Synthia saw the giant ice worm fall onto her followers.

Suddenly.

A bright copper-colour dazzled her eyes. The next moment, she saw an astonis.h.i.+ng sight – a young man was holding up the giant ice worm's body with his bodily strength alone!

"What!?" She shouted, astonished.

The young man suddenly looked straight at her, "What are you waiting for? Kill it!"

Synthia jolted. She picked up her flute but hesitated, "Young man. I know you mean well, but you are only in the 4th level of Qi Distillation. I will deal with this on my own!"

Van rolled his eyes.

[Silly woman. I told her to kill it and all she does it waste time!]

"The giant ice worms move too slowly to be able to harm me. I will distract them. All you need to do is focus on dealing damage!" Van shouted.

At that moment, his body shone silver.

BAM!

The giant ice worm was thrown dozens of metres into the snow. Its injured partner roared and burst through the snow. It reared up and tried to strike the young man down.

Van's body suddenly flickered and disappeared.

Synthia's green eyes widened.

[What a high-level movement skill. It seems he might be able to distract them after all!]

A moment later, Van reappeared several meters away from the enraged giant ice worm.

Synthia quickly picked up her flute, "Thank you, young man!"

Quickly, she focused her songs on attack and damage. Big gashes appeared on the giant worm's body. Blue blood dripped onto the white snow.

The giant worms attacked Synthia several times. Each time, Van would momentarily appear and deal them a heavy blow. As the giant ice worms had somewhat low intelligence, this move was enough to pull their attention away from Synthia. This also allowed her to focus all her energy on attacking and dealing as much damage as possible.

After half an hour of this strategy, both the two giant ice worms lay silently in the snow. Their ma.s.sive white bodies were covered in their congealed blue blood.

Synthia finally put down her flute. Her breath puffed out of her raggedly. She turned her gaze to the young man in front of her and smiled thinly, "Thank you for helping me. Without your ability to distract them, I may not have been able to defeat both injury-free."

The dark-haired boy in front of her shook his head, "No need to thank me. I had my own reasons for helping you."

Synthia blinked, "Oh?"

Van smiled, "I also wanted to kill those two giant ice worms."

Synthia was silent for a moment, "I see. You also realized that the giant ice worms are the ones that created the Ice Caves in the first place, I a.s.sume."

The young man nodded.

Synthia's face became somewhat colder.

[This young man only helped me kill the worms because he realized they guarded an alternate entry to the Ice Caves.]

[It seems there are no more people in the world who help a stranger out of the goodness of their hearts. Only those who use each other for their own ends.]

"Since your a.s.sistance was instrumental to killing the two giant ice worms, I will share this entrance to the Ice Caves with you," Synthia said at length.

The two figures in the snow looked silently at each other.

Van smiled, "How will we split the materials from the two worms?"

Synthia glanced at the two corpses, "I don't care much for the materials from the Luminous Snow Worms. Let's split it fifty-fifty."

"Deal," Van said.

Synthia gathered the bodies of her critically injured teammates and a few materials from the Luminous Snow Worms.

Together, Van and Synthia moved aside the giant corpses, revealing the mouth to a dark tunnel. The tunnel's diameter was tall enough for an adult human to walk into.

"I will enter the caves first…?" Synthia waited for the young man to introduce himself.

Van supplied his name, "Van. An outer disciple of the Cedar Sect."

Synthia nodded, "My name is Synthia. I am an outer disciple of the Cold Moon Flows Sect. I will enter the caves first, Outer Disciple Van. Those are your teammates I can see in the distance, I a.s.sume?

The level of your cultivations is a bit low so I will give you some advice: There are five levels of tunnels in the Ice Caves. The deeper you go in the ice caves the stronger the enemies. There is no pain in spending some time in the upper levels to get stronger. I don't recommend you enter the final level before you enter the 6th level of Qi Distillation."

Synthia summoned a fox-like creature summon and placed her injured teammates on its back. She disappeared into the gloom.

Van's teammates quickly drew closer.

Delphine was pouting, "Why did you help that ungrateful girl? You saved her life and she didn't even offer to help us in the Ice Caves!"

