Chapter 289: Ice Spirit Ancient Tree
“Both ice and fire… This is…”
Wang Che glanced at it.
The tests in the ruins were all set up by the soul beasts inside.
Then what soul beast had set up this sea of ice?
Wang Che did not think his body had this strength now to forcefully cross this.
He looked at the little caterpillar.
The little caterpillar: “?”
It immediately took a small step back.
“Ssss!”
The little caterpillar let out a cry, indicating that it could not withstand it either.
“No, you can do it.”
The little caterpillar hurriedly shook its head and looked at the sea of flames.
It could sense that this was not simple.
It was not made of ordinary flames and ice mountains.
There was definitely something going on.
Wang Che smiled and thought to himself, ‘The little caterpillar has been with me for so long.’
It had not learned anything else, but its perception of danger was even sharper.
This round was naturally not simple.
The reason was that after Wang Che stepped onto the ice mountain, he discovered that his soul power had frozen and could not be used.
This meant that he could only rely on his physical strength to withstand the sea of ice.
He could not use soul skills.
Similarly, without soul power, the little caterpillar could not enter Flame Awakening and could not use a soul skill.
At the same time, the strange thing was that Wang Che did not feel any heat from the burning sea of fire.
Instead, it became even colder.
This coldness was like magic damage that seeped into the bone marrow and soul.
It was the same no matter how strong the body was.
“Shall we go up together?”
Wang Che looked at the little caterpillar.
The little caterpillar nodded. That was more like it.
He couldn’t let it take everything on alone.
As soon as the little caterpillar walked onto the sea of ice, its entire body shivered and its size seemed to have shrunk.
The electromagnetic scabbard was dim.
Without the flow of soul power, the interior of the soul device stopped spinning.
After taking a few steps, Wang Che retreated.
The little caterpillar retreated beyond the ice mountain.
As soon as he retreated, he felt his entire body warm up.
One could imagine how low the temperature was.
“Ssss!”
The little caterpillar called out to Wang Che.
It indicated that it could not withstand this.
The little caterpillar was almost immune to fire now, especially after entering the Flame Awakening Realm. It was immune and could even absorb fire.
Of course, it was limited to normal flames.
If the little caterpillar was thrown into the sun, it would also vaporize.
As the last round of the Heavenly Gate Fire Seed, there were usually not many contestants who could reach this stage in recent years.
Those who came here tried and most of them gave up.
Be it climbing up from the iceberg or the volcano,
they had to withstand the extremely penetrating chill that seeped into their bones and souls.
Wang Che looked at the burning flames and could not help but smile.
“Is this the Bone Freezing Fire…”
Of course, the flames were not important.
Instead, after walking up the ice mountain, its soul power froze and it could only rely on its body to resist.
This was even harder.
Without soul power, they wanted to resist the cold with just their body…
Middle to high-level soul masters could naturally do it, but soul masters at this stage could not.
Wang Che did not choose to continue climbing the mountain. There was no test that could not be passed.
Since it was a test, there was definitely a profound meaning behind it.
It was enough to guess this.
“The Fire Seed of the Heavenly Gate… It’s a test designed to imitate the humans of the Remote Antiquity Era. If you want to obtain the Fire Seed, you have to fight to the death.”
Wang Che looked up at the ice mountain.
The Fire Seed floating above was close.
To any Contract Soul Master, climbing a high mountain hundreds of meters tall was as easy as eating and drinking.
But now, it was out of reach.
The stages of the ruins were all changing.
Once someone discovered the mysteries of the checkpoint and passed, there would be new changes next year.
For example, since the establishment of this round, no one had passed.
“Going up means death, so what about going down?”
Wang Che brought the little caterpillar to the middle of the ice mountain.
The ice mountain was divided into two, and a hellish ravine that was like an abyss naturally appeared in the middle.
The chill below was even stronger. At the same time, ice and flames intersected, looking even more terrifying than above.
Wang Che took a look and smiled.
He took two steps forward.
“Sss?”
The little caterpillar immediately walked over and pulled Wang Che’s foot, pointing up with its tail.
‘Should we try again?’
Clearly, the little caterpillar thought that Wang Che was going to jump down.
If he jumped down, there was no turning back.
It was better to try climbing the mountain again.
“We can’t climb the mountain. Let’s jump down.”
Wang Che did not explain further.
The little caterpillar was stunned. It stuck its head out and shook its head.
Wasn’t this courting death?
It was even more terrifying than on the mountain!
“I’ll go down first.”
With that, he spread his hands and jumped out like a leap of faith.
The little caterpillar was stunned for a second and jumped down without thinking.
At this moment, countless spectators watching this scene through the live broadcast felt their scalps tingle and break out in cold sweat.
There was not even the sound of discussion as they watched nervously.
Over the years, there had been contestants who had come to this round, but none of them had done as Wang Che did.
Amidst the cold wind and cold flames, Wang Che felt the coldness invade his entire body.
Its skin seemed to have turned ice-cold.
The little caterpillar on Wang Che’s back turned into an ice caterpillar.
As it fell, its soul power still froze, as if it was sealed.
Wang Che knew that he had entered the special space of a powerful soul beast.
It was not necessarily created by a spatial soul beast, but a special field. However, it was not as strong as the Sky God Dragon or the Titan Beast.
