132 – The Ice Empress’ Eternal Permafrost

【However, you can only sigh inwardly and continue to practice diligently. If even the Heavenly Sword Holy Land and the Ice Palace couldn’t protect Bing Ningyue, no matter how much you think about it, it’s useless.】

【Thus, another five years passed. You and Cai Yonglong successfully found a Ninth-Grade Treasure Herb that helps enhance the quality of the Profound Elixir. With it, Cai Yonglong successfully formed an elixir, condensing a Third-Grade Profound Elixir.】

【Although the Third-Grade Profound Elixir is far from your Flawless Profound Elixir, it is the best you can achieve for now. There’s nothing you can do; you can only hope that in the future, when you grow stronger, you can seize opportunities to improve the elixir’s grade.】

【You both continue to wander the Heavenly Sea Kingdom and the neighboring countries, searching for various opportunities.】

【Twenty years later, with the help of Cai Yonglong’s Golden Finger, you both obtained several valuable opportunities, allowing your cultivation to reach the Great Perfection of the Profound Elixir Realm. Cai Yonglong’s cultivation also reached the eighth level of the Profound Elixir Realm.】

【In your endeavors of intercepting opportunities across the Heavenly Sea Kingdom and its neighboring countries, despite being extremely cautious and trying to handle things cleanly, you inevitably made a name for yourselves. This, however, also drew the attention of some powerful figures. A Yin-Yang Realm expert noticed that your cultivation method was quite extraordinary, resembling the Wind and Thunder Technique left by an ancient Nirvana Realm cultivator.】

【Back then, the emergence of the Nirvana Realm inheritance caused quite a stir, leading to the deaths of some experts at the Life and Death Realm and the Yin-Yang Realm. Ultimately, someone else reaped the benefits.】

【Because of this, many powerful figures started searching for you and Cai Yonglong. Realizing you were exposed, you quickly fled to the seas, aiming to return to the Profound Turtle Continent to escape the pursuit.】

【Although you were very cautious, you ultimately made a mistake and were caught by a cunning Yin-Yang Realm expert during your escape. You and Cai Yonglong joined forces to fight, but due to the vast difference in cultivation, you were no match.】

【At the critical moment, Cai Yonglong chose to self-destruct, giving you a chance to use your self-created Divine Ability and severely wound the Yin-Yang Realm expert. The opponent, shocked by your ability to injure him, quickly fled.】

【You sighed inwardly, not expecting Cai Yonglong to die just like that. The cultivation world is indeed cruel. However, you didn’t have much time for grief and continued your escape.】

【You knew that normal escape would inevitably attract the attention of those cunning experts, leaving no chance to return to the Profound Turtle Continent.】

【Ultimately, you chose to use a broken formation disk you and Cai Yonglong had found to teleport, not knowing where you would be sent, leaving it to fate.】

“Goodness, here we go again, being chased once more…”

Wang Ping looked at the simulation content, speechless.

Recently, in the last few simulations, it was all about dealing with various big shots, almost making him forget his past experiences of being chased.

Now it started again, being chased just like before, due to the exposure of the cultivation technique.

It can only be said that the more good things he had, the more likely it was to attract the attention of powerful figures.

These powerful figures could ignore a wandering cultivator practicing a low-grade Heaven-level technique and martial arts, but if it were a top-grade or supreme Heaven-level technique, they would definitely seize it.

After all, such high-level techniques are beyond the possession of those even in major sects.

In the Heavenly Sea Kingdom, the major sects and the royal family likely practiced only mid-grade Heaven-level techniques, at most high-grade Heaven-level ones.

Supreme Heaven-level techniques are reserved for a select few Life and Death Realm experts or Nirvana Realm cultivators with significant fortunes.

Of course, some powerful major sects do possess such techniques, but they do not include organizations like the Heavenly Sea Kingdom’s royal family or the major sects of the Heavenly Sea Kingdom.

“Being a wandering cultivator is indeed troublesome. I really need to acquire a talent that can conceal my identity as a traveler, and then join the Heavenly Sword Holy Land. Though there might be risks within the Holy Land as well, at least I wouldn’t be hunted for possessing a supreme Heaven-level technique.”

Wang Ping sighed inwardly as he pondered silently.
Afterward, Wang Ping once again stared at the screen, wanting to see if he could escape this time or if he would be doomed by the damaged formation disk.

