Behind the enormous stone gate, there was no murky current like he'd imagined, nor were there monsters swarming in packs.
There was only silence—and a chill that cut to the bone.
Lu Chen leaned against the door, gasping for breath.
The battle had been brief, but far more perilous than any fight he'd ever had on shore.
If the door hadn't suddenly opened and released a wave of freezing air that drove back the terrifying Water Ghost King, he would probably have been skewered right through by that enormous Bone Fork.
"Phew..."
Lu Chen let out a breath.
The white mist had barely left his mouth before it turned into tiny ice crystals that pattered to the ground.
So cold!
The temperature here was dozens of times lower than in the depths of the Angry River outside.
Even with his Iron Cloth Shirt at the Great Completion stage, and the double protection of Thick Skin and Bronze Skin, his skin still stung as if it were being sliced by knives.
A thick layer of frost formed over his eyebrows and hair in an instant.
Lu Chen circulated his qi and blood. The heat coursing through his body drove away some of the cold.
He straightened up and began surveying the interior of this so-called "Dragon Palace."
How could this be a ruin?
It was plainly an underground palace preserved in near-perfect condition!
The palace was vast, stretching hundreds of zhang across, with a soaring domed ceiling. Countless fist-sized Night-Shining Pearls were embedded overhead, giving off a faint, cold glow that illuminated the entire hall.
Neatly laid Cyan Jade Flagstones covered the floor, each one smooth as a mirror, reflecting the light from the pearls above.
There were no murals or reliefs on the walls surrounding the hall.
Instead, the walls were studded with countless black stones.
The stones were irregularly shaped. Some were as big as fists, others like human heads. They were black all over, their surfaces giving off a faint, dark gleam.
That terrifying chill was coming from these stones.
Lu Chen looked at them, and his heart skipped a beat.
A powerful instinct surged through him.
He hurried over to the wall, paying no heed to the bone-deep cold, and gripped one of the protruding black stones. Then he yanked hard.
Crack.
He wrenched the stone out of the wall.
The moment it touched his hand, an icy chill shot from his palm straight to his head.
[ Ding! High-tier spirit material discovered! ]
[ Item Name: Netherworld Stone ]
[ Tier: Mortal-Tier Top Grade (associated ore) ]
[ Description: A special ore born in places of extreme yin and cold. It contains pure Yin Fiend Qi and is an excellent auxiliary material for cultivating cold-attribute techniques. It can also be used to forge sinister weapons. ]
"Netherworld Stone!"
Lu Chen stared at the black stone in his hand, his eyes blazing with delight.
He'd found it!
He'd really found it!
The crucial ingredient that had plagued him for half a month, leaving him with a mountain of treasure he couldn't enter, was actually right here!
And there weren't just one or two pieces.
Lu Chen looked up and scanned the hall.
Every inch of the walls was studded with Netherworld Stones!
Thousands upon thousands!
This wasn't a Dragon Palace. It was a colossal treasure vault!
"I'm rich..."
Lu Chen murmured, grinning from ear to ear.
Outside, he'd offered a thousand gold coins as a reward and still couldn't get a single Netherworld Stone. Here, they were embedded in the walls like decorations.
The shock of such sudden wealth made the internal injuries he'd just suffered seem to hurt a little less.
He tried circulating his breathing technique.
He didn't deliberately guide the energy. Simply holding the Netherworld Stone was enough for its icy aura to seep into his body through his pores.
The qi and blood, restless from his injuries, quickly calmed under the soothing chill.
And the cold didn't harm him. Instead, it felt like taking a sip of chilled sour plum soup on a sweltering summer day, refreshing him from the inside out.
"It really works!"
Lu Chen's heart settled.
With these stones, the greatest obstacle to cultivating the Profound Nether Hand had been cleared away.
He didn't hurry to pry the stones from the walls. They weren't going anywhere; sooner or later, they'd all be his.
Lu Chen tucked the Netherworld Stone into his clothes and continued deeper into the hall.
The palace was huge, but its layout was simple.
Aside from the surrounding walls, there was only a stone platform in the center of the hall, raised above the floor.
A chair carved from a single piece of cold jade sat atop the platform.
And seated upon it was a skeleton.
Lu Chen gripped his Hundred Refinements Steel Saber and approached slowly, placing each step with care.
In this eerie place, the slightest carelessness could cost him his life.
