Chapter 1024 - Azure Nether Crocodile

Liu Wuxie had spent nine days cutting through the glacier. With five days left, he could still make it back to the surface well ahead of schedule. However, that held true only if he could retrieve the Frost Bead without encountering any complications. Any sudden disturbance could trap him in the underground world.

Above him stretched an endless expanse of the glacier. For anyone with a fragile will, the mere sight of the immense icy ceiling pressing down from above could easily trigger a complete mental collapse.

He continued channeling the laws of ice as he advanced toward the Frost Bead. The closer he drew, the colder it became. Behind him, the cavern he had painstakingly carved began sealing shut. The Frost Bead's terrifying power had started to reveal itself. It froze everything in its path, even the air.

Just as he had feared, the worst began to unfold.

Every time he carved a new tunnel, the surrounding ice sealed it off before he could even reach the Frost Bead.

At this rate, even a full year wouldn't be enough for Liu Wuxie to reach the Frost Bead.

Time slipped away as the surrounding ice repaired itself faster than he could carve a path. If he failed to retrieve the Frost Bead soon, the crushing weight of the glacier would bury him alive.

"What should I do?"

Liu Wuxie racked his brain as the freezing cold assaulted him. His progress couldn't keep up with the chill radiating from the Frost Bead. The tunnel around him narrowed as the ice closed in, leaving him with less and less room to move. If it sealed completely, he would be trapped in ice forever.

"Fiery! Let me borrow your True Samadhi Fire!" he shouted, desperation creeping into his voice.

He had no other choice. Summoning Fiery was his only hope. He needed the True Samadhi Fire to counter the terrifying cold.

His own demonic flames, while fearsome in their own right, offered no warmth. They weren't real fire but just the embodiment of a law. And laws couldn't melt ice.

Fiery poked its head out from the beast pouch. The instant it sensed the bitter cold, it shivered, and frost spread quickly across its fur. A glowing ball burst forth from Fiery, releasing a surge of heat that instantly melted the surrounding frost.

Liu Wuxie wasted no time. He quickly explained his plan. He needed Fiery to control the surrounding temperature and hold back the cold just long enough for him to reach the Frost Bead.

Upon receiving the order, Fiery unleashed a torrent of blazing flames from its mouth. The fire radiated intense heat, instantly melting the ice around them.

The melted ice pooled into water that flooded the tunnel floor, rising quickly to Liu Wuxie's ankles. He shivered from the icy sting and immediately circulated his fire laws, surrounding himself in a protective aura of warmth. Only then did he feel a measure of relief.

Without wasting another moment, he resumed channeling the laws of ice and pushed forward, advancing swiftly toward the Frost Bead.

"It's working!" Liu Wuxie shouted.

The sudden rise in temperature dramatically slowed the rate at which the ice sealed itself. Seizing the opportunity, Liu Wuxie surged forward, closing the distance to the Frost Bead.

Behind him, Fiery's flames flared with growing intensity, turning itself into a blazing fireball in the heart of the underground world. The surrounding ice melted rapidly, filling the tunnel with the constant rustle and drip of flowing water.

To ease the rising pressure, Liu Wuxie carved out a side passage, allowing the water to drain away. Then he pressed on.

When Liu Wuxie reached within a meter of the Frost Bead, a terrifying wave of cold surged out and pierced straight into his bones.

The sound of the bone-chilling water echoed like demonic whispers, each one sending a fresh wave of dread down his spine. As he inhaled, his lungs nearly froze, the frigid air biting deep inside him. This final stretch was by far the most perilous part of the journey.

Carefully, he began chipping away at the thick ice with deliberate and precise strikes. Gradually, the faint silhouette of the Frost Bead came into view. It was roughly the size of an egg and radiated a chilling aura so intense that it made the surrounding air feel razor-sharp.

Now, just two feet away, Liu Wuxie could see the Frost Bead clearly with his naked eye.

Liu Wuxie took out an interspatial ring, ready to store the Frost Bead the instant he retrieved it. He knew the bone-chilling water would erupt the moment he touched the bead, and he had only one chance to grab it and escape.

Another hour slipped by.

Now less than a foot away from the Frost Bead, Liu Wuxie could feel Fiery's aura weakening. After releasing the True Samadhi Fire for so long, the little beast was reaching its limit.

Fiery had two hours left. Liu Wuxie needed to act fast.

The bone-chilling water churned more violently than before, its rhythm accelerating as if the Frost Bead had sensed the threat.

When he reached within half a foot, his heartbeat surged, pounding wildly in his chest. A burst of terrifying cold shot through the ice, flooding him in an instant.

Without realizing it, his clothes had frozen stiff. Only the fire laws he circulated around his heart kept his core warm, preventing the deadly chill from invading his internal organs.

Just inches away, Liu Wuxie's eyes burned with determination. Success or failure would be decided in this final moment.

He drew a dagger and carefully carved a small opening through the ice. The Frost Bead was so close he could almost reach out and touch it.

However, the moment he pierced the ice, the bone-chilling water responded with a sharp rustling sound and immediately sealed the hole shut. Undeterred, Liu Wuxie reopened it, each time carving the gap wider before the ice could reform.

By the tenth attempt, he had opened a hole nearly ten centimeters across. Through it, he could clearly see the Frost Bead hovering just above a strange slope.

"This is weird... That slope doesn't feel like a rock. What the hell is it?" Liu Wuxie wondered, unease creeping into his voice.

Nevertheless, there was no time to dwell on it.

He channeled his true essence and formed a massive palm, stretching it toward the Frost Bead. Yet, in less than half a breath, the cold struck. His essence froze solid, and the conjured palm locked in mid-air, suspended in ice.

