Lady Cultivator Chapter 170 - The Northernmost Glacial Zone

Chapter 170: The Northernmost Glacial Zone

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After the spiritual aura dissipated, Wanderer Ziwei also disappeared. Presumably, he was resting using some kind of secret technique and was waiting to be woken up by them in two hundred years or maybe by some other people who broke into his Immortal’s Cave.
Right when the spiritual aura completely dissipated, several objects fell from midair. Some items fell into each of their hands.
Mo Tiange received a Jade Slip and a Sunstone. After inserting her divine sense into the Jade Slip, the four words “The Xuanji Formation Book” were immediately imprinted into her mind. When she looked at Daoist Fangzheng, he was opening a jade bottle to examine the contents. Soon after, an ecstatic expression emerged on his face; obviously, it was the Longevity Pill Wanderer Ziwei promised him.
Even though they were only walking away from this place with a few things, they already hit the jackpot. The value of Longevity Pills was unquestionable; if Daoist Fangzheng didn’t use it himself, he could sell it, and the spirit stones he’d get would definitely be enough to be exchanged for some Dustless Pills. She wondered what Daoist Fangzheng’s decision would be…
As for Mo Tiange herself, the value of Sunstones had been explained by Daoist Fangzheng before; although they weren’t as priceless as Longevity Pills, she still had the Xuanji Formation Book—the value of these two things obviously exceeded the Longevity Pill. Besides, she also obtained two late stage Foundation Building puppets.
A faint smile emerged on Mo Tiange’s face as she thought about that. She looked at the two puppets before her, and the technique to control them immediately floated into her mind. Soon afterward, she formed hand seals with both her hands then pointed at the space between her eyebrows, pulling out her divine sense slowly then injecting it into the puppets through their ears.
For these puppets to recognize someone as their master, they only needed a tiny bit of that person’s divine sense, and only someone whose cultivation realm was a lot higher than the master could erase the master’s divine sense by force. In other words, after she made these two puppets recognize her as their master, only cultivators in the Core Formation realm and above could erase her divine sense from them. However, if they wanted the puppets to recognize them as their master, they needed to use another method. Without knowing that method, these two puppets would be nothing but garbage.
When Wanderer Ziwei repaired the puppets, he withdrew his divine sense from them, so Mo Tiange now only needed to carry out the steps to make them recognize her as their master.
After her divine sense entered the ears of the two puppets standing next to her, a “crack!” rang out twice, and the two puppets started to move, lightly swinging their stone swords.
Mo Tiange was delighted—she could control them now.
However, her divine sense still wasn’t strong enough, so the outcome wouldn’t be similar to how the puppets acted under Wanderer Ziwei’s control; even when he was asleep, his puppets could act on their own and only needed to be controlled by a little consciousness.
“Fellow… Daoist Ye.” Daoist Fangzheng, who’d been watching on the sidelines, finally called out after hesitating for a while. He heard her telling Wanderer Ziwei about her master and division, so he knew that this “Ye Xiaotian” name was indeed fake. Moreover, she was also a disciple of Xuanqing School, the second greatest cultivation group in the Celestial Pole. He was an individual cultivator who had lingered in the secular world for several hundred years, so he’d seen many arrogant disciples of cultivation groups. Now that he found out about Mo Tiange’s background, he instinctively kept his distance.
Mo Tiange had no idea what his thought process was, but even if she did know, she certainly wouldn’t care about it. She just met Daoist Fangzheng by chance. Although he was a bit similar to her Second Uncle, he was still nothing but a stranger. After they left this place, they would each go their separate ways—they might never even see each other again.
“Oh, Fellow Daoist Fangzheng.” Upon hearing Daoist Fangzheng’s voice, the first thing Mo Tiange did was store the puppets in her Qiankun Bag. She knew that in the cultivation world, a middle stage Foundation Building cultivator with two late stage Foundation Building puppets in her possession would really make many people envious, so she thought she wouldn’t take them out unless it was necessary.
Daoist Fangzheng was already envious, but when Wanderer Ziwei prohibited them from harming each other, he had to release any intentions he had regarding those puppets. He was currently pointing at the stone table while he said to Mo Tiange politely: “Since the matter is over, we better divide these things up now.”
