NOVPUBPing Ning's Water Avoiding Shuttle Dojo, the Small Accumulation Thunder Hall.
Chen Mu stood at the door, took a deep breath, and his chaotic thoughts were dispersed, as solutions quickly emerged in his mind.
"All these years of wandering haven't been all bad; at least I've gained experience in dealing with situations like this," he said with a self-deprecating smile before turning to look at Lei Hong.
"Scatter the Hunting Team, have them explore in all directions to see if they can find any signs of civilization."
"Tell them to be cautious, focus on rnnaissance and rrding, and not to provoke any unknown Exotic Beasts or Monsters."
"I'll get on it right away!" Lei Hong, who was initially flustered, suddenly found his resolve and hurriedly ran out of the Small Accumulation Thunder Hall.
Chen Mu then turned to Lei Cheng: "You personally go and calm everyone inside the shuttle, and make sure they remainmposed."
"If anyone causes trouble or agitation..." He narrowed his eyes.
"Understood!" Lei Cheng's expression was stern.
After giving instructions to the two men, Chen Mu himself quickly returned to the tranquility of his small building and took out the Gourd Sword Box to start crafting the Vermilion Feather Swords.
Truth Listening Divine Powermbined with the Vermilion Feather Swords was an excellent uting tool. Unfortunately, due to last night's disturbance, all nine Vermilion Feather Swords were lost. In order to use this method to ut the surroundings, he needed to replenish the Magic Swords as soon as possible.
Mana poured into the Gourd Sword Box, attracting various types of Gold Essence stored on the table into the gourd.
With a series of buzzing sounds, the Gourd Sword Box refined and fused the materials while automatically assembling and shaping the Vermilion Feather Swords.
"Lucky I had Lei Hong gather more materials beforehand, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do any crafting."
Glancing at the slowly rotating Red Gourd in mid-air, Chen Mu's spirit sank into the Jade Seed, and hisnsciousness arrived next to a dark black stone riddled with holes of various sizes.
An ink-green glow emitted from mists that flowed through the holes, encircling the dark stone, creating an eerie and ominous sight.
This was there Mechanical Talisman of the Mechanical Technique. With it, heuld split and nurture the Mechanical Talisman Seeds, allowing Chen Mu to remotelyntrol the Vermilion Feather Swords.
Carefully recalling the feedback provided by the Gray Wall, Chen Mu poured his mana into onerner of the Mechanical Talisman, triggering its hidden function.
Whoo-who-who...
The ink-green mists that had been drifting lazily suddenly accelerated and, in the blink of an eye, they all rushed into the dark stone.
Crack!
In the depths of his being, Chen Mu faintly heard a sharp cracking sound. It felt as if, in some distant place, something intimatelynnected to him had shattered.
Before heuld discern it carefully, he felt that the very thing that broke apart was growing anew in a nearby location, and the sense of emptiness that had just risen immediately dissipated.
Puff!
Like steam from a boiling kettle, the dark stone spewed out a large cloud of ink-green mist.
A brand-new Mechanical Talisman Seed emerged within this vast expanse of black and green mist.
"Whew... Luckily, I was able to retrieve the Mechanical Talisman Seed, otherwise, that would have been a big loss." Chen Mu relaxed.
With the loss of the nine Vermilion Feather Swords, it wasn't just the swords that were gone, but also the embedded Mechanical Talisman Seeds that were key tontrolling the swords.
If the Talisman Seedsuldn't be retrieved, even if he forged new swords, he wouldn't be able to use them for uting.
The sense of shattering and rebirth he just felt was the manifestation of the destruction of old Talisman Seeds and the birth of new ones.
...
In the midst of ice and snow, within the belly of a glacial mountain, there was a huge cavernous space.
At the center, there was a Cold Lake the size of a bedroom.
The Cold Lake was only half a meter deep with a clearly visible bottom. Five or six palm-sized purple-blue fish leisurely swam through.
