Chapter 224: Astral Projection

At the border of the poisonous bog.

Qin Lie's steps were slow as he paid attention to his surroundings and avoided the patches covered in poisonous miasma.

Before this, it had been Mo Hai who had led everyone in avoiding these dangerous grounds to the border of the poisonous bog to set off the Terminator Profound Bomb.

This time, Qin Lie didn't plan on staying in the poisonous bog for long. He was only searching for a place without people so he could use the Eye of Frost to enter the underground area below the Arctic Mountain Range.

He came to this place and used his mind consciousness to feel around the surroundings to make sure there were no signs of life before he took out the Eye of Frost and activated its wonders.

The layers of glowing, icy light wrapped around him, and his figure gradually became smaller and, in the end, disappeared.

He once again took form in the ice and glacial world.

He landed on top of an icy mountain. Looking at the world made from ice, he turned his attention to the frozen ancient beasts and a cold expression gradually grew on his face.

He adjusted himself, then channeled Frost Arts. He tried to feel the frost concept inside the frost picture scroll to try to take in the ice energy here.

White cold mist gathered from all directions as he circulated his spirit art. They were absorbed into his body and caused him to turn into a glowing ice statue.

He appeared the same as the other vicious beasts sealed here with no signs of life. Even his soul gradually stilled.

But the cold energy still slowly flooded towards him and entered his body, flowing through him into his spirit sea.

Time passed in seconds.

An unknown time later, his spirit sea became icy and started glowing, becoming a glacial world of ice and snow…

Inside the world of his spirit sea, cold energy condensed into snowflakes and fell down. The cloud sea that was composed of pure spirit energy became denser and started to give off cold energy.

The two spherical ice Natal Palaces rolled and spun in this world. They worked together with Frost Arts to take in the frost energy from the outside.

"Clap clap clap! Clap clap clap!”

The three thunder and lightning Natal Palaces that burned like suns shot out domineering bolts of lightning. Those explosions caused the waves of coldness to scatter if it got close.

The other three earth-colored balls were the Natal Palaces that were made from the power of the great earth. They were peaceful in comparison and only released vibrations that would disrupt magnetic fields. Those vibrations would cause the cold energy to drop down and the glowing snowflakes to fall and sink into the spirit energy cloud sea.

"Open a new Natal Palace, open a new Natal Palace…"

With this thought in mind, he channeled Frost Arts and continued to pull in the cold energy in this area.

As more and more cold energy entered him, the spirit energy in his spirit sea started to shift. It seemed to be influenced by the cold energy and slowly became sluggish. The lump of cloud that was made of spirit energy was covered in a thin layer of ice…

The vast spirit sea seemed to gradually freeze to become a frozen world. Other than the two Frost Natal Palaces that were still active, everything else became sluggish, as though they were being frozen.

His body had already become a statue of ice with his blood, flesh, bones, and even his consciousness gradually freezing over as well.

All the activity in his body gradually stopped. While inside a frozen state, even the entire world seemed to be covered in a frosty white.

Other than his floating soul consciousness that could faintly feel his own existence, it seemed that everything else had stopped.

The next moment, he had a strange feeling—he gradually floated out of his physical body.

Like a cloud, he slowly rose. He flew from his body into the sky, and when he looked down, he could still see his body that was frozen in ice. He could see his closed eyes as though he had turned to stone.

He continued to float, becoming able to see even more. Able to see the icy peaks composed from the thirty eight glaciers, and even the fact that every glacier had an ancient beast frozen within it.

By then, he knew that his soul had left his corporeal body and he was having an out-of-body experience.

Astral projection was a wondrous cultivation experience for low level martial practitioners.

Experiencing this state would allow low level martial practitioners to truly recognize the existence of the soul and would allow them to experience the wondrous feeling of their soul leaving their body.

Just like Qin Lie was right now. When his soul consciousness left his body, he felt cold. He felt as though he became a piece cotton floating that would move wherever the wind blew drifting a long ways away.

This feeling of being disconnected caused him to feel insecure. Danger welled up within him. It made him feel as though he was exposed, terrified as though he could be easily killed.

Just as he started to feel unsafe, he found that his soul perception had become extremely sensitive in this state!

He could clearly feel the flows of cold energy in the surrounding area and the degree of cold energy inside every glacier.

Extremely weak soul fluctuations suddenly emanated from his body, and then he felt them…

His soul suddenly started to shake.

Those were the auras that belonged to the ancient beasts. They were extremely miniscule soul vibrations. In spite of how minuscule they were, they felt vast and ancient and also gave him a sorrowful feeling.

"They’re not dead!”

Qin Lie understood. His soul felt even less safe, and he quickly grasped the reality.