Wanderer Ziwei already said they could divide up the things on the table, so Mo Tiange agreed. “Sure.”
Nevertheless, Daoist Fangzheng didn’t move and just stared rather nervously at Mo Tiange. “Fellow Daoist Ye, you promised me earlier that if we found anything else, you’d let me take my pick first. Is that promise still valid?” Although Mo Tiange had techniques that exceeded those of cultivators in the same realm as her, Daoist Fangzheng felt he wasn’t that inferior to her in fights of magical powers. However, she just obtained two late stage Foundation Building puppets—if she backed out of her promise, Daoist Fangzheng reckoned he wouldn’t be able to defeat her no matter what. At that point, he could only accept her decision.
Mo Tiange chuckled. “Of course it’s still valid. Fellow Daoist may choose first. There are… five items here. How about you take three and I’ll take the other two?”
Daoist Fangzheng was ecstatic. After he cupped his hands at Mo Tiange, he strode towards the stone table then started to slowly ponder over the treasures he wanted.
Mo Tiange merely shook her head then moved to the side, slowly studying the Xuanji Formation Book.
She wasn’t born as a Kunwu cultivator, so she’d never exhibited treacherous behavior for the sake of obtaining benefits. Her mother was also an ordinary, honest and kind-hearted mortal woman, so Mo Tiange was taught about loyalty, filial piety and benevolence ever since she was young. When she arrived in Kunwu and followed her Second Uncle, she learned how to survive in the cultivation world and how to plan for herself. However, she never turned into a type of person her mother wouldn’t like.
Besides, she wasn’t one of those short-sighted cultivators. Whether it was during her Gold Core-formation or Nascent Soul-formation, she would have to face Inner Demons, so recklessly acting evilly would only burden herself later. At that point, if she was plagued by Inner Demons and couldn’t make a realm-breakthrough, it would be too late for any tears.
“Fellow Daoist Ye, I’ve made my picks. Take a look,” Daoist Fangzheng said happily.
Mo Tiange withdrew her divine sense and walked towards the table.
There were several objects on the table: a little bell, a pair of boots, a bottle of medicinal pills, an unknown piece of ore, and a spiritual plant which was inside a small jade case.
The little bell and boots were both magic weapons. Furthermore, they already knew with one glance that those weren’t ordinary goods as they were worthy of being in the collection of a peak stage Nascent Soul cultivator. However, the boots were very short and had orchids drawn on the side, so they were obviously female boots. In addition, she also recognized the spiritual plant—it was Reviving Grass. When her Second Uncle was injured during their escape from Mount Yunwu, she saw that Qin Xi took it out to temporarily stabilize her Second Uncle’s condition. Reportedly, the medicinal pills concocted from this kind of spiritual plant had miraculous restorative effects. Besides, they still had extraordinary curative effects even if they weren’t made into medicinal pills. She didn’t recognize the ore and didn’t open the bottle of medicinal pills either. Nonetheless, since they were among the items there, they were probably treasures all the same.
Daoist Fangzheng chose three: the little bell, the spiritual plant, and the medicinal pill bottle. Now that he saw Mo Tiange’s expression, he said, “Fellow Daoist Ye, we can talk about it if there’s anything you want.”
Mo Tiange didn’t say anything and only shook her head.
Seeing that Mo Tiange took the boots and the ore without any complaints, Daoist Fangzheng secretly sighed in relief. From the three items he chose, the little bell was an active offense magic weapon while the boots were a passive magic weapon. Active magic weapons were indeed slightly more precious than passive ones, but the boots were female boots, so he had no other choice. As for the spiritual plant and the medicinal pills, they were both more valuable than the ore. Because of that, he was a bit concerned about whether he’d been overly greedy by taking all the good things on the table.
In fact, this outcome was actually perfect for Mo Tiange. She lacked neither spiritual plants nor medicinal pills. Although there was no Reviving Grass inside her Virtual Sky World, she had better spiritual plants, and they were all a lot older than this spiritual plant. Since she had spiritual plants, she naturally wouldn’t lack medicinal pills. All in all, it’d be stupid for her to choose those two items. As for magic weapons and the like, her Shuttle of Flying Aspara was a top grade magic tool which she thought was very convenient to use, so there was no need to replace it for the time being. When she formed her Gold Core, she would have to start refining her natal magic weapon, so for her, offensive magic weapons weren’t of much use now.
