Chapter 273: Heaven Defying Changes

He was Wang Lin!

After absorbing the Five Elements Earth Spirit, the Heaven Defying Bead underwent a peculiar change. If it had been before, even hiding inside the Heaven Defying Bead, he absolutely couldn't have stayed for five years.

But after the Earth attribute reached Great Perfection, the time Wang Lin could remain inside had already surpassed the past.

Moreover, and most importantly, with the Heaven Defying Bead's Earth attribute reaching Perfection, a series of changes also occurred within it. In the space that originally had no Spiritual Qi, a trace of Spiritual Qi actually appeared.

This Spiritual Qi was much purer than the outside world. However, Wang Lin had never seen Immortal Realm Qi, so he couldn't compare, but he felt that it should be slightly inferior to Immortal Realm Qi.

Besides this, the biggest change was those long, glowing bodies in the Heaven Defying space. These glowing bodies all condensed together, forming five huge light clusters above the Heaven Defying space.

Among these five light clusters, three shone with bright golden light, one, although also flickering with light, was clearly much dimmer, and as for the last light cluster, it was completely dark, without any color.

During his years in the Heaven Defying space, Wang Lin had been observing these five light clusters. With his intelligence, he naturally guessed that these five light clusters had a great relationship with the Five Elements attributes absorbed by the Heaven Defying Bead.

Even these five light clusters were very likely the Five Elements Spirits absorbed within the Heaven Defying Bead. As for the three bright ones, they were the Water, Fire, and Earth attributes at Great Perfection.

The semi-bright one was the Wood attribute.

As for the last, completely dim one, it was the Metal attribute.

During his years in the Heaven Defying space, as Wang Lin observed, he gradually had a strange feeling, as if these five light clusters were not inanimate objects, but rather contained some kind of life within them.

If it were anyone else, even if their cultivation was higher than Wang Lin's, it would probably be difficult to discover this. Wang Lin, during a cultivation of his Concept, used his special Reincarnation Heavenly Dao branch, the Concept of Life and Death, to sense that there was actually a trace of vitality within those light clusters!

This discovery immediately greatly increased his interest in these five light clusters.

Situ Nan once said that the appearance of the Heaven Defying Bead had attracted the covetous gaze of experts from the Vermilion Bird Country and Cultivators from other planets back then. He narrowly escaped death, his Physical Body shattered, and his Nascent Soul entered the Heaven Defying, thus barely surviving.

After a series of changes, he finally escaped the pursuit of those Cultivators, and the Heaven Defying Bead, after countless years, ended up in the belly of a bird, until it was picked up by Wang Lin.

Wang Lin had possessed this Heaven Defying Bead for more than four hundred years, but he still couldn't fathom its true purpose. In his opinion, this bead seemed to only be able to reverse time to a certain extent, and could turn ordinary water into water with spiritual power.

These effects were extremely useful for low-level Cultivators below the Soul Transformation Stage, but seemed to have little effect for those above the Soul Transformation Stage.

After all, for those true Divine Ability users, the Spiritual Qi of the Mortal world could no longer be their object of absorption; only the Qi of the Immortal Realm could be absorbed. Thus, the Spiritual Qi produced by this bead held no appeal in their eyes.

Only the time reversal could be somewhat noteworthy, but merely relying on this point to cause top Cultivators from the Vermilion Bird Country and other planets to fiercely contend for it seemed a bit unreasonable.

Wang Lin believed that the Heaven Defying Bead definitely had a marvelous use that he had not yet discovered, and that was the true reason why those Divine Ability Cultivators fought over it.

Situ Nan once said that according to his many years of research and analysis, only when all Five Elements were complete could the Heaven Defying Bead truly recognize its master. At that time, its Divine Abilities might reveal themselves.

Wang Lin's interest in the true Divine Ability of the Heaven Defying Bead, instead of diminishing with time, grew stronger.

He even had some associations, wondering if these five light clusters would one day become like the Five Elements Spirits of the woman in white.

Of course, this was just a guess.

Wang Lin stepped onto the land of the New Snow Domain Country, looking around with emotion. During his years in the Heaven Defying space, besides observing the Five Elements light clusters, he quietly meditated, repeatedly familiarizing himself with the Heavenly Dao Reincarnation he had comprehended.

Logically speaking, the time he spent in the Heaven Defying space, under the reversal, far exceeded ten years in reality. However, it seemed that under the Concept of Life and Death of the Heavenly Dao Reincarnation, the Heaven Defying Bead's time reversal lost its effect.

Five years in the outside world, no matter how long he spent inside, it was still five years.

This point puzzled Wang Lin quite a bit. At this moment, feeling his cultivation, he could clearly perceive that he only needed four more years of comprehending the Concept of Life and Death to step into the Soul Transformation Stage and become a true Divine Ability practitioner.