The frozen ancient beasts were just being sealed by the ice. All of them were alive. They did not show any signs of life because they had been sealed for numerous years, so even the energies in their flesh and blood were frozen.

—Just like the present state of his body.

The weak soul auras meant that they had not turned into statues, they were alive!

If one day this world sealed in ice were to be unsealed or these ancient beasts could break through their seals of ice and walk onto the continent…

Qin Lie didn't dare to continue that line of thought.

Because if that was true, it would be a calamity for all who inhabited Scarlet Tide Continent, it would be a disaster for all living beings.

Just as he was fearful and insecure, one of the soul vibrations of those below suddenly became strong!

He was shocked, and his soul consciousness instantly turned its attention to the aura of the soul that had strengthened, paying attention to the ancient beast that it belonged to.

It was an enormous python that was coiled up and appeared like a little mountain. Its body was as thick as a river, covered in countless mysterious patterns. If he looked closely, those patterns seemed to made from criss-crossing lightning and seemed to contain the essence of thunder and lightning.

His soul consciousness looked down at the enormous python and had a strange feeling of familiarity—that aura was somewhat similar to the vibrations inside the beast core of the Dark Moon Thunder Snake!

"Dark Moon Thunder Snake? What connection did it have with the Dark Moon Thunder Snake?" Qin Lie was puzzled.

He tried to feel deeper and carefully savored the increasingly strong aura from this enormous python.

Quickly, he came to a conclusion—the Dark Moon Thunder Snake was most likely a descendant of this enormous python. The ancient blood of this enormous python flowed within every Dark Moon Thunder Snake.

This was a terrifying beast that innately understood how to use the power of thunder and lightning!

The lightning patterns on its body were the subtle manifestations of thunder and lightning power. Its soul aura had gradually grown stronger because it had been attracted to the aura he gave off!

He primarily cultivated Heavenly Thunder Eradication, and his body had been repeatedly tempered by the thunder and lightning from the Ninth Heaven. Even his soul contained the power of thunder. Recently, he had used the Dark Moon Thunder Snake's beast core to create a Natal Palace, and a part of the Dark Moon Thunder Snake's aura still lingered within his soul. With all of these coincidences added together, it caused him to attract the aura of this extraordinary beast below!

"An ancient beast that is born knowing how to manipulate thunder and lightning, an existence that is the ancestor of the Dark Moon Thunder Snake, if I cause a change in this enormous python, if I wake it up…" Qin Lie's mind was shaking uncontrollably.

He urgently wanted his soul to go back into his body.

He didn't dare to maintain this state because didn't want this terrifying beast to wake up from its frozen state as a result of his actions.

When he tried to get his soul back into his body, it went smoothly. His soul consciousness quickly dropped down and entered through the top of his head.

He immediately woke up.

Within the thick ice, he opened his eyes and looked at the enormous python in the distance with trepidation. He tried to feel the fluctuations coming from that direction in this state.

Just like before, he couldn't feel any soul aura. After his soul entered his corporeal body, he was unable to feel weak wisps of soul auras, so in this state, it seemed his perception was clearly weaker.

Temporarily stopping his cultivation of Frost Arts, he took out the Eye of Frost and looked at the enormous python with a grave expression.

He was staring at it for any signs of movement. If the python showed anything that might signal that it was stirring awake, he was prepared to leave this place at any moment.

He didn't know what rank that ancient beast was. At this time, if it suddenly broke through its icy restraints, he didn't know whether or not it would destroy the Arctic Mountain Range in its entirety.

He had to be careful.

Yet after waiting for a long time, he didn't see any signs of stirring from the ancient beast, nor did he feel any unusual soul fluctuations.

He put his mind to rest and he put away the Eye of Frost. He sat down again and started to cultivate Frost Arts once more.

This time, he was not able to enter the state of astral projection. Just like normal, he gathered cold energy and tried to construct the ninth Natal Palace inside his spirit sea.

His body once again turned to a statue of ice.

What he did not know was that when he was cultivating Frost Arts, an extremely faint diagram appeared on his neck.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Because the diagram was too faint and blurry, it wasn't possible to see the shape or what it was.

Yet as he focused on his cultivation and gathered his attention to form his ninth Natal Palace, the diagram on his neck started to become solid as time passed. It started to become clear…

Several hours later, the general shape of the diagram formed—something shaped like a snake.

It seemed like a snake tattoo.

A time later, the diagram became even clearer. The thing shaped like a snake now showed the shape of its body, the parts of its head, and the scale patterns.

It was the enormous python that was close by!

It was imprinted on Qin Lie's neck in a size exponentially smaller and was an extremely life-like python tattoo.

But it only appeared for a few short minutes before it slowly faded away until it disappeared completely.