An Unexpected Discovery

"Liang Jingtang, the duty of you master and disciple is to clear the way at the front, not dodge and flee for your lives. If there is a next time, you master and disciple will share Xiong Feiye's fate!" After his cold, imposing gaze forced the martial masters to lower their heads, Xu Zhiji's eyes finally settled on Liang Jingtang.

"Yes!" Liang Jingtang answered with his head lowered, his eyes brimming with humiliation and fury. Yet he did not dare show it.

An Eighth-Rank Great Martial Master was simply too powerful, far beyond anything he could contend against.

Only then did Xu Zhiji's expression ease slightly. After giving Xia Daoming an extra glance, he withdrew his gaze.

Xia Daoming's sharp reaction just now had indeed caught Xu Zhiji somewhat by surprise, but that was all.

A Fifth-Rank Great Martial Master was right there in plain sight; it was not enough to send his imagination running wild.

Seeing Liang Jingtang being reprimanded and forced to continue scouting and clearing the way ahead for everyone, none of the surviving martial masters showed any sympathy. On the contrary, each secretly felt relieved, and some even revealed gloating smiles.

Xu Shisen wore an even more mocking sneer.

Xia Daoming took in every reaction, sneering inwardly.

This was human nature!

The group continued onward.

Three days later.

A group stood atop a mountain peak, looking down below.

By then, only eighteen people from the five major forces remained, while the Xu family still had seven.

Below lay a valley encircled by mountains.

The valley was blanketed in clouds and mist. Under the sunlight, the mist churned and rolled, allowing only faint glimpses of the scenery below.

"Below is Cold Mist Valley, the destination of our journey," Xu Zhiji said, his grave gaze carrying a trace of excitement and anticipation.

At his words, everyone's hearts trembled. Their expressions grew solemn as they concentrated even harder on the valley below, as though they wished they could part the clouds and mist to see it clearly.

Only Xia Daoming seemed somewhat distracted.

Rather than concentrating on the valley below like everyone else, he gazed excitedly into the distance at three mountain peaks.

Those three peaks were like three enormous jade-green swords, piercing straight into the heavens. They looked exactly like the image on the tattered map Liu Qiaolian had given him.

I never expected that, through such a twist of fate, I would find the place where the Dragon Transformation Fruit grows! Xia Daoming's heart surged.

The Dragon Transformation Fruit was the key item related to his becoming a Grandmaster!

However, Xia Daoming quickly reined in his emotions and looked down below with the others.

As the saying went, looking at a mountain could run a horse to death!

Those three sword-like peaks appeared close, but in truth, no one knew how many mountain ridges had to be crossed or how many dangers endured before one could finally reach them.

Xia Daoming was only in the Sixth-Rank Realm. Even though his force far surpassed that of Great Martial Masters at the same rank, he did not dare venture deep into those mountains alone.

His most urgent task now was still to find an Ice Rabbit and Ice-Cold Purple Ganoderma, strengthen his meridians again, and raise his cultivation as soon as possible.

Hot tofu cannot be eaten in haste. Steady. I must stay steady! Xia Daoming warned himself inwardly as he focused on the valley below.

"Liang Jingtang, you master and disciple go down first!" Xu Zhiji said coldly.

"Yes!" Liang Jingtang nodded, then moved closer to Xia Daoming and said in a low voice, "Daoming, be careful."

"You too, Master!" Xia Daoming nodded.

With that, the two walked to the edge of the cliff.

Looking down, they could see that for more than ten zhang below, the cliff face was sheer. They would need ropes or vines to descend.

Farther down, through the mist, they could vaguely see that the slope gradually eased, making it possible to climb down carefully with bare hands.

Old vines hung from the cliff edge, so there was no need to fetch ropes.

"Your master will go down first. You follow after." As Liang Jingtang spoke, he stepped forward to grab a vine.

Before Liang Jingtang had even finished speaking, Xia Daoming had already moved ahead, seized the vine, and leaped down along it.

"You brat!" Liang Jingtang cursed, quickly grabbing another vine and following him down.

"You all go down as well!" Seeing Liang Jingtang and Xia Daoming quickly vanish beneath the clouds and mist, then carefully climb downward along the gentler slope where they had landed, Xu Zhiji turned to the others and spoke indifferently.

"Elder, the area below is shrouded in mist, and we cannot see the terrain clearly. Why not wait until Liang Jingtang and his disciple have scouted the path before going down?" an almost seventy-year-old Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master asked Xu Zhiji cautiously.

"Yes, yes!" the other martial masters hurriedly echoed.

Xu Zhiji did not answer. He merely swept his icy, sword-like gaze silently across the crowd before finally settling it on the nearly seventy-year-old Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master. "Yan Shushan, take your people down first. The rest will follow."

Yan Shushan's expression changed drastically. His lips moved, but in the end, he could only nod helplessly. "Yes, Elder!"

Very soon, Yan Shushan led two Fifth-Rank Martial Masters down along the vines.

With Yan Shushan serving as a warning, the other martial masters did not dare utter another word and all followed down the mountain.

The Xu family's seven members came last.

Beneath the clouds and mist.

Xia Daoming and Liang Jingtang carefully made their way down the steep slope.

Not only was the slope steep, but some of the water mist on it had frozen into ice, making it extremely slick and difficult to traverse.

After proceeding carefully all the way, master and disciple finally reached the bottom of the valley without mishap.

