Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

If it were a direct confrontation, it would probably be beyond his current capabilities to contend with.

Between the peak of the first-order extreme realm and the second-order realm, there is an insurmountable power gap.

Xilun's nerves tensed slightly, but after quickly going through the mental process, his tense muscles slowly relaxed.

It's not that I was completely powerless to resist.

If all else fails, he has no choice but to run away.

In the harsh environment of the snow-capped mountains, he can survive as long as there is water.

His abnormally adaptive internal organs and the "Great Ocean Whale Guiding Technique" allow him to walk on flat ground underwater.

Even if he couldn't defeat a second-tier extraordinary being underwater, his water skills and extreme defensive abilities would make it difficult for the opponent to harm him.

Xilun walked to a corner of the house and casually sat down on an inconspicuous stone bench.

He reviewed in his mind once again the primary task of entering the wonderland.

Following the instructions of the woman in black robes, he had to go to the icy lake deep in the snow-capped mountains to find a plant called "Tranquil Snow Lotus".

According to his explanations from frantically searching through ancient books and materials in the library during this period, the Tranquil Snow Lotus is an extremely rare and precious item that can resonate with the spiritual body and repair the wounds of the soul.

It is indeed valuable, since materials that can affect the soul are practically priceless on the market; but it's not that they are completely unavailable, just extremely rare and seldom exist.

They generally only appear on the summits of snow-capped mountains or deep within icy lakes in extremely cold regions, and the larger the snow-capped mountain, the more likely they are to appear.

Xilun withdrew his gaze and sat still like a lifeless sculpture.

His arrival caused a subtle shift in the previously oppressive atmosphere in the room.

Some people seemed to start sizing him up and whispering among themselves.

There was awe and envy in his eyes, but more than anything, there was a detached indifference.

Not far away, Ross sat in a velvet-covered armchair, his fingers unconsciously stroking a ruby ​​ring.

He looked at Xilen, who was resting with her eyes closed in the corner, his eyes filled with undisguised resentment and murderous intent.

His confidence and family glory, shattered by Xilun, must be washed away with the blood of this commoner.

More importantly, the elders of the family have given a death order—Xilun's talent is too terrifying. If he is not eliminated here, once he breaks through to the second tier, he will become a huge obstacle to the Ocheri family's expansion in the northern region.

Ross narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, turned his head slightly, and whispered an instruction to the gray-haired old man behind him:

"Once inside, don't worry about exploring resources."

Find a chance to kill him. I want his head.

The retainer behind him remained expressionless, merely nodding slightly like a machine, uttering a barely audible, hoarse reply: "Yes, young master."

Ross's lips curled into a cruel, cold smile.

He never imagined that his deliberately lowered voice could be heard by someone dozens of meters away.

In common sense, to significantly enhance one's five senses and hear whispers at this distance is a domain ability possessed only by a fourth-tier "Witcher".

However, Xiren's ears twitched only very slightly in the corner.

Thanks to his "far-sounding" talent, which was taken from him by the alien species, he heard the entire conversation filled with murderous intent.

Xilun kept his eyes closed, his breathing remained unchanged, and he did not utter a sound.

But the fingers gripping the umbrella handle tightened their hold a little more.

On the other side, Li An of the Silver Hand stared at Xilun with disgust.

He gripped the long, narrow sword at his waist and gritted his teeth, saying, "That damned peasant is here too."

Do you really think that just because you've gained some fame, you can be on equal footing with us?

Xiu Kuo, standing beside him, crossed his arms and said in a low voice:

"I wonder if he has a map of the strange realm. If not, he probably won't be able to explore it properly."

Ang Lee snorted coldly, his eyes full of schadenfreude: "It's best if there isn't one."

Besides these acquaintances who were also participating in the competition, other people gradually arrived at the room.

They were all explorers recommended by various families or forces who spent a lot of money to enter the wonderland in order to obtain its resources.

For example, Raphael was recommended by the powerful Colt family, a viscount family, and thus entered the Snow Mountain Wonderland with legitimacy.

A short while later, a series of steady footsteps broke the whispers inside the room.

A familiar man pushed open the door and came in; it was none other than Belang, the referee who had previously presided over the preliminary rounds.

He is also the vice-master of the Da Yu Dojo, a genuine third-tier expert.

Brenand walked to the front of the group, his expression somewhat strange and unnatural.