【Due to the instability of the damaged formation disk, you died once during the teleportation, barely surviving thanks to the Rebirth Talisman. You were successfully teleported to an unfamiliar place, heavily injured and collapsed. If not for the powerful regenerative ability brought by the Nirvana Force, you would have died… Two lives wouldn’t have been enough.】

【You struggled to open your eyes and found yourself in a world covered in ice and snow. The bone-chilling cold made your severe injuries even more painful. Your injuries were too severe, your strength exhausted. Knowing you’ll certainly die if this continues, you used your last bit of strength to call for help.】

【However, this seemed to be an extremely cold and desolate place, as no one responded to your calls for help. Your vision gradually blurred.】

【Before you fell unconscious, you saw a girl with braided blue hair, carrying bamboo baskets and riding a white fox, rushing towards you.】

【When you woke up again, you found yourself in a tent, lying on a bed. The braided girl was feeding you medicine, and beside you, the white fox had its tail covering your stomach, seemingly keeping you warm.】

【You looked at the girl with a surprised expression and instinctively said something like ‘Bing Ningyue, it’s great you’re not dead,’ which made the girl look puzzled.】

【The girl gently explained that she was not the Bing Ningyue you spoke of, and she is just a wanderer in the Eternal Frozen Land named Xue’er.】

【You fell silent, unsure of what to say. The girl in front of you looked exactly like the Bing Ningyue in your memory, with no difference at all. The only distinction was that Bing Ningyue had a cold demeanor whereas the girl in front of you was gentle and pleasant.】

【Ultimately, you could only sigh, believing that there are always similar flowers in the world; perhaps you were just overthinking. Bing Ningyue is already dead, and the girl in front of you is merely a similar flower.】

【Next, you calmed your mind, grateful to Xue’er for saving your life and promising to repay her in the future. Xue’er smiled warmly and said, ‘Saving a life surpasses building a seven-story pagoda,’ and the virtue she accumulated from saving you was already enough. You didn’t need to dwell on it.】

【Moved by the girl’s smile and words, you were filled with emotions, surprised to find such a girl in the world. Following this, you did not argue further on this topic, believing that gratitude must be demonstrated through actions, not just words.】

【Next, you found that your body was in a chaotic state, with severe injuries and an invasion of terrifying cold air, requiring a long time to fully recover.】

【Feeling somewhat helpless, you had no other choice but to focus on healing. Curiously, you asked the girl where this place was.】

【The girl told you. This is the periphery of the Eternal Frozen Land. Upon hearing this, you were shocked, not expecting to have been teleported such a great distance.】

【The Eternal Frozen Land is no longer in the Sword Domain or the Eastern Wilderness; it is located in Central Continent.】

【Within the Purple Spirit Realm, there are five major continents: Eastern Wilderness, Western Desert, Southern Ridge, Northern Plain, and Central Continent. Central Continent, situated at the center of the Purple Spirit Realm, is a land of remarkable people, with the largest number of holy lands and the most prodigies.】

【However, this only applies to the cultivation world. In terms of the environment, a thousand years ago, Central Continent was not cold at all; there were no cold regions. Even though ice-attribute cultivators could create snowy climates to some extent, this was rare.】

【Moreover, those who could reach such levels of cultivation possessed the power to traverse the five continents. Thus, most ice-attribute cultivators chose to go to the Northern Plain a thousand years ago, as it was the main base for cultivating the ice Dao. The Northern Plain, with its cold weather and numerous ice treasures, was ideal for ice-attribute cultivators.】

【However, this changed after the great war a thousand years ago. The war spread throughout the Purple Spirit Realm, with various powerhouses fighting. Emperor Realm experts, in particular, were too terrifying during life-and-death battles. To prevent the conflict from affecting the Purple Spirit Realm, many Emperors led the Blood Demon Clan to fight outside the domain or drew them into small worlds.】

【Yet, there were always exceptions. The Blood Demon Clan had more Emperors than the Purple Spirit Realm, and no matter how much the Emperors of the Purple Spirit Realm tried to stop them, some slipped through.】

【Emperor-level beings are overwhelmingly powerful, capable of easily crushing anyone below their level. Even King Realm experts were like ants to them, swatted away effortlessly.】

【In the end, a cultivator named Ji Bingyan emerged. She was the sister of the Ice Empress and had quasi-Emperor-level cultivation. Despite her quasi-Emperor level, Ji Bingyan used a self-created forbidden secret technique to freeze herself and permanently seal several Blood Demon Clan Emperors.】

【The place where she unleashed the forbidden secret technique was also entirely frozen, transforming into the Eternal Frozen Land and permanently changing the climate.】

【As a result, after the war, the world added the title of ‘Mystic Ice Empress’ to Ji Bingyan, recognizing her as the first person in the history of Purple Spirit Realm to kill several Emperors with quasi-Emperor cultivation. She is also the only quasi-Emperor to be called an Empress. The title ‘Empress’ is something even ordinary Emperors cannot achieve!】

【In the years that followed, the Eternal Frozen Land became a wonder of the Purple Spirit Realm, as well as a forbidden area. No one can approach its central region, not even a quasi-Emperor, due to the life-threatening danger it holds. However, the periphery of the Eternal Frozen Land, though dangerous, is not a dead end. Instead, it has become a snowy realm, the best place for ice-attribute cultivators to train.】
【In this place, it is easier to comprehend the concept of ice. If you venture deeper, you can more easily grasp ice-related divine abilities. If you go to the deepest part, you might be able to comprehend the path of ‘Ice Emperor’ Ji Bingyan. However, generally, no one dares to go deep inside.】

【Those qualified to enter have already truly found their own path, making it unnecessary to observe others’ paths, which isn’t particularly meaningful. And those without the ability to enter would be courting death.】

‘Oh my god, is this Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan really that fierce?!’

