It took three days to travel from Shrek City to the edge of the Far North.
Mu Chen first took a carriage to Frost Town, a border town at the northernmost edge of the Heaven Dou Empire. Then he continued north on foot, crossing a hundred-mile stretch of the Ice-Sealed Forest before finally entering the Far North proper.
The farther north he went, the colder it became. The vegetation beside the road changed from coniferous forest to low shrubs, then to moss clinging to the frozen earth. At last, even the moss disappeared, leaving only an endless white wasteland.
The Crimson Flame Bead rested against his chest, radiating steady warmth. But against the Far North's bitter cold, where temperatures hovered between minus fifty and sixty degrees, that warmth was like a match in a blizzard. It could barely keep his body temperature from dropping below freezing. What truly allowed Mu Chen to venture farther in was Old Tang's intervention.
"Clear your mind and hold your breath. I'll conceal your presence." Old Tang's voice rang out in the Sea of Consciousness. The golden figure raised his right hand, and a gentle golden barrier spread from Mu Chen's Sea of Consciousness, enveloping him completely.
The barrier blocked out the cold and concealed his human scent. In the Far North's core region, even the slightest unusual presence could draw the attention of a Soul Beast that had lived for ten thousand years or more. Without this protective barrier, Mu Chen would have been torn to pieces before he reached the edge of the core region.
"How long can this barrier last?" Mu Chen asked.
"Three days." Old Tang's answer was brief.
"For three days, the Soul Beasts of the Far North won't be able to sense you. But after that, the barrier will dissipate. You must finish what you came to do and leave the core region before then. With your Soul Power at level forty-nine, if your presence is exposed in the core region, you'll be staying here forever. You don't need the likes of the Snow Empress or Ice Empress to take action; any high-ranking Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could kill you."
In truth, Old Tang simply wanted Mu Chen to hurry. With him around, he could extend the barrier for as long as he wanted.
Mu Chen nodded and quickened his pace.
The farther north he went, the stronger the wind became.
The wind on the ice plains didn't blow against him—it slammed into him, carrying tiny ice crystals that stung his face like countless needles.
The snow beneath his feet changed from soft powder to a hard crust of ice. Every step rang out with a muffled echo.
Before he left Shrek last year, he had been at level forty-five. Over the past year, the hidden benefits of their fused cultivation had gradually emerged. As his Soul Power grew purer, his level had risen naturally, taking him from level forty-five to forty-nine—a four-level breakthrough in less than a year.
Any teacher in the Outer Academy would have called that pace terrifying.
Now, the blue Soul Power pool in his dantian had filled to the brink of a breakthrough. He was only one level away from touching the threshold of Soul King.
That was one of the reasons he had dared to come to the Far North.
Mu Chen walked across the ice plains for two whole days. From Frost Town to the outer reaches of the Far North, then to the border of the core region, he crossed frozen river valleys, climbed ridges buried beneath ancient glaciers, and skirted several Soul Beast lairs that radiated a terrifying presence.
Once, an Ice Ridge Demon Wolf more than ten meters long walked past an ice mound less than a hundred meters away. Its icy blue eyes swept over the spot where he stood and lingered for three seconds before it turned and left. Old Tang's barrier had hidden him from every one of its senses. To the wolf, Mu Chen was no different from a chunk of ice-covered rock.
On the morning of the third day, he entered the core region.
The cold in the core region of the Far North could no longer be described as mere cold.
The temperature had fallen so low that even the air seemed to liquefy. Every breath felt like inhaling shards of broken glass.
The Crimson Flame Bead's glow had dimmed until it was almost invisible. The cold beyond Old Tang's barrier seeped through in thin wisps, coating Mu Chen's blue hair with a fine layer of frost.
Yet the instant he set foot on this land, he could still feel that aura—an aura that pierced his bones and made his soul tremble. It came from the deepest reaches of the frozen earth beneath his feet, from the summit of the tallest ice peak in the distance, and from the howling winds all around him.
The Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North.
Old Tang's voice rang out in the Sea of Consciousness, carrying a rare note of solemnity. "There are at least ten Soul Beasts in this place with cultivation bases exceeding fifty thousand years. Ten or more. Every inch of the frozen earth beneath your feet belongs to some terrifying being."
"I know," Mu Chen said. He didn't stop walking.
"You know, and you're still going farther in?" Old Tang's voice held a trace of helplessness. "Sometimes I can't tell whether you're brave or just trying to get yourself killed."
"Neither." Mu Chen stopped atop a low ice mound and surveyed the terrain. A range of ice mountains stretched to the northwest. To the southeast lay a broad, open ice plain. Three hundred meters straight ahead yawned a bottomless crevasse.
"I'm here to do business. Business calls for sincerity. Standing at someone's doorstep and calling out is better than skulking around outside and peeking in."
He took something out of his Storage Soul Tool Bracelet.
Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow.
The translucent marrow radiated a gentle blue glow in the frigid wind of the Far North. Rings of light rippled outward, as if a pebble had been tossed into a still lake.
In an instant, the surrounding cold grew several times more intense. Ice crystals in the air converged on the marrow at a visible speed, forming a thin layer of frost across its surface.
Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow could only form in the deepest reaches of an ice spring that had existed for ten thousand years or more. It was a priceless treasure of heaven and earth.
It took a thousand years to form and ten thousand years to develop its marrow. The ice energy it contained was so pure that it was a holy treasure coveted by every ice-attribute Soul Beast.
Mu Chen had obtained a total of forty-five pieces from the bottom of a well in the Earth Dragon Sect in Dragon City—enough to drive any ice-attribute Soul Beast wild.
He held the marrow in his hand and stood quietly, waiting.
The wind suddenly stopped.
It wasn't that the wind had died down. It had stopped.
Only an absolute, suffocating silence remained between heaven and earth.
Then that aura descended.
It didn't surge in from any one direction. It came from all around him at once—from the sky above, from the frozen earth below.
This was no ordinary cold. It was something more fundamental, a chill that belonged to the end of all things. It was as if the dead of winter had been compressed into a single point, then driven deep into his marrow.
The moment Mu Chen's Soul Power came into contact with the aura, it began circulating on its own. The Mysterious Heaven Skill surged to its limit, and the blue Soul Power pool in his dantian roiled violently, barely keeping the cold from invading his meridians.
Under the pressure of that aura, the golden barrier around him gave a faint series of cracking sounds, like ice groaning beneath an unbearable weight.
A beam of emerald light descended from the sky.
It landed on the ice plain in front of Mu Chen. There was no explosion, no thunderous crash. It simply melted a round crater, several meters across, into the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice covering the frozen earth. The ice at the bottom was smooth as a mirror, reflecting the slow-turning leaden clouds above.