After placing the Snow Sprite Lord's Demonic Core into the jade box, Li Yan casually put it away. Although the Essence Soul was gone from the Demonic Core, and it could no longer actively catalyze the blue, ethereal fire to refine and merge with the devoured pure yang flames, the two fires were inherently opposing forces of heaven and earth. When intertwined, they would instinctively continue to merge with each other. Without a conscious will directing the process, it would simply take longer. Here, the blue, ethereal fire was clearly more powerful and would sooner or later completely assimilate Cheng Wenming's pure yang flames.
After storing the Demonic Core , Li Yan's Divine Sense once again swept outside the cave. After a thorough re-examination, he nodded in satisfaction. The Snow Sprite Lord had chosen a very concealed location for its cave residence. Despite the dying shriek of its Essence Soul, no other demonic beasts had been drawn to the area for the time being.
Li Yan then turned his gaze to the ice block that was still floating in the air, plastered with several talismans. He narrowed his eyes again, lost in thought. After a moment, Li Yan sighed. Although he knew that the object resembling a "Melting Bamboo Shoot" was certainly extraordinary and could become a major weapon if he could understand its origins and use it properly, he ultimately abandoned the tempting idea after some consideration.
He had no idea what this thing was. Keeping an unknown object with him was a risk. While he knew the ice block sealing the fake "Melting Bamboo Shoot" was unusual, and since it had sealed it before, it could likely do so in the future, Li Yan was still unwilling to keep it.
Once he left the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda , he would be in a different space. He couldn't guarantee that the fake "Melting Bamboo Shoot" would remain sealed within the ice. At that point, it could bring him unnecessary trouble without any warning.
Glancing around, Li Yan made a grasping motion, first retrieving the ice block into his hand. Then, he performed a somewhat clumsy manual seal towards the open cave entrance. Two breaths later, the entrance once again became hidden.
Li Yan had already looked at the jade slip. Besides the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation," the other two formations in this cave were only slightly better than the ones he already possessed. The control incantations for those two were not overly complex. With Li Yan's memory and grasp of formations, he could use them, albeit clumsily. He would just need to practice them a few more times in the future to become fluid. The "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation," however, could not be mastered so easily.
Holding the jade box, Li Yan scanned the formation at the cave entrance with his Divine Sense one more time, confirming that it was active and the cave was hidden again. Then, he walked to the center of the cave, performed a hand seal, and sank directly into the ground.
When the Snow Sprite Lord had first mentioned the "Melting Bamboo Shoot," Li Yan had truly been excited, his emotions stirred. The Snow Sprite Lord's subsequent, unusually cooperative behavior had initially made him think his threats had worked. But while Li Yan's experience was still shallow, he was always cautious. So, while pretending to help the Snow Sprite Lord by slightly blocking the scorching pure yang flames, he was actually wrapping its Essence Soul even more finely, so that he would be the first to notice any anomaly.
Sure enough, while Li Yan was examining the formation jade slips, the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul remained relatively stable. But when Li Yan began to break the ice around the "Melting Bamboo Shoot," its Essence Soul fluctuated three times. The first fluctuation could be understood as heartache over losing the "Melting Bamboo Shoot." But as the ice shattered, the next two fluctuations occurred in quick succession.
Li Yan then slowed down the rate at which he broke the ice and raised his guard. He also focused his Divine Sense on the shattered ice shards. They felt subtly out of place with the rest of the frozen cave.
These fallen ice shards emitted a feeling that seemed to congeal Li Yan's very soul. Yes, his soul, but they didn't feel particularly cold to his physical body. This reminded him that this was a place teeming with Vicious Souls. He then sensed that when only a thin layer of ice remained on the block in his hand, the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul actually flinched, as if in fear, or perhaps gathering its strength.
At the same time, a faint, sinister, and fierce aura began to seep from the small ice bar in his left hand, sending a chill through Li Yan's heart. This aura was largely similar to the description of a "Melting Bamboo Shoot" in the texts, but it lacked a neutralizing warmth. Li Yan felt that if he were to absorb this sinister aura, his meridians, far from becoming tougher, would likely freeze solid in an instant.
Li Yan decisively stopped breaking the ice around the "Melting Bamboo Shoot." The moment he halted his Spirit Power , the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul , like a startled bird whose secret was discovered, abandoned its Demonic Core and fled without a second thought.
In that instant, Li Yan made his decision. The "Melting Bamboo Shoot" was definitely a fake. The Snow Sprite Lord's seemingly cooperative behavior was just a ploy to create an opportunity for its own escape, hoping to use the unknown object in the fake "Melting Bamboo Shoot" to deliver a fatal blow.
Even its earlier actions—seemingly offering all its formations, opening the cave's restrictive formation, the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation," and the formation protecting the fake "Melting Bamboo Shoot"—were all just to clear a rapid escape path for its Essence Soul. Otherwise, with its current strength, after abandoning its Demonic Core, it would have lacked the power to disable the restrictive formations in time and would have simply crashed into them, seeking its own death. It was all a calculated scheme.
