Chapter 117

Chapter 117

Wen Qiao's gaze was somewhat unfocused.

She felt that the man beside her seemed to have changed somehow, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her instincts sensed the transformation in him.

In that instant, it felt as though something tightly bound them together.

Ning Yuzhou stood up, smoothing out the creases on his sleeves before turning back to her with a gentle smile.

This smile, under the dazzling lights of the night, was like a luxuriant mist transforming into an exquisitely beautiful scene.

He reached out and took her hand, his voice soft. "I've rested well, Ah Chuo. The array has been undone; let's go down and take a look."

Wen Qiao glanced at him again, quickly suppressing that odd feeling she had experienced earlier, and followed him toward the passageway that had appeared in the wall.

Wen Tutu and the two Yellow Crystal Ants hurriedly caught up with them.

Wen Qiao turned to look at them, returning the two Yellow Crystal Ants to her waist pouch. Wen Tutu sensibly leaped onto her shoulder, curling up as a ball of fur without making any random noises. It didn't want to disturb Big Brother Ning's business and risk having its spirit pills ration reduced out of spite.

The passage wasn't very wide, about half a zhang (approximately 1.6 meters), with a neatly arranged staircase winding downward. The surroundings were pitch-black, without any other source of light. Ning Yuzhou held the lamp powered by spirit stones in his hand for illumination.

The two of them descended the stairs.

The staircase was like a mountain road coiling around and around, leading deep underground. After walking for a considerable distance, they finally reached the end.

At the end was a towering stone gate.

The cold stone reflected a chilly glow. The door was engraved with some mysterious patterns that resembled runes or images of strange beasts. Staring at them for too long made one feel dizzy.

Wen Qiao quickly averted her gaze, understanding that this door, much like the nested array earlier, was not something her current cultivation level could directly comprehend. She looked at Ning Yuzhou with concern, fearing that he might once again expend his spiritual consciousness. What if he injured his sea of consciousness?

Ning Yuzhou observed it for a moment and said, "There's an array on this door, similar to the one above."

"Do we still need to undo it?" Wen Qiao hesitated. "Maybe we shouldn't. I'm not that interested in this place. Let's just leave."

Ning Yuzhou looked at her in surprise, unable to resist laughing. He gently stroked her head and softly said, "It's no problem. We've come all this way. If we don't take a look, wouldn't it be a pity?"

"But you..."

"It's fine. I don't need to personally undo the array on this door."

Amid Wen Qiao's confusion, he closed his eyes and walked forward, then stretched out his hand to push the several-zhang-tall stone gate.

A grating sound filled the air as the stone gate trembled and slowly opened a crack. A breath of frigid air, carrying an endless chill, rushed towards them.

Ning Yuzhou, who was pushing the door, was the first to face the blast of cold air. His hands, clothes, and body were instantly frozen.

Wen Qiao was alarmed. She quickly grabbed a cloak and shook it open with a swish, draping it over Ning Yuzhou. Then, she replaced him, reaching out to help push the door.

"Put it on!" Ning Yuzhou said in a hoarse voice.

Wen Qiao also felt the cold seeping through from within the door.

She took out a cloak and wore it. Wen Tutu had already moved behind her when the door cracked open, and now hid inside the hood of the cloak, cautiously peering outside. The two Red Crystal Ants had withdrawn even further.

Together, they pushed open the door.

As the door swung open, the surrounding passage rapidly froze over with a layer of ice crystals. The ice crystals spread, freezing the entire passage behind them and quickly climbing upwards. In no time, the entire world had turned into a land of ice and snow.

The air was unbearably cold. Even with their cloaks on, they still felt a relentless chill.

Half of Ning Yuzhou's body was frozen stiff. He struggled to retrieve a bottle of spirit pills from his storage bag, feeding one to Wen Qiao before swallowing one himself.

After ingesting the spirit pill, the frozen parts of his body warmed up, including his previously icy hands.

This was a yang pill that Ning Yuzhou had refined. When consumed in extremely cold environments, it could dispel the cold and maintain warmth and vitality in the body. Wen Qiao also fed a spirit crystal to Wen Tutu and the two Yellow Crystal Ants. Only then did the two humans and three beasts regain a comfortable sense of life.

Ning Yuzhou shattered the ice crystals that had formed on his clothes and said to Wen Qiao, "Ah Chuo, let's go in and take a look."

Wen Qiao agreed. The two of them carefully stepped over the half-opened door and ventured inside.

Beyond the door was a world of bone-chilling cold.

It was a vast underground space, with various undulating sandstones and stalactites covered in a layer of ice crystals. Although there was no snow falling from above, the air was filled with a dense, unrelenting cold that chilled the bones and pierced the heart. Had they not consumed the yang pills, they would likely have been unable to withstand the biting cold.