Wang Ping was shocked as he observed the simulated content.

The further you advance in cultivation, the greater the disparity.

A quasi-emperor seems to be just one step away from becoming an emperor, but the gap between a quasi-emperor and an emperor is unimaginably huge.

After all, someone in the Profound Elixir Realm can easily kill someone in the Half-Step Profound Elixir Realm with a single blow, let alone someone in the quasi-emperor or emperor realm.

However, this Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan actually managed to perish alongside several emperors of the Blood Demon Clan, simply by relying on her quasi-emperor cultivation. It was simply outrageous.

No wonder she had this reverent title… her prestige was unparalleled.

If Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan hadn’t perished midway, she might have grown to reach the level of the Emperor of Judgement…

‘At its peak, the Ice Palace was truly terrifying. Even though the Ice Empress fell in battle, she was highly esteemed by the Bloodthirsty Demon Lord. As for Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan, there’s no need to say more.’

Wang Ping sighed profoundly.

‘It’s a pity that prosperity comes before decline. Today, the Ice Palace doesn’t even have an emperor, has fallen from the status of a Holy Land, and now lives dependent on the Heavenly Sword Holy Land.’

Wang Ping sighed again.

He felt that nowadays, the Ice Palace not only lacks emperors but probably even a quasi-emperor.

【Reflecting on the various pieces of information about the Eternal Tundra, your mind is restless. You never expected to be teleported to a place like this. However, it’s fortunate that you are in the outer region of the Eternal Tundra. If you had ventured even a bit deeper, you would have met your end.】

【To be fair, even the outer region nearly caused your severe injuries to freeze you to death. If you hadn’t encountered the girl Xue’er, you would surely have frozen to death.】

【Seeing your shocked expression, Xue’er didn’t ask much, not caring about your background, and continued to feed you medicine. Not being used to such meticulous and gentle care from a girl, you insisted on drinking by yourself.】

【Xue’er, however, said that you were injured and should just lie down. Feeling helpless, you embarrassingly allowed yourself to be fed medicine as your immobile body left you no choice.】

【In the blink of an eye, a year passed. Over this year, your injuries recovered somewhat, though still far from healed. You felt poignant as the injuries were too severe, and coupled with your Storage Ring shattering due to spatial turbulence during the teleportation, you couldn’t use any pills and could only rest quietly.】

【Although Xue’er’s herbal remedies did have some effect, they were ultimately of low grade and the effect was not very obvious. However, given the icy and snowy environment, finding herbs was difficult, so you didn’t complain over what you had to drink.】

【Additionally, over this year, you also learned about the surrounding forces of the Eternal Tundra. In the region where you were, there were two major forces.】

【One force is the Profound Ice Sect. Its founder claims to be a disciple of Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan, and founded the Profound Ice Sect to safeguard his mentor Ji Bingyan.】

【As for the other force, it is the Ice Poison Gate. Before her demise, Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan traveled the Purple Spirit Realm and gathered many fervent followers. Ice Poison Gate was established by these followers. The two forces share a border and have a good relationship, forming an alliance.】

【However, what puzzled Wang Ping was, if the followers of Ice Poison Gate’s founder were truly followers of Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan, why didn’t they join hands with Ji Bingyan’s disciple to establish the Profound Ice Sect and instead created a separate sect? Perhaps there was some hidden reason behind this.】

【But you had no interest in digging into these secrets. Currently, you only wanted to heal your injuries, continue your cultivation, and strive to break through to the Half-Step Yin-Yang Realm, and then to the Yin-Yang Realm.】

【Another year passed, and you recovered significantly to finally be able to exert the power of the Profound Elixir Realm. During this period, you had curiously asked Xue’er why she didn’t try to join the two major sects for cultivation. Xue’er’s response was that she had poor talent, and at the age of eighty, she had only reached the Spirit Sea Realm, making her unqualified to join the major sects.】

【Xue’er’s answer shocked you because her age was exactly the same as the late Bing Ningyue, also known as Ji Bingyue. You even suspected some blood relationship between the two.】
However, you currently have no way to verify this matter and can only keep this question to yourself.

