Chapter 29: Mysterious Jade Stone

The beautiful woman in palace attire had a fierce expression, her tone aggressive.

Upon hearing this, Yan Qingxuan's expression did not change in the slightest; she glanced at her indifferently, "Song Qiuyue, even you, a loser from back then, haven't died yet, so how could I possibly die before you?"

"Something going on?"

Wang Jianqiang's gaze swept between the beautiful woman in palace attire and Yan Qingxuan, revealing a look of interest.

There seemed to be a story between these two.

Moreover, judging from the conversation, it seemed Yan Qingxuan was the one with the upper hand.

Thinking of this, he remembered he had never looked at Yan Qingxuan's information, and couldn't help but focus his gaze.

The next moment, the information screen for Yan Qingxuan appeared in his mind.

"Name: Yan Qingxuan

Gender: Female

Cultivation: Golden Core Late Stage

Age: 170 years old

Root Bone: Fire-type Heavenly Spirit Root

Good and Evil Value: 10"

Another Heavenly Spirit Root!

And the cultivation was actually this formidable!

Of course, these were not what surprised Wang Jianqiang the most.

What surprised him most was that Yan Qingxuan's Good and Evil Value toward him was actually positive!

On the other side.

After hearing Yan Qingxuan's words, Song Qiuyue's expression turned cold, and just as she was about to say something more, Jia Wenchang suddenly spoke up, cutting her off.

"Alright, you two, we are here today for the Cold Pool Secret Realm; let's not let the juniors see us make a fool of ourselves."

Song Qiuyue let out a cold snort, but in the end, she did not continue.

Yan Qingxuan smiled indifferently.

Secretly, she began introducing the top ten of the Xuanqing Palace grand competition to Wang Jianqiang.

"Lin Xian'er, number one of the Xuanqing Palace Outer Sect."

"Xiao Wuya, number two of the Xuanqing Palace Outer Sect."

……

Wang Jianqiang's gaze swept over the people from Xuanqing Palace and finally landed on a woman in a white dress.

The woman had long, jet-black hair reaching her waist, and her white dress fluttered.

Her stunningly beautiful face was full of ethereal grace.

The only flaw was that she was a bit too arrogant, as if everyone was beneath her.

"These four major cultivation forces seem to have more yin than yang."

After coming back to his senses, Wang Jianqiang thought of the Hehuan Sect's competition rankings and couldn't help but feel a wave of emotion.

"Since everyone has arrived, let's open the Secret Realm."

At a certain moment, Elder Qingfeng of the Wan Jian Sect looked at the other team-leading Elders and spoke.

"Agreed."

Yan Qingxuan, Jia Wenchang, and Song Qiuyue all nodded.

Then, the four of them each took out a jade Spirit Token and tossed it into the air, after which they each formed a hand seal and injected Spiritual Power into the tokens.

The four tokens erupted with four rays of light that shot into the sky.

Where the four rays intersected, the space suddenly distorted, and immediately, a pitch-black spatial hole slowly opened.

"The entrance to the Cold Pool Secret Realm has appeared."

"Xuanqing Palace Disciples, enter quickly."

"Zhengyang Sect Disciples, enter quickly."

"Wan Jian Sect Disciples, enter quickly."

"Hehuan Sect Disciples, enter quickly."

The four spoke almost simultaneously.

The next moment, the disciples of the four sects flew toward the entrance at the same time.

Wang Jianqiang and Wang Yuyao were mixed in among the Hehuan Sect disciples, flying into the hole along with everyone else.

After entering the spatial hole, Wang Jianqiang only felt his vision go black.

Immediately after, he felt his body being pulled by an invisible force.

Before he could react, his vision brightened, and he discovered he had arrived in a strange space.

He looked around.

There was no one.

As expected, the teleportation location for entering the Secret Realm was random.

In the sky, snowflakes fell, never stopping throughout the year.

The earth was covered in ice and snow; looking as far as the eye could see, it was a vast expanse of white.

The vegetation was all constructed from ice crystals.

Strangely, these plants were not dead objects; he could clearly feel the existence of life force within them.

What was even more surprising was that on some of the large trees, flowers were actually blooming, and some even bore fruit!

He couldn't help but step forward to investigate.

After discovering that these plants were not Spirit Medicine, he fixed his gaze in one direction and walked forward.

Ssh—

He had not walked far.

