Chapter Twenty-Nine: Gathering Together

Ji Ning sat there, his right hand extended, a faint mist of yuan power directly enveloping the ten-thousand-year-old ice in the nearby wooden box. The cold energy of the ten-thousand-year-old ice was continuously absorbed by Ji Ning... drawn directly into his body and sent to the Zifu within. The cold sha being nurtured in the Zifu, upon touching this cold energy, immediately became excited and absorbed it wildly.

"Master." Qingqing, who had been hesitating beside him, suddenly spoke.

"Hmm?" Ji Ning turned his head to look.

"Master, when you finish using this piece of ten-thousand-year-old ice, I'll give you more," Qingqing said cautiously, looking at Ji Ning. "I'll give you another piece, two feet tall."

Ji Ning couldn't help but laugh. He could see that this little Qing was still a money-grubber.

Looking at Qingqing... another woman suddenly appeared in Ji Ning's mind.

"Sister Qiuye," Ji Ning murmured to himself. "It's been more than three years since I left Yanshan. I haven't seen her in over three years; I wonder how Sister Qiuye is doing now."

That woman who had accompanied him since childhood like an elder sister—Ji Ning had deep feelings for her.

"Once I become a Yinglong Guard this time, I can investigate the three murderers who caused my father, mother, and uncle such misery," Ji Ning thought to himself. "And... I can also return to Yanshan to see Sister Qiuye, Qingshi, and the Yisnake Lake..."

Ji Ning suddenly felt a strong desire to return to Yisnake Lake. It had been a long time since he had drifted on Yisnake Lake lying in a small boat.

"Yisnake Lake!"

As Ji Ning thought, a fierce glint flickered in his eyes.

"Father, mother... my loved ones, never leave me again. May these tragedies never happen again, never!" Ji Ning's heart burned with an intense obsession. "As for Snowdragon Mountain? It's just the first obstacle on my path of immortality."

In his heart, Ji Ning's goal had always been to become a mighty figure who could roam the Three Realms and control his own destiny.

Snowdragon Mountain? Ji Ning had never regarded it as his sole goal in life.

...

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed in this ice layer.

The cold sha within Ji Ning's body, nurtured by the cold energy of the ten-thousand-year-old ice, had grown significantly, reaching the eighth-grade cold sha level. This rapid growth only occurred in the early stages; the further it went, the slower the growth. For some cold sha with poorer potential, there was hardly any hope of reaching a higher grade.

"Hmm?" Ji Ning looked at Mu Zishuo not far away.

Mu Zishuo opened his eyes.

"Done," Ji Ning said.

"Mm." Mu Zishuo's eyes were filled with joy.

"Mutou," Qingqing said, "I've prepared a gift for you, a congratulatory present for successfully planting the cold sha."

"A gift? For me?" Mu Zishuo was astonished.

"Mm." Qingqing nodded proudly, and a small wooden box appeared in her delicate hand.

Ji Ning looked at the tiny wooden box and covered his forehead.

"Look." Qingqing opened the wooden box.

"Ten-thousand-year-old ice!" Mu Zishuo exclaimed. Previously, he had been completely focused on planting the cold sha, unable to spare any attention, so he hadn't noticed the earlier conversation.

Ji Ning glanced at it. The ten-thousand-year-old ice in the 'tiny' wooden box was only half a foot long.

Qingqing quickly looked at Ji Ning and blinked.

"How can I accept this..." Mu Zishuo was still declining.

"Just accept it," Ji Ning said, standing up. "Accept it, and we'll set off quickly to the next earthfire vein."

The nearby cold sha vein was only a little more than half of its original size. Ji Ning could have sought out other Wanxiang Adepts to trade... but after two group battles in the Yushan Great Swamp—one against six Wanxiang Adepts and another against over ten Wanxiang great demons—Ji Ning quickly realized that with his current strength, obtaining treasures while roaming outside was not difficult. Spending time scheming to trade with one or two Wanxiang Adepts was truly unnecessary!

...

On a barren mountain, a Xiantian lesser demon was crouching on guard.

"The king sent us to patrol the various peaks to find that human cultivator. The Yushan Great Swamp is so vast; who knows where that human cultivator went. I'm stuck here on this mountain, how likely is it that I'll run into him?" A yellow-haired demon leaned against a large rock. As a Xiantian demon, even in places like Yanshan, he could only rely on the tribe's influence, and in the Yushan Great Swamp, he was merely a lesser demon.

"Just these two human youths made the Dragon Whale Demon King suffer a great loss." The yellow-haired demon still clearly remembered the content of the beast-hide letter.

Using the Water Seal Technique, the beast-hide letter originally sent by the Dragon Whale Demon King had been reproduced in thousands of copies. All the Xiantian lesser demons had seen it and remembered it well.

Whoosh!

A streak of light suddenly flew down from the clouds in the distance, diving toward a nearby barren mountain.

"That is!" The yellow-haired demon was startled. He looked carefully and revealed a delighted expression. "Yes, it's the Dragon-Head Warship."

The distant Dragon-Head Warship flew to the barren mountain, and three figures descended: Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and Qingqing. Then they vanished into thin air.

...

"That's the barren mountain. There aren't many demons around, just some lesser demons, nothing to fear," Qingqing said.

The Dragon-Head Warship immediately dove down.

Ji Ning also released his divine sense, covering an area of nearly three hundred li around him—this was the maximum range he could currently probe. Upon inspection, indeed, within several hundred li there were only minor demons; one that might be a Zifu-level demon was still cultivating hard in a secret chamber.