Moreover, this pair of boots wasn’t bad. It looked like it was brimming with spiritual aura and Wanderer Ziwei did include it among his possessions, so it must be a high grade magic weapon. After she picked the objects up and examined them, she discovered that “Cloud-Treading Boots” was embroidered on the heels. Cloud-treading… maybe they could increase her flying speed?
“Fellow Daoist Ye, there’s still this.” Daoist Fangzheng crouched down, took out two Jade Slips from the secret cabinet under the table then tossed one of them to her.
Mo Tiange cast a glance at the cabinet and realized there were several identical Jade Slips inside. Presumably, these were prepared by Wanderer Ziwei before he passed away, but he didn’t know how many of them would be needed.
Soon after, the two of them stored their respective things then began studying their Jade Slips, looking for the exit route.
According to the pointers inside the Jade Slip, there was a Transporting Formation in this stone room that could directly transport them out.
Recalling that Shang Ruwan was still on the stone platform of the Illusory Formation outside, Mo Tiange debated whether she should take her outside or not, but after she finished reading the Jade Slip, she realized there was no direct way to open the stone door from inside. In the end, she felt helpless and had to give up. Although she had a good impression of Shang Ruwan, breaking into the cave again just for her wasn’t worth it. She could only hope that Shang Ruwan was lucky and would be able to wake up on her own. With Shang Ruwan’s temperament, she’d certainly be able to pass the tests and escape this whole ordeal.
Once they settled everything, Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng started the Transporting Formation and embedded the spirit stones into the formation according to the instructions inside the Jade Slip. Right afterward, a blinding light burst from the formation, and the scenery around them changed—
The light gradually faded. Mo Tiange opened her eyes then looked around, completely perplexed.
The cold wind was howling in her ears. In front of her were towering glaciers, and above her were heavy swirling snowflakes.
They were standing on a vast glacial zone; they had no idea where they were now!
Beside her, Daoist Fangzheng exclaimed in shock, “Oh!”
Mo Tiange immediately asked, “Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, do you recognize this place?”
Daoist Fangzheng nodded. He said while staring at her, “This place is the northernmost glacial zone!”
Northernmost glacial zone! Mo Tiange was gobsmacked to hear this. In the Celestial Pole, in the east and southeast was the towering Kunwu Mountain Range. The northeast, which was only separated from Tiandao Sect by a mountain, was where the Devil Path thrived. In the west was the uninhabited desert, and the northernmost area was the glacial zone.
Wanderer Ziwei’s Immortal’s Cave was located in the Stormy Valley in the Nine Spirits Mountain of Jin Country, right at the heartland of the Celestial Pole. How many thousands of miles were they from there? That Transporting Formation actually transported them to such a faraway place!
Mo Tiange rummaged through the Jade Slip, but she realized that the destination of the Transporting Formation wasn’t written inside. Could it be that the destination was random? However, they would only get the answer after they completed the task Wanderer Ziwei entrusted to them and returned to the Stormy Valley.
As the two of them stood on the peak of the glacier and were subjected to the cold wind and heavy snow, they surprisingly felt a bit cold. Once cultivators built their foundation, neither cold nor heat bothered them. Nevertheless, this cold wind unexpectedly made these two middle stage Foundation Building cultivators feel cold! This obviously wasn’t ordinary wind.
Mo Tiange clasped her hands then used her spiritual aura to expel the cold inside her body. Right after, she turned towards Daoist Fangzheng. “Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, since we’re here now, do you have a plan?”
Upon hearing her question, Daoist Fangzheng was silent for a short moment before he answered: “I was going to go back to Kunwu; I was in the secular world just to look for some spiritual plants and spiritual panaceas. Since everything is fine now, I better get on my way first.” He paused for a moment then asked Mo Tiange in return, “What about Fellow Daoist Ye? What do you think about this task?”
Mo Tiange said faintly, “With our current abilities, this task is too difficult to handle. All the information Senior Ziwei left us was outdated by more than 5,000 years; it’ll be hard for us to conduct our search based on that information now. Furthermore, the burial place of Senior Xiao must be very dangerous. If she passed away inside the school… Their Xuanji School was proficient in the Law of Formations, so the burial place of their Nascent Soul cultivator must be filled with countless traps. However, if she passed away while in mortal peril somewhere outside the school, that would be even more deathly for us. A place where even a Nascent Soul cultivator could encounter mortal peril… wouldn’t we be courting death if we went there? Besides, whether we can find her or not is still the problem.”
