Tian Yuxue stood at a high vantage point, frost and snow beneath her feet transforming into a long blade. She stood lightly atop the icy blade, her figure unruffled amidst the howling winds of the Snow Abyss, her garments the only thing untouched by the violent gusts.
The last time Sang Dai had seen her was sixty years ago.
So many years had passed, yet Tian Yuxue remained the same. Though she was clearly thousands of years old and ought to be older than Ling Yin, she still appeared like a young girl in her teens.
Tian Yuxue cast a lazy glance at Sang Dai, her lips curling into a faint smile.
The fierce wind howled, sweeping up the frost and snow to form an icy shield. All the surrounding snow was summoned by Tian Yuxue to reinforce it, creating a shield several dozen zhang high that she hurled toward them.
Sang Dai swung her sword horizontally, splitting the ice shield with a flash of sword light.
When the shield was cleaved in two, what was revealed behind it…
Turned out to be two Tian Yuxues!
Two identical young girls stood suspended in midair, their lips curled in faint smiles, but without the slightest trace of mirth in their eyes.
She coldly withdrew her gaze, and the two Tian Yuxues fled in opposite directions. Their figures blurred into afterimages, the raging snowstorm serving as their perfect cover. In the blink of an eye, they vanished from the sight of Sang Dai and Su Xuan.
Sang Dai had no idea that Tian Yuxue could use such a technique to create clones. In the blink of an eye, she had disappeared, and they hadn’t even had the chance to discern which was the true body and which was the clone.
Her wrist was grabbed as Su Xuan spoke urgently, “Dai Dai, she must be using her clones to separate us.”
Sang Dai turned back and said, “I’ll pursue to the east, you go west.”
Su Xuan pressed his lips together and released her hand.
“Alright, be careful.”
“You too.”
Su Xuan left first, transforming into a massive nine-tailed fox, disappearing into the Snow Abyss in an instant.
Sang Dai glanced at Ji Cang lying on the ground, grabbed his wrist, and yanked out the spiritual thread within him, not caring whether it caused him to faint from pain.
“Wake up!”
The searing pain in his soul caused Ji Cang’s face to instantly pale, but his expression no longer carried the dullness from before. Though his eyes were still somewhat vacant, his consciousness was clearly beginning to return.
“Ji Cang, I’m going to chase Tian Yuxue. Her clones have fled in opposite directions. Once you wake up, go wherever you please.”
Sang Dai spoke concisely. After awakening Ji Cang, she immediately headed east in pursuit.
She used her spiritual energy to activate a teleportation technique, disappearing within a few breaths.
Beyond the Snow Abyss, a trembling Buddhist cultivator, who had kept his eyes closed, opened them and looked down at the three spiritual threads in his hand. One of the dark red threads had just been violently yanked.
The monk’s previously gentle gaze turned icy cold.
Meanwhile, Ji Cang slowly regained full consciousness. He had barely rested for a short while and already felt that most of his meridians were on the verge of being frostbitten.
The protective spiritual energy on his body wasn’t his—it was familiar lightning-attribute spiritual energy, part of a barrier Sang Dai had set up for him to shield against the frost and snow of the abyss. After all, if the snow seeped into his meridians, he would die.
Sitting up, he realized that the word written on his face must have been clearly seen by Sang Dai and Su Xuan.
He didn’t care. After all, he couldn’t kill Sang Dai or Su Xuan anyway. Right now, there was something far more important.
Ji Cang’s blood-red eyes fixed on a certain direction. He stood up and began to pursue.
—
Sang Dai chased forward through the biting wind, using teleportation techniques as she finally had time to think.
Many years ago, Tian Yuxue was already at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage. For thousands of years, she had remained at this level and apparently had not cultivated further. Yet, in the mere sixty years since they last met, her cultivation had made significant progress.
Earlier, she had approached them without a sound. Neither Sang Dai nor Su Xuan, both at the Grand Ascension Stage, had noticed her presence. Even though their cultivation was suppressed in the Snow Abyss, they still had the strength of the Soul Transformation Stage available.
And now, she could even create clones. Cloning techniques had long disappeared from the cultivation world. Tian Yuxue had always stayed within the Snow Abyss and never ventured out—how could she have learned such a technique?
A cloning technique…
No, something’s wrong!
Sang Dai suddenly stopped.
In the frigid wind, the snow-capped mountains loomed. The fierce wind lifted the cloak of the sword cultivator, while the protective barrier of spiritual energy around her blocked all frost and snow.
Tian Yuxue was known for indulging in eating and drinking, with no interest in cultivation, and would never have bothered to learn an extinct cloning technique.
Moreover, performing such a technique required setting up a soul-splitting array in advance. When would she have had time to arrange such an array just now?
She had formed the ice shield using snow—not to attack, but to block their line of sight.
And why would she need to block their sight?
This meant—
Of the two Tian Yuxues, one must be someone disguised using a transformation technique. She couldn’t allow them to discover that this wasn’t a cloning technique.
Just as her thoughts came together, a strand of hair on Sang Dai’s temple was lifted by the wind.
