Chapter 120 – New North Bridge
The night breeze traversed the woods, cooling the face as it brushed past; he stirred from his stupor, realising the incredible risk he took in conferring with the middle-aged woman on the matter of the Black Dragon. Upon that moment, faint sounds of fury from Xuan Yuan Po came drifting in from across the woods. It was probably due to Tang Thirty-Six stealing the supper that was supposed to be for him. He laughed while shaking his head; let go of the question in his mind and headed back towards the academy.
The word “Ice” that the middle-aged woman left upon the stone table was Chen Chang Sheng’s only clue towards the Black Dragon, it also seemed to be a trial of sorts; the Black Dragon was a Mighty Black Frost Dragon, itself, was related to ice and snow.
The problem was, ice is something rather common, especially in this season, with Autumn turning to Winter, the rivers and channels that were leveed would occasionally show signs of ice; while the more Northerly areas probably had rivers that had already frozen over into vast plains of ice. Even in the midst of Summer, the aristocracy and elite would have had ice stored within icehouses on their estates.
Additionally, for those who walked the path of ice for their cultivation, ice was also something commonly seen; just by preparing a pail of water and extending one’s hand inside, they could have created a pail of ice. At a place like Li Palace, they even had special arrays for the continuous creation of ice for the personal use of the Pope and other high ranking clergy.
This was a problem Chen Chang Sheng came across… ice was just too common in the Capital.
Back at Xi Ning village, in winter, he would often go with his Senior to the streams in the mountains, collecting ice to play with, here at the Capital, his contact with ice had actually decreased. Thinking back, the most memorable contact he had with ice was when he accompanied Luo Luo outside the academy for shopping, they had bought ice poles to eat.