The Twentieth Spirit

  "Seventh Younger Brother, we won't make it to the town tonight, we'll have to camp out!" Zilan said, looking at the sun that had already set.

  "No big deal, by the way, how much longer until the arrival of the Purple Dragon Emperor?" Tang Yan asked, unfamiliar with the outside world.

  "At least two months, what's wrong?" Zilan looked at Tang Yan and asked.

  "Nothing, I feel like we've been followed by many people all the way here today, let's leave the Tianying Sect as soon as possible and we'll be safe!" Tang Yan whispered to Zilan.

  "Tianying Sect's territory? We just need to hurry for a few more days and we'll be there, but I heard from Father that the leader of Tianying Sect might be a Five-Star Douling!" Zi Lan said.

  "Dou Ling!?!" Tang Yan was slightly startled when he heard the two words "Dou Ling", because his current strength couldn't withstand a fight against Dou Ling, and he feared that someone of Dou Ling's level would take action against him.

  If it were a Great Douluo, Tang San would still have a chance of winning. If he was given several months' time, he also had confidence that he could defeat a Dou Ling-level opponent. However, the enemy wouldn't give him any time now, and Tang San couldn't find anything to rapidly increase his strength in such a short period of time, unless he encountered another Bone Forging Pool.

  "Zilan, let's find a cleaner place to rest for a while, and we'll continue our journey tomorrow!" Tang Yan said, pointing to the small woods by the side of the road.

  "Hmm!"

  Space ring, even Tian Xiong of Lian Quan Men didn't have one, how could Zi Lan possibly have one? Although Tang Yan had a space ring in his hand, Zi Lan still carried a small package on her back. As for this package, Tang Yan had been asking her to put it away since they left the school, but Zi Lan refused and insisted on carrying it, making Tang Yan feel like there was something inside that she didn't want him to know about. Otherwise, why would she let him store all their other clothes in his space ring, but not this package?

  However, Tang Yan didn't ask much. Now he is setting up a small tent for Zilan in the small woods, a small single-person tent. It should be said that it's just a simple tent made by Tang Yan using a bed sheet. He chopped a few branches, arranged them into two triangles on the ground, placed a horizontal branch at the top of each triangle, and then covered them with the bed sheet. This way, they can block out the night fog and also keep mosquitoes away!

  Zi Lan originally thought that Tang Yan would sleep with her, but after seeing him finish setting up the tent, he untied his backpack and sat down cross-legged on it. He said something about keeping watch for her, which touched Zi Lan's heart, making her think that he might make a move tonight, but instead he went to keep watch.

  "Go to sleep a bit earlier, we still have a long way to go tomorrow!" Tang Yan said, turning his head back to the tent where Zi Yue was.

  "Hmm!" Zi Xue gazed at Tang Yan sitting beside her, looking thoughtful, and nodded.

  After finding Little Sister, and getting her confirmation, Tang Yan's mood today is exceptionally good, sitting cross-legged on the ground with a very calm state of mind. His hands lightly placed on the snow above, a thread of icy cold air slowly passed through his palms into his body, sometimes cold, sometimes slow. It was as if communicating with Tang Yan in some way, before he had also felt this change, but he never paid attention to this occasional cold air. However, today was different, with an exceptionally good mood, Tang Yan directed his energy towards the snow above, searching for its origin...

  According to the Buddha's teachings, a grain of sand is a world. At this moment, Tang Yan thought he had entered another world within the Dragon Ring, but looking around, it didn't seem quite right. The worlds within the Dragon Ring were surrounded by misty spiritual energy, whereas this world was an icy land of snow and ice, with snow-capped peaks standing like forests, stretching out endlessly as far as the eye could see.

  "Damn, what kind of place is this? I'm freezing to death! Old man, old man, come out quickly!" Tang Yan found himself standing on top of a snowy peak, his whole body screaming as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

  However, the old man did not respond to Tang Yan's call. Tang Yan discovered a white shadow standing quietly behind him, less than 200 meters away, with both hands placed on the hilt of a sword-like object stuck in the ground. Wearing snow-white clothes, he looked like a man in his thirties, floating in the cold air, and did not look like an old man at all.

  "Excuse me, what is this place? How can I leave here?" Tang Yan was very clear-headed and knew that he had entered an unknown space.

  Unfortunately, the middle-aged man ignored Tang Yan. At this time, the entire space began to fall with dense white snow, drifting with the wind. At the same time, the middle-aged man also moved, and the sword inserted into the ground was swung continuously in his hand. However, Tang Yan found it strange that he was attacking the snowflakes instead of practicing his sword skills.

  "He won't be passing on his sword skills to me, will he? Geez, this, this speed is a bit too fast!" Tang Yan saw that within a hundred steps around him, not a single snowflake fell to the ground, each one being dispersed by the knife tip, getting faster and faster, forming a sword-like aura around him.

  "This move is: Point Snow Seeking Door!" An ancient voice echoed through the snowy peaks, and after the sound fell, the middle-aged man disappeared, leaving only the snow-blowing sword inserted into the ground on Tang Yan's body, with snowflakes and cold winds blowing against it, still shining brightly, with a continuous flash of cold light.

  "Where's the snow-seeking door?" Tang Yan looked around, but didn't see that middle-aged man. His gaze fell back onto the flute on the ground.