Daoist Fangzheng sank into a long silence. “… I’m thinking the same. Fellow Daoist Ye, in other words, you’re not planning on looking for her now?”
“For the time being, I’ll try to get some more information first. I’ll make a decision after I get definite information.”
After hearing what she said, Daoist Fangzheng showed an envious look on his face. He said, “Fellow Daoist is an outstanding disciple of a famous school; waiting to receive some news is certainly easier for you than for an individual cultivator like me.”
Mo Tiange only smiled but said nothing.
She was indeed in a slightly more advantageous position regarding this task. Daoist Fangzheng probably wanted to cooperate with her in the beginning but couldn’t say it out loud in the end. But she was a disciple of a big cultivation group, after all. She’d have a far easier time in obtaining news and she could easily find high level cultivators to accompany her. He, on the other hand, would have to work hard to obtain any news. Even if his inquiries produced some results, he would still have a hard time finding people to brave the dangers with him. Since she could probably accomplish the task on her own, why should she divide the spoils with him? Therefore, Daoist Fangzheng swallowed back his original request. He thought optimistically that even if he didn’t complete this task, he wouldn’t lose out.
This was also why Mo Tiange didn’t ask him to work with her. She obviously had a very high chance of obtaining all the treasures, so why should she share them with him? Although she wasn’t greedy, she wasn’t that benevolent to share her things with others.
In a tacit mutual understanding, the two of them decided to stop talking about this and changed the subject, discussing the matter they were currently facing. “Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, so you want to leave this place right away and go back to Kunwu?”
“En. What about Fellow Daoist Ye?”
“I’m not in a hurry to go back. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to take a stroll around this place.”
Upon hearing Mo Tiange’s answer, Daoist Fangzheng guessed she must be a disciple of a famous group who wanted to get some field experience.
The two of them gazed at the windy, snowy glacial zone that spread as far as the eye could see then said simultaneously, “Then we’ll say goodbye here…”
At this point, they smiled at each other. Mo Tiange clasped her hands as a goodbye. “That being the case, Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, I’ll take my leave.”
Daoist Fangzheng also clasped his hands in return and said, “I’m going to head south. Fellow Daoist Ye, Zhengfa Sect isn’t far from here. You can walk north for a bit to reach it.”
Mo Tiange nodded. “Thank you.”
After bidding farewell, the two of them stopped talking. One went towards the north, and the other went towards the south.
In the blizzard, Mo Tiange mumbled irresolutely for a while and finally summoned the White Silk Handkerchief. She then flew north on it.
Among the seven great cultivation groups in the Celestial Pole, Zhengfa Sect was the only group that wasn’t located in Kunwu. It was located in the northernmost glacial zone and focused on cultivators with water spiritual roots who practiced ice element magic. It was unclear why, but all the inhabitants of this area who possessed spiritual roots generally had water spiritual roots. As a result, Zhengfa Sect became so independent and so domineering in the northernmost glacial zone that it was actually able to stand on par with several of the great cultivation groups in Kunwu.
However, their unusual geographical location also had a disadvantage.
The glacial zone was bitterly cold, so there weren’t many mortals there. Mortals were the foundation for cultivators, so Zhengfa Sect couldn’t develop further and was forced to set up a branch in Kunwu. Nevertheless, the northernmost glacial zone was the most advantageous place for cultivators to practice ice element magic, so their headquarters had to be situated there.
These reasons brought about a phenomenon. No cultivators in the Celestial Pole dared to look down on Zhengfa Sect, but none of them were optimistic about its growth prospects either, because its strength and weakness were tied together—it couldn’t grow stronger, but it also wasn’t easy to destroy.
Since she’d arrived here, albeit by accident, Mo Tiange thought she might as well gain some experience here.
Since Zhengfa Sect was able to become one of the seven great cultivation groups in the Celestial Pole solely by relying on cultivation techniques that focused on one element, it obviously had its own uniqueness. Learn some things here would be beneficial for her.
