Near the Dragon's Lair

After resting for a while, Cao Xiaochun summoned Xiao Qiang again. Traveling on foot through this freezing snowfield would make it difficult for them to reach the designated location within two days, so Xiao Qiang served as a temporary means of transportation.

Li Hanyi and Hong Jianjun, riding on Xiao Qiang for the first time, were initially somewhat afraid. After all, this monster known as a gu had shocked them far too many times over the past while.

But once they were seated securely, their fear turned into curiosity. Especially after Cao Xiaochun released a barrier-like layer from his hand to separate them from Xiao Qiang's skin, Li Hanyi learned that the toad's skin was covered in deadly poison.

"Let's go, Xiao Qiang!"

Cao Xiaochun let out a breath of stale air, then patted Xiao Qiang's enormous head and gave the order quietly.

"Croak!"

With an enthusiastic response from Xiao Qiang, it leaped heavily forward, its massive body instantly shooting ahead. Its astonishing speed even gave Li Hanyi a slight sensation of weightlessness!

[Abyss Toad killed a Level 6 Snow Wolf. Experience +6]

[Abyss Toad killed a Level 8 Snow Ape. Experience +8]

[Abyss Toad killed a Level 7 Frost Snow Snake. Experience +7]

...

[Ding! Level increased to Level 6]

[Cao Xiaochun. Black Iron Rank]

[lv6(32/800]

Strength: 35

Speed: 42

Spirit: 160

Xiao Qiang raced all the way forward, naturally encountering monsters that tried to attack them along the road. Yet it never slowed down. Instead, they were directly poisoned to death by the phantoms of the Five Poisons surrounding it, all becoming experience for Cao Xiaochun's level-up!

Thus, the three people and one beast charged in the direction indicated by the map. If anyone else had seen this sight, they would surely have been stunned.

Xiao Qiang was enormous, and the monsters it killed were usually left with nothing but skeletons. Some did not even leave behind whole corpses, showing just how vicious its poison was.

Since when had such a monster appeared on the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Mountain?

After traveling for a full day and a half, the three remained on Xiao Qiang's back the entire time aside from eating and taking necessary rests. If Xiao Qiang's Five Poisons barrier had not blocked most of the icy wind, Li Hanyi felt she would have frozen into an ice pop!

Hearing the sudden roar of machinery not far ahead, Cao Xiaochun frowned. Their purpose had been to come here and investigate, yet within this monster-filled dungeon, they had encountered a sound that could only be produced by modern machinery!

This made him even more certain that the sudden blizzard was far from simple!

"Looks like someone got here before us. Let's go take a look. Be careful."

Listening to the sounds ahead, Cao Xiaochun exhaled softly, recalled Xiao Qiang, and led Li Hanyi and Hong Jianjun slowly forward.

After walking roughly half a kilometer, the three peered ahead from behind a stone wall. Two men and one woman in black robes stood at the center of a basin, while a massive mech was forcefully digging into the ground.

Nine students, both male and female, had been thrown onto the ground and tightly bound. Judging by their appearance, they had already passed out.

A pit three meters deep had been dug into the ground, revealing more than half of a structure resembling an altar.

Cao Xiaochun used the Eye of Truth on the three black-robed people before him, and several pieces of information quickly appeared before his eyes.

[Zhang Heng lv26. Mechanic]

[Zhang Xiaohua lv25. Flame Mage]

[He Taining lv24. Greatshield Warrior]

Seeing their levels and classes, Cao Xiaochun frowned deeply. Why were three mid-Silver Rank professionals in the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Mountain dungeon? And they had even kidnapped students. They clearly had not come for the lord.

"Look at those people's uniforms on the ground. They seem to be from First High School. Those three don't seem to have good intentions."

Li Hanyi had also noticed the situation ahead and spoke quietly. This grand examination involved all students in H City, so it did not seem strange for students from other schools to appear here.

But these three mysterious people clearly seemed to be up to no good.

"They're preparing a sacrifice to summon the ice dragon's dragon soul!"

Just as Cao Xiaochun's group was puzzled, movement suddenly came from the snow not far away. The disturbance nearly made Hong Jianjun cry out, but Cao Xiaochun reacted quickly and covered his mouth.

Once they clearly saw the person crawling out of the snow, they immediately relaxed. It was Xu Laoba and Li Wenbin!

"Laoba, what are you doing here?"

Seeing that both men's lips had frozen purple, Cao Xiaochun looked rather surprised. What exactly was going on?

"Don't even mention it. It's all Laoba's fault. When we first came in, he took a liking to a snow ape cub and insisted on stealing it. We ended up being chased by a pack of snow apes the whole way. Not only did we get nothing, we nearly died in that blizzard."

Li Wenbin looked on the verge of tears. Their team had only just entered the dungeon, and before they could even collect any ice essence, they came across a snow ape habitat.

After seeing it, that bastard Xu Laoba actually set his sights on one of their cubs and immediately wanted to sneak in and steal it. But just as he got his hands on it, the cub's mother discovered him, and the entire group immediately began hunting them down!

Those students who had awakened life-type classes had never encountered such a situation before. Before long, all of them withdrew, leaving the two of them to be chased all the way until they threw down the cub and finally shook off their pursuers.

"Fuck you, you monkey-brained bastard! If it weren't for my brilliance and wisdom, would you have known this was the resting place of the ice dragon Skasa?"

Hearing Li Wenbin's complaints, Xu Laoba spat viciously, waving the beast hide in his hand with a look of defiance.

It turned out that when Xu Laoba stole the cub, he had found this rather unusual-looking beast hide and brought it out with him as well.

After the two escaped danger, they discovered that it was actually a map, along with records left by its original owner about what lay within.

Its original owner had been an adventurer with a combat-class profession. After obtaining the map, he began analyzing it, and after more than a decade of research, he finally uncovered its secrets.

It turned out that after ten powerful experts severely wounded Skasa, the ice dragon had remained asleep within the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Mountain, splitting off half of its power to form a dragon soul that guarded it.

After that, many professionals came searching for Skasa's whereabouts, but all ultimately returned empty-handed. Skasa seemed to have vanished from the world.

Because of the dragon soul's unique traits, even mighty experts far stronger than it were unable to destroy it. Left with no alternative, the imperial palace could only dispatch two feng shui masters to build another altar and seal it away.

After learning this information, the two immediately decided to abandon the idea of taking the exam and head straight here to see whether they could pick up any leftovers. After all, this had once been a dragon's nest—what if they found some great treasure?

But as soon as they arrived, they discovered that someone had already begun acting. They had even witnessed those students being kidnapped!

Cao Xiaochun ignored the two's quiet bickering. He merely took the beast hide from Xu Laoba's hand and examined it carefully.