More than half an hour later, the Spirit Stones in Li Yan's hands had turned to dust. Only then did he open his eyes, but he did not immediately stand up. Instead, his Divine Sense moved and entered Tu Ban. A vast expanse of bright yellow land filled his Divine Sense. Pale yellow clouds drifted slowly across a blue sky. A great mountain stood majestically, and a long, winding river flowed around it, its banks lined with lush green grass that stretched into the distance. The scenery here was the same as before, only the world was clearer.
Magical Treasures needed to be nurtured, and Tu Ban was no exception. Although it was refined by a peerless Body Integration stage expert, it was only in its initial form after being refined. Without a cultivator dripping blood to claim ownership and nurturing it over a long period, it would forever remain in its primitive state.
Li Yan soon discovered a thousand Snow Mosquitoes in Tu Ban. These were the ones he had captured from the outside earlier. With his current cultivation, dealing with grade-one demonic beasts was no longer very difficult. When these thousand Snow Mosquitoes had formed an ice crystal sword and were about to slash at him, Li Yan's Divine Sense had instantly opened the spatial restriction of Tu Ban and directly absorbed them.
Li Yan did not take in more Snow Mosquitoes. Based on the reproduction rate of Snow Mosquitoes recorded in the Jade Slip, he believed that if he succeeded in subduing and claiming ownership, it wouldn't be long before countless Snow Mosquitoes propagated here. What he needed to do now was to see if he could truly bring these Snow Mosquitoes safely out of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. Perhaps Tu Ban did not have the absolute spatial barrier he imagined. The moment he stepped out of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, these Snow Mosquitoes might turn to dust, so there was no need to think about subsequent breeding and taming.
At this moment, the Snow Mosquitoes were not in a good state. Li Yan had found this group on the mountain top, on the rock wall of a damp cave. Their auras were somewhat listless, and many even appeared weak. They had lost all of their previous vigor and sharpness.
This made Li Yan's heart tighten. 'It's only been about an hour. Could it be that they can only survive in the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda? But logically, both places are independent spaces, both evolved from the five elements...'
The Snow Mosquitoes seemed to sense the arrival of Li Yan's Divine Sense. Some of them remained on the cave floor, their wings drooping, completely still. But about half of them, after sensing Li Yan's aura, still took flight. They flew unsteadily in the air, searching for the location of Li Yan's Divine Sense. After confirming the space where Li Yan's Divine Sense fluctuated, although they flew slowly, they still raised their sharp proboscises and stabbed towards his Divine Sense, only to stab through empty space.
These Snow Mosquitoes could not attack the intangible Divine Sense. After several fruitless attempts to weave through the area where they could sense Li Yan's aura, they once again emitted a whistle like a cold wind from their proboscises. However, this sound was much weaker in Li Yan's ears. After the hundreds of Snow Mosquitoes let out their sharp whistles, they began to gather together in the space, as if trying to form a crystal sword again. But after several attempts, they dispersed midway and finally landed on the damp ground, exhausted.
Li Yan saw that the half of the Snow Mosquitoes that could still fly were significantly larger than the ones that remained motionless on the ground or on the cave wall.
'These Snow Mosquitoes that can still attack in such a poor state are all adults, but they won't last much longer either...' Li Yan knew the outcome after a glance. He looked at the surrounding environment, and then his Divine Sense moved. In an instant, the originally warm sky above the entire mountain peak suddenly dropped in temperature. Soon after, snowflakes began to float down from the sky. The rocks on the mountain top began to harden rapidly, and then a thin layer of ice formed.
Li Yan stared intently at the Snow Mosquitoes in the cave. He soon saw that as the sky changed and the temperature dropped, the Snow Mosquitoes that had been like old men, motionless, now became restless. As the snowflakes fell, they began to beat their wings and all flew out of the cave. They met the dancing snowflakes in the sky and quickly merged into them. For a moment, it was impossible to tell which were snowflakes and which were Snow Mosquitoes.
Sensing the Snow Mosquitoes weaving through the snowflakes, Li Yan revealed a slight smile. When he first saw the Snow Mosquitoes' condition, he had guessed that either the space of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda was truly special, causing the demonic beasts within to be tainted by the aura of Vicious Souls and be rejected by other spaces, or it was due to the temperature here. After all, this was an earth-attribute Magical Treasure, which emphasized a powerful and fierce yang qi. But Tu Ban was a supreme treasure of the Five Immortal Sects, and the five elements were the most fundamental thing. So, although Li Yan's current cultivation could not fully control Tu Ban, it had been refined with his essence blood. Condensing water Spirit Power to form ice and snow was still extremely easy.
Looking at the space, the originally yang-filled mountain was now half like an iceberg from the top down, and half like a transition to the warm spring blossoms at the foot of the mountain. Li Yan actually found it had a certain exotic charm.
The matter could be very complicated, or it could be very simple. Li Yan had temporarily resolved the issue of the Snow Mosquitoes in Tu Ban without much effort. The real critical moment would be when he left the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. If they died, there was nothing more to be said. If he could sneak them out, he could then refine these Snow Mosquitoes in the future.