It was also not covered by the Soul Earth.
The little caterpillar lay on Wang Che’s back and shouted.
Although it looked very afraid, when Wang Che jumped down, the little guy jumped down without thinking.
But soon, the frost on the little caterpillar began to melt.
The temperature gradually increased as the fog formed by the fusion of ice and flames gradually disappeared.
The surroundings slowly changed.
An emerald green color began to appear in front of him and spread.
Soon, the little caterpillar rubbed its eyes and looked into the distance.
A huge tree appeared in front of it. There were fruit trees and spiritual flowers everywhere, and the ground was covered in grass. The aura of the grass made the little caterpillar feel extremely real.
Below the ice mountain, in the abyss where ice and flames fused, was actually a place full of life?
At the same time, the little caterpillar jumped off Wang Che’s back and looked at the surroundings, feeling like it was dreaming.
It lay in the grass and rolled around, as if breathing in the aura here.
At this moment…
“Human youth, I didn’t expect you to come here!”
The huge tree trembled and spoke in the human language with an ancient voice.
This ancient tree was very interesting. It was not emerald green.
On the contrary, one side was ice blue, and the other was fiery red.
Only a small section of the head was emerald green.
It looked very mysterious.
“You’re a soul beast, the Ice Spirit Ancient Tree?”
Wang Che looked at the tree, “Were you the one who set up the checkpoint just now?”
“You can recognize me?”
The old voice was surprised.
Wang Che nodded slightly.
In the ancient soul beast encyclopedia, Wang Che had seen this soul beast before.
It was a very mysterious grass-type soul beast.
There were no records of it in the present world.
Wang Che had only seen it in the encyclopedia.
He did not know the exact situation.
He only knew that this ancient tree controlled the power of ice and fire. At the same time, its life force was extremely powerful and it had a long lifespan. It would not die easily.
“In the past few years, when I saw other human youths come here, they all struggled to climb up. Why did you want to jump down?”
The ancient tree slowly asked, “Under the ice mountain, it’s clearly several times more dangerous than on the ice mountain. There’s no way to turn back. The Fire Seed is not below either.”
Through the live broadcast, many of the shocked audience were extremely confused.
“Because there’s no chance of surviving going down.”
Wang Che casually said, “Although we all know that climbing the ice mountain is extremely difficult, there’s always a chance. If you can’t persevere, you can retreat.”
“From the development of the Winter Agricultural Festival until now, the meaning of the Fire Seed in this Heavenly Gate, other than representing the human will of the Remote Antiquity Era, also includes the fact that humans and soul beasts of the Fallen Ancient Era were in a hopeless situation with no way out. They obtained that wisp of hope and burned the entire world’s will like a prairie fire.”
“Of course, there’s no path to retreat.”
“Ascending the mountain leaves room for regret, but there’s no going back on the path to the abyss. I think that only in this situation can we see the true Fire Seed.”
Wang Che looked at the Ice Spirit Ancient Tree.
The Ice Spirit Ancient Tree was silent for a few seconds before letting out an old smile.
“I didn’t expect any of you human youths to think of this.”
“It’s nothing if you can think of it, but to have the courage to bet and really jump down, you’re indeed extraordinary.”
“Human youths nowadays are indeed getting stronger and stronger every year.”
As soon as it finished speaking, the green color on the top of the Ice Spirit Ancient Tree bloomed slightly, revealing a green light.
The light was not a flame, but it seemed to represent something.
Seeing this, Wang Che knew that he was right.
That was the true Fire Seed.
The rule of the Heavenly Gate Fire Seed was to bring it back.
In fact, there was no rule regarding the appearance of the Fire Seed.
Many contestants had the first impression that it was a flame.
In fact, the Fire Seed that represented hope was naturally not just a flame.
“The Fire Seed is above my head. Let your soul pet take it!”
“I won’t move from my spot. I’ll only use my cultivation. Whether or not you can obtain it will depend on your soul pet’s ability.”
Wang Che smiled.
This test was much easier.
This was because soul power could be used here.
It was hard to say how strong the Ice Spirit Ancient Tree was. With Wang Che’s divine sense, he could not sense it.
However, it should be the big shot of this ruin. Even if it did not have a hundred thousand years of soul power cultivation, it was not much weaker.
With a cultivation of the same level, it was naturally a test for Wang Che.
“It’s your turn to perform.”
Wang Che patted the little caterpillar and the Magnetic Sword behind it.
Clang!
The Magnetic Sword was unsheathed, and lightning arcs spread out like dragons.
It flew out with lightning. At the same time, the little caterpillar leaped lightly and flew onto the back of the Magnetic Sword.
Sword Kinesis Flying Worm!
Only in a proper battle would the little caterpillar have a chance to stand on the Magnetic Sword.
The two of them aimed at the green light above their heads.
The Ice Spirit Ancient Tree was as still as a mountain, but the branches on both sides transformed into long whips that swept over.
“Sss!”
The little caterpillar was not afraid at all. It suddenly jumped up from under the Magnetic Sword and roared.
Thick threads spewed out, and a thread bloomed like fireworks, turning into dense threads that actually entangled with the long whip of the Ice Spirit Ancient Tree!
The Ice Spirit Ancient Tree was slightly stunned and a few questions popped up in its mind…
What was this?