Chương 377: Ice forest

Qiu Yushi suddenly glanced at Long Feng.

"Our fight still stands. Prepare yourself for my challenge." He calmly stated before taking out his token and choosing a direction to walk away. He was clearly going to find his so called cave residence. Long Feng's expression didn't change at his words. He had a vague recollection of the words Qiu Yushi said to him at the doors of the Dao Heaven Hall, and he wasn't afraid. Everything he heard let him know that he wasn't Qiu Yushi's opponent at the moment, but that didn't make his heart waver.

In fact, he was actually excited. A brand new door had been revealed to him, revealing a path to greater power than most other deities… the refinement stages. There was also the looming pressure of the shockingly powerful inner disciples. He didn't know how monstrous they all were, but since Lan Wujie said he was among the weakest, then that would mean there were absolutely astonishing geniuses, perhaps those who had undergone two refinements and maybe even three.

Then there was Qiu Yushi, who was a refined early stage deity himself. Among them, Qiu Yushi's challenge was the least pressuring one. Long Feng's actual challenge was the inner disciples and also the refinement stages itself. How far along that path could he go? Most importantly… could he even walk upon that path? There was no one to answer his questions.

"Heh. Let's see you handle Qiu Yushi's rage!" Zhou Zheng's laughter interrupted Long Feng's thoughts. He smirked at the latter and turned around to leave.

"If you keep bothering me, I can't assure that you'll keep your other arm and your life next time." Long Feng calmly replied before turning around and rushing away without waiting to see Zhou Zheng's reaction. He didn't even try to fly, because the inner peak would certainly have a flight restricting formation more powerful than the outer peak's. Taking out his token and inserting his soul power into it, he sensed a vague direction in his mind. Not giving it much thought, he followed the direction of the token.

Along the way, he realized what the cave residence really was.

"So that's where we'll be living…?" He murmured in surprise. Unlike the pavilions in the outer peak, there was no buildings here. Instead, he spotted several actual caves, surrounded by countless ridiculously powerful formations and having thick doors forged out of special metals. Each cave appeared extremely large even from the outside. As for what they looked like inside, Long Feng was about to find out.

It took him several hours of moving before he finally arrived at his destination, further revealing to him his much rather the inner peak was. His cave was the same as all the others he passed, surrounded by powerful formations that were in a dormant state. Most others wouldn't even sense the formations without having soul power. What Long Feng didn't particularly like was the fact that there were two more caves rather close to his own, and one of them appeared to be occupied. This caused him to groan.

"The inner peak is so huge… how did I end up so unlucky?" He sighed and approached his cave. As he approached, his token lit up, causing the few active formations to die down completely.

"Among these formations, few are meant for defense and more are actually drawing the surrounding natural energy in. I can sense some offensive formations, but they aren't under the token's control. Instead, they seem to be part of an even greater formation that encompasses the whole mountain…" he deduced as he observed the formations. A few seconds later, he shook his head with a sigh.

"My soul power is severely lagging behind my cultivation. I'm infinitely far from setting up anything similar to these." He lamented. It had been a while since his soul power reached the peak of the spirit layer. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. If he had focused on it, he might've reached the sprit transformation layer already, but he had never really had the time to devote his attention to his soul in recent times.

He buried that thought and pushed open the metal doors before walking into the cave. He walked along a short pathway that was lit up by many glowing star stones before he entered the residence itself. A sizable room greeted him, mildly furnished with a few necessities like a meditation mat and a bed at the far end. There were two different tunnels that led deeper in, most likely leading to the training room and seclusion room. This was a simple cave residence that would satisfy many cultivators.

Long Feng smiled, appreciation the simplicity. Then he frowned suddenly.

"Why is the natural energy so thin? It's not much different from outside. But the energy absorbing formations have been active all this while… this place should be overflowing with energy!" This left him befuddled. He looked across the room before focusing his attention on the ordinary looking mat.

"I can sense a formation on this mat…" he approached it and observed it closely before deciding to test it out. He slowly sat down on it and instantly sensed the presence of a formation in the mat clearly. It was more apt to say that the mat itself was a formation! Long Feng could sense a ridiculous amount of energy gathered somewhere within the formation. The energy was so plentiful that it surpassed anything he had ever known, even the profound mist pond by several tiers.

And it's density was even more ridiculous. Most importantly, he could sense a great amount of true essence, gathered from the natural energy itself and stored in the formation. This left him stunned. This mat was basically a cultivation treasure! If he utilized all this energy recklessly, then he would reach the peak Imperial realm in a month or two at most!

"So this is where all the energy absorbed was stored! Using the token, I can directly release as much natural energy as I need through the mat and cultivate without limit." He sighed softly.

"How surprising. With this, even deities can absorb true essence directly and spend much shorter time refining it. Breaking through won't be hard to them at all." With such unique advantages that the outer disciples could only dream of, how could the inner disciples stay ordinary?

