Chapter 2 - Bottom of Divine Dragon Stream

Mount Bilu was located near the east side of Taixing town. While the mountain range was rather small, this mountain peak towered over all else, but because the terrain was too steep very few cultivators came here to cultivate.　

On this day, at the top of the mountain, one could see a small girl's figure jumping and running around. Sometimes she ran around and sometimes she practiced her fighting skills. Even though there wasn't any profound power accompanying her movements, the skill she showed was quite exquisite. If a Profound Master from Taixing town saw her, they would only be able to gasp with admiration at her skill.

This girl was precisely Lin Haoxue. Today was the third day since she started climbing up to this mountaintop. Although the other day she told her grandfather not to worry too much as there was always a way out of their predicament, but that was merely to pacify her grandfather and ease his worries.

She didn't know how to handle the He family so, for now, she could only practice the martial arts skills of her previous life and hope for an opportunity.　

Just like the last two days, Lin Haoxue climbed up the mountain in a breath's time. Reaching the top, she did a few warm-up exercises after which she did her usual martial arts routine that she had learned in her previous life. Although she didn't have any profound power of a Profound Pract.i.tioner, she didn't want to be at a disadvantage against others.

Lin Haoxue finished her movements then took a deep breath while she raised her head and stared at the sun. Now it was already past mid-day.

"I should quickly go back!" she said to herself.

Since she had been injured both Cui Lan and her Grandfather took especially good care of her and restricted her movements. Seeing them act this way, she was unable to refuse their kindness.

She was afraid that Cui Lan and her Grandfather would worry about her, so she hurried down the mountain. When she was halfway down Divine Dragon Stream, she suddenly came to a standstill as she remembered something.

At Mount Bilu, halfway down the mountain, there was a stream. This stream had a very unique view as most mountain streams were situated at the base of the mountain; therefore, it was very rare that a stream was found winding through the middle of a mountain. However, for residents of Taixing town, this stream was nothing but ordinary. There was a legend about this mountain stream, but most of Taixing town's citizens took it as a joke.

It was originally said that a long time ago, there wasn't a mountain stream here. One day an injured divine dragon fell down from the heavens. When it was first seen, it was so big that it blocked out the sun and covered the earth. It is said that the dragon was seen gazing sadly into the west then it craned its neck and moaned with sorrow. After some time, a teardrop fell and formed this mountain stream. After the mountain stream was formed, the divine dragon vanished mysteriously without a trace and no one knew where it had gone off to. Afterwards, this mountain stream became known as Divine Dragon Stream.

Originally people were highly interested in Divine Dragon Stream, and they explored this place in different ways but all their efforts ended in vain. Because nothing was found people gradually lost interest in this place.

As she was pa.s.sing this mountain stream, Lin Haoxue suddenly recalled the legend a.s.sociated with this place.

If the legend really is true then maybe the divine dragon left something behind here, thought Lin Haoxue. Thinking this, she felt quite excited and decided to look around, submerging herself in the water.

After she entered the water, the surface seemed very normal, as if there was nothing special about it, but unexpectedly, the bottom of the stream was so deep that she could not reach the bottom. In her previous life, Lin Haoxue was an expert at diving, but even she couldn't go that far down, so how deep was this water?

Lin Haoxue climbed to sh.o.r.e once again and saw that there was a tall cliff at the side of the stream. Suddenly, she thought of a plan. She turned, headed up the mountain, and walked towards the cliff above the mountain stream. After a short while, she jumped off.

A plop sounded out as Lin Haoxue plunged deep into the water.

She drew support from the fall and dove deep into the water this time. While she was rus.h.i.+ng downwards, suddenly she saw a light appear in front of her. It turned out that there was an icy cave-like creva.s.se at the bottom.  

Apparently, there really was some heaven and earth treasure below the water. Lin Haoxue swam towards the light and did everything in her power to keep swimming in its direction, but the further down she went, the stronger the pressure on her became. Soon she started to feel herself float upwards again making her worried. Lin Haoxue exerted all her energy, and with a final rush of strength, she grabbed onto the creva.s.se's edge seizing the opportunity to enter inside the riverbed's icy crack.

Inside the creva.s.se, the water gradually started to thin, and in the end, it turned into a hollow underground ice cave.

The further she walked inwards, the lower the temperature fell, and the cold seeped into Lin Haoxue's body. Her footsteps gradually slowed as her intuition told her that there was something extraordinary in this place, but her current strength was very weak. Right now she had not awoken her profound veins, and therefore, she had no ability to protect herself. Moreover, at home, her family was probably anxiously waiting for her return. Being audacious was something that someone who had strength could do, but she couldn't as she didn't have any power nor any skills right now.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoxue decided to return home.

