Female Emperor fell into a long silence before she asked: "Did Chu Lili ask you to bring me something?""No," Yan Zhaoge shook his head without hesitation.
Upon hearing this, without any expression, Jie Mingkong slightly raised her head, her eyes still closed, from which Yan Zhaoge was hard to tell her emotion.
Long after, she said. "My master is truly not in a position to help. Not that he refuses to help, but he"s occupied at the moment."
Yan Zhaoge did not give up and asked in another way, "Can I pay a visit to the Astro Sovereign? Though his highness could not do us a favor, out of courtesy, I should pay respects to the best friend of our forefather."
"Heavy though the pressure brought by Earthly Sovereign and Concealed Sovereign is, I don"t know how to deal with that in a short time, and it"s of no use to be overanxious." He spread his palm, "If it may, I"d like to visit the Astro Sovereign."
Yan Zhaoge continued, while his eyes gently flashed, "My martial nephew s.h.i.+ Jun and his mother are being troubled by the devils of the Nine Underworlds, and since Astro Sovereign"s retirement also relates to the Nine Underworlds, I wonder if I can consult him on a few questions that might be answered through his wide experience and profound cultivation?"
At the time after the Broad Creed Mountain"s opening ceremony, Female Emperor Jie Mingkong, the Southeastern Exalt Cao Jie, and Northeastern Exalt Liu Zhenggu were invited to diagnose s.h.i.+ Jun and his mother.
Yan Zhaoge had noticed that Female Emperor seemed to be particularly sensitive to the things related to the Nine Underworlds, which was unusual for her who had always acted cold.
Now, judging from Astro Sovereign"s situation, he knew he had been right.
Upon hearing Yan Zhaoge"s words, Jie Mingkong turned again to "look" at him.
A few seconds later, she slowly nodded, "Follow me then."
"My Master always cares about descendants of Exalted Gold Luminary. If you are forced to leave World beyond Worlds for offending Earthly Sovereign and Concealed Sovereign, I"m not sure if he can see you in the days to come." She turned around while saying, "Although your father didn"t come, Master should be pleased to see you. And he might give you a word or two on how to handle this matter."
Once again, her body was gradually enveloped with ice and turned into an ice sculpture.
The ice and snow spreading in the air gradually formed an enormous ice snake across the emptiness.
There was black light in the eyes of the snow-white ice snake as if it was alive.
The next moment, the ice snake took Female Emperor, now the ice sculpture, on its back, stretching its body to go far away.
"Thanks for leading the way." Yan Zhaoge cupped his hand and flew up onto the head of the snake, standing next to Female Emperor.
Then, the two left the Land of the tranquil stream.
The ice snake did not return to the World beyond Worlds but headed into the Nine Underworlds.
Once they entered there, Devilish Qi began to be overwhelming.
Female Emperor was composed, and Yan Zhaoge was concentrated and stayed calm to keep the restless devilish qi under control.
He looked around and thought to himself.
He had killed w.a.n.g Zhengcheng, the Earthly Exalt, yet Female Emperor was not unhappy and angry about this.
It made sense to Yan Zhaoge. In terms of seniority, Female Emperor ranked as a peer to w.a.n.g Zhengcheng, but they didn"t have a special relations.h.i.+p due to the disparity in age.
From her cold temper, Jie Mingkong would not care about the death of the one with whom she was only on speaking terms. Neither did she mind the impact it would bring to the World beyond Worlds.
The only thing Yan Zhaoge was not sure of was whether Female Emperor would remain neutral or she would help him.
Of course, it was on the premise that he didn"t do anything against her.
Now it was better than expected that Female Emperor seemed more likely to stand on Jade Capital Crag"s side rather than that of Qi Lin Cliff.
In that case, she was sure to help Yan Zhaoge if Astro Sovereign asked her to. Although that wouldn"t help to completely deal with the pressure brought by Earthly Sovereign and Concealed Sovereign, Female Emperor, Jie Mingkong"s status still left the ordinary immortals and emperors far behind.
That being said, Astro Sovereign was the key person to count on.
The ice snake had carried the two in the Nine Underworlds for many days. During which Female Emperor kept her body frozen and didn"t move or talk all the time.
When she was in fight, she was tough and dominant, while in daily life, she kept herself away from all troubles.
Hence, when encountering with the devils in Nine Underworlds, most of the time she would avoid them.
With many days pa.s.sed in silence, Yan Zhaoge estimated that the distance they had travelled had way surpa.s.sed that from the north to the south of World beyond Worlds.
Then, the ice snake that had been travelling in the Devilish Qi suddenly rushed out of the Nine Underworlds and into another Land of the tranquil stream.
However, this one was different from all other Lands of the tranquil stream.
In the depth of dark and gloomy emptiness, there seemed to be something.
"Glacier..." Then coming into his eyes was a vast snowfield of Glacier.
An icebound Land of the tranquil stream! The ice, however, was not reflective nor crystal but dark and opaque.
And the size and volume of the glacier were immeasurable.
One could not feel the chill there at first, and the snow seemed to be illusory.
However, as time went by, one would gradually be overwhelmed by the increasing cold that couldn"t be alleviated.
It was a slow but irreversible process, and whatever one did to keep warm there, he would feel colder and colder.
At first, it was too weak to be felt, but it didn"t take long before the extreme coldness chilled one to the bone, and in the end, he would be frozen to death without even the slightest strength to struggle.
What upset one most was not the extreme cold, but no matter how hard he tried to warm himself, it would be in vain.
"We"ve arrived." At this moment, Female Emperor, who had been in silence all the way, spoke.
Though she did not open her eyes, the frost on her was lifted.
The enormous ice snake then disappeared as well.
Yan Zhaoge followed Female Emperor and walked toward the depth of the glacier.
The glacier transformed into an ice field that was unmeasurable in size. Yan Zhaoge estimated that the ice could cover half of the World beyond Worlds, or even more.
Looking far into the distance, he saw a scene of desolation, and there was not any plant or building.
One could feel a primitive atmosphere of a vast expanse of land.
Also, there was not light nor any l.u.s.ter from the ice, and Yan Zhaoge felt as if he was back to the world of initial time that was under a state of chaos, silence and darkness.
Not a bit of human culture or the trace of human activity could be seen.
Following Female Emperor, Yan Zhaoge came to the foot of a continuous iceberg.
Just then, a voice suddenly rose up in the air.
"Who"s with Ming Kong?"
The voice came from all directions, seemingly heard from every piece of ice and snow on the entire glacier continent.
"Master..." Female Emperor"s expression was slightly changed.
Her look was unusually complicated, missing, joy, mixed with sorrow, unwillingness, worry, and so on.
For all disappeared in a second, Yan Zhaoge failed to see more on her face.
It was the first time he had seen such a complex emotional change in her face.