But the skeleton was clearly long dead.
Its bones had turned a lifeless gray. Its clothes had long since rotted into dust, leaving only a few buttons and ornaments made of some unknown metal scattered across the seat.
Lu Chen stepped closer and examined it carefully.
This person must have been a powerful expert in life.
Though countless years had passed since his death, a faint pressure still clung to his bones, impossible to dismiss.
His right hand was clenched tightly around something.
It was a scroll of Beast Hide.
It was black in color, and made of the same material as the map in Lu Chen's clothes.
Lu Chen's gaze sharpened.
He didn't reach for it. Instead, he gently prodded it with the tip of his saber.
No mechanism.
No poisonous gas.
The skeleton's fingers crumbled at the slightest touch, weakened by the passage of time.
The Beast Hide slipped free and fell onto the cold jade chair.
Only then did Lu Chen reach out and pick it up.
It felt cool and slick as jade.
He took a deep breath and slowly unfurled the Beast Hide.
By the light of the Night-Shining Pearls overhead, he made out the contents.
There were diagrams showing the circulation of meridians, along with dense annotations in tiny script.
At the very top of the Beast Hide were four archaic characters.
Profound Nether Hand (Part Two).
"Just as I thought..."
Lu Chen's fingers trembled slightly.
He quickly pulled out the Beast Hide Map he'd obtained from Li Qingyi.
The edges of the two pieces were ragged, but when Lu Chen fitted them together—
They matched perfectly!
The severed meridian pathways connected in an instant, and the cryptic text became clear.
[ Ding! Related technique fragments detected! ]
[ Comparing... ]
[ Comparison successful! Profound Nether Hand fragment (Part One) and Profound Nether Hand fragment (Part Two) can be fused! ]
[ Fuse? ]
Lu Chen stared at the prompt on the panel, his eyes shining so brightly they were almost frightening.
"Fuse!"
He gave the command in his mind.
This time, there was no earth-shaking phenomenon.
The text on the panel simply flickered a few times, then rearranged itself.
A complete Spirit Tier technique, one that pointed beyond the Meridian Connecting Realm, appeared quietly before him.
Lu Chen let out a long breath.
This trip had been worth it.
Even the injuries he'd suffered, even the terrifying Water Ghost King waiting outside the door—it had all been worth it.
This was a Spirit Tier technique!
In a small place like Nujiang County, a Mortal Tier Superior martial art was enough to make countless people fight tooth and nail.
But Spirit Tier techniques were said to be the legacy of only the great clans in the Prefectural City and the sects in the Imperial Capital!
With this, he'd secured a ticket to the ranks of the strong.
Lu Chen carefully folded the two pieces of Beast Hide and tucked them against his body.
He turned and looked toward the entrance to the hall.
The stone gate hadn't closed all the way. A gap half a chi wide remained.
The river water outside couldn't get in, but the cold air inside kept pouring out through the gap.
Lu Chen walked to the gate and peered out through the crack.
The moment he saw what was outside, his expression darkened.
The Water Ghost King hadn't left.
It was crouched a dozen or so zhang from the stone gate, staring at the crack with its blood-red eyes. There was fear in its gaze, but greed outweighed it.
It was absorbing the cold air leaking through the gap!
Meanwhile, on the surface of the Angry River.
The large boat bearing the government lanterns was still pitching in the rapids.
Wang Xiaoliu was sprawled over the gunwale, eyes nearly bulging from his head as he stared at the whirlpool below.
"Why hasn't he come up yet?"
He stamped his feet in agitation. "He's been down there for almost half an hour!"
Zhao Gang stood beside him, his expression equally grave.
Though he had faith in Lu Chen's strength, the bottom of the Angry River was a forbidden zone, after all.
The muffled booms from underwater just now, along with the clouds of muddy water surging up in waves, all pointed to a fierce battle below.
"Captain Zhao, look!"
Suddenly, a sharp-eyed constable pointed at the surface and shouted.
Everyone followed his finger.
The river had been pitch-black, but now a layer of frost had appeared on its surface.
At the center of the whirlpool, white wisps of cold air were rising. A thin layer of floating ice had even formed on the water around it!
"What... what's going on?"
Wang Xiaoliu jumped in fright. "Why's it suddenly freezing? It's the height of summer!"
Zhao Gang scooped up a handful of river water.
