Huo Yuhao constantly cheered himself on in his heart as he drew closer and closer to the location of the ice shards.
Finally, just as his physical strength and spirit power were about to be exhausted, he reached the spot where the ice shards were.
Huo Yuhao wrapped his legs tightly around the iron chain while gripping it firmly with one hand. With the other, he pulled out the white tiger dagger his mother had left him before she passed away and used his last bit of strength to scrape away the ice shards.
Following his movements, the ice shards began to fall away in clumps, and a narrow cave entrance hidden behind them was suddenly revealed to Huo Yuhao's sight.
"Yuhao, keep at it! I have a feeling this entrance is definitely not simple. It might even be a passage leading to another Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Cave!"
Hearing Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice in his mind, Huo Yuhao's face lit up with joy. His body seemed to regain its vitality, and he felt much more energized.
He exerted a sudden burst of force and stabbed the white tiger dagger down hard.
This move did indeed clear away all the ice shards, but because he used too much force, his palm unconsciously loosened for a moment.
In an instant, the white tiger dagger slipped from Huo Yuhao's hand and fell straight down.
"No!!!"
Panic surged in Huo Yuhao's heart, and he instinctively reached out with his leg to try and stop the white tiger dagger's fall, but it was in vain.
He could only watch helplessly as the white tiger dagger continued to plummet until it reached the very bottom.
Because of his Spirit Eyes Spirit, he could clearly see every detail of the white tiger dagger's descent.
He... he actually lost the white tiger dagger, the last memento his mother had left him?
"I lost my mother's white tiger dagger... I lost my mother's white tiger dagger..."
Huo Yuhao muttered to himself, his expression turning blank with shock.
Seeing this, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm grew anxious.
Having been with Huo Yuhao for so long, he naturally knew how important the white tiger dagger was to him. Fearing that Huo Yuhao would lose his head and try to descend to the bottom again to find it, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm hurriedly spoke:
"Yuhao, if you slide back down now, you won't have the strength to climb back up!"
"Why don't you enter that cave first, recover your spirit power, and see what's behind it. If it really is a Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Cave, you can naturally come back for the white tiger dagger after you've absorbed the ten thousand year profound ice marrow."
"At that time, climbing won't be any trouble at all!"
Under Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's persuasion, Huo Yuhao finally managed to pull his gaze away and stopped looking at the fallen white tiger dagger.
He knew that Tianmeng Ice Silkworm was right.
He had very little strength left; he had to be decisive!
With that thought, Huo Yuhao finally focused his attention on the cave entrance.
It was an extremely narrow passage, barely half a meter in diameter, just enough for a person to crawl through. The walls of the passage were covered in a thin layer of ice crystals, which emitted a faint blue glow under a dim light coming from somewhere unknown.
This blue light was the tiny glint he had seen at the very beginning.
Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth, lowered his body, and began to crawl into the passage.
The passage was even narrower than he had imagined, with the ice crystals on both sides almost pressing against his body.
With every bit he crawled forward, the ice crystals would rub against his clothes, making a "shasha" rustling sound that was exceptionally clear in the silent passage. Cold surged from all directions, seeping into his limbs and bones. With his spirit power heavily depleted, this was undoubtedly even more severe, but he could no longer worry about that.
He had already lost his mother's white tiger dagger... he had to find the ten thousand year profound ice marrow!
As he crawled, the passage gradually widened. The faint blue light also grew brighter and clearer, illuminating the entire passage like a dreamscape.
Finally—
The view suddenly opened up.
Huo Yuhao poked his head out of the passage and stared blankly at the scene before him, momentarily forgetting to breathe.
This was a massive ice cave, even more vast than the Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Cave he had been in before. Countless thick, long icicles hung from the ceiling, densely packed and jagged, like an upside-down forest.
These icicles refracted a crystalline white halo under the dim light coming from somewhere. The surroundings of the ice cave were layers upon layers of crystal-clear ice walls.
But what shocked Huo Yuhao the most was the pool of ice in the very center of the cave.
It was a circular ice pool about three zhang in diameter. The water was crystal clear but emitted a deep blue glow even richer than its surroundings. The light seemed alive, flowing slowly across the surface, sometimes gathering and sometimes dispersing, like a living creature breathing.
In the center of the ice pool stood a thick ice pillar. The pillar was completely transparent, and inside, one could vaguely see a milky white liquid flowing slowly.
"This is..."
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm had originally thought it would be good enough if there were a small Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Cave here, as the one he had stumbled into was already very large. It was rare for two great treasure lands to appear in the same place.
But the scene before him completely shattered his judgment.
This was actually a treasure land far more precious than a Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Cave!
"Yuhao! You've struck it lucky! Although the ten thousand year profound ice and ten thousand year profound ice marrow here aren't as plentiful as in the cave I found back then, this ice pool... I have a feeling this water can definitely completely change your destiny in a Heaven-Defying way!"
"It's a good thing the Ice Empress didn't look carefully, or else this Opportunity would never have fallen to you!"
Lost in ecstasy, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm let down his guard, completely failing to notice the approaching danger.
Huo Yuhao swallowed hard and moved his feet with difficulty, wanting to get closer.
Just then, a low roar suddenly rang out.
The entire ice cave seemed to tremble slightly at the sound of this roar. The icicles on the ceiling rustled, and a few even broke and fell, crashing onto the ice with a "kacha" and shattering into countless crystalline shards.
Huo Yuhao stopped abruptly, the hair on his entire body standing on end.
He slowly turned his head, looking in the direction of the sound.
On the other side of the ice pool, where the deep blue light was strongest, a pair of eyes was staring coldly at him.
Ice-blue pupils with vertical slits, those eyes seemed to contain an entire World of ice and snow—cold, deep, and devoid of any emotion. The owner of the eyes slowly stepped out from the shadows of the ice wall, revealing its full appearance.
It was a fox.
A pure white fox.
Its body was much larger than a normal fox's, standing a meter tall at the shoulder and over two meters long. Five fluffy long tails trailed behind it, each hair crystal clear as if formed from ice and snow. On its forehead was a silver pattern that shimmered with a faint glow, making it appear even more noble and mysterious.
What was most terrifying was the aura it emanated—cold, majestic, and full of pressure.
That was an aura only a Hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast could possess!