Chapter Seventeen: The Heavenly Ice Blossom
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“Brother Qin Lang, thank you for saving our lives! You rescued the three of us—Ironhead, Ironstaff, and Ironhammer. From now on, our lives belong to you! At your command, we would climb a mountain of blades or plunge into a sea of fire without so much as a frown!”
After confirming that Ironstaff and Ironhammer had not deceived him, the burly man struggled to his feet, knelt before Qin Lang on one knee, and bowed deeply.
Ironstaff and Ironhammer also knelt behind their leader, Ironhead.
“Please, rise at once.” Qin Lang hurriedly helped the three men to their feet and smiled. “If you hadn’t severely wounded that Iron-Walled Snow Ape, how could I, with my mere seventh-level Martial Apprentice cultivation, possibly have defeated it?”
“All three of you are injured, and this place is fraught with danger. You should leave as quickly as possible.”
After warning them, Qin Lang rose and headed toward another snow-covered mountain in the distance. He still had to hurry in his search for the Heavenly Ice Flower!
“Brother Qin Lang, you were the one who killed the Iron-Walled Snow Ape. All the materials from its body rightfully belong to you.”
Seeing Qin Lang leave, Ironhead hurried after him and stopped him.
The inner core of a second-level Iron-Walled Snow Ape was worth several thousand taels of silver. Its hide was hard as iron and made excellent armor—a precious material worth ten thousand taels of silver.
Qin Lang did not want to waste time gathering the spoils. He smiled and said, “Keep them. I have to hurry and find the Heavenly Ice Flower.”
“The Heavenly Ice Flower!”
“You’re looking for the Heavenly Ice Flower, Brother Qin Lang?”
“We happened to come across one that was about to mature!”
Ironhead, Ironstaff, and Ironhammer spoke almost at once.
“Really? Are you certain you didn’t mistake it for something else?”
Qin Lang’s entire body trembled, and his breathing instantly quickened.
He had searched for more than half a month without finding the slightest trace of the Heavenly Ice Flower. Now that he had suddenly heard news of one, even his voice began to tremble.
The Heavenly Ice Flower concerned Yun’er’s very survival. How could Qin Lang not be excited?
“Absolutely certain! It was definitely the Heavenly Ice Flower!”
“There’s no possibility of a mistake!”
“To tell you the truth, the three of us are menial disciples of the Pill Hall of the Mistcloud Sect. We’re most familiar with spirit herbs. The Heavenly Ice Flower is even more precious than a fourth-level spirit herb—we could never misidentify it!”
Ironhead and the others spoke with complete certainty.
Qin Lang had heard of the Mistcloud Sect. It had once been one of the ten great sects of the Vertical-Horizontal Empire, a powerful organization admired by countless martial artists.
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For some reason, however, it had begun declining several decades ago and had since become an obscure, insignificant sect.
“Quickly, tell me where that Heavenly Ice Flower is!”
Qin Lang drew a deep breath, forcing down the excitement surging within him.
He had kindly risked his life to save the three brothers, never expecting that they would happen to know the location of a Heavenly Ice Flower.
Indeed, kindness brought its own reward!
Perhaps everything in this world was guided by the will of Heaven!
“Cross the two snow mountains ahead. It’s beneath the glacier beside an ice river.”
Ironhead told Qin Lang where the flower was. Fearing that his words might not be clear enough, he took out paper and a brush and drew a detailed map, carefully marking the flower’s location and the surrounding terrain.
“Thank you!”
Qin Lang carefully tucked the map Ironhead had drawn into his robe and expressed his heartfelt gratitude.
“There are usually powerful demons guarding Heavenly Ice Flowers. Be extremely careful, Brother Qin Lang!” Seeing that Qin Lang was preparing to leave, Ironhead offered a warning, though his heart was filled with regret. “It’s a pity that the three of us are seriously injured. Otherwise, we would certainly accompany you.”