In the current cultivation world, aside from devil cultivators, so-called sword cultivators, talisman cultivators, martial cultivators, and medical cultivators all practiced Dao. Dao was both broad and profound. Unless one saw, heard, thought, discussed, and experienced many things, one could never grow. Therefore, after one’s mental state reached a certain level, one mustn’t vainly attempt to perform Closed Door Meditation to make realm-breakthroughs from the Aura Refining realm all the way until the Nascent Soul realm. Cultivation never only involved cultivation.
The further she flew north, the greater the pressure from the cold wind became. After flying half a day, Mo Tiange unexpectedly realized her whole body was rigid. Mo Tiange was perplexed. Her cultivation level was already in the peak of the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm, but she unexpectedly couldn’t resist this cold wind—what about the low level cultivators of Zhengfa Sect? Could it be that they never left their sect? Or maybe it was just her who didn’t know the secret to this situation?
Unable to think of the reason, Mo Tiange shook her head then looked for a crack in the icy mountains where she could take refuge. She indeed found a narrow crevice between two icy mountains. She luckily had a small stature, so she could cram herself into it.
Now that she was no longer being assaulted by the cold wind, Mo Tiange suddenly felt some warmth returning to her body. Neither the ice nor the cold temperature really affected her. It was only the cold wind that was problematic—it seemed to blow away cultivators’ magic. Mo Tiange was now quite remorseful for not asking Daoist Fangzheng about this place. Since he’d been here before, he probably knew all about this cold wind.
Inside the crevice between the mountains, Mo Tiange was sitting cross-legged and moving the spiritual aura inside her body. After moving it around her microcosmic orbit, Mo Tiange felt her whole body getting warm. Perhaps… she shouldn’t stop moving her spiritual aura?
With that thought in mind, Mo Tiange stood up, ready to continue flying. Once she stood up, however, she realized her boots were all wet now.
Before she left, she specifically made two new outfits that didn’t have any indication of her membership in Xuanqing School, but they were made of the same materials. After they passed the purification of Heavenly Real Fire, they could now be considered spirit tools and weren’t at all affected by the cold winds. Nonetheless, she forgot to make new boots and only realized they had Xuanqing School’s emblem, tajitu-shaped auspicious clouds, on them after she left. Because of that, when she stayed with Ye Clan, she casually put on a pair of new boots.
Just as she was about to change her boots, she suddenly stopped. Didn’t she happen to obtain a new pair in Wanderer Ziwei’s Immortal’s Cave?
After giving it some thought, Mo Tiange took out the Cloud-Treading Boots and put them on. Right when she put them on, Mo Tiange felt that the boots seemed to automatically resize themselves according to her foot size until they fit perfectly. Soon after, a puff of spiritual aura was emitted from the boots and gathered on her feet—she stamped on the ground with her new boots, but her feet only seemed to float. An idea flashed in her mind: she might be able to rise in the air without the White Silk Handkerchief! Then, all of a sudden, she was flying several hundred feet away!
Mo Tiange was both shocked and ecstatic upon discovering this. At first, she assumed the boots could accelerate her flying speed, but to her surprise, they were actually a flying magic weapon! This way, she would really be able to fly without the White Silk Handkerchief in the future.
Although one of the functions of the White Silk Handkerchief was flying, Zhong Muling said that it was initially a defensive magic weapon. Its flying function was added later when he transformed it, so it was slightly inferior to magic weapons made specifically as flying magic weapons. Of course, that was from his point of view as a Deification cultivator, but from the point of view of Core Formation or Nascent Soul cultivators, the flying speed of the White Silk Handkerchief wasn’t bad.
On the other hand, these Cloud-Treading Boots belonged to a peak stage Nascent Soul cultivator and they were also a customized flying magic weapon; presumably, they wouldn’t lose out to the White Silk Handkerchief. In the past, she wanted to use the White Silk Handkerchief to both fly and defend herself, so sometimes she ended up in tricky situations. With these boots, wouldn’t she have an easier time in fights of magical powers?
With these thoughts, Mo Tiange became elated. She shortly used the Cloud-Treading Boots with her full strength to fly forward.
Right now, if anybody looked up, they would see a white-colored flight light across the sky. Although its momentum wasn’t that strong, its speed far exceeded the speed of Foundation Building cultivators and was almost comparable to the speed of Core Formation cultivators!