Chapter 382: Ice God Palace
The Xiao Sect and Fen Tian Gate both had tens of thousands of disciples, even over a hundred thousand. If branch sects and outer disciples were counted, the numbers were even harder to fathom. The Tian Jian Villa had several hundred thousand people in total. In comparison, the Bing Yun Fairy Palace, which was equally renowned, was much more compact. The total number of people in the entire Bing Yun Fairy Palace barely reached two thousand.
But the main hall of the Bing Yun Fairy Palace was exceptionally vast, enough to hold tens of thousands of disciples. Surrounding it were undulating ice peaks and various shaped ice crystals standing tall. Any one of these ice crystals might have a history of a thousand or even ten thousand years. Almost all the buildings here were constructed from ice crystals, and everywhere there were various ice flowers and cold grasses that were almost impossible to see elsewhere. Each one was extremely precious.
Yun Che followed Xia Qingyue for about half an hour, but they didn't encounter many Bing Yun disciples. The Bing Yun disciples all had their own private rooms and training chambers, and most of them had cold temperaments, rarely appearing even within the sect.
"It's too quiet here, isn't it? If you stay here year after year, don't you feel bored and stifled?" Yun Che looked around and couldn't help but say. The scenery here was so pure it was almost illusory, as if stepping into a fairyland. It would be nice to come and admire the scenery occasionally, but if Yun Che had to stay in such a cold and lonely place, it wouldn't be long before he went crazy.
Xia Qingyue said softly, "The cultivation of our sect's Ice Cloud Art and Ice Heart Art both require tranquility and stillness. Cultivating in a place like this is most suitable. Such an environment suits me and is not much different from the life I lived before entering the Bing Yun Fairy Palace."
Before entering the Bing Yun Fairy Palace, Xia Qingyue had also stayed mostly in her boudoir and rarely stepped out of her home. Even Yun Che, who had been betrothed to her since childhood, had only seen her a few times in over a decade.
"Everyone in the Ice Palace has their own private room and training chamber. Tomorrow, after the Palace Master announces your joining our sect, she will arrange a room and training chamber for you..." Xia Qingyue turned her eyes slightly to look at Yun Che: "If you need it."
"Need, of course I need!" Yun Che immediately said: "With housing prices so high nowadays, only a fool would refuse a free house... By the way, wife Qingyue, where are your room and training chamber? We've been married for so many years, and not only do you not sleep with me, I don't even know where you sleep."
Xia Qingyue tilted her head and looked at a patch of ice crystal coral reflecting prismatic light: "My training chamber is quite special. After I finally comprehended the Ice God Divine Art, the Palace Master allowed me to cultivate in the Ice Cloud Secret Ground where the Ice God Divine Art is inscribed."
"Ice God Divine Art..." Yun Che's brow twitched. Over the past month, he had thought more than once about the day he married Cang Yue, when Xia Qingyue single-handedly resisted two King Xuan from the Fenghuang God Sect, freezing their flames and sealing their movements...
The flames released by those two King Xuan were the Phoenix Flame burning from the Phoenix bloodline! Yet they were frozen by Xia Qingyue, who was at the same level! This completely meant... that the power and law level of the Ice God Divine Art were higher than... at least not lower than the Phoenix Flame!
Of course, this Phoenix Flame was not at all the pure Phoenix Flame released by the divine beast Phoenix, but a Xuan Flame ignited by humans inheriting a trace of Phoenix blood, with a slight Phoenix attribute. But even if it was extremely impure Phoenix Flame, it was still incomparable to ordinary Xuan Flame. Otherwise, the Fenghuang God Sect wouldn't have become the number one sect among the seven nations of Tian Xuan.
"Take me to see this Ice Cloud Secret Ground you mentioned. I suddenly want to see your... ah, no, our sect's Ice God Divine Art."
Feng Qianhui had instructed that he could go anywhere Xia Qingyue could go. Xia Qingyue did not refuse and directly said: "In that case, follow me."
