The cocoon of white silk was suddenly stained a dark purple color in one area, but Sage merely shook his head, “Their venom will have no effect on the silk, don’t worry. Thank you Elder Meng, for your assistance. Two tier six Demonic Beasts are very valuable. I will properly thank you later!”
Elder Meng laughed and waved his hand, “Don’t worry about it. Just consider this part of your reward for helping us. This miasma is far less dangerous with you here.”
Sage walked over to the ball of webbing that contained the two cobras and then tossed them into the Inner World, where his Soul Clone was waiting for them. With that task completed, they continued on deeper into the poison miasma. Now that they had a better idea of what they were looking for, as soon as they spotted another crevice or depression on the ruined ground they detoured around it quickly. For some reason the Seething Purple Cobras no longer assaulted them and they rushed through the miasma without encountering any more difficulties. Elder Meng and Elder Zhong conversed secretly, both having a hunch that Sage had done something. Song Lu Tian had heard much about how dangerous this place was, and was surprised at how simply they’d handled the legendarily dangerous poison zone.
When they finally broke through the zone of miasma and entered an area of clear skies, they were met with a wonderland of ice. Just inside the thick border wall of dense purple miasma, they found themselves at the edge of an ice field. In the distance the ice rose into the air, forming mountain sized glaciers. There was surprisingly not a hint of snow in the air, but there was no clear sky to speak of. High above them, just like around them, the sky was a purple color, clear of clouds.
This sudden world of ice was only the beginning of the strangeness. They were somewhat fatigued from traveling for a few days without rest while on high alert, but they chose to move away from the miasma before stopping to recover. As they moved towards the glacial mountains, Sage observed that they seemed to also be walking upon something like a glacier. It wasn’t a single sheet of ice over a body of water, there were actually giant crevices and cracks on the ice.
Upon reaching the first huge crack, they all glanced down into it. It wasn’t a small depression, but a crack into the depths of the earth. It dropped hundreds of feet and then the ice turned to blackened ash. As deep as it was, it should have been forbiddingly dark, but the walls in the crevice were clear blue ice, and they could see the flicker of flames reflected on the twisted and crooked walls of ice.
The flames at the bottom of the ice crevices were not even the most unusual part of the Icefire Valley as they realized there was a viciously cold gust coming upwards from the crack in the ground. It was only then that they realized the ice beneath them wasn’t cold. They shared a glance and then each of them kneeled, bent over, or squatted to press a hand against the ice they were walking on.
“It’s warm.”
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Elder Zhong was the first to speak what they all felt and he brought out his, now normally sized, sword and chopped it down one handed onto the ice. He sheared off a large chunk of it and then caught it with his free hand. Then he tossed it to Elder Meng, who then did the same, tossing it to Song Lu Tian and then it made its way to Sage.
It’s warmer than the surface layer.
Then Sage walked over and felt the ice inside the hole that Elder Zhong had just created, “The Icefire Valley is aptly named. Does that mean the fire down below is cold? Quite a place.”
Elder Meng nodded. The Mount Song Sword Sect’s information on this place explained these things, but it was one thing to read of it and another to experience it in person. They walked around the ice crevice while he explained, “The fires down below are indeed extremely cold, just as this ice is hot. We should try to go around as many of these crevices as possible. We can leap over, but be very cautious. Beasts live in these crevices and they will attack anything crossing over their sky.”
They traveled a few miles towards the closest glacier mountain before stopping to take a break. All of them were quite powerful and could handle weeks of constant activity, but there was no need to head into such a dangerous place while still fatigued. They were also experiencing the after effects of the poison miasma so they took this chance to heal back to their peak. Sage kept guard as they recovered their mental states back to the peak. As soon as it started to grow dark, Sage heard many small scuffles start in the distance. There was a cat-like hiss and a pig-like squeal that was suddenly silenced.
An hour later, there was a flicker of light in the distance and a little beast stalked towards them. It looked quite like a bobcat with a coat of coal black fur. It had a stocky body of compact feline muscles with a short tail, and sharply pointed ears. Those ears were quite interesting, the little tuft of fur at the top of them was twisted like a cord and the top of that cord was glowing with flame. The source of the light came from the tops of its ears, like two weird candles.
He locked eyes with the cat and Sage used the trick he’d been using earlier in the purple miasma, copying the scent of the Seething Purple Cobra using his Pheromone Glands. The cobras were territorial, but as long as they didn’t go too close to any dens, they didn’t come out to fight. Elder Meng told him that the Cobras hunted in these ice fields, so they had to travel back and forth through the miasma. Once he released the proper scent, as long as the cobras didn’t see them, they could sneak past unmolested. Right now, he hoped to scare this little cat with the same scent, but unfortunately the cat actually grew eager when he released the cobra scent. Seeing this, he immediately stopped, but the damage was already done.
The cat would barely come up to his knee, but it turned into a black blur. It darted towards him at high speed, but Sage spit out a black ball of poison towards it, and then immediately followed it up with a spray of green acid. The cat dodged to the side with practiced agility, but that momentary loss of speed meant it would run into the sheet of green liquid flying through the air. It was forced to turn and move laterally, which Sage met with more balls of black poison shot towards its head. While spitting out a flurry of poison, Sage crouched down and touched the warm icy ground.
Behind him, many vines sprouted from the ground and rose into the air, weaving into a dome shaped cover over the three who were resting. The dome hardened into a wooden state and then more vines twisted and wove together into the dome and it soon became a very wide base for the trunk of a tree. The ice cracked from the roots digging into it, but the tree grew tall and started to expand. Sage continued to barrage the cat with black poison darts, making it leap back and forth while he touched the tree.
Then he stepped back and large branches covered with green leaves swept downwards and formed a barrier to hide him from the black bobcat. It rushed forward to chase him, but then a soft pink gas spread from the tree and the cat spun around, digging its claws into the ice. It formed little channels on the warm ice while arresting its speed, then it watched the huge tree with clear intelligence in its eyes.