Lu Yang looked at Meng Jingzhou oddly, "Your Meng Family sure has plenty of ways to make money."

"Why are you looking at me like that? It’s not like I’m the one who inflated the price of the ten-thousand-year ice. It’s the Meng Family. The Meng Family of tens of thousands of years ago." Although Meng Jingzhou always refers to "our Meng Family," when it comes to his own reputation, he still tries to dissociate himself from the Meng family.

Even though it was the Meng family that artificially inflated the price of thousands of years old ice, this applies to ordinary ice. For things like Mystical Ice marrow and Ice Fetuses, the older they are, the more useful they are.

For instance, ancient cultivators who were in deep slumber frequently used tens of thousands of years old Mystical Ice Marrow to freeze their bodies. And now, they woke up and willingly walked into the trap of Great Xia.

Some were less fortunate. They either used Mystical Ice Marrow of insufficient age, or fake Mystical Ice Marrow, so only managed to get half-frozen before its effects wore off, forcing them to emerge prematurely. This was the situation with those ancient cultivators in the Unification stage that Lu Yang encountered in the bizarre events of Buyi town.

"Why bother with ten-thousand-year old Mystical Ice Marrow? In my humble opinion, one Eternity Immortal Fruit should be enough to ensure their hibernation till the end of time. They will never wake up prematurely," said Fairy Eternity.

"But isn’t your Eternity Immortal fruit for the dead? It ensures that the corpses will not rot." Lu Yang inquired.

"It’s essentially the same, those who freeze themselves with Mystical Ice Marrow are not too dissimilar from being dead. Why do you think they can sleep till now, unfettered by the limits of their lifespan? Isn’t it because they were put into a state of suspended animation when they were frozen?" Fairy Eternity replied.

"Um, suspended animation might not be entirely accurate. It’s more like time has almost stopped."

"Time stopped?" Lu Yang asked, confused.

Fairy Eternity solemnly nodded. At this moment, she recalled Miss Yun’s warning – not to disclose too many unusual things to Lu Yang. She remembered her nonchalant and carefree life amongst the ancients, smiling proudly with her head held high.

Who does this Miss Yun think she is, anyway? I don’t care a jot about her!

Tell him!

"What I’m about to share with you is extremely confidential. You must not tell Miss Yun about it!" she declared.

Despite her wisdom, Fairy Eternity quickly devised a plan that catered to both their needs.

"Fairy, whatever you say, I am as tight-lipped as they come. You can trust me," Lu Yang promised, patting his lips indicating his reliability.

Although Lu Yang still remembered Eldest Senior Sister’s warning, his curiosity always got the better of him when Fairy Eternity started revealing such things.

However, if Fairy Eternity wanted to tell him about shameful past events from ancient times, that’s a different story.

The first leader and the second-in-command exchanged glances and shared a knowing smile, seemingly having forgotten their internal dispute from a few days ago.

"If you cultivate your Heavenly Eyes and have superior vision, you’ll find that everything in the world is in motion. Be it humans, objects, dust particles, or the smallest particles that constitute matter as viewed through the Heavenly Eyes."

"Everything moves."

"Immortal Jiuchong possesses the Yin-Yang Dao Fruit, controlling temperature to the extreme. He discovered that movement is not absolute. If you reduce the temperature to the limit, even the smallest particle would be frozen and unable to move."

"After Immortal Jiuchong asked Time Immortal about this situation, Time Immortal researched and asserted that under extreme cold, Immortal Jiuchong could use extreme cold to stop time."

"Wait, Time Immortal can stop time too?"

"Of course. Time Immortal can halt the time of the entire world. His range is much wider than Immortal Jiuchong’s."

"Later, Immortal Jiuchong discovered that under high-temperature scenarios, the movement speed of the smallest particles would accelerate. So he adjusted the temperature to the maximum, a temperature far exceeding that of the Sun."

"Under extreme heat, the movement speed of the smallest particles reaches its limit, which is the speed of light. This is the domain of the Time Dao Fruit."

Lu Yang inwardly pondered the story just told, feeling that he gained a lot. "Are you saying, Fairy, that regardless of the kind of Dao Fruit, they all eventually lead to the same road?"

Fairy Eternity stared at Lu Yang’s eyes for a moment. She was just reminded of this incident when she spotted the ten-thousand-year-old Mystical Ice Marrow. There was no other hidden meaning.

"Yes, I was just trying to tell you this. I didn’t expect you to comprehend it on your own!"

As they conversed, the group arrived at the Golden Meridian.

Upon stepping into the Golden Meridian, everyone felt a slight numbness on their skin. Their Golden Cores automatically protected their bodies by coating them with a thin layer of Spiritual Energy, which made the numbness disappear.

"This is the unique invisible Golden Qi of the Golden Meridian. According to Elder Tong, also known as the Elder of the Golden Meridian, the Golden Meridian is composed of countless valuable Fine Stone veins. The Fine Stones have their own pride which prevents them from co-existing with other ores.

The collisions between the Fine Stones caused the leakage of the Golden Qi, creating the unique phenomena of the Golden Meridians."

Plant life rarely thrives in the earth of the Golden Meridian. Even when there are Spiritual Plants, they are types rich in metallic gloss, spirit stones influenced and assimilated under the influence of the Golden Meridian.

If they can thrive in an environment filled with Golden Qi, there’s no need to say how formidable these Spiritual Plants are.

Lu Yang’s Sword Spirit Root is a variant of the Golden Spirit Root. He is most sensitive to the active Golden Qi of the Golden Meridian. If the Golden Qi is refined, it forms the most basic form of Sword Qi.

Man Gu noticed that many disciples of the Five Elements Sect were sitting on the Golden Meridian, with numerous magic artifacts floating above their heads, rising and falling like they were floating on the sea.

Others paired up, controlling various magic artifacts in competition. The magic artifacts could even combine to form powerful formations. This showed the strength of their spiritual sense.

Bai Ming chuckled, "The Golden Meridian is most adept at controlling metal. You can think of it as Swordsmanship."

"If we are talking about those most adept at controlling metal, it has to be the first Elder of the Golden Meridian. His cultivation level was earth-shattering, every move he made was in accordance with the laws of nature. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so powerful. If it weren’t for him moving several veins here at the inception of the sect, we wouldn’t have the Golden Meridian we have today."

"...So, did the Golden Meridian of your Five Elements Sect get... stolen from somewhere else?"

"You can’t call it stealing." Bai Ming corrected. "That’s called illegal mining."

"And the first elder of the Golden Meridian had studied law. At that time, the Great Xia had just been established, and the juridical system wasn’t yet well-established. There weren’t even draft laws in place, so he took advantage of this gap to contribute to the sect by ’borrowing’ several veins."

There wasn’t even a draft law, so it couldn’t be considered a crime, right?

Lu Yang: "..."

"The first elder of the Golden Meridian said that as a cultivator, our actions should be in accordance with the laws of nature, implying that cultivators themselves are a part of the laws of nature. Thus, his moving of the veins to the Five Elements Sect does not constitute illegal mining but can be seen as a natural shift in the veins.

It only happened a little faster with his help, and is not a crime."

"And then?"

"The court didn’t believe it."

"I figured as much."

"Later, he borrowed money from the Meng Family and bought these few veins."

Bai Ming glanced at Meng Jingzhou and added, "As for the loan borrowed from the Meng Family, it was paid off sixty thousand years ago."