Eastern Sea.
Deep within the Ice Flow Sea Area.
In the pitch-black ocean depths, a colossal iceberg filled the vision of the two Su Family Gu Immortals.
Both were Seventh Transformation cultivators. One was Su Chen, who excelled in healing methods. The other was Su Mingwan, a specialist in the Darkness Path.
The two Gu Immortals were piloting a Seventh Transformation immortal Gu house.
This immortal Gu house was called the Banlan Pavilion — a rare strength-path immortal Gu house. Its body resembled a pavilion structure, with eight thick pillars of blue-gold supporting the roof and anchored to a raised platform base. The blue-gold pillars were not straight but curved with a pronounced arc, their two ends angling inward while the middle section flared outward.
Overall, the entire Banlan Pavilion looked like an enormous birdcage, with the two Su Family Gu Immortals inside.
A layer of deep blue radiance shimmered across the surface of the Banlan Pavilion, warding off the immense ocean pressure outside.
Even so, the biting cold still seeped through.
After facing the iceberg for only a brief moment, frost had already settled on the eyebrows and hair tips of both Su Family Gu Immortals.
"So cold."
"This iceberg is forged from Thousand-Year Mystic Ice. The Banlan Pavilion's defenses aren't thorough enough — we need to speed things up!"
The two Su Family Gu Immortals exchanged quick words, then simultaneously channeled the Banlan Pavilion, unleashing a strength-path technique.
In an instant, a tremendous boom rang out as a corner of the Thousand-Year Mystic Ice iceberg was torn away by invisible force, drifting slowly toward the two Su Family Gu Immortals.
Once it came within range, Su Chen immediately acted, placing the chunk of Thousand-Year Mystic Ice into his own immortal aperture.
Boom, boom, boom.
The Banlan Pavilion continuously exerted force, prying off chunks of Thousand-Year Mystic Ice one after another and sending them into the Su Family Gu Immortals' immortal apertures.
But the good fortune did not last. A massive swarm of Ice Venom Sea Stars nearby had been disturbed and came charging over with menacing intent.
The expressions of the two Su Family Gu Immortals instantly turned tense.
"I'll go draw them away. You hurry!" Su Chen immediately set off, flying out of the Banlan Pavilion.
In these deep seas, though he was a Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal, luring away the swarm of Ice Venom Sea Stars still carried enormous risk.
Su Mingwan, who remained in the Banlan Pavilion, was not out of danger either.
Who knew what else might be disturbed next?
Harvesting Thousand-Year Mystic Ice was no easy task. Even a super force like the Su Family, dispatching two Seventh Transformation Gu Immortals with an immortal Gu house that could rival an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal, was still fraught with peril.
But the Su Family had no choice.
The Su Family was one of the Righteous Path super forces in the Eastern Sea. After joining the Heavenly Dao Grand Love Alliance, they had been extorted by Fang Yuan, who demanded that they contribute water-path resources.
Fang Yuan's standards for water-path resources were quite high — they had to be at least capable of serving as water vein nodes.
The Su Family certainly possessed many such resource points, but they were unwilling to hand them over. Those resource points were their own wealth.
As it happened, the Su Family bordered the Ice Flow Sea Area, and deep within this vast ocean region lay abundant ice and snow immortal materials.
The Su Family then devised a plan to mine the Mystic Ice here and offer it up, which would satisfy Fang Yuan's demands.
"Hurry, faster." Su Mingwan pushed himself to the limit, but the amount of Thousand-Year Mystic Ice harvested was still insufficient.
Without Su Chen, his efficiency had dropped significantly, inevitably.
To make matters worse, yet another school of deep-sea sharks had been disturbed and was charging toward the Banlan Pavilion.
"Sigh... looks like we have no choice but to retreat!" Su Mingwan let out a deep sigh, frustration welling in his heart.
This underwater mountain of Thousand-Year Mystic Ice had been something he'd painstakingly located. But after this round of mining, the upheaval to the environment would trigger a chain reaction.
The originally balanced and stable ecological layout would be thrown into disarray. The beast packs residing here would very likely descend into mutual slaughter. Even if they didn't fight each other, they would become extremely vigilant. The slightest disturbance would provoke a collective attack — or worse still, it could trigger an undersea beast tide.
For a period of time, forcibly mining Thousand-Year Mystic Ice here would carry even greater risk!
Su Mingwan and Su Chen would be best served by shelving this location and searching for more viable targets elsewhere.
But just as Su Mingwan was about to retreat, a sudden aura descended from the ocean surface above.
Su Mingwan's face changed drastically.
That aura was so vast and overwhelming, so mighty and imposing, that the shark school that had been charging over was instantly cowed, scattering in terror in all directions.
Su Mingwan's face was filled with shock: "That's the aura of a Venerable!"
In that instant, he had felt as though a great sun had streaked across the sea surface directly overhead.
"Great Sun Immortal Venerable! He's actually come to our Eastern Sea?!" Su Mingwan's mind whirled in chaos as he hastily relayed this intelligence to Su Chen.
Su Chen was not far away and had been similarly shaken to his core.
"Hurry, report this to the Supreme Grand Elder! Great Sun Immortal Venerable appears to be heading toward our Su Family!" Su Chen couldn't help but panic.
"Could it be that the battle between two Venerables is about to erupt on Su Family territory?" The thought horrified Su Mingwan, his face going pale as paper without a trace of color.
Yet contrary to the two immortals' expectations, Great Sun Immortal Venerable did not charge straight ahead. Instead, his speed dropped sharply, and he ultimately came to a halt above the Ice Flow Sea Area.
Then, Great Sun Immortal Venerable's Ninth Transformation aura spread outward even more unrestrainedly, displaying its majestic and domineering spirit.
The entire sky began to ripple with a golden halo.
The golden light spread visibly in all directions — skyward, seaward, east, west, north, and south!
Sensing the terrifying aura of a Venerable, virtually every living creature in the depths was fleeing in desperation.
Thanks to this, the predicament the two Su Family Gu Immortals had been in moments ago evaporated without a trace.