As soon as Huang Liang and Hong Kui stepped onto that Heavenly Road, they felt as if the whole world had disappeared.
The Mount Denali Snow Mountain was gone, the sky was gone, and the earth was gone. There was no wind or snow, no clouds, nothing at all. All that remained in the world was that one Heavenly Road and that distant iceberg. They didn't know how long they had been walking; time seemed to have lost its meaning here.
This reminded Huang Liang of the dream portal he had used to contact Howard and later to trap Qingmu.
When they reached the end of the Heavenly Road, Huang Liang saw the enormous iceberg hanging upside down above his head. It occupied the entire sky. The Sun, moon, stars, and clouds were all frozen inside, yet they moved in perfect harmony, each radiating its own brilliance.
Hong Kui knelt down on the ground, facing the iceberg above his head, muttering incantations, seemingly praying for something. After finishing his prayer, he stood up and reached out to touch the tip of the iceberg.
Huang Liang noticed his hands were trembling. This usually composed young man from the Wolf Family rarely showed such excitement. This must be what he had been dreaming of.
Hong Kui's hand touched the ice, and the ice surface suddenly emitted a dazzling light.
Huang Liang initially felt the heat, as if he were warming himself by a stove.
The entire iceberg is beginning to melt.
Then, Huang Liang felt cold again.
The chill brought by the melting ice and snow penetrates straight to the bone.
He tried to resist with his Mental Power and felt slightly better. He saw that Hong Kui's body was trembling violently, clearly on the verge of collapse, but he didn't know whether he should help him. After all, it was a matter concerning his family, something he had longed for. If touching the iceberg was some kind of ritual, would his help disrupt it?
Hong Kui's body trembled more and more violently, his face turned ashen, and his eyes were wide open like two copper bells. He had obviously used all his strength, as if the weight of an entire iceberg was pressing down on him.
Huang Liang couldn't care less about anything else. He hurriedly stepped forward, stretching out his hands and the book to try and support the iceberg, hoping to share some of Hong Kui's burden. But before his fingertips even fully touched the peak of the iceberg, a tremendous force surged from the ice, traveling from his fingertips to his palms, his wrists, his arms, his shoulders, and finally to his heart. He was thrown back like a kite with a broken string, nearly shattering his body. He felt as if his bones and internal organs had cracked, but even more deadly was the bone-chilling cold.
He quickly focused his mind, using all his Mental Power to protect his body and drive away the chill. After a while, his mind finally calmed down.
Only then did he realize that Hong Kui's Mental Power was far greater than he had imagined. When the two of them combined their dreams before, he thought their Mental Power were similar, which was why they could have the same dreams. In fact, it was precisely because Hong Kui was so powerful that he was able to correct his dreams.
Just as Huang Liang recovered and tried to stand up, everything suddenly went black before his eyes, and he heard a thunderous roar.
The iceberg suddenly broke apart, and the whole world collapsed.
Huang Liang thought they were doomed because he had tried to escape but failed.
He didn't know what kind of world the icy mountain world they had reached after traversing the Heavenly Road was. If it was a dream, then they would fall into nothingness. Just like in a dream, if space collapses and the consciousness doesn't leave the dream in time, it will be trapped in boundless nothingness. It is said to be the most terrifying state, more terrible than death, because that nothingness is not the dark void of the universe, where even void and darkness do not exist. It is true nothingness, where there is nothing but your consciousness.
But if this isn't a dream but reality, then it's even more terrifying. How could the real world collapse? And what would it become after it collapses? Would it shrink into a black hole, or become a singularity of the universe? In any case, the physical body would no longer be able to exist, and even consciousness would disappear.
However, things didn't turn out as he expected. He hadn't disappeared; he was still standing there, and the world around him had returned. He saw himself standing on the frozen ground, just as he had stood on the Harding Icefield, surrounded by endless glaciers.
Hong Kui was lying unconscious on the snow not far from him.
He held a crystal-clear icicle in his hand.
Huang Liang quickly ran over and helped Hong Kui up. Hong Kui's body was ice cold, but thankfully he was still breathing faintly.
He began to use his Mental Power to help Hong Kui drive away the coldness in his mind and restore his consciousness.
After a long while, Hong Kui finally woke up. He smiled at Huang Liang, held up the piece of ice in his hand, and said, "I got it."
Huang Liang then took a closer look at the icicle. It resembled an icicle hanging from the eaves, but unlike an icicle, it was not rough or textured. It was smooth, smoother than a mirror. The surrounding scenery was reflected in it.
"Is this the mountain we just saw?" Huang Liang asked with a sigh.
"Really?!" Hong Kui said, "Do you want to take a look?"
He handed the ice pick to Huang Liang.
Huang Liang took it, and a bone-chilling coldness shot through his palm, almost unbearable. But he didn't let go, because he saw again everything that the icicle had once reflected in it:
The Sun, moon, stars, primeval forests and busy people in the forests, as well as mysterious altars, desolate ice fields and towering snow-capped mountains, are all clearly arranged in layers within the small ice cones. When your consciousness wants to see a certain layer, the scenery of that layer will become clear before your eyes.
"This is amazing!" Huang Liang exclaimed. "This thing can freeze time! If historians and archaeologists knew about this, they would go crazy!"
"Anyone can go crazy," Hong Kui said.
"But it will freeze them into ice blocks," Huang Liang said with a laugh, feeling the icy chill.
Hong Kui chuckled as well.
"Does it have a name?" Huang Liang asked.
"It is the purest thing in the world, the soul of all things frozen in ice," Hong Kui said. "My ancestors called it the ' Soul of Ice '."
" Soul of Ice!" Huang Liang thought the name was quite good. "So what do we do now? Go back?"
"No, this is just the key to unlocking the Holy Land," Hong Kui said. "Let's keep going; the Holy Land can't be far away."
Huang Liang said, "You're too weak right now; you need to find a place to rest." He glanced at the endless glacier, "But where are we now?"
Hong Kui took out a compass from his pocket, held it out in his palm, and tried it in all four directions; the needle became erratic. He then held the compass upright and said, "Legend has it that there is a mysterious passage between Alaska and Queen Elizabeth Island in the north. I think we have already passed through that passage, and now we are near the North Magnetic Pole."
"What?!"
Huang Liang found it a bit unbelievable. Although Alaska is located in the north, it is still far from the Queen Elizabeth Islands, especially since the Mount Denali are located in the south-central region of Alaska.
He looked up at the sky, trying to see the direction of the Sun. But his body suddenly froze, as if petrified.
"Do you really think we're still on Earth?" Huang Liang asked. "How can there be nine Sun on Earth?"