After bidding farewell to the three men, Qin Lang proceeded cautiously. A day later, he finally crossed the two snow mountains and arrived beneath a glacier formed by an icy river flowing down from the peaks.
The glacier stretched for several thousand meters, and its upper end rose high into the clouds, so lofty that its source could not be seen.
Looking up, it resembled a colossal waterfall descending from the heavens, frozen solid in an instant. It was a breathtaking spectacle, as though carved by nature itself.
After carefully following the glacier for more than ten miles, Qin Lang stopped.
“This should be the place!”
In an exceedingly concealed spot beneath the glacier, a white flower half a meter tall appeared in Qin Lang’s field of vision.
Unlike ordinary flowers, its shape resembled countless slender, sharply pointed ice blades layered one upon another. It was exquisitely beautiful.
This was the Heavenly Ice Flower Qin Lang had endured countless hardships to find—a third-level spirit herb!
The flower had grown in an extremely well-hidden location. Had the burly man not told him about it, Qin Lang would never have discovered it.
“Judging by its appearance, this Heavenly Ice Flower should mature within five days!”
Qin Lang’s gaze settled on the flower. At present, the buds in its uppermost layer were still closed, poised to bloom. Once that layer opened completely, the flower would reach full maturity.
“Hm?”
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The next moment, Qin Lang frowned deeply. Several meters away from the Heavenly Ice Flower, he discovered a snow-white demon leopard lying there openly, staring intently at the flower that was about to mature.
It was a third-level Snow Leopard!
A third-level demon beast possessed strength comparable to that of a fifth-level human martial artist and was extraordinarily formidable. Snow Leopards, moreover, were demons renowned for their speed.
If some other demon beast had been guarding the Heavenly Ice Flower, Qin Lang might have seized it at the moment of maturity and then fled.
But against a third-level Snow Leopard, a creature famed for its speed, Qin Lang’s current pace would never be enough to escape.
“With my strength alone, there’s no way I can seize the Heavenly Ice Flower!”
Qin Lang reached his conclusion instantly.
“看来I must lure another third-level demon beast here and let it fight the Snow Leopard for the flower. Only then will I have a chance to profit as the third party and take the Heavenly Ice Flower!”
Having made up his mind, Qin Lang quietly withdrew and began searching the surrounding area for traces of a third-level demon beast.
The one thing Tianfeng Mountain never lacked was demon beasts. According to Qin Lang’s plan, finding a third-level demon beast should not have been difficult.
Yet after spending four straight days searching the vicinity, he encountered quite a few second-level demon beasts but failed to find even one third-level beast.
“The Heavenly Ice Flower is about to mature. I can’t wait any longer!”
“If necessary, I’ll have to lure a second-level demon beast over. As long as it can delay the Snow Leopard for a while, I’ll still have a chance of seizing the flower!”
Qin Lang was just about to act when a mocking laugh suddenly reached his ears.
“Hahaha! What a small world. I never thought I’d run into you here on Tian Mountain!”
Following the voice with his eyes, Qin Lang saw a richly dressed young man striding toward him, followed by a middle-aged man with a gloomy expression.
Qin Lang’s gaze sharpened. The richly dressed youth was none other than Wang Chuan, the man who had once tried to forcefully seize Qin Lang’s pills outside the Pill Pavilion, only to have Qin Lang cripple one of his arms. He was the son of Wang Shi, the Wang family patriarch.
“Qin Lang, if you’ve encountered me here, you can only blame your own bad luck! Hand over the Soul-Condensing Pill obediently, and I’ll let you die more easily. Otherwise, I won’t mind chopping you into pieces and feeding you to the demon beasts of Tianfeng Mountain!”
Wang Chuan glared viciously at Qin Lang, his teeth clenched in hatred.
The grudge over losing an arm to Qin Lang remained fresh in his mind, and Wang Chuan had long since come to hate him to the bone.
Now that his arm had recovered and his cultivation had advanced from the fifth to the sixth level of Martial Apprentice, he was certain that he could defeat Qin Lang today and seize the Soul-Condensing Pill!