He pushed the strange thought out of his mind,
Lu Ran and the two women arrived beside a well deep in the back courtyard, where all was quiet.
It was called a back courtyard, but it was really a vast garden, filled with all kinds of rare flowers and plants. The climate in Dragon City was cold, though, so it couldn't rival the lush splendor of the tropics.
"..."
Ice Empress and Snow Maiden said nothing.
They simply stared into the well, whose ancient walls were built from some unknown black stone. The water shimmered with a chill.
They could both sense the strange fluctuations of energy.
"It's right underneath here,"
Lu Ran said slowly.
"There's a mechanism. There's a small protrusion on the stone wall. Pull it upward, then press the dent in the wall on the other side, and the mechanism will open, letting us enter the Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Cave."
Snow Empress and Ice Empress looked at Lu Ran at the same time, their gazes settling on his matter-of-fact expression.
As if he'd expected everything,
and knew every last detail.
Ice Empress couldn't wait. "Quick, quick, quick!"
Before she could finish, her petite figure sank into the well. Ripples spread across the icy surface, then quickly faded.
Snow Empress gazed at him with puzzled curiosity.
"Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow can only form in places of extreme cold. How did you get those four pieces before? Through the human method of auctioning them?"
Lu Ran met her gaze.
"I can take things from a distance."
"As long as I know where something is, I can get it..."
In truth, it was the Small World's teleportation ability. When Lu Ran had examined the fruit-bearing Soul Beast trees he'd transplanted, he'd sent entire swathes of them