Qianye looked up at the aged outline of the structure. After a momentary pause, he walked straight toward the main doors.
There were ribbons of light flickering into existence on the path ahead, but he dispersed them with a wave of his hand. It was as though he were walking through an excessively decorated street during a festival. This process seemed easy, but every step was akin to walking on the edge of the abyss. Ordinary experts would lose half their palm after each swing, but the luminous ribbons were fairly obedient and kept their fangs hidden in front of Qianye.
Brushing away the colorful ribbons, Qianye finally arrived at the doors of the Thunderfrost Temple.
The doors were several dozen meters tall, making Qianye look like a small ant in comparison. The doors were similarly made of deep ice—they were entirely dark blue with continuous carvings upon it. Upon careful inspection, the images upon them were a depiction of various legends and stories about how the ancients had sought survival in this wasteland and finally constructed this temple.
There was no better construction material than deep ice upon this cliff. These predecessors who had managed to build the temple under such adverse conditions would be experts by today’s standards. At the very least, people under the champion realm couldn’t survive here.
Just as Qianye was admiring the sculptures, the door opened on its own and a warm stream of air flowed out of the hall, suffused with a mild fragrance.
“Esteemed guest, this way please.”
Qianye entered without hesitation as the doors closed up behind him.
There was no light source inside the hall. However, not only was it not gloomy inside, but the four walls, floor, and roof were glistening with a faint light. Everything was pure, brilliant, and mysterious. The roof was almost a hundred meters tall, making people feel like they were standing in the hall of a primordial giant.
There was an icy sacrificial altar at the center of the hall, above which an icicle was hovering in slow rotation.
Qianye glanced about, but seeing no one, he walked up to the altar and glanced at the icicle.
“This is the first piece of ice our ancestors chiseled after drifting to this world. It took three hundred years after that to construct this Thunderfrost Temple. Nobody knows this anymore, but countless ancestors were buried under the temple during the three centuries of its construction. The dead would disintegrate quickly in this world, not even leaving a corpse. This ice isn’t an offering, but a memory of past sacrifices.”
The cold voice appeared once again, and this time, Qianye no longer made mistakes with his perception. He turned toward a certain direction and saw a young blue-haired man in long white robes walking over slowly.
The young man looked unusually young, at most a teenager by human appearances. His face was like an intricate work of art, with almost translucent skin and lips. If it weren’t for the terrifying amount of origin power within his body, Qianye would’ve suspected that he was made of ice.
The young man stretched his hand out. “Arkfaire, lord of the Thunderfrost Temple. Caroline is my sister. I welcome you, Qianye.”
Qianye shook Arkfaire’s hand and immediately lost all sensation on his skin; it was as though he had gripped a block of ice. A faint glow of scarlet gold ignited on Qianye’s hand as the power of Venus Dawn suppressed the cold, protecting his flesh from damage.
The scarlet gold flames wavered unstably. Although it was only a thin layer, the drain involved was rather shocking, and Qianye could clearly feel the origin power draining from his body. This meant that, although he wasn’t at a disadvantage during the exchange, the difference in cultivation was too big for his Venus Dawn to keep up with.
Fortunately, Arkfaire pulled his hand back within moments. There was an incomprehensible glint in his eyes as he gazed at Qianye. “It’s lunchtime, I hope you’ll honor us by sharing a meal.”
Qianye was startled. “Thank you for the reception. Lunch at the Thunderfrost Temple isn’t something an outsider can enjoy.”
Arkfaire’s brows arched up as he broke into a smile. “Follow me.” He led Qianye through a side door and toward the dining hall at the end of a long corridor.
The dining hall was shockingly large as well, at least big enough for hundreds of people to eat at the same time. There was a long table at the center with a chair on either end.
Arkfaire sat down at the master’s seat and invited Qianye to take the other. Two elders in formal attire began serving the food.
Despite their age, they were elegant and well-groomed. They moved in utter silence, almost as though they were gliding on water. Whether they were walking, standing, or serving, the soup on their trays never rippled.
Their exceedingly steady hands could be used to serve food, or they could be used to kill people. With their rank-seventeen cultivation, they could turn into terrifying assassins at a moment’s notice.
Even the attendants possessed a higher level of origin power than Qianye. It looked like Arkfaire was trying to demonstrate his power, but then again, it didn’t look like that, either.
The soup in front of Qianye was like clear water with a couple of blue leaves floating in it. The dish looked more like tea than food.
Arkfaire’s voice arrived from the other end of the table. “This dish is made with water from the first batch of excavated deep ice, and the ice leaf is a local specialty produce. It can only grow in low-temperature environments, so you won’t be able to have them again after leaving this place.”
With that, he picked up his spoon and sipped a spoonful of soup.
Qianye followed suit and drank a mouthful of soup, swallowing it along with the ice leaf.
