Chapter 22 #3
“I feel it. Pressure against the wind!”
Alex’s wandering thoughts snapped into sharp focus once more, eagle eyes and a sense of the frozen ground’s tremors revealing nothing untoward… until he saw it, a faint hazy outline in the distance.
And it seemed he wasn’t the only one to.
“We’re here!” said none other than Lao Tie, eyes lighting up with excitement. “The legends are true. It’s really here!”
Alex looked at the man so casually surrounded by his protectors in case further ambush predators showed. And them having encountered absolutely nothing else in the last half-hour… had been unnerving, even for Alex.
“What’s here?”
Lao Tie pointed at the massive silhouette Alex could now just barely make out.
“One of the very few defining features of this ice flow. An ancient cultivation academy, supposedly carried on endless seas of ice, wherein legendary inheritance treasures might be found.” He chuckled at his own words.
“Of course, it’s just a fanciful tale. For how could it be anything else?
The maze leading to the academy has never been opened, and if there were truly treasures inside, how would anyone know who hadn’t looted it first?
Or simply held the information close, eager to plunder its fortunes one expedition at a time? ”
He sighed, shaking his head sadly as they continued to approach.
“No. It’s a simple delve landmark with a colorful history, as if these rifts were actually portals to neighboring realities, not simply constructs of elemental and Spirit Qi.
What matters is that it’s a significant landmark, because it means that the frozen lake where we hope to make our fortunes is just a short distance ahead! ”
Lao Tie’s excitement was infectious, the entire party picking up their pace as they raced before the massive wall of ice that Alex would think the escarpment of an overlapping ice sheet—if he couldn’t actually see what looked to be a maze of lush greenery behind the nearly transparent glacier.
He whistled. “I think I see how such stories could have evolved. Even if it’s nothing more than a maze garden, it’s certainly impressive.
” He frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe the ice, being so clear, is somehow having a greenhouse effect?
He pointed up at the clear blue sky and the very normal-looking sun shining brightly down upon them all, grateful that the snow flurries had finally stopped.
Linnea and Rachel shared a look, then nodded.
“There are greenhouses that work very much like that,” Linnea said.
“Maybe with the outside temperatures being so cold, and with the right magic enchantments, you could have a giant hothouse made of ice in an arctic climate. And all the greenery should keep the environment well oxygenated while the solar radiation still kills all the airborne pathogens that would otherwise crop up in, say, a colony ship lacking proper filters.”
Rachel frowned. “There you go again, using strange words I feel like I should know.”
Linnea’s eyes twinkled. “Ooh. It will be so exciting explaining everything to someone I’m not forbidden to actually talk about…”—she gazed at the bemused-looking cultivators casually listening in—“stuff.”
Alex couldn’t help but smirk at the byplay, though most of his focus was on the lake he thought he could just make out in the distance, feeling a curious frisson of fear and exhilaration in equal measure at the thought of hunting whatever abominations might be stalking under the icy flows.
Before abruptly stiffening and turning, eyes widening with wonder, even as Ya Ling cursed under her breath and darted to his side.
“Alex!”
But she didn’t have to say a word. Of course he had sensed it, the cheeky breeze finally revealing a few of its secrets beyond even sound.
For he could feel the chilly air entering the otherwise sauna-like greenhouse through an icy air flow vent a handful of yards above their heads.
Giving away no clue visually that it was even there, no matter how hard one might peer through the perfectly clear icy barrier.
No one who wasn’t aligned to Wind could make it out.
Not without deliberately feeling out every square inch of an icy sheet that soared high above their heads and went on for nearly a mile.
Alex cleared his throat.
“Lao Tie?”
The young master, sensing something in Alex’s voice and perhaps fearing the worst, quickly turned around, a placating expression on his features.
“No need to worry, Alex. The lake’s just a mile or so ahead, and we’ll hunt for our prey carefully, I assure you.
Believe me, the last thing I wish to do is play the fool when we are so close to…
” His words died off, eyes bulging in disbelief when Ya Ling casually floated up to the air vent and slipped right through…
before darting back out with an impish smile.
“So, Lao Tie, how’d you like to see if there’s any truth to those legends? Because I, for one, would absolutely love to find another inheritance treasure!”