Chapter 422: Heaven and Earth Within the Cauldron

Just as Zhou Huizheng hesitated, a surge of Demonic Qi appeared above his head; as the Demonic Qi flickered, gathering and dispersing, it wrapped his entire body within it!

Before he could even let out a scream, the dignified Pavilion Master of the Giant Spirit Pavilion was reduced to ashes just like that! Su Mubai was luckier than him, having stepped onto the Dharma Array a step earlier.

Looking back to see Zhang Nuo and Su Haizhen falling into the Cold Pool, while Zhou Huizheng had fallen, he felt utterly hopeless; he let out a long howl, moved his hand seals, and vanished from the Dharma Array!

After several consecutive flashes, he was actually the first cultivator to escape this area! The name of the Strange Array Divine Monarch was not earned for nothing; in terms of attainments in arrays, the Su Family was absolutely far ahead!

The other cultivators here were not so lucky; more than half were slaughtered by the black Demonic Qi released by Lu Yuhou. The cultivators of the Xianhuan Continent had suffered heavy losses this time! After all, the cultivators who fell this time were all at the Nascent Soul Stage!

Lu Yuhou held the small umbrella that had trapped Jiemie Heshang, his eyes calmly watching the crowd fleeing in the distance, yet his heart could not remain calm for long! With his cultivation and methods, a kid at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage had actually managed to escape into the Cold Pool!

With a flicker of his figure, the Demonic Qi he had previously unleashed returned entirely into his body. He took a small step forward with one foot, yet his entire person appeared strangely several hundred feet away! This movement speed was precisely the "Shrinking Ground to an Inch" that only a Great Cultivator at the Nascent Soul Stage could perform!

Just as Lu Yuhou was a few feet away from the Cold Pool, his whole body shuddered; a bone-chilling cold surged out from the pool water, and with his cultivation, he was actually unable to resist it with his physical body!

"I didn't expect this 'Nine Nether Cold Pool' to still exist!"

With his brows tightly furrowed, Lu Yuhou flew rapidly into the high sky, muttering to himself in great confusion. The Xianhuan Continent had disappeared for tens of thousands of years, and most things had long since changed their appearance, yet this Cold Pool had not changed in the slightest, and even its power had not diminished by a single bit!

After pondering for a moment, Lu Yuhou reached out and pointed from afar at the surface of the pool water. Instantly, a strand of pure Demonic Qi shot out from his fingertip. The Demonic Qi, no thicker than a hair, caused a huge uproar the moment it touched the surface of the pool water! The clear pool water turned a pale purple.

With a swish, it wrapped that strand of Demonic Qi inside! With a soft squeak, the Demonic Qi vanished into nothingness, and the moment the Demonic Qi disappeared, the pool water returned to its original state!

"Hmph!"

Seeing this, Lu Yuhou let out a cold snort from his nose, then flicked his sleeves and fled toward the distant sky. With his powerful cultivation, he seemed to have no way to deal with this Cold Pool. Although he wanted to capture Zhang Nuo, since the other party had already sunk to the bottom of the pool, he was helpless!

Ever since Zhang Nuo entered the Four Spirits Square Cauldron, he had been unaware of everything happening outside. At this moment, he stood in the center of the cauldron, and the cauldron walls all around were covered in dark blue electric arcs! The interior of the cauldron was considered bright! However, the waves of coldness coming from outside the cauldron made Zhang Nuo feel lingering fear!

According to what he saw before entering the Four Spirits Square Cauldron, the entire cauldron should be sinking toward the bottom of the Cold Pool. As for what was below, Zhang Nuo did not know, and he dared not think about it!

He lowered his head to look at Su Haizhen in his arms, only to see that she had long since fainted! Her whole body was still emitting waves of chill; if they had entered the cauldron a moment later, she would surely have perished!

"Fairy Su! Fairy Su!"

Zhang Nuo gently patted the young girl's small face, calling her name softly! At the same time, his other hand was pressed against her back, continuously transmitting Spiritual Qi into her body!

Before long, Su Haizhen finally opened her eyes slowly, her blinking eyes filled with terror! At this moment, she discovered she was still in Zhang Nuo's arms, and feeling her face flush, she broke free, looked around, and found this place extremely strange!

"What is this place?"

"The interior of the Four Spirits Square Cauldron! In a moment of desperation, I had no choice but to take us both into the cauldron, and the small tripod is currently sinking toward the bottom of the Cold Pool!"

Zhang Nuo spoke unhurriedly, but to Su Haizhen, it sounded like a bolt from the blue! Being trapped in the small tripod was one thing, but how could they have fallen into the Cold Pool!

One must know that the cold air of this pool could not be resisted even by a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator! Did this not mean they had buried themselves in a grave?

Her pretty face changed slightly, and recalling everything that happened before, she finally let out a long sigh. Even if they hadn't fallen into the Cold Pool, they would likely have been slaughtered by Lu Yuhou! Perhaps this was the best outcome!

As she thought, the young girl suddenly let out a soft laugh. Her lips, which had regained some color, curled slightly at the corners, revealing a beautiful arc. Added to the light emitted by the blue electric arcs all around, her smile was even more gentle! Zhang Nuo had originally been hesitant, but upon seeing her smile, his heart wavered!