A sharp sound of something piercing the air suddenly reached his ears.

He flicked his finger, and a small seal instantly appeared.

A Golden Light erupted from the small seal, enveloping him within it.

Bang—

The next moment, a large ice-crystal bird flew in, and its beak, which was a full zhang long, pecked at the Golden Light.

The Golden Light remained completely undamaged.

The large ice-crystal bird, however, let out a mournful cry, the entire bird shattering against the Golden Light.

"Just a bird at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer?"

Seeing this scene, Wang Jianqiang felt a bit awkward.

His combat experience was severely lacking, and he had overreacted somewhat.

He had actually gone straight to summoning the Perfect Profound Light Seal.

How was this any different from using a cannon to hit a mosquito?

He waved his hand, retracted the Perfect Profound Light Seal, and looked at the shattered ice on the ground that the large bird had turned into.

Amidst the shattered ice, a dragon-eye-sized ice ball shimmered with a crystalline luster.

This object was called a Cold Bead, a unique item of the Cold Pool Secret Realm.

The reason the Cold Pool Secret Realm got its name was precisely because of a cold pool in its Core Land.

At the bottom of the Cold Pool were numerous precious Spirit Medicine and treasures.

But the water of the Cold Pool possessed a powerful corrosive force.

Only by holding a Cold Bead could one resist this corrosive force; otherwise, even a Golden Core Stage cultivator would turn into an ice sculpture the moment they entered the Cold Pool.

Cold Beads were obtained by killing creatures within the Cold Pool Secret Realm, and multiple Cold Beads could be fused to form a higher-quality Cold Bead.

The higher the quality of the Cold Bead, the longer one could resist the Cold Pool's corrosion.

To gain something in the Cold Pool, naturally, the more Cold Beads one collected, the better.

Wang Jianqiang picked up the Cold Bead from the ground.

He continued forward at a steady pace.

The time the Secret Realm was open this time was a full year, so there was plenty of time.

The Cold Pool Secret Realm was unexpectedly large.

A full half-month had passed, and Wang Jianqiang had walked all this way without encountering a single person.

He had encountered quite a few Secret Realm creatures, though.

He had harvested dozens of Cold Beads, and his combat experience had also greatly improved.

Besides that, he had also harvested several types of Medicinal Herb, though their value could only be considered average.

As far as he knew, the deeper one went into the Cold Pool Secret Realm, the smaller the area became, and the probability of encountering others would greatly increase.

Here, the danger did not just come from the Secret Realm itself, but could also come from the disciples of the other three sects as well as... fellow Senior Brother and Disciple.

Hum—

Just at this moment, the earth suddenly shook, and several miles ahead, a shocking, scorching aura erupted like a volcanic eruption.

"So hot!"

"How could such a scorching aura suddenly erupt in this world of ice and snow?"

Wang Jianqiang raised an eyebrow and sped up, rushing toward the front.

At this moment, Wang Jianqiang was not the only one who noticed the Spirit Light appearing.

"Eh?"

"A fire-attribute aura that is completely opposite to the climate here is actually appearing inside this Cold Pool Secret Realm!"

"Interesting."

Feeling the scorching aura rushing toward him, a sturdily built man raised an eyebrow and quickly rushed toward the place where the aura had erupted.

"It's a fire-attribute aura!"

"Could it be that a treasure has appeared? It seems my luck is good."

A figure riding a sword smiled, then increased their speed.

"A treasure has emerged?"

"It seems to be dozens of miles away."

"This scorching aura is actually able to spread such a long distance; this treasure must be extraordinary!"

A group of four looked into the distance from afar.

The leader waved a palm, and a bronze leaf flew out, transforming into several zhang in size.

"Get on quickly."

"Such an opportunity, we are determined to obtain it."

With Wang Jianqiang flying at full speed, he crossed several miles in no time.

The next moment, he paused in mid-air.

He looked down.

The ice and snow in this area had long since melted away completely.

All vegetation had dissolved.

The earth had been turned into scorched soil by a scorching aura, with thick smoke rising everywhere.

In the center of this scorched soil, a piece of Jade Stone the size of a fist was floating quietly.

The surface of the Jade Stone was as smooth as a mirror, and it was oval-shaped as a whole, resembling a goose egg.

Through the surface of the Jade Stone, one could see a cluster of cyan flames burning inside it.

A terrifying temperature was continuously spreading to the surroundings.