We had reached our destination—the Seven Sacred Mountains Ad had mentioned.
We stood at the foot of the mountain, yet we had no idea what to do next.
Should we continue up the mountain, or wait here?
That middle-aged man had not appeared, nor had he left us any further clues.
I asked Ad, "Do you know where that thing is?"
Ad thought for a moment. "I suppose I do. The prophet said there's a cave halfway up the mountain. That thing should be inside it."
"This isn't truly uninhabited land. After all these years, can you guarantee no one has come here and taken it away?"
"I can't guarantee that no one has ever entered that cave, but I can guarantee no one could take that thing away. It was sealed by three Great Prophets of our Snow Tribe back then. No one but a Great Prophet of our tribe can undo that sealing technique!"
I asked curiously, "Can you tell me what it is?"
"Snow Soul Essence. It's different from the Yin Yang Chaos Bead on you. It's only useful to our Snow Tribe. Do you know why it's becoming harder and harder for the Snow Tribe to reproduce? It's because of Earth's climate. The temperature rises year by year, and that not only affects our reproduction—it will eventually directly threaten the lives of our Snow Tribe. The Snow Soul Essence may not be able to change Earth's overall climate, but it can keep a certain area in extreme cold. The most comfortable temperature for our Snow Tribe is between minus twenty-seven and minus thirty-five degrees. Even on this Snow Domain plateau, only a very few places can reach such temperatures, and only for a very short time. But with it, we can keep the temperature within a