On the other side, Xu Zihuang still had no idea that he had just become a father out of nowhere.
Nan Shuishui explained the method to open the hidden cave in the water well to Xu Zihuang in exhaustive detail, without the slightest concealment.
"Tianhuang, that's the general situation. However, I do not recommend that you enter the cave right now. I have tried several times before, but within just a few seconds, I already felt like I was going to freeze solid. The temperature down there is simply too low; it doesn't seem like something a human body can withstand at all."
Toward Xu Zihuang, Nan Shuishui could truly be said to hold nothing back. The reason she said this was not because she was unwilling to let him have the rare metal vein in the cave, but purely out of concern for his safety.
There was, however, another reason: as long as Yu Tianhuang could not currently mine the ice-attribute rare metal vein inside, the favor and connection between them could continue to exist indefinitely.
"To be honest, Senior Nan. My martial soul ability is rather special. Even if the temperature of the cold spring reaches the level of ultimate ice, I can still endure inside it for a very long time," Xu Zihuang said seriously.
Nan Shuishui hesitated for a moment before replying, "Alright then. If you insist, go in and take a look first. Remember, put your own safety above everything else."
"Understood." Xu Zihuang agreed, slightly adjusted his condition, and at the same time lifted the mental blockade he had placed on Tian Meng in his spiritual sea. For the past ten days, it had been inconvenient, so he had simply kept Tian Meng blocked off in his spiritual sea until now.
In any case, his current spiritual power level had far surpassed Tian Meng's. He no longer needed Tianmeng to externally release spiritual power to sense danger around him.
Nan Shuishui beckoned to Nan Qiuqiu and Ye Guyi, then looked at Xu Zihuang with a gentle smile and said, "Let that little girl come over too. That way, there will be someone to look after you."
With Nan Shuishui's permission, it didn't take long for Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu to arrive beside the two of them.
Xu Zihuang keenly noticed that Nan Qiuqiu seemed to have grown up in an instant. The way she looked at him was somewhat strange, mixed with a trace of vigilance. Earlier, while speaking politely with Nan Shuishui, he naturally couldn't release his spiritual power to probe the surroundings. So of course, he had no idea what Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu had talked about.
Ye Guyi still maintained her dignified and graceful demeanor. She looked at Xu Zihuang and gently reminded him,
"Be very careful."
"Mm." Xu Zihuang did not hesitate any longer. Circulating soul power throughout his body, he dropped into the water well.
The cold spring was bone-chilling, at the very least below zero degrees. Strangely, however, it showed no sign of freezing.
The moment he entered the cold spring, Xu Zihuang clearly felt an extremely sharp, heaven-and-earth origin energy rippling through the water with piercing cold. No wonder the spring water here could nourish the human body.
Under the assault of this bone-piercing chill, Tian Meng — who had been sound asleep — was abruptly awakened.
"Holy crap! What is this? So refreshing! So damn refreshing!"
Tian Meng let out a lewd moan. And the very first moment it woke up, it didn't forget to give Xu Zihuang a deeply meaningful, sly grin.
"Zihuang —"
Everything was understood without words.
Xu Zihuang had deliberately blocked it for a full ten days. Anyone could guess what must have happened between Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi during that time.
Xu Zihuang said irritably, "Enough, Tianmeng. Business first. There may be the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave you once encountered inside this well. Use your shed skin first to insulate me from the low temperature here."
"Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave?!" Tian Meng instantly became serious. While urging the shed skin clinging to Xu Zihuang's chest to wrap around his entire body, it also carefully sensed the surrounding environment.
A moment later, its voice was filled with thick shock and excitement.
"The environment here really is extremely similar to the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave I once encountered! Purple Huang, how in the world did you find this place?!"
"Forget that for now," Xu Zihuang said, controlling his body to sink toward the bottom of the cold spring. This water well had been built by the ancestors of the Earth Dragon Sect right above a cold spring eye. The deeper one went, the lower the temperature became. An ordinary Soul Emperor would probably have already consumed more than half their soul power in just this short time.
But Xu Zihuang was different. With Tian Meng's shed skin and his ultimate-attribute soul power protecting his body, this extreme low-temperature environment currently did not affect him too severely.
The surrounding light gradually dimmed. However, the shed skin attached to his skin emitted bright golden light, illuminating the area around him.
Of course, even without that golden light, he could rely on the innate ability of his Golden-Eyed martial soul or his powerful spiritual power to perceive the surroundings.
Through memories from his previous life and Nan Shuishui's detailed description, he knew the spring water was about thirty meters deep. The cave mansion built by the Earth Dragon Sect ancestors was located between twenty-five and thirty meters down, and inside that cave mansion grew the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal.
The very bottom was where the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow was located.
