old-fashioned sense of honor—the kind of chivalrous spirit almost unheard of in the cultivation world. While Andy privately thought such a temperament was ill-suited to a world built on deception, he couldn't help but admire her for it.

"That jade seal artifact you used just now—its power is extraordinary, but the time it takes to charge is far too long. I imagine it's not very practical for ordinary combat." Golden Leaf Fairy suddenly shifted the conversation to Andy's Jade Mountain Seal.

Andy blinked, then said, "Senior Sister is right. That's exactly why this high-grade artifact has become more of a burden than a blessing. I rarely use it."

"I've read that this is because the materials used in its original forging were of insufficient quality, which limits how quickly spiritual power can be channeled into it. If you could obtain better crafting materials and reforge the seal, it might be possible to produce something both powerful and responsive." Golden Leaf Fairy's words caught Andy completely off guard.

He looked at her with unconcealed surprise. "I never imagined Senior Sister had studied artifact crafting so deeply. You put me to shame!"

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"You flatter me," Golden Leaf Fairy said with a slight smile. "I merely happened to come across a jade slip containing some notes on crafting from a senior cultivator. It's all theory to me. But I've heard from Junior Sister Xin'er that you're a once-in-a-century crafting prodigy. This jade slip would be far better off in your hands—keeping it with me is a waste of its potential." With a light touch of her finger, a red jade slip, just over two cun long, floated gently toward Andy.

Andy took the jade slip and sent a thread of spiritual sense into it. Sure enough, it contained detailed forging methods and practical insights for several rare artifact types—seals, mirrors, bells, and more. Judging by the content, the author had been a Core Formation cultivator of considerable skill. The slip included not only methods for crafting peak-grade artifacts but even accounts of forging dharma treasures, complete with firsthand experience.

Texts left behind by Core Formation cultivators were closely guarded secrets passed down within families and sects. They were almost impossible to find on the open market. That Golden Leaf Fairy had handed one over without a moment's hesitation moved Andy deeply.

He reached into his robes and produced a jade box, which he sent floating toward her with a gentle flick. At the same time, he transmitted: "Thank you for the jade slip, Senior Sister. It's genuinely invaluable to me. Inside this box is a pair of Mandarin Duck Shields I crafted myself—a matched set of one large and one small, one yin and one yang, each of a different attribute. They should serve you well for defense here in Dragon Descent Valley."

Golden Leaf Fairy paused in surprise, then opened the jade box. Inside lay two small oval shields, one gold and one silver—both high-grade artifacts, judging by their spiritual energy.

"Thank you, Junior Brother! It seems your crafting skill surpasses even the rumors!" Golden Leaf Fairy tucked the box into her storage pouch with a smile.

Since the two had conducted their entire conversation through Voice Transmission, the other cultivators meditating by the pool had no idea what had been said. They noticed the exchange of jade slip and jade box and were intensely curious, but none dared to ask.

Three or four hours later, with most of their spiritual power restored, the group prepared to enter Bitter Cold Pool once more.

"This flood dragon carcass is still mostly intact—I can use the materials for crafting," Andy said, addressing the group as he looked down at the dragon's body. "Here's what I propose: I don't need the beast core from its skull, but I'd like to keep the scales, bones, sinew, and other materials. I'll contribute three mid-grade spirit stones on top of that to compensate everyone. What do you say?"

"Junior Brother Zhao was the main force in killing this beast. The materials are naturally yours to keep," Golden Leaf Fairy said without hesitation.

The others coveted the rare beast materials, but none dared openly challenge the two strongest cultivators in the group. They could only nod in agreement, and a division of spoils was quickly settled.

The beast core went to Golden Leaf Fairy; the carcass materials went to Andy. Both of them put up three mid-grade spirit stones, giving one to each of the remaining cultivators.

Then, one by one, the group raised their various protective barriers and plunged into Bitter Cold Pool.

The water was impossibly cold. An ordinary person who so much as touched it would freeze solid in an instant. Even cultivators, shielded by spiritual energy, could feel the piercing chill cutting through their defenses.

Andy's outermost layer was a Water Screen Technique barrier—a water-attribute protective shield, the weakest of the five-element defensive spells. But it had a unique property: it blocked water while allowing air through, making it ideal for underwater travel.

Before long, however, the temperature dropped so steeply that Andy had to add a red, fire-attribute barrier inside the blue shimmer of the water screen, raising the temperature around his body.

Though they had fought the dragon as one, when it came to searching for treasure, everyone tactfully spread out. No one wanted to be crowded together with the others.

In these freezing waters, even spiritual sense could barely reach beyond ten zhang in any direction. Andy found this deeply uncomfortable, and his right hand closed around a golden shield, held ready in secret.

After descending several dozen zhang, the light grew dim. Andy produced two moonlight stones, each the size of an egg, and set them floating to his left and right to light the way.

The deeper he went, the denser the water became. The buoyancy grew stronger and stronger until, finally, he had to cast a Gravity Technique on himself just to keep sinking.

He descended several hundred zhang before his feet finally touched bottom. By the glow of the moonlight stones, he saw that the pool floor was covered in white rocks of every size. Faintly, he could sense wisps of ice-cold spiritual energy seeping up through the jumbled stones.

"No wonder the jade slip didn't mark the exact location of the vein," Andy murmured to himself. "The entire pool floor is a scattered ice spirit stone deposit. But the spiritual energy is so faint that the stones must be extremely sparse. I'll have to follow those faint traces of spiritual power and search slowly."