"Leave the rest to me?"
Hearing this, I felt a little worried. Logically, Senior Black Robe had helped me before and guided my cultivation. I shouldn't be ungrateful and join forces with Fifth Princess to seal him. However, ever since I learned that he was the one who forced my soul out of my body and then froze my flesh, I couldn't let him continue to reside in my sea of consciousness.
I didn't know if he could possess a body like the legendary immortals, becoming the master of a physical form, but I dared not take that gamble. That's why I agreed to Fifth Princess's proposal to seal him.
But now, it seemed I had underestimated the situation. Fifth Princess agreed so readily, and even said she would handle the rest. Was she too confident in herself?
For someone whose true strength was only at the peak of Ghost General to try and seal someone who was very likely a Ghost King, or even a Ghost Emperor, this idea was simply too insane. It was like a mouse offering itself as a bridesmaid to a cat.
"Fifth Princess, don't be in such a hurry. Tell me how to seal him first?" Seeing her about to act, I quickly stopped her and pressed for the specific steps.
Senior Black Robe was still frozen, likely harmless for now. But if she acted and failed to seal him, we would be in for a world of trouble.
"What, you don't trust me?" Fifth Princess, being a ghost who had lived for a thousand years, instantly understood what I meant.
"It's not that I don't trust you. If it were anything else, I would definitely trust you. But to seal Senior Black Robe, I just feel this is a bit unreliable."
Fifth Princess's eyes narrowed, looking as if she were smiling, or perhaps sizing me up. She only spoke after making me feel so uneasy that I was almost crawling out of my skin.
"In this world, how can there be so many certainties? How will you know if you don't try?"
This time, after she finished speaking, she didn't give me a chance to retort. With a whoosh, she flew away. When she reappeared in my sight, she was already approaching the range of the black ice.
Without any visible action, she simply walked into it.
"How did she get in?"
I knew this black ice. It was incredibly cold and immensely hard. When I had become a soul, I had tried every method to burrow into it and reclaim my body, but I failed.
Moreover, the black ice was impervious to the sun. Not only did sunlight not melt it, but a layer of black mist appeared on its surface, seemingly to block the sun's erosion.
Waiting is the most torturous thing, especially when it concerns oneself. Every minute and second felt like an eternity. Waiting was not an option, so I might as well get closer and see what this black ice actually was.
"So cold!"
As I approached within thirty meters of the black ice, the surrounding temperature instantly dropped a notch. It was currently twenty-four, twenty-five degrees Celsius outside, but within five meters, the temperature plummeted to minus twenty-something degrees.
Outside the five-meter radius, the temperature returned to normal. This struck me as very strange. I tried entering from several other directions, and it was always the same.
This was truly baffling. I was freezing to death, yet the flowers and trees within five meters were unaffected? The flowers still bloomed, and the grass tenaciously welcomed the sun, seemingly unbothered by the cold of the black ice.
Could it be that this black ice only affected the living?
Unwilling to give up, I circulated my Xuan Yang True Qi throughout my body and, steeling myself, charged in. Protected by the Xuan Yang True Qi, I indeed felt the temperature drop less severely than before. However, the Xuan Yang True Qi within me was being consumed like water from an opened floodgate, gushing out.
The closer I got to the black ice, the faster the Xuan Yang True Qi was depleted. After walking nearly ten meters inside, more than half of the Xuan Yang True Qi in my body had been used up.
My eyebrows and hair were already covered in frost, and my body was shivering uncontrollably. I inwardly thought that I couldn't get any closer. If my Xuan Yang True Qi ran out, it would be my end.
After coming out, only a small amount of Xuan Yang True Qi remained in my body. If I had hesitated any longer, I probably wouldn't have been able to get out.
That was close! I had almost frozen to death just by trying to approach the ice mountain. This showed the terrifying power of Senior Black Robe. Fifth Princess, in a fit of impulse, wanted to seal Senior Black Robe. I suspected this matter was likely to end in failure.
*Gulp—*
Hearing my stomach growl, I gave a helpless wry smile. "Brother," I thought, "just bear with it! Once we leave here, I'll make sure you're well-fed."
After orienting myself, I discovered that Fifth Princess had led me into the vicinity of the North Mountain Mining Town. Steep cliffs surrounded me, with only one path leading out, which was blocked by the black ice mountain. To get out, one would need wings like a bird, or wait for the black ice mountain to melt.
To conserve energy, I found a relatively clean spot, tidied it up a bit, and began to meditate. One purpose was to recover my Xuan Yang True Qi, and the other was to reduce the feeling of hunger.
As the sun began to set, I woke up. I glanced at the black ice mountain; its exterior had not changed. I tried walking inside again, but it was the same as before. Before I could even get within twenty meters, more than half of the Xuan Yang True Qi in my body was depleted, so I had to turn back.
After two attempts, I had completely given up. I returned to meditate, hoping to endure the hunger for longer. I hoped this period wouldn't last too long.
I was woken by the cold. Having not eaten anything all day, my stomach burned with hunger. Fortunately, the mineral water Fifth Princess had given me was still more than half full. The icy mineral water entering my stomach extinguished the fire, but it also made me feel even hungrier.
At this moment, the sun had already set, leaving only a faint glow. Because we were in a valley, the sky had become hazy.
I wasn't sure if it was an illusion or if I was dizzy from hunger, but I felt as if the mist around the black ice was expanding, and the temperature was dropping?
Would this black ice mountain, which Senior Black Robe had transformed into, continue to expand? I muttered to myself, but my feet moved towards the direction of the ice mountain. When I reached the distance I had previously set, I stopped.
My fears were coming true. The ice mountain hadn't expanded, but the black mist surrounding it was constantly emerging from the black ice mountain. It looked like if I had woken up half an hour later, the mist would have already exceeded the thirty-meter range.
This made me anxious. There was now no escape. If I continued further inside, I would enter the true territory of the North Mountain Mining Town, and it would be impossible not to die.
Standing at the spot where Fifth Princess had entered the ice mountain, I shouted her name loudly. Apart from the echo, only the wind, carrying a hint of cold, responded to me.
After shivering, I retreated a distance, until I felt safe. I cleared a patch of ground and gathered some dry branches to start a fire.
At the same time, I secretly vowed that from now on, when I went out, I would definitely pack some compressed biscuits in my backpack...