"Open!" Liu Wuxie roared as his true essence surged, infused with the laws of fire.

The frozen palm blazed back to life, cracking through the ice. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. He had only one chance.

Before the bone-chilling water could erupt, Liu Wuxie seized the Frost Bead.

His timing was flawless. A moment slower, and he would've been frozen solid.

The instant he seized the Frost Bead, he flung it into his interspatial ring. In a blink, frost devoured the space inside, turning it bone-white. The spatial laws froze. The ring shattered.

However, there was no time to mourn the loss.

Without hesitation, Liu Wuxie recalled Fiery and bolted down the path he had carved, retracing his steps through the narrowing tunnels.

The moment the Frost Bead left its resting place, the bone-chilling water erupted in chaos. It surged wildly, and the surrounding glacier sealed up at a terrifying pace.

"I have to leave now!" Liu Wuxie shouted, recognizing the danger. He sprinted for his life, racing through the collapsing underground world.

Behind him, the tunnel he had carved began sealing rapidly, the walls of ice crashing shut with thunderous force.

As he fled from beneath the mountain, a strange phenomenon unfolded. Spiritual runes on the surrounding rocks began to flicker now that the Frost Bead was gone.

Nonetheless, Liu Wuxie couldn't stop to investigate. He focused solely on escaping.

The entire underground world began to quake, and violent explosions of ice erupted around him. The initial passageway collapsed, sending massive chunks of glacier plunging into the bone-chilling sea below.

Liu Wuxie stumbled, nearly losing his footing. One wrong step, and he would fall straight into the freezing abyss.

What the hell is going on?

Liu Wuxie's heart pounded against his chest wall.

He couldn't understand why the underground world had suddenly begun to tremble with such fury.

Meanwhile, at the Half-Moon Nunnery, a deafening rumble echoed through the air as the entire mountain began to tremble like a magnitude ten earthquake had struck.

"What's going on?" one of the disciples cried out in panic.

The nuns rushed outside and stared upward in shock. Cracks splintered across the glacier, spreading in every direction like a giant spiderweb crawling over the ice.

Master Yi stepped out as well with a dark and solemn expression.

"Could he have succeeded?" she murmured, her eyes fixed on the trembling mountain.

Without hesitation, she ordered all disciples to evacuate to higher, safer ground.

Murong Yi and Xu Lingxue stood near the courtyard, both visibly anxious. Nearly half a month had passed, and there was still no sign of Liu Wuxie.

What troubled them most wasn't just his absence but the collapsing underground world. The shaking had triggered the collapse of the inner layers, further shrinking the space Liu Wuxie could maneuver.

Worse yet, the tunnel he had originally used to descend had vanished. If he wanted to return to the surface, he would have to open a new passage entirely, but that meant slowing down, just when every second mattered.

The glacier continued to collapse as Liu Wuxie manipulated the laws of ice and propelled himself upward. The surrounding ice vaporized into white mist, and in the blink of an eye, he shot several hundred meters toward the surface.

He raced upward with his life on the line. His ascent was far faster than his descent, driven by urgency and the instinctive fear clawing at his chest. That sense of danger only grew stronger with each passing moment, and his instincts had never led him astray.

He was certain something massive lay beneath the mountain. When he had first entered this frozen abyss, he had heard that deep, thunderous rumble, like a colossal beast shifting beneath the glacier.

Now, the glacier beneath his feet had completely vanished. From below, he heard the roar of the bone-chilling sea, churning louder than ever.

Suddenly, a massive head erupted from the sea, followed by a body so enormous it shattered the surrounding ice on impact.

"What?!" Liu Wuxie gasped, eyes widening in shock as he saw the monstrous creature.

Few things had ever truly frightened him, but the sight of this beast sent a chill straight down his spine.

Liu Wuxie gasped, horror etched across his face.

An ancient beast... the Azure Nether Crocodile!

Only now did he realize the truth. That slope he had seen earlier wasn't a rock at all, but it was the creature's neck. The Frost Bead had been growing atop its massive skull, and now that Liu Wuxie had taken it, the beast had awakened in fury.

The Azure Nether Crocodile was unimaginably vast. Its head alone stretched over several hundred meters, dwarfing everything around it. No wonder it was enraged.

With Liu Wuxie's current cultivation, facing such a monster would be suicide. Even a peak Earth Profound Realm cultivator would be torn apart without resistance. Even a powerhouse at the Heaven Profound Realm would be barely able to hold their ground, and defeating it was Impossible.

And worse still, the Frost Bead had evolved for thousands of years. If the Azure Nether Crocodile managed to consume it, the beast itself would undergo a terrifying evolution.

At that point, not even the entire True Martial Continent might be able to contain it.

"Run!" That was the only thought left in Liu Wuxie's mind.

As a creature of the extreme cold, the Azure Nether Crocodile would lose its advantage if Liu Wuxie could escape to the surface. That was his only hope.

However, the monster's movements accelerated the collapse of the glacier. The ground above began to cave in, and on the surface, the Half-Moon Nunnery shifted several dozen meters in place.

The sudden movement left the nuns staring at each other in stunned silence. None of them could imagine what was happening underground to shake the entire mountain.

Miao Jianying stood at the edge of the fractured ground, his brows furrowed in concern.

Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie ascended rapidly, dodging massive chunks of falling ice. They plummeted from above, blocking his path and slowing his escape. This was his only chance to flee from the Azure Nether Crocodile, and he was well aware of it.

The beast had locked onto him, drawn by the lingering aura of the Frost Bead. But for all its power, its immense size restricted its movements underground.