"Why does Fairy Su laugh?"

"Senior Zhang, don't you find this a bit funny? Back then, you and I were trapped at the bottom of the 'Mi Hai Vortex', and now we are trapped at the bottom of the Cold Pool. Is this some kind of destiny?"

The young girl looked up at the mouth of the cauldron, only to see it sealed by a layer of blue electric arcs, and outside the electric arcs, a layer of thick, hard ice had formed! This situation had a similar effect to when they were at the 'Mi Hai Vortex'!

Zhang Nuo smiled bitterly in helplessness. Looking back at everything that had happened, he really hadn't expected to fall into a predicament again!

"There are only the two of us here; from now on, Fairy can just call me by my name!"

"Are you talking about me? Aren't you also calling me Fairy every other word?"

Su Haizhen feigned anger. As the two spoke and laughed, the atmosphere of fear lightened slightly! However, the coldness seeping in from around the small tripod grew stronger and stronger, and soon a layer of faint white frost hung on the inner walls of the cauldron! It seemed that as the Four Spirits Square Cauldron continued to sink, the power of the cold air was gradually increasing!

"Will we be trapped here until our lifespan is exhausted?"

Looking at the world inside the cauldron that had turned into a vast expanse of white in the blink of an eye, Su Haizhen said, her pearly teeth biting her red lips.

"No! Wasn't the 'Mi Hai Vortex' also called a place where one could only enter and never leave? Yet we still escaped!"

While saying this, Zhang Nuo wore a confident smile, but with Su Haizhen's meticulous mind, she could tell that Zhang Nuo was comforting her! The Cold Pool was much more dangerous than the 'Mi Hai Vortex'! At least at the bottom of the vortex, they could find some materials, but inside the Four Spirits Square Cauldron, they could find nothing! They could only make use of the things they had on them!

After a moment of silence between the two, Zhang Nuo flipped his hand, and a ball of silver flame appeared in his palm, which he then struck toward the white frost on the cauldron wall!

Whoosh! The moment the flame touched the white frost, a strange scene occurred! The originally raging flame froze right there, as if time had stopped, or as if it had turned into a burning ice sculpture of flames!

This time, both of them showed expressions of horror, and Su Haizhen even cried out loud. What level of cold air was this, that it could even freeze flames! Zhang Nuo's face turned extremely ugly as he waved his hand; he wanted to draw the 'Red Glow Fire' back to his side!

But the frozen flame only trembled slightly, then shattered into ice crystals! A despair he had never felt before rose from the bottom of Zhang Nuo's heart! He had originally wanted to use the Red Glow Fire to make the inside of the cauldron warmer, but now it seemed that everything was futile in the face of the extremely strange cold air!

"It seems we need to think of a way!"

Zhang Nuo rested his chin on one hand, muttering to himself! His voice was not loud, barely audible even to himself! Su Haizhen opposite him was in no mood to hear what he was saying, her entire mind focused on the Cold Pool!

"Fairy Su, why did so many high-level cultivators gather above the Cold Pool before?"

Suddenly remembering the events before falling into the Cold Pool, Zhang Nuo's heart stirred! With so many cultivators gathered here, there must be something unusual in this pool!

"It was a coincidence! Ever since you left that day, we encountered several Nascent Soul Stage cultivators. They saw that my Fourth Uncle could use arrays to detect hidden spatial rifts, so they insisted on forcing us to travel with them. As a result, we disagreed and started fighting! In the end, because they had more people, Pavilion Master Zhou and I had to escape first! My Fourth Uncle used an array to trap those people for a while before catching up with us!"

After listening, Zhang Nuo couldn't help but smile. It seemed his initial guess was completely correct; Zhou Huizheng and his group had really encountered trouble!

"We originally wanted to go back to find you, but we discovered a fierce battle happening in the valley, and guessed that you might have started fighting with the people from the Great Underworld Mansion! Pavilion Master Zhou wanted to go help you at the time, but the battle stopped in the blink of an eye, and my Fourth Uncle said you might have escaped! Just like that, we continued toward the top of the Xian Mountain! Perhaps the direction you escaped in would also be the top of the Xian Mountain!"

As Su Haizhen spoke, her eyes revealed a look of concern; it was evident that she had also been very worried about Zhang Nuo's safety at the time!

"A few days later, we discovered many cultivators moving toward the Cold Pool, so we followed them! According to them, there was some kind of treasure in this Cold Pool, but they couldn't find it because they couldn't resist the cold in the pool water!"

Just as Su Haizhen finished these words, the entire small tripod suddenly shook violently. The expressions of both changed drastically, but after a while, the Four Spirits Square Cauldron became quiet again!

Su Haizhen, her face pale with fright, stared blankly at Zhang Nuo, as if waiting for him to provide an explanation!

"Perhaps it has reached the bottom!"

As Zhang Nuo uttered these few simple words, Su Haizhen's pretty face became even uglier. The small tripod had been in the pool water for quite some time; could it be that it had only just reached the bottom! Then just how deep was this Cold Pool?