They gazed upon the expansive and magnificent underground space in silence for a long time.

"Husband, there seems to be something here," Wen Qiao said, focusing intently and sensing the faint traces of life.

Ning Yuzhou didn't doubt her perception. Sometimes, Ah Chuo's senses were sharper than those of the demon beasts.

He looked at the space sealed within the array, now understanding that the formation surrounding the Yellow Sand City was probably meant to conceal this underground area. And this underground area lay beneath the Yellow Sand City above. As for what it concealed...

Ning Yuzhou's gaze fell upon the frozen sandstones below.

Then, the two of them moved along the gaps around the sandstones, examining their surroundings as they went.

Following the faint life vibrations, Wen Qiao soon pinpointed the location and stopped before a frozen sandstone.

"Husband, it's here."

She spoke, her breath instantly turning into a cloud of mist.

Ning Yuzhou stopped and lowered his head to examine where she pointed. The sandstone there was quite large, with tiny holes scattered throughout, resembling tunnels dug by insects or ants, or perhaps eroded by water.

Ning Yuzhou furrowed his brows in thought, suddenly saying, "Ah Chuo, break it open."

Without hesitation, Wen Qiao put on her Golden Silkworm Gloves and punched down.

The sound of ice cracking echoed, followed by a resounding bang as it shattered, revealing the sandstone frozen beneath. The sandstone was exceedingly hard, after all, it was the material that withstood the nightly sands of the moving desert, possessing an extraordinary degree of hardness that made it difficult for even cultivators to destroy it with their bare hands.

Wen Qiao gathered her spiritual energy in her palms and struck out again with another punch.

A crack slowly appeared on the sandstone, growing larger and larger until Wen Qiao tore it open with her hands, finally revealing what was hidden beneath the sandstone.

Wen Qiao, Ning Yuzhou, and Wen Tutu leaned forward for a look, discovering that it was actually a Golden Python Toad inside.

The Golden Python Toad was a monstrously venomous beast, its toxicity comparable to that of the White-bellied Wolf Spider from Mount Cangwu. However, this particular Golden Python Toad seemed to be in deep hibernation in this icy land, its life force could be sensed, yet it remained motionless, crouched right there.

The two noticed a layer of light blue substance, seemingly a kind of jelly, covering it—this was the cause of the Golden Python Toad's slumber.

Ning Yuzhou reached out, gently touching the layer of light blue jelly on the toad's body, a thoughtful expression crossing his face.

"Husband?" Wen Qiao called out.

Ning Yuzhou came back to his senses and said to her, "Ah Chuo, doesn't this jelly on the Golden Python Toad resemble the stone Senior Brother Chen gave us?"

Wen Qiao took out the stone Senior Brother Chen had gifted them and compared it, finding that they were indeed quite similar. The only difference was that the jelly on the toad was clearer in color with very few impurities, unlike this stone which had a murky tint to its light blue. Moreover, this stone was incredibly hard, unlike the jelly on the Golden Python Toad which, not having solidified, felt more like a light blue jelly.

Thus, Wen Qiao also understood the origin of this stone—it was formed from some liquid that had solidified into a jelly-like substance and then gradually hardened into something akin to stone. The winged ant inside the stone was likely similar to the golden python toad—trapped within that jelly, it had fallen into a deep slumber but hadn't truly died.

Could it be that when she attacked Wen Tutu with the stone, she had awakened the winged ant inside?

"Husband, what is this solidified jelly?" Wen Qiao asked again, unable to discern the source of this peculiar material.

Ning Yuzhou replied, "I don't know either; let's take a closer look first."

Afterward, they continued to inspect the surroundings of this underground space.

The cold in this underground space was akin to that of a desert night, only even more biting than the surface of the desert itself, chilling enough to frostbite a cultivator.

Next, Wen Qiao sensed faint signs of life within some frozen sandstone. Without needing to see, she knew that it must be some kind of insect or ant, frozen inside.

Before long, Wen Qiao suddenly noticed a change in the air temperature.

"Darling, is the temperature rising?" Wen Qiao asked.

Ning Yuzhou was slightly taken aback. His senses weren't as acute as hers; after all, her demon body was of a plant type, and plants have always been particularly sensitive to changes in temperature.

Lost in thought, he checked the time, and it dawned on him: "Dawn is approaching."

Hearing this, Wen Qiao suddenly understood.

As dawn approached, the temperature of the desert would rise. They were in an underground chamber within a shifting desert, and thus its temperature would also be affected and begin to increase.

Sure enough, before long, they felt the frigid air around them recede.

The temperature climbed gradually, melting the ice crystals into water. The water gathered into a small stream that flowed toward lower ground, eventually emptying into an underground pool. Approaching the pool, they found its water crystal clear, tinged with a subtle blue. Earlier, due to the extreme cold, the pool had been frozen over, concealing from them the fact that it was actually a body of water.

