The Wandering Immortal

Chapter 84 Ingenuity
Jiang Yuan and Qing He were now on the edge of the Great Snow Mountain, a place rarely visited by humans.

Jiang Yuan had long wanted to come to this place. The mountains have been covered in snow for tens of thousands of years, and he was sure he could find the Frost Jade Marrow.

It turned out that the icy jade marrow was only the size of a mung bean, which was far too ineffective for gathering spiritual energy for a Golden Core cultivator.

That thing isn't something you can just find by digging up any rock; it must be buried deep underground and nourished by spiritual energy. A place where you can dig out icy jade marrow must have a spiritual vein.

Therefore, Jiangyuan has been patrolling the high sky, using feng shui and geomancy to examine the terrain.

The snow-covered mountains are so thick that they pose a great challenge to feng shui analysis, making it impossible to discern anything.

Jiang Yuan sighed. No wonder there weren't many major sects in this place; spiritual veins were indeed hard to find.

Even after landing on the ground, one's spiritual senses would be disturbed. All that could be seen was endless white ice and snow, so one could only walk along the snow line at the foot of the mountain, hoping to find some clues.

After walking for more than a month at the foot of the snow-capped mountains, we unexpectedly discovered a small oasis. Three small hills, like armchairs, surrounded a valley plain stretching for several miles. In front of the plain was a small lake with azure water that reflected the snow-capped mountains.

It really is a place with excellent feng shui, but the layout is a bit small. If a cave were dug at the foot of the mountain, it would be a good place to live in seclusion.

The lake is not far from the Great Snow Mountain, yet it has never frozen, so there must be geothermal hot springs there.

Jiang Yuan looked around the small lake for a long time. This place should have had some spiritual energy, but for some reason it showed signs of decay. Perhaps someone had cultivated here and absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

To verify his idea, Jiang Yuan decided to go into the water to take a look. If someone had cultivated here and cleaned up the surrounding area, there might be some traces left on the bottom of the water, such as residues from alchemy or weapon forging.

Jiang Yuan's tiger shark robe came in handy, allowing him to enter the water without any obstruction. He was surprised to find that the small lake was quite deep, and he couldn't see the bottom even after diving three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

Jiang Yuan's interest grew even stronger, and he dived down another two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) before discovering an illusionary restriction.

Qinghe waited by the lake for two incense sticks' worth of time but Jiang Yuan didn't come up, so she had to go down to check. To her surprise, he was actually breaking the formation below.

It took the two of them half an hour to break through the restriction. What appeared before them was a stone door. Who would build a cave five zhang underwater?

Pushing open the stone door, there was indeed a passage inside, but there was no water at all; the defensive array outside blocked the lake water.

Jiang Yuan had surveyed the area before breaking the formation. The restriction hadn't been touched for hundreds of years, and some parts were covered in silt, but it couldn't be ruled out that an old monster might be in seclusion inside. Suddenly prying open the gate was simply inexplicable.

However, having come this far, they naturally couldn't give up now. Both of them activated their protective auras and slowly explored further in.

Jiang Yuan used the talisman warrior to scout ahead, but found no traps or mechanisms. Qing He also had the flower fairy Qiong Niang take a look, and indeed there were no formations or anything like that.

Indeed, the cave entrance is five zhang underwater. Unless one is a Golden Core cultivator, no ordinary person would dare to dive that deep. Moreover, there is a Nascent Soul level array restriction. It would be too much to put any traps or mechanisms inside.

The two walked for about two or three miles and found that the space became more and more spacious, and the terrain was going uphill, with dozens of steps leading up to them.

Good heavens, this cave might be built inside a snow-capped mountain, but the entrance is located at the bottom of a lake several miles away.

Qinghe couldn't help but ask, "Why is it that every time you discover a good place, someone has already built a cave dwelling there?"

Jiang Yuan laughed and said, "The study of feng shui has existed since ancient times. Good places have naturally been occupied by people. Whether the original owner has perished or ascended to heaven, they still have to leave something for their descendants. You can't take anything with you when you die."

After walking uphill for several miles, there was a large hall in the middle, which opened up into a bright and spacious place. The stone wall there was more than three zhang wide, but this wall was just a screen wall. The cave dwelling split into three paths behind the screen wall: left, upper, right, lower, and straight in the middle.

