Chapter 1595: Invitation
All of a sudden, a clear voice sounded from outside the hall. "In summary, there are many rare and precious items to be found in the Vast Glacial Realm, but what you find in there will be down to your luck." Immediately thereafter, a streak of white light hurtled in through the gate, and the light faded to reveal a middle-aged man in a set of brocade robes. He had a pale face with a pair of thin and long eyes, as well as a distinctive hook nose. "You sure got here quite quickly, Elder Ma; I had thought that Brother Huang would get here before you," Qian Jizi greeted the middle-aged man with a warm smile.
It was quite obvious that this was another Body Integration Stage elder of the Myriad Ancient Race, nad Han Li hurriedly rose to his feet to extend a respectful salute.
"Elder Huang has recently been refining a batch of pills, and even if he received the news before me, it'd most likely take a while for him to get here. Is the fellow Daoist the one who activated the Vast Glacial Badge?" the middle-aged man asked as he turned an indifferent gaze toward Han Li."Indeed, Senior." Han Li could only reply in a truthful manner. "Hmm, seventh-tier upper race; not bad. Your magic power seems to be over twice as abundant as beings of the same cultivation base, and even upper race beings of the eighth or ninth tiers won't want to face you in battle." For some reason, this Elder Ma decided to disclose his observations surrounding Han Li's cultivation base.
Han Li was quite stunned that the elderly man was able to glean so much from a single cursory glance, but his expression remained quite polite and respectful as he explained, "I have some special cultivation arts, so my magic power is indeed slightly more abundant than normal."
"It's not just slightly more abundant; if a being of a higher cultivation base were to engage you in battle, thinking that they'd enjoy an easy victory, you'd most likely be able to turn the tables on them with ease! Hmm? Your spiritual sense seems to be completely out of place in an upper race being as well." Golden light flashed past the middle-aged man's face as he unleashed some kind of secret technique, and a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes as he gleaned Han Li's immensely powerful spiritual sense.
Han Li's calm facade finally cracked a little upon hearing this as a hint of astonishment crept onto his face.
"Alright, Elder Ma, you can stop flaunting your Divine Inspection Technique now. It isn't really all that strange that Fellow Daoist Han is far more powerful than beings of the same cultivation base. After all, he slew several such beings with ease while saving Master Jia, so it would be foolish to regard him as a normal upper race being." The elderly man was surprised in the slightest by Elder Ma's findings."I see. Forgive me for my impudence, Fellow Daoist; please take a seat," the middle-aged man chuckled before sitting down beside Qian Jizi.
Han Li finally managed to recompose himself before also sitting down with a wry smile on his face.
"I heard on my way here that the two of you were discussing matters surrounding the Vast Glacial Realm, and it sounded to me like you don't know much about it, Fellow Daoist Han. What's the point in speaking in such a roundabout manner, Brother Qian? Just lay out the information in the most straightforward manner possible," Elder Ma urged, seemingly with a hint of displeasure in his voice.
Qian Jizi splayed his hands open upon hearing this, and a slightly resigned look appeared on his face as he replied, "I was just about to do that, but your arrival cut me off!" "Haha, now that you mention it, my entrance was indeed rather abrupt," the middle-aged man chuckled.
"Seeing as you're here, why don't you tell Fellow Daoist Han about the Vast Glacial Realm yourself, Brother Ma? After all, you once entered the realm in person, so you're far more qualified to talk about it than I am," Qian Jizi suggested.
"What's there to be said? I had very ordinary luck back when I entered the Vast Glacial Realm, and I didn't obtain any extraordinary treasures or medicines. All of the races hold the Vast Glacial Realm in such high regard mostly because of the abundant spiritual Qi in there. They want to use the realm as a place where beings who had been stuck at their bottlenecks for extended periods of time could finally make their breakthroughs. If it weren't for the fact that I had entered the realm once, I wouldn't have achieved my current cultivation base." The middle-aged man shook his head with a slightly peculiar look on his face. "You used the spiritual Qi in there to break through a bottleneck?" Han Li was quite surprised to hear this.
"Indeed. At the time, the spirit medicines that could be obtained in there were only a secondary objective for me. I only re-emerged with some very ordinary spirit medicines, so I obtained next to nothing from my trip there. I did hear that some others obtained some extremely rare tool refinement materials and used them to craft several sentient treasures," Elder Ma sighed in a forlorn manner.
"Haha, you should learn to be happy with what you have. Countless beings among our 13 races were extremely envious of you back when you were selected to enter the Vast Glacial Realm. At the very least, I've never received such an opportunity," the elderly man chuckled.
"If I were as supremely talented as you and managed to break through the holy race bottleneck in just over 1,000 years, then I naturally wouldn't have had to enter the Vast Glacial Realm. As you're well aware, that place is not a peaceful realm," Elder Ma replied in an indifferent voice.
"That's true. Several hundred Vast Glacial Badges appear on the Thunder Continent on each occasion, and how many beings can be teleported into the realm with each badge is dependent on the capabilities of the teleportation formation set up. Our Myriad Ancient Race has always been responsible for setting up the teleportation formations for our Heavenly Cloud Race, but teleporting around a dozen or so beings into the realm per badge is the extent of our capabilities. However, I've heard of some races that are extremely proficient in teleportation formation that can teleport over 30 beings into the realm per badge. It's a pity that we can't get our hands on their teleportation formation blueprints. Otherwise, we'd also be able to send more people into the Vast Glacial Realm. With so many races clambering to send their beings into the Vast Glacial Realm, it always becomes a very chaotic place," the elderly man mused with furrowed brows.
