Super Combat Soldier

Chapter 382: Chapter 381: [Ice Cellar, Ice Wall, Ice Coffin]

Breaking through this illusion that was both real and fantastical, Ye Tianchen stood for a long time in front of the grand palace, gazing at the image of the extraordinary woman on the stone wall opposite to him. He truly felt the woman’s might, was stunned by her beauty, and empathized with the tragedy of her love. She had forsaken everything, set aside all ties, to search for her true love, only to meet with a life of solitude in the end. It was indeed regrettable for this remarkable woman.

Swoosh!

Ye Tianchen snapped back to reality and unleashed a Superpower onto the tip of the sword depicted in the ”Jade Maiden Dance Sky” technique of the extraordinary woman. While using the Taie Sword to fend off the rain of blades, he had noticed a speck of starlight on the front stone wall. Keeping that in mind, he now wanted to see what trickery lay behind it.

With a rumbling sound, the massive jade throne in the center of the palace slowly descended, eventually revealing to Ye Tianchen steps that led underground. It was too dark to see clearly what was at the bottom or where it led to.

Anyone trapped in this massive palace, had they not noticed where the sword of the extraordinary woman on the stone wall pointed, would have never discovered this secret passageway. They might have been doomed to a lifetime of entrapment here.

Looking down at the pitch-black underground passage, Ye Tianchen frowned. He had to enter now, whether he liked it or not. Although uncertain of where it led or what dangers might await, it was the only path forward for him and Dongfang Meng. They had no other choice.

He hoisted Dongfang Meng onto his back once more and carefully made his way down the passageway. To his surprise, he discovered that the entire passage was made of jade stairs, astonishingly beautiful. As he entered, the door behind him closed, and the entire grand palace returned to tranquility. The jade throne was also restored to its original state, leaving no trace of its movement.

Carrying Dongfang Meng, Ye Tianchen continued to descend. He noticed there were some faint lights below, but they were not bright enough to clearly make out objects at a distance. What surprised him even more was that the deeper he went, the colder it felt, with an increasing chill that threatened to freeze even him solid.

It was known that with higher cultivation, one’s resistance to extreme temperatures increased. This was not intentional but rather a result of the energy within the body reaching such a state that even in the coldest of climates, one would not feel the slightest chill. This is the mark of a true master, with vast energy circulating within, rendering hot and cold irrelevant and never succumbing to illness. Who has ever heard of a great master catching cold?

When Ye Tianchen, with Dongfang Meng on his back, reached the end of the Jade Stairs, he found himself in a vast ice cellar. In the cellar were ice blocks several meters tall, too numerous to count. These blocks emitted a cold air that kept them from melting, year-round. It was unclear how long these ice blocks had existed; they might very well be millennia old.

Suddenly, Ye Tianchen seemed to understand something. Above this immense ice cellar lay the Ancient Tombs where coffin chambers originally held bodies. These bodies would naturally decay over time, but the constant cold from the ice cellar below would preserve them, preventing decay. It appeared that after the founder of the Ancient Tomb Sect, that extraordinary woman, entered this place, she only removed the coffins, leaving the ice cellar untouched.

”We can’t linger here long; it’s far too cold. There might even be ten-thousand-year-old ice inside,” Ye Tianchen thought to himself, unable to help it.

In an instant, he ramped up his superpower to prevent from being frozen stiff. Carrying Dongfang Meng, he slowly continued forward. Now, he had no idea where exactly the Jade Maiden Heart Scripture and its Cultivation Method were located. All he could do was to search step by step. With no other options available in the stone chambers, brute-forcing through the stone walls of the grand palace was an unrealistic approach. The Jade Stairs was the only passageway, forcing Ye Tianchen to continue downward with Dongfang Meng, taking one step at a time.

Within the ice cellar, Ye Tianchen wandered about for half the day, finding nothing but massive, transparent ice blocks—just ice in every direction. Waves of cold kept assaulting them; any longer and both he and Dongfang Meng might very well freeze to death inside.

