Ice Prison

Under the watchful eyes of the world, a momentous war drew its curtains after merely a single day. Such breathtaking speed made many cultivators who had not yet managed to reach Incense Valley to spectate exclaim in regret. No one had expected it—no one at all! That the Yan Alliance, which still possessed the heritage and foundations of a major sect, would be annihilated so swiftly. Especially when virtually no main forces of the premier sects had even mobilized. Yet, as details of the Battle of Incense Valley were gradually shared by cultivators who had taken part, they came to understand why it had ended so fast. The Yan Alliance had failed to withstand the pressure of formidable foes on the front line. Then, under the surge of tens of thousands of cultivators, the wall collapsed and everyone pushed—the alliance had been left utterly powerless to resist. In this battle, the cultivators of the Yan Alliance were almost entirely wiped out. From the three Golden Core elders at the top down to several thousand Qi Refinement cultivators below. Even the newly appointed Sect Master, Xiao Lian, died tragically beneath the sword of Azure Pill Valley's Danyangzi. Only a scant few remnants barely managed to escape with their lives, incapable of stirring up any further waves. And among the gossip relished by countless rogue cultivators, the name that surfaced most frequently was none other than Luo Chen! It was he who had united the disparate factions into an allied army to crush the Yan Alliance. It was he who, by his own might, slaughtered dozens of Foundation Establishment True Cultivators, shifting the course of the battlefield. And it was likewise he who blasted and killed the Yan Alliance's strongest cultivator, Qin Tairan, head-on, cementing their ultimate victory. This man's formidable combat prowess was brought up again and again as cultivators of the Jade Cauldron Domain spread the tale. Some even dug up his past battle records from along his cultivation path: In his weaker days, a Qi Refinement cultivator killing Foundation Establishment! At the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment, without relying on any magical treasures, he fought four cultivators of the same rank single-handedly, exerting his dominance over the banks of the Qinhua River in Tianlan! After reaching the sixth layer of Foundation Establishment, he swept across the Mount Thunder Accumulation battlefield, invoking the heavenly thunder of the Deity Transformation ruins to blast and slay the Yan Alliance's Golden Core elder, Di Wanyun! Upon advancing to the late Foundation Establishment stage, outside Danxia Peak, he slaughtered multiple late Foundation Establishment grand cultivators in the blink of an eye all by himself! Up until the Battle of Incense Valley! There, the man brought out all his methods and revealed every hidden card. Not only was his fire art overbearing and peerless, but his body refinement technique also far surpassed his own realm, allowing him to clash head-on against a Golden Core cultivator. Once such battle achievements were uncovered and compiled by interested parties, they spread like wildfire to every gathering place of cultivators across the Jade Cauldron Domain. The Six Jade Cauldron Sects, the major first-rate powers, the Ten Immortal Cities, markets large and small... In nearly every corner, people could be seen discussing Luo Chen's deeds. The cause of such a sensation was entirely understandable. The weak defeating the strong, battling across cultivation ranks—these were forever the favorite stories of cultivators at the bottom. And the innumerable low-level cultivators were precisely the largest group making up the cultivation world. Lacking talent and starved of resources, after struggling bitterly for half their lives only to find grand achievements out of reach, they could only live out their remaining days in mediocrity. Under such circumstances, their daily chatter revolved around either the trivial affairs around them or secrets concerning high-level cultivators at the very peak of the cultivation world. A powerhouse rising meteorically like Luo Chen was naturally the finest topic of discussion. After all, rumors held that Luo Chen, too, had crawled and clawed his way up from among the rogue cultivators. Not only that, but Luo Chen's Daoist title, Lord Fire Spirit, was mentioned time and again. Toward the end, it even gradually eclipsed the title of Danchenzi, which had previously made him famous throughout the Jade Cauldron Domain. Danchenzi represented