The narrow passage was not very long, only several zhang.
Ice flowers grew along every step of it, and the Snow-Silver Ginseng beneath those flowers was astonishingly all more than five thousand years old.
Could Feng Qi’s guess have been correct?
Xu Ziqing gathered every ginseng root of that age along the passage, yet they did not travel slowly. After only seven or eight minutes, they were nearly at the other end.
Behind them, Feng Qi urged his cultivators to follow closely, but they found not a single root of Snow-Silver Ginseng in the ground.
Yun Lie walked a little ahead for their safety. Although Xu Ziqing wished to stand shoulder to shoulder with his senior brother, he knew they had entered unfamiliar territory and should be even more cautious.
As the path began to widen, Xu Ziqing quickly moved to Yun Lie’s left.
Then a wave of intense cold surged toward them, as though their chests had filled with frost.
Before them lay an ice valley, not especially vast, where ice flowers grew in dense clusters.
The surrounding ice peaks were rather steep, and a mist of frost drifted through them, lending the scene the appearance of an immortal realm.
Once the two entered, the people following them soon arrived as well.
Several cultivators immediately exclaimed, “Such rich spiritual energy! Such piercing cold!”
Feng Qi was overjoyed. “The ten-thousand-year Snow-Silver Ginseng must be here!”
In an instant, all the cultivators lowered their heads and began searching.
The entire valley measured only a few dozen zhang across. With their strength, it would not be difficult to turn over every part of it.
And whoever found the ten-thousand-year Snow-Silver Ginseng would earn tremendous credit!
One person found an eight-thousand-year root on his very first attempt. After that, who still remembered their earlier worries?
The valley was open and bright, without the slightest trace of a vicious demon beast!
Feng Qi had been more vigilant at first, but after seeing so many ancient roots, even he could not suppress his excitement.
Xu Ziqing began harvesting Snow-Silver Ginseng, while Yun Lie remained beside him the entire time, never relaxing his vigilance.
Gradually the entire valley was nearly searched. Suddenly someone cried out, “That must be it! I’ve found it!”
Numerous streams of spiritual sense immediately swept toward the spot. Sure enough, near the ice wall, one Snow-Silver Ginseng had a distinctly different appearance. Its umbrella-like crown resembled an overturned jade bowl, and nine snow-colored berries hung from it. It was truly splendid, a sight to inspire wonder.
None of the Snow-Silver Ginseng they had seen earlier could compare in the slightest to the elegance of this ginseng king!
The cultivator almost immediately lunged forward to dig it out.
But in the blink of an eye, a vicious gust struck. Before the man could even scream, his entire body was sliced in two!
Scalding blood burst outward, instantly dyeing the surrounding ice flowers brilliant red!
Every cultivator rushing toward that spot froze in shock.
What on earth was there?
Feng Qi shouted almost instinctively, “Be on guard! Quickly, defend yourselves!”
Everyone immediately treated the situation as a deadly threat, summoning their magical treasures and staring toward the corpse.
What sort of monster had killed a man in an instant without anyone even catching sight of it?
Even if they had not been deliberately keeping watch, the attack was still far too terrifying.
Holding a long saber, Feng Qi led them forward, hacking away the ice flowers before him as he went.
The flowers here reached a person’s knees and obstructed their view to some degree.
The others followed his example. Gradually they cut a path through the growth and drew closer to the place where their companion had died.
Xu Ziqing stopped what he was doing and looked in that direction.
He frowned slightly. Although surprised, he felt this was something they ought to have anticipated.
Rare treasures of heaven and earth were often guarded by demon beasts. Such beasts were more sensitive to precious natural wonders; once they caught the scent of one, they would settle near it and guard it for years.
Anyone who wished to obtain the treasure would naturally have to fight its guardian first.
Ten-Thousand-Year Snow-Silver Ginseng was an exceptionally rare ice-attributed treasure. A demon beast should have discovered it long ago.
But the party had searched with spiritual sense upon entering and found nothing, which had led the unfortunate cultivator to act rashly and lose his life.
Just what kind of demon beast could evade detection by spiritual sense?
Xu Ziqing looked toward Yun Lie.
Yun Lie shook his head slightly. He did not know either.
Xu Ziqing gave it no further thought. He stood closer to Yun Lie and watched the cultivators carefully.
If something went wrong, the two of them were farther back, with a broad, clear view. Perhaps they could lend a hand.
The cultivators had not gone much farther when another faint rush of wind sounded!
In the blink of an eye, one cultivator hurriedly dodged sideways, swinging his sword backward in the same movement.
There came a sharp metallic clang. Something heavy tumbled into the ice flowers nearby.
Before the cultivator could feel relieved, a stabbing pain shot through his arm.
The next moment, his forearm fell to the ground, severed cleanly as though sliced by a sharp blade.
He had lost half his arm in a single exchange!
The hearts of all those remaining filled with dread.
Xu Ziqing’s pupils contracted sharply. He had not been quick enough to intervene, but at last he had glimpsed the creature.
He had not seen it clearly, but it was only a little over a chi in length, and its entire body was exactly the same color as the ice flowers!
No wonder it had been so difficult to find.