Chen Mu stood by the Cold Lake, activating Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles.
Splash!
A clump of water about the size of a human head was extracted from the Cold Lake, with a purple-blue fish enveloped within it.
He pulled the clump of water closer to examine it, then realized that the small fish, resembling a shimmering illusion, slowly dissolved away.
Then, in a manner Chen Muuldn't understand, it reappeared within the Cold Lake.
"Strange..." Chen Mu furrowed his brow slightly.
It had been three days since they arrived in this world engulfed by ice and snow.
This cave and Cold Lake, not far from the landing spot of the Water Avoiding Shuttle, were divered by Chen Mu as soon as he activated the Truthful Listening Technique.
The Cold Lake was shallow, yet its water was inexhaustible.
The water wasld to the bone yet never froze.
What was most magical were the six small fish within the lake. Theyuld be seen but not caught; they didn't seem like living creatures but were full of Spirituality.
...
"Members of the Ding Flag Hunting Team have returned. They didn't find a trace of civilization three hundred li to the south," Lei Hong said as he quickly approached the Cold Lake, a slight panic in his eyes.
It wasn't just three hundred li; there was no sign of life within five hundred li.
Chen Mu nodded slightly, already aware of it in his heart.
Over these three days, it wasn't just the Hunting Team that had been uting. The three Vermilion Feather Swords he had crafted had also flown hundreds of li away.
The Truth Listening Divine Power had already scanned the surrounding five to six hundred li. Apart from the ocean and icebergs, and some Exotic Beasts and marine life, there was not a trace of civilization.
"This environment is a bit like the far north of Da Qian, similar to the Zhongshan Path areas from years ago," Lei Cheng, who came along, said with a frown: "But this clearly isn't Da Qian."
"The earth's pulse of Da Qian changed, and the Earth Spirit Vital Energy weakened, but that's just due to the lowncentration of energy, whereas here..." He shook his head with a serious look: "I suspect there isn't any Earth Spirit Element here at all!"
"It exists, but you haven't found the right place," Chen Mu pointed to the Cold Lake in front of them.
Lei Cheng crouched in astonishment and reached his hand into the Cold Lake.
Immediately, he shivered from the icy lake water, but his eyes involuntarily widened.
Because he indeed felt the presence of Earth Spirit Vital Energy within the Cold Lake, and itsncentration was not low!
"This place has a rather peculiar existence of Earth Spirit Vital Energy," Chen Mu raised an eyebrow, a glint of interest flashing in his eyes, "It isn't dispersed in the air but is dissolved in the water instead."
"Those deep seas outside the ice mountain, though very thin, stillntain some Earth Spirit Vital Energy."
"The Earth Spirit Vital Energy in this Cold Lake can even be described as abundant."
From this, it seemed possible that this place was not entirely a Beyond Heaven like Nether Demon Heaven, and might be closely related to the world of Yunzhou!
Chen Mu's thoughts stirred, and heuldn't help but think of Thousand Lanterns City.
"Grotto Heavens?" He nodded slightly, with a hint of speculation in his heart.
The ice and snow world before himuld very well be a similar grotto heaven.
Only it was much larger and moremplete.
"Perhaps, there's a way to leave this place!" Chen Mu slowly narrowed his eyes.
...
Several days later.
The cavern within the glacier mountain was expanded several times.
Apart from the Cold Lake in the center, a pitch-black pool appeared near the cave entrance without anyone noticing.
The pool was roughly a hundred square meters, about the size of three to five bedrooms. Its surface was waveless, like a mirror, and the inside was pitch-black and bottomless, like an abyss.
It was none other than the Netherworld Magic Instrument, the Bottomless Pool.
In the center of the cavern, next to the Cold Lake, an elegant wooden cabin appeared one meter off the ground, its back facing the Bottomless Pool.
On the porch in front of the cabin's door, Chen Mu leaned against a pillar, sitting by the porch edge and looking at the Cold Lake with great interest.