his alchemy attainment that overwhelmed the Seven Azure Pill Prodigies. Lord Fire Spirit, on the other hand, was the ultimate summation of his combat prowess. Meddlesome busybodies had already pinned the title of "Jade Cauldron Domain's Number One in Foundation Establishment" upon him, eclipsing countless brilliant rogue cultivators, sect Dao Children, and true disciples of the supreme sects in a single stroke! To this, many Foundation Establishment powerhouses voiced their dissatisfaction. Yet, faced with Luo Chen's illustrious feats, they could only swallow their vocal discontent. Cultivation grew harder the further one progressed! Likewise, at higher realms, the power wielded by cultivators became vastly greater. Overcoming the strong from a position of weakness, upsetting the natural order from below, grew increasingly difficult. Qi Refinement besting Foundation Establishment was heard of from time to time. Yet Foundation Establishment slaying Golden Core was exceedingly rare in this world! Perhaps the only point where true disciples and Dao Children of Nascent Soul and Golden Core sects could still show stubborn defiance was that Luo Chen had employed means beyond the Foundation Establishment realm during both of his Golden Core slaughters! One was the heavenly thunder of the Deity Transformation ruins. The other was a disposable treasure capable of blasting a Golden Core cultivator to death—the Immortal Thunder Bead. Though they remained stubborn with their tongues, even more people continued to heap praise upon Luo Chen. And this wave of praise subtly shifted toward the Ice Fort. After all, Luo Chen possessed extraordinary alchemy skills, and the combat prowess he had now revealed was just as formidable—he could be called an unrivaled prodigy of the younger generation in the Jade Cauldron Domain! With him, the Ice Fort gained wings like a tiger. Give it another century or two, and the Ice Fort might very well rise to become another Falling Cloud Sect in the Jade Cauldron Domain. Faced with this situation, the Ice Fort was no fool. This was praise to kill—building someone up only to destroy them! They gradually realized that while those forces targeted Luo Chen, they were simultaneously targeting the Ice Fort. Perhaps their true target had been the Ice Fort all along. Under these circumstances, another piece of news was proactively released by the Ice Fort, gradually spreading across the lips of countless cultivators in the Jade Cauldron Domain. In the Battle of Incense Valley, Lord Fire Spirit Luo Chen had crossed a major realm to fight a Golden Core Master. Though he had attained a glorious victory, he had sustained irrepressible, grievous wounds. After being rescued, he was personally treated by the Ice Fort's Supreme Elder, Master Canglong, who diagnosed that his very foundation had been damaged. He had even been in a coma for over half a year without waking. Currently, his life and death hung in the balance. Even if he survived, his future prospects were bleak. To this news, the cultivators of the Jade Cauldron Domain went from disbelief and unwillingness to accept it at first to later, as details of the battle were revealed, having no choice but to believe it with deep regret. Many had seen the details of that battle clearly. When the Immortal Thunder Bead detonated to kill Qin Tairan, Luo Chen had also suffered the backlash of the shockwaves. No matter how strong his body refinement technique was, could it truly surpass the natal treasure of a Golden Core Master? One had to remember that Qin Tairan's natal treasure, the Taiyang Furnace, had shattered in full view of the public. Even now, quite a few Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Jade Cauldron Domain possessed a fragment or two of the Taiyang Furnace. The might of the Immortal Thunder Bead was terrifying indeed! Besides, Qin Tairan's dying counterattack had inflicted heavy injuries on Luo Chen. How could a Golden Core blow be easily endured? Back then, under the eyes of the multitude, many had seen plainly that Luo Chen was slammed into the subterranean earth with a single strike. When he emerged, Fairy Jueqing had carried him away in an ice coffin. Had Fairy Jueqing not reassured everyone that Luo Chen was still alive, some would have thought he was already dead right then and there. After this news was put out, two or three years passed, and the trend of exalting Lord Fire Spirit Luo Chen and building up the Ice Fort to destroy it gradually subsided. For indeed, no one had seen Luo Chen for a very long