by Mars Gravity
“…” Mu Bingyun did not receive a reply after her question.
The profound light cast by the light screen was still increasing rapidly, bringing about startled shouts as it did.
Five hundred feet…
Six hundred feet…
Seven hundred feet…
Eight hundred feet!!
Once the projection reached eight hundred feet, the cries by the lakeside immediately exploded. The disciples who were originally sitting down all stood up, staring at the light screen with stupefied expressions.
Eight hundred feet. This kind of distance could be instantly covered by profound practitioners in the divine way. However, this kind of depth for the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake… was in fact an extremely terrifying number!
Even though those at the scene were Divine Ice Phoenix Sect’s top disciples, it was not exaggerated to say that around half of them would die with no chance of a struggle if they were to touch cold energy of that depth.
Yet Mu Hanyi still continued downward without any indication that he was going to stop.
Eight hundred twenty feet…
Eight hundred fifty feet…
Eight hundred eighty feet…
Nine hundred feet!!
The shouting had disappeared as all the disciples held their breaths while staring wide-eyed. Even the various elders and palace masters revealed deep shock on their faces. Only Mu Yunzhi was smiling… because she knew that this still wasn’t Mu Hanyi’s limit.
At this point, Mu Hanyi’s speed became even slower but he still continued downward.
Nine hundred twenty feet…
Nine hundred forty feet…
Nine hundred fifty feet…
With each passing foot, his speed would decrease but he never truly stopped. All eyes were firmly fixed on the light screen… they were witnessing history in the making from a disciple! Every instant after nine hundred feet was history in the making!
Nine hundred seventy feet…
Nine hundred eighty feet…
Nine hundred ninety feet!!
The rate at which Mu Hanyi descended was now extremely slow. Every inch he took seemed as though he was crossing through an insurmountable chasm. The crowd’s heartbeats also slowed along with him. They all stared with wide eyes, fearing that they would miss even a single moment.
One thousand feet!!
The shock this time was intense, as though a heavy hammer smashed the souls of everyone present. Even Mu Huanzhi, who was the closest to the light screen stared for a long while.
Mu Hanyi had finally reached his limits a thousand feet below the water. He only stayed at a thousand feet for half a breath before he began to struggle upward. It was just that his ascension speed was extremely slow. On the light screen, the light that Mu Hanyi’s soul crystal released also began to become disorderly.
“Quick, go save Hanyi!” Mu Yunzhi shouted with urgency.
Mu Huanzhi didn’t need her reminder as he had already moved lightning quick. A boundless profound energy directly pierced through a thousand feet of lakewater and enveloped Mu Hanyi’s body before quickly bringing him up.
Once the lake’s surface broke open, Mu Hanyi’s figure was flung into the distance, landing beside the lake. His face was pale white, his aura was weak and his entire body violently trembled but he still struggled to get up and salute Mu Huanzhi. “Disciple… thanks Great Elder for saving his life…”
Mu Huanzhi immediately came over and pressed her hand on his back, helping him disperse the cold energy.
“Hahahaha,” Mu Huanzhi gave a hearty laugh. “As expected of the most outstanding disciple of this generation… one of them, I mean. You actually reached one thousand feet. If I think back to our generation, there was not a single person below the age of sixty, among those who were fortunate enough to enter the heavenly lake, that were able to reach a thousand feet. This is absolutely joyous!”
“Senior Brother Hanyi, congratulations.”
“Hanyi becoming the direct disciple can’t be even more suitable.”
Mu Hanyi’s desperately doing his best was obviously so he could display himself in front of the Realm King. And he had actually done it spectacularly. His innate talent was high, his constitution was great and his attainment in the laws of ice was profound. He had deeply astounded everyone present.
Many elders looked at Mu Huanzhi with envious gazes.
“Hanyi, don’t become distracted, use your all to disperse the cold energy first. After a while, you’ll have to pay respects to the sect master again and you mustn’t be the least bit uncourteous.” Mu Yunzhi didn’t hesitate to mobilize all the profound energy in her body to allow Mu Hanyi to recover sufficiently in a short period of time.