Clouds and mist filled the valley, making visibility poor.

What was more, when the mist touched their skin, it was piercingly cold.

Fortunately, both were Sixth-Rank Great Martial Masters. With their qi, blood, and force circulating within their bodies, they could ward off the cold.

The two looked around while waiting for the others to descend and join them.

"Ah!"

A scream shattered the valley's silence.

Then came a bang!

Someone fell from the mountain, blood and brains splattering in all directions.

It was a Fourth-Rank Martial Master!

"Another one!"

Looking at the mangled corpse three zhang away, Liang Jingtang sighed softly.

"Master, watch out!"

Just then, Xia Daoming gave a low cry, his spear shooting forth like a dragon.

Clang!

An ice arrow was struck midair and exploded, turning into shattered ice that scattered across the ground.

Not far away, a white shadow flashed through the mist and vanished.

Liang Jingtang's face turned pale, and he involuntarily wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

He had been distracted for a moment. If Xia Daoming had not acted so swiftly, he would likely have been hit by that ice arrow.

"You saved your master's life again!" Liang Jingtang said quietly, his gaze toward Xia Daoming exceedingly complicated.

The stronger a martial artist's qi, blood, and force became, and the higher their realm, the sharper their senses would be. Their perception of danger in particular was far beyond that of ordinary people.

All along the way, master and disciple had been scouting ahead.

Naturally, they encountered more dangers than anyone else.

Once or twice, it would not have been strange for Xia Daoming to warn him in advance and avert a crisis.

But throughout the journey, Xia Daoming had sensed danger before him almost every single time. That was strange.

"They're here!" Xia Daoming said in a low voice, though his eyes remained vigilantly fixed on their surroundings.

Liang Jingtang was slightly startled. Sure enough, he soon heard the footsteps of martial masters landing on the ground.

Liang Jingtang could not help giving Xia Daoming another surprised look, but he said nothing.

"Hall Master Liang, how is the situation?" Yan Shushan, nearly seventy years old, emerged from the mist with two younger disciples and asked.

"There really are Ice Rabbits here. An Ice Rabbit already fired an ice arrow at us just now. We must not act rashly now. We will wait until everyone has arrived before making arrangements." Liang Jingtang said gravely.

"Let's hope everything goes smoothly!" Yan Shushan's expression tightened as he said in a deep voice.

Before long, the martial masters arrived one after another. The Xu family's seven members were the last to arrive.

"At the center of this valley is a cold pond. Ice Rabbits generally move about near its banks. Other than lacking much intelligence, an adult Ice Rabbit's pure combat strength is such that even this old man would not dare claim victory in a frontal confrontation.

"So we cannot all charge in directly. If we alert a pack of Ice Rabbits and they surround us, I fear we will all be buried in this valley."

"What should we do, then?" a Sixth-Rank Martial Master asked, his face pale.

"The main group will stay here and set traps. We will send one person to lure one or two Ice Rabbits over to throw themselves into the net. Once the Ice Rabbits are caught, we will attack together and kill them."

Having said that, Xu Zhiji's gaze slowly swept across the crowd.

At this, every martial master turned pale and lowered their heads in silence.

What a joke. A juvenile Ice Rabbit was equivalent to a Fifth- or Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master, while an adult Ice Rabbit was equivalent to a Seventh- or Eighth-Rank Great Martial Master.

Charging alone into a rabbit den was practically no different from a sheep entering a pack of wolves.

Nine times out of ten, the rabbit would not be lured out, while the person would be left behind in the rabbit den.

"Hehe, Great-Uncle, Liang Jingtang and his disciple have been exceptionally alert all the way here. It seems the task of luring the Ice Rabbits out of their den can belong to none other than them!" Xu Shisen looked at Liang Jingtang and Xia Daoming with sinister eyes.

"That's right, that's right!" quite a few martial masters hurriedly agreed.

Yan Shushan and his two disciples were among them.

As long as the dead were fellow cultivators rather than themselves, that was all that mattered!

Xu Zhiji said nothing. He merely raised his eyes and stared coldly at Liang Jingtang and Xia Daoming.

"I'll go first!" Liang Jingtang said, his face unsightly.

"With a disciple here, why should Master risk his life?" Just as Liang Jingtang rose and began walking toward the densest mist at the valley's center, Xia Daoming had already leaped up and vanished into the thick fog after several bounds.

"Daoming!" Liang Jingtang called out, immediately leaping after him, intending to chase into the mist.

"Liang Jingtang, come back. Having more people go would only make things worse. If your disciple fails, it will not be too late for you to go then!" However, just as Liang Jingtang leaped up, Xu Zhiji blocked his path and spoke coldly.

"Fine!" Liang Jingtang retreated, his face livid. His fists were clenched tightly, veins bulging one after another.

PS: Because I did not choose the best time to upload this book, its recommendations came rather late. Last week was only its first trial recommendation. You readers have been incredibly supportive, and by Sunday, you had pushed this book to first place on the New Signed Xianxia Books Ranking. Thank you so much.

In this new week, I hope everyone will continue supporting it. Please add it to your collections and keep reading when possible. If you have time, please also leave more reviews to increase activity.

Monday is for competing on the rankings, so the first update has been moved to midnight. The second update will still be at noon. Tomorrow's updates will return to their normal schedule.

Thanks to readers Qiuzhi Shengguang, Bai Yifei 01, 20220317105425710, and others for their rewards.