time. ... At the northernmost reaches of the Jade Cauldron Domain, bordering the Great Snow Mountain, stood a lofty peak blanketed in ice and snow all year round. This mountain was named Mount Tian! It was none other than the mountain gate of the Ice Fort, one of the Six Jade Cauldron Sects! Atop Mount Tian. An exquisite figure was wrapped in a snow-white fox fur cloak, letting the drifting snow fall across her body. Her graceful gaze looked down at the icy fortresses towering below the mountain, seemingly penetrating the earth to peer deep into the subterranean depths. Her translucent earlobe suddenly twitched. A faint smile graced her face. "Xiaorou, you're back!" Fairy Jueqing walked out from behind her with a helpless expression. As her figure appeared, the swirling snow seemed to thin slightly. "Eldest Senior Sister, your divine sense is far too sharp. Even my Ice Escape couldn't hide from you." Master Canglong smiled faintly. "Do not be discouraged. This Ice Escape is a fourth-rank escape technique. That you have already gained an initial grasp of it at the fourth layer of Golden Core is already quite remarkable. Once you achieve minor mastery, paired with your Dao of Talismans, you will not lose out in the least even against the sword cultivators of Jade Cauldron or the puppeteers of Falling Cloud." Fairy Jueqing shook her head. She considered herself quite gifted in the path of spells, and using that understanding, she had cross-applied her insights to cultivate the Dao of Talismans as well. Yet for her, it was always easy to begin but difficult to master. Unlike that man. Clearly just ordinary first-rank and second-rank spells, yet in his hands they could always be cultivated to the pinnacle. Wielded with casual ease, their power was immense! A mere second-rank Blazing Sun Art could actually produce ten suns striding across the sky, comparable to a third-rank spell. At the thought of him, Jueqing could not help asking, "How is Luo Chen's condition right now?" Faced with this question, the smile on Canglong's face deepened. "He is naturally safe and sound. Surely you didn't believe the fake rumors we spread ourselves?" Fairy Jueqing gave a slight shrug of her delicate shoulders and walked up beside Canglong. "I couldn't help it. Three years ago, Luo Chen's state was truly terrifying." Canglong sighed with emotion. "How could it not be terrifying? He was caught in the shockwaves of the Immortal Thunder Bead and took a Golden Core strike from Qin Tairan. An ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would have been blasted into nothingness long ago. Only his formidable physique allowed him to endure it head-on. If it had been just that, so be it! But he was audaciously bold enough to forcibly absorb the Yan Alliance's Wither-Bloom Fire, passed down for three hundred years... Tsk, tsk, in all my life, I have never seen anyone with such daring." "Audaciously bold?" Fairy Jueqing curled her lip. "I say he was courting death. Had I not been present, under the backlash of the Wither-Bloom Fire, no matter how strong his body was, he would have been burned to ashes." "Yet he knew clearly that you were on the scene, and he knew very well that you would step in to save him," Canglong said. Fairy Jueqing furrowed her brows. Canglong pursed her rosy lips and smiled. "Not only that, he even knew you carried an Ice God Talisman to calm the mind and focus the spirit, as well as the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Coffin that our sect's Golden Core Masters must carry when traveling outside. Both were sufficient to save him and bring him back to our Ice Fort's Ice Prison. That is the ideal spiritual ground for refining source true fire!" Hearing this, Fairy Jueqing's delicate brows furrowed even tighter. She could not comprehend how Luo Chen, a mere Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator, could know so many secrets—and gauge her mentality so precisely. An elegant voice sounded by her ear. "In this matter, Luo Chen must have received guidance from an expert!" An expert? Fairy Jueqing was taken aback. For an expert in the eyes of her Eldest Senior Sister, who was nearly at Golden Core Perfection... "Could it be... Perfected Han?" Canglong's smile gradually faded. "Though I do not know how he came into contact with him, the only one who knows so many secrets of our sect is Han Zhan. Years ago, he borrowed our sect's Ice Prison to cultivate a divine soul secret art, which was how he learned of these things. During the Battle of Incense Valley, Luo Chen knew the