Chapter 611: The Retreat

Chapter 611: The Retreat

At this moment, Chu Ning's body was enveloped in the protection of the Dark Yin Azure Flame and the Immortal Golden Body.

But the crystal shard, formed from the fusion of three transparent leaves, seemed to effortlessly penetrate his powerful defenses.

"Essence Energy!"

Chu Ning reacted and immediately activated the third volume of the Nine Transformation Body Cultivation Art, mobilizing his internal essence energy to resist.

However, he was still half a beat too slow.

The ice crystal pierced through his defenses and struck his body, then burrowed into his flesh.

Instantly, a powerful destructive force accompanied by a bone-chilling chill rose up.

Chu Ning felt as if his bones, blood, and muscles were about to turn into ice.

Even his robust physical body seemed to stiffen up in that moment.

He almost instantly became unable to move.

Fortunately, Chu Ning had activated his essence energy beforehand, and at this moment, it sensed the intruding ice crystal.

It surged forward, enveloping the ice crystal.

The chill immediately dissipated by a large extent, and Chu Ning regained his mobility.

He dared not hesitate for a moment.

With a thought, he retrieved various treasures scattered on the ground.

Among them were the two severed tree roots, each cut by the Demon Shadow Spear and the Five Elements Spirit Sword.

He then displayed the Lightning Escape Technique and fled back the way he came without looking back.

"Ding-ling-dang-lang!"

Vaguely, Chu Ning felt the ice crystal colossus behind him seething with anger, the entire tree violently shaking and swaying, its leaves colliding and emitting crisp clattering sounds.

His divine sense also perceived nearly ten roots bursting out from beneath the snowy ground, wildly dancing in the air.

Like several ice serpents, they seemed intent on tearing everything around them to shreds.

But at this moment, Chu Ning was too far away, out of their reach.

As he breathed a slight sigh of relief, Chu Ning accelerated his escape.

He didn't stop until he reached the seal again.

Feeling no further anomalies behind him, Chu Ning finally relaxed a little.

However, he still couldn't shake off the lingering fear.

"Master, what was that giant tree just now, and how could it possess such power?"

At this moment, Bai Ling had regained her human form, and her face was filled with lingering fear.

Chu Ning shook his head. He had never heard of this ice crystal colossus from Fan Ze Xian or Wu Lingwei.

It was highly likely that Wu Lingwei didn't know about it, as she might have never ventured into the fifth level of the Treasure Repository.

As for Fan Ze Xian, just as Chu Ning had previously deduced, it was highly probable that he was deliberately keeping this information from him, hoping he would come to a fatal end.

The Sky Order could open this wall seal, so even if Fan Ze Xian hadn't entered before, he wouldn't be completely unaware of the ice crystal colossus.

At this moment, Chu Ning didn't have time to ponder the details; he would make plans after leaving this dangerous place.

Shaking his head to indicate his lack of knowledge, Chu Ning then took out two Sky Orders and began to activate the seal.

However, when he infused essence energy into them, the two tokens simultaneously activated, but the seal only trembled slightly without fully opening.

"The power of two tokens is still not enough to activate the seal?"

Chu Ning's expression turned slightly grim.

Subconsciously, he took out the third token.

He infused essence energy into it, but the result was the same as when he entered the fifth level; the seal didn't show any signs of activation.

This turn of events caused Chu Ning's eyebrows to knit together.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Chu Ning guessed the reason.

This mysterious ice crystal colossus was clearly a well-kept secret, and the several chamberlains of the Longsky Hall were all aware of its existence.

Therefore, the seal required the consent of multiple people to enter and exit.

Just as Chu Ning said this, Bai Ling, slightly puzzled, asked, "Then why could the two tokens activate the seal when we entered?"

"Perhaps it's a way for them to restrain each other," Chu Ning replied, somewhat uncertain.

"If two people couldn't resist entering this place, they wouldn't be able to leave either.

In the end, they would be trapped here."

Chu Ning paused for a moment, then added thoughtfully, "There's another possibility. Perhaps the Sky Order Lu Ziyou gave me is the main token.

After all, this token originally belonged to the chamberlain who cultivated the Ice Attribute Art, and his cultivation was the highest among the three.

It's possible that he was the one who set up this seal, and if the other two entered without his knowledge, they would also be trapped here."

Chu Ning looked at the token in his hand, which had obvious restrictions placed on it.

He suddenly realized that the restrictions on this token might not have been set by Fan Ze Xian and Lu Xuedao due to their distrust of Lu Ziyou.

Perhaps the restrictions were left by the cultivator who practiced the Ice Attribute Art.

If that were the case, the relationship between the three chamberlains of the Longsky Hall would have been extremely delicate.

Chu Ning didn't have time to speculate further at this moment.

Holding the Sky Order, he sensed it for a moment, then said to Bai Ling, "I'll need some time to break through the restrictions here.

However, this isn't a place to linger, so you should see if you can directly use your secret technique to get out of this seal."

