After the Sage King Realm juniors had examined the frozen figures carefully, looks of astonishment appeared on every face. The garments worn by these ice sculptures bore a clear resemblance to the attire of certain sects on the current Dark Star. Though there were some differences, a closer inspection revealed many common elements.
For instance, one figure had a small character for "Thunder" embroidered on the chest of their robe — identical to the attire of the current Thunder Terrace Sect.
Another had a "Battle" character stitched on the cuff, suggesting they had once been a member of the Battle Heaven Alliance.
Others bore the marks of the Glass Gate, the Li Fire Cult, and the Myriad Beast Mountain — every major faction was represented. Fei Zhitu even discovered a senior cultivator from the Shadow Moon Hall among them.
Every one of these frozen warriors had possessed profound cultivation. To have ventured this deep, they must have been individuals of exceptional fortune, each wielding heaven-defying abilities — yet they had all perished here, a fact that could not help but elicit sighs of regret.
"Isn't now the time to focus on something else?" Yang Kai said with furrowed brows. Noticing that Fei Zhitu and the others had their eyes fixed on the spatial rings worn by the deceased seniors, he offered a calm reminder. "The fact that they were frozen here suggests there might be real danger lurking in this place. Shouldn't we hurry through?"
At Yang Kai's words, the expressions of Fei Zhitu and the others stiffened.
When they had first discovered these ice sculptures, they had naturally noticed the spatial rings while mourning the deceased. Since these people had been renowned figures in their respective regions during their lifetimes, the rings were certain to contain valuable treasures.
Greed was human nature, and while coveting those rings, none of them had stopped to consider why these cultivators had been frozen here. It was only when Yang Kai spoke up that they snapped back to reality.
A cold sweat broke out across Fei Zhitu's body in an instant. He nodded hastily. "You're right! Let's move — quickly!"
Ning Xiangchen and the others reluctantly tore their gazes away and followed closely behind Fei Zhitu and Yang Kai.
But they had barely traveled a hundred zhang when Yang Kai suddenly barked, "Who's there?!"
The words had barely left his lips before a golden thread shot from his fingertip, spiraling toward a patch of empty air. A flash of white light appeared at that spot, and a blurry shadow flickered through their field of vision before vanishing without a trace. At the same time, a wave of bone-piercing cold descended upon them from above, crashing into the barrier formed by the Artifact Spirit fire bird with a sharp, sizzling hiss.
In the blink of an eye, the first layer of the fire bird's protective barrier had been pierced clean through by the cold energy. Fortunately, the Li Fire Dome activated in time, blocking what remained of the frigid assault.
Even so, Fei Zhitu's expression changed drastically. That mere residual chill had already depleted the Li Fire Dome's power by more than half, nearly shattering it outright.
"What was that?!" Ning Xiangchen's face drained of color as he whipped his head around to scan their surroundings.
The others wore expressions of terror as well. Setting aside the strength of the Artifact Spirit fire bird's barrier, the Li Fire Dome itself was a unique treasure belonging to the Shadow Moon Hall Master — an artifact specifically designed to counter icy cold. Yet after that brief contact with the residual chill, it had nearly crumbled. One could only imagine the terrifying power behind that cold.
Without these two layers of protection, the entire group would have shared the fate of those frozen seniors in that very first exchange.
This place truly harbored other lethal dangers!
Yang Kai's expression was especially grim. In that brief instant of contact, he had discovered that his fire bird Artifact Spirit was not a match for the attacker — a realization that left him both shocked and alarmed.
The Artifact Spirit had been forged through tens of thousands of years of scorching within the Earth Lung Fire Vein. If even it was outmatched, what on earth were they dealing with?
Fortunately, the white light that had flashed by did not retreat into concealment. After its failed first strike, it revealed its true form and hovered not far away.
When the group caught a good look, they were struck speechless.
The creature was shaped like a white rabbit — but a plump one, roughly three times the size of an ordinary rabbit. Its fur was purest white without a single strand of discoloration, giving it the appearance of a sculpture carved from ice and jade. Only its eyes were a deep, vivid crimson, radiating an aura of violence and cruelty.
"Spiritual energy taking form!"
"A Spirit of Heaven and Earth!"
Fei Zhitu and the other Return to Void Realm cultivators cried out in disbelief.
With their keen perception, they could immediately tell that this white rabbit was not a being of flesh and blood. Like the Artifact Spirit fire bird, it was a sentient entity composed entirely of spiritual energy — a being that had awakened its own intelligence.
Such beings were known as Spirits of Heaven and Earth!
The Artifact Spirit could loosely be classified as one such spirit, but not entirely, because the Artifact Spirit's birth depended on the Refining Furnace — the vessel that housed it. Should the Refining Furnace be destroyed, the Artifact Spirit might be annihilated along with it.
But the red-eyed white rabbit before them was a true Spirit of Heaven and Earth in the most fundamental sense. It had no containing vessel. Instead, it had been born from the sheer concentration of icy energy in this place, gradually awakening its own intelligence and coming into existence.
Spirits of Heaven and Earth were exceedingly rare, yet their value was beyond estimation.