Inside this "Ice Flame Cave," it is roughly several hundred feet large.
According to the rules of the Ninth Region, after entering the corresponding "Ice Flame Cave" using the special flame from the deceased "Bone Fire Spirit Fish," there is a maximum of an hour to search.
Of course, if one doesn't want to waste time searching within the "Ice Flame Cave," simply walking to the exit of the cave will allow the special flame to immediately carry the challenger back to the lake's surface.
Upon entering the several hundred feet-large interior of the "Ice Flame Cave," Ye Chen immediately saw that the cave was empty. There was not a trace of "Golden Nine Mystical Silk," nor any other objects.
All that could be seen were the walls of the "Ice Flame Cave," seemingly stacked with ice bricks.
With limited time to find the "Golden Nine Mystical Silk," Ye Chen certainly wouldn't spend an hour searching this small space of several hundred feet.
After all, this wasn't the only "Ice Flame Cave" to look for.
Of course, Ye Chen wouldn't just leave without any attempt simply because nothing was found upon entry.
Seeing that there were no "Golden Nine Mystical Silk" in this "Ice Flame Cave," Ye Chen turned his attention to the structures resembling ice bricks on the cave walls.
Ye Chen used his Divine Sense to probe these "ice bricks."
To Ye Chen's astonishment, several dozen of these "ice bricks" emitted a flame-like heat, yet transformed into intense cold instantly.
Amidst this juxtaposition of heat and cold, Ye Chen sensed some pattern changes within these several dozens of "ice bricks."
Ye Chen looked carefully at these "patterns" and, after observing for a while, was shocked.
The patterns inside these ice bricks were exactly the same as those on the "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" he had previously slain, and in their transformation, they slowly formed into characters.
Moments after the characters formed, they scattered back into patterns. Before long, they reformed into characters, repeating this cycle over and over.
After observing these patterns and characters for a long time, Ye Chen discovered the law within them.
Specific patterns directly corresponded to specific characters!
The patterns on the entire "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" were distributed within these "ice bricks," forming more than twenty irregular characters.
After he observed it all, Ye Chen had a flash of inspiration in his mind, as if he vaguely grasped something crucial.
However, this feeling faded quickly, and he did not hold on to this fleeting insight.
Ultimately, Ye Chen, with questions lingering, walked to the exit of the "Ice Flame Cave" after his observations.
Upon reaching the exit, the special flame of the "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" on Ye Chen's body instantly carried him out of the "Ice Flame Cave," into the lake water, and finally sped him towards the lake's surface.
After a dozen breaths, Ye Chen returned to the small boat.
As he returned to the boat, the first cluster of special flame from the first "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" he had slain finally dissipated.
Without hesitation, Ye Chen picked up the fishing rod and started fishing for another "Bone Fire Spirit Fish."
This time, after two cups of tea worth of time, Ye Chen caught another "Bone Fire Spirit Fish."
Then, Ye Chen killed this "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" and obtained a second cluster of special flame, once again being taken into a second "Ice Flame Cave."
In the second "Ice Flame Cave," nothing was present either.
The "Golden Nine Mystical Silk" still did not appear.
However, inside the structures forming the walls of this "Ice Flame Cave," Ye Chen once again discovered those special patterns.
The special patterns in this second "Ice Flame Cave" were identical to those on the second "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" he had just slain.
Moreover, they were also continually forming into characters.
Upon seeing a pattern forming the character "Capture," Ye Chen's mind and spirit jumped!
This character "Capture" was also seen in the first "Ice Flame Cave."
The patterns on the first and second "Bone Fire Spirit Fish" were vastly different, with only a single similarity, and that similarity formed the same character "Capture"!
The flash of insight that had brushed past Ye Chen's mind reappeared instantaneously.
This time, Ye Chen finally understood what he was thinking earlier.
"Patterns, characters, there is a special connection between these two!"
"Every pattern corresponds to a character!"
"It's as if a Great Powerholder shattered the characters into patterns, hiding them within the 'Bone Fire Spirit Fish' bodies!"
"And matching patterns correspond to the same character!"
"These characters must hold a special rule, perhaps the rule for finding the 'Golden Nine Mystical Silk'!"
The innumerable "Ice Flame Caves" below the lake, Ye Chen refused to believe that finding the "Golden Nine Mystical Silk" was just about getting lucky by exploring caves; he believed there must be a pattern to it!
After noting down the character-pattern correspondences in the second "Ice Flame Cave," Ye Chen left it and returned to the small boat.
In two "Ice Flame Caves," tens of patterns were observed, and apart from the common character "Capture," the other characters differed.
Ye Chen had recorded all the pattern-character correspondences.
Then, Ye Chen once again started fishing for another "Bone Fire Spirit Fish."
