Out of the Ice Cave

Just now, he suddenly felt a strange sensation.

However, the feeling was very unclear and fleeting, leaving him somewhat confused.

Ever since he dealt with Old Dog Liao decades ago, he had felt completely at ease. It had been a long time since he experienced such an uncomfortable feeling.

Could it be that Old Dog Liao had broken free?

Impossible!

Back then, he had personally split that dog's soul, placed a seal on every single soul fragment, and watched with his own eyes as people took these fragments into different secret realms.

Those who entered the secret realms were merely Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core cultivators. Even if Old Dog Liao had the dumb luck to encounter some fool willing to unseal him, that person definitely wouldn't have the capability to do so.

After all, this was a seal set by him, a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Yin Xuanzi shook his head.

It had been decades; Old Dog Liao's soul fragments might have already dissipated. What did he have to worry about?

It must be because things had been complicated lately, and he still hadn't touched the threshold of a breakthrough. Coupled with the fact that his disciples were all troublemakers who constantly caused problems, he had been overthinking recently, which led to this hallucination.

After all, he was already over seven hundred years old now, and the lifespan of a Nascent Soul cultivator generally capped at eight hundred years.

Yet, after decades of secluded cultivation, he hadn't even touched the boundaries of a breakthrough.

Thinking of this, Yin Xuanzi let out a long sigh, closed his eyes again, and continued his secluded cultivation.

Right now, no matter what it was, nothing was more important than his breakthrough!

Meanwhile, his mortal enemy, Liao Pantu, was currently nestled in Lin Xiao's embrace, discussing with him how to get out of this ice cave.

"Why don't you try using your Heaven and Earth Shifting Array in a bit? This is just a secret realm with laws that only allow Foundation Establishment cultivators to enter. The Heaven and Earth Shifting Array is an Earth-tier array; it should be able to break through the spatial walls of this Foundation Establishment secret realm."

Hearing him mention the Heaven and Earth Shifting Array that devoured spirit stones without hesitation, Lin Xiao felt a twinge of bitterness in his heart and immediately replied:

"But what about all those people who died here before? Did none of them have an Earth-tier teleportation array on them?"

Inside the Soul Nourishing Pendant, Liao Pantu rolled his eyes:

"Do you think Earth-tier arrays are like cabbages in your village?

Generally speaking, the arrays and talismans used by those in the Qi Refining and even Foundation Establishment stages are all unranked miscellaneous goods. If they have a strong family background, possessing a Yellow-tier item is already enough to make others envious, let alone Mystic-tier items above the Yellow-tier, which even Golden Core cultivators would treat as precious treasures if they managed to get one.

Not to mention, your Heaven and Earth Shifting Array is a highly rare teleportation array among arrays. How could these Foundation Establishment cultivators possibly carry an Earth-tier array with them, and a teleportation one at that?"

Hearing this, Lin Xiao said:

"Then I'll give it a try later."

When the time came, he would choose to teleport just outside the ice cave. Such a short distance shouldn't cost too many spirit stones, right?

Not long after, Lin Xiao followed the paper crane behind an iceberg and saw Hu Guanyu and Jiang Cheng resting and meditating.

Seeing him arrive, Hu Guanyu, who had been somewhat worried that something might have happened to him, felt relieved. Jiang Cheng, however, approached with an inexplicable expression and immediately asked him why the houses in the center of the ice cave had disappeared, and if he knew a way out.

Could Lin Xiao tell him that he had dug them all up? Of course not. So, he put on an act for Jiang Cheng, looking at him with an innocent and ignorant expression as he shook his head and said:

"Why would Fellow Cultivator Jiang say that? I don't know what houses you're talking about. As for a way out, if I knew, I would have already left by now."

Jiang Cheng didn't believe him, but Lin Xiao ignored him. After dealing with him, he directly said to Hu Guanyu:

"Fellow Cultivator Hu, when should we continue looking for a way out?"

Hu Guanyu thought for a moment and said:

"Right now."

So the three set off, carefully wandering around the massive ice cave.

Throughout the entire ice cave, there were people everywhere doing the same as them.

Many people even flew on their swords to the upper areas of the ice cave to investigate.

Normally, when encountering other cultivators, people would carefully guard against being backstabbed. But right now, everyone's minds were focused on finding a way out, turning a blind eye to the cultivators passing by them.

Some would even nod to each other, establishing a nodding acquaintance. After all, who knew if someone here might get lucky and find a way out?

The three searched like this for sixteen hours, yet still found nothing.

Hu Guanyu felt a bit depressed in his heart.

Was he really going to lose his life here?

If he had known this would happen, he shouldn't have acted on impulse and ignored Senior Brother Xi's dissuasion, insisting on coming out alone to gain experience.

If he couldn't get out this time, even if he wanted to regret it, it would be useless.

Thinking of this, he secretly gritted his teeth. He had to find the exit! When he left home to join a sect and cultivate, he had promised his family that once he achieved success in his cultivation, he would return to revitalize the clan!

He wanted to make the Hu family regain its glory from a thousand years ago!

He absolutely could not die so easily in this small secret realm!

Lin Xiao suddenly felt that the aura of Hu Guanyu beside him seemed to have changed a bit, and the spiritual energy around him had become somewhat sharp.

But looking up, he saw no special expression on his face, only that his searching look had become more focused.

Just like that, twenty hours passed.

The three still found nothing.

Not only them, but all the cultivators in the entire ice cave were the same.

Hu Guanyu and Jiang Cheng meditated and rested on the ground, somewhat exhausted.

Their exhaustion was not physical, but psychological. Coupled with twenty hours of highly concentrated focus and the result of searching bitterly without a single clue, their frustration greatly accelerated their sense of fatigue.

While the two were resting, Lin Xiao looked around and used his spiritual sense to investigate. After confirming that there was no one within a few hundred meters, he quietly used a hypnosis technique on Hu Guanyu and Jiang Cheng.

As a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, hypnotizing two slightly tired and resting Qi Refining cultivators was incredibly easy for him.

After hypnotizing both of them, he took out the Heaven and Earth Shifting Array and placed it on the ground.

Previously, there were only 287 spirit stones left in this array disk, and he didn't know if these spirit stones were enough for the array disk to break through the spatial barrier.

Therefore, under Liao Pantu's instigation, Lin Xiao very reluctantly threw another thousand spirit stones into it.

In Liao Pantu's words,

"Anyway, you'll have to spend over a thousand spirit stones when you go back later, so it's fine to put a bit more in now."

After Lin Xiao took Liao Pantu, activated the array, and stepped inside, it wasn't long before the Heaven and Earth Shifting Array on the ground lit up with a burst of white light. Subsequently, Lin Xiao and the array disk on the ground vanished from their original spot.

When he opened his eyes again, he found that he had already arrived beside the snow mountain from before he entered the ice cave.