The morning dawned, the world between heaven and earth shrouded in gloom. "Rumble~~~" Thunder roared, faint sprinkles of rain beginning to fall.

"Qingshan, look at this weather, there's going to be a downpour. Don't go into the mountains for rigorous training this morning," Mother Yuan Lan, having put on her thick cotton coat, walked out of the inner room.

"Mother, it's nothing, a little rain counts for nothing. Hmm, I'll head up the mountain first." Teng Qingshan snatched his spear of refined iron and walked out.

"Come back early for breakfast," Mother Yuan Lan called out. "Got it." Leaving the courtyard gate, Teng Qingshan quickly departed Teng Family Village and ascended Great Yan Mountain.

…… "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" Teng Qingshan himself transformed into an illusion, darting through the mountain forest. When he left Teng Family Village, only scattered raindrops were falling from the sky, but by the time Teng Qingshan entered Great Yan Mountain, following a clap of thunder, the rain instantly became a violent torrent, turning the world into a vast expanse of water.

In an instant, Teng Qingshan was soaked to the bone, dripping wet all over. "What rotten luck," Teng Qingshan frowned.

Being drenched by the rain was a minor issue. Furthermore, he had nothing in his pockets when he left this morning, so Teng Qingshan didn't fear the rain, but...

this rain complicated the plan to infiltrate the Azure Cold Pool. "No matter what, the plan is set: infiltrate the Azure Cold Pool today, so today it is." Teng Qingshan moved with incredible speed, soon arriving at Twin Head Mountain.

The cliff face was like an open path to him; with the spear, disassembled into two pieces, resting on his back, Teng Qingshan used all four limbs and reached the summit in moments. He then leaped directly from the peak, occasionally striking the surrounding rocks with his hands to slow his descent.

"This freezing is really fast." Teng Qingshan landed halfway down the mountain, on a patch of open ground two zhang away from the Azure Cold Pool, looking at it with a bitter smile. The surface of the Azure Cold Pool had already frozen into a thick layer of solid ice.

"This ice layer must be at least thirty centimeters thick. And it’s only been raining for a short while?" Teng Qingshan felt helpless.

The water in the Azure Cold Pool was peculiar; its density was much higher than ordinary water, and it didn't freeze even under extremely low temperatures. However, whenever it rained, upon contact between the rainwater and the pool's water...

The rainwater would freeze rapidly! It had only rained for a short time, yet the ice was already a foot and two cun thick.

But Teng Qingshan also knew that even if the rain continued non-stop, the ice would never exceed two zhang in thickness. "My clothes are already soaked, so there's no need to drag them around today when going into the deep pool." Teng Qingshan tossed the bundle containing his refined iron spear aside, casually grabbed a large rock from the side, leaped up, and landed squarely on the solid ice.

Even standing on this ice, Teng Qingshan could feel waves of cold radiating up. Suddenly— Teng Qingshan stamped his foot hard!

"Boom!" As if the world collapsed, the solid ice, a foot and two cun thick, instantly cracked and shattered under the force, flying outwards in all directions. Many fragments of ice struck the adjacent cliff face, exploding into fine dust.

"I refuse to believe I still can't reach the bottom this time." Teng Qingshan, carrying the rock weighing over a hundred jin, plunged into the Azure Cold Pool. The temperature, which would instantly freeze an ordinary person to death, was easily resisted by Teng Qingshan, clad in only a single layer of cloth.

"Whoosh~~" The continuous descent stirred the pool water, causing currents. "Logically, the sky should be bright now, but today there’s a heavy storm, and the sky is dark and overcast, resulting in very low visibility underwater.

However... my eyesight is much better than a month ago; I can actually see further at the bottom." As long as there was a sliver of light, Teng Qingshan could use that faint illumination to see his surroundings clearly.

Falling! Constantly descending!

Twenty zhang! Forty zhang!

Sixty zhang! …… "I've encountered this extremely cold temperature many times, but it still feels too cold, uncomfortable." Teng Qingshan carefully observed the objects on the side walls surrounding the cold pool.

There were objects on the side walls deep within the pool—these were reference points. Teng Qingshan could completely rely on these reference points to gauge his approximate depth.

"I should have passed the foot of the mountain and penetrated deep into the base of the great mountain!" Teng Qingshan estimated the depth. The last time he reached this depth, Teng Qingshan could no longer endure it and had to activate his inner energy to protect his body.

But this time, Teng Qingshan had resisted solely with bone and muscle. Keep falling!

"It's truly deep; this must be underground. I've sunk a full three hundred meters." Teng Qingshan felt an intense, bone-chilling cold, and simultaneously— "Crack crack~~" The hundred-jin stone he was clutching actually began to show fissures.

So cold it cracked stone! What an extreme temperature this was.

