Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi held hands and once again entered the cold spring.
The moment they entered the water, the shed skin left behind by Tian Menginstantly expanded, turning into a golden light barrier that enveloped and protected them.
The proud voice of Tian Mengrang in their ears:
"Zihuang, bro has now activated the power contained within the shed skin. At the very least, it can guarantee that you two won't be invaded by the intense cold of the cold spring for a quarter of an hour. How about it? Bro is still somewhat useful, right?"
"Then why didn't you do this earlier?" Xu Zihuang was very speechless, but after thinking about it, he roughly guessed what was going on in Tian Meng's mind.
Tian Mengsaid guiltily: "You didn't need it just now."
That was only one of the reasons.
The real reason Tian Mengdid this was mostly to gain favor in front of Ye Guyi. Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi had already broken through that layer of relationship, which made it feel a sense of crisis.
Ye Guyi's position in Xu Zihuang's heart was predictable, so building a good relationship with Ye Guyi was definitely the right move.
Another reason was to show off, not just in front of Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi, but also in front of Electrolux. Although Tian Meng's strength wasn't much, it cared a lot about face and often compared itself with Electrolux in its heart.
But what it didn't know was that some time ago, Electrolux had consumed a huge amount of divine sense power to impart the undead demiplane to Ye Guyi, and he wouldn't wake up for at least several years.
All that showing off had been for nothing.
And this undead demiplane was the most important part of Xu Zihuang's plan.
In the future, he could completely have Ye Guyi transfer all that ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow into that undead demiplane.
Ye Guyi also saw through Tian Meng's little thoughts and couldn't help but smile faintly.
"Thank you, Tianmeng."
"Hey, no need to be polite." Tian Mengchuckled and immediately climbed up the pole, saying:
"Guyi, although bro isn't good at fighting, when it comes to other abilities, no one is better than me. Back in the day, when Zihuang went to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he also relied entirely on bro's ability to cross that poisonous miasma layer…"
Listening to Tian Meng's self-boasting, Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi had already arrived at the entrance of the cavern portal.
Xu Zihuang pulled Ye Guyi through the portal and entered the cavern.
Ye Guyi's reaction was similar to Xu Zihuang's earlier; she was amazed by the strange power in the portal that isolated all moisture. The golden long hair that had been floating and dispersing in the water instantly lost all moisture and fell back onto her fragrant shoulders.
Looking at the magnificent and dazzling blue Ice Extreme Divine Crystal in front of her, Ye Guyi was slightly lost in thought and sighed:
"So beautiful crystals. Zihuang, is this the kind of ice-attribute rare metal you mentioned?"
"Mm." Xu Zihuang nodded.
"This kind of crystal is called Ice Extreme Divine Crystal. If used properly, it is enough to craft top-tier soul tools."
Ye Guyi withdrew her gaze and looked toward Xu Zihuang.
"You brought me down here; it shouldn't be for these Ice Extreme Divine Crystals, right?"
"Zihuang's target is indeed not these Ice Extreme Divine Crystals, but the ten-thousand year mysterious ice marrow at the bottom of the cold spring." Tian Mengtook over the conversation and proudly showed off:
"Ice Extreme Divine Crystal can only exist in a ten-thousand year mysterious ice cave. In other words, this cold spring was, tens of thousands or even millions of years ago, a naturally formed ten-thousand year mysterious ice cave. If guessed correctly, this ten-thousand-year-old mysterious ice cave was moved here due to crustal movements. And wherever a ten-thousand year mysterious ice cave exists, there must be ten-thousand year mysterious ice marrow. That ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow is a treasure of the same grade as the Life Gold in Zihuang's hands."
Xu Zihuang said frankly, "Sister Lingyi, what Tianmeng said is correct. My target is indeed those ten-thousand-year-old mysterious ice marrows. Tianmeng is an ice-attribute and spiritual-attribute dual-attribute soul beast. It once refined the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow inside a ten-thousand year mysterious ice cave, and it was because of the power of the ten-thousand year mysterious ice marrow that it was able to successfully break through to million-year cultivation. Tianmeng can refine the medicinal effect of those ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrows and transform them into spiritual origin to feed back to me."
Ye Guyi had absolute trust in Xu Zihuang and nodded slightly.
"Zihuang, then what do you want me to do?"
"I plan to use the second awakening of my golden-rank body martial soul to once again activate the martial soul true body ability, and transfer the ten-thousand year mysterious ice marrows here. After that, Sister Lingyi, you can then store those ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrows into the undead demiplane."
Ye Guyi frowned slightly. The method was feasible, but doing so would inevitably place a huge burden on Xu Zihuang's body.
"A few months ago, when you used the second awakening of your golden-rank body martial soul, you had to recuperate for a full half month."
"Don't worry, Sister Lingyi, I know my limits. Last time, my soul was injured, and I couldn't promptly mobilize the vitality of the Life Gold in my second sea of consciousness to nourish myself. Right now I'm in my best condition. As long as I promptly mobilize the vitality of the Life Gold to replenish the consumed life force, the side effects from using the second awakening of the golden-rank body martial soul will be much smaller."