  As he walked away, slowly pulling out the sword stuck in the snowy ground, Tang Yan felt a pair of eyes staring at his back, and this gaze gave people a feeling colder than the cold wind. Tang Yan knew that he must be staring at him practicing his sword, no way around it, so he practiced, although he thought himself creating the thirty-two moves of the sword was very impressive, but just now seeing that move called "Point Snow Seeking Gate", truly made him feel like a small witch seeing a big witch.

  Tang Yan started to practice, gazing at the dense snowflakes floating around him, and continuously swung his sword. The speed was not fast, but not slow either. At least he could hit many snowflakes, one sword for one flower, repeating this motion in a world without night or day, only a vast expanse of white.

  If you can't achieve a hundred steps without snow falling to the ground, then at least you should be able to do one step without snow falling to the ground. Once mastered, Tang Yan's sword drawing speed will become even faster.

  When Tang Yan woke up, the surroundings were still pitch black. The forest occasionally transmitted the sound of insects and the calls of night birds. Tang Yan slowly picked up the snow shovel to open a corner of the tent and found that his little junior sister was sleeping very soundly. Then he sat cross-legged again thinking: "I remember I seemed to have practiced for a day and a night inside, how come it seems like only two hours have passed outside? Is there a space problem?"

  Tang Yan continued to sit cross-legged, his hands still placed on the snowy ground, and resumed his meditation. He let go of his spirit to pursue the cold energy on the snowy ground. Once again, he entered the scene from earlier, practicing the move known as "Pointing Snow Seeking the Gate" in the vast snowy landscape for several days and nights. Tang Yan finally achieved some results, and judging by the time, it should be around 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning. Tang Yan clasped his hands together in a fist and said to the surroundings, "Thank you, senior, for your guidance! We will meet again!"

  After leaving the snowy scene, it was already 8 o'clock in the morning. Zilan was a bit nervous walking back and forth in front of Tang Yan until he got up from the ground. Another pounce on Tang Yan and hugged him, saying: "You're awake, I'm worried to death! Just now I called you several times, but you didn't respond!"

  "Hehe, I'm fine, just practicing my skills!" Tang Yan said, feeling two lumps pressing against his chest.

  "If something happens to you, I really don't know what to do. Father is already dead, and there's no one else in the family now. You're my only relative left, and I'm so scared!" The powerless Zilan said this, her eyes welling up with tears again.

  "I won't abandon you, don't worry, I'll protect you for all eternity!" Tang Yan said to his fellow disciple Zi Lan.

  "Mmm!" Zilan nodded and leaned into Tang Yan's arms, saying.

  Next, Tang Yan took out some dry rations from the spatial ring and also took out a leg of snow beast meat. Fortunately, there was no oxygen in the spatial ring, so the beast leg meat was well preserved. Tang Yan cut off a few pieces of snow beast leg meat with his dagger and then gathered some dry firewood in the forest to make a fire and roast the meat before sharing it with Zi Lan.

  "You eat something here first, I'll go practice over there!" Tang Yan indeed practiced in the snowy boundary for several days and nights. That kind of unstructured, adaptive swordsmanship, he still wanted to try if it could be practiced that quickly in reality?

  In the snowy realm for several days, Tang Yan had a feeling of rebirth, and his surroundings became much more sensitive. It was as if he had practiced martial arts day and night in reality. Although it wasn't very obvious, within a hundred steps, Tang Yan could hear the sound of falling leaves, just like the silent snowfall in the snowy realm. In the snowy realm, Tang Yan couldn't hear the sound of falling snow within a hundred steps, but he could still hear it within ten steps, which was something he had figured out while inside.

  With this feeling, Tang Yan knew that it was absolutely a good place to practice, so he followed the white-haired middle-aged man and blew snow onto the ground. He placed his hands flat on top of the sword hilt, closed his eyes, and stood motionless in the small forest, listening carefully to the sounds around him.

  Zi Lan sat by the bonfire, gazing at Tang Yan who stood quietly there, looking like an extraordinary master, and even forgot to eat the snow beast meat in his hand, as if afraid of missing something.

  Soon, Tang Yan opened his eyes again and looked at Zi Lan who was staring at him, saying: "Zi Lan, can you go help me shake the tree a bit?"

  Down!

  "Oh!" Zilan didn't ask why either.

  Tang Yan finished speaking, and he stood there again, his eyes closed as before. Until the purple orchid jade swayed on a small tree. Tang Yan's eyes opened, and the blow snow in his hand swung out, stabbing at the falling leaves in the air...

  The speed was very fast, but it couldn't reach the level of Snow Boundary. Suddenly, Tang Yan stopped and muttered to himself: "Why is it only half the speed? Do I need to practice for twice the time to reach the speed in Snow Boundary?"

  Tang Yan was still very satisfied, able to increase his speed by more than double in just one night. He was very pleased with this progress and thought that with a bit more time, he should be able to reach the synchronization of Snow Boundary. Thinking of this, Tang Yan got so excited that he almost hugged Zi Lan and kissed her, but he quickly calmed down and said:

  "Little sister, I need to retreat for a day or two, and then we'll continue on our journey, okay?"

  "Hmm, whatever you say goes!" Zilan said, staring at the crushed leaves on the ground.