Chapter 288

Deep within the extreme cold ice plain, the region of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Ice Cave has become the vortex center of the ice and snow storm.

Wang Ping and Leizhen are currently hiding behind a jagged stone forest covered by a thick layer of ice.

Wang Ping laid down an extremely subtle field distortion with his Gravity Technique around the two of them, which not only deflected the knife‑like cold wind and probing divine sense, but also cleverly minimized the dissipation of their exhaled white vapor and body heat, almost merging with the ten‑thousand‑year ice behind them.

Several li ahead, at the center of a vast ice‑plain basin, the deep azure mouth of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Ice Cave resembled the earth's eye, silently gazing at the leaden sky. The scene around the mouth was more spectacular—and more troublesome—than Wang Ping had anticipated.

Thousands of Ice Spirits swarmed densely, almost completely covering the area within several li of the cave mouth.

They were about half a person tall, their bodies formed of pure, transparent yet incredibly hard ice, roughly humanoid in outline with blurred faces, yet they exuded a strong spirituality and a piercing chill.

They hovered soundlessly a few feet above the ground, rotating and undulating in a solemn, peculiar rhythm, their movements uniform and synchronized, as if they were a single entity.

Countless pale blue streams of cold light flowed from their semi‑transparent bodies, like myriad glowing rivulets converging toward a patch of void above the Mystic Ice Cave's mouth.

In that void, the water‑element spiritual aura had grown so dense it condensed into a pale‑blue liquid halo, forming a massive vortex over ten zhang in diameter that slowly rotated counter‑clockwise.

At the vortex's core, a point of deep ice‑blue light, as profound as the heart of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Ice, pulsed steadily; each beat resonated with the basin's icy spiritual aura, radiating pure undulations of the water‑element law.

Though not as sharp and imposing as the Golden Key of the Ancient Sword Tomb, it carried a vast, profound, all‑pervading chill.

The Water Key is condensing!

Beneath the vortex's center, at the edge of the Mystic Ice Cave's mouth, stood an Ice Spirit King far larger than ordinary spirits—nearly a zhang tall, carved from the purest blue crystal, wearing an ice‑crystal crown and wielding a frost‑borne scepter, upright and solemn.

Its eyes were twin balls of jumping blue cold flame, the scepter tip pointed at the sky‑vortex, clearly presiding over the ritual to condense the key.

The spiritual pressure it exuded had reached the level of Golden Core Perfection, and even faintly brushed the threshold of the ice‑element law!

In this frigid stronghold, its threat level is no less than that of any top‑tier heaven‑chosen prodigy in the Ancient Sword Tomb!

"Hiss… so many ice lumps! And a big guy!" Leizhen sucked in a breath of cold air, sending a mental message to Wang Ping; his tone was grave yet fearless,

"Brother Wang, our original plan needs changing. Just the two of us, if we charge straight in, even reaching the key's side would exhaust us to death."

Wang Ping's gaze was calm as he carefully observed the spirits' formation and the Ice Spirit King's posture, his mind racing. Without the Jin Aoxing team to restrain the ordinary spirits, the two of them could not replicate the original plan—but an opportunity might still exist.

"Leizhen brother, did you see the spirits' movement tracks?" Wang Ping sent mentally, his voice steady,

"They look dense, but to maintain the flow of cold light into the vortex, fixed spiritual channels exist between them, forming a huge, shifting spell formation whose core is the Ice Spirit King."

"A formation?" Leizhen narrowed his eyes; though not deeply versed in formations, he could see the spirits moved with order—"What do you mean?"

"Breaking the formation doesn't require brute force to clear every node," Wang Ping's eyes flashed with a sharp glint. "If we create a strong enough disturbance at a critical point, disrupting its spiritual circulation, the formation will destabilize—or even backlash. Then the spirit horde will fall into chaos, and the Ice Spirit King will have to divide his attention to steady the formation or suffer the backlash—that will be our chance."

"Critical point? You mean… that big guy?" Leizhen licked his lips.

"Yes and no." Wang Ping pointed behind the Ice Spirit King to the opposite side of the Mystic Ice Cave's mouth. "Look there—beneath the ice layer, a stronger cold light flickers faintly, resonating in a triangle with the king's scepter and the sky‑vortex."

"I suspect this is another important node of the natural ritual, perhaps an outlet of the subterranean cold vein, tasked with supplying the purest cold force. The defenses there are relatively weak, and—"

He paused, then spoke with certainty: "Ice, at its hardest is also its most brittle. Extreme cold and stability fear most a sudden, utterly opposite force impact."