The Ice Extreme Divine Crystal could not be mined without an ultimate ice attribute. Although his Destruction attribute could forcibly split it, doing so would likewise destroy the ice spirits nurtured within the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal. For him, the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal did not have much use.
Telling Nan Shuishui that he came for the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal was merely a cover. His true target had always been the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow at the bottom of the cold spring.
But the very bottom of that cold spring possessed a terrifying low-temperature environment approaching absolute zero. Even Super Douluo, or even Limit Douluo-level powerhouses, could not stay there for long.
If he wanted to take away that Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow, he had to find another way. Fortunately, he had already made preparations long ago.
With the assistance of Tian Meng's shed skin, the pressure Xu Zihuang endured was not great. In just a few breaths, he had already reached twenty-five meters deep. This diving speed was even faster than that of the ancestor of the Earth Dragon Sect, who had been a Titled Douluo back then.
Tian Meng had swallowed Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow and cultivated for a million years to form this shed skin; it was truly a supreme treasure. It was only right that it possessed such power.
In the memories of his previous life, Tian Meng had repeatedly overexerted the power of its shed skin to help Huo Yuhao trap the Ice Empress and then assist Huo Yuhao in fusing with her, ultimately causing the shed skin to lose its original effectiveness.
But since Tian Meng had chosen Xu Zihuang this time, the might of this shed skin had been preserved to the greatest extent.
Tian Meng grew more and more excited. Just as Xu Zihuang had said, there really might be another Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave here! What kind of heaven-defying opportunity was this?
Unfortunately, Xu Zihuang himself already possessed twin martial souls and peerless talent. He did not need Tianmeng to grant him another ice-attribute martial soul. Otherwise, with the resources inside a Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave, Xu Zihuang could have reached the level-89 bottleneck within just a few short years.
Extending his spiritual power outward, Xu Zihuang quickly found a small protrusion on the stone wall. Normally, one would press a mechanism downward, but the Earth Dragon Sect had deliberately done the opposite.
Xu Zihuang reached out with his right hand, gripped the protrusion, and exerted full strength to pull it upward slightly.
Then he moved to the other side of the stone wall and pressed an unremarkable depression that had appeared after lifting the protrusion.
After doing all this, the entire stone wall began to tremble quietly. A doorway just wide enough for one person to slip through appeared before him.
Strangely, the moment the doorway opened, a massive surge of cold current poured out from within. Even with the power of Tian Meng's shed skin, it could not completely block it. The rate at which Xu Zihuang's soul power was consumed suddenly surged.
Fortunately, with his spiritual-attribute soul core seated in the center of his brow, he could still withstand this level of soul power consumption.
Golden light flashed in Xu Zihuang's eyes. Looking around, he saw that the cave was not particularly large. It was densely packed with crystals of some unknown mineral. These crystals were a dreamy, bluish color, crystal clear and translucent. Under the illumination of the golden light, they carried a dreamlike beauty.
The ceiling, floor, and walls of the cave were covered with these crystals. They varied in size and length, jagged and uneven. But without exception, the surface of every bluish crystal shimmered with flowing light and overflowing color, extraordinarily divine and wondrous.
"Could this be… Ice Extreme Divine Crystal?!" Tian Meng exclaimed in shock.
Only a Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave could nurture this kind of Ice Extreme Divine Crystal. Although the presence of the accompanying Ice Extreme Divine Crystal had dispersed much of the energy of the Mysterious Ice Cave itself, making the amount of Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow uncertain, one thing was for sure — the Mysterious Ice Marrow definitely existed.
Xu Zihuang slipped into the cave. There seemed to be a strange power within the doorway that completely isolated the cold spring. Even the cold spring water clinging to Xu Zihuang's body and clothes was filtered away by that strange force.
In an instant, he who had just been soaked in cold spring water became completely dry and refreshed.
Xu Zihuang paid no attention to Tian Meng, nor did he care about these Ice Extreme Divine Crystals. Instead, he released his spiritual power, transforming it into invisible energy that extended toward the very bottom of the spring eye.
Just as he had expected, even with his current tangible and intangible level of spiritual power, extending it in the depths of this cold spring was extremely difficult, like moving through thick mud. The consumption of spiritual power was also shockingly high.
Although spiritual power was not the same as elemental energy, in essence, it was still one manifestation of elemental energy.
When energy was condensed to a certain degree, all paths ultimately converged. The ice-attribute energy contained within this cold spring had reached the utmost extreme of extremes. The moment his spiritual power entered it, it would be influenced by the ice-attribute energy.
However, after several attempts, Xu Zihuang already had a clear understanding in his heart. If he used the power of his spiritual-attribute soul core, he should be able to extend his spiritual power all the way to the bottom. And if he used the second awakening of his golden-rank body martial soul to elevate his spiritual power to the demigod level, it would be effortless.
This had been his original plan: to forcibly use the void ability attached to his Golden-Eyed True Body to transfer the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow over here.
