The Ice Sea fell silent once more.
The wind still swept fine ice crystals across the sea's surface, making a soft rustling sound, as though the earth-shaking confrontation just now had been no more than an illusion left behind from ancient times.
Shen Xiu looked north.
There was still an endless expanse of white there, sky and earth joined into one line. Even divine sense was suppressed by some invisible force, able to probe only a few dozen miles; beyond that, it was like a mud ox entering the sea, with no response at all.
Yet ever since that ice crystal had come into his possession, he had vaguely sensed a faint, indistinct summons coming from the deepest part of the Ice Sea.
It was not a sound, but a resonance born from bloodline and soul.
Following his gaze, Liu Qingyan asked softly, "Are we going over now?"
Shen Xiu pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
"We can't rush."
"That ancient ice serpent wouldn't have given me this ice crystal for no reason. Since it could wait tens of thousands of years, the truly important thing won't disappear just because we wait a few more days."
He spread open his palm and took out the ice crystal again.
The ice crystal lay quietly in his palm. The drop of dark golden liquid within slowly revolved, and with every turn, a thread-thin strand of golden light seeped into the crystal's walls before swiftly vanishing.
Suddenly.
Shen Xiu's brows drew together slightly.
"What is it?"
Liu Qingyan immediately noticed something was off.
"It's absorbing my Thunderbolt Power," Shen Xiu said slowly.
It had not been obvious before, but as he sensed it carefully, he discovered that an extremely fine thread of Thunder Origin within his body had separated on