More time passed as water dripped from Ah Chun's hair. Ah Chun had almost slipped off the chin links multiple times now due to the moisture that was building up on them causing them to be exceedingly slippery. But none of this bothered Ah Chun, what bothered her now was the biting cold that was starting to settle in. Every one of Ah Chun's breaths formed ice crystals in the air. Even with her using her own spirit power to wrap around her body, she was still not able to keep the cold out. Normally for an immortal cultivator, they could use their spirit power to ward off cold and hot elements. But this biting cold was penetrating right through the layers of spirit power she placed on her body.
Ah Chun started to shiver as the ice started to build on her already wet body. The chain links she was on were also starting to freeze, which was making her footing bad. It had been a long time since Ah Chun felt such bitter cold. Ah Chun's home village was warm during the day but very cold at night. She could remember trying to sleep while hugging her knees at night as she shivered due to the cold. She would end up having to sleep on the floor next to the fire in order to keep warm. But the cold she was feeling now was many times worse.
The biting cold started to creep into Ah Chun's muscles and bones causing her pace to slow drastically. Ah Chun started to get frightened and did not know what to do. Her only thought was she had to push forward or she might really lose her life here! One wrong step would mean the end for her and she was already too far up to turn back.
Ah Chun reached the end of the current chain link she was on and now she had to climb on to the next chain link. But when she placed her hand on this chain link an unspeakable warmth flowed through her hand and into her body fully removing the biting cold that was once there. It felt so good that Ah Chun quickly moved herself onto the chain link and laid down flat enjoying the warmth. Tears rolled down Ah Chun's cheeks as she laid there. She was scared that she would have froze to death. But now that her body was warm once again and she could relax a little, she could not stop the tears from coming down.
"No! Ah Chun, you can not be like this! You made a vow to get stronger so you can not cry over such a little thing!" Ah Chun scolded herself. She quickly wiped away the tears on her face and got up and continued forward.
As she got to the middle of the chain link she was on the clouds broke and a bright light shined down on to Ah Chun's face. But Ah Chun did not even care about the fact that she had just made it out of the cloud bank because her eyes were set on the majestic crystal palace on a piece of land that was currently floating in the sky hovering over the clouds.
"Beautiful..." Ah Chun mumbled.
Ah Chun quickly climbed up the last three chain links and finally placed her foot on to solid land. A bright smile appeared on her face as she shouted out: "I made it!" She felt that for all the dangers that she had to deal with to get here it was well worth it. The sight in front of her was truly too majestic.
"Oh? Such a small one has come to this place?" A gentle voice floated into Ah Chun's ears which startled Ah Chun.
"I'm sorry am I not supposed to be here?" Ah Chun asked. She felt a bit reluctant if she was told to leave all of a sudden after making such a dangerous trip to reach this point.
"No little one you can be here. I was just surprised to see such a young girl make it to this point. For your age, your cultivation level is very good. Even in the upper realms, you would be considered a heavenly genius and your courage is not small either. For you to climb each link as you have at such an age is very courageous. The links are set up to slowly sap one's spirit power as they climbed. This is why you were not able to fight off the biting cold as you climbed higher. The higher the cultivation the harder it would be. So for one your age with such a high cultivation, your test was on the harder side. But you pushed through which proves your courage is not small indeed." The gentle voice paused for a few seconds before it continued. "Come to the palace entrance I will be waiting there.."
The voice faded out, but Ah Chun was very happy that she did not have to leave after just arriving. After taking a couple of deep breaths, Ah Chun let out a sigh of relief. After clearing her state of mind she stepped forward as she walked towards the palace.