The Ice Cloud Secret Ground Xia Qingyue mentioned was below the eastern side of the Bing Yun Fairy Palace. Yun Che followed Xia Qingyue down the crystal stairs for a long time. Xia Qingyue's ice eyes were like water, elegant and serene, looking straight ahead. Yun Che spent about a third of the time looking at the surroundings and scenery, and two-thirds of the time looking at Xia Qingyue's face and figure... When he first saw Xia Qingyue, when she was not yet ten years old, he felt she was hazily beautiful, beautiful to the point of unreality. Now, looking at Xia Qingyue so close, he still had the same feeling.
Marrying a woman so beautiful that she seemed illusory, and the number one beauty of Cang Feng, was naturally a man's dream. But she was his wife, married for three years, yet they had never consummated their marriage... As a normal man, it would be absolutely impossible for Yun Che not to have some resentment and the thoughts a normal man should have!
"Ahem..." Yun Che suddenly spoke, putting on a serious face: "Wife Qingyue, the Supreme Palace Master said that before your Ice God Divine Art reaches great perfection, we cannot consummate our marriage... Well, what do you think about this?"
"..." Xia Qingyue walked lightly ahead of Yun Che, completely unresponsive, as if she hadn't heard him at all.
"Then let me change the question." Yun Che's gaze swept from top to bottom, taking a fierce look at Xia Qingyue's perfectly graceful body curves like a moon palace fairy, and couldn't help secretly swallowing his saliva: "When... will you be able to cultivate the Ice God Divine Art to great perfection?"
Xia Qingyue still had no reaction, but if Yun Che had been walking in front of her, he would have seen her chest under her snow-white clothes heave heavily.
Because what Yun Che's words meant, plainly put, was... when will you sleep with me!
"Wife Qingyue, don't think this is a small matter. Between husband and wife, this is a very serious problem." Yun Che said with a "serious" expression: "To become a true husband and wife, it is not just a nominal and emotional union; there must also be physical and spiritual integration. And physical integration is even more..."
"We've arrived."
Like water falling on ice crystals, these four words interrupted Yun Che's speech. Xia Qingyue's steps had stopped in front of a crystal door emitting a chilly white mist.
Xia Qingyue extended her palm and pressed it against the crystal door. A faint blue light flashed in her palm. With a slight sound, the originally tightly shut crystal door silently opened. A bone-piercing cold air rushed out, and what appeared before them was an exceptionally spacious hall. But this hall was not built with ice walls and ice bricks, but paved with deep cyan stones.
The cold air that greeted them carried a familiar fragrance—the maidenly aura of Xia Qingyue. It seemed that Xia Qingyue spent a large part of her time here.
"This hall is called the 'Ice God Palace.' It was the place where the Ice Cloud Ancestor cultivated in seclusion, and the Ice Cloud Ancestor ultimately passed away here." Xia Qingyue walked slowly inside, her voice gentle and slow... As for Yun Che's messy words from before, they were completely outside her awareness.
Yun Che twisted his mouth and made a grasping motion in the air toward Xia Qingyue's buttocks under her snow-white veil, feeling a little relieved, then followed Xia Qingyue inside.
The hall was large and empty. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all neatly laid cyan stones. These stones were deep in color and slightly translucent, reflecting light faintly, like dark jade. But aside from that, the entire hall was empty, without even a seat or a lampstand.
"You train here usually? Doesn't seem particularly special." Yun Che looked around. Suddenly, his gaze landed on the far right side of the hall. He fixed his eyes and asked: "What is that?"
On the far right side of the hall, there was a circular protrusion about a zhang wide and half a chi high. Its color was no different from the rest of the hall, easy to overlook at first glance. From Yun Che's position, he could see some special patterns carved on top of the protrusion.
