The stone door slowly closed behind them, shutting out the last trace of daylight and wind and snow. What lay before them was not the absolute darkness they had expected, but a hazy scene suffused with faint blue light. The two of them and the rabbit seemed to have stepped into a dream frozen for ages.
They stood in an extremely wide corridor that showed signs of ruin and collapse everywhere. On both sides of the corridor were massive pillars of unknown material, many of which had broken and collapsed, covered and wrapped in thick, crystal-clear black ice. The vaulted ceiling was high, also covered with hard ice, and countless icicles hanging down like inverted swords emitted a chilling cold. The ground was also covered with a layer of hard ice, smooth as a mirror, reflecting the faint blue light emitted by the icicles above.
The air was permeated with an ancient and dead stillness so thick it couldn't melt away—a kind of eternal silence where even time seemed frozen. Only the "creak" sounds they made stepping on the ice surface seemed particularly piercing in this empty, dead space.
"Oh my..." Zhao Tiezhu widened his eyes, looking at this beyond-imagination frozen spectacle before him, exclaiming in a muffled voice, "This place... is too big! How many years ago was this city?"
Xiao Qi didn't answer. His mind was completely drawn to the ruin itself. He slowly walked on the frozen corridor, his gaze sweeping over those broken pillars and ruined walls. Even covered by ice layers, he could faintly see many blurred murals and patterns carved on the stone walls, depicting scenes he couldn't understand—giants fighting with ferocious beasts, grand rituals worshipping heaven and earth and stars, and some strange, array-like designs.
But these weren't what attracted him most.
What most shook his mind was the unique "intent" permeating every corner of this frozen ancient city. Not simply cold, but a Dao rhyme trace left behind after the "ice" laws had been deduced to some extreme. These Dao rhymes were formless and quality-less, yet deeply imprinted in the air, in the ice layers, even within those ruined building debris.
He walked to a relatively intact giant stone pillar and reached out to stroke the black ice covering it. This black ice wasn't like the loose white snow accumulation frozen outside, but presented a deep blue color with an extremely dense internal structure, containing an extremely pure, ancient extreme cold power. Within the ice layer and on the stone pillar surface below, he saw even clearer patterns.
These patterns were similar to what he had seen on the stone door earlier, but more complex and profound. They weren't static carvings. When Xiao Qi carefully perceived them with his divine consciousness, he actually discovered that these patterns seemed to be circulating and changing at an extremely slow, nearly stagnant speed by themselves! They were like a living, breathing manifestation of laws, expounding the true meanings of ice's "stillness" and "movement,""solidification" and "sharpness,""death" and "nurturing"—all sorts of opposing yet unified truths.
"This is... Cold Ice Dao Pattern!" Xiao Qi had an epiphany. This wasn't any runic system currently circulating in the cultivation world, but more ancient, more primitive Dao patterns closer to the origin of heaven and earth's laws! They were immortal imprints left behind by this ancient city's builders—or perhaps destroyers.
He tried to cautiously extend a thread of divine consciousness into a relatively simple Dao pattern representing "solidification" and "protection" meaning.
In an instant, he seemed to be placed in a boundless frozen world! All things were still, time stopped, only absolute cold and silence. An eternal, unchanging, all-methods-invulnerable artistic conception wrapped his divine consciousness. This wasn't an attack, but a display, a transmission.
Xiao Qi's divine consciousness wandered in this artistic conception, carefully comprehending that charm of laws that returned all motion to absolute stillness. This was completely different from, and could even be said to be the opposite of, the techniques he cultivated that leaned toward vitality, purification, and flow. But of the three thousand great Daos, all paths lead to the same destination. Understanding an extreme law often allowed one to reflect on and complete one's own cultivation in turn.
He withdrew from this Dao pattern and tried to contact another representing "ice blade" and "tearing" meaning. This time, what he felt was endless sharpness, an extreme keenness that seemed to freeze and cut even space itself!
Various profound meanings about "ice" laws, like trickling streams, began pouring into his sea of consciousness, colliding and merging with his existing knowledge system.