"Alright then." Ye Guyi was still compromised, but her eyes were filled with depression.
If only her strength were strong enough, she wouldn't have to let Zihuang force himself every time.
Xu Zihuang stepped forward with a gentle smile, lightly touched Ye Guyi's lips, and only then did Ye Guyi's expression soften.
Having eaten a mouthful of dog food, Tian Mengbecame so envious that its whole body twisted. Its fat body wriggled crazily in Xu Zihuang's sea of consciousness.
"Ice Ice, my Ice Ice, when will I be able to do this with Ice Ice too! Ah! Ah!"
This wasn't the first time Tian Menghad felt such envy.
From the initial Ning Tian, then Juzi, and now Ye Guyi, compared to Xu Zihuang, it had lost so completely that it was utterly defeated and broken.
Although Tian Mengdidn't make any sound, part of its spiritual origin had long since fused with Xu Zihuang, so Xu Zihuang could clearly sense its inner thoughts. It was similar to mind-reading.
"Alright, stop going crazy here."
After saying that, Xu Zihuang's entire aura began to rise rapidly. An illusory golden vertical eye appeared behind him, then quickly solidified. Next came the characteristic features that appeared when using the second awakening of the golden-rank body martial soul.
The incomparably solid golden vertical eye turned into a deep black-iron color, then gradually changed to bronze and silver, and finally became an incomparably brilliant gold.
Every time the color of the vertical eye changed, Xu Zihuang's aura seemed to cross a boundary. The terrifying pressure even affected Ye Guyi.
Golden light shone brilliantly. Five black and one red, six soul rings almost appeared at the same time around Xu Zihuang. In an instant, they converged into one, turning into a blood-red soul ring with three strange golden patterns, radiating dazzling light.
Xu Zihuang's first three soul rings were all forty-thousand-year level, the fourth and fifth were fifty-thousand-year level, plus the one-hundred-thousand-year pure spiritual-attribute Evil Eye Tyrant sixth soul ring. When these six soul rings fused into a brand-new soul ring, its age limit exceeded three hundred thousand years.
Those three golden patterns were the best proof.
Fusing soul rings from different soul beasts into one brand-new soul ring was not something any soul master could do.
As far as Xu Zihuang knew, even limited Douluo powerhouses like Mu En and Long Xiaoyao did not possess such an ability. This was something Mu En personally told Xu Zihuang during his teachings.
At that time, Mu En had specifically mentioned Xu Sanshi. When his Xuanwu bloodline awakened, Xu Sanshi possessed a powerful divine beast bloodline talent, precisely this soul ring fusion.
Xu Sanshi's first three soul skills were Xuanwu Quake, Xuanwu Shield Formation, and Xuanwu Power.
When the three combined into one black ten-thousand-year soul ring, the soul skill became the area-control type Xuanwu Roar. Moreover, Xu Sanshi could still attempt to fuse the next three soul rings. However, with his current cultivation, he seemed unable to fully control such power. Up to now, he could at most fuse the first four soul rings. This was also his greatest trump card.
That was an innate talent. One could say that in terms of natural talent, Xu Sanshi even surpassed Beibei.
Xu Zihuang's situation was different from Xu Sanshi's. He relied on his half-god level spiritual power and astonishing control to forcibly fuse his six soul rings and activate the origin of the Golden Pupils martial soul, thereby using the martial soul's true body ahead of time.
It was precisely because the spiritual-attribute Golden Pupils' martial soul was special; if it had been the Zihuang Thunder Prison Dragon, he probably wouldn't have been able to do this.
Purple-gold spiritual power extended toward the bottom of the cold spring like a solid substance, unimpeded. In just a few breaths, Xu Zihuang sensed a very small cavern at the bottom of the cold spring. The cavern was only about ten square meters in area, with a height of no more than one and a half meters.
Inside the cavern stood rows of strange ice pillars. There were forty-five of them in total, crisscrossing and varying in size. Every single ice pillar was pure white, as white as jade.
They were precisely the ten-thousand-year-old mysterious ice marrows.
Unlike the extremely cold and restrained nature of Ice Extreme Divine Crystal, the cold of these ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrows could not be restrained at all. The temperature here was infinitely close to absolute zero. Xu Zihuang's spiritual power, even his soul, felt as though it was being frozen.
At this moment, Tian Meng's gaze had gone completely blank.
"There are actually this many ten-thousand-year-old mysterious ice marrows here?! This time we've really hit the jackpot!"
"Sister Lingyi."
Xu Zihuang reminded Ye Guyi.
Ye Guyi's eyes flickered. Her golden pupils suddenly turned a faint gray. She stretched out her right index finger and swiftly drew in the air. A strange gray hexagram quietly appeared. The hexagram shone and floated onto the ground, seemingly forming a peculiar array.
Space distorted. One after another, pure white ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrows fell onto the array. Then, gray light rose from the array and swallowed those ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrows within.
In this way, Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi used this method to send all the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrows into the undead demiplane.
