Entering the Great Ice Layer Ruins

The two were climbing through the mountains when they spotted Fu Junlin and the others in the distance, hurrying past in a flurry of leaps and short flights.

Both stopped at once.

The fox-eared boy stared at the middle-aged man, momentarily stunned, and asked:

"Who are those people?"

If Fu Junlin and the others had been there, they would have been shocked.

Because the boy had spoken Chinese!

And not modern Chinese, either.

Who spoke like that nowadays?

"Pay them no mind. Keep moving."

The middle-aged man glanced toward the direction Fu Junlin and the others had gone, then continued along the rugged mountain path, half climbing as he went.

The boy shook his head and followed him, still carrying the monster's corpse.

The two figures, one large and one small, vanished among the mountains. Anyone who wasn't looking closely would have struggled to spot them.

As the scenery grew increasingly familiar, Fu Junlin and the others drew near the Small Ice Layer Ruins.

"There!"

Perched on Fu Junlin's shoulder, Ba Xiaomei pointed a small hand toward a massive pillar of ice below. Fu Junlin and the others immediately flew down.

They landed gently. Before them stretched an immensely broad staircase of ice leading underground, so deep they could not see its end. It was a magnificent sight.

The enormous passage looked beyond human ability to build. Every icy step was smoother and more even than the last.

It had not been there on their previous visit. It was as though it had opened specifically to welcome Fu Junlin and the others.

They knew for certain it had not been there before because a corpse was sealed inside a huge ice pillar in front of the staircase.

Ba Xiaomei walked over and gently touched the ice, grief welling uncontrollably in