“Yes, Master.” Mu Hanyi also closed his eyes, suppressing the extreme excitement he had in his heart. He began to do his utmost to expel the cold and was already thinking about what he should say when he was going to pay his respects to the sect master a while later.
Everyone’s attention concentrated upon the body of the glowing Mu Hanyi. It was as though Yun Che, who was still standing at the lake’s center had been forgotten.
“Yun Che, it’s your turn,” Mu Huanzhi said. This instantly reminded everyone that there was another person in this “match”.
“Mu Hanyi went down a total of a thousand feet. You only need to reach twenty percent of his depth, so two hundred feet will suffice.”
When Mu Huanzhi finished saying this, the lakeside immediately became a field of snickers. Two hundred feet? What a joke, reaching seven feet was probably his limit!
This was because Yun Che was only a bit more than seven feet.
Anyone was able to imagine the only thing that would happen once he entered the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake, which was the profound energy in his entire body immediately freezing and then him not being able to move anymore.
Yun Che took a step forward. Without saying a single word or channeling profound energy, he dropped into the heavenly lake just like that.
From this, everyone saw that he clearly given up because no matter how much he struggled, it would’ve been useless. At the same time he fell, Mu Huanzhi also reached out a hand, prepared to save him after he had been frozen by the lake water… After all, he had angered the sect master. Even if he was doomed to die, his death ought to be decided by the sect master herself.
However, once he reached out a hand, his face had stiffened at the same time.
Yun Che, who had falling into the heavenly lake did not immediately freeze as he had anticipated. Instead, when he went down, though the speed in which he descended fell short of Mu Hanyi’s, it couldn’t be considered slow.
Chapter 991: Heavenly Lake Goddess (2)
Ten feet…
Twenty feet…
Thirty feet…
Beneath everyone’s dumbstruck gaze, Yun Che directly dove down to thirty feet at a constant rate.
Inside the heavenly lake, Yun Che closed his eyes. The inconceivably heavy cold energy made him feel extremely comfortable and refreshed. He spread his arms and greedily felt the countless strands and cool currents pour into his body, allowing his body to freely sink. He was so comfortable that he nearly wanted to fall asleep right there.
As he had expected, this feeling was the same as what he had felt when he sank into the Illusory Demon Realm’s Sea of Death. It was just a bit more intense.
After all, the power level of the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake far surpassed that of the Sea of Death.
And following his gradual submergence, the cold energy also gradually became heavier.
To others, the heavenly lake’s cold energy was a nightmare. However, this kind of peak elemental environment was compatible with the Great Way of the Buddha. To Yun Che, it was paradise.
In this kind of environment, even if he didn’t do anything, his profound strength would quickly increase!
While enjoying himself, he had already casually sunk down fifty feet. This was also reflected
upon the light screen, causing multiple mouths to gape in astonishment.
The peculiar atmosphere and sounds in his surroundings made Mu Hanyi, who was currently dispersing the cold energy from his body, to open his eyes. In a single glance, he saw that the depth to which Yun Che had submerged had already reached fifty feet on the light screen.
Even though the speed was extremely slow and was the difference between the heaven and earth compared to Mu Hanyi’s one thousand feet, it had already completely torn apart their imaginations.
“W-what’s this? This isn’t possible!” Many disciples looked at each other in dismay.
Amidst there shock, Yun Che still continued to steadily go down…
Sixty feet…
Eighty feet…
One hundred feet!
“This…” The various elders and palace masters also began to look at each other.
Mu Bingyun stared fixedly at the light screen the entire time. If not for the sound transmission she had received earlier, she would’ve also been in shock. Even though she knew what was coming, the tides in her heart were still hard to quell.
One hundred twenty feet…
One hundred forty feet…
Turmoil finally appeared within Mu Hanyi’s eyes. His aura, which he had just managed to stabilize, now showed signs of disorder. Whether it was he or the Mu Yunzhi beside him, both began feeling uneasy due to their immense shock.
