Su Xuan gazed at the sword cultivator’s back, his face practically glowing with joy.
Up ahead, Tan Huai glanced back, clasping his hands together in a gesture of helplessness and shaking his head. “Love is truly a difficult thing to understand.”
Ji Cang said coldly, “Foolish.”
Tan Huai gave him a sidelong look, still shaking his head, and let out a long sigh. “If the Demon Lord truly feels nothing, why don’t you dare show your true self?”
Ji Cang paused mid-step.
Tan Huai made a Buddhist gesture toward him. “Karma is something you must comprehend for yourself. Some people, some matters—whether to forget or remember—is a choice only you can make. Otherwise, you’ll simply keep circling in place.”
With that, Tan Huai continued walking forward.
Ji Cang remained standing in place until Sang Dai and Su Xuan walked past him.
Sang Dai asked, “Demon Lord, aren’t you coming?”
Ji Cang didn’t look at her, nor did he respond. He simply resumed walking ahead.
Sang Dai didn’t think much of it. Ji Cang had always been peculiar—sometimes he got along well with her, and other times, he seemed like he wanted to kill her with one punch. His moods were as unpredictable as his personality.
They continued walking for nearly two hours, long enough for everyone to clearly notice their spiritual energy being heavily suppressed.
Finally, the Snow Qilin stopped, standing still. “That’s the Snow Abyss. I’m not going in. If you want to go, go ahead, but if you die, it’s got nothing to do with me.”
With that, it plopped itself down on the ground, clearly unwilling to move any further.
Sang Dai tightened her cloak and looked up at the Snow Abyss in the distance.
The Snow Abyss was unlike the rest of the Snow Realm. Where they stood was still clear and bright, but over the Snow Abyss, it was already dark and gloomy, as if a massive black cloud hung over it alone.
From the distinct boundary line, the snowstorm on the other side was almost ferocious, with howling winds that sounded like the wailing of malicious spirits. In contrast, while it was cold here, there was still light and far less snow.
The Snow Qilin said, “Once you enter, you can stay for at most one day. Otherwise, you’ll all freeze to death inside. Even with Hellfire, it’s useless. That place is the heart of the Snow Owl.”
Everyone turned to look at the Snow Qilin, who was lying flat on the ground.
The Snow Qilin muttered under its breath, “Why are you staring at me? With a Beast King and a Demon Lord among you, if you die here, imagine the chaos outside. I’m not some cruel beast; I’m just being kind and giving you a heads-up.”
Tan Huai chuckled, his smile brimming with mischief. “You weren’t this kind when you were chasing after me earlier.”
The Snow Qilin huffed, blowing out snow as it cursed, “You bald donkey! Who told you to treat me like a mount and make me carry you to find Tian Yuxue? I’m a Mysterious-grade spirit beast—do you think a mere monk like you can ride me?!”
Tan Huai shook his head. “Rude. Barbaric.”
Sang Dai silently gave Tan Huai a thumbs-up.
As expected of him. This was exactly the sort of thing Tan Huai would do.
Sang Dai smiled as she looked at the spirit beast and asked gently, “Then can you tell us how to come out alive? I feel like you might know.”
She was beautiful, even acknowledged as such by the Snow Qilin.
Faced with such a cold yet stunning beauty looking at it so deeply and speaking so softly, the Snow Qilin’s beastly face flushed red. It completely forgot about the kicks Sang Dai had given it earlier.
It also seemed to have completely forgotten the ferocious Tian Yuxue.
Stammering, it said, “Well… the Snow Abyss is the heart of the Snow Owl. Its innate ability is… bewilderment. Maybe you didn’t know…”
Sang Dai was surprised. “Does it confuse people?”
“Not exactly.” The Snow Qilin scratched its head and continued, “I’m not entirely sure either. After it died ten thousand years ago, its skeleton became the Snow Realm, and its heart turned into the Snow Abyss. Its innate ability remains within the Snow Abyss.”
“This ability seems to make people unable to distinguish truth from illusion. It messes with your memories. Most of those who entered in the past couldn’t tell which memories were real and which were fabricated by the Snow Owl. That’s why they stayed too long and froze to death inside.”
Sang Dai raised an eyebrow. “So, do you know how to break its innate ability?”
The Snow Qilin: “…I don’t.”
Sang Dai stepped forward and suddenly raised her hand to stroke the Snow Qilin.
The Snow Qilin: “…”
Its short tail wagged back and forth behind it.
Sang Dai said softly, “You’re so kind, so compassionate. Won’t you tell us, please?”
Su Xuan was so furious he almost wanted to pummel the spirit beast.
Tan Huai nodded in approval, while Ji Cang watched coldly.
The Snow Qilin let out a shy “Awoo…” and said bashfully, “Its innate ability actually can’t be broken, but you can tie your souls together with spiritual threads. Leave one person outside to monitor while the remaining three go in. If they don’t come out in time, the person outside can yank on the threads to pull their souls back—it’ll wake you up from the pain.”
