Chapter 27: Planting the Cold Fiend

Dong Yi had cultivated for several centuries, roamed many places, and had some opportunities. He had even nurtured a cold fiend within his body; the cold fiend he had used when fighting Ji Ning earlier was that.

"This is..." Dong Yi carefully observed the faint golden flame flickering from the crack in the ground ahead.

The crack in the ground was about two zhang wide.

Looking down... he could vaguely see rolling magma below.

"This earthfire? Mixed with a trace of gold? Pure and dazzling..." Dong Yi observed and nodded slightly, "And growing by the magma, so this earthfire should be 'Golden Flame Earthfire'."

Earthfire could be divided into hundreds of types.

Some earthfires were yin-cold and bone-eroding, some were extremely violent. Golden Flame Earthfire... was known for its 'scorching heat', being an excellent earthfire.

"Pity, I cultivate a cold-natured technique," Dong Yi shook his head, "And I have already nurtured a cold fiend in my body, so it's completely unsuitable to nurture an earthfire. If cold fiend and earthfire meet... I'm afraid I'd be reduced to ashes."

Nurturing both earthfire and cold fiend was very rare, requiring extremely strict conditions in terms of aptitude and technique.

Ji Ning obviously met them.

"I can't use it, but others can." Dong Yi had an idea. He could trade this Golden Flame Earthfire with other Wanxiang cultivators. This was a naturally occurring earthfire vein, hard to come by, so it could fetch a high price.

"Let's go."

Dong Yi's figure flickered, and he quietly left.

...

The dragon-headed warship swiftly advanced northward through the clouds. Mu Zishuo occasionally looked down through the thin mist: "Qingqing, we're almost there!"

Ji Ning sat to the side, a small green snake coiled around his wrist. The small green snake suddenly raised its head and looked outside, speaking in human tongue: "Not yet, I'll tell you when we arrive. Anyway, we'll definitely get there today, so stop fidgeting."

"That's a cold fiend, how can I not be anxious?" Mu Zishuo muttered, "If we're slow, someone else might snatch it."

"If it's that coincidental, then you're just unlucky."

The small green snake said, then coiled around Ji Ning's arm again, leisurely squinting its eyes and sleeping.

Perhaps because of the little fate she had with Ji Ning back then...

Perhaps because they were from the same hometown...

Perhaps because Ji Ning had saved her life...

In any case, she liked to stick close to Ji Ning; it felt so comfortable.

"Senior apprentice-brother, she doesn't even look outside. What if we fly past it and she doesn't know?" Mu Zishuo worried.

"Then we'll fly back," Ji Ning teased.

"Hmm, I really wonder what kind of cold fiend it is," Mu Zishuo muttered, "I've never encountered such a lucky find before."

Ji Ning was also curious...

What kind of cold fiend was it, and would it suit him? Because his divine body was born from 'Grand Yin True Water and Grand Yang True Fire'. So the cold fiend should preferably be compatible with 'Grand Yin True Water'. Some cold fiends were completely incompatible with Grand Yin True Water, like 'Blood Karma Cold Fiend'.

Of course, except for a few extreme ones, most would suit him.

"Woo."

The small green snake instantly turned into mist and condensed into human form.

"Almost there." Qingqing stood at the ship's railing and looked out, "Hey, Wood, you'd better change direction, turn a bit east."

"My name is Mu Zishuo, not Wood," Mu Zishuo glanced at her, "Even my senior apprentice-brother doesn't call me Wood."

"So what if I call you Wood?" Qingqing glared, "Ji Ning is my master, you're not my master... You get the cold fiend thanks to me, and I call you Wood a few times and you're unhappy."

Mu Zishuo sighed helplessly: "Call me whatever you want."

Ji Ning laughed.

His junior apprentice-brother really was someone anyone could bully; even Qingqing could easily bully him.

"Woo, we're here." Qingqing pointed below, "That huge lake."

...

The dragon-headed warship quickly shrank and dove down, its surface blending with the sky to avoid being noticed. Soon the warship reached above the vast lake, then was put away. Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and Qingqing stood on the lake's surface.

"Where is it?" Mu Zishuo looked around, "This lake is over a thousand li wide."

"At the bottom of the lake," Qingqing transmitted quietly, "I naturally love water, so I accidentally entered this lake. Only then did I discover a hidden place at the bottom... Don't worry, many places at the bottom are dangerous, so there are few monsters. No Wanxiang great monsters here. Follow me, and rest assured."

"Let's go, into the water."

Qingqing led the way, and they all entered the water together.

Yuan power on their bodies isolated the lake water, and they easily dove deeper and deeper.

"It's really deep," Mu Zishuo transmitted.

"Several li deep," Ji Ning nodded. They had already seen the bottom; at such depth, they could barely make out the scenery at the bottom. Although they encountered some minor monsters along the way, the powerful aura Qingqing deliberately emitted had long scared those aquatic minor monsters far away.

Qingqing pointed to a dark canyon below: "Follow this canyon at the bottom, and keep going down!"

...

After entering the canyon at the lake bottom, the water temperature grew colder and colder, and broken ice appeared around them.

Then, at the very bottom of the canyon, there was a thick layer of solid ice. Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and Qingqing stood on the solid ice.