”Something’s off. How come I’ve been going around in circles and ending up in the same place?” Ye Tianchen suddenly noticed this issue. He looked at a huge ice block nearby and frowned because from this angle, he could see the largest ice mountain in the center of the cellar, where ten-thousand-year-old ice was likely piled. Whenever Ye Tianchen got a bit closer to it, the cold it released felt bone-chilling.

Ye Tianchen felt as though he had entered a maze, wandering around for at least half an hour only to find himself circling back to the same spot. If this continued, he feared he might actually freeze to death here, which was even more terrifying than staying in the palace above. At least in the palace, one could slowly think of a way out. But here, without quickly coming up with a solution, one would end up frozen alive, becoming ice sculptures along with Dongfang Meng.

Boom!

A loud noise echoed throughout the ice cellar as Ye Tianchen’s fists were engulfed with the power of thunder. With a Thunder Sky Fist, he shattered a large chunk of ice. In fact, Ye Tianchen’s approach was the simplest and most effective way to break out of a maze—destroy everything in it or forcibly change its layout so that the maze no longer exists. The maze was formed by interconnected surroundings, so by destroying a few parts, it was possible to break its configuration and find a way out.

Boom!

Another Thunder Sky Fist followed, Ye Tianchen walked forward while swinging his fists, smashing ice wall after ice wall. If it wasn’t necessary, he wouldn’t have wanted to destroy these beautifully clear ice walls.

At this time, Ye Tianchen no longer followed the established paths within the maze. Instead of walking through the gaps left in the ice walls, he charged forward, shattering any ice wall that stood in his way. It was necessary to do so to escape. Back on the apocalypse star, Ye Tianchen had also entered a maze made up of large boulders. After wandering for a long time without finding an exit, he’d ultimately resorted to demolishing the entire stone Great Formation to get out.

Those who perished in mazes often did so because their will to survive collapsed after several failed attempts to escape. Once the spirit breaks, a person fixates on dead ends and cannot consider the issue from an outside perspective to find other methods. Ye Tianchen was not such a person; once he lost his temper, he’d destroy anything in his path—and thus the maze would cease to exist.

After half an hour of walking and breaking ice walls, Ye Tianchen found himself at the center of the ice cellar, surrounded by biting Ten-thousand-year-old Ice so cold it could even freeze the soul. He involuntarily raised his King-level Superpower Realm energy to the limit, protecting himself and holding Dongfang Meng in his arms. Otherwise, carrying her on his back, the severely injured Dongfang Meng might have frozen to death.

”How could we have ended up here?” Ye Tianchen frowned. Although he had reached the center of the ice cellar, he still hadn’t escaped, a dangerous predicament given the piercing cold. He feared he couldn’t withstand it for long and had to find a way out soon.

”What’s this...”

Suddenly, Ye Tianchen was stunned. In the center of the ice cellar, he saw four massive blocks of Ten-thousand-year-old Ice forming an ice wall, within which there appeared to be an ice coffin. Lying within the ice coffin were two corpses; their faces indiscernible, prompting a flicker of shock in Ye Tianchen’s heart. There was an ice coffin in the cellar, but who was buried within it?

Logically, the Ancient Tomb Sect had occupied this Ancient Tomb for probably a thousand years. The original tomb owners must have been cleared out long ago; the sect wouldn’t allow others to be buried there. So who lay hidden in this perennially unfused ice cellar? Could it be the Sect’s awe-inspiring female founder? But there was also a man—what was going on?

His curiosity piqued, Ye Tianchen thought something was amiss. The ice cellar was filled with ice walls and had no other doors, yet right at its center was a massive ice coffin housing a man and a woman. Wasn’t that strange?

With these thoughts, Ye Tianchen evaluated the height of the ice walls. He should be able to leap over them easily. Wanting to see who was buried inside, Ye Tianchen, holding Dongfang Meng, jumped, flying over the ice wall to get close to the ice coffin and discover the identity of the two entombed persons.

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)