Chapter 40

"Indeed, it lives up to its name as the Ice Fog Cave." Bai Cangdong stood in the icy cave enveloped by the cold air. Even though he was wearing thick clothes, he still felt no warmth, and the breath he exhaled instantly turned into tiny ice crystals.

"Do we have to live in this place for half a year?" Yan Mengyun was also somewhat dazed. Although she had heard that the environment in the Ice Fog Cave was very poor, she did not expect it to be this bad.

Their living place had only one tent, and nothing else. As for food and drink, it was even more difficult; they could only melt ice into water and cook some dried meat that had been stored.

The Ice Fog Cave was located in a canyon far from the ground, and it took two to three days to return. Therefore, the martial artists guarding the Ice Fog Cave were generally not allowed to leave during the six-month period.

"Only one tent?" Bai Cangdong looked at himself and Yan Mengyun, two strangers, one male and one female, and wondered how they would sleep in the same tent.

Yan Mengyun blushed slightly: "I trust Wu Shi Bai."

"Wu Shi Yan, please rest assured." While saying this, Bai Cangdong muttered to himself: "I don't even trust my own character, so what's the point of you trusting me?"

Apart from the location of the tent, most of the other areas in the ice cave were planted with Ice Core Grass. The previous batch of Ice Core Grass had just been harvested, and the seeds planted now had just sprouted a bit of green, showing no special features yet.

Bai Cangdong and Yan Mengyun settled down in the Ice Fog Cave. Although there were many inconveniences, they could still get along well and quickly became familiar with each other. Since there was no one else to talk to in the Ice Fog Cave, and they lived together day and night, even though neither of them was good at talking, they soon became friends who could chat about anything.

Most of the time, Bai Cangdong was practicing the Extreme Cold Finger technique given to him by Lady Red Lotus. The cultivation method of this martial skill was somewhat different from ordinary martial skills. Ordinary martial skills only required the accurate operation of the life wheel to strengthen the body, but the Extreme Cold Finger required the operation of the life wheel to strengthen the fingers while also absorbing a certain amount of cold energy.

The cold energy accumulated in the meridians of the finger over time, and after being strengthened by the life wheel, it could turn the finger into eternal ice. If this finger struck a person, the cold energy in the finger would enter the other person's body. When practiced to the extreme, it could directly freeze an ordinary person into an ice sculpture.

In theory, all ten fingers could practice the Extreme Cold Finger, but the process was very slow, and most people would only choose one finger to practice.

Bai Cangdong chose his left little finger. After practicing for some time, the little finger underwent some subtle changes, seeming to grow a bit, almost aligning with the ring finger next to it, and the color of the finger became more white and translucent.

The cultivation of the Extreme Cold Finger was almost endless. The more cold energy absorbed, the more powerful the Extreme Cold Finger became. The only concern was whether the body could bear so much cold energy. When the finger showed signs of ice formation, it meant that the body could no longer bear it, and cultivation must be stopped immediately.

Bai Cangdong had just started practicing and had not yet reached the limit. He diligently practiced the Extreme Cold Finger every day and did not feel lonely.

He had already carefully reviewed the materials and knew that the Extreme Cold Finger could indeed break the immortality light of some specific undead, which would be an important asset for his future ascension to the rank of viscount.

"Cangdong, did you hear any strange sounds?" Bai Cangdong was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly woken up by Yan Mengyun.

He did not hear any strange sounds, but he saw that Yan Mengyun was only wearing a nightgown. Because she was bending down, he could see a pair of plump "white rabbits" from below.

"You..." Yan Mengyun blushed and quickly covered her chest with her hands.

"Cough, cough, I didn't hear any strange sounds. What did you hear?" Bai Cangdong had been focusing on his cultivation every day and was in the Ice Fog Cave, where there were no people around, so he had less vigilance and slept very deeply.

"Listen carefully. It sounds strange, I can't describe it, but it's definitely strange." Yan Mengyun said.

Bai Cangdong listened carefully and, after a while, indeed heard some strange sounds, rustling like the sound of teeth grinding or sawing wood.

"It can't be someone stealing the Ice Core Grass, can it? But that doesn't make sense; it's just sprouted, and stealing it would be useless. I'll go check." Bai Cangdong put on his clothes and quietly looked outside the tent, but saw nothing.

"The sound is coming from there." Yan Mengyun pointed to an ice cave.