"Abnormally cold." In his previous life, Teng Qingshan had never experienced such extreme cold. It felt as if his strong muscles and skin membranes offered no resistance; the intense cold directly stimulated his bones, and even faintly irritated his internal organs.

He was cold, utterly ice-cold throughout his body. "I must use my inner energy!" Fierce inner energy circulated wildly throughout his body, warding off the low temperature.

"Much better," Teng Qingshan carefully looked at the pool water below. Because it was so deep, even with Teng Qingshan's astonishing eyesight, he could barely make out three or four meters around him.

"Hmm?" Teng Qingshan peered intently downwards, "The bottom?" Below him, vaguely visible, was a faint purple halo. This mere trace of purple luminescence instantly allowed Teng Qingshan to see seven or eight zhang away, and as he drew closer, he realized the temperature was actually beginning to rise.

Yes, the previously extreme low temperature was actually beginning to warm up. But when Teng Qingshan’s feet finally touched down, he was pleasantly surprised to confirm—this was the floor of the Azure Cold Pool.

"Eh? The bottom of this cold pool is actually generating heat?

And it's emitting a purple halo. Strange." Teng Qingshan was very surprised.

He finally understood why the water near the bottom of the pool was getting warmer. It was due to the peculiar ore at the pool's floor.

Observing the area around the bottom carefully. Because his range of vision extended seven or eight zhang, Teng Qingshan quickly discerned the conditions at the bottom.

"The width of this Azure Cold Pool floor is about ten-plus zhang, and the length... is over twenty zhang." Teng Qingshan looked closely to the left, as only on the left side of the entire bottom, against the pool's cliff wall, was there a passage about two to three zhang wide.

"So, the water in the cold pool flows in from this passage." Teng Qingshan also noticed that the closer he got to the passage, the colder the pool water became. There were no living creatures or plants on the bottom, only one thing—the peculiar, heat-emitting ore.

Several pieces of this ore were scattered across the pool floor. "Mmm." Teng Qingshan picked one up.

This ore itself possessed a very faint purple halo. In the darkness at the bottom of the cold pool, this halo was visible, but it likely wouldn't be noticeable in daylight outside.

"To generate heat, and quite intensely, under these extreme cold conditions. It must not be ordinary ore.

I'll take it back and let Father appraise it." Teng Qingshan picked up two pieces of ore, each about the size of a fist, and placed them into the large inner pocket of his chest area. The pocket could only hold two pieces.

Immediately after, Teng Qingshan moved towards the left, approaching the passage where the cold pool's water originated. "Hoo, it's really cold.

It's pitch black inside, visibility is even lower, I don't know what's in there." Teng Qingshan cautiously observed the inside of the passage. However, deep within the underwater passage, there was no sign of this strange ore, so it was completely dark.

Teng Qingshan could barely see two zhang ahead and had no idea what lay in the depths of this mysterious underwater tunnel. But a sense of danger stirred in Teng Qingshan's heart...

"If something is abnormal, there must be a reason! At this temperature and water pressure, my body's tolerance is almost at its limit.

I reached the bottom today; the objective is met. I should return first and let Father see this ore.

I'll explore this underwater passage when the opportunity arises in the future." Teng Qingshan immediately decided to head back out. In the portion of the underwater passage beyond Teng Qingshan's line of sight— Faintly, a pair of fist-sized, fragmented golden pupils were fixed upon Teng Qingshan.

It was a dozen-plus zhang away, but clearly, this underwater monster could see Teng Qingshan in such darkness. Silently, this underwater monster began to move towards the entrance of the cold pool passage.

This creature moved without making a single sound. Teng Qingshan, standing on the pool floor, tossed away the now-cracked stone in his hand and began to ascend.

Just then— "Tsssh—" The underwater monster, realizing Teng Qingshan was leaving, suddenly accelerated violently, shooting out of the underwater passage like a bolt of lightning. "What was that!" Such a violent disturbance, naturally, caught the attention of the ascending Teng Qingshan.

He whipped his head around, and upon seeing it, his heart clenched violently, and his scalp tingled as if ready to explode. Under the faint purple light at the pool floor, Teng Qingshan clearly saw that it was a giant python, as thick as a water bucket!

The scales covering this great python were dense, faintly shimmering with a purplish-red halo. The length of this Cold Pool Python could not be determined immediately, but the section of its body emerging from the underwater hole alone was over six zhang long.

In his previous life, he hadn't been unfamiliar with killing large pythons in the rainforest. But he had never seen one of this sheer size, with such a thick torso.

Moreover... this great python emerged from such an icy region, meaning it must possess extraordinary qualities.

"Roar~~" A low, heart-pounding roar, like that of an approaching hurricane. Following this low growl, the python at the bottom of the pool lunged towards Teng Qingshan in an instant, opening its cavernous maw.

The mouth of the water-bucket-thick python, when opened, spanned a full zhang wide, ready to swallow Teng Qingshan whole!