Chapter 143: Arrival at the Forsaken City

In a seven-star sect such as the Frostveil Sect, most disciples had already reached at least the Martial Master realm, whether through their natural aptitude or the resources at their disposal.

Martial Masters had begun to transcend the need for ordinary food. Eating was no longer an absolute necessity. Thus, the cafeteria—a place of limited practical use—had been built on a mountain at the outer edge of the sect, not far from the residences of the registered disciples.

Since Liu Pan had decided to leave, he was naturally not going to the cafeteria for a meal. He was thankful that he had never abandoned the habit of eating three meals a day; otherwise, he would have had no excuse to leave at this moment.

As he approached the cafeteria, Liu Pan quickly found his target.

It was a fat man, broad and heavily built, the sort who looked capable of eating an astonishing amount. In fact, Liu Pan had already witnessed the man’s appetite, which was precisely why he had chosen him as his target.

The reason was simple: among all the registered disciples of the Frostveil Sect, this was the only one whose appetite rivaled his own. Of course, Liu Pan ate by “cheating.” To savor the delicacies of this world, he constantly circulated his primordial force to accelerate digestion—a habit that had long become second nature. As for the fat man, he too enjoyed good food, but more than that, he ate to fill his stomach.

Liu Pan held no prejudice against those with fuller figures. That had been true on Earth, and it was even more so on the Tianfeng Continent.

Flowers came in red, orange, yellow, and green; people came in every height and shape. It was perfectly normal, even inevitable. If everyone were born with handsome, graceful physiques, that would be the truly abnormal thing.

With a thought, Liu Pan controlled a thread of primordial force and silently severed several strands of hair from his head. Wrapped in spiritual power, they skimmed soundlessly along the ground until they reached the fat man’s feet.

Then, using his spiritual power, Liu Pan twisted the strands into a small knot and gently tied them among the fat man’s hair.

Once he had finished, Liu Pan breathed a little easier. He turned and descended the mountain, heading straight for the outer boundary of the Frostveil Sect.

He did not dare to carry that strand of hair away from the Frostveil Sect, nor did he dare to discard or destroy it recklessly. The reason was simple: it bore a mark of divine consciousness—the mark left by the old man before the Profound Ice Stele.

Liu Pan soon left the Frostveil Sect. He flew northward on his sword for nearly two hours, and only after confirming that no one was pursuing him did he finally relax completely.

For the remaining half month, Liu Pan traveled northward, stopping and starting as he went.

The Northern Expanse differed from the other regions of the Tianfeng Continent. It was a world of ice and snow, and the farther north one went, the more bitter the cold became. In the farthest reaches of the north, ordinary humans could not survive, and even cultivators of low cultivation would never dare venture there.

By all ordinary reasoning, the farther north Liu Pan traveled, the fewer people he should encounter. And indeed, he did meet fewer people—but what puzzled him was that he discovered quite a number of cultivators along the way.

Their cultivation was nothing remarkable, yet without exception, all of them were hurrying southward. This reminded Liu Pan of the force that had been secretly gathering within the Frostveil Sect.

“Could it really be that some major event is about to happen?”

Liu Pan frowned and glanced toward the north, a strange look flickering through his eyes. Soon, he adjusted his state of mind, accelerated his sword flight, and continued farther north.

After pondering for a long time on the journey, Liu Pan finally succeeded in cultivating the eighth level of the Profound Ice Art. Along with that breakthrough, his cultivation also advanced to the fifth tier of the Martial King realm.

Compared with the moment he had completed the seventh level, successfully cultivating the eighth level once again caused Liu Pan’s strength to soar.

After cultivating the seventh level, Liu Pan had been capable of challenging ordinary Martial Emperors despite being a realm below them. After mastering the eighth, he could now contend with mid-stage Martial Emperors—and perhaps even cultivators who had only recently entered the late stage.

Liu Pan himself was astonished. A cultivation art that was still incomplete could already allow him to fight across realms with such ease. If he cultivated the complete art, would he not become invincible among those above his level?

Invincible before cultivators of an entire major realm higher than himself? That was...

After the Martial King realm came the Martial Emperor realm, and after the Martial Emperor realm came the Martial Deity realm. Martial Deities could control an entire region of space, but that was a matter for later.

If one could truly become invincible within the Martial Emperor realm, it meant being only a single step away from becoming a supreme powerhouse.

One had to understand that in the present-day Tianfeng Continent, which was nearing decline, a cultivator at the pinnacle of the Martial Emperor realm was already someone of considerable standing.

And yet Liu Pan was currently only a Martial King. Still, a single cultivation art seemed capable of allowing him to...

Just what kind of existence was the Profound Ice Art?

By this point, Liu Pan had become completely certain that the Profound Ice Art, like the Flame Dragon Tyrant Body Art cultivated by the protagonist Liu Kuang, was an inheritance handed down from the ancient primordial era. In fact, the Profound Ice Art was even more formidable than the Flame Dragon Tyrant Body Art.

But what exactly did the “backlash of the Profound Ice Art” mean?

Eighteen days later, Liu Pan reached an utterly unremarkable town on his flying sword. According to the map he had purchased along the way, it was the northernmost town in the Northern Expanse. Beyond it lay a dead line. An ordinary person who ventured farther would certainly die, and even a cultivator of low cultivation would have to proceed with extreme caution.

The cold wind howled. Compared with the other cultivators, Liu Pan was unquestionably an anomaly amid that frozen world.

Cultivators with ice-element spiritual roots were naturally attuned to the cold. Yet in a place north of the Northern Expanse, where the chill had reached an unimaginable extreme, even they had to circulate their primordial force through their bodies for warmth before they could feel truly comfortable.

Liu Pan did not need to do so.

Because of his body, he genuinely did not find the icy snow or the fierce wind cold. On the contrary, he felt wonderfully comfortable. The stimulation of the cold even left him unusually invigorated, as though his body would never grow tired.

Having learned something about the condition of his body, Liu Pan was not especially troubled by its reaction to the cold. Still, he found it somewhat difficult to adjust to. His eyes saw a chill capable of freezing a person to death, while his body felt utterly at ease within it. The contrast was simply too strange.

Liu Pan raised his eyes toward the town before him. It was not magnificent—in fact, it was ordinary to the extreme—but he knew that this was the destination toward which he had traveled all this way: Northern Wasteland City.

Without hesitation, Liu Pan concealed his aura and stepped into the city.

He had always viewed the Gu clan of the Northern Expanse with suspicion. From discovering that his mother belonged to the Gu clan, to Xiao Hanyi’s appearance, to the hidden secrets of the Ultimate Frost Constitution, the emergence of the “female protagonist” and the long-distance teleportation array, the forces quietly gathering within the Frostveil Sect, and the Profound Ice Stele—every clue seemed, in one way or another, to be connected to the Gu clan.

Liu Pan found it deeply perplexing. What exactly was the situation with the Gu clan?

Although all this information pointed toward the Gu clan, he still harbored some doubts. Was this truly the Gu clan? Or was there some other extraordinary existence behind it all?

If it really was the Gu clan, and it still possessed the wealth and resources to construct a teleportation array of such power, had it truly declined ten thousand years ago?

And if it was not the Gu clan, then what kind of force stood behind everything?

Entering the town, Liu Pan swept his gaze around. After hesitating briefly, he headed toward the northeastern quarter.

He remembered writing in his book that the largest manor in the northeastern corner belonged to the Gu clan.

(The author has quit his job, so there will be updates every day from now on.)