“You don’t agree?” asked Hanxue Bao, gazing at Meng Hao. His expression was gradually fading into one of disappointment. Based on his experiences throughout the years, he was able to see the slight hesitation visible in Meng Hao’s otherwise calm expression.

He sighed inwardly and then shook his head, laughing slightly.

“Senior….” said Meng Hao, feeling a bit guilty. He could sense the sincerity in Hanxue Bao, and even though it was all for the sake of his own Clan, Meng Hao knew that he truly was offering a new path to tread.

Unfortunately, Meng Hao couldn’t go back to the Southern Domain for now.

Hanxue Shan’s face was now pale white. She held her head up high and forced a smile onto her face, but her mood couldn’t be lower. She stood and curtsied to Meng Hao, then walked off into the distance, her head hanging. It seemed she couldn’t stay behind for fear of crying from the grief she felt.

“Well, never mind,” said Hanxue Bao, not wanting to force Meng Hao to explain. “I put you in an awkward position just now. You have your own path, and don’t need me to arrange things for you. That’s great.” He stood, eyeing the spell that was forming on the ground.

“The Frigid Snow Clan has a total of seven Nascent Soul Elders. You’ve met four already. The other three went to the Southern Domain last year, where they’ve been preparing a teleportation spell. Unfortunately, the spell has to penetrate the Black Lands Palace’s blockade spell, making the teleportation to the Southern Domain a bit difficult.

“It is only just recently that the teleportation spell was completed on their side. Within about five days, we should be able to activate it. Once that happens, we will leave this place.” Hanxue Bao slapped his bag of holding. Suddenly, everything got very cold, and snowflakes appeared in the air to drift down. Meng Hao’s eyes filled with a serious look as he looked at the object in Hanxue Bao’s hand.

There, in his palm, was a blue silkworm, about the size of his pinky finger. It was translucent, like crystal, and glowed with a blue light. The coldness in the area was emanating out from this very larva.

Meng Hao’s breathing immediately grew heavy.

“You were promised a Frigid Snow Larva. Given the Cultivation bases of the others, they would need half a year to complete it. But time is running out, so I will give you mine! This is a mutated Frigid Snow Larva, with a much more vigorous life force than an ordinary larva. Throughout all the years, our Frigid Snow Clan only ever produced six mutant Frigid Snow Larvae. This is the seventh.

“Because of its mutation, this type of Frigid Snow Larva can bond two masters. Feed it your blood, and it will become yours.” He waved his hand, and a blue light shot toward Meng Hao to hover in front of him. He took a deep breath as he gazed at the blue Frigid Snow Larva floating there before him. Then, he bit the tip of a finger and squeezed a drop of blood out onto the larva.

The instant the drop of blood vanished, Meng Hao could sense a connection between him and the Frigid Snow Larva. The larva’s body glittered as it descended slowly onto his hand. An immense coldness emanated out from it. It felt like he was holding a piece of freezing ice.

Meng Hao took a deep breath as he bowed deeply to Hanxue Bao. His entire purpose for coming to this place was now complete. He felt incredibly excited. Now the only thing he had left to do was transform the Frigid Snow Larva into an Eyeless Larva.

Once it became an Eyeless Larva, the larva could never be destroyed, and its thread could not be broken. The thread could not be broken, nor could the larva be destroyed! A miraculous bug like that was a remarkable treasure of Heaven and Earth, one of his most powerful methods for dealing with Heavenly Tribulation.

“Senior, I will be going into secluded meditation,” said Meng Hao, pus.h.i.+ng down the excitement which bubbled up in his heart. He bowed again, then turned to walk off. He didn’t go too far, but rather climbed deep into a half-collapsed building nearby.

Hanxue Bao watched him walk off and sighed again in his heart. He really had taken a liking to Meng Hao, but he knew that he had his own plans and aspirations. Hanxue Bao then looked over toward Hanxue Shan and sighed yet again.

Within a room in the collapsed house, Meng Hao sat cross-legged, breathing deeply. He performed an incantation and then pointed toward the ground, causing Demonic Qi to noiselessly begin to gather. It circulated around him, forming a barrier. Although he was on good terms with the Frigid Snow Clan right now, he still needed to take measures to protect himself.

This was especially true considering that he had just turned down their offer. Covered by the Demonic Qi, Meng Hao produced some medicinal pills, then closed his eyes and began to meditate. After a few hours pa.s.sed, he opened his eyes again, and they shone brightly. His body was now completely recovered from its weak state. His Spiritual Sense had grown, and his Cultivation base had made significant progress.

Meng Hao was confident that after he transcended the Heavenly Tribulation, he would pa.s.s directly into the late Core Formation stage.

With his preparations complete, Meng Hao took out the Frigid Snow Larva. Then, he took out a Mulberry Thunderclap Leaf and placed it in front of the larva. As soon as the leaf appeared, a tremor ran through the Frigid Snow Larva. It appeared to find the leaf incredibly enticing. In the blink of an eye, lightning surrounded the leaf, and it was completely consumed by the Frigid Snow Larva.

Meng Hao’s eyes gleamed as he produced the copper mirror and began to duplicate more Mulberry Thunderclap Leaves. Thankfully, he had quite a collection of Spirit Stones in his bag of holding. Although he hated to see them disappear as the price of duplication, the thought of acquiring the Eyeless Larva caused him to do so without hesitation.

One leaf, two leaves, one hundred leaves…. Meng Hao’s eyes began to grow wide with disbelief that this tiny little Frigid Snow Larva could consume so many Mulberry Thunderclap Leaves. It didn’t seem to show any signs whatsoever of stopping. It appeared capable of eating all of the Mulberry Thunderclap Leaves in existence.