"Alright, I'll give it a try!"

Bai Ling agreed, and her figure flickered, returning to her original form.

She then went to the front of the seal and sensed it.

Turning around, she smiled at Chu Ning, "Master, this seal is quite advanced, but it's still within the penetration range of my secret technique. I'll take you out of here!"

As she spoke, a white light appeared on Bai Ling's head, enveloping Chu Ning, and then they entered the seal.

Only after truly returning to the fifth floor of the Treasure Repository did Chu Ning finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He patted the Spirit Beast Pouch, summoning two Golden Thunder Eagles and the Earth Rhino Dragon.

The Earth Rhino Dragon transformed into human form, but his face was pale.

Obviously, he had been hit inside and was not lightly injured.

Although the Earth Rhino Dragon was severely injured, Chu Ning was also in a bad state.

First, when he used the Beast Spirit Secret Technique, he was struck by two roots. Although the Earth Rhino Dragon took a significant portion of the damage,

Chu Ning still shared three-tenths of the injury.

Then, when the Primordial Fire Lotus exploded, due to the close distance and the backlash from the roots, he suffered a massive impact.

At that time, Chu Ning felt that his injuries were not minor.

What truly made Chu Ning apprehensive was the ice crystal that had entered his body.

Now that he confirmed his safety, Chu Ning took out two pills from his Storage Bag.

He took one for himself and gave one to the Earth Rhino Dragon.

"This is a healing pill I refined myself. It's effective for both cultivators and spirit beasts.

Let's heal our injuries first. Bai Ling, you and the Golden Eagles guard us!"

"Yes!"

Bai Ling immediately agreed.

Chu Ning relaxed and began to take the pill, regulating his breathing and cultivating.

Bai Ling's strength was comparable to a Middle-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, and the two Golden Thunder Eagles were also three times stronger than ordinary Early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

With their protection, Chu Ning was safe.

Slowly circulating the Primordial Divine Art, Chu Ning carefully sensed the injuries within his body.

"The injury from using the Beast Spirit Secret Technique isn't a big problem. The pill I just took is enough for me to recover.

Although the backlash from the Primordial Fire Lotus was strong, and the injury was not minor, half a month of recovery should be sufficient.

If Bai Ling uses the Profound Life Art to guard me, it will be even faster.

The real trouble is that ice crystal..."

At this moment, Chu Ning's divine sense scanned his body, observing the ice crystal that was enveloped by his Essence Energy and had stopped moving.

The constant emanation of chill from the ice crystal made Chu Ning feel like he would be swallowed by the cold if he wasn't careful.

"Such overpowering ice power!"

Chu Ning muttered to himself. Previously, when he felt such powerful ice power within his body, it was when he was refining the Primordial Ice Flame.

But because he knew the refining method, this ice power didn't harm him.

The current ice crystal was different.

If he wasn't careful and let it burst out, it was very likely that he would be severely injured again.

With this in mind, Chu Ning decided to prioritize dealing with the ice crystal.

He slowly released his Essence Energy and immediately began circulating the Primordial Divine Art, attempting to directly use his Essence Energy to annihilate the ice crystal.

Bone-chilling coldness surged from within his body once again, but Chu Ning was already circulating the Primordial Divine Art at full power.

However, the effect was almost non-existent.

The Primordial Divine Art's powerful Essence Energy didn't have much effect on the ice crystal.

Fortunately, this wasn't too unexpected for Chu Ning.

When the ice crystal entered his body, he had felt the fluctuations of his Essence Energy.

Essence Energy was a higher-level existence than Essence Energy, and although the Primordial Divine Art was more advanced than the Five Elements Primordial Art, it was still just Essence Energy.

At this moment, it was indeed insufficient to expel the ice crystal.

Chu Ning stopped circulating the Primordial Divine Art and instead began to cultivate the Nine Transformation Body Cultivation Art, Volume Three.

Although this technique was weak in terms of refining and transforming Essence Energy, it was the only method Chu Ning currently had to manipulate his Essence Energy.

Circulating about half of his Essence Energy, Chu Ning once again surged towards the ice crystal, attempting to annihilate it directly.

After half a day, Chu Ning once again gave up in frustration.

"The ice crystal contains a vast amount of Essence Energy. The Nine Transformation Body Cultivation Art is incomplete, and even my current Essence Energy is unable to fully drive it.

With this, trying to use less Essence Energy to counteract the stronger ice crystal is naturally ineffective."

Chu Ning frowned as he repeatedly used both Essence Energy and Essence Energy, but neither could melt or annihilate the ice crystal.

"Master, what's wrong? Do you want me to use the Profound Life Art to help you heal?"

Seeing Chu Ning open his eyes, Bai Ling asked with concern.

Chu Ning shook his head.

"Later. You can't help now.

Having responded, Chu Ning closed his eyes once more. This time, he didn't circulate his Spell Formation but directly activated the Purple Yang Spirit Flame that he had refined within his body.

