Half a month later, the Ice Emperor City was still quiet and peaceful.
Ten days ago, Bing Qing Tong, Han Cui, Shuang Yu Zhu, and Leng Dan Qing had broken through their realm in the ice chamber Shi Yan had asked the Ice Cold Flame to build for them. Bing Qing Tong and Han Cui had entered the Third Sky of Spirit Realm, and Shuang Yu Zhu and Leng Dan Qing had reached the Second Sky of Spirit Realm.
After their breakthrough, Bing Qing Tong immediately sent the message to the General Union. The person in charge in the General Union felt excited for them when he knew they all had entered the next realm.
The Heaven Temple and their Fighting Union had been prepared for a fight, which was now delayed because of their new realm breakthrough.
The Fighting Union utilized all effort to protect the Ice Emperor City. They didn’t regret sending the most elite force of the Fighting Union to battle with the Heaven Temple. As the responsible person of the Heaven Temple saw their determination and guts, he had to weigh pros and cons. Eventually, he notified the Ning family to not act rashly.
The fight that was about to take place had ended quietly like that. No one knew what the leaders of the Heaven Temple and the Fighting Union had negotiated, but both sides stopped their actions altogether.
When they knew that the Ice Emperor City wasn’t in danger anymore, Ba Si Teng and Ba Fei bid their farewell to Shi Yan and went to their family’s territory to find the Ba family’s treasures, which might be hidden somewhere there.
Shi Yan stayed in the Ice Emperor City to help them build an ice chamber. With two drops of the Cold Chalcedony, the Ice Cold Flame and the Holy Spirit God had upgraded their intelligence to another level. These two strange living beings became more humane. After the Holy Spirit God had taken in one drop of the Cold Chalcedony, the white skeleton clone became translucent, as beautiful as gems, and with a dense cold air meandering, tangling with the dazzling divine light.
The Ice Cold Flame made a trip around the Bitter Cold Land to supplement a large amount of freezing Qi. Its power was restored fast.
The day when the four women had completed their cultivation in the ice chamber, Shi Yan told them he had to leave for a while. He was going to visit the Dead Soul Mountain.
Bing Qing Tong knew what he was worried about; she tried to insist him to stay, but since he was persistent, she had to let him leave.
The time they had spent together was short, but the feelings they had for Shi Yan weren’t shallow. These women wanted to keep him in the Ice Emperor City and enjoy the rest of their lives together. However, Shi Yan didn’t appreciate that thought. He told them clearly that he didn’t want to stay there and retire. As the four women had no way to persuade him otherwise, they could only accept it.
Bing Qing Tong and the other women were cultivating the Ice Jade Technique, so the Ice Emperor City and the Bitter Cold land were the best places for them to practice and thrive.
To reach the higher realm, they couldn’t leave the Ice Emperor City and go with him to the Dead Soul Mountain. Thus, they could only see him leave.
At the moment, their realms had been improved a lot, which made the Fighting Union highly value them. Even if Ning Du Quan came here again, with their cultivation bases, the women weren’t afraid of the Ning family’s threat.
The Fighting Union had put forth everything to protect them, so the Heaven Palace didn’t dare to act rashly. Shi Yan could put aside the concern for them.
After he’d done comforting the four women, Shi Yan left the Ice Emperor City alone, continuing his journey.
On the way to the Dead Soul Mountain, he endured the hardship of training, ascetically cultivating the Upanishads of the powers he had learned.
The negative energy, the Immortal Rebirth Secret, the Star Martial Spirit, the Life and Death Seal, and the other Upanishads he had known were studied deeply in an attempt to have a flash of recognition to increase his realm again, entering the gateway of the Spirit Realm.
The Three God Realms were the most desired threshold any warrior wanted to reach. Entering the Three God Realms meant that one was walking on the path leading to the peak as a warrior. To reach the Three God Realms, countless warriors trained strenuously, secluding themselves deep in the mountains or the forests to perceive the hidden powers and comprehend the truth of their realms.
Since he had many martial spirits, if he wanted to comprehend them thoroughly, it would take a lot of time.
However, even if one knew it was hard, and didn’t want to put more effort, one would never cross this threshold until he or she died. Thus, along the way, whenever he had free time, he made himself quiet down to comprehend the true meanings of the powers, with his whole body involved.
Through his efforts this time, he had reached a new realm in understanding the Upanishads of the powers he had.
Although he couldn’t break through with only understanding the truth, it helped him strengthen his powers whenever he performed his attacks, in which he had a deep-carved understanding of the Death and Life Seal. Once he released the Death and Life Intent Domain, he could even affect all living creatures and flora in the whole area.
As his Star Martial Spirit had had some changes, during his trip, it’d continually absorbed the power of the sunlight.
Even if it were midnight, he still could feel the existence of the dazzling sun in the vast sea of stars, feeling the feeble solar energy flowing into his body.
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars were everlasting. They would not disappear as day and night took their shifts. They were just covered temporarily.
If the martial spirit were strong enough, the warrior could still feel the energy of the Sun, Moon, and Stars no matter it was day or night. They could always absorb the energy, but the speed would be different.
