Before dawn broke the next day, the disciples of Tianjue Sect who were going on the training expedition had already gathered in the martial arts field.
Seeing Ji Zhaoxi standing beside Wen Shubai, the fellow disciples all froze for a moment.
“Senior Brother, why is there another disciple coming with us?” Triangular Eyes frowned deeply.
Wen Shubai said gently, “It’s fine. I’ll take care of the junior sister.”
Triangular Eyes muttered under his breath.
This wasn’t just about “taking care”—they were going after the Ice Marrow Pill, and the Sect Master had placed great hopes on them.
That place was dangerous. If the senior brother had to watch over Ji Zhaoxi, what about the rest of them if someone got hurt?
“Senior Brother, the place we’re heading to is pretty treacherous. Can this junior sister handle it?” a disciple hesitated.
They had all been cultivating the emotionless Dao for over a decade, but he remembered this junior sister had only just arrived recently.
Ji Zhaoxi was about to speak when Triangular Eyes cut in, practically shouting: “The most important thing on this trip is preserving our core combat strength! If any disciple is gravely wounded, they should voluntarily stay behind to cover the retreat. No one else is allowed to get themselves hurt trying to save a fellow disciple!”
Ji Zhaoxi: …
Ji Zhaoxi cleared her throat. “I won’t hold anyone back.”
Triangular Eyes snorted coldly. “Junior Sister, whether you hold us back isn’t up to you.”
Wen Shubai frowned. “Junior Brother.”
Triangular Eyes’ face stiffened instantly. He lowered his head and said nothing more.
In his heart, he grumbled: This senior brother really needs to pick his moments for playing the saint.
Things were already tense before they even set out, so Ji Zhaoxi stuck to Wen Shubai even more closely.
Even though she’d just said that if something happened, the others shouldn’t save her—well, if a kind soul was willing to help her, that would be even better…
Clearly, among all these people, Wen Shubai was the only good-hearted one who would actually save her.
Their destination was the Chilling Ember Sea. Ji Zhaoxi had assumed they’d ride immortal cranes, but it turned out they were flying on swords.
The air was filled with a faint chill, and streaks of white light darted through the clouds and mist.
The scenery around them had blurred into phantom shapes, and the sharp whistle of wind scraped against Ji Zhaoxi’s face relentlessly. Her complexion turned a bit pale.
She realized she might be getting sword-sick.
“Junior Sister, steady your breathing and don’t look down,” Wen Shubai’s warm voice came from above.
Ji Zhaoxi couldn’t even keep her eyes open against the wind, so she buried her face into the moon-white robes of Wen Shubai.
He steadied her with one hand and formed a hand seal with the other. A pale blue spiritual energy formed a barrier around the two of them, and the wind immediately died down.
Wen Shubai turned slightly, using his wide sleeve to block the wind coming from the side, wrapping Ji Zhaoxi snugly within the shelter of his arms.
The group flew through the air for a long while, and Ji Zhaoxi finally got somewhat used to it. She clutched Wen Shubai’s robes tightly and carefully peeked down.
Suddenly, she lit up with joy. “Senior Brother! That’s the town where I live!”
She spotted the ancient tree that had stood in her town for over a hundred years.
A hint of a smile flickered in Wen Shubai’s eyes as he followed her gaze.
Ji Zhaoxi kept trying to find exactly where her home was—she only knew the general area, but couldn’t make out which house was hers.
At that moment, the pork stall in front of the Ji family home was packed tight with people. Even before getting close, you could hear the dull thud of chopping meat.
The butcher, bare-armed, swung his massive cleaver. One stroke and the flesh split cleanly from the bone.
Aunt Wang was haggling, complaining in a mumble, “Your pork keeps getting more and more expensive.”
Ji Yingjin leaned against the wooden doorframe, snacking while she replied, “Oh, Auntie Wang, this is from the pig we slaughtered this very morning—the freshest you can get.”
Liu Dazhuang hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet, snoring away in the house.
In the old days, Ji Yingjin and Liu Dazhuang would have had to get up before dawn to slaughter the pigs themselves. But now, with money to spare, they simply hired someone to do the butchering, and selling the meat didn’t require their efforts either.
Ji Yingjin looked down the street and sighed.
Her daughter used to play on that street all the time when she was little. She missed her girl.
The Tianjue Sect disciples were still flying. Wen Shubai didn’t slow his pace, and Triangular Eyes behind him was struggling more and more, forced to expend spiritual energy just to keep up with those in front.
Watching the overlapping silhouettes up ahead, his face twisted with displeasure.
Then, out of nowhere, an immortal crane came charging at them like it had gone mad. Before Ji Zhaoxi could even make out what that sharp beak was, Wen Shubai’s life-bound sword dodged it in an instant.
And then Ji Zhaoxi watched helplessly as that sharp-beaked crane went straight for Triangular Eyes, pecking at him. Triangular Eyes scrambled to avoid it and couldn’t stop himself from cursing.
“Get lost!”
The crane, which had already flown past him, paused in midair, then turned around with a dead-serious expression and charged at him again.
Ji Zhaoxi had watched the whole thing and clung even tighter to Wen Shubai’s robes. She decided she’d keep her distance from immortal cranes from now on.
Their grudges seemed to run deep.
The sun hung in the sky, baking the martial arts field until it was hot to the touch. Most disciples had already gone out on their training expeditions, leaving Tianjue Sect in an unusual stillness.
Liuli lay on her bed, not bothering to get up until sunlight flooded the entire room. Yawning lazily, she finally rose.
The first thing she did was eat a meal. Then she got down to serious business.
Before she began, she carefully took out the inkstone, brush, paper, and ink stick, arranged everything neatly on the table, and only then, with a grave expression, started writing.
[Tianjue Sect’s junior sister, Immortal Ji, went on a training expedition today. During this expedition, she will awaken her dual spiritual roots. None of the other disciples will have anticipated this. After the expedition, Immortal Ji will become the most invincible existence in Tianjue Sect.]
Liuli’s brow furrowed more and more as she wrote. When a person is doing something very important, they can’t afford to smile.
[Immortal Ji’s very existence will even make Tianjue Sect’s senior brother, Wen Shubai, feel threatened. He would never have imagined that there could exist someone in this world more powerful than him—someone so far beyond his reach.]
Liuli labored over her writing, then admired it several times over.
This was the biography she was writing for her young mistress. After all, famous people all had biographies.
She wrote until nightfall. Then she put everything away and trudged to the back mountain to pick up her meal. She ran into the Second Elder again.
The Second Elder looked at the food container Liuli was carrying and thought to himself that at this rate, Liuli’s figure would one day end up just like his.
Deep in the extreme northern ice plains, late at night, the sky was a deep, eerie blue. Aurora lights danced in the air, casting the glaciers below in a ghostly glow.
The group sat huddled around a fire. The extreme northern ice plains were brutally cold—even cultivators found it hard to endure.
“I wonder what the Ice Marrow Pill even looks like, to require this many disciples to come searching for it,” Triangular Eyes muttered, shrinking his neck as white puffs of breath escaped his mouth.
Ji Zhaoxi leaned close to Wen Shubai, holding a hand-warmer artifact, but she was still freezing.
Seeing her trembling from the cold, Wen Shubai lowered his eyes and channeled some spiritual energy into her. Ji Zhaoxi felt the warmth seep through her, and her complexion finally improved.
The other disciples’ faces were all pale too. If it were just ordinary cold weather, it wouldn’t have bothered them, but the chill of the extreme northern plains had seeped all the way into their very bones.