Leizhen's eyes lit up: "I get it! You want me to blast that node with Thunder Technique? But it's a bit far, with all those ice lumps in between—the Thunder Technique's power could be worn down layer by layer."

"So I need to open a path for you," Wang Ping said slowly. "My Gravity Technique is no longer merely about controlling weight."

"After awakening my spiritual sense, my ability to guide and distort force fields has greatly increased."

"Soon I will unleash it fully, forcibly 'ripping' a temporary gravity corridor ahead of us, pushing the Ice Spirits along the way as far as possible to the sides, at least disrupting their formation and spiritual links."

"You must compress your thunder power to the extreme, shaping it into the most penetrative 'Thunderbolt Spear', and strike that underground node the instant I open the corridor, at maximum speed."

"Gravity corridor? Thunderbolt Spear?" Leizhen's blood boiled. "Fine! Let's do it! I've long wanted to see what it feels like to twist lightning into a needle!"

"But Brother Wang, how long can your gravity corridor last? I need a moment to gather power for one strike, and after that blow we'll become the focus of the whole battlefield."

"The corridor won't last long—at most three breaths," Wang Ping calculated. "But that's enough for you to unleash one thunder strike. After the hit, whether or not the node is fully destroyed, we'll immediately turn and rush straight for the sky‑vortex!"

"When the spirit horde's formation collapses, the Ice Spirit King will either suffer backlash or have to focus on stabilizing the formation—that's the golden window to seize the key! Remember, taking the key is the top priority; don't linger in battle—once you have it, leave!"

"Understood! Damn it!" Leizhen nodded firmly, silently mobilizing the vast thunder power within him; blinding white lightning flickered beneath his skin, a suppressed aura of destruction began to gather.

Wang Ping hesitated no longer; he closed his eyes, sinking his mind completely into the warm, pulsing earth‑element origin seed in his dantian, communing with the 'Earth Pulse' will contained therein, while extending his post‑awakening gravity perception to the utmost.

He 'saw' ahead in the basin: the massive, flowing ice‑force field formed by thousands of Ice Spirits, the 'river' of spiritual energy surging within that field, and the two crucial 'anchor points'—the underground node and the sky‑vortex.

Now!

Wang Ping's eyes snapped open, and he shouted low: "Leizhen brother, get ready!"

He pressed his hands forward in a void gesture—not emitting massive spiritual force, but his ten fingers flicked and traced a mysterious trajectory rapidly, as if plucking invisible strings, or sketching the earth's meridians.

"Gravity true intent, pulse resonance—earth‑vein passageway, open!"

Hum——!!

Without a earth‑shaking roar, but with the spot where Wang Ping and Leizhen stood as its origin, a passage about three zhang wide and straight, pointing toward the underground node beside the Mystic Ice Cave's mouth, appeared out of nowhere!

The scene inside the passage was bizarre beyond compare—space‑light twisted noticeably; the Ice Spirits on either side were shoved aside as if by an invisible giant hand, staggering to the flanks, while the pale‑blue cold‑light spiritual threads linking them snapped and frayed! Gravity within the passage became chaotic—sometimes pulling down, sometimes lifting up, sometimes tearing left‑right—not only were the spirits physically displaced, but their internal spiritual flow was severely disrupted!

The enormous, precise ice formation, under Wang Ping's accurate and crafty 'tear' along that passage as a fissure, showed clear stagnation and disorder! Many spirits emitted sharp, ice‑crack‑like hisses, and the formation fell into great chaos.

"Now!" Wang Ping's forehead veins bulged; maintaining the gravity drain was enormously costly for him.

"Thunder God aid me! Breaking Calamity·Annihilation Spear!" Leizhen roared, his right arm, charged long ago, thrust forward!

There was no blinding flash of lightning—only a thread‑thin, intensely refined bolt of deep dark‑purple lightning shot from his fingertips!

This bolt's speed surpassed ordinary lightning; almost the instant it appeared, it had pierced the gravity corridor, ignoring the residual chaotic force field and cold air along the way, carrying a pure will to destroy all laws, slay evil and demons, and struck with pinpoint accuracy the ice‑layer node Wang Ping had indicated.

Crack——Boom!!

