After recuperating for several days, Five Swords Lord took Azure Wave Scholar Sui Xinyi and headed for the ancient immortal ruin overseas—the Nether North Divine Palace.
The Dark Ice Divine Palace was an ancient immortal ruin of great renown in the outer seas. The palace stood upon a stretch of sea ice, and was itself built from mystical ice, resembling countless ice sculptures in an extremely solemn sight.
The ice field was also dotted with crystalline trees, trees that had been frozen since an age long past. Their branches spread out canopies covered in frost. Between the ice trees stood patches of mossy frozen earth several meters high, while great masses of ice and snow piled atop one another in uneven heaps, tangled together with the arching roots of the crystalline trees.
Amid the many ice trees, enormous grayish-brown blocks of ice intertwined with gnarled roots, forming a towering round arch. Within the shadows beneath that arch stood a bronze gate, deeply buried below an icy hollow, its surface carved with rough, ancient patterns.
There were no seams in the bronze gate. It seemed to be a single whole—or rather, a solid wall of bronze.
Before the bronze gate stood a short, plump Daoist with unusual features, dressed in a broad-sleeved robe. Beside him stood Liao Man, the sect master of the Blood Shadow Sect.
"Fellow Daoist Five Swords, this is Fellow Daoist Xiantianzi of the Five Elements Devil Palace."
Liao Man hurriedly made the introduction.
"So you are Fellow Daoist Xiantianzi. I, Five Swords, have long admired your great name, but have never had the chance to meet you."
Five Swords Lord offered a few polite courtesies.
"You flatter me, Fellow Daoist. I, Xiantianzi, have no particularly illustrious reputation in the cultivation world. Your words truly overpraise me."
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