After arriving at Old Ox Back and making sure no one was around, Qin Fang went straight up the mountain, finally stopping before the cave entrance once again.

Gazing at the cave before him, Qin Fang exhaled softly. He first placed the equipment he’d prepared for luring bees by the entrance, then stepped inside.

He paused just inside, as was his habit, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness.

Here, the effects of his enhanced senses were even more obvious. This time, it took only a moment for his eyes to seemingly adapt to the surrounding darkness.

Having been here once before, the experience was even more profound! He was only now discovering how many things he had overlooked on his previous visit.

For instance... he hadn’t been in the cave for long when he discovered a dark, narrow path branching off to the front-right of the ’main passage’!

Another path!

Last time, Qin Fang had noticed a few forks in the cave, but they were all relatively narrow—impossibly so for a creature with the Wild Boar King’s massive frame to pass through—so he hadn’t explored them.

But this path before him sloped downward, and judging by its height... ’The Wild Boar King could definitely get through here!’

His eyes flickered. Without hesitation, he cautiously started down the completely unfamiliar path.

The moment he stepped onto the narrow path, a pervasive chill suddenly became much more pronounced.

Qin Fang’s gaze sharpened. He recalled feeling a bone-chilling cold the moment he’d entered the cave last time.

But at the time, he’d chalked it up to the natural, damp cold of a cave that never saw sunlight and paid it no mind. After all, the chill hadn’t changed in any particular way all the way to where he found the Treasure Plant.

But now, he could clearly feel something was wrong.

The moment he entered this new passage, the cold intensified exponentially!

’With my current Physique, I probably wouldn’t even feel that cold swimming in a river in the middle of winter.’

’So how could the chill from a cave actually make me shiver uncontrollably?’

’...That’s quite startling.’

What was even more startling... was that this cold wasn’t ’static,’ but ’dynamic.’ ’It’s like something is constantly ’blowing’ this chill out from deeper inside!’

His eyes flickered...

’It seems this Old Ox Back is far more mystical than I imagined.’

Qin Fang’s brow furrowed. He let out a light breath and cautiously continued deeper.

He began to circulate the Qi Blood within his body—an ability one only gained after reaching the realm of Anjin. By contracting his muscles and meridians, he could accelerate the flow of his Qi Blood, generating heat.

The cold receded, and he continued onward with caution.

The path led continuously downward. After descending for about ten meters, Qin Fang paused, looking down at his right arm. The fine hairs there were coated in a layer of white frost!

’...This is seriously wrong!’

’I’ve descended less than ten meters, and this passage still seems bottomless, but the ground is already covered in frost. Even the hairs on my arm are iced over!’

’And I’m even circulating my Qi Blood!’

He pressed his lips together. This bizarre phenomenon only made him more determined to find out what was going on.

Another ten meters down, Qin Fang’s whole body began to tremble. He was circulating his Qi Blood to its absolute limit; normally, his body should feel as hot as a furnace.

But the reality was... he was already shivering from the cold!

The surroundings were no longer a monotonous black, but were instead tinged with a strange, faint blue...

Blue frost!

The ceiling overhead and the surrounding cavern walls were all covered in this blue frost.

Looking closely, he saw that the blue frost formed dense, snowflake-like hexagonal crystals that covered every surface.

An astonishing cold continued to pour out from the depths of the cavern...

Qin Fang subconsciously glanced at the ground...

...and his breath hitched.

’The Wild Boar King has definitely been here!’

There, amid the blue frost on the ground, was a distinct, strange white streak—the trace of white frost.

’It must be that something scraped past here, destroying the blue frost. Afterward, the frigid air condensed into new frost...’

’...but newly formed frost is mostly white. Only after a sustained period of intense cold, when even its most minute components have thoroughly crystallized, does it turn blue.’

’So, the Wild Boar King must have been here!’

’Its belly scraped away the blue frost, and then white frost re-formed in the tracks...’

’...I’m already this cold. How could that boar possibly withstand this?’

The thought horrified Qin Fang.

But then again...

’...Then again, bears hibernate, but wild boars don’t.’

’Their thick pelts and layers of fat certainly make them far more resistant to cold than humans.’

At this thought, he pressed his lips together. He felt he could still go a little farther and decided to press on.

’If the Wild Boar King came here, the true reason for its mutation is probably deeper inside!’

After advancing another two or three meters and rounding a bend, Qin Fang suddenly stopped in his tracks.

About four or five meters ahead, there was a source of light!

And that light source...

...was a strangely shaped stone bowl set against the cavern wall.

A slender stalactite hung suspended over the stone bowl.

It hung so low it almost touched the inside of the bowl.

From his vantage point, Qin Fang could see a shallow layer of a strange, gently rippling liquid in the stone bowl.

...The peculiar sight made Qin Fang’s pupils constrict, and he quickened his pace toward it.

The closer he got, the colder it became.

By the time he was standing beside the stone bowl, even his eyelashes were coated in frost!

But then, his gaze shifted to what lay deeper inside...