Chapter 170: Chapter 113: Divine Marvel
The chill wasn’t coming from here.
It came from deeper underground!
Qin Fang sucked in a cold breath. ’What in the world is going on with this cave? Up above, next door to this place, there’s a Treasure Plant and a massive hive with tens of thousands of Giant Bees! And down below, in this bottomless pit, the cold is so pervasive that after descending just twenty or thirty meters, an Anjin Martial Artist like me is almost frozen solid?!’
Qin Fang was deeply shaken.
After a long while, a gust of frigid air washed over him, jolting him back to his senses.
...’It’s too cold!’
He quickly looked toward the stone bowl.
In the stone bowl was a shallow layer of liquid glowing with a faint white light.
Only when Qin Fang got closer did he smell a faint, fresh fragrance wafting from the liquid.
The liquid was just a shallow layer, barely covering the bottom of the bowl.
Qin Fang noticed the ground beneath his feet. Patches of white frost were mixed in with the blue. ’This means the Wild Boar King must have stayed here for long periods...’
He stared at the liquid and subconsciously swallowed.
’...Could this be the source of the Wild Boar King’s mutation?’
’This liquid is clearly something special! Never mind the fact that it’s giving off a faint white glow... Just the fact that it remains a liquid in this freezing place, instead of turning into Ice Crystals... that says it all!’
But rashly consuming this strange substance was not in Qin Fang’s character.
After a moment of thought, he suddenly turned and left.
The higher he climbed, the more he could feel the intense cold rapidly fading away.
In just thirty meters, after leaving the small cavern, the temperature was almost back to normal.
Qin Fang let out a long breath.
He was mysteriously covered in a lot of condensation.
He rested for a moment, then walked out of the cave. He rummaged through his stashed fishing gear and found a Porcelain Bottle.
It was the Porcelain Bottle that had held his Qi and Blood Impact Pills, but it was long empty now.
He took the Porcelain Bottle, found a piece of tough bark nearby, stripped it clean, and then returned to the small cavern.
The chill assaulted him again. Even circulating his Qi Blood throughout his body, Qin Fang felt he couldn’t stay in this spot for long.
He took a deep breath and carefully used the stripped bark to scoop the liquid from the stone bowl into the Porcelain Bottle, bit by bit.
Only then did he realize the liquid was surprisingly viscous, milky-white, and emitting a faint luminescence.
...’How bizarre!’
Qin Fang clicked his tongue in amazement.
But the cold was intensifying, so Qin Fang didn’t dare to linger. He quickly collected the liquid.
In total, however, he only managed to collect about ten drops before the stone bowl was empty.
Qin Fang looked at the Stone Milk formation above... and looking higher, he could only see the roof of the cavern...
’So this liquid drips down from the Stone Milk? ...But where is its actual source?’
Qin Fang frowned.
He couldn’t figure it out.
But the cold was growing heavier, and it was becoming unbearable. Frost formed on his eyelashes again. He exhaled a long breath of white mist, then quickly got up and left.
The temperature finally returned to normal. Qin Fang let out a long sigh of relief.
...’I’m actually a little exhausted!’
And this was despite his now extraordinary stamina.
He had run for two hours to get here without even breaking a sweat.
Yet after just two trips back and forth within that thirty-meter area of the cavern, he felt such intense exhaustion?
’...That’s right. Circulating Qi Blood consumes stamina. It seems like I wasn’t moving, but it was actually far more tiring than sprinting!’
He turned his head and looked back at the deep, small cavern...
’What lies even deeper?’
But he didn’t dare to go back.
The stone bowl was basically the absolute limit of how far he could go.
After two trips, he had realized... the cold here didn’t deepen gradually, but in tiers.
For example, the entrance had one level of cold. From ten to nineteen meters, it got colder. From twenty to twenty-nine meters... it was colder still.
The temperature just dropped!
There was no scientific explanation for it.
Qin Fang estimated... if he went down one more tier, he’d probably be instantly frozen stiff.
’Another tier down, and I’d probably become an ice sculpture... This is terrifying!’
’What is the deal with this mountain cave? A Treasure Plant, Giant Bees, and now this Stone Milk liquid...’
He pressed his lips together, then finally let out a soft breath.
"Whatever this is... I can’t tell anyone."
The importance of Old Ox Back rose once again in his mind.
’If outsiders found out about this, forget Huajin Powerhouses... Even the Divine Characters my master mentioned would probably be alarmed! Then I wouldn’t get a share of any of it.’
’It’s true that I have a Golden Finger, but this Golden Finger can’t make me stronger out of thin air. To get stronger quickly, I need a massive amount of resources. The resources here on Old Ox Back are simply heaven-defying. ...I absolutely cannot give this up.’
With these thoughts in mind, Qin Fang left the mountain cave. He looked at the Porcelain Bottle, his mind racing...
’This stuff is most likely the reason for the Wild Boar King’s mutation. But of course, I can’t just try it myself... If it’s poisonous, I’ll regret it when it’s too late, and there’s no coming back.’
He planned to take it back and run some experiments on it first.
’The Wild Boar King must have gone there often, judging by the tracks... and it died a little over three months ago. Assuming the Wild Boar King drank the bowl dry every time... does that mean the ten-or-so drops I have now are about three months’ worth of production?’
’That’s it?’
Qin Fang furrowed his brow.
But in the end, he let out a soft sigh...
’Alright, I guess I can’t say it’s too little. Maybe the effects of this stuff are astonishing? After all, it’s so miraculous; it’s not some mundane product. I can’t judge it by common sense. Take the Giant Bees, for example... didn’t a tiny Poison Needle kill a monster with such an astonishing Life Force? It just goes to show that things from the Extraordinary World can’t be measured by quantity.’
"Whatever. I’ll go ’fish’ for bees first... then head back and experiment."
He narrowed his eyes, put away the Porcelain Bottle, grabbed his gear, and headed for the summit, ready to go bee fishing!
