Chapter 1949 — 1949: Frozen Palace(2)

"Of course, there will be others. This is a public training ground, after all," said the middle-aged man. "That said, the majority of these individuals are from the dragon clans, so you won't be seeing many humans."

"I see. Understandable."

"Whenever you're ready to begin your training, simply pass through the gates behind me," the middle-aged man instructed.

Yuan nodded and, without hesitation, stepped through the gates, arriving at the first floor of the training area.

The moment he crossed over, the temperature plummeted far lower than it had been outside, as if he had stepped into the heart of a frozen world. Of course, since this floor was meant for beginners, it didn't affect Yuan, who had reached Supreme Cold Resistance.

Without lingering, Yuan made his way straight toward the staircase leading to the second floor.

As he walked, he couldn't help but notice just how vast the floor truly was—the space seemed endless. Aside from the entrance wall behind him, the castle's outer walls were nowhere in sight, swallowed by the seemingly infinite expanse of snow and ice.

Moreover, at a glance, there appeared to be several thousand individuals scattered across the vast expanse, each focused intently on their training. As the middle-aged man had mentioned, the overwhelming majority of them were dragons, and those who didn't belong to the dragon clans were mostly from other beast races.

Suddenly, Yuan sensed a surge of killing intent hurtling toward him.

Turning swiftly to face the threat, he spotted a knight clad in icy armor, its entire form sculpted from frost. The knight charged at him with relentless momentum, its sword raised high, gleaming coldly under the pale light.

Without even bothering to draw his weapon, Yuan casually sidestepped the knight's sword and swung his fist.

The moment his strike connected with the icy armor, the knight's entire body shattered into countless glittering fragments, scattering like snow in the air.

After destroying the knight, Yuan noticed his Cold Resistance and spiritual energy increasing slightly.

"So they're not just an annoyance, huh?"

Eventually, Yuan reached the staircase leading to the next floor—only to find that it was actually a teleportation device designed to transport him directly upward.

Upon arriving on the second floor, he immediately noticed the change. The number of individuals training had thinned considerably, with only a few hundred scattered across the vast frozen landscape. Moreover, the cultivators on the second floor were far stronger than those on the first. While the first floor was filled with individuals still in the Spirit Realm, the ones here had already stepped into the Divine Realm and beyond.

Once again, Yuan immediately made his way to the next teleportation device.

Some time later, Yuan arrived on the third floor, where the number of individuals training had been cut in half.

On the third floor, the ice knights were not only more powerful than on the previous floors, but they also made more frequent appearances. By the time Yuan made it to the teleportation device to the fourth floor, he had to defeat six ice knights.

On the fourth floor, the number of individuals had dwindled to fewer than a hundred. Most of them possessed cultivation levels around Immortal Ascension, and a few among them had already stepped into the Bronze Immortal Realm.

Eventually, Yuan arrived at the teleportation device to the fifth floor, and right beside the device was a warning that read, "Only those who have achieved Supreme Cold Resistance should proceed to the fifth floor."

After glancing at the warning, Yuan, without hesitation, entered the teleportation device and teleported to the fifth floor.

The moment Yuan stepped onto the fifth floor, a bone-chilling cold that he hadn't been able to experience in the previous four floors immediately washed over him. For the first time, he didn't need to fight the ice knights to feel his cold resistance being tempered, and simply standing there was enough to push his body toward growth.

The fifth floor was noticeably less spacious than the previous levels, its confined space concentrating the cold into a much smaller area. As a result, the frigid temperature bore down on everything with a far greater intensity. Moreover, a massive ice structure stood at the very center of the training room, its towering presence radiating an even deeper, more penetrating chill.

As for the number of people training on the fifth floor, there were only four, and three of them were female. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people training inside the Frozen Palace were females.

When Yuan arrived on the fifth floor, none of the others spared him so much as a glance, each completely absorbed in their own training.

Yuan wanted to start his training immediately, but he was somewhat disappointed by the training grounds.

'This place is only slightly better than Sun Ling Cai's painting,' he sighed inwardly as he made his way to an empty spot and began his training.

An hour into his training, Yuan had to deal with an incoming ice knight. The ice knight did not have a cultivation base, but its raw strength was comparable to someone at the peak of Immortal Ascension, and it was very skilled with its ice sword.

However, Yuan was still able to completely destroy them with his bare fists.

After defeating the ice knight, Yuan stood there with a pondering look on his face.

'What a second… That guard said if I get hit by these ice knights, my body becomes more prone to the cold. If I purposefully let myself get hit and weaken myself, would that increase the speed of my training?'

He had to test out his theory and waited for the next ice knight to appear with anticipation.

An hour later, another ice knight appeared before Yuan.

This time, instead of destroying it instantly, Yuan allowed it to land a strike on him.