After Ye Chen's combat power broke through to the unbelievable Sovereign level, even though the Ninth Region exotic beasts are the most powerful exotic beasts across the nine regions, Ye Chen felt no pressure.
The number of Bone Fire Spirit Fish Ye Chen killed increased.
The number of Ice Flame Caves he entered with the special flames obtained after the death of the Bone Fire Spirit Fish also increased.
The rune text that Ye Chen discovered corresponding to the patterns became more frequent!
After half a day, when Ye Chen killed the thirty-ninth Bone Fire Spirit Fish and entered the thirty-ninth Ice Flame Cave, his eyes lit up.
This time, inside this Ice Flame Cave, Ye Chen finally saw a strand of golden Nine Profound Threads placed at the center of the cave.
It was a strand with five golden spots!
After carefully collecting this strand of golden Nine Profound Threads, Ye Chen did not leave but continued to explore the ice bricks forming the cave walls.
Then, Ye Chen saw more text corresponding to the patterns.
This time, Ye Chen was so shocked that he jumped!
He saw that the text formed by the patterns inside the ice bricks spelled out a sentence: "Pardon, Infinite, Profound, Exotic, Accomplish, Nine, Spirit..."
The sentence seemed random, yet Ye Chen knew it intimately.
It was clearly a sentence from the first unnamed mantra that he had obtained in the Fourth Region!
In an instant, a divine light flashed through Ye Chen's mind.
He seemed to understand everything!
"The unnamed mantra corresponds to the golden Nine Profound Threads?!"
"If the text formed from the patterns on the Bone Fire Spirit Fish matches a sentence from the unnamed mantra, then there will be golden Nine Profound Threads within the corresponding Ice Flame Cave?!"
Thinking of this possibility, Ye Chen's mind and spirit were stirred, and he immediately left the Ice Flame Cave and returned to the light boat.
Then, Ye Chen began fishing again.
He needed to verify this hypothesis!
Fishing, fishing, and more fishing!
As time passed, the rune text Ye Chen deciphered became more frequent, and he entered more Ice Flame Caves.
When he fished the fifty-fifth Bone Fire Spirit Fish and entered the fifty-fifth Ice Flame Cave, Ye Chen found another strand with three spots of golden Nine Profound Threads.
This time, in the cave possessing the golden Nine Profound Threads, Ye Chen once again discovered the text corresponding to the patterns inside.
And to Ye Chen's delight, these characters matched a sentence from the unnamed mantra!
His hypothesis was correct.
Indeed, if the text formed by the patterns on a Bone Fire Spirit Fish matched a sentence from the unnamed mantra, then the corresponding Ice Flame Cave would have golden Nine Profound Threads!
Moreover, Ye Chen found that the further the corresponding sentence was in the unnamed mantra, the more precious the golden Nine Profound Threads in the Ice Flame Cave.
Thinking this, a thought flashed through Ye Chen's mind.
If he were to understand all the text corresponding to the patterns on Bone Fire Spirit Fish, wouldn't he be able to avoid wasting time entering Ice Flame Caves and simply check the text on the Bone Fire Spirit Fish to see if it matched the unnamed mantra?
After fishing fifty-five Bone Fire Spirit Fish, Ye Chen noticed the same text appeared more frequently, indicating a finite number of rune patterns, and he could truly understand all the text corresponding to the patterns.
The special flame flickered, and Ye Chen returned to the light boat again.
This time, as soon as Ye Chen caught another Bone Fire Spirit Fish, he did not rush to slaughter it.
He directly examined the text on the Bone Fire Spirit Fish.
Most of these patterns, he had seen before on other Bone Fire Spirit Fish.
"Seeking, Exceeding, Cold, Sound, Long, With..."
Ye Chen distinguished these patterns, using the text corresponding to the patterns observed earlier, and directly deduced the possible corresponding text from this Bone Fire Spirit Fish.
"These texts do not match any sentence from the unnamed mantra, and the few unknown patterns do not complete a full sentence."
"It seems the Ice Flame Cave corresponding to this Bone Fire Spirit Fish will not contain any golden Nine Profound Threads."
To confirm his hypothesis, Ye Chen killed this Bone Fire Spirit Fish and entered the new Ice Flame Cave using the special flame obtained from its death.
Sure enough, there were no golden Nine Profound Threads inside.
Sure enough, within the ice bricks forming the Ice Flame Cave walls, he saw the text he had guessed: "Seeking, Exceeding, Cold, Sound, Long, With..." and the corresponding text from the unknown patterns: "Arrange, Kui, Long..."
This time, Ye Chen's mind and spirit were calm.
He finally discovered the pattern to locate golden Nine Profound Threads!