The gaunt Buddha did not press further, instead letting Li Yan enter. Originally, whoever held the Netherworld Order was allowed entry. It was just that the Huchen Family was a trading partner they valued more, so he had asked a few more questions. Unless Li Yan was full of obvious flaws, this Buddha might have made an exception and captured him to be sent to the Huchen Family.
As the two of them conversed, the stout monk on the other side kept his eyes closed in meditation, showing no intention of even glancing their way.
It seemed the other party was not going to let Li Yan block the entrance. Li Yan had no choice but to suppress the urge to read the Jade Slip first.
Before him was a vast expanse of bright, sparkling white. Li Yan had just stepped through the tower entrance when his vision blurred, and his whole body was assailed by a pervasive cold. This was a stone room, an ice-carved stone room, only a few zhang in size. The walls were made of unknown giant stones covered in a thick layer of ice, and waves of cold emanated from within.
At Li Yan's level of cultivation, he was already impervious to heat and cold. Wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket all year round was no different from wearing a single thin garment.
Li Yan circulated the Spirit Power in his body slightly, expelling the faint trace of cold. Even so, he was somewhat awed. He had already activated his Spirit Power shield upon entering, yet a trace of the chill had still penetrated his body. The cold here was truly formidable.
'This place is truly strange. A Spirit Power shield can't completely block the cold of the world. The Four Great Forbidden Zones are definitely not good places to be.' As Li Yan thought this, his Divine Sense had already spread out. Moments later, he retracted it, surprised to find himself in an independent, ice-carved stone room. Outside was a boundless, vast snowfield. With his Divine Sense, he couldn't find a second ice-carved stone room. According to Li Yan's speculation, everyone who entered should have appeared in a place similar to his own, but he found nothing else within a thousand li.
'This tower is only five to six hundred zhang wide from the outside, but inside it's a whole different world, vast beyond measure. If I'm not mistaken, everyone who enters should appear in a separate space like me. I don't see anyone else in my Divine Sense now. Either the entrance is very well hidden and shields Divine Sense detection, or they are already far away, beyond the range of my Divine Sense. The second possibility is more likely.' Li Yan was confident in his Divine Sense.
After retracting his Divine Sense, Li Yan took out the Jade Slip map for the tower and pressed it directly against his forehead. A moment later, a crisp cracking sound came from his hand, and the Jade Slip on his forehead dissolved into specks of crystalline light and scattered.
'The first level is the Ice Plains, the second is the Swamp, and the third is the Tomb Labyrinth. Foundation Establishment cultivators rarely reach the third level, as it's a death zone for low-level cultivators. The Jade Slip provides no information about the higher levels of the tower.'
'No wonder one is not allowed to move randomly after entering the tower and must first read the introduction in the Jade Slip. Danger can appear at any time on every level. In this regard alone, the Jingtu Sect has the bearing of a major sect and isn't petty. Since they allow others to enter, and many may have paid a great price to do so, if one were to perish here right after entering without knowing the truth, it would only mean the Jingtu Sect doesn't want other sects to probe their resources.'
'Just the first level, the Ice Plains where I am now, has eleven life-and-death zones of various sizes. These are fatal for Qi Condensation cultivators, and for Foundation Establishment cultivators, a single careless mistake could also lead to their demise.'
'When a cultivator steps out of the tower's entrance, they are randomly teleported to different places, possibly an ice-carved stone room, a melting ice cave, or a glacial chasm. These places are protected by formations, so one won't be attacked. Once you go out, the adventure officially begins. Moreover, once you step back into a place like this ice-carved stone room, you will be directly teleported out, completing one exploration. So this is not a place to hide from danger, but only to be entered as a last resort or for the final teleportation out.'
'I don't know where those five people were teleported to, but at least they aren't within a thousand li. My luck is really bad; being teleported here is a dangerous place. Outside this ice-carved stone room are the extremely formidable Snow Mosquitoes of the snowfield. If I had rushed out without reading the Jade Slip's introduction, I might have walked right into a crisis.'
Snow Mosquitoes, a special product of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, were only grade-one demonic beasts. They were adept at hiding their tracks in the wind and snow, possessed a foot-long, sharp proboscis that could pierce armor and crack stone, and their wings were as sharp as knives. For Li Yan, killing one, ten, or even a hundred Snow Mosquitoes should be an easy matter.
However, Snow Mosquitoes loved to live in swarms and reproduced rapidly. A single female Snow Mosquito could lay a thousand eggs. The size of their swarms was enough to make one's face turn pale. Every time they mobilized, they numbered in the thousands or tens of thousands. Even a Golden Core cultivator would be in a tight spot if they didn't handle them well. Therefore, one couldn't distinguish the level of danger in the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda simply by the first, second, or third level. It could only be said that the demonic beasts on the first level were generally of a lower grade and had weaker individual attack power, but the level of danger was not necessarily less than that of the second or third levels.
Li Yan let out a soft breath. Thinking about it, the Jingtu Sect was a good host, providing a warning outside the tower, just not allowing people to linger on the platform. But if an impatient cultivator had rushed out of the ice room and started flying while checking the Jade Slip, they would have been caught completely off guard if danger struck, and could only blame themselves.
Li Yan released his Divine Sense again, spreading it outside the ice room. After a short while, he retracted it with a puzzled look. He hadn't found a single Snow Mosquito. 'The map marks the snowfield as being on the northernmost edge of the first level, which is the region I'm in. Further ahead are steep glaciers, to the left is a large ice river, and to the right are continuous snowy mountains.' Li Yan rested his chin in his hand, not leaving the ice room immediately, but pondering. The Blood Leaf Adept had once said that the Crimson Mother Essence they obtained was from a place called "Red Maple Pool" on the second level. What he needed to do now was to find the entrance to the second level as quickly as possible.