From the very beginning, the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul had no intention of cooperating with Li Yan. It never placed its life in his hands. It was all an excellent disguise, designed to deliver a deadly counter-attack while it escaped. But despite its long years of cultivation and its demonic cunning, when faced with someone like Li Yan, whose caution was etched into his very bones, it was ultimately outplayed by a single move and lost its own life.
Li Yan's current plan was to place this fake "Melting Bamboo Shoot" deep underground, burying it within the long wall of ice and snow. This wasn't out of any kindness, fearing it might harm future cultivators. What happened to them had nothing to do with him. But he was still inside the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda . If he simply tossed it aside here and it was found by a later demonic beast or another Snow Sprite Lord, a reckless act could shatter the ice and release the unknown horror within. Then Li Yan, still in the Melting Cave, would have to "share weal and woe" with it. He couldn't let that happen under any circumstances.
An hour later, in the empty cave residence of the Snow Sprite Lord, a figure suddenly appeared without any warning, as if rising from the ground itself. Li Yan first looked around the cave again. Under his Divine Sense, everything was as it should be. He had just dived a hundred li straight into the ground, yet he still couldn't see any other melting caves. This gave Li Yan a sense of mystery about the melting caves on the wall of ice and snow. From the outside, some caves were only a hundred zhang apart, yet he had gone a hundred li deep and was still within this same Melting Cave world.
To think that this was only the first level of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda . The mighty cultivator who had refined this treasure could only be described as unfathomable, someone to be looked up to. Shaking his head, he put these thoughts aside and focused once more on the cave residence.
His attention first fell on the four storage pouches in the pit near the entrance. He had previously taken the jade slip with the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" and others, but had returned the rest to their original storage pouches. Li Yan did this hoping to glean some information from the original contents of the pouches. This information might be useless, or it might offer some warning. Though it seemed a bit superfluous, Li Yan did it anyway.
Standing before the pit, Li Yan beckoned one of the storage pouches into his hand. Then, he slowly began to inspect its contents. In truth, apart from a large number of Spirit Stones and some jade slips, there wasn't a single spirit artifact, magical treasure, or medicinal pill. After a long while, having checked them all, Li Yan stroked his chin, lost in thought.
'From the jade slips in the four storage pouches, besides confirming that one was a formation expert—the one with the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation"—two others should be Buddhist monks. Their jade slips, while containing no cultivation methods, did have incantations for refining medicinal pills. The "Lesser Purification Pill" and "Luoye Pill" are both level two pills of the Jingtu Sect . The jade slip in the last pouch only recorded a relatively high-grade wood-attribute cultivation method. From these items, I can deduce that besides the monks of the Jingtu Sect , who have a natural advantage and a higher chance of entering, the person with the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" and the one cultivating the wood-attribute method must also come from sects with long and storied histories. At the same time, the absence of any medicinal pills , magical treasures, or even a single spirit artifact can only mean that besides devouring fire-attribute Spirit Power , Snow Sprites might also have a certain ability to assimilate medicinal pills, even poison pills. As for magical treasures and spirit artifacts, perhaps they too can be refined by its blue, ethereal fire. This explains why Cheng Wenming and the others would pay such a high price to obtain a Snow Sprite Lord's Demonic Core.'
By examining the four storage pouches and organizing his thoughts, Li Yan had formed his own judgment. Previously, Cheng Wenming and the others had only said the Snow Sprite Lord's Demonic Core was useful to them, but Li Yan didn't believe they had told the whole truth. Now, just by observing the contents of the storage pouches, he had gathered a great deal of information.
Thinking of this, Li Yan's Divine Sense stirred, and the jade box he had just put away reappeared before him. The box opened, revealing the cluster of blue, ethereal fire with a crimson edge. Without hesitation, Li Yan slapped his own storage pouch, and an emerald jade pendant appeared in his hand. This pendant was just an ordinary spirit artifact with a decent protective function, something Li Yan had worn at his waist in the early days to pose as a Qi Condensation cultivator.
With a flick of his finger, the emerald jade pendant shot into the blue, ethereal fire. The moment they made contact, a layer of green light erupted from the pendant's surface, as if resisting. The blue flame, however, flared up violently, like a cat that had smelled fish, and instantly enveloped the pendant. The flame leaped and danced. Li Yan watched for a few breaths, then pointed a finger into the air. The blue flame trembled violently, and a streak of emerald light shot out from within, landing directly in Li Yan's palm.
After losing the control of the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul, the blue, ethereal fire had lost most of its offensive initiative. Having lost its target, it flickered about like a headless fly for a few moments before returning to a calm state. When Li Yan looked at the emerald jade pendant in his hand, he saw that a corner was missing, and its protective Spirit Power had diminished by thirty percent. In just a few short breaths, a spirit artifact had been reduced to this state.
Yet, as he took this all in, Li Yan's expression remained cold and indifferent, as if he had known this would happen all along.