At this point, Jiang Yuan understood that the person who dug the cave was also a genius. The left side leading upwards was to draw in the cold air from the snow mountain, and the right side leading downwards must have dug into the vein of earth fire.

The fusion of water and fire is an extremely rare spiritual vein, and the cave owner has actually created one. Jiang Yuan decided to go up and take a look; if he could draw in the cold energy, he might actually find the Frost Jade Marrow.

After walking uphill for about three miles, we came to a nearly natural cavern, which was a mile high inside. In the very center was a small, upside-down hill, and below the hill was a dried-up stone pit.

This should have been the essence of the spiritual vein, and the dripping from the inverted hill was dragon marrow liquid, but unfortunately it has been completely dried up, which is probably why the cave was abandoned.

Jiang Yuan circled the stone pit for a long time, first trimming the tip of the drooping hill. Although it was dry, it had still been nourished by the dragon marrow liquid and should be usable for alchemy.

Then, she used her flying sword to cut a piece in the middle of the stone pit. Qinghe immediately understood that, just like digging for spiritual springs in the Five Ridges, there must be something good underground.

After digging for half an hour, Jiang Yuan was overjoyed to find a piece of clear jade stone at a depth of half a zhang. In this cold and frozen spiritual vein, it was highly likely that icy jade marrow would be formed.

So they widened the pit further, carefully cut away the surrounding jadeite, and finally unearthed a piece of extremely cold jade the size of a human head.

Qinghe suddenly felt a chill and used her Rejuvenating Eyes to examine it. Inside, there was a fist-sized ice crystal, which should be the Frost Jade Marrow that her husband had been dreaming of.

Jiang Yuan did not cut the jade immediately, but put it into his storage bag.

The cave also has passages extending upwards, and if I'm not mistaken, there must be a spirit stone vein above it, with dragon marrow being the marker of the end of the spirit vein.

However, the spirit stone mine above had long been emptied out and transformed into a cave. Most amazingly, that guy actually opened a window in the glacier to bring the light from the snow mountain into the room for lighting, so there was no need to use spirit stone lamps during the day.

The icy cave above has been cleared out; nothing was left behind.

The two turned back and headed down towards the fire vein cave on the right. If it were a large-scale earth fire vein, it could contain some good things.

Nascent Soul stage monsters who specialize in fire magic will desperately search for the Earth Fire Vein. If they can refine some Earth Fire essence, it will greatly benefit their fire-type attack power.

Major sects are accustomed to using the fire of the earth's core to refine pills. If an alchemist cannot open the fire-type divine gate acupoints, using the fire of the earth's core is naturally more energy-efficient and also very stable.

They walked down five miles before they saw the vein of earth fire, which was also shielded by an array.

Even through the array, one could feel the intense heat; below lay a vast river of scorching lava.

This further confirms why the cave was abandoned: the earth fire vein was too powerful, and the ice spiritual vein above it was too small, so they could not balance it out and the ice spiritual energy was quickly evaporated.

Although Cui Qinghe's cultivation level was slightly higher, she couldn't withstand the high temperature of the Earth Fire Vein. Jiang Yuan could only give Qinghe his inner armor, while Wan Haiming's treasured armor from Laoshan could withstand the flames.

After the two worked together to break through the array's confinement, they decided to try their luck around the lava river.

Jiang Yuan activated his Frost Shield. He was covered in white mist from being roasted in the lava river, which consumed a lot of mana, but it would last for a while.

Cui Qinghe is protected by her protective armor, and with the activation of her water shield, she can withstand the attack for a period of time.

The two flew above the lava river for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before finally obtaining a fire spirit mushroom.

This unique Ganoderma lucidum, which grows beside lava, contains the essence of fire and is a rare treasure for those with fire-type spiritual veins. It is also beneficial for Jiang Yuan to open his fire-type acupoints.

Refining the essence of earth fire is out of the question. With Jiang Yuan's current cultivation level, he might be able to forcibly refine a bean-sized piece of earth fire essence, but it would take at least ten days to half a month, which is unbearable in this scorching place.

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(End of this chapter)