Two days later, hardly anyone still dared to follow Xia Xuan. Only a few powerful, seasoned masters remained, along with the leading factions strong enough to compete with him.
The weaker Rogue Cultivators and small and mid-sized factions had either perished in the snowstorms of the Far Western Lands or slunk back to West City, no longer daring to covet the Sunflower Ice Spirit Object.
Standing atop his carriage, Xia Xuan glanced back at the empty ice field. A satisfied smile curved his lips.
In just two days, he had used a map and the natural hazards of the Far Western Lands to eliminate thousands of rivals without shedding a drop of blood himself.
Those fools thought following him would bring them an easy prize. Little did they know that, in his eyes, they were nothing but expendable scouts sent to test the dangers ahead.
Xia Xuan looked back at the Jade Slip in his hand. As he studied the final stretch of the route to the Sunflower Ice Spirit Object, a determined gleam crossed his narrow eyes.
One last dangerous region lay ahead. Beyond it was the Sunflower Ice Spirit Object.
Then he glanced at the scattered streaks of light still trailing him. His smile turned colder.
Beyond the valley shrouded in blizzards, the landscape of the Far Western Lands changed once more.
The frozen ground grew uneven. Great fissures appeared underfoot, crisscrossing like cuts made by an ancient giant's axe. Their depths were impossible to see.
White cold air billowed from the fissures and condensed into tiny ice crystals.
The deeper they went, the more numerous the fissures became. Eventually, the land resembled a shattered mirror, with countless chunks of ice floating between the cracks to form winding bridges.
Xia Xuan's carriage stopped before the broken terrain. The