As the shattered ice particles gradually dissipated into the world, his aura completely subsided. Hai Bodong, who had been sitting cross-legged, slowly opened his eyes. The instant he opened them, a dazzling blue light flashed in his hawk-like eyes.
Hai Bodong slowly stood up, clenched his fist, and felt the vast, familiar yet strange energy within his body that he had lost for many years. It was as if a knot in his heart had been untied. Finally, he couldn't help but roar to the sky. His surging battle qi spread with his roar, shattering the surrounding bones into dust.
"Hahahaha, I never thought I, Hai Bodong, would finally regain my strength! Thirty years! Thirty years! Ah! Medusa! I hate you!"
A chilling killing intent gradually emerged, and with the enormous roar, Hai Bodong's excited expression quickly turned into a ferocious one.
Hun Changqing looked at Hai Bodong with a strange gaze, then at the seven-colored snake coiled around his wrist, finding it somewhat amusing.
He wondered what Medusa, who had already reached the Dou Zong level, would look like if he threw her in front of Hai Bodong. Would he still be as arrogant as he was now?
Suppressing his wicked curiosity, he gave a wisp of Taiyin True Qi to the seven-colored snake on his wrist and gently stroked it.
Sensing its keeper's sudden caress, the snake, which had been sleeping, slowly awoke. It looked at Hun Changqing with a puzzled expression, then noticed the Taiyin True Qi before it. Its eyes lit up, and it swallowed the Qi in
one gulp. Then, it squinted and rubbed contentedly against the hand stroking it. At this moment, Hai Bodong, having vented his pent-up frustration for years, seemed to sense Hun Changqing's ambiguous smile and instantly shuddered. Every time he felt Hun Changqing's gaze fall on him like that, nothing good ever came of it.
He quickly composed himself, brushed off the remaining ice shards from his brocade robe, and strode forward to respectfully say to Hun Changqing,
"Thank you for your life-saving grace, sir. I will go through fire and water for you."
Hun Changqing smiled knowingly and said,
"It's nothing. You'll be going through fire and water soon enough, so don't be so happy."
Hai Bodong: ...
Damn it!
"Let's go,"
Hun Changqing said, turning and heading towards the rugged path outside the valley, a makeshift passage made of jagged, grotesque rocks.
Hai Bodong didn't care about anything else and quickly followed.
...
As the two ventured deeper into the valley, the surrounding chill grew increasingly fierce and terrifying. The sky was a dark, oppressive mass, devoid of any sign of life, only endless, deathly, cold, black rocks stretching as far as the eye could see.
Under the terrifying, chilling pressure of the world, both felt their bodies grow heavy, and their pace slowed considerably.
Hun Changqing frowned, feeling the intensely dense, chilling pressure from the surrounding (heaven and earth) relentlessly assaulting him and impacting the barrier formed by his Taiyin True Qi.
Even he couldn't immediately decompose and assimilate this oncoming chill into Taiyin True Qi. It wasn't that the chill here was of higher quality than Taiyin True Qi.
The main reason was that the canyon had accumulated an unimaginable amount of chilling energy over countless years; its quantity was terrifying, and it had become so dense that it was almost tangible. Hun Changqing's Taiyin True Qi was still too weak to completely suppress the chill within the canyon. Each gust of cold air brought an unparalleled shock to the two, making it impossible for them to quickly reach the center of the canyon.
At this moment, Hai Bodong, who was already slightly out of breath, suddenly stepped forward and said to Hun Changqing,
"My lord, when I came here before, the outer perimeter didn't have such a terrifying cold pressure. I don't know what happened in the past few decades that caused this place to seem to have changed!"
After hearing Hai Bodong's words, Hun Changqing narrowed his eyes, pondering,
"A sudden surge in cold air? Could it be that some extremely yin and cold treasure, or some strange life form, has been nurtured in this canyon in the past few decades?"
After thinking for a moment, Hun Changqing shook his head and said,
"Let's keep going. We'll know what's going on when we reach the center."
Just as he was about to continue forward, suddenly, the entire ground began to tremble slightly, the mountainside began to shake, and boulders kept falling.
Upon seeing this, Hun Changqing instantly became alert. He pointed a finger to his brow, a flash of silver light appeared, and then flicked his finger. The Taiyin True Water, the Primordial Heavy Water, and the Three Lights Divine Water transformed into three streams of water that flowed out with his flick.
The streams intertwined and converged, forming five gray-white longswords that exuded a chilling aura. They floated around him, constantly rotating, their sharp sword beams flashing, ready to strike at any moment.
Ripples spread through the space behind him, and within the ripples, a huge round mirror slowly emerged, emitting a cold, clear light that reflected everything in Hun Changqing's line of sight.
Hai Bodong also tensed instantly, all his battle qi secretly gathering within him. If any situation arose, he would unleash his full power as a Seventh-Star Dou Huang without reservation. He knew exactly how dangerous this place was!
As the ground trembled more violently, the mountains shook violently, and thunderous roars echoed from beneath the earth, as if something was about to burst forth from the ground.
Hun Changqing's pupils contracted. He flicked his finger, and a water sword floating beside him hummed and shot out, hovering a short distance above him.
Hun Changqing leaped high, braving the icy pressure, and landed steadily on the water sword. From his vantage point, he stared intently at the trembling ground.
Hun Changqing could sense a massive energy about to erupt from the earth, an energy that even he had to be prepared for.
Meanwhile, Hai Bodong, suppressed by the icy pressure, was unable to use his Qi Wings. With the surrounding mountains and ground shaking, there was nowhere to land. He could only envelop himself in icy Qi, forming a barrier to block the impending catastrophe. With
a deafening roar
, under the watchful eyes of Hun Changqing and his companion, the dark ground finally cracked open, revealing countless fissures that spread outwards at an alarming rate. Rocks occasionally shattered, and the ground bulged or caved in.
Hai Bodong was constantly dodging the turbulent ground that threatened to split beneath his feet. His figure flashed, his battle aura surging, and he leaped several times without showing any panic. He would occasionally raise his hands, using his icy battle aura to shatter the falling rocks hurtling towards him.