Shi Yi gazed down into the great rift. Not a sound emerged from within. Its depths were dark and unfathomable, and the sunlight from outside vanished completely after reaching barely a dozen meters down, as though the rift could devour anything.
"So Frosty Ravine lies beneath this great rift! No wonder hardly anything lives in an environment like this. Fortunately, I came well prepared, so I won't be blundering around like a headless fly," Shi Yi said.
His peng wings spread, runes flowing across them as lightning wreathed them. With a powerful beat, he took flight, evoking an eagle striking across the vast sky, a great peng soaring ten thousand miles. This was the effect of applying the laws he had comprehended from the great Dao of thunder. Ordinary peng wings could never produce such a spectacle.
He plunged headfirst into the great rift. The farther he descended, the darker it became, until he could no longer see his own fingers before his face. Even with his double pupils, Shi Yi felt the darkness partially shrouding his vision.
As Shi Yi continued deeper, he soon sensed a cold aura eating into his flesh. This surprised him slightly. His body now rivaled even that of a Venerable, yet this cold could still invade it. That alone proved how extraordinary Frosty Ravine was.
Still, this cold aura was not difficult for Shi Yi to deal with. He merely had to activate the Primordial Chaos Heaven-Refining Grand Formation within his body to dissolve it effortlessly, leaving no hidden danger behind.
Before long, Shi Yi reached the deepest part of the great rift, where he seemed engulfed in darkness itself. The lightning flickering across the peng wings behind him could illuminate only five paces before the darkness swallowed it. Even his double pupils could see only within ten meters. A bone-piercing cold constantly invaded his body; if he could not dispel it, he would soon be frozen solid.
"This place really is strange. Fortunately, my divine sense still works normally," Shi Yi remarked.
Shi Yi's divine soul had previously undergone the fusion of two people, followed by its transformation in the thunder spirit liquid. In particular, it had been imbued with the auras of lightning and spacetime, making his divine soul even more extraordinary and his divine sense exceptionally powerful.
His divine sense spread from the center of his brow, revealing everything within several dozen meters in his mind. Stalactites formed by years of dripping water resembled swords poised to pierce the heavens. The droplets gathered into a small stream on the ground and flowed slowly onward. There was neither an aura nor a trace of life.
With no particular destination in mind, Shi Yi decided to search along the stream's course. Even in such an extreme environment, he never lowered his guard. Some creatures could always struggle and grow amid extreme conditions, and they were either very weak or exceptionally dangerous and cunning.
After following the stream for quite some distance, he reached a pool only four or five meters deep. Shi Yi casually chose a spot, sat down cross-legged, and looked into the pool.
"Who knows how many years this water has been gathering here? It's incredibly cold-even my divine sense feels as though it might freeze midway through. I wonder whether this power could temper my body?"
Shi Yi drew out a ball of pool water with his divine power and thrust his hand into it. The water was cold enough to pierce his bones, as though it would strip the life from his body little by little. Its chill cut through his skin like a blade, reaching straight into his marrow, as though even his breathing had frozen.
Every inch of his skin trembled. Under the oppressive cold, his heartbeat slowed, as though this endless chill had stretched time itself. The world around him seemed to disappear, leaving only that bone-piercing cold to devour all vitality, as though dragging him into eternal darkness.
Slightly startled, Shi Yi withdrew his hand from the ball of water and activated the Heaven-Refining Grand Array to refine away the cold. He then carefully inspected every part of his body, even checking his divine soul, but found nothing abnormal.
After testing it repeatedly, he discovered that it did not increase his body's strength at all. Disappointed, Shi Yi stood up again and continued along the stream.
Shi Yi followed the stream for roughly three days without finding anything. Just as he began to wonder whether he had made the wrong choice-
"Hm?" After confirming that there was no danger, Shi Yi quickly approached the suspicious spot.
"Someone from the Heavenly Wing Race? Why is he here?" Shi Yi asked in confusion.
A humanoid creature lay before him, with long black hair and handsome features, though his face was now utterly bloodless and his body stiff. This was the corpse of a member of the Heavenly Wing Race. They looked no different from the Human Race, except for their wings. They were widespread in the outside world and were a powerful race, with a presence even throughout the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm. Within this Cave-Dwelling World, they were undisputed overlords.
The cold ate into him, and all signs of life are gone. It looks like this happened within the last few days. I wonder whether he had companions with him. Gathering Netherworld Grass this time probably won't go so smoothly. At least I chose the right path. If we meet, we'll have to settle things through our own abilities, Shi Yi thought.