The soup had no taste of its own, but once inside his stomach, terrifying frost energy erupted and almost froze Qianye from the inside out.
Qianye’s body reacted instinctively. His blood core pulsed at full force as the blood in his entire body ignited to suppress the invasive cold energy.
Qianye sat straight and still, when all of a sudden, two streams of sanguineous flames gushed out of his nose.
His face switched between red and blue, fluctuating several times before finally calming down. The two elders nearby cast their observant gazes away while calming their surprised expressions.
Qianye gazed up at Arkfaire in utter silence, his eyes surging with a blue intent.
The young man revealed a clear and mischievous smile. “This soup is a bit tyrannical in the beginning, but it’ll bring about great benefits once you tide over it. The deep ice left behind by the ancestors dwindles with each use, and there are less than ten ice leaves left in storage. I wouldn’t bring them out if you weren’t an honored guest.”
Qianye spat out a cloud of white mist, then his body trembled as more flames gushed out of his nose.
Since he was already breathing fire, Qianye had no need to hide his situation. After suppressing the chill, he said, “The soup is indeed tyrannical, but what will happen if I’m unable to endure it?”
Arkfaire rested his chin on his palm. “Such an obvious question isn’t something a smart person should be asking, those who can’t endure the effects will turn into an ice sculpture. The ice leaf itself can be considered a powerful poison, but this item is too valuable to be used for killing. In any case, I can only say that my sister misjudged if you can’t endure the effects.”
Qianye snorted but made no further comments. He took another mouthful of soup and closed his eyes.
This time, he didn’t gush flames, but his hair flew up and his eyes shot out beams of light when he opened them.
Qianye exhaled another wisp of white energy. “This is good!”
Just two spoonfuls of soup had pushed his origin power forward. This was extremely valuable to Qianye and his extraordinary origin power requirements. His eighth origin power vortex was about to take form, and he might actually break through by the time he had finished the soup.
It was just as Arkfaire had said; this soup would provide great benefits if only he could endure.
The word endure was easier said than done. The cold energy was extremely pure and would break out from the inside. Suppressing it wasn’t just about high cultivation; it was also dependent on the quality of origin power. Qianye could keep the energy in check and melt it because of his Venus Dawn. Any other person—those divine champions with no hope of further progress for instance—would probably turn into ice after one bowl.
This soup was the main course. The other fruits and snacks on offer were rare, but they weren’t that attractive.
The meal was finally completed as the origin sundial pointed toward dusk. He had spent most of the time drinking that soup, digesting it for a while after each mouthful. As cold energy accumulated inside his body, Qianye’s rate of ingestion grew slower and slower until he had to spend half an hour drinking the last small mouthful.
Arkfaire showed no semblance of impatience. He accompanied Qianye calmly, drinking as much as Qianye did, and then waited as the latter digested the energy. Only when the meal was over did he say with a nod, “Finishing this soup means you’ve passed the first test! Follow me.”
Qianye wasn’t really happy about the sudden test, but Arkfaire wasn’t going to care about his mood. The young man walked out of the dining hall, smiling like a mischievous kid as Qianye walked out behind him.
Regardless of the method, Qianye had obtained a tangible benefit, so he decided not to argue where it didn’t matter. The two walked down a spiral staircase and kept going until they were deep underground. Here, Arkfaire pushed open the doors and brought Qianye into a different hall.
This hall wasn’t as majestic as the main building, but its height of ten meters made for a fairly grand spectacle. The sculptures in the hall were vivid and lifelike—if it weren’t for them being made of transparent deep ice, people would wonder if they were frozen humans.
Arkfaire arrived at the biggest group of sculptures. Gazing up at the several dozen sculptures of varying expressions and postures, he said, “These are the heroes of the first ancestral generation. They had fought dangerous enemies in harsh battlefields, risking their lives to carve out the first block of deep ice to serve as the temple’s first foundation.”
He then arrived at the second group. There were noticeably fewer people here, barely over a dozen, and their momentum was weaker than the first. Their equipment, however, looked better.
Arkfaire said after some hesitation, “These are the heroes of the second ancestral generation. They are smaller in number because most of the ancestors had passed away while pioneering this world of ice. What took their lives weren’t just the cold and monsters, but… also hunger. There wasn’t enough food in this land to support so many people. Their main source of food came from the beasts living between the edge of the continent and the void.”
Qianye knew there would be beasts around the edge of the continent. These fierce creatures could move through the void for a short period. Although they weren’t comparable to void colossi, they were definitely much stronger than ordinary beasts and not a force ordinary champions could handle. One could imagine the price these ancestors would have to pay in order to hunt them down for food.
“These beasts are crafty and would rarely set foot on land. Every time, the ancestors would have to pick one person as bait in order to lure them down.”