He coughed lightly and said loudly, "The curator has some urgent personal matters to attend to, so I will open the Snow Mountain Wonderland for everyone this time."

Xilun's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this.

It seems that the argument about the "private meeting" that I just heard from afar was not a problem. It is clear that Master Fowles was preoccupied with the troubles in his own backyard.

However, he had no interest in Fowles and Risa's romantic history; other people's love affairs couldn't improve his strength.

Immediately, Xiren stood up with the others and followed Beren out of the waiting room.

We followed the dark tunnel into the depths of the back mountain, where a cold wind howled and seeped in through the cracks in the rock walls.

The group followed Brendan's footsteps and stopped in front of a towering mountain wall on the back of the mountain.

Xilun looked up and saw that the huge stone wall had no trace of human carving, but was densely covered with some kind of unique and twisted occult script.

These characters seemed to possess a life of their own, faintly emitting a dark red glow within the texture of the rock.

Xilun frowned, staring intently at the symbols above.

The characters are far too complex; the interlacing of strokes completely defies the principles of geometry.

Although he was a mystical enthusiast with an extreme thirst for power, his knowledge in this field was far too shallow.

Even basic breathing techniques require translation. He felt dizzy and disoriented by these advanced field runes, finding them difficult to understand.

Forcing oneself to memorize something will only damage one's mental state, so Xilun immediately and decisively looked away.

Beren turned around, his expression turning extremely serious, and said loudly:

"In a few minutes, the entrance area to the Snow Mountain Wonderland will open due to the gravitational pull of the tides."

Here, I'd like to add a few final points about the rules.

The entire room fell silent; everyone pricked up their ears.

"First, everyone will enter the Snow Mountain Wonderland in order of their previous rankings and the level of their recommendation letters."

There will be a three-minute interval between each person entering! This is to ensure that you don't crowd together at the entrance and cause a stampede or... ambush.

Belang's gaze swept coldly over Ross and the others, and he continued:

"Secondly, everyone can stay in the Snow Mountain Wonderland for a full seven days."

At the same time seven days later, the repulsive force of the field will reach its peak, and you will have to return to the coordinates of the entrance you entered from.

Otherwise, if you miss the window, be prepared to stay inside forever and turn into an ice sculpture!

He paused, his tone softening slightly:

"Although the Wonderland has been explored many times by the bishops of the church over the years, many high-level resource points have been harvested."

However, there are still some ferocious alien species that have mutated due to the distortion of the laws, as well as some rare resources hidden in secret corners.

You can explore and gain experience to a certain extent according to your own abilities.

At this point, Beren's eyes sharpened:

"I do not object to some of you using your family privileges to have elders or retainers act together and provide close protection."

But I urge you all, Wonderlands are not lawless places! If anyone thinks they are above the law just because they are in Wonderlands, and therefore acts recklessly, resorting to violence to settle personal grudges, or tearing off the mask of civility and committing massacres...

"Once it's taught or I find out, it will be very difficult for everyone."

This official warning, however, sounded as ridiculous as a piece of waste paper to Xilun.

As long as there are no survivors, who can know what happened in the wonderland?

Bérard then spoke about keeping warm and common sense about dealing with avalanches, and finally, he stopped talking.

On the stone wall behind them, the dark red runes began to slowly wriggle, like countless blood-sucking worms crawling on the stone slab.

Immediately afterwards, a tooth-grinding buzzing sound rang out, and violent spatial ripples appeared in the air in front of the stone wall, rippling out in circles visible to the naked eye.

Finally, under the awe-inspiring gazes of everyone, a pitch-black opening more than two meters in diameter was formed.

It floated suspended in mid-air on the stone wall, its edges flashing with eerie blue arcs of electricity. The cave entrance was so deep that nothing could be seen, as if it could devour all light.

Bren said in a deep voice, "This is the entrance to the wonderland. Although we have reduced the dangers in the outer area as much as possible, we have repeatedly reminded you to act according to your abilities."

However, every year there are a few people who, because of greed or arrogance, remain forever in the strange realm and never come out.

I hope you will learn from this.

He stepped aside halfway and gestured for them to proceed.

"Alright, now you have one last chance to quit."

If not, then proceed according to the order on the list.

"The first one is the Iron Cross Fight Club."

After saying that, Belang's gaze went straight past the crowd and landed on Siren in the corner.

Under the watchful eyes of dozens of people, Xilun stood up expressionlessly.