"I previously directly teleported into this solid ice to play," Qingqing transmitted, "About a thousand zhang below this ice, there is a cold fiend vein. Without my guidance, if you barged around randomly, you wouldn't find it."

"A thousand zhang?"

Ji Ning willed it, and his divine sense directly swept down overwhelmingly.

Deep within this enormous ice, there was indeed a cold fiend vein, and only that one.

"Dun."

To be cautious, Ji Ning and Mu Zishuo first used a tunneling technique to go a hundred zhang deep, then charged straight ahead, easily breaking a passage. Although the ice was like rock, to Wanxiang cultivators... it was naturally easy to split.

The cold in the ice meant nothing to them.

After a while... Ji Ning and the others arrived at the location of that 'cold fiend vein'.

"This is?" Ji Ning and Mu Zishuo both looked at the cold fiend vein.

The cold fiend vein before them was entirely condensed from icy cold fiend energy, about ten-odd zhang long. Moreover, these cold fiends faintly had humanoid spirits playing among them, making the entire cold fiend full of spirituality.

"Snow Soul Cold Fiend?" Ji Ning showed joy.

"It's Snow Soul Cold Fiend!" Mu Zishuo also showed joy.

Qingqing quickly asked, "How is it, this cold fiend? I also absorbed from this cold fiend vein... to nurture a cold fiend in my body."

"It's called Snow Soul Cold Fiend," Ji Ning said. In over three years at the Black-White College, he naturally knew some common knowledge, "It's also top-tier among cold fiends, full of spirituality. Do you know, cold fiends are divided into nine grades."

"Yes, I know, I know," Qingqing nodded, "I know that. I heard that nurturing to the top first-grade cold fiend makes its power incredibly formidable."

"Right, but some cold fiends are very hard to nurture to first-grade," Ji Ning said, "Cold fiends are divided into nine grades: ninth, eighth, seventh are inferior; sixth, fifth, fourth are middle; third, second, first are superior. Ordinary cold fiends can be nurtured to the top three grades at best. Nurturing to the top second grade is rare, and nurturing to the top first grade is even rarer."

"Snow Soul Cold Fiend is an excellent cold fiend with high potential. It can definitely be nurtured to first-grade," Ji Ning said.

"Looks like I'm quite lucky," Qingqing cheered.

Mu Zishuo said from the side, "This cold fiend can still be used by several people. Let's prepare to plant it immediately."

"Qingqing, I'll leave the protection to you," Ji Ning flipped his hand and took out six formation flags, "This is a set of illusion formations, quite powerful. Without enough research in formations, one can't enter. When Junior Apprentice-brother Shuo and I plant the cold fiend in our bodies, you keep watch. Planting a cold fiend is very dangerous and cannot be interrupted midway; you must be careful."

"Okay," Qingqing nodded, "Don't worry, Master."

She naturally understood that cold fiends themselves were highly aggressive, otherwise cultivators wouldn't value them so much. And this natural cold fiend was even more wild. Planting meant absorbing this cold fiend into one's own Zi Mansion. If interrupted midway, the cold fiend could damage the Zi Mansion, possibly causing death on the spot.

However, Ji Ning was a Fiendgod Body Refiner, so he wouldn't die. But he still worried about damaging his Zi Mansion.

...

Deep in the ice layer of the lake-bottom canyon, Ji Ning and the others quickly dug out an ice chamber, which also contained that cold fiend vein. They set up an illusion formation around it. Qingqing was on guard.

Both Ji Ning and Mu Zishuo sat cross-legged on the ice, facing the cold fiend vein ahead.

"Junior apprentice-brother, be careful," Ji Ning warned solemnly.

When planting a cold fiend, at worst he would damage his Zi Mansion and need a few years to recover. But his junior apprentice-brother could die in the worst case.

Ji Ning also decided that if an accident really happened midway, he would rather get hurt and stop to protect his junior apprentice-brother.

"Don't worry," Mu Zishuo smiled, "The path of puppetry uses countless rare materials. Collecting a cold fiend... if I'm careful, it's a piece of cake."

Ji Ning smiled.

Then he turned to look at the spiritual icy cold fiend energy before him, and gently opened his mouth to inhale!

Wrapped in yuan power, a strand of the icy cold fiend energy was directly inhaled by Ji Ning.

"So cold."

As soon as the cold fiend entered his body, his whole body felt icy. But as a Fiendgod Body Refiner, Ji Ning naturally didn't care. However, Mu Zishuo beside him naturally suffered.

In Ji Ning's mind surfaced some key points from the 'Water Source Commentary' regarding collecting cold fiend, earthfire, wind fiend, and light fiend.

"Condense!"

In the Zi Mansion space, the myriad stars in the sky, along with the bright moon and the golden crow, simultaneously shot down beams of light. These were pure Wanxiang yuan power, quickly condensing above the endless ocean of yuan power into a transparent small island, inconspicuous in the entire ocean.

Then, the strand of cold fiend inhaled by Ji Ning directly appeared from the outside in the Zi Mansion space.

As soon as it appeared...

Ji Ning felt his entire Zi Mansion turn icy cold, as if pricked by needles. Without daring to hesitate, he immediately guided that strand of cold fiend to fly directly into that transparent small island.

Whoosh!

Like a tree planted in soil, the cold fiend directly drilled into the transparent island.