756 Canyon
Hell was an apt name for this place as nothing living could ever exist here.
The area was a massive plain now as Alex had gone past the mountains and it was all plain past that point.
As far as Alex could see, which was barely more than a few meters due to the hellish blizzard that never seemed to stop, everything in the area was dead.
His spiritual sense however gave a different answer. Everything on the surface was dead. However, there were some things growing underneath the ground, but those too were rare to the point that in a day's slow travel, Alex barely found maybe 3 different items, 2 of which had nothing to do with Yin.
The Yin treasures he did find were good, but he wasn't sure how helpful it would be considering it wasn't exactly Saint rank.
It had been an entire day since he had seen beasts, so at this point, Alex didn't even know if he should feel worried about them at all.
He couldn't think of a single beast that could live here after all.
Alex suddenly stopped and looked ahead with his spiritual sense. Something was on the ground that wasn't either snow or rock.
Alex couldn't exactly tell what it was, so he got closer until he was right on top of it and moved aside the snow.
When he finally uncovered what it was, Alex felt his heart drop.
This was a corpse. Alex saw the wide sunken eyes of a female whose entire body was frozen solid, including her orange robes. Her body was encased in clumps of ice from the snow that likely melted around her before she died.
Alex didn't know how strong this woman likely was, but the fact that she had died here meant she had at least some strength.
'This would be my fate too if I didn't have the yang aura blocking the coldness for me,' Alex thought. He finally started realizing for real how treacherous his path currently was.
The wind suddenly picked up and Alex felt it try to push him back. But he fought through it for a few seconds until it stopped.
Alex looked back at the frozen lady and bowed a little in respect. "Whoever you are, may you rest in peace," he said and walked away.
The dead corpse might have scared him, but his need to find cures and solutions for his body far outweighed his concerns for his own survival.
Alex understood that this was bad, but he couldn't stop himself.
As night fell, the blizzard got even worse so Alex had to stop wandering aimlessly and take shelter.
Since there was nothing to take shelter under, he dug the snow and made a small cavity on the ground where he placed a barrier formation that also generated heat on its own.
The barrier was amazing and kept Alex safe, but due to the constant attack from the outside, he needed to continuously replace the true spirit stones in leather pouches around the formation poles.
Overnight, the blizzard died and the sun rose up. It was still cold as hell, but he would rather just have a cold than cold and strong winds.
Alex undid the formation and walked out of the hole in the snow. Once he was out, he could see the clear sky since the first time he was there.
The sun was so bright that Alex was forced to close his eyes and just look at things using his spiritual sense.
Just as Alex spread out his spiritual sense, he noticed something at the edge of his sense. However, before he could take a look at it, the thing escaped out of the range of his sense.
'What the hell?' he thought. 'What is so strong that I can't even sense it leave?'
Alex started worrying that there was a Saint Rank beast around here. 'Dammit! I knew saint realm cultivators came around here frequently. Of course, saint beasts can survive here too,' he thought. 'I should have been more prepared.'
He brought out a bunch of talismans and even revolved his Qi as he got ready to use the Earth Devour Technique to escape from the area. However, even after a few minutes, nothing came into his sense again.
Alex squinted in the bright light, but there really was nothing around there at all.
After realizing that whatever was here had likely left, Alex continued moving closer towards the coldness to find more ingredients.
'Should I leave?' Alex thought as he trekked further into the coldness. He had already bared his fangs at the Icy Hell, so he saw no point in returning without finding some good ingredients for his body.
'Is it getting colder?' Alex thought. Even as he walked forward, he felt the temperature drop noticeably. Not only that, it was so cold that even the air struggled to move.
Alex arrived at the top of a cliff that led down to a valley of some sort through a couple of hundred meters drop.
'Weird,' he thought. 'I thought I was already walking on a plain. How is it suddenly so high? Is this what they call a canyon?'
Alex looked down at the valley down the cliff and got ready to jump down there.
"Wait!" A voice suddenly called out from close by, freezing Alex in his tracks.
"Who?" Alex asked as he looked around to find whoever was speaking. He didn't need to search much longer as the figure in black clearly contrasted against the harsh whiteness of the snow.
Alex saw the figure with nothing but shock on his face and a small budding fear in his heart. His breathing got irregular and even the yang barrier that he had been creating by letting his yang energy flow out was destabilizing a bit, letting in the coldness inside.
"Se-senior, what are you doing here?" Alex asked.
The figure in black moved closer to him, walking on all fours. The yellow eyes contrasted the deep black fur on his body, making him look extra frightening.
"Don't go any further, young man. You will die," the black jaguar spoke.
After 9 years of leaving him alone, the beasts from the beast realm had finally caught up to him.
Were they going to kill him? Were they going to kidnap him back? Maybe experiment on him?
How was Pearl? Did they capture him already? Was he already taken to the ritual? Was that even a bad thing?
Numerous thoughts ran around his mind while his mind refused to settle on any one of them.
"Are you alright, young man?" the beast asked after seeing Alex not speak for a while.
"Wh-why are you here?" Alex asked. This was at least a Saint Core realm beast from what Alex could tell. Meaning, that the jaguar was stronger than many of the upper echelon of the Luminance empire.
The last time Alex was in the beast realm, he had humiliated them. So, he needed to be extra careful.
"I am here to look after you," the jaguar said. "To make sure you don't do anything stupid, like what you are about to do."
"What I am about to do?" Alex asked as he looked behind him. "Like go into that valley?"
"Yes," the jaguar said.
"Is it dangerous?" Alex couldn't help but ask. "I'm already in the Icy Hell, how much more dangerous can that be?"
"How much more dangerous? What about the fact that what the humans call Icy Hell is just the surrounding? That down there is the real Icy Hell. Is that enough of an answer?" the jaguar asked. "Or do you want me to tell you that the place down there is so cold that even Qi in your body gets sluggish to the point that they don't work?"
"What?" Alex couldn't help but get afraid.
"Come, let's go," the jaguar moved forward.
Alex hurriedly got back in fear. "Don't come near me," he said. "Tell me why are you here exactly."
"I told you, I came here to look after you," the jaguar said.
"You mean you came here to look after Pearl, right? Well, Pearl is not here," Alex said.
"I know. He's with your mother back in Dawnspring city. The leopard is looking after him. I really am here for you," the jaguar said.
"What? How do you know that? How long have you been keeping an eye on us?" Alex asked.
"Ever since 2 years ago when we found you in the mountains after doing a search, we have been keeping an eye on you," the beast said.
"2 years ago?" Alex was surprised. He remembered the beacon being activated, but he thought he was safe and they hadn't been found him after all. However, it seemed it was all a lie.
They had not only found him but also kept an eye on him ever as he went through the empire.
"Come, let's go," the jaguar said.
Alex looked back and realized he really was at the edge of the cliff. If the place was as treacherous as he was told, then it was better to leave.
"Alright, let's go," Alex said.
Just then, something happened. Alex had been standing on the edge of the cliff which was nothing but ice. When he poured out his yang energy all around him, it also affected the ice underneath him.
The result of his yang energy wasn't noticeable generally as he kept moving around. However, this time he had stood there for a long time as he talked with the jaguar.
A little too long.
The ice beneath his feet melted until it couldn't handle him. Then, Alex felt his body go into weightlessness and he started falling.
Even as he fell Alex tried to fly, but he felt his Qi move sluggishly. The more he fell, the more sluggish his Qi got, until he couldn't fly at all and fell to the ground that was many hundred meters below.
