"Should I just leave it here? Or... find a way to take some with me?"
Xue Chen scratched his head, feeling rather reluctant.
But then he realized he didn't have a suitable container to hold something this cold.
Just as he stood there, torn, staring helplessly at the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him!
"I can't use it... but Mom, Aunt Ice, and Xiao Bai can!"
The Snow Empress, Lord of the Far North, and Heavenly Snow Woman were born to wield Ultimate Ice!
The Ice Empress, a four-hundred-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, also revered ice above all! And Xiao Bai, a Titan Snow Demon Bear, was another top-tier ice-type Soul Beast of the Far North!
For any ice-attribute Soul Master or Soul Beast, this Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow was an unparalleled treasure—a heavenly resource that could transform them completely and send their cultivation soaring!
Especially Mom... Xue Chen recalled the Snow Empress mentioning that there was still some time before her next great tribulation.
He thought of how, in the original story, the Snow Empress had been captured by humans while transformed into a Soul Beast embryo, after sealing her own origins in a desperate attempt to break through the seven-hundred-thousand-year bottleneck.
Xue Chen wondered: if... if she had all this Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow and absorbed the pure Ultimate Ice energy within, surely it would greatly strengthen her foundation and power!
"Maybe this Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow could help Mom get through her seventh tribulation."
Xue Chen's eyes grew brighter and brighter. The disappointment in his heart was instantly replaced by intense anticipation and joy.
Though he couldn't use it himself, he could help his closest family grow stronger and improve their chances of surviving their tribulations! The thought thrilled him.
"I have to take it! I'll find a way, no matter what!"
Xue Chen clenched his fists, his gaze utterly resolute.
He studied the ice cave and the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow again, his mind racing as he considered how to harvest and carry away these icy treasures safely.
Xue Chen thought for a long while, but couldn't come up with a good method.
He tried prying some loose with his Dragon Claw, but even with all his strength, he could only scrape off a tiny bit of ice;
Worse, once the fragments separated from the main deposit, the Ultimate Ice energy within seemed to dissipate rapidly, greatly diminishing their effect.
"No good. Doing it by force is too inefficient, and I can't carry away much anyway."
Xue Chen shook his Dragon Claw and reluctantly abandoned the idea.
He tried another approach, his eyes lighting up again:
"I can't handle this alone, but I can call for help!
Once I get out and find Mom, collecting this Profound Ice Marrow will be a piece of cake for someone as powerful as her.
Then all the Profound Ice Marrow here will be theirs. It'll definitely make them much stronger!"
At the thought, the gloom in Xue Chen's heart vanished, replaced by excitement on the Snow Empress's behalf.
His top priority was finding a way out of the ice cave.
He stopped pining over treasures that weren't his yet and began searching the vast natural cavern carefully.
He walked slowly along the ice walls. The more he observed, the more astonished he became.
The cave was far larger and deeper than it had appeared from the entrance. Countless enormous clusters of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow crowded together like a blue crystal forest, stretching into the darkness in every direction.
Their faint blue glow merged into one, casting the entire underground space in a dreamlike light, while also radiating boundless energy.
"Good heavens... There's so much. Could all the Profound Ice Marrow the Far North has nurtured over countless millennia have piled up in this one place?"
The more Xue Chen looked, the more staggering the sight became. The quantity was simply beyond belief.
If word of this got out, every ice-attribute Soul Master and Soul Beast on the entire continent would go mad for it.
He picked his way carefully through the cave of Profound Ice Marrow, fighting off the omnipresent cold and staying alert for any unknown dangers.
After about the time it took an incense stick to burn, he had found nothing but ice, with no obvious exit in sight.
Just as he was growing discouraged and preparing to search in another direction, an extremely faint yet startlingly out-of-place sound drifted into his ears.
"Hmm?"
Xue Chen stopped at once, held his breath, and listened closely.
The sound came and went, so faint it was almost impossible to distinguish from the occasional cracking of the ice around him.
But Xue Chen was certain he hadn't imagined it. It sounded like... a low, rhythmic, strange noise?
"What the hell is that sound now?"
Xue Chen muttered to himself:
"In this godforsaken place, where not even birds shit, it's just me and these lumps of ice. Could there really be something else here?"
A chill crept up his spine, not from the cold this time, but from wariness of the unknown.
Any creature capable of surviving in such extreme cold was bound to be no simple thing. He didn't need to think twice to know that.
He drew a deep breath, tamped down his unease, and sharpened his gaze.
With a thought, his left hand transformed once more into a claw covered in blue dragon scales, ready for battle at a moment's notice.
Following the faint, intermittent noise, he crept forward, moving as quietly as he could.
The sound seemed to come from just ahead, from the entrance to a slightly smaller ice cave, partly concealed by several thick clusters of Profound Ice Marrow.
A faint blue glow shone from within that cave as well.
Xue Chen approached cautiously. The closer he got, the clearer the strange noise became.
When he finally reached the entrance and peered inside, the sound had become unmistakable—
"Snore... snore..."
A low, rhythmic... snoring sound?
Xue Chen: "???"
The wariness on his face was instantly replaced by utter bewilderment.
There was a living creature in there??? And... it was asleep, snoring?!
Deep in this frozen wasteland, surrounded by Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, there was actually a living thing—and it sounded like it was sleeping pretty soundly?!
The contrast was so absurd that Xue Chen's brain stalled for a moment.
He gripped his Dragon Claw tightly, his curiosity itching like a cat's claws.
Rising onto his tiptoes, he peered even more cautiously into the ice cave, eager to see what kind of immortal creature could sleep peacefully beside the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow.
Xue Chen held his breath, drew in his aura, and soundlessly slipped into the smaller ice cave.
The sight inside made him draw in another sharp breath;
The floor was scattered with quite a bit of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. There wasn't as much as in the main cavern outside, but there was still a great deal.
His gaze quickly settled on the depths of the cave.
There, a natural ice platform had formed.
A small mountain of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow had piled up atop it, its concentration and purity seemingly even greater than that of the deposits outside!
And the low, rhythmic snoring was coming from behind that little mountain of Profound Ice Marrow.
Xue Chen's heart began to race. He tightened his grip on his Dragon Claw and slowly crept closer, step by step.
When he finally circled around the dazzling blue crystals and saw what lay on the ice platform, he froze as if struck by lightning. His eyes bulged, and his mouth gaped wide enough to fit an egg.
On the smooth, icy platform, there was no terrifying, savage beast of the frozen wastes.
Instead... there was a worm?
A huge, white, plump, round, fleshy worm!
Before you continue