Meng Hao’s heart began to sink a little bit. His information about the larva came from the Black Lands Cultivator he had met in the Southern Domain. After much a.n.a.lysis, he had taken most of the man’s words to be true. Now, however, he was starting to feel a bit of skepticism.

He muttered to himself, his eyes glittering as he decided to go all out. He used all the Spirit Stones available in his bag of holding to continue to duplicate Mulberry Thunderclap Leaves to feed the Frigid Snow Larva.

Time pa.s.sed by. Soon, it was a day later. By afternoon, Meng Hao’s eyes were bloodshot as he continued to feed one leaf after another to the Frigid Snow Larva. From what he could tell, he had fed enough Mulberry Thunderclap Leaves to create a mountain forest.

And yet, the Frigid Snow Larva showed no signs of being full. However, it did appear to be changing! It was still blue, but now had several white circles on its surface!

The circles looked something like eyes, and if you looked at them, it seemed as if they had the power to suck in your mind. By this point in Meng Hao’s process of feeding the larva, it had acc.u.mulated five such circles on its body.

Meng Hao looked at his bag of holding, and his heart filled with pain. He had acquired quite a lot of Spirit Stones after becoming Patriarch Golden Light. However, as of now, they were half gone. Gritting his teeth, Meng Hao continued to feed the Frigid Snow Larva.

Leaf, after leaf, after leaf….

By morning of the third day, Meng Hao’s eyes were completely filled with veins of blood. The Frigid Snow Larva in his hand now had eight circles. By the time the ninth appeared, Meng Hao’s bag of holding would be virtually devoid of Spirit Stones.

Grief filled his face. A few days ago he’d had a vast acc.u.mulation of Spirit Stones that left him confident of being able to purchase whatever he wanted, wherever he was.

Now, he had the exact opposite feeling.

“If I can’t create the Eyeless Larva….” Meng Hao clenched his fists and stopped thinking about the matter. He decided to risk it all. Having gone this far, he might as well continue on to the very end.

By night of the third day, Meng Hao’s bag of holding was completely empty. As the Frigid Snow Larva consumed the very last Mulberry Thunder Leaf, a ninth circle finally appeared, causing Meng Hao to gape.

“Dammit, I’m out of Spirit Stones, and this thing still hasn’t changed yet? Isn’t it supposed to transform?” He stared in shock at the Frigid Snow Larva, which lay on his palm, unmoving. Within his mind, Meng Hao could sense that it wanted to continue to eat. Meng Hao was on the verge of collapsing.

“My millions of Spirit Stones….” As he looked down into his bag of holding, he realized that the only thing he had left were the ultra high-grade Spirit Stones. They were his final a.s.sets, life-saving objects that he could use at a critical moment to absorb spiritual energy.

He went back and forth about it for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. It seemed the Frigid Snow Larva realized there was no food left. It ceased transmitting its desire to eat and began to create silk.

Meng Hao watched as the Frigid Snow Larva continued to spit out the silk, which looked like snow. This was not the legendary silk of the Eyeless Larva. It took only a moment for the larva to completely cover itself. Soon, it had become a coc.o.o.n about the size of the fist of an infant.

Meng Hao frowned. Something seemed strange. After probing with his Spiritual Sense, his heart began to pound. He continued to examine it for a moment, then began to pant.

“I can sense another aura,” he said, his eyes gleaming. “It’s not the Frigid Snow Larva, it’s much, much more powerful…. There’s not even a way to compare the two!” He closed his eyes to think for a moment, and when they opened again, he was smiling.

“Two days, and it will emerge from the coc.o.o.n!” He put the precious coc.o.o.n away and dispelled the Demonic Qi in the area. It was currently late at night, and bright moonlight illuminated the land. Meng Hao took a deep breath as he walked out of his secluded meditation area.

People from the Frigid Snow Clan who were standing guard immediately saw Meng Hao. They clasped hands and bowed, faces filled with veneration.

These recent days had been very difficult for the Frigid Snow Clan. They weren’t sure when Cultivators from the Black Lands Palace would arrive. If they invaded a second time, it would be very difficult to fight back, considering the current situation of the Frigid Snow Clan. All they could do was maintain their vigilance and wait for the spell to activate.

Snowflakes danced about in the moonlight. It had been snowing for two days, and the ground was now covered with a thick layer of snow. Even though it was late at night, the moonlight reflected off of the white snow, making everything look silver.

Meng Hao breathed in the frigid air as his gaze flitted about. Finally, his gaze came to rest on the back of a familiar figure off in the distance.

It was Hanxue Shan. She sat atop a pile of rubble, looking off into the sky. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Looking at her, Meng Hao sighed inwardly. Because of the matter of the Frigid Snow Larva, he had completely forgotten about how disappointed this young girl had looked after having been rejected by him.

Murmuring to himself, Meng Hao thought about the soft arms which had embraced him before he pa.s.sed out earlier. He also recalled how the concern in her eyes had been replaced by joy when he regained consciousness. The falling snow brushed against his face as he walked toward her. She looked back. Amidst the snow and the moonlight, her pretty face looked even more beautiful. Tears could be seen in the corners of her eyes. She looked at Meng Hao, then bit her lip and turned her head away.

Meng Hao stood behind her for a moment, then cleared his throat.

“Hey, I heard you really admire Grandmaster Pill Cauldron. Would you like me to help introduce you to him?”