A month later.
On this day, Chen Changming was just getting ready to visit the White-Clad Woman in Ice Prison when a familiar voice suddenly reached his ear. "Jiang Lingyin and I are going to the mountaintop today. Your friend can make a move."
The one who sent the message was Ning Bingyue.
"At last, it's starting."
Chen Changming licked his lips, then quietly turned back from the entrance to the hall.
He summoned the Cold Nether Spider and gave it careful instructions. Then he had it hide in his shadow, and the pair left Extreme Yin Mountain, sneaking all the way to Heaven-Reaching Snow Mountain.
Heaven-Reaching Snow Mountain was a restricted area of the Ice and Snow Palace.
The Sect Master Hall of the Ice and Snow Palace stood halfway up the mountain, while the Medicine Garden Chen Changming was heading for sat roughly a thousand zhang above it.
Though Heaven-Reaching Snow Mountain was heavily guarded, Chen Changming was a Nascent Soul Realm Body Cultivator skilled at concealing his aura. He first sent the Cold Nether Spider to scout the way, then used short-range teleportation to advance.
It didn't take long for Chen Changming to draw near the Medicine Garden like a ghost.
By then, the Cold Nether Spider had already crept to the entrance.
The Medicine Garden was shrouded by a grand formation that shimmered with layers of hazy light. Eight elders at the sixth layer of the Nascent Soul Realm stood guard at the gate.
Four stood upright, warily sweeping their eyes over their surroundings.
The other four sat cross-legged, quietly cultivating.
The Cold Nether Spider leaped from the shadow of a rock near the gate to the shadow of the garden wall, then leaped again into the shadow of one of the four elders sitting cross-legged.