The Divine Great Land was immensely vast, and the Ice Emperor City was just a city in the far West. After he had left the Ice Emperor City, he passed by many big countries along the way. All of them were dependant on big forces like the Heaven Palace or the Fighting Union. The Emperors of these mortal kingdoms had to pay a visit to their guarding forces or some strong families on holidays or occasions.
These dependent kingdoms had to offer a large amount of cultivating materials for those warriors to use. Perhaps they would refine some pellets or treasures in return.
Some strong empires with the large territory and population of millions still had to bend their heads in front of those experts who could move the mountains or fill the river. They had to be as humble as possible.
On his way, he crossed many strong empires, whose strength was much formidable than the Raging Fire Empire of the Quiet Cloud, equal to the God Blessed Empire. However, no matter how strong they were, they couldn't be compared to the old factions that had a history of tens of thousands of years in the Divine Great Land.
Each ancient faction had their own True God Realm warriors to guard over. The True God Realm experts in the Divine Great Land were like Gods!
If they wanted, one True God Realm warrior could destroy any country, which didn't have the same level warrior to protect them. Under such intimidating threats, those big countries didn't dare to rebel and offered them as many cultivating materials as they could find in their countries.
So many high summits and rivers existed on his way, and many lone warriors were cultivating in seclusion. Along his trip, he had seen a lot of things that he had never known in the Endless Sea.
Crossing many empires and famous mountains, he could sense some invincible dormant experts. His understanding of the Divine Great Land had been deepened.
On his way, he didn't intend to provoke any enemy or use his power to slaughter. Quite the contrary, he had been like a homespun, ascetic monk, always lonely in hempen garments, passing through the high peaks and the deep swamps.
He befriended beasts, and fed on earth and firmament. He became quiet, and didn't talk to humans, just wanting to understand more about the path he had chosen.
At the peak state of the Martial Path, an expert could move the mountains; his soul could penetrate the highest heaven, and his body could fly in the sky.
Along his lonely journey, he had been whole-heartedly training in hardship to comprehend the highest level of the martial path. He had a clear direction, he just needed to take each step towards the acme of the martial path. He had concentrated his spirit, souls, and body into the training, leaving his mind empty to soon reach the Spirit Realm.
There was no calendar in these mountainous areas. Time flew by quietly. He didn't know how long it had passed or how many big countries and massive mountains he had crossed. After crossing a swamp area that he couldn't see the shore of, he finally saw a majestic mountain range whose summits were penetrating the sky.
Each peak looked like a sharp sword stabbed directly to the highest sky. Clouds bobbed around, and beasts could be seen scattered here and there.
The mountain ranges continued one after another without an end. Hundreds of mountains stood in front of his eyes. Each of them was grand and majestic, where dense heaven and earth Qi gathered. Beasts were running here and there. Sometimes, he could see some warriors gliding back and forth, seeming to be secluding in these mountains to cultivate.
Green, boundless clouds and mist drifted just like cotton scattered here and there around the mountains. Inside the green clouds and mist, there was a strange cold and evil aura. Sometimes, some malicious dead souls appeared inside the green clouds, who didn’t have real bodies, and gave people a terrifying feeling.
The Dead Soul Mountain was the most mysterious and dangerous place in the Divine Great Land. In this mountain range, there were almost one thousand mountains with different sizes. Each of these mountains was the house of both warriors and beasts. In some mountains, some intimidating beasts could transform into human form. They looked exactly the same as other normal warriors. When they didn't urge their powers, ordinary warriors couldn't point out the differences.
Also, there were dead souls living in the Dead Soul Mountain. Those dead souls used to be the souls of strong expert or beasts, which had gathered the Yin Qi to form. Some said that those Dead Souls were pagans who came here from the alien area, through the vast bobbing clouds, and landed on the Grace Mainland by chance.
The clusters of green clouds hovering above the Dead Soul Mountain became the evil lairs of the dead souls. And, it seemed only the dead souls could use these evil lairs. Once warriors and beasts came near, they would be attacked to death. Gradually, they would turn into dead souls too.
In the legends, the dead soul’s devil lair was some sort of gateway to Heaven, leading to the mysterious outer space.
Unfortunately, ordinary warriors and beasts didn’t dare to approach them. As long as they were the creatures that had souls, once they got near to the evil lairs of the dead souls, they would be eroded and turned into dead souls. Even Spirit Realm warriors couldn’t escape this tragic consequence.
The dead soul’s evil lairs were the special features of the Dead Soul Mountain. They existed in the green cotton clouds that they could only be observed and never intruded.
From time to time, after one or several years, an anomalous situation would happen there. Sometimes, there would be the tremendous dead souls, and sometimes, it would be the invincible, mysterious energy which could shake the whole Dead Soul Mountain. Some strong experts of the Divine Great Land shared that they had gone near the dead soul’s evil lairs, and from a close distance, they saw some people walking in there.
The legend of the dead soul's evil lairs had been spreading through tens of thousands of years in the Divine Great Land. However, until now, no one could tell clearly what the dead soul's evil lairs actually were, or what stayed in there.
Perhaps, someone did know the secrets of the dead soul’s evil lairs, but they didn’t want to share with others.
Looking at the grand mountains from afar, divine light radiated from Shi Yan’s eyes. He stood quietly for a while and then muttered, "Finally arrived."
Then, he strode towards the place.