First came a sharp, teeth‑grating crack of ice, instantly followed by a deep rumble like an earth dragon turning over! The struck ice layer instantly blasted open a bottomless black hole, and a stream of deep‑blue cold air—far older, purer, yet also more violent than that on the Ice Elf King—erupted like a volcano suppressed for ten thousand years, mixed with the cold‑vein spiritual power utterly disturbed and destroyed by the thunderbolt's force.

Ao——!!!

The Ice Elf King presiding over the ritual let out a furious shriek, the light of its ice scepter flashing wildly; it clearly hadn't expected the attack to come from the side's focal point, nor imagined the assault would be so fierce and precise, directly shaking the ritual's foundation! The pale blue vortex in the sky trembled violently, the condensation speed of the icy‑blue light at its center noticeably lagging. The Ice Elf King had to divert most of its mind and power to try to suppress the erupting chaotic cold current and stabilize the ritual formation that was about to collapse.

The entire Ice Elf tribe plunged into chaos! The shockwave from the focal point explosion, mixed with turbulent cold currents, swept across a vast number of elves; the cold light on many elves instantly dimmed, and cracks even appeared on their surfaces. The once‑neat formation vanished completely.

"Go!" Wang Ping shouted low, charging ahead first! The gravity passage could no longer be maintained, but his movement did not cease; the Dot‑Spirit Gravity Technique wrapped around him, creating a forward "push", while slightly distorting the gravity at his sides, skillfully deflecting the blocking chaotic elves.

Lei Zhen followed closely behind, lightning coiling around his body like an enraged thunder god; with each swing of his fists he blasted the few elves who had reacted and tried to block him into showers of ice crystals.

The two moved at extreme speed, turning into a yellow and a white streak of light, and taking advantage of the chaos they shot straight at the unstable pale‑blue vortex in the sky.

"Vile humans! Thieves!" the Ice Elf King roared, barely suppressing the eruption at the focal point, then raised its hand and unleashed a thick blue frost torrent laden with utmost cold, like an ice dragon crashing toward Wang Ping and his companion; wherever it passed, even the air froze into shards of ice.

"Lei brother, left!" Wang Ping sent a mental transmission, simultaneously forming hand seals, he lightly pressed upon the seemingly empty ice surface on the left.

"Gravity collapse!"

The ice surface in that area instantly sank and twisted, forming a brief, minor gravity trap that precisely affected the trajectory of the ice frost torrent's edge, causing it to deviate slightly.

Lei Zhenxin understood at once, taking the opportunity to rush out from the left gap, skirting the edge of the ice frost torrent, blazing white lightning condensed in his fist, and he punched the chaotic spiritual power turbulence outside the sky vortex, forcibly tearing open a rift!

Wang Ping then shifted his form, employing a mysterious movement technique that fused earth escape and gravity slide, slipping in like a fish from the other side, his target straight toward the ice-blue key at the vortex's center—not yet fully solidified but already exuding a strong attractive force.

However, just as Wang Ping's hand was about to touch the key, an anomaly arose again!

From the bottomless ten-thousand-year mysterious ice cave beneath his feet came a deep, muffled roar, as if from the ancient primordial wilderness!

This roar was not sound but a terrifying wave that struck directly at the soul! Accompanying the roar, a gale of extreme cold, vaster, older, and more brutal than the Spirit King, burst forth from the cave like a slumbering beast awakening!

The ice layers of the entire basin trembled violently, countless cracks spreading with crackling sounds! The ice rocks near the cave mouth collapsed one after another!

"Oh no! It's the ancient ice beast sleeping deep in the mysterious ice cave, awakened by the recent node explosion and the key's fluctuation!" Wang Ping's heart jolted, but his motion didn't slacken in the slightest; he condensed a point of highly concentrated earth spiritual light on his fingertip, mixed with a hint of gravity pull, and flashed it toward the ice-blue key.

"Seal!"

The key trembled slightly, as if pulled by an invisible thread, turning into a stream of light that fell into Wang Ping's prepared cold jade box, which had several sealing spirit talismans attached. The box lid snapped shut with a "pa", and the intense water attribute undulation was largely sealed off.

Almost simultaneously with the key's retrieval, at the mouth of the mysterious ice cave, a gigantic claw—entirely formed from ten-thousand-year unmelting mysterious ice, house-sized, bearing five sharp ice claws—shot out, carrying the chill of frozen souls and the power to crush mountains, and slammed toward the spot where Wang Ping and Lei Zhen stood.

