He took the last Profound Ice Sable Fur from his Storage Bag and draped it over her. His fingertips accidentally brushed her bare hand.
"Hold on a little longer. Once we reach the foot of Nether Mountain, we'll find the Teleportation Array."
Lin Taichu's voice, wrapped in true qi, reached Meng Qi's ears and dispelled some of the cold.
He looked up at the faintly pulsing dark-blue lights beneath the distant ice. They were the warning rune arrays set by the Blood Robe Sect, flickering erratically now that the Sect Master had been captured.
Meng Qi suddenly tugged at his sleeve and pointed to a protruding black rock at the edge of the icefield. "Taichu, look. It seems like there are words on that stone."
As they drew closer, Lin Taichu discovered that the rock's surface was carved with dense ancient seal script, blurred beyond recognition by years of wind and snow.
He circulated Phoenix True Fire to illuminate the stone's surface and finally made out the eight characters at the top—"Netherworld Bead hidden, revealed only by blood sacrifice."
"The Netherworld Pavilion Master said the bead was lost in the Blood Robe Sect. Could it be..." Lin Taichu's heart gave a violent jolt.
He had once read about the Netherworld Bead in the Su Family Ancient Records. It was a supreme treasure capable of controlling the Yin Energy in the earth veins of the Ten Thousand Year Icefield. Rumor had it that the bead was covered by a blood-red crystal shell and required a special bloodline to activate it.
Meng Qi suddenly pointed at a corner of red light visible within a crack in the rock. "Look over there!"
With a wave of his hand, Lin Taichu shattered the rock. A bead the size of a pigeon's egg rolled onto