His face twisted with pain, the injured cultivator clasped his wound and retreated repeatedly. Only when he was almost beside Xu Ziqing and Yun Lie did he abruptly sit cross-legged, swallow a pill, and begin meditating.
It was a Flesh-Regeneration Pill, intended to reconnect his meridians and allow his arm to grow back.
As for the ten-thousand-year Snow-Silver Ginseng, he could no longer concern himself with it.
Feng Qi and the others grew still more anxious and proceeded with greater caution.
But just as they resumed cutting down the ice flowers on either side, more rushing sounds arose!
In an instant, over a dozen white shadows hurtled straight toward them!
The shadows were astonishingly fast, able to dart from south to north in an instant without the slightest pause.
The cultivators tried to intercept them, protective light from their magical treasures covering their bodies. But the passing shadows spat out a foul green substance. Wherever it struck the protective light, it dissolved the radiance completely. When it landed on a cultivator, it immediately seeped into flesh and corroded the meridians, blood, and muscle.
The magical artifacts summoned by the cultivators darted about in pursuit. Some were too slow to catch the white shadows. Those that reached them produced only a clatter of metal striking metal, failing to halt the attacks!
In the space of a few breaths, three or four people had flesh rotting away continuously, while several others had parts of their limbs sliced off. Having been forewarned, none of them died, but they were in miserable condition.
Seeing this, Xu Ziqing knew he could not hesitate another moment. He raised his palm and instantly released more than a dozen vines.
The vines writhed freely in midair, weaving themselves into an enormous net that protected the cultivators from above. Others darted swiftly between them, and each movement granted the beleaguered people a moment to breathe.
At the same time, the vines were so agile that no matter which direction the white shadows darted, they collided with the vines and were finally brought to a halt.
Only then did everyone see the white shadows’ true forms.
They were more than a dozen snow-white spiders of various sizes. The largest was as big as a cartwheel, and even the smallest was the size of a bucket opening. Every one was crystal clear, beautifully fashioned as though by heaven itself. Yet recalling their terrifying attacks, none of the cultivators could see any beauty in them. They felt only fear.
Feng Qi drew a deep breath and flicked out a bead.
The bead struck one of the spiders, only to rebound with a sharp crack.
What incredibly hard shells!
He muttered, “These are Adamantine-Bodied Bone-Corroding Spiders. They feed on cold energy, are impervious to blades and spears, and possess vicious poison. They should make their homes near cold springs and pools. Why are they here?” But he immediately shook his head. “No, the cold surrounding a ten-thousand-year Snow-Silver Ginseng is no less intense than that of those waters. There’s nothing strange about it after all.”
Precisely because he had recognized them, Feng Qi grew despondent.
Only a treasure-grade weapon could damage the spiders’ shells. His standing in the Feng clan was not high enough for him to obtain one, and his followers were even less likely to possess such weapons.
He had wanted to acquire the ten-thousand-year Snow-Silver Ginseng to increase his own importance and improve his chances of obtaining a treasure-grade weapon sooner. But now… even his life might be lost.
At this point, Feng Qi had lost confidence even in the two Golden Core cultivators accompanying them.
Ordinary Golden Core cultivators could scarcely obtain treasure-grade weapons unless they were exceptionally meritorious disciples of a great sect. However capable those two might be, how could they have one?
Even if they did possess such weapons, the spiders flew with extraordinary speed. If they surrounded a single cultivator and spat their deadly poison together, they could dissolve that person’s flesh and bones completely, making them harder still to fight.
As these thoughts ran through his head, Feng Qi could only think: Those two fellow Daoists will surely leave as soon as they see this. My life will end here…
But before he could finish the thought, just as he was preparing to fight to the death and take a spider down with him, the vines moved.
The spiders emitted shrieks so piercing that they seemed capable of bursting one’s skull!
Yet the sound was unmistakably filled with fear!
Under Feng Qi’s astonished gaze, the spiders fled at tremendous speed, but the vines blocked every direction and allowed none of them to escape.
Then a scarlet vine swept across and pierced three to five spiders at once, stringing them together like beads!
The instant they were punctured, the spiders withered. Only their shells remained, and the vine flung them against the icy mountain wall, where they smashed into fragments.
Were these vines actually as hard as treasure-grade weapons?
Two or three more spiders quickly died beneath the vines. The survivors fled in panic. The largest, as big as a cartwheel, gave a shrill cry and summoned all the other spiders to shield it. Then it fled in the opposite direction and became a blurred afterimage, barely escaping the area covered by the vines!
Feng Qi could not help exclaiming, “This is bad!”
At that moment, an invisible force came whistling through the air and struck the spider directly.
In the next instant, the spider exploded, scattering foul-smelling blood and flesh across the ground.
That was… sword intent!
Feng Qi looked in astonishment toward the source of the invisible force and saw the cold young man in the black fur cloak lowering a finger he had just extended.
So this man was a sword cultivator.
And not merely that: he was a remarkably powerful sword cultivator whose mastery of sword intent was far from shallow.
The two Golden Core cultivators whom Feng Qi had encountered by chance had shocked him time and again today.
The Adamantine-Bodied Bone-Corroding Spiders that had rendered more than a dozen of them helpless were eliminated by these two with such casual ease.
Such formidable, seemingly fearless strength truly left him awestruck!