Wang Yu
Chapter Ten: Snow Lion
Due to the extremely low visibility, even though divine sense couldn't detect any obvious spiritual power fluctuations, who knew what kind of crisis that defied common sense might be lurking around.
Gradually, the snowflakes falling from above became more and more dense, and as far as the eye could see, the surroundings were almost a bluish-gray.
At this time, the spirit boat was under the control of Han Li, and the flying speed was not fast. From the four wings on both sides, a layer of hazy cyan light bloomed, enveloping the entire boat and Han Li and the other person.
The dense snowflakes around fell on this layer of cyan light curtain, and shattered silently, without much impact on the spirit boat's progress.
"The wind and snow here are a bit strange. My Spiritual Eyes are limited, can your Illusory Pupil Ghost Eyes see farther?" Han Li asked with a slight frown.
"I tried just now, and I can't see too far either. Not only that, but my divine sense is also disturbed. At most, I can only detect movements within a few miles, and it's still a bit blurry," said Lu Yuqing, shaking her head.
Han Li understood in his heart that as these strange snowflakes became more and more dense, his divine sense could only detect movements within a hundred miles. Beyond this range, it would become intermittent.
"There seems to be something over there."
After flying nearly a hundred miles, Han Li suddenly's eyes flashed, and he reached out to point downwards.
"It looks like a palace?" Lu Yuqing shifted her gaze and murmured.
Visible deep in the snow curtain, some high-挑飞檐 of buildings and some pagoda-like treasure domes could be vaguely seen.
"Let's go, let's go down and take a look."
Han Li said, urging a magic formula in his hand, and controlled the spirit boat to swoop down from the wind and snow, arriving in front of the building complex.
After putting away the spirit boat and landing, the two discovered that the snow here was not as deep as they had imagined, only barely covering their ankles. Underneath their feet were hard stone slabs.
After a brief observation, they walked one after the other, stepping shallowly and deeply on the snow-covered open square, towards the depths of the building complex.
Standing at the very front was a red brick and wood Paifang several Zhang tall, with one bay and two pillars. The number of floors on the top was only one, and the specifications were not high. The eaves were covered with snow, and the words on the lintel were blurred and illegible, making it impossible to tell what was originally written.
When they got closer, Han Li and the other person noticed that the pillars and beams of the Paifang were engraved with dense runes, but the spiritual energy originally contained within had dissipated, and it was clear that they had already become ineffective.
The two did not stay here for long, and after passing through the Paifang and walking another hundred steps, they arrived in front of a Xieshan-style hall.
The exterior of the main hall was basically intact, but half of the hall door was missing. The stone steps in front of the door were hidden under the eaves and were not covered by snow. A very deep black mark was cracked on them, obviously having been split in two by someone with a single slash.
"Brother Liu, it's okay for there to be runes on the pillars of the Paifang, but why are there runes on these stone steps?" Lu Yuqing looked down at the stone steps that were broken in two, and said with some doubt.
"If I'm not mistaken, this area should have been concealed by a formation before. That Paifang and this stone step, including some of the bricks and stones on the square, are all the formation eyes of the great formation, but they have been destroyed," Han Li said in contemplation.
"You mean... someone got here before us?" Lu Yuqing glanced around somewhat frantically, and asked in a low voice.
"The spiritual energy of the formation here has completely dissipated. The era of breaking the formation should be very long ago. It should have been during a previous appearance of the Immortal Mansion that someone came here, broke the restriction, and took away the treasures hidden here," Han Li thought for a while and then said.
Lu Yuqing breathed a slight sigh of relief when she heard that the treasures had already been taken away, but she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, and said, "In that case, let's not waste our time here and continue forward, right? There's not much time left."
"Don't be in a hurry. There should be quite a few such treasure hiding places in the Immortal Mansion. There may be places that use the same kind of formation restriction as this place. Let's take a look at the formation layout here first. If we encounter it later, it will save a lot of time to break it," Han Li said unhurriedly.
"That's right, how did I not think of that! Brother Liu, you are experienced and have thorough consideration." Lu Yuqing said suddenly upon hearing this.
Han Li smiled, walked up the steps, pushed open the half-closed door, and walked into the main hall.
Lu Yuqing also tiptoed behind Han Li and stepped into the main hall.
The main hall was empty. Only a few damaged places on the roof had snowflakes flying down from them, and they dissipated on their own before touching the ground...
Walking out of the back door of the main hall, there were several more main halls and a three-story pavilion connected behind. The situation was basically the same as before. There was no obvious damage, but they were all empty.
"Let's go..."