"There are probably much more things I am yet to discover in the inner peak." It was unfortunate that Long Feng couldn't utilize this enormous reserve of natural energy to cultivate. Doing so would further destabilize his foundation. He planned to take as much time as needed to complete stabilize his foundation, and untill then, he couldn't make a breakthrough.

"Doesn't matter. I'll use it to reinforce my cultivation and strengthen it for a while. Also, I should check out the Myriad Techniques Hall soon if I can. Perhaps I'll find something useful for me." He decided. After dropping those thoughts, he went ahead to familiarize himself with the entire cave as well as all it's formations. By the time he was done confirming that nothing was off, it was already sundown. Having nothing else to do, he decided to rest for the night.

"Tomorrow, I'll continue my healing and ensure that I'm back at my peak before I begin consolidating my foundation." He planned. He didn't have the intention of stepping out of his cave untill he was done with these two things. It wasn't as though he had anything in particular he would achieve outside. It was better to lay low and avoid all troubles while he built himself. Unfortunately, trouble never asked for permission before it came knocking, especially not for him.

In the outer peak, the head warden, Bai Xingsheng stood in the graveyard, before four tombstones. Two of these tombstones appeared extremely new, standing out from the other two worn out ones. He simply stared at them without moving for over an hour before a ripple suddenly appeared behind him and a middle aged man appeared out of thin air.

"Head warden, Long Feng successfully passed the test. He's now an inner disciple!" The man uttered the moment he arrived, causing Bai Xingsheng's fists to clench till his knuckles turned white.

"Anything else?" He asked in a calm tone.

"There's nothing."

"You can leave. Pay attention to his every move and alert me of every single thing regarding him." The man nodded.

"Yes!" He clasped his fist, then vanished once again, leaving Bai Xingsheng standing alone once again. A few minutes of silence passed before he spoke.

"An inner disciple…"

"Heh. You think I can no longer touch you now that you're in the inner peak? I've built such a vast web of connections as the head warden that you can't even imagine!" He grinned ferociously, before revealing a pondering expression.

"I remember a few deacons who owe me favors. Those will come in handy later on. Right now, manipulating his mission will be useless since they're exempted from the missions this month. Instead, I'll follow my earlier plan for now. The Dao heart is such a great treasure that even those refined early and mid stage deities would be irresistibly drawn to. All I need to do is to spread the news…" he pondered, then shook his head.

"No. That won't do. It'll draw too much attention. The last thing I want is to involve an elder, even if the chances are slim. I'll let that Ren brat know about it alone for now. He's pretty powerful, more than enough to deal with that kid. In exchange for the information, I'll ask him to make that kid's life miserable and kill him if possible. If that doesn't work out, it won't be too late to spread the news fully." He grinned as he decided.

"Zijun, Lixi, give Uncle a short time. I'll properly avenge you two very soon. I can feel it." He gazed gently upon the two new tombstones before turning around and fading into thin air, leaving behind the burial ground echoing with the soundless cries of the dead souls.

Millions of miles away from the Supreme Heaven Sect, in an extremely cold region where the snow formed an eternal blanket across the sky and earth, a massive frozen forest stood. Countless trees existed in the forest, but all of them were strangely different from the usual trees. Their leaves were crystalline and as white as snow, making them seem to merge with the white sky and earth, camouflaging the forest. The air was so terrifyingly cold that no one below the spirit realm could survive a second here.

And the deeper one went, the worse the cold became untill it reached a point where even Imperials would be frozen to death. This was around the mid areas of the forest. Countless powerful auras that surpassed the Imperial realm lurked in these areas, blending with the natural cold. It was likely that even a normal deity wouldn't know how they would die here. The unsettling silence was broken by a painful roar, followed by a massive snow white bear hurtling through the forest, destroying several trees.

It emanated an extremely powerful aura, equivalent to the late stage deity realm. But at this moment, it's snow white fur was drenched in bright blood that was glaring to the eyes and it's huge body was covered in countless sword scars. It's savage face was filled pain and terror as it ran, trying to escape something terrifying. All of a sudden, a crystalline white sword light descended from the sky, cleaving the head of the bear off it's neck.

After a few seconds, a fairy-like figure descended lithely beside the huge body of the bear. Her black hair flowed along her back like a river of night, and her icy blue pupils seemed to make the snow around lose their beauty. They contained a coldness that seeped into the soul and froze the thoughts, leaving absolutely no warmth behind. Her face was covered with a soft veil that fluttered as she descended, yet stubbornly blocked the entirety of her face from the world.

She was standing and the bear was laying down, but she was still barely able to compare to it's height, showing how huge it was. The crystalline longsword in the lady's hand dripped with blood along the edges as she gently tapped the bear, unleashing a ridiculous amount of ice intent that froze it in a huge chunk of ice. After that, she turned around and flew away, leaving the corpse frozen in ice.

As she left, a mature woman appeared by her side, revealing a beautiful appearance that could cause nations to crumble. She could cause calamities anywhere she went, but before this veiled young lady, her beauty seemed to become bland. The woman assessed the young lady before nodding with a satisfied expression.

"Yue'er, your Ice intent has stabilized at the major stage. That's very good."