Yan Alliance's situation like the back of his hand—the number of enemies, the terrain of Incense Valley, and even the existence of the Wither-Bloom Fire. He must have had help, and the one who understood these things best could only be the Falling Cloud Sect." Shock appeared on Fairy Jueqing's face. During that battle, she had not thought too much about it, simply entering the fray to fight. Looking at it now, Luo Chen's scheme had truly been grand. He had actually united three Golden Core sects alongside the supreme Nascent Soul sect, Falling Cloud! "Let us set Luo Chen aside for now. He can stay in the Ice Prison as long as he wishes!" Canglong put the matter behind her and asked about another matter she cared more about. "Have you found out who started praising the Ice Fort to destroy us?" Fairy Jueqing nodded quickly. "I've uncovered some clues. It seems the news originated from Azure Pill Valley." "Azure Pill Valley?" Canglong's brows knit slightly. Yet after a moment, they smoothed out. "If it's them, it makes sense. They fear being targeted once more by the two supreme Nascent Soul sects, so they want to shift the trouble eastward, diverting the supreme sects' attention toward our Ice Fort!" Fairy Jueqing nodded. "I thought so too. Senior Sister, should we..." "No need!" Canglong waved her sleeve. "Let them be. Such matters are no longer of any consequence." "Mm?" Jueqing was puzzled. Outsiders were targeting the Ice Fort, yet that wasn't important? Then what was? Just then, her pupils suddenly contracted. In utter astonishment, she stared at Canglong, taking several steps back. "Eldest Senior Sister, you...!" Canglong glanced down at herself, then let out a self-deprecating chuckle. "Pardon me. My cultivation has finally reached perfection. The Core is perfected and the Fetus quickens—sometimes the aura cannot be contained." What was Core Perfection? The Golden Core achieved grand completion, stepping into perfection—that was the Core perfected! What was the quickening of the fetus? The spirit fetus was forged, waiting only for the shattering of the core to form the Nascent Soul—that was the quickening of the fetus! At this stage, only one thing remained to be done: Cross the lightning tribulation, condense the Nascent Soul, and become a Pure Yang Perfected Cultivator! The usually cold and taciturn Fairy Jueqing could not help feeling excited now. Across the entire Jade Cauldron Domain, there were two Nascent Soul Perfected Cultivators, dozens of Golden Cores, and nearly ten thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators, but cultivators at Golden Core Great Perfection were exceedingly few. Even Azure Pill Valley's Supreme Elder, who had lived for over five hundred years, was merely said to be infinitely close to Golden Core Great Perfection. No one would have guessed that Senior Sister Canglong, who rarely traveled outside, had unknowingly reached this step. Then what remained to be done... "Senior Sister, when will you form your Nascent Soul?" Canglong shook her head. "I must still wait." "Wait?" "Yes. Wait for the right time, wait for people, wait for an opportunity!" ... Snow lay thick and white, ice layered upon ice. Deep within that icy plain, a thousand zhang underground, lay a labyrinthine expanse. This place was one of the Ice Fort's most vital forbidden grounds. Its terrain was intricate and sprawling, overrun with thousand-year profound ice that blocked the outward projection of spiritual sense. Ordinary cultivators who entered would only lose themselves within it. Like a prison, without knowing the way, one could never escape. Thus, the cultivators of the Ice Fort called it the Ice Prison! Within this vast Ice Prison, a young Daoist with grizzled gray hair had sat motionless for three whole years. Suddenly! A deep, emerald-green flame emerged from his body and expanded outward. Just as it was about to touch the nearby ice wall, it was forced back. Then, it appeared again, and was drawn back again. Repeating in this cycle, until nine times had passed, the emerald-green flame ceased entirely, suppressed back into the young Daoist's body. A breath of turbid air was exhaled from his mouth; touching the exterior chill, it condensed into a white dragon of vapor. The young Daoist slowly opened his eyes. The moment they opened, flames seemed to flicker within his gaze. The dark and cold Ice Prison seemed illuminated, flashing with daylight for a fleeting instant. This person was none other than the one who had disappeared for three years—Lord Fire Spirit, Luo Chen!