But as she turned around, she was surprised to find that behind her was a dead end and the exit of the cave had already vanished. Now she had no other option than to continue forward!

She was only shocked for a moment, but Lin Haoxue didn't lose herself to fear. She had quite a good mentality so that the more urgent the circ.u.mstances, the calmer she became. An unexpected thing happened to her, but that was all. Since there was no way out then she could only walk forward to see what this place held.

She walked for more than an hour and found that the deeper in she walked, the colder the air became, and the s.p.a.ce in the ice cave was expanding. In this underground s.p.a.ce, Lin Haoxue's footsteps suddenly came to a stop because just now she heard a faint voice in her mind.

This situation was really quite strange, however, when she stopped walking, the voice also disappeared.

When she continued forward, the faint voice was heard once more and it kept echoing in her mind again and again.

The further in she walked, the clearer this voice became.

At last, Lin Haoxue was able to clearly understand what was being said. The voice repeated three times, "You've finally arrived, You've finally arrived, You've finally arrived…" It seemed like a kind of summons, almost like a kind of curse since the voice was full of mourning and temptation.

Just as Lin Haoxue was about to recognize the voice as it had become clearer, another unexpected event happened: the road ahead disappeared. Now she could no longer continue forward because right in front of her was a ma.s.sive wall of ice. She was now trapped in this freezing cold place.

Lin Haoxue lifted her hand and felt the ice wall. When her hand touched it, it was ice-cold. It was indeed an actual wall of ice, not an illusion; however, now she was pretty sure that the voice from before was actually coming from behind this ice wall.

Carefully searching her memories, Lin Haoxue thought of another possibility of what was happening. Her grandfather had once told her that in this world, apart from profound power there was another kind of power one could use to gain enlightenment called incantation methods. Those who practiced incantation methods were known as Incantation Masters. Since incantations methods could be used to strengthen weapons, defeat enemies, and turn them into ash. Furthermore, they could also be used to make barriers. When Incantation Masters practiced to a very profound level, they could cover the sky with their hand. Therefore, Incantation Masters were considered a n.o.ble existence throughout the entire world.

But Incantation Masters were exceptionally rare because they required a very high standard of willforce. It is said that even amongst one hundred thousand Profound Pract.i.tioner realm cultivators, there may not even be a single person with sufficient willforce who could practice incantation methods.

As for the incantation itself, one could only use incantations to destroy incantations, there is no other way to do so.  

The wall of ice that stood before her eyes resembled the Sight Blocking incantation method. Even though it was named Sight Blocking, this incantation method could block one's five senses making it hard to tell what was real and what was not.  

Lin Haoxue didn't know how incantation methods worked, but she was certain about the presence of this ice wall. Because she was sure this ice wall was real, she had a chance of getting past this wall despite being under such an incantation method.

She closed her eyes and held her breath as she used one of her hands to lightly feel the ice wall. The ice wall was only ten feet tall, so she tried to feel every inch of the ice wall.  

After about half an hour of searching, she realized there wasn't even a tiny crack in it. Suddenly, Lin Haoxue opened her eyes and resolutely slammed her fist against the ice wall.

But this one punch caused her extreme pain, and she was thrown back by the ice wall. She was pushed about five to six steps backwards and fell to the ground. Lin Haoxue could only smile wryly as she tried to stand up once more.

Just as she used her right hand to support herself and felt the cold ice on the ground, a burst of warmth spread through her palm. Her palm was actually not touching the snow, but instead, something extraordinarily soft. This discovery caused Lin Haoxue to be extremely hopeful. Maybe the secret she was looking for was not on the ice wall but below the ground!

Crouching down, she carefully sized up the area and found that the ground was the same color as the ice wall, everything being ice-blue. If she hadn't accidentally used her hand to touch the ground, she probably wouldn't have noticed this peculiarity.

Lin Haoxue carefully used her hand to dig into the soft spot. As she dug, she noticed that it felt like mud and that it was not at all difficult to dig through. Just when Lin Haoxue dug out almost a foot of the ground, she came across a hard, cool object.

Lin Haoxue was careful when she took it out, only to find that it was a ring. It was simple, unadorned, and the whole ring was dark. It seemed like it was made from gold, but it wasn't gold and made from jade, but it clearly wasn't jade either. Lin Haoxue couldn't tell what exactly the material was. But since she found it here, she knew that it was no ordinary item.

Finally! She knew her trip wasn't in vain. She stood up and looked at the ice wall in disappointment deciding to give up. She picked up the ring and was about to leave; however, just when she was getting ready to leave, she felt an immense pain in her head as if her head was. .h.i.t by something big, and she felt a stifling pressure bore down on her. This sudden pressure and pain left her no choice but to sit down once more.