"A peculiar discovery lies beneath the pool," Wen Qiao remarked, extracting a segment of the Stone Golden Python Creeper Vine. She tossed it into the pool and swiftly catalyzed its growth, then deftly maneuvered the vine's tendrils to retrieve whatever lay at the bottom.

One by one, light blue stones emerged in various sizes, ranging from as large as a human head to as small as the pebble Senior Brother Chen had found. Each stone encapsulated a life form, mostly insects and ants native to the desert—akin to the golden python toad or winged ants, or perhaps serpents and scorpions of sorts...

The diversity was extensive.

Wen Qiao grew increasingly perplexed. "What on earth are these?"

Ning Yuzhou crouched by the pond's edge, attentively examining the stones that had been retrieved. These rocks, now fully solidified, were exceptionally hard. Perhaps due to their recent extraction from the pond and the rising temperatures, their life-like characteristics were strikingly evident – one by one, they seemed to open their eyes.

Ning Yuzhou's gaze swept over the surroundings once more before finally settling on the pond.

After a long moment, he said, "Ah Chuò, the water in this pond should be what is known as the 'Water of Life.'"

"Ah?" Wen Qiao stared at him, taken aback.

"The Water of Life imbues them with vitality, rendering them undying and eternal," Ning Yuzhou said slowly. "I believe I comprehend now—the alternation of cold and heat, the cycle of life and death, sealing life, preserving longevity..."

Wen Qiao blinked, getting straight to the point, "What is the use of this Water of Life?"

Ning Yuzhou curved his lips slightly, "It's of no great use, it merely ensures that the creatures sealed remain eternally alive and undying."

As Ning Yuzhou explained, Wen Qiao roughly understood.

Someone has harnessed the unique properties and power of the shifting sands to establish a secret base here, where they delve into the arcane arts of immortality, seeking the eternal secret of undying life.

Within the shifting sands lies a trace of fearsome power, one that even the divine dare not touch. Some have harnessed this terrifying force, transmuting it into the water of life. The insects and such, encapsulated within these pale blue stones, represent a sacrificial offering of life.

Being eternal life, it is also a sacrifice.

When they are sacrificed, the Water of Life flows ceaselessly, endlessly regenerating.

And that solidified gel wrapped around the Golden Python Toad is actually a kind of geode spirit sap. Due to the drastic temperature fluctuations between day and night in the shifting desert, it continuously refines the geodes beneath the ground, producing the essence of stone spirits. They are encapsulated within sandstone, like a spirit liquid. Upon contact with air, they transform into a gel-like substance, then gradually harden.

The clearer the color, the finer the quality of this geode spirit sap.

Wen Qiao thought about the nested array at the entrance of the room, the array covering the entirety of Yellow Sand City, as well as the array on the door at the entrance of the underground void. She couldn't help but ask, "Husband, has the Water of Life not yet been successfully created?"

A cryptic expression appeared on Ning Yuzhou's face as he said, "Indeed, because its power is not yet complete, it can only grant eternal life to the creatures encased in the heartstone spirit sap, nothing else."

"That doesn't sound very useful then?" Wen Qiao remarked, her interest waning.

As for immortality? She was even less intrigued. Why would anyone rely on such esoteric external means when they could achieve the same longevity through their own cultivation and ascension?

"It does have its uses; it can be used to irrigate spirit herbs. You could consider it a kind of water that promotes the growth of spirit herbs and medicines," Ning Yuzhou explained.

Wen Qiao immediately perked up with renewed enthusiasm. She pulled out several bottles, eager to take some of the sap to water the spirit herbs in her space.

Ning Yuzhou watched her bustle with a smile, continuing to study the rocks on the ground.

To be precise, he was fascinated by the stones transformed from the geocentric stone essence. While reviewing the inheritance of the Di Xi bloodline, he studied their functions, and in the end, he did manage to figure them out.

Indeed, there is nothing useless in this world; it all depends on how you use it.

"Husband, you're saying these stones can be used for alchemy?" Wen Qiao asked with interest.

"Not just any stones, they're stone essence," Ning Yuzhou corrected, then dropped a major revelation. "Its texture is hard, suitable for refining into Cosmic Cavern Mansions."

"What?" Wen Qiao's eyes widened, her gaze sparkling as she looked at those stones. She hurriedly said, "Husband, let's scoop them all up and refine them into Cosmic Cavern Mansions. Then we'll have safe houses to live in when we travel."

A Cosmic Cavern Mansion can be carried around. When traveling, if stranded in some dangerous place, one only needs to throw out the Cosmic Mansion, and there would be no need to worry about finding a safe place to rest.