It was bone-chillingly cold.
Like plunging his hand into an ice cellar.
"The yin energy below is leaking out."
Zhao Gang's face was grim. "This kind of cold... What could be down there?"
"Hall Master Lu is still down there!"
Wang Xiaoliu panicked. He grabbed a Water Splitting Dagger and was about to jump into the river.
"Don't move!"
Zhao Gang grabbed him. "You'd be throwing your life away if you went down now! The water's so cold an ordinary person would freeze stiff in an instant!"
"Then what do we do? Just stand here and watch?" Wang Xiaoliu shouted.
"Wait."
Zhao Gang watched the cold air billow upward and gritted his teeth. "If Hall Master Lu dared to go down, he must have a way to protect himself. If we make a move now, we'll only get in his way."
He said that, but he wasn't sure himself.
A phenomenon of this scale was beyond human power.
Lu Chen, don't you dare die down there.
Inside the Dragon Palace's main hall.
Lu Chen had no idea his companions above were worrying about him.
All his attention was fixed on the enormous creature outside the gate.
Something wasn't right.
After absorbing the cold air, the Water Ghost King seemed to be undergoing some kind of change.
Its formerly black scales now glimmered with a faint, dark-red sheen.
Its already massive body began swelling rapidly, as though it had been pumped full of air.
The muscles bulging across it were as hard as granite.
Even more terrifying was the Bone Fork in its hand.
The bone fork, once a ghastly white, was now tinged with black. Wisps of black Qi curled around it, making the sight of it send a chill through anyone who looked.
"Roar..."
The Water Ghost King let out a low growl.
It didn't sound like the beastly roar from before. Instead, it had the grating quality of metal scraping against metal, and the river water all around them trembled with it.
Lu Chen tightened his grip on the hilt.
He could feel the monster's aura growing stronger and stronger.
If it had only just crossed the threshold into the Meridian Connecting Realm before, now it was advancing toward an even higher level.
It was evolving!
Drawing on the pure Yin Fiend Qi leaking from the Dragon Palace, the Water Ghost King, a creature of Yin to begin with, was undergoing a complete metamorphosis!
"This is trouble."
Lu Chen furrowed his brow.
He had already tested his limits in their earlier fight. In the water, he was no match for this thing.
And now it had grown even stronger. How was he supposed to fight it?
Should he charge out?
That would be like walking straight into a trap.
The Water Ghost King was now like a guardian deity blocking the gate, barring the only exit.
The moment Lu Chen dared to step beyond the Stone Gate, a thunderous strike would be waiting for him.
"Damn it."
Lu Chen cursed under his breath.
Was he going to be trapped here until he died?
He glanced at the empty hall behind him.
It was safe here, but there was no food and no water.
Even as a martial artist with abundant vital energy and blood, he could last at most ten days or half a month.
Once he was too weak from hunger to move, wouldn't he die all the same?
Lu Chen took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
There had to be a way.
Heaven never sealed off every path.
His gaze fell once more on the Beast Hide in his hand.
Profound Nether Hand.
A Spirit Tier technique.
Netherworld Stone.
A place of extreme Yin.
All the clues connected in his mind, and a wild idea suddenly took shape.
If he couldn't get out, if he couldn't win—
Then he'd get stronger!
Right here!
Under his enemy's very nose!
Lu Chen turned around and looked at the Netherworld Stones covering the walls, a hard glint flashing in his eyes.
He had a complete technique right here, inexhaustible cultivation resources, and an environment perfectly suited to cultivation.
This was a cultivation paradise handed to him by the heavens!
As long as he could master Profound Nether Hand and cultivate the legendary "Profound Nether Cold Qi"—
Then it was anyone's guess who would come out on top!
"I'm going for it!"
Lu Chen gritted his teeth and returned to the cold jade chair in the center of the hall.
Carefully, he moved the skeletal remains to one side, then sat down in their place.
An even more violent chill surged over him at once.
Lu Chen didn't circulate his energy to resist. Instead, he opened himself up completely, letting the cold seep into his body.
He picked up a Netherworld Stone and gripped it tightly in his palm.
The panel unfolded.
[Complete Spirit Tier Lower Grade martial art Profound Nether Hand detected. Begin cultivation?]
"Begin!"
Lu Chen growled inwardly.
At that moment, he was staking everything on it.
Before you continue