Ice path
The colorless water looked calm and comfortable. However, the whole expanse of water lack life. The quietness could shock the soul to fear. Zeal paddled the boat across the lifeless water and scarily damp mist.
"Sighs, it's good that I'm still alive." Zeal sighed. He stopped paddling after he progressed to the middle of the water. He began cultivation; Zeal intended to recover his energy for future trouble. Anyone could see the visible golden vitality that gathered and impacted Zeal. The aura solidified his cultivation base. However, after a few hours of cultivation, Zeal became hungry: he hadn't eaten anything since he came to the cursed fire land, not even a drop of water. Sou Long had told him that under no circumstance would he drink water. In fact, Zeal thought it wouldn't be possible. After all, the discordant dreadful Sou Long had confiscated all his property and left him for dead. Zeal felt a tinge of pain; he felt there couldn't be anyone as dangerous as that inconsiderate demon. Just as he opened his eyes, he looked at the black water before him: "what if I drink this water," Zeal muttered absentmindedly.
After Zeal crossed half the black sea, he felt a biting cold. He unintentionally hugged himself. Zeal portended nothing good to happen. He felt this place either had the same difficulty level as the fireplace or more. However, at this moment, the tiny old canoe lightly bumped the ice bedrock on the icy shore. The minor cold he felt a while ago became harsher. Regardless, Zeal sat still—he crossed his legs and waved hand gestures as he began to chant the Yin-yang mantra of the nine-heaven Divine sutra. At this moment, Zeal had another heavenly vision. He sat in the middle of the world. Above him was the hot sun, and below him was the cold bright moon. The two entities impacted Zeal's body. After that, Zeal humphed with other fast gestures. This time, black and white snake-like energy appeared around him; they circulated him. Zeal continued to chant the yin-yang mantra. Subsequently, the two energy snakes began a centripetal rotation; the motion created a circle that encased the two energies. Zeal humph again and hastened his chant; the white snake lunged itself into Zeal's brain. However, the weakly black energy snake vanished naturally.
Zeal stood from the old worn canoe with a sigh: he always felt that the whole nine-heaven Divine sutra was unparalleled and unique; he abstracted for a while. Zeal walked the ice path with a passing glance. Although the place felt cold, it wasn't impossible to walk. All Zeal had to do was to supply his body with yang energy constantly. In fact, he had already experienced this control, so it wasn't so terrible.
It was already the twenty-sixth hour since he journeyed the ice and cold path. Zeal used his soul-eyes to examine the whole environment and even himself. He found out that even his breathing released a cold white mist. 'What abominable places that this old thing kept introducing me to?' Zeal's mind churned. Zeal could even detect the general temperature of the place with his soul-eyes: it was 10° Celsius. As he strode forward, the temperature kept impacting him. However, Zeal continuously controlled his yang energy. It was as hard as before when he walked the fire path. However, the main reason for that was because Zeal had magnified his control ability. This environment was totally white and frigid. Although it wasn't snowy, ice steam filled the place like the Underworld ice river.
In the next three hours, the environment changed. It was already the twenty-ninth hour, and the white cold domain had already turned silvery-white; the 10° Celsius had already dropped abysmally to 0° Celsius. Dreadful cold impacted the Zeal's body; they threatened to freeze and break him. Zeal gritted his teeth and circulated his yang energy. When he disseminated his yang energy, he found out that his convulsing arms had relaxed, so he heaved a sigh of relief.
Although Zeal had an abnormal quantity of Yang energy, it wasn't easy to meticulously control it. Unlike when Zeal traversed the fire path with the ordinary yin, the yang (due to the recent cultivation) was no longer mediocre. So the control difficulty had also increased. As Zeal walked the silvery-white ice path, he saw many ice sculptures of some unknown men and women. They seemed like spiritual monuments: like Buddha and others. Zeal didn't know why he cared less about those Buddha since he was young. He had no deference for them.
After a while, Zeal passed the silvery-white ice path. The ice road and the fire path were starkly similar because they never had a single life. As Zeal walked, everywhere was silent like a dead sea. It was a death stage. Additionally, Zeal's structure and texture of the environment kept changing with the arrival of a new phase. The white path looked like a long corridor of an abbey—the place isolated from the building. And the silvery-white stage looked more like an old mountain with ancient stature. These features looked unique and well-crafted.
But on walking additional six hours with steady steps, Zeal saw a dazzling silvery blue path. It looked like a path under the icy blue ocean: a beautiful sight. Entering this path, Zeal felt silvery blue ice speedily climb his body. The ice felt like it had consciousness; it intended to freeze Zeal to nothing. Zeal quickly circulated the yang energy in his brain while breathing hard. He tried to remain composed, but he was scared to death. He had constantly faced situations where he would confront death; Zeal felt it was abominable. This time, the yang energy protruded one meter outside Zeal’s body. It quickly dispelled the silvery blue misty ice that intended to freeze Zeal. However, the temperature on this path had already dropped to -20° Celsius. This path not only tried to freeze Zeal from the outside—but intended to freeze him from the inside—evidence of silvery blue mist gushing out of his breath. So Zeal constantly kept the yang energy under control.
For the next four hours, Zeal cautiously walked the silvery blue path. It was as if Zeal walked beneath a blue glass. It was breathtaking yet mysterious. However, Karl Zeal could see a black ice path before him. Only looking at this path made Zeal feel the dread of life. It was not only dead cold but tormenting to the soul. This black ice could directly freeze the soul to oblivion. That's why before Zeal passed a detailed gaze at it, he supplemented his soul-eyes with enough yang energy.
"Sigh, why would this black path look so surreal like a destroyed city. No, more like a city destroyed by a chaotic evil star. Or a mysterious forbidden weapon." Zeal muttered with morbid fear.
He exhaled again!
Zeal moved forward; there wasn't anything he could do other than a push forward. The old thing could only drink tea while he sent his disciple to die in an unknown land. Hateful! Zeal was aggrieved. That was why he never looked up to heaven. He knew they would never give him justice. It was already the fortieth day since Karl Zeal entered the ice and fire path. Zeal knew that if he flinched back now—everything here would become an insolvable shadow. He gritted his teeth and moved.
Karl Zeal poured his body enough yang energy to protect his soul and body. The yang energy protruded two meters away from his body and soul. Zeal felt somewhat secure; he got his breather. However, as he stepped into the shadow of the black ice path, he understood how wrong he was. There was no time for relief. Zeal had to concentrate at all times in other not to be swallowed by the black ice. Not only was the black ice instantly scattering everything it touched, it felt like oblivious death with a stark nightmare.
"What the hell is this thing?" Zeal gaped in fear. He couldn't have believed it even if for a second that there was a nature that could bring death to its perfect impersonation. Zeal saw the black ice destroying even the unique atmosphere: it was nothing but horror. The black moving steam in the personification of death shadows rushed towards the little Zeal like he was all they desired. Nothing seemed to protect Zeal from their tyranny. Even at the touch of their cold hands, the whole protruded yang aura threatened to break apart. After another long walk, Zeal espied the escape route: he found his asylum. However, was it genuinely his foreseen safety or doom. Regardless, Zeal knew that with another acme came unparalleled suffering.
"That damned old thing is unpardonable!"
Zeal was clear about each of his situations. Ever since he began playing this parody of false God, every succession rung of height packed it insuppressible difficulty: they were all death alarm. Before Zeal was golden ice: it was beautiful—that, Zeal couldn't deny. But he knew better to stay away from that thorn. In fact, Karl Zeal could clearly see that each whiff of that golden ice starkly destroyed the space: the momentum was unbearable.