Ice Spirit of the Tundra

One of the suspicious spots Senior Liao had pointed out earlier was right around here.

However, after fishing at this Ice Snow Lake for half a day, Lin Xiao hadn't noticed anything unusual other than the fact that spells couldn't be used in the lake. Thus, he decided to stroll around the vicinity first.

Seeing a group of cultivators preparing to leave, Lin Xiao also stood up, planning to follow them.

Arriving at the ice stone platform where fish were being gutted, Lin Xiao mimicked the others and gutted a few silver-tailed fish before quietly storing the remaining ones from his large net into the live-creature storage area of his private vault.

But even after wandering around with the crowd for a long time, Lin Xiao still didn't find anything special.

By now, six days had passed since their first day entering this secret realm.

Only nine days remained.

Lin Xiao reviewed the places he had visited over the past few days.

They all seemed quite ordinary, just typical areas found in regular secret realms, and Senior Liao also said there were no issues.

Thinking it over, the only slightly peculiar thing was the inability to use spells to catch fish at the Ice Snow Lake.

Therefore, Lin Xiao decided to go back and take another look.

However, just as he separated from the crowd and was about to turn back, he suddenly noticed something darting toward him through the snow.

Its speed was so fast that before his divine sense could even capture it, it had already dashed right in front of him!

With just a glance, Lin Xiao clearly saw the appearance of the creature pouncing at him.

This creature looked quite bizarre. Its entire body was transparently white, and its total length was less than fifty centimeters. It had a rather large head and slender, long limbs.

Just looking at its appearance, it didn't match any living creature Lin Xiao knew. If he had to use a word to describe it, the only thing he could think of was 'elf'.

Instantly, Lin Xiao recalled meeting Yuan Zhiyun on Seven Star Street in Yuanling City over ten days ago. She had mentioned wanting to form a team to catch the Icefield Elf in this Icefield Secret Realm, right?

Could this be...

However, all these thoughts flashed by in a mere instant.

The next moment, Lin Xiao saw something extend from his chest, and with a smack, it snatched up the creature suspected to be the Icefield Elf.

Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment before realizing that it was Senior Liao who had made a move:

"Senior, what was that thing just now?"

Liao Pantu, inside the Soul Nourishing Pendant, sent a voice transmission to him:

"I don't know what kind of dumb luck you have, kid. To think you'd encounter an Icefield Elf on your first time entering an Icefield Secret Realm!

These Icefield Elves inhabit extremely cold lands year-round, but their numbers are exceedingly rare, and they are terrified of humans. Back in the day, to catch an Icefield Elf, I trekked tens of thousands of miles to an extremely cold land and staked it out for months before finally catching one. I never expected you'd meet one that actively bumped into you...

If I weren't a soul entity hidden in your clothes, catching it off guard, capturing it in this world of ice and snow would have taken quite a bit of effort."

"That little thing just now was actually an Icefield Elf?" Lin Xiao was somewhat surprised.

"I wonder what use this Icefield Elf has?"

Liao Pantu extended a translucent hand from Lin Xiao's chest, handing him a small box, and said:

"A situation suddenly arose with one of my soul entities elsewhere. Take this and look at it yourself for now." After saying that, his soul entity on this side fell into a deep slumber.

Lin Xiao took the small box. Hearing him say that another soul entity had an issue, he hurriedly asked:

"What happened?"

However, he did not hear any further response from Senior Liao.

He had no choice but to store the small box in his private vault first, planning to use the appraisal function to check it.

Using the appraisal function on the small box in his private vault, the first line of text that caught his eye was:

[A Lingxi Sealing Box containing an Icefield Elf. This sealing box can seal various types of elves.]

As for the Icefield Elf, there was absolutely no explanation. Presumably, it was because it was sealed inside the box. He might have to release the Icefield Elf and catch it directly into the private vault to get an explanation.

However, he wasn't confident that he could catch the incredibly fast Icefield Elf again once it was released, so he decided to forget it.

Then, Lin Xiao asked the system:

"Didn't you say the private vault cannot store creatures that have developed sentience?" This Icefield Elf was so hard to catch, it couldn't possibly be below the first level of Spirit Awakening, right?

[Elves are different from ordinary spirit beasts. Normal elves do not possess sentience, and it is very difficult for them to develop it.]

Lin Xiao thought about it and tried to understand it himself.

The difference between so-called low-level creatures and high-level creatures, as judged by the system, should lie in whether they have a soul or not.

So perhaps this meant that ordinary elves did not have souls?

Forget it, there was no point guessing. He would just wait for Senior Liao to return and ask him.

Putting aside these temporarily unimportant thoughts, he hurriedly rushed back toward the Ice Snow Lake.

The shores of the Ice Snow Lake were still overcrowded.

However, Lin Xiao didn't plan to go through the lakeshore. He intended to go up the large snow mountain behind the Ice Snow Lake to take a look.

Only then did he notice that the fishing cultivators would rather cram together on the lakeshore, yet not a single person went to the snow mountain on the other side to fish.

There were clearly some places to stand on the snow mountain.

It could easily accommodate more people fishing there.

Around the entire Ice Snow Lake, aside from the fishing groups by the shore, other areas were also quite bustling. There were people gutting fish everywhere, newcomers arriving, people packing up to leave, and others pitching tents in the open spaces at the back, preparing for a long fight.

Continually using his concealment spell, Lin Xiao easily bypassed the bustling crowds unnoticed and arrived at the other side of the snow mountain behind the Ice Snow Lake.

The map marked this place as an empty snow mountain with nothing on it.

However, when Lin Xiao zoomed in on the map and looked closely, he found the word 'Danger' marked in a corner of the snow mountain.

That's right, this map could be zoomed in, and it detailed a great many things.

Lin Xiao felt that buying this map was totally worth it.

He thought for a moment and decided to go over and take a look.

But before doing so, he had already buried a mother positioning talisman on the spot.

Anyway, if things looked bad, running away was the best strategy!

There was no shame in fleeing.

He arrived not far from the spot marked 'Danger' on the map.

Then he saw that right in front of him, at the exact location of the 'Danger' mark, was a vast, white dense forest.

The dense forest was full of completely white trees. Their leaves and branches were as white as snow. At first glance, Lin Xiao thought they were just bare trees covered in heavy snow.

As gusts of cold wind blew past, Lin Xiao couldn't help but shiver.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Xiao felt as though he saw a continuous stream of blood-red gazes staring back at him.