"What makes things even worse is that each badge teleports beings to a random location. If a group of beings were to be teleported into the same area as beings from an enemy race, then a battle would be inevitable. Everyone knows that there were at least be an additional 30% chance of breaking through a bottleneck in there, so no race would allow so many high-grade beings to appear in their enemy races." Elder Ma seemed to be musing absentmindedly to himself, but also explaining things for Han Li to hear.
Han Li's eyes flashed slightly upon hearing this.
"Not only that, but there have been countless instances of beings killing others in there over treasures and spirit medicines. However, the most perilous aspect of the Vast Glacial Realm is actually the realm itself. No one had seen a living immortal in there, but there are some incredibly powerful ancient beasts in there, each and every one of which is far too powerful for any of the beings that venture into the realm to face. If you encounter a more mild-tempered one, you could simply give it a wide berth and go around it without much trouble. However, if you encounter a violent one that actively attacks even without being provoked, then you'll have to pray that you survive that ordeal somehow. On top of that, there are many terrifying restrictions in the Vast Glacial Realm that are suspected to have been left behind by immortals. If you stumble into one of those, then you're most likely as good as dead as well. Hence, it's quite often the case that less than half the number of people that enter the realm actually return," Qian Jizi added.
Han Li's expression darkened involuntarily upon hearing this. After a lengthy silence, he asked, "Senior Qian, Senior Ma, may I ask when and how the Vast Glacial Realm was discovered?"
"You've stumped us there. No one knows exactly when the Vast Glacial Realm appeared, but it had most likely been discovered by the races that resided here during ancient times. It's said that an extremely important battle between the races had broken out at the time, and profound heavenly treasures had been used during the battle. The combined powers of several profound heavenly treasures shattered space at the time, thereby opening up a passageway to the Vast Glacial Realm. As for how the Vast Glacial Badges appeared, we really have no clue. It was as if the badges appeared as soon as the Vast Glacial Realm appeared. In the beginning, there were over 1,000 Vast Glacial Badges, but after so many years, most of them have been destroyed," the elderly man replied.
"The method of entering and exiting the Vast Glacial Realm is also quite unique. When entering the realm, the badge is required, but when leaving the realm, the badges have to be left in there before one can depart. After over 10,000 years, the Vast Glacial Realm will open up once again, and the badges will somehow reappear all over the Thunder Continent. On top of that, the badges can't teleport beings at or above the holy race, so none of the elders of the 13 races can access the realm. Otherwise, things wouldn't be so troublesome. By the way, I'm really curious about how you managed to obtain this Vast Glacial Badge, Fellow Daoist Han." Elder Ma turned to Han Li in an expressionless manner as he spoke.
Han Li's heart jolted upon seeing Elder Ma's shift in demeanor, but he remained calm as he replied, "I actually received this Vast Glacial Badge from a certain Fellow Daoist Yuan of your Myriad Ancient Race. At the time, the city we were situated in had been surrounded by the Jiao Chi Race, so Fellow Daoist Yuan gave a jade box to each of his companions, including myself, so we could take them away from the city. He asked us to give the boxes to any one of the 13 Heavenly Cloud Races, and to destroy them if we found ourselves unable to get away from our Jiao Chi Race pursuers. I was quite curious about what was in the box, so I decided to open it, and I unwittingly activated this badge in the process."
"Someone with a Yuan surname? In that case, it has to be the one responsible for Green Light City." Rather than being surprised to hear this, Qian Jizi merely nodded in a calm manner.
It appeared that he'd already guessed the origin of this badge.
Han Li's heart stirred upon seeing this. At this moment, the middle-aged man's expression darkened, and he said, "We haven't received any news of other Vast Glacial Badges being gathered by the other races in Cloud City, so that means all of the other badges must've fallen into the hands of the Jiao Chi Race."
"That's most likely the case. Apparently, they have two holy race beings leading their army, and they've even deployed a fortress level battle ark, so it's already extremely fortunate that Fellow Daoist Han was able to bring just a single badge back to us," Qian Jizi sighed.
"In that case, things will be quite troublesome for us. Our 13 races combined only have 17 or 18 badges; that's much less than usual. In contrast, the number of Jiao Chi beings that will enter the Vast Glacial Realm will increase significantly," Elder Ma said with a grim expression.
"There's nothing we can do about that. We've gathered all of the Vast Glacial Badges we could, and when we received news that five more badges had been discovered, we'd thought that we'd stumbled upon a figurative gold mine. However, the Jiao Chi Race suddenly attacked at this crucial juncture before we could transport the five badges to Cloud City, which has led to them being lost," Qian Jizi sighed as he narrowed his eyes slightly.
Elder Ma nodded before suddenly turning to Han Li as he said in an implacable tone, "In that case, there's no point in wasting time with words. Fellow Daoist Han, you'll have to accompany our Myriad Ancient Race nominees into the Vast Glacial Realm on this occasion."