Shi Yi continued onward, and more than ten days passed. Throughout that time, he still found nothing, nor did he see any other members of the Heavenly Wing Race. He began to suspect that only that one member of the Heavenly Wing Race had entered this place. Fortunately, Shi Yi's Dao heart was exceptionally firm. An ordinary person would surely go mad after spending some time in such a pitch-black, bitterly cold environment.
"There's something wrong with this stream. Tiny trickles keep joining it from both sides. Small as they are, I've traveled such a long distance that the flow should have grown larger by now. Yet it's stayed exactly the same size," Shi Yi mused.
As he moved forward, Shi Yi let his divine sense drift with the current through the stream, treating it as part of the flowing water. Before long, he felt that strand of divine sense sink into boundless darkness, where it could perceive nothing.
"It must be inside some kind of passage." Shi Yi understood at once. Only after half a quarter-hour did contact with that strand of divine sense return.
Runes flashed continuously in Shi Yi's palm, and a lightning spear took shape. Amid crackling sounds, astonishing fluctuations radiated from the spear, terrifying energy pouring outward. He flew into the air and hurled it with all his strength toward the spot where his divine sense had disappeared.
Bearing terrifying power, the lightning spear bored underground. Dazzling electricity flashed along its shaft, making it resemble a roaring lightning dragon tearing through the obstructing strata. As the spear drove deeper, the surrounding rock and soil instantly turned to dust under the intense heat and pressure. Muffled rumbles rose from deep underground, as though the earth were groaning in pain.
At last, the lightning spear reached its intended depth, and its accumulated energy erupted in an instant. A dazzling beam shot from underground into the sky, accompanied by a deafening explosion as terrifying force swept in every direction. The ground shook violently, cracks spreading like a spiderweb. Dust and shattered stone were hurled high into the air, forming an enormous mushroom cloud.
The blast's shock wave destroyed everything around it. Rocks were crushed to powder, and the smell of scorching filled the air. Even the cold aura was driven away. Lightning rampaged deep underground, as though intent on tearing this land apart entirely. When the dust settled, only an enormous crater remained, like a wound in the earth bearing witness to that destructive power.
"Looks like that still isn't enough. Then I'll do it a few more times."
After speaking, Shi Yi condensed another spear of lightning in his hand and hurled it toward the bottom of the crater left by the previous explosion. Another astonishing blast erupted, its sound spreading into the distance.
He repeated this five times, leaving a crater over a thousand meters deep in the area. The crater's bottom connected to an unknown abyss.
It lay there silently, like a gaping maw devouring everything. Standing at its edge, one could almost feel an invisible suction tugging at the mind, making one shudder involuntarily.
There was only eternal silence and darkness below. Occasionally, a low humming rose from the abyss, like the whispers of some ancient, powerful being, or the groaning of the earth itself. The sound made one feel insignificant and helpless. An incomparably cold aura surged out from below, spreading upward.
"So it really is divided into two worlds. What a hard place to find-it made me search for all these days. But I found it in the end," Shi Yi said.
His lightning wings beat as he flew toward the world below. The biting cold touched his skin, forming frost across its surface. A strange power sought to invade Shi Yi's body. It was highly destructive and seemed capable of freezing all things. Fortunately, the Heaven-Refining Grand Array refined this strange power away; otherwise, even Shi Yi would have been unable to descend.
As the Heaven-Refining Grand Array continued refining this strange power, Shi Yi was surprised to discover that his cultivation had risen slightly. The discovery thrilled him, and he immediately decided to cultivate here for now and increase his strength.
Not long after Shi Yi left, more than twenty people arrived at the opening he had blasted through. There were men and women among them, all with a pair of pure white wings on their backs, giving them a sacred, peaceful appearance. Clearly, they were all members of the Heavenly Wing Race. Among them were one Venerable, three Array Formation Realm cultivators, and a dozen or so Inscription Realm cultivators.
"My lord, when we arrived, we found no other living creatures here. We suspect that person has already gone down. As for their purpose, we do not know," an Array Formation Realm cultivator reported to the Venerable.
"Hmph! Not a blade of grass grows in Frosty Ravine, and no life survives here. Netherworld Grass is the only living thing capable of surviving in this place. Anyone risking their life to come here must be after it as well. For countless years, no one has seen any trace of this grass. Who could have imagined that Frosty Ravine actually had two layers? Truly unbelievable," the Venerable murmured.
After his sigh of wonder, his expression turned stern. "Frosty Ravine Grass is extremely important to our race. We absolutely cannot allow it to fall into the hands of another race. Prepare to enter and search. If you encounter anyone from another race, kill them immediately. Leave no survivors."
"Yes!" the others answered loudly.