Journey to the Land of Ice and Fire, Obtaining the Essence of the Immortal Herb

Three days after the banquet ended, Huo Chen left the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

He did not return directly to Shrek Academy. Instead, he headed southwest, flying through the air for roughly two hours before descending deep within a range of rolling mountains.

This place lay along the border between the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Star Luo Empire. The mountains were high, the forests dense, and human traces scarce. Huo Chen landed in an utterly unremarkable mountain hollow, his gaze sweeping over the moss-covered rock wall before him.

To others, it was merely an ordinary stone wall. Yet he could see an exquisitely intricate illusion array covering its surface, one capable of deceiving anyone below the rank of Titled Douluo.

Unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough to fool him.

He raised his right hand and lightly drew a line through the air with his fingertip.

A golden rift appeared soundlessly upon the rock wall, slowly pulling apart to either side and revealing a stone stairway that extended underground.

Warm, humid air poured from the passage, carrying a dense scent of vegetation and a faint sulfurous smell.

Huo Chen walked down the stone stairs. The farther he descended, the hotter and more humid the air became. Two utterly different auras intertwined within the passage—one frigid beyond measure, the other fiercely hot. They opposed one another, yet coexisted in a strange balance.

After about the time it took to burn an incense stick, the passage suddenly opened up.

A massive underground cavern appeared before him. Its ceiling rose dozens of zhang high, with countless stalactites hanging overhead, reflecting the pearl-like light in brilliant, multicolored hues.

At the very center of the cavern lay a pool roughly ten zhang in diameter. Its waters were divided into two sharply distinct halves. One side was blazing hot, boiling with crimson bubbles and radiating scorching waves of heat.

The other was icy cold, its surface covered in a thick layer of white frost as wisps of chill mist rose from it. The two opposing currents met within the pool without merging, forming a perfect taiji pattern.

The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

All around the pool, countless varieties of immortal herbs and spiritual plants grew densely along the shore.

Some were crystalline as jade, some bloomed with seven-colored light, some resembled flames, and others looked like ice crystals.

Every single one contained exceptionally pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth. If placed in the outside world, any one of them would have been enough to spark a bloody struggle.

Huo Chen's gaze swept over the immortal herbs one by one before finally settling on several of the most spiritual among them: the Fragrant Silk Beauty Immortal Product, the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, and the Fiery Apricot Delicate.

They were the oldest immortal herbs in this secret realm and had already developed rudimentary intelligence. Their leaves trembled faintly as they warily observed this uninvited visitor.

"Don't be nervous," Huo Chen said calmly. "I'm not here to destroy you."

The herbs' leaves continued to quiver, but their wary auras relaxed somewhat.

Huo Chen walked to the pool's edge, crouched down, and plunged his right hand into the water.

The two utterly opposing powers of ice and fire surged into his body at once, extreme cold and extreme heat weaving together and crashing through his meridians.

Yet with a slight turn of his power of reincarnation, both forces were completely suppressed and assimilated, transformed into the purest source energy before flowing back along his arm into his palm.

He closed his eyes and sank his spiritual power deep underground.

Within his perception, the energy veins of the entire secret realm appeared with perfect clarity.

The roots of those immortal herbs and spiritual plants were deeply embedded in the spiritual veins, each storing vast quantities of source essence refined over thousands of years.

That essence was the core of their lives and the very foundation that allowed them to become immortal herbs.

Huo Chen did not touch the herbs themselves. He merely extended countless fine golden threads, following the paths of the spiritual veins to the roots of every herb. Gently touching the outer layer of their source essence, he drew out a portion—roughly thirty percent.

He left seventy percent untouched, ensuring that they would not wither or regress because of it.

The herbs' leaves trembled violently, as though they had been lightly pricked.

But the pain quickly passed, replaced by a strange sensation. While extracting their essence, those golden threads also left behind a wisp of exceptionally pure reincarnation power as compensation.

That power seeped into their roots and slowly flowed through their stems and leaves, nourishing their source.

The flower of the Fragrant Silk Beauty Immortal Product swayed slightly, releasing a fragrance even richer than before. A layer of fine ice crystals formed upon the leaves of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass. Those crystals were more translucent than before and glimmered with a faint golden sheen.

Meanwhile, the fruits of the Fiery Apricot Delicate grew fuller, with faint golden patterns appearing amid their crimson surfaces.

Nourished by the power of reincarnation, their quality had instead improved to a certain extent.

At the same time, Huo Chen detected two incredibly faint yet incomparably ancient auras deep within the spiritual veins.

They belonged to the Ice Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King.

They were the remnant source essences of two great Dragon Kings from ancient times. Nurtured by the spiritual veins of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well for countless ages, they had already merged with this secret realm.

Their auras were exceedingly weak, but the fragments of ice and fire laws contained within them were treasures of incomparable value.

Huo Chen extracted those two strands of Dragon King source essence as well, though he likewise left behind a wisp of reincarnation power in return.

An icy-blue dragon-shaped phantom and a crimson dragon-shaped phantom circled in his palm for a moment before transforming into two fist-sized spheres of light and sinking into his dantian.

Throughout the process, the immortal herbs simply swayed their leaves quietly, offering no resistance. Though their intelligence had only just awakened, they could already sense that this human bore them no ill will.

He had taken a portion of their source essence, but he had also bestowed upon them a higher level of power in return. They had not lost out in this exchange.

Huo Chen withdrew his hand and rose to his feet.

The pool remained half blazing and half frozen, the immortal herbs still swayed gracefully along the shore, and the air remained saturated with dense spiritual energy.

But Huo Chen knew that a portion of this secret realm's most fundamental source essence had already been taken by him. The immortal herbs would need time to absorb the reincarnation power he had left behind. By the time he returned, they might have undergone a certain degree of evolution.

He turned to leave, but his steps paused slightly. Looking back, he saw the Fragrant Silk Beauty Immortal Product facing him, its flower gently swaying as though bidding him farewell.

"Next time I come, I'll bring you something good," Huo Chen said casually, then turned and followed the path back.

Behind him, the herbs' leaves swayed softly, rustling as if in response to his words.

Meanwhile, in the God Realm.

Within a towering divine hall, Tang San suddenly opened his eyes.

Seated upon the divine throne at the center of the hall, he frowned slightly and fixed his gaze on a certain point in the void.

Just moments ago, an inexplicable palpitation had surged through his heart, as though something intimately connected to him was quietly slipping away.

He tried to follow that faint sensation, only to discover that when it reached a certain place in the lower realm, it was blocked by an invisible force.

He frowned and tried again, but was blocked once more.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Wu, seated beside him, noticed the change in him and asked.

"...Nothing."

Tang San shook his head, but his gaze remained fixed in the obstructed direction. "Maybe it was just an illusion."

He did not pursue it further. The palpitation had come swiftly and faded just as quickly, dissolving into the torrent of laws within the God Realm without leaving a trace.

At the other end of the God Realm, the God of Destruction sat in his own divine hall, lightly tapping the armrest with his fingertips as the faintest smile appeared on his lips.

He withdrew the disruptive divine power he had just released and looked through the dome of the hall toward the mist-shrouded mortal world below.

"Tang San, Tang San... your arrangements are beginning to loosen."

He said nothing more. Closing his eyes again, he resumed resting with them shut.

The God Realm returned to its usual tranquility, as though nothing had happened.