An Wuzhi and Chu Jingtang landed before him one after the other. Both were delighted to see the faint silver-blue flame Shi Chun had captured, especially An Wuzhi, whose eyes burned with indescribable fervor.
Chu Jingtang surveyed the open expanse around them and sighed with deep feeling. "We came all this way and finally caught it. This place is who knows how many times bigger than the Iron Forest and the magma region, and there's still no end in sight ahead."
He reached out to catch a snowflake and watched it melt into a drop of water in his palm. Suddenly, a clump of accumulated snow fell onto his hand. He looked up; it had fallen from the ice pillar before them.
Stepping closer, he brushed a layer of snow off its surface, revealing ice like white jade. Curious, he asked, "How did the ice freeze into such a tall pillar out here on the plain? Surely this isn't natural?"
He glanced back as he spoke, only to see Shi Chun staring up at the pillar and slowly backing away. He retreated farther and farther, apparently trying to get a clear view of the entire ice pillar.
An Wuzhi, who had been watching the divine fire in Shi Chun's hand the whole time, also sensed something unusual about his behavior. He turned to look, but could make nothing of it.
At first, Shi Chun had seen nothing unusual either. The reason he wanted to examine it closely was the divine fire he had just caught.
The silver-blue divine fire had fled straight here, refusing to change course no matter how they threatened or attacked it. It had found this ice pillar jutting out of the Icefield, then leaped out from beneath the ice and snow and danced before it. It