He carried the heavy black umbrella in his hand, his steps steady as a mountain, and walked step by step to the dark stone wall vortex.

Xiren stood before the two-meter-long, pitch-black opening, cold spatial turbulence overflowing from the vortex, ruffling the black wisps of hair on his forehead.

He did not show the slightest impatience despite the hostility from those behind him.

Instead, Xilun examined the stone wall before him with extreme caution, reaching out a hand tentatively into the ripples that resembled water.

In an instant, an indescribable force of attraction and pull acted on his palm.

It was a strong sense of strangeness, as if every cell in the body was being moved and shifted by an unknown force, and space lost its meaning of distance at that moment.

Xilun did not resist, but instead followed the force, carrying the black umbrella, and stepped into the endless darkness.

After a moment of weightlessness and dizziness, the scene before my eyes flickered wildly like shattered glass.

When his vision refocused, Xilun found himself transported from the dark back mountains to a vast, boundless land of ice and snow.

"call--"

A gust of icy wind rushed towards me, feeling like thousands of tiny steel knives scraping my cheeks.

The wind was biting cold, and the temperature plummeted to tens of degrees below zero in an instant.

Everywhere you look, there is a blanket of white snow, with frost and snow dancing wildly like torn cotton wool.

The ground beneath our feet was frozen into solid permafrost, and the distant ice field was as flat as a mirror, reflecting a blinding white light.

At the edge of the horizon, several towering icebergs pierced the clouds, like slumbering ancient beasts, casting huge, oppressive shadows beneath the cold sun gleaming with a chilling light on the horizon.

Wearing only a thin black combat suit, Xiren instinctively shivered as the sudden, frigid wind blew against his skin. His muscles contracted involuntarily, trying to trap the heat inside his body.

"This is the Snow Mountain Wonderland..."

Xilun murmured in surprise.

The cold here is not simply a physical cooling effect, but rather a kind of extraordinary field power that robs people of their vitality.

If an ordinary person with no connections stood here, they would be frozen into a stiff corpse in less than three minutes.

Without hesitation, he immediately began frantically circulating the "Great Sea Whale Guiding Technique" within his body.

The surging blood and qi burned like a furnace in his limbs and bones. At the same time, the "Golden Tortoise Cicada Shedding" talent, which had been stripped from the alien species, quietly activated. A layer of dark blue, tough fascia quickly formed under the skin, firmly blocking the cold air that tried to penetrate into the bone marrow.

As his body gradually warmed up, Xilun's eyes regained their coldness and rationality.

He scanned his surroundings, his sense of direction extremely easy to lose in this pure white world.

He recalled the descriptions of the growing environment of the tranquil snow lotus in ancient books, and his gaze passed over the flat ice field, finally locking onto the largest and most precipitous giant snow mountain in his field of vision.

The massive mountains imply a more complex ecosystem and deeper glacial lakes.

He held the black umbrella horizontally to his side, his leather boots crunching on the snow, and slowly walked forward into the swirling snowstorm.

Each step was taken with extreme steadiness, leaving a long trail of deep footprints in the snow.

Three minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Xilun had only walked a few hundred meters when the spatial vortex behind him rippled again.

Two figures were ejected from the void and landed steadily on the snow.

It was Ross, and the old man who always stayed by his side, his breath as withered as a dead tree.

As soon as Ross landed, he immediately pulled his expensive coat, made of second-tier fire fox fur, tighter to ward off the chill.

He raised his head, his hawk-like gaze immediately sweeping across the surroundings.

The wind and snow were heavy, and the gale whipped up large swaths of white fog, severely reducing visibility.

In the vast expanse of white snow, Xilun's black figure was no longer visible.

"Young master, the wind and snow are blinding, the target has disappeared."

The old man spoke in a hoarse voice, but there was no panic in his cloudy eyes; instead, he exuded the composure of an old hunter.

Ross was not discouraged. He lowered his head and carefully examined the ground beneath his feet, lost in thought.

Even though the gale was trying to erase all traces, since Xilun had only been gone a short time, the outlines of the footprints that were deeply embedded in the snow could still be faintly seen, not yet completely covered.

Ross pointed in that direction, a sinister smile creeping across his face:

"It should be here. He can't have gone far, let's give chase."

The two immediately gathered their energy and moved lightly, following the remaining traces of Xilun swiftly across the snowfield like two ghosts.