Standing under the pavilion, Han Li waved his hand and summoned the spirit boat again, beckoned Lu Yuqing, and the two of them drove the spirit boat up again, heading forward.
The snowflakes in front were still dense. The deeper the two went into the ice plains, the more building complexes they encountered along the way. The largest of them was more than ten times larger than the first one they encountered. The smaller ones were just some detached pavilions and towers, which looked like places for servants and handymen to stay.
However, no matter which type, basically all of them had been cracked and looted during the previous opening of the Immortal Mansion.
Han Li had expected this, so he didn't feel anything. Lu Yuqing, however, pouted her lips and felt it was a great pity.
However, the journey was quite peaceful. They didn't encounter anyone or any demon beasts.
The two of them drove the spirit boat all the way, and the deeper they went, the stronger the wind and snow in the air, and the more severe the suppression of their divine sense. To the point that later on, even with Han Li's strong soul, he could only detect the area within a few dozen miles.
After flying over a winding ice and snow mountain range, Han Li vaguely saw another building complex hidden in the wind and snow in the valley ahead.
After greeting Lu Yuqing, he urged the spirit boat to fly down towards the valley.
When approaching the entrance of the valley, the two saw from afar that a stone lion several Zhang tall, covered with snow, stood on the left side of the entrance of the valley. On the opposite right side, another stone lion was lying on the ground, also buried in ice and snow.
After landing, Han Li walked forward and swept away the snow on the left stone lion, and found that it was engraved with complex runes, which were slightly different from what he had seen before, but were roughly of the same type.
"It seems there's no need to go to the valley. The restriction here has already been destroyed..." Lu Yuqing said with some disappointment after just one glance.
Han Li heard the words and was about to speak when his brows suddenly furrowed. He grabbed Lu Yuqing's shoulder, pulled her back, and leaned against the stone wall behind.
The lying "stone lion" on the right side of the valley entrance suddenly came to life. Its body shook for a while, and it rose up violently, waving a huge paw and slamming it down on the two of them with great force.
A thick layer of snow fell from the lion's body, revealing that underneath was still ice and snow. It was as if it were a snow beast made of ice and snow.
Perhaps it was for this reason that Han Li was unable to sense it before it suddenly broke out. He only thought it was a lifeless stone lion.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly. He raised a fist, and cyan light condensed on it, and he punched straight upwards.
"Whoosh"
A hazy cyan fist shadow immediately broke through the wind and snow and collided with the snow lion's falling paw.
With a loud "Bang!"
The snow lion's giant paw exploded directly upon touching the fist shadow, turning into a cloud of snow and scattering in all directions.
Before Han Li could retract his fist, his brows furrowed, and he felt a bone-chilling cold aura permeate through the snow mist. A layer of white frost immediately formed on the joints of his fist.
He was shocked and quickly retracted his fist.
Looking again, there was a blue vortex forming on the snow lion's raised front paw, from which swirling forces like whirlwinds emerged, attracting the surrounding snowflakes and gathering them into it.
As more and more snowflakes poured into the vortex, the snow lion's shattered front paw was actually regaining most of its shape in an instant.
"Brother Liu, this is not a formation puppet, but a unique Frost Beast in the Immortal Mansion Secret Realm. If you don't shatter the Frost Soul within its body, it can continuously absorb the power of wind and snow to repair its damage, and it's almost immortal!" Lu Yuqing seemed to recognize the thing in front of her and quickly reminded him.
"Frost Soul? What is that?" Han Li asked, staring intently at the recovering Frost Beast.
"It is an extremely cold crystal stone nurtured within this beast's body, somewhat similar to a demon beast's demon core, usually located directly behind its eyes," Lu Yuqing thought for a moment and then said quickly.
When Han Li heard her say this, his gaze focused on the Frost Beast's dark blue eyeballs. With a thought, a cyan flying sword shot out of thin air, and with a flash of cold light, it arrived in front of the snow lion's left eye.
This beast's intelligence didn't seem very high. Seeing the sword light approaching, it actually raised its giant paw, which had not yet recovered, and slapped directly at the flying sword.
Although the flying sword was fast, its aura was not very powerful, but the moment it touched the snow lion's giant paw, a dense sword light pierced in all directions like a blossoming sword lotus, directly turning its entire arm into dust.
At the same time, the cyan sword light pierced through, directly flying through its left eye, splitting its entire head in half.
A sharp "Zheng" sound came.
Han Li saw the tip of the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword nail into a light blue crystal stone the size of a human head, but it only pierced in by an inch and did not pierce through it.
Silken strands of snow-white light swirled on the crystal stone, and immediately, wind and snow gathered towards the location of the snow lion's head.