Van, who was hacking away at the flesh of one of the Luminous Snow Worms, rolled his eyes.

"I was only using her anyway. Didn't you notice that she was in the 7th level of Qi Distillation? Without her strength, we could not kill such a high-level Luminous Snow Worm and find another pathway into the Ice Caves so easily."

Delphine's pout did not go away, "I know… Hmph."

Van patted the giant corpses of the Luminous Snow Worm. Like well-trained puppies, Delphine, Ryan, Ed, Gef and Phern immediately came closer. They withdrew small bone knives Van had crafted for each of them and began sawing away at the flesh of the Luminous Snow Worms.

Van watched his little material-gatherers work hard and felt satisfied.

Within an hour, the two corpses had been disa.s.sembled into their most useful parts. At Ryan's feet was a pile of succulent flesh slices into steak-sized pieces. Further away, Ed, Gef and Phern were grinding the horns on the worm's head into a fine powder.

Van himself held one giant, jelly-like beast core in his hand. As both Luminous Snow Worms had been in the half-step 7th level of Qi Distillation, this core was extremely valuable.

[With this, I should be able to break into the 5th level of Qi Distillation.]

Satisfied, he packed all the materials into the Myriad Light Dimensional ring.

He whistled and gathered his teammates up, "We will stop for a quick lunch and then head down into the Ice Caves."

Ed, Gef and Phern were delighted by the news.

Big, fatty slices of Luminous Snow Worm steak were thrown over a fire. The entire group had a hearty meal and felt their energy replenish.

Van could feel that the spiritual power inside the Luminous Snow Worm's was plentiful and heady. The only downside was that the spiritual power within was not forceful enough to cause a breakthrough.

[I should break into the 5th level soon as possible. Otherwise the flesh of the Luminous Snow Worm will be wasted.]

Although the effects were minimal for Van, the three militia men were delighted by the inrush of power from eating the flesh. Gleefully, they clung onto each other and almost wept.

"The power is flowing into my body!" Ed cried out.

"One more worm steak and I swear I will break through!" Phern said hysterically.

Delphine felt the spiritual nourishment from the Luminous Snow Worm's flesh directly increase her cultivation to the peak of the 4th level of Qi Distillation. She smiled happily.

Ryan was quietly meditated over his meal. Suddenly, a sharp energy emitted from him.

Weng!

Ryan stood up excitedly, "The 4th level of Qi Distillation. I've done it!"

Van grinned. He was happy to see his followers gaining strength. After all, them getting stronger meant the team was stronger too!

The five people in front of Van were extremely happy as they had all made significant gains.

A few minutes later, the sled was disa.s.sembled. The five humans and a wolf descended into the large tunnel created by the Luminous Ice Worms.

____

[Five hours later.]

Van knew that they had entered the true Ice Caves when the walls of the tunnels visually changed. The blue spots on the walls became bigger and a faint luminous light emitted from them. The tunnels also became much larger- about eight metres wide and tall.

At that moment, the five humans and a wolf encountered a fork in the tunnels. Four different tunnels diverged from the path they were currently on.

Inspecting the ground and seeing faint footprints, Van saw that Synthia must have travelled down the left-most one.

Van inspected each of the entrances before deciding to take the right-most tunnel.

Delphine at him questioningly, "Why this one?"

"This tunnel was the only one that was not slanted up or down," Van explained. He was taking Synthia's suggestion to put off entering the lower levels until a sufficient amount of strength was gained.

Van entered the right-most tunnel and was greeted by icy walls that gave off a subtle blue luminosity. The air inside was chilly and caused a coldness that seemed to stab straight into the bones.

Everyone s.h.i.+vered. Their steps echoed oddly in the cavernous tunnel.

Tink.

A small icicle detached from the ceiling and fell lightly onto the ice in front of Van's feet.

Van tensed. Blackie growled.

The air grew colder. Instinctively, Van summoned his battle axe from the dimensional ring.

At that moment, inhuman shrieks split the air.

"Human!"

"You have come to die!"

Five figures detached from the walls of the tunnel. Vaguely human-looking, they had large ears like the frills of a salamander and gills. Their skin was a deep blue colour and had the texture of fish scales.

Van's expression changed.