One hundred fifty feet… at this time, Yun Che finally stopped.
The light screen stopped, causing Mu Hanyi to fiercely suck in a huge breath; his entire body was already covered with cold sweat.
None of them would’ve imagined that Yun Che, who had just entered the divine way and previous didn’t even dare step into the heavenly lake, would be able to reach such a depth… The shock and incredulity brought about by this scene was not inferior to when Mu Hanyi had reached one thousand feet.
With profound strength at the first level of the Divine Origin Realm, he was actually able to dive to such a depth. Were his innate talent, constitution and attainments in the laws… actually this strong?
Yun Che did indeed stop inside the heavenly lake. But it wasn’t because he was unable to go down any further. In fact, he didn’t even know how far down he was at the moment and was just hesitating.
The deeper he went, the heavier the cold energy got and to his Water Spirit Evil Body, even if the cold energy was heavier, it still wouldn’t be able to harm him. Instead, it was able to allow him to absorb even more energy… In that case, if he went to the deepest part of the lake, which was where the cold energy was the heaviest…
Was it possible for him to not need to cultivate… and only rely on this extreme cold energy to reach the Divine Tribulation Realm before the Profound God Convention!?
Except…
Yun Che continued to hesitate for several breaths but in the end, he fiercely gritted his teeth and suddenly dove.
Clang!!
The blue light atop the light screen which had stilled for several breaths suddenly increased sharply, flying upward like a ray of light. In an instant, it flew to three hundred feet from one hundred fifty feet… and in the next instant, it reached five hundred feet!
Mu Huanzhi, who was standing before the light screen, felt as though someone had hit him with a heavy hammer. He swayed beneath his shock as all the hairs on his body stood on end.
The lakeside had exploded into a field of throat ripping clamor. Numerous chins fiercely dropped to the floor, as the eyeballs of everyone present nearly shot out of their sockets, with the same speed of that beam of light.
Mu Hanyi, who was currently sitting on the ground suddenly sat up, as though he had gotten electrocuted. His complexion stiffened and his gaze became dazed… it felt as though he had suddenly fallen into an incredibly absurd dream.
Yun Che continued his dive and not only did he not slow down, he had instead sped up, becoming faster and faster…
Seven hundred feet!
One thousand feet!!
Before everyone regained their senses after seeing the light beam’s drastic increase, it had yet again risen to a thousand feet before diving even deeper, immediately surpassing Mu Hanyi’s previous outstanding achievement.
Two thousand feet…
Four thousand feet…
Seven thousand feet…
Ten thousand feet!!!
A streak of blue light suddenly shot downward from above the enormous Frost Dragon, striking the light screen. The entire light screen instantly scattered into blue colored fragments and only left behind two floating soul crystals that emitted a blue light.
The Heavenly Netherfrost Lake was once more a field of silence. It was as though everyone had fallen into a dream. Mu Huanzhi turned around. His pupils were still contracted in shock and his voice also trembled slightly amidst his shock. “Sect Master, t-t-this…”
“The winner has already been decided. There is no need to watch any further,” the Snow Song Realm King said coldly. Her sharp might, which pierced through the souls of others, told them that everything they had seen was not a dream but reality.
Mu Hanyi sat on the ground with a deathly white face and trembling lips, feeling at a loss for a long time. If he had been defeated by Mu Feixue at the very start, he wouldn’t have been this lost. In fact, he might have even been able to display enough calmness… but at this time, it was as though he had suddenly been dropped from heaven into hell. The disparity was so great that it was cruel.
Mu Yunzhi, who was standing beside him, looked petrified. Like Mu Hanyi, her lips were also trembling violently and didn’t stop for a while. She was unable to say anything out loud.
“B-but…” Mu Huanzhi wanted to say something but he couldn’t seem to say it out loud.