"Tiezhu, Rabbit, I need to meditate here for a while." Xiao Qi stopped and said to Zhao Tiezhu and the rabbit spirit on his shoulder. He felt this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Cold Ice Dao Patterns remaining here, combined with this extreme low-temperature environment, were the perfect place for him to comprehend the balance of ice and fire and polish his own Dao foundation.
"Brother Qi, you go ahead and meditate, Rabbit and I will guard you!" Zhao Tiezhu patted his chest in guarantee. Though he felt this place was rather eerie, for Brother Qi's cultivation, he feared nothing. The rabbit spirit also vigorously nodded its small head.
Xiao Qi chose a relatively complete ice cave with clear traces of Dao patterns nearby and sat cross-legged. He first took out the cold jade box containing the ten-thousand-year Snow Lotus petals, not immediately consuming them but placing them before him, borrowing their pure cold energy and vitality to better resonate with the surrounding environment.
Then, he closed his eyes, his mind completely settling into stillness. The Evergreen Art circulated on its own, maintaining basic vitality and spiritual power circulation. His main divine consciousness was completely immersed in comprehending the ubiquitous Cold Ice Dao Patterns around him.
He no longer tried to forcefully understand any specific pattern, but emptied his mind, like a bystander, feeling this entire frozen world's overall "breathing," listening to that law whisper from ages past.
Extreme cold constantly invaded his body. If not for his powerful physical body and Purification Source protection, he would have long been frozen stiff. But now, this cold became the best whetstone. The spiritual power within him, especially that thread of Southern Ming Li Fire origin obtained from the Vermilion Bird soul crystal, became extremely active under the stimulation of this external extreme cold, yet was firmly restrained by Xiao Qi's powerful divine consciousness within his dantian, not allowed to vent.
Ice and fire, two completely opposite and mutually restraining forces, formed a subtle balance and confrontation within his body. The Southern Ming Li Fire wanted to erupt and drive away the cold, while the external Cold Ice Dao rhyme constantly pressed down, trying to freeze it.
Xiao Qi, at this critical point where ice and fire intertwined, carefully comprehended the boundary, transformation, and possibility of coexistence between the two. He recalled that scorching heat that burned everything when channeling the Southern Ming Li Fire, and also comprehended the bitter cold in the black ice Dao patterns here that froze all things.
Gradually, he no longer saw ice and fire as simply opposites. Fire brought destruction, but could also bring rebirth and warmth (like the Purifying World Spirit Flame); cold ice brought death and silence, but could also preserve vitality and protection (like this frozen ancient city, to some extent protecting the ruins from being completely eroded by time).
In his dantian, that restrained Southern Ming Li Fire seemed to become purer and more restrained in color, losing some of its violence, gaining some of its spirituality. And his understanding of the external Cold Ice Dao rhyme deepened—he no longer merely felt its cold, but could appreciate the majestic power of the "stillness" laws contained within.
He didn't know how much time passed—perhaps a day, perhaps ten days.
Xiao Qi slowly opened his eyes. In their depths, it seemed as if crimson flames circulated and ice crystals condensed—two visions flashed and then returned to calm. The Snow Lotus petals before him seemed to have dimmed slightly, part of their essence having been channeled by him to maintain that extreme state of comprehension.
He extended his finger, not channeling Southern Ming Li Fire, nor circulating black ice power, just ordinary spiritual power gathering at his fingertip. Yet that spiritual power's circulation became unprecedentedly smooth and condensed. With a slight movement of his mind, the spiritual power could be hard or soft, faintly carrying a tone of water and fire aiding each other, yin and yang birthing one another. His mastery of his own power entered a completely new, more subtle level.
Though his cultivation hadn't directly improved, he felt his Dao foundation had been polished more solidly, and his understanding of Core Formation had deepened another layer. The Core was acondensed substance of a cultivator's essence, qi, spirit and their own comprehended Great Dao. If one couldn't clarify the root of one's own power and understand the principles of their mutual generation and restraint, how could one form a perfect Golden Core?
He looked at this frozen ancient city with eyes full of gratitude. This place was no less than an important transmission of the Dao for him.