[Not good. They were camouflaged with the walls!]

The five fishmen charged towards Van, brandis.h.i.+ng their tridents. The level of each fishmen was low, but their high number made fighting them difficult. If Van was encircled by them, things could get dangerous.

"Ed, Gef, Phern! Formation!"

The nervous militia men gathered their spirits and formed an arrow-shaped formation with Ryan at the head. Blackie took a position beside the grey-haired boy. Delphine was safely ensconced in the area behind the arrow-tip. She pulled out a vial full of powder and threw it into the air. They all felt the cold recede from their bones.

"Ready!" They shouted. They each readied their weapons and s.h.i.+elds.

Van briskly plunged into an opening between the five fishmen.

"Watch out, Van!" Ryan screamed. He immediately put on the silver mask and s.h.i.+ning silver bullets shot out of his palms.

Van immediately implemented 'Scattering Smoke Steps.' His figure flickered and reappeared in unpredictable and eccentric locations.

Suddenly, he reappeared just behind a fishman.

"Flaming Bull Fists!"

A ma.s.sive ball of flames with the vague shape of a rampaging bull charged out of his fists and crashed into the fishman.

A sizzling sound was heard. It was accompanied by the tortured screams of a fishman. However, it was not enough to completely kill it.

The fishmens' power wasn't particularly high, but their colour-changing skin was resistant to physical and spiritual attacks. However, their affinity for ice and water made them weak to Van's fire-type skills.

Three fishmen saw Van's Fists of Devouring Flames and disentangled from the arrow-formation. They rushed towards Van.

Van did not hesitate.

"Searing Serpent Strikes!"

Pah pah pah pah!

The fishman Van had already hit with 'Flaming Bull Fist' dropped down to the ground and writhed pitifully.

Ryan and Delphine saw Van's extreme killing speed.

[I must keep up!] They thought.

Delphine lifted her arms and two giant th.o.r.n.y branches pierced through the icy ground. Due to the cold, they were smaller and weaker than usual, but they were still highly effective. One fishman was immediately trapped by the branches.

Ryan aimed his finger at the entrapped fishman.

[Mysterious Silver Bullet!]

The fishman within the th.o.r.n.y branches fell to the ground. Ryan's bullet had penetrated its brain!

The remaining three fishmen were cautious. They attacked Van at the same time, cutting off his escape routes.

Van's body flickered like a candle in the night. Three tridents stabbed towards him but were deflected by his Crimson Monarch Armour.

Suddenly, Van roared.

Van's axe sliced viciously through the air – the blow was aiming for the neck of one of the fishmen.

Blood spurted.

Van drew back the axe and sprung away just in time to miss the attack of the other fishmen. Since he lacked practical expertise in his martial skills, Van fought all the enemies with his axe or with his fist skills. He counted on his teammates and persisted in trying out his combat skills.

Van's axe attacks – fuelled by fleshly power – took care of the fishmen in the blink of an eye.

When the skirmish was over, his teammates looked at Van in a daze. Five fishmen had seemed intimidating, but the fight ended before Ryan or Delphine had been forced to fight too strongly.

Van took the fishmen's weapons and armour and checked their pockets. Finally, he extracted the beast core from their foreheads.

"Let's move on," Van said.

The group of people walked further into the tunnel.

"Hm?" Van suddenly entered a large s.p.a.ce filled with hundreds and hundreds of round objects, "This must be a Luminous Snow Worm's egg nursery!"

But the more he looked, the more Van felt something was not quite right. Red channels criss-crossed the floor of the ice cave....almost as if they were ma.s.sive veins and arteries carrying blood to the monster eggs...

"V-Van..." Delphine said weakly, pulling at his sleeve.

"Over there... isn't that...?"

Van looked and felt the blood drain from his face.

A slumped human figure was half-submerged into the ground. Big pulsing veins on the floor ran from that figure to the hundreds of eggs in the nursery.

[The eggs are being nourished by the blood of a cultivator!]

Van drew closer and saw the figure was a young man with red hair. His eyes were shut, and his lips were blue.

Delphine cried out, "That's one of Cyrus's teammates from the Star-Cutting Sword Sect. They must have run into trouble!"