What he needed to consider now was that doing so would consume far too much energy. Afterward, he would still have to endure the backlash from using the second awakening of his golden-rank body martial soul and his martial soul true body. He would definitely need someone to help him.
And the most suitable person for that was undoubtedly Ye Guyi.
Tian Meng, having once encountered a Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave, had basically calmed down by now. Noticing Xu Zihuang's actions, he immediately understood what he was thinking.
"Purple Huang, are you planning to use your martial soul true body's ability to take away that Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow? But unless one has the ultimate ice attribute, touching the Mysterious Ice Marrow requires resisting that terrifying cold. That would greatly increase your burden. Given your condition after using the second awakening of your golden-rank body martial soul and your martial soul true body, it definitely won't work. Moreover, storage soul tools cannot contain the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow that is filled with such dense ice-attribute energy…"
"Zihuang, if you do this, how are you going to take the Mysterious Ice Marrow away afterward?"
"Tianmeng, don't worry. I have my own arrangements," Xu Zihuang said calmly with a faint smile. Without saying more, he left the cave and swam back toward the mouth of the well.
Outside the well.
From the time Xu Zihuang entered the water until now, less than half a quarter of an hour had passed.
Although Ye Guyi had great confidence in Xu Zihuang's strength, concern makes one anxious, especially after the two of them had just broken through to that kind of relationship recently. It was inevitable that she would feel some worry.
Nan Qiuqiu, meanwhile, stood quietly to the side, as if she had received some sort of shock. She remained silent, occasionally sneaking glances at Ye Guyi.
This made Nan Shuishui quite surprised. Although she had indeed scolded Nan Qiuqiu earlier, the effect shouldn't have been this strong, right?
She understood her daughter's personality better than anyone.
Just as the three of them were each lost in their own thoughts, the sound of water breaking rang out. Immediately afterward, a figure rose from the water well and landed on the edge.
Xu Zihuang's figure emerged from the ice mist. The thick, cold air caused both Nan Shuishui and Nan Qiuqiu to unconsciously step back several paces.
Only Ye Guyi stepped forward with concern and asked, "Are you alright?"
Xu Zihuang shook his head, then looked toward Nan Shuishui.
"Senior Nan, there is indeed a special kind of rare metal down there. However, the mining conditions are quite harsh. I will take sister Guyi back in to try again."
He had many secrets that he could not reveal to Nan Shuishui, so he could only continue using an excuse.
Of course, he would remember this favor from Nan Shuishui.
"Alright, you two go ahead. Qiuqiu and I will stand guard outside." From the meaning in Yu Tianhuang's words, it was clear that he had gone down and come back up within half a quarter of an hour. Judging from the astonishing cold aura radiating from Yu Tianhuang's body earlier, what he said was obviously true.
Geniuses truly could not be judged by common sense.
Nan Shuishui sighed softly. The more she looked at Xu Zihuang, the more she liked him.
"What a pity."
If it weren't for Ye Guyi's existence, she would have been willing to matchmake her daughter with Yu Tianhuang even if it meant throwing her daughter at him.
And looking at her own daughter, the more she looked, the more frustrated she felt. They were both human; how could the gap be so huge?
But of course, that was just something she thought casually. Which mother would truly despise her own daughter? It was purely the anger of "iron cannot be forged into steel" — hating that she would not strive harder.
After these ten days of close interaction, Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi had already developed an unparalleled level of tacit understanding.
Ye Guyi understood immediately. Together with Xu Zihuang, she walked to the edge of the well, preparing to enter the cold spring together. But just then, Nan Qiuqiu, who had finally reacted, screamed and stopped them.
"Wait!"
Nan Qiuqiu stared wide-eyed and questioned Xu Zihuang, "Are you crazy?! Don't you know that Sister Ye is pregnant?!"
"What did you say?"
Nan Qiuqiu's words completely stunned Xu Zihuang. He looked at Ye Guyi beside him in disbelief.
"I was just teasing her," Ye Guyi said with flushed cheeks, leaning close to Xu Zihuang's ear and whispering. Toward this kind-hearted and straightforward young girl, Nan Qiuqiu, her fondness increased sharply.
She turned to Nan Qiuqiu somewhat apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, Sister Qiuqiu. Actually, what I said earlier was just a joke."
Now it was Nan Qiuqiu's turn to stand frozen in place. She watched dumbly as Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi entered the cold spring together, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
Nan Shuishui helplessly shook her head.
How could her daughter be so foolish?
But it was precisely Nan Qiuqiu's innocence that allowed her to form a good relationship with Ye Guyi in such a short time. On this point, Nan Shuishui was still very pleased to see it happen.
Perhaps this really was "fools have fool's luck."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the chapters for today (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
"Don't forget there are 40 early chapters available on Patreon
[email protected]/facficmax10--------(@→a)