Chapter Fifty-six: Gunpowder Ashes

  Zhaodi Si thought about it and still felt that with his spiritual root talent, the possibility of successfully building a foundation with just one Building Foundation Pill was too low. Although the small cauldron might be able to cultivate an extremely high-quality Building Foundation Pill, even if he took an extremely high-quality pill, he couldn't guarantee that he could overcome the bottleneck of building his foundation.

  So he already had a piece of Blood Essence Stone, but still followed the plan to rush to Bihuan Pool. If he could complete one more task and get two Building Foundation Pills, the success rate of building foundation would increase exponentially.

  And in his view, the task of Bihanchuan has at least a 50% chance of being completed smoothly.

  According to the task jade, the water of Bihanchuan is icy and bone-chilling all year round. The bottom of the pool is a piece of ice-attribute spiritual stone vein, with numerous ice-attribute spiritual stones scattered about. Of course, most of them are low-grade spiritual stones, but some cultivators have also found a few middle-grade ice spiritual stones. In this task, three middle-grade ice spiritual stones can be exchanged for one foundation-building pill.

  For other cultivators, it's already extremely lucky to find one piece of mid-grade spirit stone at the bottom of this pool, let alone three! So this task is very difficult to complete and has a danger level of two, which is not low. This means that in the cold pool, there are high-level demon beasts equivalent to high-level cultivators in the Qi Refining stage. For cultivators who want to search for treasure at the bottom of the pool, this is undoubtedly extremely dangerous.

  But for Zhao Di, he thought that although the ice spirit stones produced at the bottom of the pool were different from others, they were still essentially the same in terms of their nature. In other words, even low-grade ice spirit stones produced at the bottom of the pool could be upgraded to mid-grade or high-grade ice spirit stones by Xiao Ding. This way, as long as he could find three low-grade spirit stones in the cold pool, he would be able to complete this task.

  This way, the difficulty of the task has greatly decreased. As long as luck is not too bad and does not provoke the monster in the pool, there should be no problem.

  With this idea in mind, two days later, Zhao Di arrived at the Bihantang area.

  When they were still seven or eight miles away from the Cold Pond, Zhao Di had already clearly felt the temperature slowly dropping. The closer they got to the Cold Pond, the more the temperature dropped. Even within a range of nearly a hundred feet around the edge of the Cold Pond, white frost had formed.

  Apart from a few strange and tall trees with leaves like jade, the surroundings of the pond are all white and hazy.

  Although the name has a "tan" character, Zhao Di couldn't possibly consider this vast and boundless lake in front of him as a small pool, it's probably more fitting to call it Bihuan Lake.

  The pool water is deep green, and due to the low temperature, a thin layer of misty ice crystals floats on its surface. At such a cold temperature, the pool water has not frozen, which must be extraordinary.

  Seeing how vast and wide Bihuan Pool was, Zhao Di felt both joy and worry in his heart.

  Fortunately, in such a vast place, even if other monks come here, they won't disturb each other, saving a lot of trouble.

  Unfortunately, Yu Jian only mentioned that the Ice Spirit Stone vein was at the bottom of the pool, but Bihuan Pool is so big, it's probably not easy to find either.

  Zhao Di, who had just slapped a "Water Curtain Symbol" on his body and was about to fall asleep, suddenly stopped moving.

  Moments later, several monks with different attire and various colored hoods emerged from the water, treading on the surface, rushing towards the shore in a somewhat disheveled manner.

  Zhao Di soon understood what was happening. Under the turbulent waves in the pool, a whirlpool formed, gathering into a rapid vortex over three meters wide. A dragon, its body as green as jade, as thick as a water bucket, and over ten meters long, leapt out of the whirlpool. The beast gazed at the seven or eight human cultivators below it, its copper bell-like eyes flashing with anger, causing people to feel dizzy and disoriented at a glance. At this moment, the dragon suddenly opened its mouth and sprayed a white cold air over a foot thick towards the nearest Yuqingmen cultivator.

  This Yuqingmen Taoist priest at the 12th level of Qi Refining had his protective spiritual light on his body seemingly fragile like paper, easily engulfed by the white cold air spat out by the Jiaolong. Immediately after, the white cold air condensed the surrounding water vapor, forming a huge ice block about one zhang long, freezing this cultivator to death inside it.

  The dragon opened its big mouth and swallowed the entire ice block into its mouth.