However, Li Yan's luck was not very good. The place he was teleported to on the first level was on the northernmost side, but the entrance to the second level was on a southern ice mountain. So he had to cross this snowfield and head south. The snowfield was not only home to the dreaded Snow Mosquitoes; there were other demonic beasts and dangerous areas as well, places that even Foundation Establishment cultivators could not easily pass through.
'I need to pass through the 'Snowy Marsh,' 'Melting Cave,' and 'Burning Wind' in sequence to reach the glacier region. I am in the 'Snowy Marsh' right now. Although I can bypass the other two places from the east and west, not only would that take time, but I would also have to pass through other dangerous areas. If I had been teleported to the southern glacier or the east and west sides upon entry, it would have been much better than the current situation. I wonder if the people who entered earlier were as unlucky as me.' Thinking of this, Li Yan shook his head. This was truly troublesome. He needed to pass through these three areas; taking a detour was not an option. Even if he passed through these three regions and reached the glacier area, it wasn't guaranteed that he would immediately find the entrance to the second level. That would depend on his final landing spot in the southern glacier area. It was possible the entrance to the second level would be right in front of him as soon as he arrived in the south, but he might also have to fight his way through other dangerous sections of the glacier.
He stepped onto the vast snowfield. Looking back at the ice room sparkling brilliantly under the sun, the ice door, which could only accommodate one person, was like a blurry mirror. He looked up at the sky. Li Yan hadn't expected there to be a sun in the sky inside the tower. He didn't know if this was created by some great divine ability or if that ancient great power had projected the power of the outside world into it.
Feeling the powdery snow under his feet, Li Yan felt that if he let go of the Spirit Power controlling his body, he would soon sink in, as if trapped in a swamp. The snow here was not like what he had seen in the Jingtu Sect's territory a while ago, which would harden with the surrounding cold after landing or have a hard outer crust. It was extremely loose.
'The Snowy Marsh. I wonder how deep it is below. Sinking down might lead to an endless abyss!' Li Yan thought. He didn't like it here, nor did he like the winter outside the Jingtu Sect. The place where he was born also had four seasons, but it was never this cold. In particular, he was not familiar with the properties of ice and snow, just as he was not familiar with the desert. This reminded him of his battle with Ancestor Redfire in the desert. Afterward, he finally discovered the reason for his exposure, which gave him a sense of confusion and powerlessness.
Flying in the air, his Spirit Power shield was already active. Outside the shield, he had slapped on several "Vajra Talismans" that he had bought in Yuguan City. His Ghost-Chariot Talismans were already used up. Although the "Vajra Talismans" were not as good as the Ghost-Chariot Talismans, they still provided a decent level of defense. The sun was bright in the sky, and the ground was covered in layers of sparkling white light. From time to time, strong winds would blow, sweeping up the snow on the ground into the air. The snowflakes would then be torn apart by the wind, dancing chaotically and flying everywhere.
Li Yan had been flying in this state for half an hour. After a long time, he began to lose his sense of which way was up and which was down. There was only the endless white plain and the howling wind beside him. But Li Yan showed no sign of fatigue. Instead, his expression was solemn. It was too quiet here. For half an hour, he had not encountered a single demonic beast, nor had there been any unexpected changes, which made him feel increasingly uneasy. But his Divine Sense remained calm and undisturbed.
Another gust of wind swept up the snow from the plain, filling the sky and blocking Li Yan's view ahead with a flurry of dancing snowflakes and ice crystals. In truth, there was no need to see clearly ahead; as long as he flew south, he wouldn't be wrong. Li Yan recalled the Jade Slip map. The "Snowy Marsh" plain was about fourteen thousand li wide. If he flew at full speed, it would take him at least more than a day to fly out of this endless snowfield.
Just as he was lost in his habitual thoughts, his heart suddenly jolted. Several waves of cold had suddenly appeared in his Divine Sense. These waves of cold were almost imperceptible in his Divine Sense. Even if he had been distracted for a moment, he would have just thought it was the howling wind.
But Li Yan's body suddenly erupted with a brilliant spiritual glow. A series of "ding, ding, ding" sounds rang out endlessly. The Vajra Talismans outside his shield had already burst into several dazzling balls of light. Then, in Li Yan's Divine Sense, hundreds, thousands, and even more fine streams of cold assaulted him. The "ding, ding, ding" sounds were as continuous as a blacksmith hammering a nail.
At this point, how could Li Yan not know what he had encountered? Feeling the Vajra Talismans outside his body rapidly dimming, Li Yan carefully distinguished with his Divine Sense and discovered the densely packed, scalp-numbing Snow Mosquitoes.
It would be more appropriate to call the "Snow Mosquitoes" ice mosquitoes or crystal mosquitoes. Each one was less than two inches long, with a transparent body. Even its internal organs could be seen clearly. But its head dragged a foot-long, crystal-like, sharp proboscis. In this snow-white world, coupled with the reflection of the sun, they came with the strong wind and swirling snow, making them impossible to distinguish. Even the slightly different colors of the blue-black meridians and organs inside their bodies, in one's Divine Sense, just looked like a small piece of ice shard picked up from the ground with some black, withered grass stuck to it. This phenomenon had occurred many times before, and even the ever-vigilant Li Yan had become somewhat numb to it and had gradually overlooked it.