"Let's go check." Bai Cangdong led the way to the ice cave, and Yan Mengyun followed.

The two walked along the ice cave and soon stopped in shock. In the ice cave, which should have been a dead end, a large hole had somehow appeared in an ice wall. A monster, with a body made of ice crystals and a snake-like shape about ten meters long, was gnawing on the ice.

"What the hell is that?" Yan Mengyun exclaimed in shock.

"It's a baron-level undead." Bai Cangdong saw the rank mark on the monster's body and felt a bit relieved. Fortunately, it was just a baron-level undead, and the two of them should be able to handle it.

At this moment, the undead also noticed them, let out a strange cry, and opened its mouth to bite.

Bai Cangdong and Yan Mengyun simultaneously summoned their weapons and attacked the undead. Surprisingly, they easily killed the seemingly terrifying undead, and a Life Scale Light Ruler fell to the ground.

"This isn't a dead end. Let's go in and see if there are any other undead." Bai Cangdong walked to the large hole the monster had made, stretched his neck to look inside, and saw that it was another ice cave, winding and leading to an unknown place.

"Let's check. If there are really a large number of undead inside, we must report it to the guild immediately; otherwise, we can't bear the responsibility." Yan Mengyun said.

The two passed through the large hole and followed the winding ice cave. It was very quiet, and they did not find any other undead until the ice cave suddenly opened up, and they were completely stunned by the scene before them.

Rows of ice crystal eggs, each over three meters tall, lined the large ice cave, numbering in the hundreds. On one side of the eggs, a much larger undead, almost identical in appearance to the one they had just killed but many times larger, was sleeping soundly. The viscount-level mark on its body was dazzling.

"Have you ever heard of undead laying eggs?" Bai Cangdong asked Yan Mengyun in a low voice, finding it hard to speak.

Yan Mengyun was speechless and just shook her head.

"I think we should leave immediately and report this to the guild leader." Bai Cangdong swallowed hard.

"Agreed."

The two turned around at the same time and quietly tried to leave.

Crack!

A nearby giant egg suddenly broke, and a monster as large as the one they had just killed emerged. It looked around and then fixed its gaze on Bai Cangdong and Yan Mengyun.

"Run!" Bai Cangdong whispered, pulling Yan Mengyun and running.

The newly hatched monster let out a strange cry, waking the sleeping viscount-level undead. The viscount-level undead noticed the two and let out an angry roar, spewing out an ice crystal-like immortality light from its mouth.

The two rolled to the side, avoiding the terrifying immortality light, but the light hit the ice wall, causing it to collapse and blocking the ice cave they had come from.

"There's another passage; let's run that way." Yan Mengyun pointed to another ice cave passage and shouted.

The two had just gotten up and were about to run when the undead spewed another immortality light. They had to jump to the side again to avoid it.

"That monster's immortality light is too powerful; we can't run directly. Follow me." Bai Cangdong pulled Yan Mengyun, not rushing towards the passage but charging towards the monster.

Although Yan Mengyun did not know what Bai Cangdong was doing, she knew he would not lead them to their deaths, so she let him pull her forward.

Strangely, when the two started running towards the monster, it spewed immortality light once, but then just roared at them without spewing more.

"We should be safe for now." Bai Cangdong ran to a giant egg, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and said.

"I see, the monster is afraid of hurting the eggs, so it doesn't dare to spew immortality light at us." Yan Mengyun realized.

Bai Cangdong looked at the monster, which was roaring in anger but did not dare to charge or spew immortality light, and his expression remained serious: "Undead can only be resurrected on the Undead Altar and do not have the ability to reproduce. How could this undead lay so many eggs? This is impossible."

Yan Mengyun was slightly stunned, then suddenly seemed to think of something: "There is only one situation in which undead can reproduce."

"What situation?" Bai Cangdong had never heard of undead reproducing.

"Unless it is an undead that has broken free from the control of the Undead Altar and is subservient to humans. Only then can they have the ability to reproduce." Yan Mengyun explained.

"What! Undead can break free from the control of the Undead Altar and be used by humans?" Bai Cangdong exclaimed in shock, almost unable to believe his ears.

Yan Mengyun explained in a low voice: "Ordinary undead do not have this possibility, but after killing an undead, there is a certain chance to obtain a special weapon called the 'Undead Egg.' The undead hatched from the Undead Egg can be controlled by humans like a weapon and can reproduce under certain conditions."