The four: “…”
Such a simple, brutal, yet effective method.
The Snow Qilin used its short, pudgy paw to scratch its enormous head. “Anyway, that’s what my dad told me when I was little. But I’ve never gone in myself. Tian Yuxue is so fierce—if you go in, she’ll blow you to pieces.”
“She just woke up recently, and it seems like she’s still in a bad mood. I saw her storming toward the Snow Abyss with a cold face.”
At this, the Snow Qilin scratched its head again and tilted it in confusion. “Eh, now that I think about it, why would she go to the Snow Abyss? My dad said she used to visit only once every eight hundred years. Usually, when she wakes up, she looks for food first. But this time, she went straight to the Snow Abyss. Strange.”
Sang Dai, however, smiled and asked, “Now that you’ve told us all this, won’t she beat you up when she comes out?”
The Snow Qilin: “…”
Oh no, it had completely forgotten about that.
“Awoo…”
It whimpered, burying its massive head in the snow and trying to dig a hole big enough to hide itself.
I’m doomed, doomed, doomed! When Tian Yuxue comes out, she’s definitely going to hang me up and beat me to a pulp!
Sang Dai found it amusing. Thinking it was a bit cute, she gently patted its head.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. Don’t be afraid.”
The Snow Qilin’s eyes lit up, and it eagerly nuzzled her palm. “Awoo, you’re so nice!”
Sang Dai patted the Snow Qilin’s head, which resembled that of a large tiger, and said, “Go play.”
The Snow Qilin let out a howl, jumped up, and bounded off to roll around in a distant snowbank.
This spirit beast wasn’t very old and couldn’t even transform yet. The Snow Qilin race had long lifespans, and given its age and size, it was still considered a cub.
Sang Dai turned and walked back to Ji Cang and Tan Huai. “Su Xuan and I will go in. The two of you are severely injured and can’t enter. If you do, you’ll die.”
Ji Cang refused coldly, “No, I have questions for her.”
Sang Dai was puzzled. “What do you need to ask her? Aren’t you here to suppress her?”
The Snow Realm was located in the Beast Realm. If Tian Yuxue were to awaken, the Beast Realm would be the first to suffer. Naturally, she assumed Ji Cang was here to subdue Tian Yuxue.
As for Tan Huai… he might have come across this situation by chance. After all, the awakening of Tian Yuxue wouldn’t only affect the Beast Realm. It was a matter of shared fortune and disaster, and there was no guarantee that Tian Yuxue wouldn’t leave the Beast Realm and head to the Immortal Realm.
However, Ji Cang responded stiffly, “Do I need to explain my business to you? In any case, I need to go in.”
With that, he conjured a spiritual thread using his soul as a medium, tying one end around his wrist and shoving the other end into Tan Huai’s hand.
Tan Huai: “…”
Ji Cang had already entered the Snow Abyss.
The dark red spiritual thread glimmered faintly in the air before disappearing entirely. Unless Tan Huai moved, he wouldn’t be able to see the thread.
Sang Dai remarked, “It seems, Master Tan Huai, that you’ll have to stay here.”
She pulled over the sulking little fox by her side, and without hesitation, conjured her own spiritual thread with soul power, tying one end to her wrist and placing the other in Tan Huai’s hand, just as Ji Cang had done.
Su Xuan, his face cold, followed suit.
In an instant, Tan Huai found himself holding three spiritual threads.
Meanwhile, Sang Dai and Su Xuan had already stepped into the Snow Abyss together, walking shoulder to shoulder into the swirling blizzard.
Tan Huai stood frozen for a moment.
He looked down at the three threads in his hand, falling silent.
These three Heaven-grade spiritual root awakeners had entrusted their souls to him. If he severed all three threads, their souls would suffer severe damage—possibly even resulting in their deaths in extreme cases.
It made sense for Sang Dai to trust him, but why would Su Xuan and Ji Cang do the same?
Tan Huai stared at the snow abyss where their figures had already vanished, sighed lightly, and sat cross-legged at the edge of the abyss. He tied the three threads to his own wrist and shivered while clutching the Hellfire Orb in his arms.
He regretted following Ji Cang into this situation more and more. Originally, he had intended to help Ji Cang resolve his inner turmoil, but now Tian Yuxue had run into the Snow Abyss, and they were all freezing to death out here.
Tan Huai glanced at the Snow Qilin still rolling around in the distance and let out another faint sigh.
He could only hope they came out soon.
They could only stay inside for one day.
—
The moment they entered the Snow Abyss, the biting cold became palpable. Even Sang Dai, as resilient as she was, found it difficult to endure. The little fox beside her increased the Hellfire surrounding them.
Ji Cang walked ahead indifferently, striding far in front of them. His hurried steps made it seem as if he were in a rush, and he quickly disappeared from sight.
However, being a Heaven-grade spiritual root awakener, Sang Dai wasn’t particularly worried about him.