The Ice Cave of Despair

Feeling several auras approaching, Lin Xiao stopped what he was doing and stood up.

From behind a small iceberg not far away, a figure in blue clothing walked out and asked,

“Little brother, digging a hole here won’t work. You can’t get out that way.”

Hearing the voice, Lin Xiao turned to look. The speaker, dressed in blue, looked quite young, with a very upright appearance. He seemed to be in his early twenties, and his cultivation was at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

Assuming Lin Xiao was digging a hole to escape, Lin Xiao didn’t bother to explain. Instead, he followed the man’s lead and asked,

“Is that so? Then how do we get out?”

The man in blue smiled helplessly and shook his head.

“If I knew, I wouldn’t still be stuck in this godforsaken place. There’s nothing here except these icebergs and empty buildings. Now that we’re trapped, there’s no way to gather resources in the first three days. Sigh… I suppose we can only wait until the exit opens in fifteen days and get sent out automatically…”

Lin Xiao was about to respond when another voice suddenly rang out nearby:

“Waiting to be automatically teleported out after fifteen days? That’s probably impossible.”

The two who had been talking turned to look. A young Qi Refining cultivator in silver-embroidered red robes stepped forward. Like the blue-clad man, he was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, but his face looked slightly more boyish, as if he had just turned twenty.

The blue-clad man seemed surprised when he saw the silver-embroidered red robe.

“Heavenly Mystery Sect?”

The man from the Heavenly Mystery Sect cupped his hands toward the two and said,

“Hu Guanyu of the Heavenly Mystery Sect.”

Lin Xiao and the blue-clad cultivator also gave their names. The blue-clad man was called Jiang Cheng.

After exchanging names, Jiang Cheng asked curiously,

“May I ask what Brother Hu meant by what you just said?”

Hu Guanyu’s face turned serious.

“You must have arrived at Yuanling City not long ago. You might not know this, but in the Icefield Secret Realm, some areas not marked on the maps aren’t there because they haven’t been explored. After all, this secret realm has been around for over a hundred years.

Rather, it’s because anyone who enters these uncharted areas simply cannot bring any information about them back out. No matter what they discover inside, the details never leave.”

“If… if that’s true, what do we do?” Jiang Cheng’s once-calm face showed traces of panic and unease.

Lin Xiao looked confused.

“If this is true, why haven’t any rumors leaked outside? If that were the case, wouldn’t many cultivators go missing every year when the secret realm closes? Shouldn’t that reveal the danger in the realm?”

Hu Guanyu gave him a surprised glance, then shook his head and replied,

“Little brother, I take it you’ve been kept at home most of the time and rarely gone out to train. You don’t know this: every year, at least tens of thousands of cultivators enter the Icefield Secret Realm. But do you know how many actually come out when it closes? Fewer than two-thirds.

Of the missing third, most die in fights with other cultivators. People like us, unlucky enough to stumble into these unmapped areas, barely count. When they don’t come out after the realm closes, everyone just assumes they died in battle within the realm. Nobody knows they perished in a trap like this.”

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng nervously asked,

“Then how did you find out?”

Hu Guanyu pulled a piece of white cloth from inside his robe, covered in dense writing.

“Because yesterday, I found this among the remains of a corpse inside here.”

He handed the cloth to Lin Xiao and Jiang Cheng.

“This cloth must have been left here before this year. The writing briefly explains what happened to the person after he entered this place.”

Lin Xiao took the cloth, and Jiang Cheng stepped closer to read along with him.

It turned out the cloth was a suicide note written by a Foundation Establishment cultivator named Yuan Zhonghe.

He wrote that after he first entered the secret realm, he appeared in this ice cave. He tried every method he could think of and teamed up with others who had landed there, but they still couldn’t find any way out.

As days passed, they gave up their futile efforts, deciding to simply wait for the fifteenth day to be teleported out.

But on the fifteenth day, they still felt no sign of being teleported. They remained trapped in the enormous ice cave.

Three days later, at some unknown hour, day or night,

a bone-piercing chill suddenly filled the cave, strong enough to make even Foundation Establishment cultivators shiver in pain.

This cold was eerie. No matter how much spiritual energy they used to warm themselves, it did nothing. The cold seemed to burrow into everyone’s very soul, growing stronger each day.

A group of Foundation Establishment cultivators shivered violently inside the ice cave, their lips turning purple, their teeth chattering uncontrollably.

As time went on, the temperature dropped lower and lower. Many Qi Refining cultivators with lower cultivation levels died early. Even some early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators froze into human icicles. Only a few mid- to late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators barely lingered on.

Realizing he might soon die, Yuan Zhonghe mustered his last strength to write this suicide note.

At the end, he begged that if a kind-hearted person found the note, and if later arrivals were skilled enough to escape this terrifying ice cave, they would please take his remains out to tell his son of his death.

After reading this, Lin Xiao felt uneasy inside, but he showed none of it on his face.

Jiang Cheng, however, was terrified. His eyes went blank for a moment, and he muttered,

“Those Foundation Establishment seniors all died here… Doesn’t that mean entering this place means there’s no way out?”

Seeing Jiang Cheng so dejected and afraid, Hu Guanyu straightened his posture and said,

“Seniors are seniors. I am myself. No matter what you think, I refuse to believe a little ice cave in some secret realm can trap me. I will not die here!

Anyway, I’ve told you what Senior Yuan’s note says. You decide what to do. I’m off now.”

With that, he turned to leave but then stopped and came back, reaching out to Lin Xiao, who was still holding the note.

“Give me back that suicide note. I still need to take Senior Yuan’s remains out and inform his son.”

Lin Xiao found the man quite interesting. He returned the cloth and then asked,

“Where are you going?”

Hu Guanyu said,

“To find a way out, of course.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”