  "Second-level demon beast, Frost Python!" Zhao's heart skipped a beat. Judging from the spiritual energy emanating from the python's body, this was a second-level demon beast comparable to a human cultivator in the early stages of foundation building. Furthermore, pythons were originally much stronger than ordinary demon beasts, and this ice-attributed python's strength surpassed that of an average foundation-building cultivator. As a result, with just one glance, it had killed the unfortunate Taoist from the Jade Clear Sect.

  "Don't panic! This beast's strength will be greatly discounted on land." A very familiar girl's voice rang out.

  Zhao Di turned her head and looked over, and it was indeed Jian Yan'er's good sister - Jinye Xianzi.

  Apart from this dignified and elegant young girl, there were also two Taixu Men cultivators by her side, as well as a 50-60 year old Yuqing Men Daoist elder, a red-clothed maiden from the Lanyue Sect, and an elderly and a young monk from the Jingming Sect. These people were holding their magical instruments, surrounding the Golden Leaf Immortal Maiden at a distance of over ten zhang.

  After a glance, Zhao was suddenly speechless. Among this group of people, only Jin Ye Xian Zi had a cultivation level of 13th layer of Qi Refining stage, while the others were mostly at the 12th layer of Qi Refining stage. Even the girl from Yuan Yue Sect and the little monk from Jing Ming Sect were both at the 11th layer of Qi Refining stage.

  It can be said that except for Jin Ye Xian Zi, all of these people are nothing but cannon fodder level cultivators in this trip to Dragon Descent Valley.

  Nearly three hundred monks participated in the task of Dragon's Descent Valley, with varying levels of cultivation and quality of their magical instruments, resulting in the monks being roughly divided into three categories.

  The first type of person is the weakest among the lower-level cultivators. Their cultivation hasn't even reached the 13th layer of the Qi Refining stage, and their magical tools are ordinary. Without some special means of registration, it's extremely difficult for them to not only find treasures but also keep their lives safe. These people are merely cannon fodder for the seven major sects participating in this treasure hunt. Even if they do find a precious treasure, they're almost certain to be robbed and killed, serving as stepping stones for others. The number of such cannon fodders is the largest, accounting for about half of all cultivators. Judging from past experiences with the Descending Dragon Valley mission, their survival rate is extremely low, at most one in ten.

  The second type of person is an ordinary 13th-level cultivator in the Qi Refining stage, similar to the Golden Leaf Fairy. These cultivators are not weak and have a certain degree of self-preservation ability, but they are also not strong enough to be invincible. When encountering a lone low-ranking cultivator, they will usually kill them without hesitation and take their treasures, but if they encounter someone stronger than themselves, they can only retreat far away.

  The third type of cultivator is the main beneficiary of the Dragon's Descent Valley mission. They are generally peak 13th-layer Qi Refining cultivators with powerful artifacts and are considered elite among their peers. These individuals come to the valley, rarely seeking treasure themselves, but instead focus on the final stages of the mission, where they slaughter other cultivators and collect treasures by seizing their storage bags. Only a handful of cultivators can become elites, with each sect having only four or five such individuals. However, it is often these elite disciples who manage to bring the treasures out of the valley. As a result, these individuals are the ones that the major sects truly rely on to complete the mission, while other cultivators serve as mere cannon fodder for them.

  Zhao Di, in terms of his cultivation, was only a 12th-level Qi Refining cultivator and originally belonged to the cannon fodder category. However, because he possessed top-grade artifacts and an astonishing number of mid-to-high-grade talismans, his actual strength had already reached the point where he could rival elite disciples.

  At this time, the seven or eight cultivators in front of him, except for Golden Leaf Immortal, were all genuine lower-level cultivators from Dragon Subduing Valley. At this moment, they obviously took Golden Leaf Immortal as their leader and formed a small group. If this small group could always face outward, it would indeed have some self-preservation ability, gathering the strength of many people to barely contend with one or two elite disciples.

  However, the cultivators who entered the Dragon Descent Valley, which one of them didn't have an ulterior motive, and which one was truly kind-hearted and benevolent? The Golden Leaf Fairy actually managed to temporarily unite these cannon fodders from different sects, each with their own hidden agenda, it's really unknown how she did it!

  Even when facing an ice-attribute dragon that was far stronger than themselves, these cultivators did not flee or escape. Instead, they strictly followed the command of Golden Leaf Immortal and manipulated various magical instruments to surround and attack this second-level demonic beast.

  (Second update, because I've recommended over 700, there will be at least one more update tonight! If the collection breaks 300, I'll continue to add more updates!)