The huge griffin flew at an incredible speed. With just a single flap of its wings, it would have traveled several hundred feet. The distance between Crystal Spring Mountain and Taihan Snowy Mountain had only been a few hundred kilometers. In less than four hours, the majestic outline of the mountain had appeared before them.
From afar, it looked as though the world had been covered by a blanket of snow. A bright line of snow extended from the mountain to the end of the horizon. It had been an imposing scene.
Once they had entered the territory of the snowy mountain, the freezing air buffeted against them, having brought the temperature around them drastically. Everything around them had been draped in white, with snow having covered every inch of the land.
Nevertheless, they had been cultivators whose bodies had been tempered by spiritual energy and elixirs, having made them resistant to extreme temperatures. That level of frigid temperature hardly had any effect on them. After having searched for a flat area to land, Senior Sister Qing Yue took out an exquisitely designed bone flute and played it gently. The huge griffin nodded before flying away.
That bone flute had been refined by the sect as a magical tool for the purpose of having controlled spiritual beasts. No matter how far apart they had been, they could have always contacted the spiritual beast with that bone flute. They had to stay in the snowy mountain for a few days and it would have been inconvenient to have the griffin wait for them over there all the while. With that, they sent the griffin back to the sect in the meantime.
The moment they landed, Fang Yong hurriedly rushed behind a mound of snow and vomited, having emptied the contents in his bowels. Li Tian had not seemed to have been doing so well either.
The reason had been simple. Chu Chen obtained the rights to have controlled the griffin after paying the one spirit stone. He tried to steer the griffin and had everyone experience a truly turbulent flight.
Using the excuse of a newbie, he had the griffin make a 270 degrees spin in the air repeatedly. Chu Chen, Qing Yue, and Liu Bo were better off as they had been seated to the front. As for Li Tian and Fang Yong who sat at the back, the experience had not been different from a boat within a tsunami.
That resulted in Fang Yong almost having puked his guts out the moment he landed. Li Tian, whose Qi had roiled within him, had secretly regretted not paying the fare himself, which resulted in him having been tormented by Chu Chen.
Setting foot on the snowy ground, Chu Chen's keen senses detected a hint of danger that loomed about in the air currents. Even without having extended his spiritual consciousness, his senses had been much keener than regular people.
'Shouldn't the snowy mountain give off an air of stillness?'
"Alright, we're here. Let's head toward the location of the frost lotus first." Qing Yue scanned her surroundings, then took out a high quality silk scroll from her pockets. After checking it carefully, she pointed in one direction. "That way."
In a sea of snow, everywhere appeared to have been almost the same. Without Qing Yue, they would have had no way to have determined the directions even with the map in their hands.
Qing Yue led the way. With a gentle wave of her sleeves, he elegant figure floated like a leaf in the wind.
Behind her, the others activated their own techniques to have travelled quickly, shaving sped toward the snow mountain in a flash of light.
The soft snow that covered the ground appeared as though it had been covered in a layer of soft white cotton. Each step taken would have produced a clear footprint.
Much to their surprise, the 'useless' Chu Chen had been able to have kept up with their speed. Li Tian exchanged looks with Fang Yong and smiled, hinting that Chu Chen would have surely suffered for having tried to act tough.
After having sprinted in the snow mountain for four hours, a loud explosion caused them to have immediately come to a halt.
With a clear warning from Senior Sister Qing Yue, the five of them formed a defensive formation with her at the core, having waited solemnly.
Whoosh!
Along with another explosion, a small mound of snow 30 feet away from Senior Sister Qing Yue burst open. A grey-colored figure came flying at them at an incredible speed.
Chu Chen focused his sight and realized that it had been an ice-fanged rat with icy spines all over its body. Although small in size, it had surprisingly been powerful and ferocious. It had the ability to have easily tore through a snow elephant that had been a hundred times its size.
"Evil creature!" Li Tian scoffed.
With a wave of his palm, a dazzling light bloomed from the heart of his palm. In an instant, a bright and sleek long sword materialized from his palm. It danced around gently and flashes of light shot forth, having criss-crossed in the air to have formed a radiant screen, having blocked that greyish figure.
"Nice sword skill!"
Fang Yong cheered loudly. Although it had been obvious that it had just been flattery, Senior Sister Qing Yue could not have helped but nodded along and praised him in her thoughts. This arrogant young master had been quite something to have been able to have executed such a majestic move casually. He must have spent quite some effort in the way of the sword.
On the other hand, Chu Chen could not have helped but frowned. Even without having relied on his spiritual consciousness, he could tell the sword technique had been unnecessarily shown and rifed with flaws. To him, it had been considered as a technique that was suitable for entertainment.
Unbeknownst to him, his spiritual consciousness caused his senses to have been at the level of a grandmaster. That was why he would have felt that Li Tian's sword technique had been utter rubbish.
Li Tian had a vague look of smugness on his face. The sword-lights slashed downward and had been accompanied by a spray of blood as they accurately pierced through the quick-moving grey figure in the air.
Having looked carefully, they realized that it had been a creepy ice-fanged rat whose body had been covered in icy spines. The dazzling blade had cut it in half.
That ice-fanged rat had been incredibly ferocious. Even after having lost half its body, it glared at them through its rage filled eyes, having bared its fangs and roared at them. It was as though it could have just jumped at them to have taken a bite at any moment.
"This is the ice-fanged rat? Although ferocious, it's also very cunning and would never attack a cultivator unprovoked." Senior Sister Qing Yue frowned as she looked at the struggling ice-fanged rat.
"Who knows what's wrong with this animal." Li Tian appeared calm. With a wave of his sword, he once again splitted the struggling and roaring rat in half.
With a wave of his sword, blood droplets slid down from the edges and left the sword glistening like it had been brand new.
"Untainted by a single drop of blood. That's a wonderful sword!"
Fang Yong once again started his cheering. Li Tian's calm gaze then started taking on a hint of pride as he looked provokingly at Chu Chen.
Chu Chen chuckled, then acted oblivious to his provocations, having maintained his innocent appearance as he continued along with the group.
"Kid, you should be careful."
Chu Chen, who had been quietly sprinting behind the group was caught slightly off guard. There had been some small movements in his clothes before a small little hamster head poked out to look at him. Its beady eyes had been filled with apprehension. "I can feel that deep within this snow mountain, a snow python is at the verge of breaking through and transforming into a scaled dragon. This snow python had already developed a shred of draconic oppression and it's causing the spiritual energy in the vicinity to transform. It's about to go through a heavenly tribulation, causing the spiritual beasts and demons in the entire mountain to be affected by it, turning them more violent than usual. You guys should be extra careful. If you really run into some strong beasts, I'm afraid none of you would be its match."
"Snow python transforming into a dragon?" Chu Chen felt anxious.
"Not a dragon. It's a scaled dragon. Although scaled dragons are also considered as dragons, they are far inferior compared to an actual dragon. However, even if it's not an actual dragon, it's still effortless for it to devour a couple of rookies at the Spiritual Droplets Stage like you guys. You better be on alert."