Chapter 111: Snow's Heart Town.
While the Southern Tundra was incredibly vast, Yao Luying had placed the jade plate close to the edge of the Southern Tundra, allowing Yao Jun and Guo Luo to leave the tundra after only three days of flight. There were no proper human settlements in the Southern Tundra, only spread tribes of nomads, so Yao Jun did not see a point in staying within the Southern Tundra.
“There is another one!”
A few days after they left the Southern Tundra and were flying towards a town that had been marked on the map, Guo Luo pointed at a spot in the sky as she called out. After she called out, Yao Jun quickly turned his body towards where she pointed.
He gathered lightning in his hand, forming it into a spear of lightning, and threw it out. The spear flew through the air, the booming sound of thunder roaring out as it flew. After only a short moment, the spear hit a bird that was flying in the distance, the lightning invading it's body and roasting it's heart.
As the bird fell down from the air, Little Gray swooped over and picked up the bird, handing it to Yao Jun. This bird was a weak Demonic beast, it had not even reached the 1st Mortal Earth.
While they were flying, they would occasionally spot Demonic beasts like this one. Whenever they did, Yao Jun or Little Gray would rush over and kill it. After killing it, Yao Jun would then absorb it into his gate, slightly strengthening his own Demonic beasts. The increase in strength was tiny, but it would surely accumulate with time.
This bird was already the 7th Demonic beast they had found and killed in the few days after leaving the Southern Tundra. Most of the time, it was Guo Luo who called out whenever she spotted a Demonic beast, letting Yao Jun know where it was.
Of course, more often than not, Yao Jun had spotted the Demonic beast before Guo Luo. He would of course not let her know this, as he enjoyed the sight of her smiling whenever she spotted a Demonic beast and got to warn Yao Jun about it.
“Good work Luo'er. If we manage to get a few more, Little Gray and Ba-Shei might be able to break through.”
Yao Jun finished absorbing the Demonic beast and sat down next to Guo Luo again, grabbing her hand and speaking with a smile. Ba-Shei had been at the peak of the 1st Mortal Earth, while Little Gray was the one receiving the most benefit from all these bird type Demonic beasts.
“Is that the town we are heading to?”
While Guo Luo was smiling and feeling happy at receiving praise, she suddenly spotted a small town on the horizon that was growing larger as they got closer. She quickly pointed towards the village as she asked Yao Jun.
“Indeed. That is Snow's Heart Town.”
Yao Jun turned his head and inspected the town in the distance. Snow's Heart was the town closest to the Southern Tundra, so Yao Jun had chosen it to be their first stopping point.
Yao Jun had Little Gray head closer to the ground and slightly increase his speed. A few hours, the two of them walked into Snow's Heart Town. The buildings inside Snow's Heart Town were not constructed out of wood, but rather out of blocks of hardened snow that trapped the heat within the house.
When the blocks of hardened snow were created, one could mix in a large variety of materials that would give the block of snow a different color. Because of this, the houses in Snow's Heart were all very colorful, a stark contrast to the pure white snow that fell from the sky and covered the ground.
The first thing Yao Jun and Guo Luo did after entering the town was find a small inn and renting a room where they could stay for a few days. After renting a room, Guo Luo grabbed Yao Jun and dragged him into town, finding the closest clothing shop.
Towns like these would often have their own style of clothing, so Guo Luo was very interested in seeing the style of Snow's Heart Town clothing. After entering a clothing store, a person who worked for the store started bringing Guo Luo around, showing off all the different styles of clothing that they had.
While Guo Luo was touring the clothing store, Yao Jun himself was wandering around the store on his own. He wasn't too interested in clothing, but since Guo Luo enjoyed it, he would of course not say anything against it.
They proceeded to spend almost three hours inside the clothing store, with Guo Luo looking at nearly every single piece of clothing they had for sale. She ended up not buying anything, but seeing her bright smile upon leaving the store, Yao Jun did not mind it.
“Wait a second.”
Right after they left the store and Guo Luo was about to ask him where he wanted to go next, Yao Jun opened his mouth first. Guo Luo stopped and looked at him as he swiped his interspatial ring, pulling out a light yellow piece of cloth.
