Obtaining Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow, The Mutated Ice Extremity Divine Crystal

Snow Empress moved at an astonishing speed. With every step she took, an icy stair seemed to form beneath her feet out of thin air, carrying her through the sky before swiftly vanishing as though it had never existed.

Yan Hongchen was held in her hand. The howling wind rang beside his ears, while icy plains and mountain ranges rushed past before his eyes. The biting cold struck his face, yet it was kept at bay by the aura surrounding Snow Empress.

"Senior Snow Empress," Yan Hongchen spoke at the right moment, pointing at the terrain below as it gradually came into focus. "Go a little farther and find somewhere to put me down."

Snow Empress said nothing. She merely adjusted her direction slightly and flew toward where Yan Hongchen had indicated. The surroundings were utterly silent, save for the whistling wind. In the distance, Dragon City's outline flickered in and out of view beneath the dusk.

Snow Empress loosened her grip and set Yan Hongchen on the ground. Once his feet touched solid earth, Yan Hongchen let out a long breath and rolled his shoulders, which had grown somewhat stiff from being carried.

He looked up at Snow Empress. Her peerlessly beautiful yet cold face appeared ever more unreal beneath the twilight.

Snow Empress felt slightly uncomfortable, but she remained composed. "Is there anything this Empress needs to be aware of?"

Yan Hongchen pointed toward the north of Dragon City. "That Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave is located at the Earth Dragon Sect north of Dragon City ahead. There's a cold spring over there."

"Senior Snow Empress possesses the power of space, so you probably won't need my method for unlocking it. Still, I should tell you the specifics."

Yan Hongchen calmly and methodically explained the Earth Dragon Sect's restrictions. Snow Empress listened in silence, staring intently at the tiny human before her as turbulent waves surged through her mind.

After he finished, Yan Hongchen simply stood there quietly. He neither explained himself nor continued speaking, as if those words had exhausted all his courage.

A complicated emotion welled up within Snow Empress after hearing him out. She had seen countless humans: those who begged humbly for mercy, those who resisted desperately, those who were cunning and deceitful, and those who were foolishly arrogant.

But she had never seen one like this—a child speaking eloquently before her, casually tossing out a secret capable of shaking the entire Extreme North, then stopping at precisely the right moment...

After a moment of silence, she slowly spoke. "How do you prove that the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow truly exists?"

"Hearing is false; seeing is believing." Yan Hongchen met her gaze. He believed that witnessing something personally was better than merely hearing of it, and Snow Empress had no need to fear that the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave would have any effect on her.

Among all beings in the world, only the Ice and Snow Empresses could currently enter the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave. Although their ultimate ice had yet to reach absolute zero, it was still enough for them to enter and obtain the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow.

Snow Empress stared at him, then suddenly smiled softly. The smile was so faint that it was nearly imperceptible, yet it was the first time in all this while that she had shown such an expression to a human.

"Fine," Snow Empress said. "This Empress will trust you once. I'll go take a look first. If there truly is Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow, this Empress will still need some time to obtain it. Find somewhere to stay for a while. This Empress will come find you afterward."

Snow Empress was not afraid that Yan Hongchen would run off. In her senses, his aura was gentle, his soul power completely sealed, and judging by his height and appearance, he likely did not even possess a single soul ring. Not to mention that Jing Hongchen and the other two were still in the Extreme North.

North of Dragon City, night had deepened. Moonlight poured like mercury over the streets and alleys of this frontier town.

Snow Empress and Yan Hongchen landed soundlessly in an area of low residential houses, surrounded by crisscrossing narrow alleys.

Yan Hongchen looked around. Only after confirming a place to stay did he tell Snow Empress, "Senior Snow Empress, I'll wait here."

Snow Empress followed the direction of his finger. "Wait here," she said, with no emotion in her voice. "This Empress will return shortly."

Yan Hongchen nodded without objection. Snow Empress flashed away and disappeared into the night. Yan Hongchen watched her leave, closed the door, and waited quietly for news.

Meanwhile, Snow Empress's figure had already swept silently through Dragon City's streets. Following Yan Hongchen's directions, she quickly found the Earth Dragon Sect. Built against the mountainside, the sect was especially quiet in the night.

A few lights could occasionally be seen within the sect, marking the locations of disciples standing night watch. But to Snow Empress, they were no different from ants.

She crossed over the sect's buildings and reached the depths of the back mountain. Soon, a cold spring appeared before her. Its water was crystal clear, yet it had not frozen despite the subzero cold.

Visible white chill mist drifted over the spring's surface. The gurgling spring water flowed down along the mountain slope, freezing into layers of ice atop the rocks.

Snow Empress dove straight into the spring. Beneath the cold spring lay another world. She swam downward, and the deeper she went, the stronger the chill became. But to her, such cold felt no different from a spring breeze.

Snow Empress knew that spiritual power was useless here, so she could only inspect what lay ahead with her eyes. When she sensed an abnormality ahead, she controlled her body and shrank herself somewhat.

Then she slipped inside. It was a very small cavern, only about ten square meters in total and less than one and a half meters high.

Within this cavern stood many strange ice pillars. At a glance, she could see roughly a dozen of them, crisscrossing one another in varying sizes. Every ice pillar was pure white.

Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow!

After thoroughly inspecting the place, Snow Empress discovered that there were far more than that—forty-five in total. She began tracing a slight arc before herself, her ten slender jade-like fingers sketching through the air.

Deep-blue patterns of light rippled, shifted, and gathered in midair, forming strange snowflake-like runes. Snow Empress stopped only after drawing enough ice-flower runes.

"Go!" Snow Empress called softly. The ice flowers drifted forward soundlessly and landed one by one upon the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow.

At once, all the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow within the cavern lit up. The ice flowers, originally white as jade, gradually turned deep blue as the mysterious ice marrow shone.

At a certain moment, all the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow collapsed simultaneously. The ice flowers floated up, shrank in the air, and finally transformed into several ice-flower bracelets that wound around Snow Empress's left and right wrists.

After clearing out the place, Snow Empress turned to leave. But just as she was about to step out of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave, she halted and looked back. Deep within the cavern, a faint, unusual gleam was visible.

Snow Empress's senses were keen, but this hint of gold seemed to have surfaced only after all the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow had vanished. She approached it, infused it with soul power, and pulled it free. A fist-sized crystal fell into her palm.

Its main body was a crystalline ice-blue, but at its core, a golden glimmer slowly flowed.

A mutated Ice Extremity Divine Crystal!

Snow Empress could sense that the ice-element power contained within this crystal was closely connected to her Ice God Bloodline. She would take it for now.

She put away the strange crystal, stepped out of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave, and headed for the cave dwelling. The Ice Extremity Divine Crystals outside could not be left behind either—she would take them all!