Parting ways

The Profound Yin Sect's sect gate stood in the northern Yunhai Spirit Plain, in a strange region shrouded year-round in faint gray-black mist.

At its heart lay a deep pool named the Nether Moon Cold Pond.

No one knew its depth. Its waters were dark, and even in daylight, its surface reflected no bright skylight, instead shimmering with a pale blue radiance as cool as moonlight. An eerie chill flowed ceaselessly from the pond, keeping the surrounding temperature lower than the outside world throughout the year.

The Profound Yin Sect's buildings surrounded the Nether Moon Cold Pond like stars clustered around the moon.

Its pavilions and towers were mostly built from dark stone or cold-natured spirit wood, their style austere and uncanny. Frost-coated bone ornaments or wind chimes often hung from the corners of their eaves.

Thanks to the rich, pure water and ice attribute Spiritual Qi emanating from the Nether Moon Cold Pond, this place was undoubtedly a cultivation holy land for cultivators with the corresponding spirit roots.

Thus, most disciples of the Profound Yin Sect possessed water or ice spirit roots, and most of their cultivation methods and law techniques leaned toward cold and yin, giving the sect a distinctive place in the Qingzhou Cultivation World.

A year earlier, Su Chan's rather outstanding metal-water dual spirit root talent had caught the eye of a Profound Yin Sect steward traveling outside, who had brought him into the sect.

In one year, he had risen from a mortal with no foundation to Qi Refining Layer Four, entering the mid Qi Refining stage. This speed already placed him among the best outer disciples. Combined with his background as a prince-though it counted for nothing in the cultivation world, it was still something of a talking point among newly admitted disciples-it had