It had been several days since they left the Giant Wolf Tribe. The biting cold winds were left far behind, and while the surrounding ice and snow had not completely melted, the temperature had risen considerably. Patches of exposed black permafrost and cold-resistant moss began to appear sporadically. Xiao Qi and Zhao Tiezhu's injuries, under the effects of medicinal pills and their own powerful bodies, had largely healed.
On this day, the two were following the map's guidance, traversing a rugged ice-eroded hill region. Zhao Tiezhu walked while rubbing the terrifying scar on his chest that had already scabbed over, grumbling: "Brother Qi, this trip to the Northern Plains really cost us—nearly lost our lives. But at least we got those Snow Lotus petals. Once you form your Core, let's see who dares mess with us!"
Xiao Qi smiled and was about to speak when the rabbit spirit in his embrace suddenly became restless. Its long ears stood straight up, and its ruby-like eyes stared fixedly at an unremarkable ice slope to the right front, emitting urgent "squeak squeak" sounds.
"Hmm?" Xiao Qi stopped and looked in the direction the rabbit spirit was staring. That ice slope was covered with thick accumulated snow, no different from the surrounding environment. But he knew well the rabbit spirit's keen intuition for treasures and abnormal energy fluctuations—it would never act without cause. He quietly circulated a thread of Purification Source to condense around his eyes, carefully investigating.
At first glance, there was still no abnormality. But when he slowly extended his divine consciousness deep into the ice layer, he faintly sensed an extremely weak yet abnormally ancient and desolate aura fluctuation. That aura was neither spiritual power nor demonic energy, but more like a sense of historical dust accumulated through endless ages, carrying an indescribable heaviness and sorrow.
"What is it, Brother Qi?" Zhao Tiezhu, seeing Xiao Qi's unusual expression, also became alert and tightened his fists.
"Below... there seems to be something." Xiao Qi frowned slightly, recalling that before leaving the Giant Wolf Tribe, during his final spiritual communication with the alpha wolf, besides expressing gratitude, the wolf had mentioned fragments of an ancient legend passed down in the tribe—"At the end of the ice plains where our ancestors once roamed, sleeps a lost city forged from cold ice and giant stone. It is the remains of the divine era, containing ancient secrets and curses, not to be easily touched."
At the time, Xiao Qi had only taken it as tribal mythology and hadn't investigated further. Now, sensing that faint ancient aura underground, combined with the rabbit spirit's unusual behavior, that legendary "Lost City" instantly surfaced in his mind.
"Could it be... that ancient city from the Giant Wolf Tribe's legend?" Xiao Qi's heart stirred. His cultivation had now reached Foundation Establishment peak, and his state of mind had become broader and more settled from this Northern Plains journey. He had a vague feeling that the opportunity for Core Formation might not rely solely on the Snow Lotus petals' medicinal power, but perhaps also required some unique insights and accumulation. An ancient ruin buried under ice and snow for countless ages might contain ancient Dao rhyme and lost civilization information that he needed.
"Tiezhu, Rabbit, let's go down and take a look." Xiao Qi made his decision.
"Alright!" Zhao Tiezhu had always unconditionally supported Brother Qi's decisions. The rabbit spirit even more excitedly hopped on his shoulder, its small paw pointing toward that ice slope.
The two came before the ice slope. Xiao Qi extended two fingers like a sword, Crimson Flame sword intent flickering forth. He didn't explode with full power but controlled the intensity, like the finest carving knife, beginning to carefully cut through the hard ice. Where the crimson sword intent passed, the hard ice rapidly melted and vaporized, revealing deeper layers of frozen earth and rock below.
Zhao Tiezhu stood guard to the side while using his infinitely powerful fists to smash and clear away the large chunks of ice Xiao Qi had cut.
The excavation work continued for nearly two hours, descending dozens of feet. The deeper they went, the clearer that ancient desolate aura Xiao Qi sensed became. The rabbit spirit also grew more excited, occasionally using its claws to scratch at the newly exposed rock walls.
"Clang!"
Suddenly, Zhao Tiezhu's punch struck something below, producing not a dull impact sound but a crisp sound like striking some kind of metal or hard stone.
Both men's spirits lifted as they accelerated clearing the surrounding ice and snow.
Gradually, a massive, flat, dark gray-green stone surface was revealed. That stone material was neither metal nor jade, cold to the touch yet exceptionally hard. Carved on it were strange patterns that had long been blurred by the erosion of time and weather. Those patterns were ancient and mysterious, completely different from any runic styles currently popular in the cultivation world.
"It's man-made!" Zhao Tiezhu exclaimed.
Xiao Qi reached out to stroke that cold stone wall, feeling the aura of ages contained within, his heart shaken. The material and craftsmanship of this stone wall both indicated its antiquity.
They continued clearing horizontally along the stone wall and soon discovered a massive, arched portal outline that was nearly half-blocked by ice and snow and collapsed debris. On either side of the portal, two giant stone statues that were already badly damaged and covered by ice layers could be barely made out as humanoid figures wearing ancient armor and holding long spear-like weapons. Though broken, they still emanated a solemn and majestic aura.
"Here... really is a city!" Xiao Qi murmured. The Giant Wolf Tribe's legend was not groundless.
He tried pushing that massive stone door, but it didn't budge. Some powerful restriction seemed to remain on it. Though worn away by time to less than a tenth of its original power, it still couldn't be easily opened by brute force alone.
Xiao Qi didn't force the door open. Instead, he placed his palm on the stone door and slowly channeled an extremely gentle thread of Purification Source into it. He wanted to try communicating with this ancient ruin, or at least sense more specific conditions within.
The Purification Source, like the finest tentacle, slowly traveled along the long-dried and dim restriction pathways inside the stone door. Initially there was no response, but when he merged his own peaceful Dao rhyme—tempered through worldly experience and protecting the mortal world—into the Purification Source, that stone door, which had been silent for who knows how many tens of thousands of years, seemed to tremble slightly!
Immediately after, the blurred patterns on the stone door's surface, as if injected with faint vitality, extremely slowly lit up with threads of nearly imperceptible dim white light. An even clearer, more vast ancient aura of ages, mixed with some tragic and unresigned implication, like a sleeping primordial beast yawning, faintly emanated from the door crack!
"Om..."
A low hum, almost inaudible yet reaching directly to the depths of the soul, sounded. That massive stone door didn't completely open, but with a teeth-grinding "creak," slowly cracked open a gap only wide enough for one person to pass through sideways!
A cold wind ten times colder than outside, carrying a rich sealed scent and faint musty smell, instantly whistled out from the door crack!
Xiao Qi and Zhao Tiezhu exchanged a glance, both seeing shock and gravity in the other's eyes. This ancient city sleeping beneath the ice plains had opened to them a doorway to the past.
"Let's go in and take a look, be careful." Xiao Qi took a deep breath, stepping forward first, entering sideways into that unknown darkness and antiquity. Zhao Tiezhu followed closely behind, while the rabbit spirit alertly crouched on Xiao Qi's shoulder, its red eyes warily surveying everything behind the door.
As they entered, the stone door behind them let out another low muffled sound, slowly closing, completely shutting out the outside wind, snow, and light.