"Let's go."

He directly executed an escape technique and entered the belly of the desolate mountain.

Inside the mountain, Qingqing led the way: "Follow this cave entrance, and we'll soon reach the underground river. We'll follow the river, and before long, we'll see that earthly fire vein."

Sure enough.

A moment later, in the deep, dark underground, beside them was an underground river, and on the other side, in the depths, there was a crevice about two zhang wide, from which a golden flame was emanating.

"An earthly fire vein." Ji Ning's eyes lit up. "It should be... Golden Flame Earthly Fire!"

Ji Ning immediately identified it.

"This is also a decent earthly fire." Ji Ning felt delighted, then looked downward. Below the deep crevice was rolling, scorching magma. It was normal for Golden Flame Earthly Fire to appear near magma, but when Ji Ning saw this magma... for some reason, he suddenly felt a palpitation!

A vague sense of threat—an instinctive response from his soul, a warning to him.

Ji Ning turned his head away and no longer looked at the magma flow. That sense of threat immediately vanished.

"Could there be a shattered space below?" Ji Ning thought to himself.

Usually, when he saw some twisted spatial rifts, he would also feel a faint palpitation. In places like the Prisonfall Great Swamp... encountering such situations was too common.

"You two must not enter the magma, especially you, Xiaoqing, don't go barging in," Ji Ning instructed.

"Not enter the magma?" Qingqing looked at Ji Ning.

Ji Ning nodded: "There should be spatial distortion rifts or something; we need to be careful. By the way, this time I'll be gathering the earthly fire, and it might take much longer. Because I have a cold aura inside me, I need to be even more cautious when gathering the earthly fire now. I estimate it will take at least three to four days, at most five to six days." Ji Ning then sat cross-legged beside the Golden Flame Earthly Fire Vein.

"Leave it to us," Qingqing said.

"Senior apprentice brother, rest assured. I'll set up the formation now," Mu Zishuo also said.

The two of them first set up a warning formation inside the mountain belly, then laid down a maze formation covering several li around the Golden Flame Earthly Fire Vein.

Ji Ning sat cross-legged.

Opening his mouth, under the wrapping of elemental power, a thread of Golden Flame Earthly Fire was directly swallowed into his body by Ji Ning.

Earthly fire and cold aura are completely opposite. Since he had already planted the cold aura in his body, he now had to be even more careful when absorbing the earthly fire... If anything went wrong, the earthly fire would erupt and collide with the cold aura. With a bang, even if Ji Ning survived through his divine demon body tempering, his Violet Mansion space would likely be completely destroyed.

Even if he was lucky and the Violet Mansion wasn't destroyed, he would still be severely injured, perhaps even like his father, never able to make any further progress in Qi Refining.

But Jining could not give up because of this extremely low probability of danger. The path of immortal cultivation was precisely about seizing a thread of celestial opportunity.

……

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Only then did the innate minor demon toil back to report, after which the Zifu demon personally went to 'Dragon Whale Mountain' to inform.

"Reporting to the Dragon Whale King, this is the map. Three days ago, the human the Dragon Whale King wanted to hunt went here." The black-furred bear demon standing below said respectfully.

"Here?"

The Dragon Whale Demon King sat high on his throne, looked at the map in his hand, and quickly understood the location.

"Very good. Go back and tell your Old Wolf that he helped me this time, and I will remember it." The Dragon Whale Demon King's voice rumbled.

"Yes." The black-furred bear demon replied respectfully and then withdrew.

The Dragon Whale Demon King's dark green eyes were full of murderous intent, and his aura was more than ten times stronger and denser than before. Having become a Primordial Spirit great demon... his strength had naturally surged greatly.

"Big brother." The two wild bull great demons standing beside looked at the Dragon Whale Demon King.

"I will go kill that human brat. You two brothers watch over Dragon Whale Mountain for now." The Dragon Whale Demon King commanded.

"Don't worry, big brother. Leave everything here to us." The two wild bull great demons replied in unison.

"Then wait for me to return for the celebration feast."

The Dragon Whale Demon King let out a sinister laugh, then his figure flickered and vanished from the cave. Soon, a beam of green light shot through the high sky, disappearing beyond the horizon.

...

On a green leaf stood three Wanxiang True Persons, flying through the clouds and mist.

"Brother Dongyi, have we arrived at the place of the earthfire vein you mentioned?" asked a black-robed, bald woman with a crisp voice. The bald woman had red patterns on her face, giving her an eerie appearance.

"Both of you can rest assured. Since we've all sworn oaths on the Heavenly Dao, what is there to worry about?" Dong Yi, clad in a golden robe, smiled. "The location of that Earthfire Vein is extremely secluded... even the mountain belly is incredibly hidden. I only discovered it by chance, and I believe it won't be found by anyone else anytime soon."

Dong Yi was in an excellent mood.

Because he had exchanged that Earthfire Vein for quite a few treasures. Of course, for now it was only an agreement; both parties had sworn oaths on the Heavenly Dao. Only when they actually reached the Earthfire Vein would the other party give him the treasures.

"We're here, that low mountain peak down there." Dong Yi pointed below; through the clouds and mist, the low hill could be faintly seen. "That kind of desolate low hill, even a demon can't be bothered to stay on it, very inconspicuous."

The two Wanxiang true persons beside him, a man and a woman, also had anticipation in their eyes.

"Follow me." Dong Yi said complacently, then steered his flying treasure and swooped downward.