Chapter 147: The Peculiar Old Man

As the ice wall shattered, simply breathing in the freezing air filled Liu Pan with an indescribable sense of exhilaration.

Lifting his gaze to scan the surroundings, Liu Pan's eyes landed instantly upon a pool of icy spring water. There, three ice lotus flowers swayed gently, their captivating fragrance refreshing his mind and spirit.

Could this be the crown ice lotus? A look of astonishment crossed Liu Pan's eyes.

Supreme-grade elixirs inherently possess their own unique aura. The crown ice lotus earned its supreme classification because its medicinal properties offer boundless benefits to any ice-attribute spirit root cultivator, regardless of their realm. Even those who had attained the Martial Saint realm were no exception.

"This old bastard is certainly generous with his treasures," Liu Pan muttered to himself, confirming his earlier conjecture. The path Liu Kuang was treading was indeed part of someone else's scheme.

Sweeping his spiritual sense outward and verifying more than a dozen times that there were no protective formations whatsoever around the crown ice lotus, Liu Pan frowned, but his expression soon relaxed.

Retrieving three white jade porcelain bottles from his storage ring, Liu Pan readied himself to harvest the ice lotus.

Although the crown ice lotus currently appeared as a blooming flower, Liu Pan knew that the moment it was plucked from the ice, the petals would wither and transform into a seedpod, and the true prize lay solely within the seeds inside.

...

In another canyon an unknown distance away from the icy ravine, the gray-robed old man kicked away a charging frost wolf with a single blow, his brow furrowing impatiently.

Glancing at the frost wolf king lurking on the periphery of the pack and directing the battle, the old man let out a cold snort. Then, with a sudden flash of movement, he stomped his foot down squarely on the wolf king.

"A beast is a beast," the gray-robed old man muttered, casually brushing a trace of blood from his face and sneering. "Now, take all the wolves in the pack and follow me..."

The old man began, but before he could finish his sentence, his expression suddenly shifted. With a flash of his figure, he vanished directly from the canyon, leaving behind only a pack of bewildered frost wolves and a shivering frost wolf king cowering on the ground.

A quarter of an hour later, within the icy ravine, faint spatial ripples spread outward as a figure abruptly materialized above the ice spring where the crown ice lotus had been.

A moment later, the figure vanished, and a terrifying oppressive aura permeated the air, shrouding the sky within a radius of a thousand miles around the icy ravine in a layer of gloom...

Liu Pan forcibly suppressed his racing heart. Although he had long since judged that the old man's strength was extraordinary, feeling such a terrifying aura still left him deeply shaken.

A Saint-realm powerhouse! That was Liu Pan's sole conclusion at that moment.

The principle of hiding in plain sight applies in almost any circumstance. Unable to gauge the exact limits of the old man's strength, Liu Pan did not dare to flee immediately; instead, he concealed himself within the ice wall on one side of the canyon entrance. To be precise, Liu Pan did not dare choose to leave right away. While he had seen no defensive measures around the crown ice lotus, certain methods were entirely beyond his current ability to perceive...

As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. Liu Pan was truly grateful that he had chosen to hide here at this moment. Otherwise, given the speed at which the old man searched, he would have been discovered almost instantly.

The Saint realm—what kind of existence was that? To put it mildly, a cultivator with such a cultivation base, if unburdened by worldly ties, could walk sideways across the Tianfeng Continent and no one would dare to block his path.

However, while he was glad he had hidden here, Liu Pan knew he could not stay too long. Once the other party realized the truth of hiding in plain sight, the consequences would be far from pleasant.

Originally, Liu Pan had expected that having his crown ice lotus stolen would send the old man into a absolute frenzy. Yet reality defied his expectations.

For merely half an hour later, the stifling oppression in the air had actually vanished!

What was going on? Liu Pan frowned.

After waiting quietly for nearly an hour with no further commotion from the outside world, Liu Pan hesitated for a moment before finally, with utmost caution, cracking open the ice wall and poking his head out.

The instant he swept his gaze across the area, Liu Pan's heart skipped a beat, and his entire body stiffened uncontrollably.

Because his hiding spot was within the ice wall at the side of the canyon entrance, Liu Pan only needed to stick his head out to see the entire mouth of the ravine.

Yet, at that single glance, Liu Pan never dreamed he would witness such a sight.

At the canyon entrance, a black-robed figure sat cross-legged, appearing to be... cultivating?

What was going on here? Drawing his head back with extreme care, Liu Pan struggled to calm his churning emotions.

This scene was utterly bizarre. Although separated by a certain distance, with Liu Pan's current vision, he instantly confirmed that the black-robed old man sitting cross-legged was none other than the gray-robed old man from before.

Yet, why would this be?

The crown ice lotus had been stolen, and instead of flying into a towering rage, he was sitting cross-legged at the canyon entrance cultivating? This...

Wait! Gray robes? Black robes? Could it be a case of multiple personality disorder?

At that moment, Liu Pan's thoughts took an absurd leap back to the notions of inner good and bad selves he had encountered back on Earth.

Was this too melodramatic? Regaining his senses, Liu Pan nearly coughed up blood, finding the idea utterly absurd. Yet, right at that moment, Liu Pan suddenly recalled the delicate young woman he had seen upon first arriving in the Northern Plains... Surely she didn't have multiple personalities too?

After a moment of silence, Liu Pan shook his head to rid himself of such distracting thoughts. Pondering these matters endlessly was useless; only what he witnessed with his own eyes was real.

After a brief hesitation, Liu Pan poked his head out once more.

At the canyon entrance, the black-robed old man remained seated cross-legged. This time, perhaps because his mind had settled down, Liu Pan heard certain sounds he had missed earlier.

Coughing? Liu Pan raised an eyebrow. If it were merely a single cough, Liu Pan naturally wouldn't pay it any mind, but this was a continuous, suppressed series of coughs.

For cultivators, physical constitution can be hundreds or thousands of times stronger than that of ordinary people, rendering them virtually immune to major illnesses or aches. Thus, the old man's coughing was far too peculiar. Furthermore, this old man was no ordinary cultivator, but a supreme powerhouse of the Martial Saint realm; falling ill was even more out of the question.

Could it be that the gray-robed persona was a supreme Martial Saint powerhouse, while the black-robed persona was just a frail old man? Unconsciously, such a notion popped into Liu Pan's mind.

Yet, a moment later, Liu Pan ruthlessly banished both the thought and the tiny voice that had suggested it.

Damn it, if you put an ordinary old man in the freezing wasteland of the Northern Plains wearing only a simple black robe and let him survive three minutes, I'll eat my hat!

Observing without leaving a trace for a moment, Liu Pan still could not make head or tail of the situation. Just as Liu Pan was about to retract his head, the old man sitting cross-legged moved.

He stood up with a trembling sway, accompanied by a tearing sound of fabric—the noise of clothing frozen fast to the icy ground being ripped apart. Yet, the old man paid no heed to this, instead flipping his hand to produce a long sword from his storage ring.

A crisp hum rang out as the sword levitated in mid-air, carrying the old man away toward the east.

After a long silence, roughly half an hour after the old man's departure, Liu Pan flew his sword down from the ice wall to the canyon entrance.

Looking at the spot where the old man had previously sat cross-legged, a strange glint flashed in Liu Pan's eyes. Then, he walked over, tore off a scrap of cloth that the old man had left frozen and ripped away from the ice surface, and inspected it closely. Finally, Liu Pan was certain of something.

Pondering for a moment, Liu Pan cast his gaze in the direction the old man had departed.

The east? What was he going over there for? It seemed... still completely uninhabited, right?