"From our previous exchange, the Purple Yang Spirit Flame seemed to have a suppressing effect on the tree roots.

This Ice Crystal is formed from several leaves, so it should also have a suppressing effect."

In his mind, Chu Ning directed the Purple Yang Spirit Flame towards the Ice Crystal.

Instantly, the bone-chilling chill weakened, and its effect on his Essence Energy was even stronger than before.

The next moment, as the Ice Crystal was completely enveloped by the Purple Yang Spirit Flame, the chill dissipated entirely.

Even the slight chill that had permeated when his Essence Energy enveloped it was now completely gone.

Sensing this, Chu Ning was delighted.

After all, the attribute of his Essence Energy was only at a mediocre level, cultivated by merging the Primordial Divine Art and the Nine Transformation Body Cultivation Art.

It was far from being perfectly balanced and couldn't compete with the Ice Crystal.

However, the Purple Yang Spirit Flame was the ultimate Yang Spirit Flame of heaven and earth, and it was effective against this icy power.

Even if this icy power was likely Essence Energy.

But Chu Ning could also sense that under the Purple Yang Spirit Flame's envelopment, the Ice Crystal didn't start to melt.

"It must be because the power of the Purple Yang Spirit Flame isn't sufficient!"

Chu Ning silently pondered.

Previously, in the ice cave, he had used the Purple Yang Spirit Flame at full power twice, and there was still about half of the flame left.

At this moment, after leaving behind a tiny spark, he mobilized the rest of the flame.

A scorching heat spread throughout his chest cavity.

This heat surged towards the Ice Crystal.

Consequently, the Ice Crystal began to slowly dissipate.

However, the consumption of the Purple Yang Spirit Flame was also significant.

After two hours, Chu Ning finally felt that the Ice Crystal had been worn down by about twenty percent.

But at the same time, his Purple Yang Spirit Flame had consumed nearly eighty percent of its power.

Chu Ning immediately stopped the dissipation and instead drove the remaining Purple Yang Spirit Flame to completely envelop and seal the Ice Crystal.

Then, Chu Ning circulated the Primordial Divine Art again, sensing that the Ice Crystal, sealed by the Purple Yang Spirit Flame, had no effect on his Essence Energy's circulation.

He heaved a sigh of relief.

"Bai Ling, Profound Life Art!"

"Yes, Master!"

As Chu Ning gave the command, Bai Ling immediately cooperated and began to cultivate the Profound Life Art.

Perhaps due to the presence of extremely pure ice-attributed spiritual energy at this moment, Bai Ling's cultivation of the Profound Life Art was also exceptionally effective.

Pure Essence Energy flowed into Chu Ning's body, and together with his own Essence Energy, it rapidly healed his internal injuries.

Chu Ning slowly opened his eyes and glanced at the Earth Rhino Dragon, noticing that its injuries had also eased.

He stood up and said calmly:

"Let's go. Altogether, I've been here for four days.

If we don't leave now, Wu Lingwei and the others might start to suspect something."

The Ice Crystal Colossus was undoubtedly a big secret, and Chu Ning wouldn't reveal its true nature until he figured out what this tree was.

Just staying on the fifth floor of the Treasure Repository for more than five days would be hard to explain.

Even if they didn't suspect that something had happened to him, they might think that he intended to empty the fifth floor of the Treasure Repository.

This would likely lead them to speculate about his true intentions.

Chu Ning had just taken over the Sky Palace Hall and didn't want to cause panic among his people.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to appease several Nascent Soul Cultivators first.

Previously, he had been concerned that leaving with his injuries might not be appropriate.

But now, with his injuries healed by fifty percent and the Ice Crystal significantly reduced and sealed within his body, other cultivators wouldn't be able to detect any injuries on him, even if they encountered Chu Ning.

Chu Ning returned the Earth Rhino Dragon, Bai Ling, and the Golden Thunder Eagle to his Spirit Beast Pouch.

He then retraced his steps along the stone staircase and arrived back at the fifth floor's Seal.

Using the Sky Order, he reopened the Seal and returned to the fourth floor of the Treasure Repository, his expression calm as ever.

"Chamberlain!"

Just as Chu Ning stepped out, Wu Lingwei appeared before him.

Chu Ning nodded at her and said, "Elder Wu, I've kept you waiting. I was studying the profound cultivation methods of the Sky Palace Hall and became so engrossed that I lost track of time.

I've delayed things for several days."

Wu Lingwei smiled and said, "When we cultivators encounter advanced techniques, we can't help but immerse ourselves in studying them.

Only someone with profound cultivation like you, Chamberlain, could have gained insights from them. I'm sure you've made great progress."

"I've gained some insights," Chu Ning nodded.

Wu Lingwei didn't press further on this matter and instead said, "Chamberlain, the two Deputy Chamberlains came together a day ago, saying they have something to discuss with you. What do you think..."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end