A massive blue lake stretched out in front of Xu Qing. The water was extremely clear, but close examination revealed that it was actually frozen. A chaotic tangle of colorful plants grew on the lake shore. Even the ceiling of the cave was covered in moss. There was clearly a lot of moisture in the air.

Xu Qing looked around. Whether it was what he could see or what he could sense, nothing about the area seemed dangerous. However, he remained on guard as he carefully approached the lake and looked down into it. When he saw what lay at the bottom of the frozen water, he frowned slightly. The lake floor was covered with an assortment of bones. There were bones of both men and women, all humans, and they were scattered everywhere, seemingly a reminder of some sort of tragic event.

“I found this place by accident,” Wu Jianwu said. Seemingly worried Xu Qing might be getting the wrong idea about his intentions, he continued, “I’ve been here a few times and never ran into anything dangerous. The bones down there don’t have any sort of mutagen in them.”

Xu Qing nodded. After looking more closely at the lake, Xu Qing thought back to the description of immortal ice from Grandmaster Bai’s medicinal codex and realized that the frozen substance here differed slightly from the description he was familiar with.

It was more fragrant.

That fragrant aroma was stronger the closer you got to the edge of the lake. It was sweet, even unctuous; the longer the aroma stayed in your nostrils, the worse it smelled. That did not match what he had read about immortal ice.

Xu Qing’s guess was that years ago, before changing into...