44 Frozen Chamber
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Inside Sieg's cultivation cave.
Sieg was standing inside the training area of the cave. His eyes were closed and he was assuming a weird stance. His legs were shoulder width apart, he also had his clenched fist on his waist facing forward and he was leaning a bit forward. If one would look closely, he was assuming a stance like someone who's riding a horse.
There was a faint white mist surrounding his body, this mist would latch onto his skin and would stay there quite sometime before moving away. Sometimes, these mist would latch onto some parts of his chest, sometimes it would latch onto his legs and most times it would latch onto his arms.
These mists are actually Yin Ki forming some sort of protection on Sieg's body. Cultivating the Cold Moon Peak Ki Manual let's him control and absorb any type of Yin Ki present in the air. Of course these is easier said than done, even though the manual let's him do that, it would still take him quite some time to fully control these things.
For some reason, Sieg felt having these technique to be a bit redundant. It had to be known that he still have the Gentle River Blade Art which is a defensive type of technique and aided him on his journey for a while now. The outlines that Sieg was able to do so far were only protective layer of Yin Ki nothing more. But in the end of the day, another life saving technique wouldn't hurt right?
"I should look around the sect, I got 250 merit points after all." Sieg took a quick bath and went outside of his cave.
The Jade Annulus was exchanged for a total of 500 merit points, for them this is a staggering number already, after discussing for a bit, Sieg companions decided to let him have 200 merit points since he was the one who ensured their victory after all, Sieg was a bit apprehensive at first but when they said that he could take this as a payment for saving their lives, then he accepted it whole heartedly. Now Zhu Fang, Ji Potian and Gwen had a total of 125 merit points, this is because the equally divided the 300 merit points they got from selling the Jade Annulus on top of the 50 merit points mission reward. With these, the weight on their backs lessened a bit.
Sieg started to roam around them sect, he first went towards the Dao Repository Pagoda to search for a new blade art, but he was told that the pagoda only receives tokens. He needed to purchase these tokens or earn it from a mission, that's the only way to purchase a new blade art.
He thought of going to the resource market but decided against it, he was sure that he won't be buying anything in there anyway so he roamed around aimlessly for quite sometime.
The sect is a bit lively today, the chilling winds inside doesn't seem to bother most of the disciples as they they did their own business. Sieg was also surprised to see a lot of Service and Outer Disciples in this part of the mountain, then he remembered that these people must be followers of someone that's why they're allowed in here.
"It seems like I could only check the Cultivation Chambers then." Sieg walked towards a giant tower in the distance.
The tower stood like the guardian of the skies, lofty and proud. This is perhaps the only building in the mountain that is dark-colored. After waking for a bit, Sieg stood before a huge iron door that led inside the chambers. As the doors slowly opened, it made a loud creaking sound and the interior of the chambers were finally on full display.
Ironically, inside this dark and ominous looking tower, the interior is very bright and colorful. The tiles were made out of luxurious crystals and the supporting pillars are made out of gold. There's also a blue lighting source inside the area, some decorative plants and a calming scent of incense.
Sieg marveled at the beauty of the place, he was truly not expecting this sort of scene. Suddenly, one random guy appeared in front of him and said: "Good morning Martial Brother, how could I help you?"
"Do you have any books or jade slips with a complete information about this place?" Sieg asked.
The nameless guy smiled and said: "Follow me Martial Brother." Then they started walking towards the front desk. The nameless guy opened a cabinet and grabbed a jade slip which he tossed to Sieg and said: "That contains all of the information you need, grab a seat and finish reading it here since you're not allowed to bring it with you outside of this place."
"Sieg nodded and clasped his hands towards the nameless guy, he then on one of the few available seats inside and sent a wisp of Ki inside the jade slip. Then a wave of informations flooded his mind.
Since Sieg cultivated his soul up to peak of the 9th step, the headaches he experienced the first time he used a jade slip would never happen again, his mind is also far stronger that most of his peers allowing him to have a good memory and larger capacity for informations.
Cultivation Chambers is a tower that is unique to Nameless Peak Holy Land and it's subsidiary sects, this tower is a mystical place where numerous dimensions existed. These dimensions lead to man-made environments and extremely beneficial for someone to cultivate in.
Sieg was amazed by this information alone. He even thought that humans are really resourceful. He couldn't believe that human strength could go as far as tearing up space and making a completely different environment inside it. But the evidence is in front of him.
With the help of Inscriptionist, containing these dimensions became extremely stable hence allowing the entrances to the said portal be contained in one place. And that is the Cultivation Chambers.