"Inside the Water Avoiding Shuttle, the Qi Cultivators havempleted the division of labor arding to the Secret Techniques they master. They can all set out tomorrow to catch various Exotic Beast seafood," Lei Cheng walked up the wooden stairs onto the porch and cupped his fists in salute.
"This is going tost quite a bit of White Jade Coins," Lei Hong said with a troubled face, hesitating.
Here, the Earth Spirit Vital Energy was scarce, and using mana meant having less of it.
To allow the Qi Cultivators participating in the hunts to rver mana, they needed to be granted access to the dojo.
The reason the Dojo inside the Water Avoiding Shuttle had adequate Earth Spirit Vital Energy was all thanks to the White Jade Coins.
"Afraid of wasted efforts?" Chen Mu glanced at Lei Hong.
"No, no, no, just afraid of wasting White Jade Coins," Lei Hong chuckled.
"Have them quickly throw the Exotic Beast Blood and Flesh into the Bottomless Pool. Don't worry, I have experience with this," Chen Mu saidnfidently, waving his hand.
Back in the Outer Heaven Demon Sky, he had managed to return to the Netherworld using the Ghost Gate.
Now in this place, which was just a grotto heaven closelynnected to the world of Yunzhou, all he needed to do was create a Ghost Gate, accumulate enough energy, and find an accurate anchor point to leave this grotto heaven.
Lei Cheng and Lei Hong brothers exchanged glances anduldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Coming to this unfamiliar place, it would be a lie to say they weren't anxious.
Now knowing there was a way to leave, the two of them immediately felt at ease.
"I must focus on crafting the Magic Artifact needed for the Ground Shrinking Technique. I'll leave the hunting of the Exotic Beasts to you."
"This is related to whether we can leave successfully, so it must not be taken lightly," Chen Mu instructed. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
"Don't worry, I've got this! Just watch!" Lei Hong declared cheerfully, slapping his chest.
Lei Cheng also solemnly cupped his fists, indicating that he would seriously handle the matter.
After discussing some other details, Chen Mu gestured for the two to leave.
He looked at the Cold Lake in front of him but began to frown and look troubled.
"The Ghost Gate is not easy to refine..."
The main material for the Ghost Gate was Forget River Stone, and since it wasn't available here, heuld only resort to the original plan he used in the Nether Demon Heaven.
He had used Yin Spirits as the basis and merged them with the power of the Mountain-Carrying Scripture to form a living Ghost Gate.
There were no Yin Spirits here, and the Qi Cultivators on the Water Avoiding Shuttle were also unable to learn the Netherworld Mystique Netherworld Ferry.
Fortunately, his Five Ghosts Bagntained thousands of Ghosts, and the Yin Spirits in the Netherworld were essentially Ghosts.
So, he stilluld use the Ghosts to perform the Netherworld Ferry and assemble a living Ghost Gate.
"Yin Spirits are Ghosts, but Ghosts are not quite Yin Spirits after all," Chen Mu scratched his head.
This was precisely what pained him.
Yin Spirits had vividnsciousness anduld autonomously learn and perform the Netherworld Ferry secret method.
But the Ghosts had chaoticnsciousness anduld not learn on their own.
Forcing them to perform the Netherworld Ferry meant that Chen Mu had to use the Heavenly Demon Spirit Seed to transfer the secret method experience to each Ghost.
Even then, success was not guaranteed on the first attempt, especially since Ghosts had chaoticnsciousness and truly lacked brains. What was already an extremely energynsuming task suddenly became much more difficult.
"What a headache..."
After sighing for a while, Chen Mu pulled out the Five Ghosts Bag, ready to get to work.
Mysteriously pulled into this ice and snow world, just the thought of the person behind it made Chen Mu's guts wrench.
"No matter how difficult, this task must be done!" Chen Mu gritted his teeth. "I surely don't want to die without reason."