Wang Lin believed that when he reached the Soul Transformation Stage, if he encountered the old woman in the Soul Transformation Middle Stage again, he would have the qualifications to fight even without using the Heavenly Tribulation.

This time, Wang Lin was forced to leave the Heaven Defying space. With the series of changes in the Heaven Defying Bead, staying inside for five years was already the limit. For a short period, he could no longer remain inside for too long.

Wang Lin sighed softly, not flying, but slowly walking forward. The Straw Hat had already been put away, and he walked on the ice plain like this.

Wind and snow assailed his face, and the cold was biting. Wang Lin took a deep breath, and after a long while, an ice and snow city appeared in his line of sight.

In the center of this city, there was a huge ice and snow tower over thirty stories high. At the tip of the tower was a round bead, emitting waves of strange light.

This land beneath his feet had already become the new national site for the Snow Domain Cultivators. Wang Lin had no right to interfere in this matter; he just wanted to find a place to quietly spend these most crucial four years.

When Wang Lin arrived below this ice and snow city, he looked no different from a Mortal.

The Snow Domain Country also had Mortals. After these Mortals migrated to the new national site, with the help of Cultivators, they established new cities.

Wang Lin appeared silently within the city. He looked at the ice-crystal-like houses all around him and couldn't help but feel a sense of unfamiliarity.

There weren't many pedestrians in the city, and even inns and taverns were extremely rare. The most common sight in the entire city was ice sculpture processing areas.

Almost in front of every household, people held chisels, constantly striking and carving seemingly crude but strangely captivating ice sculptures on huge blocks of ice.

Along the way, the people Wang Lin saw rarely conversed; they were either hurrying on their way or intently carving ice sculptures.

Moreover, whenever an ice sculpture was completed, these Mortals would help each other, carrying the ice sculpture and placing it outside the huge ice and snow tower in the city center.

After placing it there, someone would emerge from the ice and snow tower to receive the ice sculpture.

Wang Lin was silent for a moment. His appearance seemed out of place, and seeing that some people were already paying more attention to him, Wang Lin sighed softly, turned, and disappeared into a secluded spot.

A year passed in the blink of an eye. During this year, Wang Lin's footsteps covered the entire Snow Domain Country. He entered almost every city and took a tour. No one paid much attention to him anymore, because his attire was no different from the Snow Domain Mortals; they all wore unique fur clothing and fur-lined hats.

In one year, Wang Lin gradually gained a deep understanding of this Snow Domain Country. The sole purpose of these Snow Domain Mortals' existence was to serve the Snow Domain Cultivators.

They exchanged their ice sculptures for their daily necessities.

Within the Snow Domain Country, there was no imperial family among Mortals. Every city belonged to a powerful Cultivator.

Wang Lin also learned the use of the ice sculptures they made. After these ice sculptures were carved, specialized Cultivators would inscribe Formations on them and activate them in a special way, turning these ice sculptures into Puppet-like existences.

This method was quite miraculous, even involving some of the essence of the Snow Domain Cultivators' Cultivation Techniques. Wang Lin studied it for a long time but never grasped the knack.

As for these ice sculpture Puppets, the vast majority of them were not kept in the Snow Domain Country but were sold to other countries. The price varied depending on the cultivation displayed by the ice sculpture.

The most expensive were Nascent Soul Puppets, as Wang Lin saw very few of them being made in each city, and they also had a high failure rate. Next were Core Formation, and so on.

As for Soul Transformation Stage ice sculpture Puppets, Wang Lin had yet to discover any city that could produce them. Presumably, such Puppets were not so easy to make, or perhaps even impossible to make; otherwise, the strength of the Snow Domain Cultivators would reach an incredible level.

During this year, Wang Lin witnessed three occasions where hundreds of ice sculptures were purchased in large quantities by some Fourth-Grade cultivation Countries.

These ice sculptures were the foundation of the Snow Domain Country and its important means of acquiring large amounts of resources.

In addition, in the territory of the former Four Sects Alliance, there were also large numbers of Mortals extracting at all the Spiritual Vein locations.

It could be said that in the Snow Domain Country, Mortals were slaves; all their labor served the Cultivators. But what Wang Lin found quite incredible was that these Mortals actually took pride in this, without any resistance whatsoever.

Even if they worked themselves to death, there were no complaints.

Wang Lin concluded during this year that this Snow Domain Country was an incredible nation!

Furthermore, another point that shocked Wang Lin was that almost every Mortal had a small ice sculpture in their hands. This ice sculpture depicted the Cultivator with the highest cultivation in their respective city.

No matter how tired they were from work, even at the moment before death, they insisted on placing the small ice sculpture in front of them every morning and evening, kneeling and worshipping with extreme devotion.

All these incredible matters gave Wang Lin a strange feeling about this Snow Domain Country. This country, like the surrounding ice and snow, had no vitality or liveliness.

Just like the sky, there was a sense of dullness everywhere.