[A/N: I used the term 'Inscriptionist' here instead of 'Inscribers' since the former is superior to the latter.]
As far as the number of chambers go, there's a lot of them but what caught Sieg's attention is the Frozen Chamber, the Heart Chamber, the Warrior's Chamber and the Chamber of Insights.
As the name itself said, the Frozen Chamber is a place where there's nothing aside from unending hail of snow. If one cultivated inside this chamber, he/she would be required to withstand extreme cold, if one is successful in doing so, then there's a chance that they could deepen their relationship with the Ice Element. This chamber is one of the most popular inside the sect since they offer so much Ki Manuals and Weapon Arts with Ice Element.
The Heart Chamber is one of the most dangerous one according to disciples. This chamber would manifest one's heart demons. Heart demons could also be called a cultivator's deepest and darkest secret, they could cause a person's mind to be in a complete disarray, not only that, heart demons are also one of the few reasons why a cultivator couldn't make any breakthroughs as well. If one could clear their hearts off of any demons, then they would experience freedom and their Ki flows wouldn't be as 'impeded' as ever.
The reason why the Heart Chamber is considered as dangerous, is because heart demons could easily cause a person to descend into madness. This scenario was very common when the sect was just established, many people became victims and turned into idiots their entire life.
The Warrior's Chamber is basically a dimension where endless beast emerge, this is a place where one could train their combat efficiencies and upgrade their survival skills or even perfect their weapon arts, which is also why Sieg was attracted to it.
And last but not the least, the Chamber of Insights. This chamber is a great mystery for disciples, those who didn't knew it's purpose said to avoid this chamber, while those who knew, said that it is a holy ground. This managed to peak his curiosity and want to enter it.
Of course things like, Essence Chamber, Lava Chamber, Lightning Chamber, Tempering Chamber, Sound Chamber and many more, existed as well but was only secondary choices for Sieg to enter.
According to the jade slip, Frozen Chamber costs 10 merit points an hour, the Heart and Warrior's Chamber costs 15 merit points and finally the Chamber of Insights cost 20.
Seeing these prices made Sieg feel some headaches, these prices are a bit too steep even for someone like him that had 250 merit points. If he entered the Frozen Chamber and stayed inside for a whole day, then he would only be left with 10 merit points, which is very pitiful.
And since Sieg was already inside the tower, might as well try one of the chambers. He decided to enter the Frozen Chamber first.
He walked towards the attendant and told him about his decision, then the attendant lead him inside the second floor of the tower. The attendant asked for his badge and deducted 10 merit points already, then he informed Sieg that whether he could last for an hour or no, these merit points aren't refundable. Sieg nodded in agreement.
According to the jade slip, the higher you go inside the tower, the more expensive it gets, and the second floor is where all of the chambers that cost 10 merit points are located.
They stopped in front of a blue door, the attendant made series of hand gestures and the door in front of them opened. As it did, Sieg saw the portal that is leading inside the frozen environment. The portal looked like a large, distorted space that is contorting every now and then. It might look a little bit dangerous but the attendant assured him that it is very safe.
Sieg steeled his heart and placed one foot inside the portal. As soon as his whole body passed through the portal, he felt a biting cold winds hit his body. The coldness of this place made him shiver uncontrollably, he never expected this environment to be so ruthless, it didn't even gave him time to adjust, it just doused him directly into it's natural state.
Winds screeched as the hail of snow floated non-stop in front of him. Sieg can hear the chattering of his teeth due to the coldness of the place. Despite this, he still forced himself to sit down and allow this cold to wreck havoc in his body. The merit points are already deducted in his account and his time already started so there's no use on wasting more time.
Sieg wrapped himself with a layer of Ki barrier, this is to not let his body temperature go down quickly and perish inside this environment. He planned to completely adjust to this place first before he removed it so that he wouldn't be injured badly.
After 5 minutes of adjusting to these winds, Sieg started to make the ki barrier thinner, after doing so he felt his body temperature go down once more and the coldness that he felt intensified. He was starting to feel a bit groggy but he furiously fought over it. His shivering stopped after another 5 minutes of adjusting thus he made the Ki barrier thinner again.
This cycle happened for a few more times before Sieg decided to completely get rid of the Ki barrier after the half hour mark. His skin went paler than before, some parts of his body is already covered a thin layer of ice as well. The ruthless Yin Ki also penetrated deep inside Sieg's body, dropping his body temperature even more. Sieg could already feel the familiar scene that happened when he changed his ki manual to Cold Moon Peak, the only difference is that now he is prepared.