Xu Zihuang let out a long breath of relief. Although the vitality of the Life Gold was replenishing him, using the second awakening of the golden-rank body martial soul still brought other negative effects. His body would inevitably be weak for a few days.
Ye Guyi glared at Xu Zihuang with both anger and even more heartache.
"Letting you show off."
Ye Guyi let Xu Zihuang's arm rest on her shoulder. Xu Zihuang gently stroked Ye Guyi's cheek and said helplessly:
"Sister Lingyi, if you want to gain something, paying a price is unavoidable. Besides, my body actually isn't in too bad a shape."
As he spoke, five clusters of deep purple light flames overflowed from the tip of Xu Zihuang's left index finger. With a light wave, he took down a piece of Ice Extreme Divine Crystal from the cavern wall that had not nurtured an ice spirit.
Soul tools made from this kind of Ice Extreme Divine Crystal could also be used by ordinary soul masters who were not of extreme ice attribute, with the help of the core array.
Xu Zihuang planned to use this Ice Extreme Divine Crystal to practice making soul tools. As for the remaining Ice Extreme Divine Crystals, he had no intention of taking them. This Ice Extreme Divine Crystal was too demanding to use; it was not as useful to him as ordinary rare metals.
And the little money he would get from selling those rare metals wasn't something he cared about. There was no need to make himself look too greedy.
After all, there was Ning Tian, that little rich girl.
After finishing these things, Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi's figures disappeared from the spot, and in the next instant, they reappeared outside the well.
Ye Guyi supported the pale-faced Xu Zihuang.
"A spatial-attribute soul skill? Instant teleportation?"
Nan Shuishui was stunned at first, but she quickly noticed Xu Zihuang's condition and asked with concern: "Tianhuang, are you alright? What happened to you?"
"Just a bit too much consumption." Xu Zihuang gave a wry smile. As he spoke, his wrist flipped, and the piece of Ice Extreme Divine Crystal without an ice spirit appeared in his hand.
Under the light outside, the original color of the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal was revealed. It was ice-blue with a slight shift toward sky-blue, emitting deep blue radiance. Under the illumination of external light, it had a crystalline and translucent texture. Its appearance was even better than the highest-grade gemstones.
"Senior Nan, there really is a special ice-attribute rare metal inside the cold spring, it's this one in my hand, called Ice Extreme Divine Crystal. Sister Guyi and I went through quite a bit of effort to take just this one piece. However, the environment inside the cold spring has already been destroyed by us. It won't be long before you can enter freely with your cultivation. Moreover, the annihilation attribute of your Rouge Dragon martial soul can also mine those Ice Extreme Divine Crystals, but only the ones that have not produced ice spirits. You'll understand once you try it yourself. This piece of Ice Extreme Divine Crystal is enough for me. The rest rightfully belongs to the Earth Dragon Gate."
"This—" Nan Shuishui had not expected things to develop this way. She had originally wanted to give Yu Tianhuang a favor and deepen her connection with this heaven's pride. She never expected that Yu Tianhuang would instead give the Earth Dragon Gate a favor.
She had once entered the ice cave and knew the miraculous nature of the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal. However, with her cultivation, she couldn't stay inside the ice cave for long, so she had no way of knowing that her family's inherited Rouge Dragon martial soul's annihilation attribute could actually mine Ice Extreme Divine Crystal.
And now that Yu Tianhuang had perfectly solved these problems, it meant they could make use of those Ice Extreme Divine Crystals. Just selling this level of rare metal would bring in at least ten million gold soul coins.
"Since that's the case, Tianhuang, then I won't refuse. It is our Earth Dragon Gate that owes you a favor. You don't need to call me Senior anymore. If you two don't mind, just call me Auntie from now on." Nan Shuishui sighed with emotion, then changed the topic:
"Also, when those Ice Extreme Divine Crystals are mined, there will definitely be a share for you two. I promised before, so I won't go back on my word."
"Then thank you, Auntie Nan." Xu Zihuang smiled and put the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal into his storage soul tool.
"You can also see my current condition. After this matter is done, Sister Guyi and I won't disturb you any further."
"How about staying at our Earth Dragon Gate to rest?" Nan Shuishui quickly suggested. The concern on her face was definitely not faked.
At this moment, Ye Guyi also spoke, her expression somewhat unnatural:
"Auntie Nan, that would be too much trouble. Besides, Guyi and Tianhuang are staying at a hotel in the city center. We can come visit when we have time later."
Nan Qiuqiu, who had been behaving like a good baby the whole time, heard Ye Guyi's words, and her eyes became subtle. She sneaked glances back and forth between Ye Guyi and Xu Zihuang.
"Alright then." Nan Shuishui seemed to understand something.
"Qiuqiu, go and see Tianhuang and Guyi off."
"Ah?" Nan Qiuqiu subconsciously raised her head. Seeing Nan Shuishui's stern look, she didn't dare cause any more trouble. She led Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi toward the Earth Dragon Gate exit.
However, she vigilantly kept a distance from Xu Zihuang, staying much closer to Ye Guyi's side.
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