Chapter 53 Sunset Forest
The three flew out of the cold spring, returning to the desolate rocky ground on the outskirts of Dragon City.
Snow Empress withdrew her Soul Power shield, letting Jiang Bai and Ice Empress land.
She looked down at Jiang Bai, her ice-blue eyes calm and ripple-less, her voice still cold: "Where to next?"
Since a vow had been made, as the protected party, Jiang Bai naturally had the right to decide the next itinerary.
To Snow Empress, this was just as it should be.
But if other Spirit Beasts of the Far North heard her "politely" asking for a human youth’s opinion, their jaws would likely drop.
Ice Empress naturally understood Snow Empress’s meaning.
She tilted her small face, her golden pupils darting around, "If you ask me, we should just take him back to the Far North Core Circle for ten years! Anyway, Xue’er, your palace is big enough; one more human brat won’t take up much space. Besides, it’s absolutely safe there; even human Titled Douluo wouldn’t dare set foot in it!"
Hearing this, Jiang Bai suddenly shivered.
Taking him back to the Far North Core Circle, how was that any different from going to prison?
"That... let’s forget about it." Jiang Bai hurriedly waved his hands, forcing a smile onto his face.
"The World is so big, I want to go see it. Besides, you’ve stayed in the Far North for hundreds of thousands of years; don’t you want to see the other scenery on the continent?"
He paused, then continued: "Ten years, for two Seniors, is just a matter of going into seclusion or sleeping. Why not treat it as accompanying me to travel the continent and see the different local customs and cultures?"
Ice Empress blinked and looked at Snow Empress.
Snow Empress was silent for a moment.
She had lived for hundreds of thousands of years, spending most of her time sleeping or Cultivating in the Far North, and indeed didn’t know much about the outside World.
If there were ten years, being able to fulfill the vow while observing the human World... it didn’t seem like a bad thing.
Moreover, with the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice marrow, both her and Ice Empress’s cultivation Bottlenecks had hope for a Breakthrough; there really was no rush to go into seclusion immediately.
"Okay." Snow Empress nodded slightly, agreeing to Jiang Bai’s proposal.
"Then for the next stop, let’s go into Sunset Forest."
"Sunset Forest?" Ice Empress tilted her head, "Isn’t that another Spirit Beast gathering place? What are you going there for? Didn’t you just obtain your fourth spirit ring?"
"To find a place." Jiang Bai didn’t explain in detail, "A... very special place."
Snow Empress didn’t ask further.
She reached out and grabbed Jiang Bai’s shoulder, her movement very light, and then her whole person slowly floated up.
"Lead the way."
Jiang Bai hurriedly pointed southeast: "Roughly that way, I’ll explain the specific features when we get close."
Snow Empress nodded, her Soul Power surging, about to take off with Jiang Bai.
"Wait! Xue’er, wait for me!"
Ice Empress stomped her feet in frustration from behind; Snow Empress actually forgot to take her!
Snow Empress paused, as if she had just remembered Ice Empress.
She looked back, made a light beckoning gesture with her other hand, and a gentle wave of Soul Power lifted Ice Empress up, pulling her to her side.
Only then was Ice Empress satisfied, tightly hugging Snow Empress’s arm and raising her chin at Jiang Bai as if showing off.
Jiang Bai: "..."
The next moment, Snow Empress turned into a light blue stream of light, soaring into the sky and flying swiftly towards the southeast.
A day later, at the edge of Sunset Forest.
A light blue stream of light streaked from the northern horizon, slowly descending on a gentle hillside on the outskirts of the forest.
The light faded, revealing the figures of Snow Empress, Jiang Bai, and Ice Empress.
Sunset Forest was completely different from the Far North and Frozen Forest.
The climate here was mild, the trees were lush, and the air was filled with a mixed scent of soil, decaying leaves, and flowers.
--
Ice Empress looked around curiously.
The area of Sunset Forest was far smaller than Star Dou Great Forest, and the overall strength of the Spirit Beasts was also a level lower, but because of this, there were more traces of human activity here; many low-to-mid-tier Spirit Masters would choose to come here to hunt for spirit rings.
"Jiang Bai, what place exactly are you looking for?" Ice Empress couldn’t help but ask again, "What special place can there be in Sunset Forest?"
Jiang Bai didn’t answer directly but looked at Snow Empress: "Snow Empress, use your Mental Energy to search if there’s any area in this forest that is mountainous and filled with thick poisonous gas."
"Poisonous gas?" Snow Empress frowned slightly. She wasn’t familiar with the poison attribute, but with her cultivation and Mental Energy, searching for an area with such obvious characteristics wasn’t difficult.
She closed her eyes, her vast Mental Energy spreading out like invisible ripples with her as the center.
A moment later, Snow Empress opened her eyes.
"Found it."
She pointed deep into the forest, "About eighty Kilimeters to the southeast, there is a valley surrounded by mountains. The valley is shrouded in thick dark-green poisonous miasma."
Jiang Bai was overjoyed.
"Let’s go over!"
Snow Empress nodded and took the two of them flying again.
Soon, a range of rolling mountains appeared ahead.
The mountains weren’t high, but the vegetation was dense.
And within the embrace of the mountains, one could vaguely see an area covered by dark-green mist.
The mist was dense and didn’t disperse, like an inverted bowl, completely covering the valley, making the interior invisible.
Snow Empress landed on a relatively flat spot on the mountaintop.
This was exactly above the edge of the poisonous miasma area, overlooking the entire valley.
Jiang Bai walked to the cliff’s edge and looked down.
The sight before him made his breath hitch.
It was a bottomless, inverted cone-shaped mountain hollow.
The mountaintop they were on was just the edge of the hollow, and it was hundreds of meters deep below.
White hot steam with a sulfur smell rolled up from the bottom of the hollow.
Through the hazy water vapor, an oval-shaped pool could be vaguely seen at the bottom.
The pool wasn’t large, about fifty meters in diameter, but strangely, the pool water actually displayed two completely different colors.
One half was milky white, the other half was cinnabar red.
The two colors of spring water were in the same pool, yet they were clearly demarcated, as if there were an invisible boundary between them, not encroaching on each other and always maintaining their respective Domains.
At the boundary line, the milky white and cinnabar red collided and blended, steaming up an even denser, strange water vapor mixed with the two colors.
Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!
A place where the essence of heaven and earth gathered, one of the Three Great Treasure Basins!
Jiang Bai’s heart beat violently. Although he had been mentally prepared, seeing this wonder with his own eyes still left him incredibly shocked.
"This is..." Ice Empress was also dazed.
She had lived for so long and seen countless wonders, but this scene of ice and fire coexisting, extreme opposition yet harmonious unity, was something she was seeing for the first time.
She could clearly feel how pure and how terrifying the power of ice and fire contained in that pool water was!
A hint of surprise also flashed in Snow Empress’s ice-blue eyes.
"Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well," Jiang Bai took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart, "one of the Three Great Treasure Basins of heaven and earth. Extreme powers of ice and fire gather here, in Yin and Yang balance; it is an excellent place for nurturing Heaven And Earth Treasures."