In the blink of an eye, another five years have passed. Your injuries have completely healed, and you have returned to the peak of the Profound Elixir Realm. With your help, Xue’er also obtained a Heaven-grade low-tier ice cultivation technique and a Sixth-Grade Spiritual Item. You successfully helped her condense the Ice Spirit Body.

However, condensing the Ice Spirit Body was secondary. During these five years, you also attempted to activate the possible Ice Empress bloodline within Xue’er, but you failed each time. You don’t know whether it is because the Eighth-Grade Elixir you acquired is too low in quality to activate the bloodline, or if your suspicion is wrong.

Additionally, during these five years, you have been adventuring and hunting in the outskirts of the Eternal Frozen Wastes with Xue’er and the white fox Xiao Bai she adopted. Although life was monotonous, you felt a long-lost warmth and a sense of home with Xue’er.

In the blink of an eye, another five years passed. You felt the time was ripe and considered attempting to break through to the Half-Step Yin-Yang Realm. Unfortunately, you had no clue on how to proceed. It’s not due to a lack of foundation or potential, but simply the absence of the right conditions.

The Yin-Yang Mirror is a unique realm that emphasizes the power of Yin and Yang. To break through to the Half-Step Yin-Yang Realm, you need to inscribe Yin or Yang power onto your Profound Elixir. To break through to the full Yin-Yang Mirror, you must, on the foundation of the Half-Step Yin-Yang Realm, balance Yin and Yang power, forming a complete Yin-Yang diagram on your Profound Elixir.

This aspect, like the quality of the Profound Elixir, is crucial. Moreover, it is required that the quality of both Yin and Yang powers must be the same. Otherwise, with differing strengths, the imbalance prevents the formation of a complete Yin-Yang diagram, causing a failed breakthrough. At worst, it leads to the destruction of the Profound Elixir and possibly death.

Although the strength of Yin and Yang power does not need to be perfectly identical, powers of the same quality can mutually complement and balance each other. If the quality differs too greatly, one would simply devour the other.

That’s why the Profound Elixir Realm is so unique and dramatic. Low-quality Profound Elixirs not only lack sufficient power, but are too fragile to inscribe high-quality Yin-Yang powers, easily exceeding their limits and causing destruction of the elixir and death.

As a result, cultivators with low-tier Profound Elixirs find it very difficult to break through to the Yin-Yang Mirror. Those with mid-tier Profound Elixirs have some hope, but their inscribed Yin-Yang powers’ quality is limited. Many do not dare attempt high-quality inscriptions for fear of losing their cultivation or even their lives.

Thus, the gap between geniuses and ordinary cultivators widens further upon attempting to break through to the Yin-Yang Mirror.

You understand the secrets of the Yin-Yang Mirror and aspire to break through, but you do not want to inscribe a standard Yin-Yang diagram. Ordinary Yin-Yang powers are easy to find, but breaking through carelessly would waste the potential of your Flawless Profound Elixir and limit your future prospects.

However, the issue returns to your current situation. Recently healed, you are just a lone cultivator without spirit stones or resources, unsure how to safely find high-quality Yin-Yang powers… thus trapped in indecision.

“So, the secret of the Yin-Yang Mirror is like this, closely related to the grade of the condensed Profound Elixir. No wonder the cultivation world places such importance on the quality of Profound Elixirs. It affects more than just combat power… it truly impacts the future.”

Wang Ping pondered while looking at the simulation content.

The Yin-Yang Realm… Yin and Yang forces… another challenge.

“Besides, what about Xue’er? Is she really a descendant of the Ice Empress? Is there any connection to Bing Ningyue?”

Wang Ping thought of Xue’er, filled with questions.

If she is a descendant of the Ice Empress, her talent seems somewhat ordinary.

“No, without resources, techniques, or guidance in cultivation, and with her bloodline not activated, her current cultivation is already commendable. Her talent is not poor.”

Wang Ping shook his head again.

Then, Wang Ping composed himself and continued to gaze at the screen.

Xue’er noticed your worries and asked you about the reason. After some hesitation, you chose to answer. Throughout these years, your relationship with Xue’er had significantly deepened, and you became Dao companions, touched by her gentleness. She even carried your offspring within.

After hearing your explanation, Xue’er hesitated but couldn’t bear to deceive you. In the end, she disclosed something important: The Eternal Frozen Wastes possess the highest quality Yin power. The forces of Yin and Yang… Yin represents sinking, and Yang represents rising.

Thus, in extremely cold regions, high-quality Yin power easily appears, while in hot regions, high-quality Yang power is more likely to manifest.

The Eternal Frozen Wastes are one of the coldest areas in the Purple Spirit Realm, containing the ice comprehension of the Ice Emperor Ji Bingyan. Therefore, deep within the Eternal Frozen Wastes, high-quality Yin power frequently occurs, growing stronger the deeper you venture.