“What but!?” The Snow Song Realm King’s voice suddenly grew louder, startling everyone into trembling. “The result of this additional exam is already clear. Yun Che has already defeated Mu Hanyi so he is exempt from his previous offense and is allowed to become this king’s direct disciple. Seven days from now, the entire sect will gather at the divine hall, thus commencing the discipleship ceremony!”
“Huanzhi, you will be in charge of arranging all this and not a single error is permitted!”
Before anyone truly regained their senses and accepted what had happened earlier, the Snow Song Realm King had already directly declared her decision. Mu Huanzhi was stunned for several breaths before he hurriedly replied, “Yes.”
“Bingyun, have Yun Che stay in the Thirty-sixth Ice Phoenix Palace for the next few days.”
“Yes,” Mu Bingyun gently replied. Behind her, Mu Xiaolan had long been stunned so badly she resembled a block of wood.
Just as Mu Bingyun replied, an angry… and also deeply grudging voice sounded beside her ears. “This brat, he had just been taught a lesson yet he still behaves this unrestrainedly. I seriously want to slap him to death!”
Mu Bingyun smiled lightly and transmitted back. “If something like nature was able to be changed that easily, it wouldn’t be nature anymore. ‘Evil God’ means an indiscriminate god. If he truly did inherit the Evil God’s power, then his nature may perhaps be related to that.”
“Forget it, since fate has decreed it so, I will abide by heaven’s will and accepted him as my disciple. I just wonder… whether his power and temperament is a blessing or a calamity to our Snow Song Realm.”
The entire Heavenly Netherfrost Lake filled with a dumbstruck atmosphere, yet the main offender of it all was still within the heavenly lake. At this time, Mu Yunzhi suddenly stood out and said while trembling, “Sect Master, Yunzhi has something to say… The matter of Yun Che winning against Hanyi is just too… too odd. Furthermore…”
No one had ever dared to go against the Snow Song Realm King’s decisions. Mu Yunzhi saying all that directly overdrafted all the courage she possessed in her lifetime. “The Profound God Convention is in two years. If Hanyi becomes the direct disciple and receives Sect
Master’s instruction, he will definitely bring glory to our Snow Song Realm. As for Yun Che… h-his profound strength is just too low. Not only will he not qualify to participate in the Profound God Convention when the time comes, I’m afraid… afraid that it might attract criticism from outside…”
After Mu Yunzhi said all this, she was covered with sweat and nearly collapsed. She was practically risking her life for this last chance.
“Oh? Are you saying that you feel that this king’s decision was foolish?”
The Snow Song Realm King’s voice was extremely indifferent without any trace of anger yet it shocked Mu Yunzhi so much that she fiercely kneeled. She said with a quaking body, “No… Yunzhi wouldn’t dare… Yunzhi has said too much, I ask Sect Master for forgiveness.”
“Then that’s good,” the Snow Song Realm King indifferently answered. The crowd below her held their breaths every time she spoke, not daring to breathe at all. “And here I thought that you’d gotten tired of living!”
Mu Yunzhi’s body swayed, almost as if she was going to crumple to the ground. Everyone deeply lowered their heads, not daring to utter a single sound.
“Since an outcome has already been decided, then today’s heavenly lake gathering should now end.”
A sky covering command filled with heavenly might then came down. “Fengshu, Sushan, you two wait outside the heavenly lake. Without this king’s order, you are not permitted to leave. As for the rest, you will all leave. No one is allowed to remain.”
“In addition, the matter of this king accepting a disciple is not to be spread outside before the discipleship ceremony in seven days!”
Both Mu Fengshu and Mu Sushan revealed shocked expressions. They were rarely summoned by the Snow Song Realm King, perhaps once in several hundred years, yet this time, both of them were told to stay…
Could it be for some great Freezing Snow Hall matter?
Terrified, the duo naturally did not dare to ask about it as they agreed with lowered heads.
Amidst the silence, this heavenly lake gathering, that had progressed outside of everyone’s expectations, came to an end within a strange atmosphere. Disciples of the divine hall and ice phoenix palace neatly departed from the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake with their elders and palace masters in the lead.