Before the claw even arrived, its terrifying extreme cold pressure and substantive killing intent had almost solidified the two men's blood, making their spiritual power laborious to operate!

"Lei brother! Combine forces!" Wang Ping barked, knowing that a single person could hardly withstand the furious strike of this at least Nascent Soul-level ancient ice beast.

"Thunder Prison Heavenly Lock! Hold it back, damn it!" Lei Zhen also went all out, roaring, he no longer held back, pouring out his remaining thunder power wildly, laying layer upon layer of intertwined thunder nets—blazing white with hints of dark purple—before the two of them, trying to slow the ice claw's descent.

Wang Ping then pressed both hands to the ground, disregarding divine sense consumption, pushing the Point Spirit Gravity Technique to an unprecedented extreme!

"Earth's pulse, hear my command! Gravity superposition, ninefold abyss!"

With the point beneath the extended ice claw as center, the gravity of the ice layers within a hundred-zhang radius instantly underwent a strange change!

First layer, gravity downward increased tenfold! The ice claw's descent stalled slightly.

Second layer, gravity direction shifted left! The ice claw's trajectory underwent a subtle deviation.

Third layer, gravity collapsed inward! The cold air around the ice claw was squeezed inward.

……

Wang Ping poured out all his understanding of gravity in an almost overdraft manner, layer upon layer of distinctly different, strangely superimposed gravity changes, like invisible shackles and mire, wrapped layer upon layer around that huge ice claw; although it could not completely stop its fall, it greatly hindered and interfered with its speed, trajectory, and force condensation.

At the same time, he stomped hard on the ice layer beneath his feet!

"Split!"

The ice layer, already riddled with cracks from the node explosion and the ice beast's awakening, under the combined effect of his charged stomp and gravity disturbance, collapsed along a specific direction, forming a bottomless ice abyss rift that happened to lie directly in the path of the ice claw's strike!

"Crack! Boom!"

The ice claw struck the edge of the ice abyss, shattering vast expanses of ice rock, the abyss itself expanded again, but ultimately failed to directly hit Wang Ping and Lei Zhen. The ice beast seemed even more enraged, a more terrifying roar came from the cave, the whole mysterious ice cave trembled, clearly its massive body was struggling to break free and climb out completely.

"Go!" Wang Ping's face turned ashen, a trace of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, as he forcibly maintained gravity interference and created the ice abyss, causing massive drain on his divine sense and spiritual power. He grabbed the also somewhat exhausted Lei Zhen, poured the last bit of spiritual power into his movement technique, and fled desperately toward a pre‑scouted direction where the ice layer was relatively thin.

Behind them came the ice beast's earth‑shaking roar, the Spirit King's piercing screech, and countless ice‑soul spirits in chaotic pursuit. Yet the two ran at full speed, heedless of everything, and finally, before the ice beast could fully emerge from its den, they burst out of the basin and fled into the outer, more complex and perilous glacier labyrinth.

After winding seven turns and eight bends, completely shaking off the pursuers' lock, the two finally stopped in a concealed ice crevice, sat down limp, panting heavily, glanced at each other, seeing shock and lingering fear in each other's eyes, but above all, the excitement of having successfully seized the treasure.

Lei Zhen wiped the ice shards from his face, hehe‑laughing: "Exhilarating! Damn exhilarating! Wang brother, your gravity tricks are absolutely insane! That last move almost sucked me in too!"

Wang Ping rested a moment, regulated his breath and blood, took out the cold jade box, opened a tiny slit, and a pure water‑attribute principle aura seeped out, confirming the water key was unharmed. He resealed it, looked at Lei Zhen, and solemnly said: "This success rests entirely on Lei brother's thunder strike shaking the foundation, head‑on clashing with the ice claw to buy me time. The key will be temporarily kept by me; once we gather the three keys, we will proceed together to the Myriad Methods Pool."

Lei Zhen waved his big hand, without a care: "You just take it! I trust you! Without your scheming and that heavy hand, we couldn't even touch the edge. What do we do next? Where is the fire key? I can't wait any longer!"

Wang Ping looked toward the south; there, the token's sensing and the void runes' fluctuation faintly pointed to a scorching expanse of land.

"The third one, the Fire-Element Key… the contest over it will likely be even more brutal." He drew a deep breath of icy air, his gaze turning sharp and resolute again, "We need to recover quickly, then… go meet those old friends and new opponents."