After this experience, the rest of the journey through the snowfield, though still not easy, was uneventful thanks to his prior experience.
A day later, Li Yan, his face weary, urged the Cloud-Piercing Willow to charge forward. Looking at the swarms of Snow Mosquitoes stirred up by the wind behind him, Li Yan could only shake his head slightly, finally letting out a long sigh of relief in his heart. The wave of Snow Mosquitoes he had just encountered stretched for two thousand li. Even though Li Yan was prepared, his scalp still tingled.
In the past day, Li Yan had encountered four Snow Mosquito colonies, two of which had a range of two to three thousand li. Thinking back on it now, Li Yan definitely did not want to experience it again. The first level of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda was already so difficult to pass through; the demonic beasts on the higher levels would be of an even higher grade, and their danger was impossible to guess.
The journey ahead, though still a snowfield, was now approaching its edge. As he continued forward, although he did not encounter any more Snow Mosquito colonies, there were other demonic beasts. For example, half an incense stick's worth of time ago, he had encountered a "Fissure-Faced Rabbit." This demonic beast had a coat of white fur and looked very cute, but its head was three times the size of a normal rabbit's, with a hideous face. Its pair of red eyes could shoot out two beams of red light that could overwhelm one's spirit. If a cultivator's Divine Sense was only at the Qi Condensation stage, they would be frozen in place at first sight and then leisurely hunted. However, these posed little threat to Li Yan. With the current strength of his Divine Sense, he could easily counter-suppress the opponent's soul and often just casually destroyed them.
Along the way, Li Yan's Divine Sense also discovered some herbs growing on or under the snowfield. Although none of them were rare species, they were good raw materials for refining some medicinal pills. Li Yan, of course, picked them without any hesitation.
Seeing that the snowfield on the ground was no longer a vast expanse of flatness but was beginning to show cracked ice and snow gullies, Li Yan knew he was approaching the "Melting Cave" region. Li Yan carefully recalled the various descriptions of the "Melting Cave" region from the Jade Slip in his mind, but suddenly his eyes narrowed. In his Divine Sense, from his rear-side, a streak of light was breaking through the air, heading straight for him.
'Cultivators, and three Foundation Establishment cultivators at once. They're also coming from the direction of the snowfield.' Li Yan narrowed his eyes and thought. This was the first time Li Yan had encountered other cultivators since entering the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. The three cultivators were only about three hundred li away from him. Li Yan had previously kept most of his Divine Sense focused ahead, only observing a range of about three hundred li behind him. At this distance, it was already guaranteed that no one could easily ambush him.
After confirming the cultivation of the other party, Li Yan did not deliberately speed up to avoid them. It was clear that they had also seen him and were deliberately flying towards him. A distance of three hundred li did not take much time for cultivators. After a short while, Li Yan could feel the aura of the cultivators behind him growing stronger as they approached. In the end, Li Yan simply stopped flying, turned around, and stood against the wind, quietly watching his rear-side.
A streak of crimson light, like a meteor, streaked across the sky and, in a flash, arrived just over a hundred zhang away from Li Yan. After the light dissipated, three figures were revealed. All three looked to be in their twenties, but a cultivator's age could not be judged by appearance.
Li Yan's face was cold as he stared at them without speaking.
After the three's light faded, the leader smiled and cupped his fist at Li Yan. "Greetings, Fellow Daoist. To meet is to be destined. To be destined is a rare thing. I am Cheng Wenming of the 'Ancient Pool Sect.' I offer my respects." The three stood on a boat-shaped flying magical artifact. The person at the bow was a fat man, whose purple robe seemed a bit tight, faintly revealing horizontal rolls of flesh on his abdomen. This person had a round face and large ears. When he spoke, a fine, almost imperceptible glint would occasionally flash in his eyes before disappearing. Behind him were two young men dressed as scholars with scholar's scarves on their heads. One was tall and one was short. They were both smiling as they looked Li Yan up and down. The auras of the three were somewhat chaotic, and their expressions were slightly tired, as if they had just been through a fierce battle.
Li Yan could feel from them that the fat man who called himself Cheng Wenming had the highest cultivation, having reached the peak of Foundation Establishment. The two behind him were both at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. A group of three like this was already very strong, but such a cultivation level no longer posed much of a threat to the current Li Yan.
Facing the three Foundation Establishment cultivators, Li Yan did not show a pleasant expression. Instead, he said coldly, "Fellow Daoist Cheng, for you to track me down like this, I wonder what you mean. I have never met you fellow Daoists before and have had no prior dealings, so..."
Li Yan's words trailed off at the end. Hearing this, the faces of the two scholar-like young men darkened. They saw that Li Yan's cultivation was only at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, yet when faced with the three of them together, not only did he show no reverence, but he also seemed to not take them seriously at all, without a hint of politeness. They felt a bit embarrassed. With displeased expressions, they looked towards Cheng Wenming in front of them and did not immediately retort to Li Yan.