NOVEL NEXT Chapter 195: Ice Domain
'Come to me,' a soft, melodic voice whispered, one that only Su Xiaoli could hear.
Right after Mao Shun broke through to the Golden Core Formation realm, Feng Fan's group got up, ready to leave. Only Su Xiaoli remained seated.
She stared at the bonfire in front of her, lost in thought.
"Xiao'er?" Feng Fan asked, gently shaking her shoulder.
"Ah!" Su Xiaoli snapped out of her daze.
"Are you okay?" Feng Fan frowned, a hint of concern in his expression.
"Mmh, I thought I heard someone calling me…"
'Come to me,' the melodic voice sounded again.
Startled, Su Xiaoli jumped to her feet and looked around, searching for the source of the voice.
Feng Fan, standing beside her, furrowed his eyebrows. 'That voice… it was calling Xiao'er in her mind, so I ended up hearing it too through her thoughts…'
"Xiao'er, do you know where that voice is coming from?"
Su Xiaoli nodded and pointed. "I think it's coming from over there," she said, indicating a direction.
"Let's go check it out. I wonder why only you can hear it."
Because of the voice, the group changed direction instead of heading toward the Mao Empire. Just a few minutes later, the temperature around them began to drop sharply.
"Is it just me, or is it getting cold?" Mao Shun asked.
With their high cultivation levels, especially Feng Fan, who had a very strong body, they hadn't noticed at first. But the farther they flew, the more obvious it became.
"There's snow on the grass. How can the climate change so drastically in such a short distance?" Xue Qiang said, her face showing disbelief.
"It seems the voice Su Xiaoli heard and the source of this cold are coming from the same place," Huang Xue pointed out.
'Xiao'er has an Extreme Yin Body. Could this be related to her special constitution?' Feng Fan wondered.
Despite the dropping temperature, they continued flying toward the source of the voice Su Xiaoli was hearing. Suddenly, Su Xiaoli stopped, causing the others to halt as well.
"The voice stopped," she said, surprising everyone. Earlier, she had been hearing the voice every few seconds.
At the spot where Feng Fan's group stopped, heavy snow was falling. The temperature was a freezing negative twenty degrees Celsius!
"What's that over there?" Feng Fan asked. Thanks to his body cultivation, he had the best eyesight among them.
"Let's get closer. I can't tell what it is from here," Su Xiaoli replied, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
As they approached, they finally saw it clearly. In front of them stood a massive city made entirely of ice. At its center was a castle, also made of ice, radiating an intense cold.
The city was generating an enormous amount of cold energy, clearly responsible for the freezing climate.
When they were just a few kilometers away, Su Xiaoli felt something calling her again. This time, it wasn't a voice, just a fleeting sensation.
"I feel something calling me from inside that castle," Su Xiaoli said, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the ice castle in the distance.
"No point in overthinking it. Let's go inside," said Feng Fan.
He flew toward the city gates, with the others following closely behind. But as they were just a few meters away, a sudden force yanked them to the ground.
"This... this is a Dao domain!" Feng Fan exclaimed, immediately recognizing the Dao laws surrounding them.
Though he was far from mastering Dao laws, Feng Fan could now sense them more clearly since leaving the village. "The rules here won't allow us to fly."
The others wore serious expressions. After their experience in the village, they knew all too well how dangerous it could be to stay within a domain's reach.
"I don't feel the same eerie energy as we did back there," said Su Xiaoli, "Instead... I feel a sense of peace."
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Feng Fan was taken aback. 'Peace? What does that mean?'
"Since we can't fly, let's just walk. I doubt this place will be the same as the last one," Feng Fan suggested.
As they approached the city, the ice gates slowly opened on their own, as if silently inviting them in.
Feng Fan had no way of knowing, but all around the Dao Seeking School territory, many cultivators were actively searching for opportunities within this place.
Some elders speculated that this could be the site of immortal ruins. After all, not even an Immortal Ascension realm cultivator could create a domain like this, filled with Dao laws that operated independently.
In fact, the person responsible for trapping Feng Fan in the village wasn't from this world, but from the immortal realm!
This Ice domain only allowed cultivators at or below the Golden Core Formation realm. Some believed it was a trial left behind by a powerful immortal, with the heritage hidden within as a reward for those who successfully completed the ice trial.
Just a few meters after entering the city, a vortex suddenly appeared in front of Feng Fan's group, pulling ice energy from the surrounding air and ground.
From the swirling vortex, a three-meter-tall knight holding a spear materialized before them. Both the spear and the knight were entirely made of ice!
Su Xiaoli was the first to react. She drew her metal fan from her space ring, infused it with spiritual qi, and tossed it forward.
With a single strike, the metal fan pierced the knight's head, shattering it effortlessly.
To their surprise, the headless knight, still gripping its spear, leaped toward them with remarkable agility. Its joints didn't appear to be made of ice at all.
The five of them quickly scattered in different directions to avoid the knight's strike. While in mid-air, Feng Fan activated his spiritual qi vision.
Inside the icy figure, Feng Fan spotted a core pulsating with energy, located where a dantian would be in a human body.
"Guys, aim for the dantian. Its core is there!"
Upon hearing his words, Xue Qiang's spear flared with fire before she hurled it directly at the knight's dantian. But just before the spear could hit the knight, its flames vanished completely!