The once-stationary sword cultivator suddenly drew her sword. The jet-black Qingwu Sword clashed with the incoming icy blade, sending sparks and shards of ice scattering in all directions with an earsplitting screech.
Their eyes met—deep black eyes filled with killing intent locked onto silver-white pupils that were utterly indifferent.
Sang Dai withdrew her sword and retreated. Tian Yuxue’s ambush had failed, and she now held her long blade, staring coldly at Sang Dai.
“Tian Yuxue?” Sang Dai narrowed her gaze. “If you’re Tian Yuxue, then who is the person who fled west?”
The exquisitely featured girl narrowed her eyes slightly, with a hint of appreciation upon closer inspection.
She curved her lips into a smile and asked, “Why don’t you guess?”
Sang Dai quickly deduced, “You came out of your long slumber and didn’t leave the snowbound realm because your goal was to wait for me here. I suspect you struck a deal with the person who wants me dead. You lured me into the Snow Abyss, and he orchestrated a plan to separate Su Xuan from me.”
It was just like that time with Ling Yin. He had abducted her to separate her from Su Xuan, but he hadn’t truly wanted to kill her. Instead, he had revealed to her how to use the Tianyu Stone, allowing her to find a way to survive on her own.
With Su Xuan at her side, two Grand Ascension cultivators working together made it nearly impossible for anyone to kill her. They had to be separated.
Sang Dai said calmly, “But you can’t kill me. You can’t beat me.”
Tian Yuxue twirled the icy blade in her hand, the blade slicing through the air with a crisp sound. She didn’t seem to find it unpleasant but instead raised an eyebrow and said, “Killing you is irrelevant to me. My cooperation with him has another purpose. For now, though, I need to confirm one thing.”
“What is that?”
“Whether or not you are the person I’ve been searching for.”
As soon as the girl finished speaking, the frost and snow that had been floating in the air suddenly froze solid, suspended motionless in the void.
It was as if the world were collapsing. Everything Sang Dai saw before her eyes disintegrated inch by inch—the cold wind vanished, the snow-capped mountains crumbled, and all things disappeared, leaving only a void.
The only thing she could see was the girl before her.
It was as if the entire world held only the two of them.
Tian Yuxue’s cold voice echoed, “This is the true power of Bewilderment.”
The innate power of the Snow Owl: Bewilderment.
Sang Dai’s face remained emotionless as she tightened her grip on the Qingwu Sword. Changmang, sensing danger, slid down from Sang Dai’s wrist and expanded, encircling her in a vigilant guard.
Tian Yuxue sheathed her blade and said in a low voice, “Sang Dai, I just want to see if you are the person I’ve been searching for.”
Sang Dai countered, “Who are you looking for?”
Tian Yuxue replied, “The one the Snow Owl is seeking.”
“And who is the Snow Owl looking for?”
“The bloodline of the Weisheng family.”
Sang Dai shook her head. “I’m not. You’ve got the wrong person.”
Tian Yuxue turned and began to walk away. Her voice trailed back, “Whether you are or not, I’ll decide for myself. Sang Dai, don’t you want to know your true origins?”
Sang Dai’s gaze instantly turned cold.
Tian Yuxue continued forward in the void, her steps leaving frost flowers blooming in her wake with each stride.
“You are not the daughter of Sang Wenzhou. So, do you truly not want to know who you really are?”
She turned back and asked, “Sang Dai, the one who awakened a Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root?”
Sang Dai didn’t know why she had been abandoned. At that time, she was just an infant, discovered with a jade token hanging around her neck.
She had always believed that her parents didn’t want her. Otherwise, why would they abandon an infant in the snow, as if wishing for her death?
But Tian Yuxue said, “Perhaps today, you and I can both find the answers.”
She continued walking into the depths of the darkness. Sang Dai remained motionless.
She still didn’t understand what exactly the Snow Owl’s power of Bewilderment was. However, as a Grand Ascension Stage cultivator wielding two Heaven-Grade artifacts, leaving this strange place wouldn’t be difficult—it would just take some time.
Qingwu buzzed anxiously, trying to block Sang Dai and urging her to leave this inexplicable place immediately.
Changmang was also alarmed, and its artifact spirit spoke to her within her spiritual sea: “Master, something is wrong here. You must leave quickly!”
In this place, she couldn’t sense the outside world at all. It was as if an independent space had been forcibly carved out, existing apart from the Four Realms.
Sang Dai gazed at Tian Yuxue, who was about to disappear into the distance. Despite the repeated urgings of Changmang and Qingwu, she pursed her red lips, tightened her grip on her sword, and stepped forward to follow.
She had never lived her life in confusion. Even if she were to die, she wanted to die with clarity. This was one of the long-standing knots in her heart.
Why had she been abandoned?
Sang Dai didn’t know. But she wanted an answer.
Tian Yuxue heard the footsteps behind her. In a place where Sang Dai couldn’t see, her cold expression softened slightly, and the corners of her lips curved faintly upward.
—
Like Sang Dai, Su Xuan also chased for a while after they separated before suddenly realizing the truth of the situation.
Creating a clone to split them up wasn’t meant to kill him. From the beginning, the mastermind’s target had always been Sang Dai.