"That is the escape mystic array left by the Ice Cloud Ancestor." Xia Qingyue turned her beautiful eyes slightly: "When the sect encounters misfortune and is on the verge of extinction, one can awaken this mystic array with the Ice Cloud Art. The mystic array contains the power to cut through space. Once activated, it can teleport one person to an unpredictable location. However, it can only teleport one person, and after activation, it needs a hundred years to gather enough space power again. That is to say, once this array is used, if you want to use it again, you must wait a hundred years."
"But since the Bing Yun Fairy Palace was established, this escape mystic array has never been used."
"Oh..." Yun Che took a few more looks at that peculiar mystic array, not expecting that there would be such an escape mystic array within the Bing Yun Fairy Palace that could cut through space and allow someone to escape thousands of miles in a desperate situation.
"You said earlier that the Ice God Divine Art's profound formula is inscribed here, but there's clearly nothing here," Yun Che said, shifting his gaze.
Xia Qingyue didn't speak. She raised her arms, and her jade-like palms simultaneously shone with a cold, light blue light... Immediately, on the previously smooth and flawless cyan stone wall, rows of cyan-blue characters appeared... At the far right of the characters, four large blue characters gleamed like ice crystals, emitting a chill that pierced the soul:
Ice God Divine Art!
Xia Qingyue lowered her arms. As the blue light on her hands faded, the characters on the wall also completely disappeared. She said in a soft voice: "Shining the light of the Ice Cloud Art's profound energy on the wall reveals the imprints of the Ice God Divine Art. If one is not a Bing Yun disciple, even if they come here, they cannot obtain the profound formula of the Ice God Divine Art."
"I see." Yun Che suddenly understood.
"Additionally, the cyan stones in this hall are called 'Tianpan Jade.' It is said that they are divine stones nourished by the power of a true god in ancient times. They are extremely hard, leaving no marks from knives, cracking from freezing, or melting from fire. Even the power of a King Xuan Peak cannot damage them in the slightest. Therefore, when training here, one can act freely without worrying about accidentally damaging anything."
"King Xuan Peak... can't damage them?" Yun Che looked down at the stone beneath his feet, looking unconvinced. But when he looked around, he couldn't find any damage on any of the cyan stones. There were no gaps, not even tiny scratches.
Could this stone really be as hard as Xia Qingyue said?
Without thinking, and without informing Xia Qingyue, Yun Che grabbed the Dragon Gate and casually smashed it down.
Clang!!
It was clearly hitting jade, but Yun Che felt as if the Dragon Gate had struck a hard steel plate. A harsh sound rang out, and the Dragon Gate, weighing over twenty thousand jin, was actually bounced back, and the recoil made Yun Che's wrist slightly numb... Yet the spot where the Dragon Gate struck was completely undamaged, not even a tiny mark that could be seen with the naked eye.
Yun Che was stunned for a moment... His arm strength was unparalleled, and the Dragon Gate was a powerful King Xuan heavy sword. Usually, it could cut through anything and was unstoppable. It could smash a small mountain with one strike... Yet now, it couldn't leave a single scratch on a stone!
The corner of Yun Che's mouth twitched, and the Dragon Gate let out an impatient dragon roar... Even a King Xuan heavy sword couldn't leave a mark on a stone. Even if Yun Che was willing, its consciousness wouldn't be.
"I don't believe it!" A surge of energy rose in Yun Che's chest and wouldn't subside. He gripped the Dragon Gate with both hands, activated "Heart Incineration," let out a loud shout, and smashed it downward with ninety percent of his strength.
"Ha!"
Clang!!!!
The space trembled, but the ground didn't shake at all. The moment the Dragon Gate collided with the Tianpan Jade, the piercing sound almost tore Yun Che's eardrums. A tremendous recoil came like a tidal wave, causing Yun Che's arms to fly up, his body to stagger back several steps, his blood boiling throughout his body, and the Dragon Gate nearly escaping his hand.
And... the point where the Dragon Gate struck the ground was still without the slightest mark.
Yun Che was completely dumbfounded this time.
Holy crap! There really exists a stone this hard in this world!