“I figured this would look good on you.”
Yao Jun used his right arm and wrapped the piece of cloth around Guo Luo's neck as he spoke, revealing the piece of cloth to be a light yellow scarf made out of a silk like material. It was soft and cool to the touch, but as it wrapped around her neck, a comfortable warmth spread around Guo Luo's body.
After Yao Jun finished wrapping the scarf around Guo Luo's neck, he couldn't help but give a small nod. The light yellow scarf mixed well with her green qipao, pink eyes, and multicolored hair, it could be called a perfect fit.
Guo Luo inspected herself quickly, her face beaming up with a radiant smile. She stepped forward and gave Yao Jun a deep kiss, before leaning against his chest, her entire face bright red.
“Let's keep going.”
Yao Jun's own face also cracked into a smile as he spoke, locking hands with Guo Luo and continuing their tour around the town. It was already rather late by the time they arrived, so they chose to only find a small restaurant and eat some food before returning to the inn and resting for the night.
The next morning, the two of them continued their tour of the town. Instead of eating breakfast at the inn, the two of them chose to wander around town and simply buy food from some of the small stands that were located at various places inside the town.
There were very little vegetables in the area because of the snow, so most of the food that was sold consisted of meat from various animals that could be found in the area.
“What is the Raging Snow Sect?”
Yao Jun and Guo Luo found a stand that sold a type of candy that apparently could only be found in cities controlled by the Raging Snow Sect. The candy was made from some type of hardened snow that had been infused with various different flavors and colors. It was eaten much like one would eat a lollipop. After leaving the stand, Guo Luo couldn't help but ask Yao Jun about the Raging Snow Sect.
“Raging Snow Sect is a small sect that popped up a few years ago and controls the few towns and cities closest to the Southern Tundra. The strongest person in the sect is someone who is between the 2nd and 3rd Mortal Earth.”
Raging Snow Sect had been mentioned in the jade slip that Yao Luying had left for him, so Yao Jun simply needed to go through his memories to find the information from the jade slip.
“They have mainly become as strong as they are now because they were lucky and managed to tame a Snow Elemental and have it guard their headquarters.”
A Snow Elemental was the same type of Demonic beast as a Plant Type Demonic beast, only that it was made of snow. Wherever a large amount of Qi gathered in a single location, there was always a chance that one of the things within that location would gain sentience and become a Demonic beast.
If it was made of snow, it would be called a Snow Elemental. Of course, it was not only snow and plants that could do this, nearly all things could gain sentience. Water, earth, rocks, even the wind itself could gain sentience if enough Qi was gathered. Yao Jun hypothesized that the massive Demonic beast he had awakened after leaving Zhenya valley was such a Demonic beast.
“They control the towns around here? Won't that anger the Yao clan?”
Guo Luo couldn't help but ask, slightly confused. Would the Yao clan not destroy any other organizations that tried to rule anything within their lands?
“The Yao clan controls a truly massive area, how would they care about a small area like this? As long as the Raging Snow Sect pays the Yao clan every year and doesn't go against their bottom line, the Yao clan will not bother doing anything.”
Yao Jun chuckled as he explained. Destroying the Raging Snow Sect would not let the Yao clan gain anything. But if they allowed the Raging Snow Sect to stay around and rule, they could force them to pay a certain amount of resources every year.
“See those men? They are part of the Raging Snow Sect.”
As they were walking, Yao Jun pointed at a few men who were patrolling the streets, making sure that no one was causing any trouble. The people were clad in white robes with the insignia of the Raging Snow Sect embroidered on their chest. The insignia of the Raging Snow Sect was a single snowflake hovering above a mountain, acting as a moon.
The men from the Raging Snow Sect noticed Yao Jun pointing at them, so they slightly nodded their head, sending a polite greeting to them. Yao Jun and Guo Luo both returned the greeting, but neither of the two groups stopped to chat with each other.
The two groups passed by each other and continued on their way. But once the men from the Raging Snow Sect turned a corner and left the sight of Yao Jun and Guo Luo, they took out a jade slip and spoke a few words into it, before filling it with Qi and crushing it.