The Path Toward Heaven

“Sorry,” said Luo Huainan.

The North-Time Bell broke through the wind and snow like a lightning as it moved forward.

…

…

Jing Jiu looked at Luo Huainan in silence.

Such an unexpected attack in such a dishonest manner didn’t make Jing Jiu change his expression at all.

His eye expression was still quite peaceful, devoid of anger and despair, though there was a hint of boredom.

The lightning along with the drift of the wind and snow touched down.

Boom!!!

The rocky cliff wall collapsed.

…

…

Seeing the North-Time Bell hit Jing Jiu squarely to knock him into the midst of the violent wind and snow, Luo Huainan turned and walked into the cave, believing that Jing Jiu had no chance of surviving the fall.

For a brief time outside the cave, the ice had formed on Luo Huainan’s eyebrows, and it became hard to operate the zhenyuan since it was getting frozen, and he realized that he couldn’t stay around any longer.

“Young Sister, I’ve had some interesting experiences in this year’s Cultivation tournament, so I really don’t want to die. Thank you for coming to save me. I believe I will have a bright future.”

Having said this to Bai Zao, Luo Huainan activated the Ten-Thousand Mile Seal and left.

…

…

Bai Zao spat out another mouthful of blood.

More fresh spots of blood were added to her white dress, on which the blood she spat earlier had already dried.

The dress looked like those plum flower paintings in West Mountain Residence on which many new plum flowers had been painted.

Bai Zao’s Dao Heart was greatly unsettled, and the zhenyuan she used for gathering Collected Hidden Script had been mostly exhausted.

She walked to the cave entrance in agony, looking down at the wind and snow below, and two lines of tears flowed down and soon turned into ice.

“Now, all you need to do is rest, rather than cry.”

A voice came up from below.

The voice didn’t have any emotional fluctuation, as if it were colder than the wind and snow.

But the voice sounded quite warm to Bai Zao’s ears.

Jing Jiu reached his hands out and picked her up like a child, entering the cave; and then Jing Jiu pushed her boorishly into the body of that dead snow worm.

The remaining sticky fluid inside the snow worm wrapped her entire body, effectively preventing the cold air from assaulting her.

His right hand ran across the solid rocky wall, making countless rocks fall down like the raindrops, bouncing up and down to totally block the cave entrance; as a result, not a waft of the cold wind could slip in.

Unlike Zhao Layue, Bai Zao was crazy about cleanliness. Under normal circumstances, she would feel sickened even if she knew the reason why she was placed in the fluid of a dead snow worm.

Yet, Bai Zao was totally devoid of such a sick feeling at the moment; her attention was fixated solely on Jing Jiu.

Her sight followed Jing Jiu’s every movement, unwilling to move her attention away from him for even a split second, as if she were mesmerized.

Jing Jiu took out a magic pill and handed to her.

The dark red colored pill looked quite common, giving out a special scent belonging only to wormwood.

This was Xuancao Pill. Jing Jiu had presented one back at the Precious Tree House in Henanzhou.

This pill possessed a strong tendency of generating a high temperature inside human bodies, which could even drive away the coldness in the Underworld and it could play an effective role in cultivating the golden pill. As such, the pill was very precious.

The key part was that Xuancao Pill was produced on Xuanhua Mountain in Zhongzhou, and Bai Zao was a disciple of the Center Sect (a.k.a. Zhongzhou Sect), so the Cultivation method she had learned could be perfectly combined with the pill to take effect.

Bai Zao would wonder why Jing Jiu, a disciple of the Green Mountain, had the magic pill of her sect before all these incidents had happened, at least be curious.

But at the moment, she didn’t question him, but instead she opened her mouth to have directly swallowed Xuancao Pill.

As Jing Jiu’s finger tips touched her lips, Bai Zao was certain that he was actually a living person in flesh and blood, rather than her hallucination. She felt relieved and fell asleep after having relaxed her Spiritual Awareness.

Her veil had already fallen off during the fights, revealing her beautiful face.

Her expression appeared even feebler when she was dreaming in her sleep.

Jing Jiu used his Sword Awareness to check on her and found a bright line appearing in her neck.

It meant that Xuancao Pill had already melted and was infusing with her entire body.

He felt slightly tired, and he sat down cross-legged, starting to recuperate.

It was too cold here.

The cold air had invaded his bones. Even his zhenyuan had a hard time to operate properly.

It was fortunate that his body was special so that he wasn’t worried about being frozen to death.

However, it was the will power from three thousand miles away that had damaged his zhenyuan and mental power a great deal.

After being swallowed by the whirlpool of wind and snow, he was worried that he might alert that person far away, so he didn’t dare ride the sword and had to choose to climb the cliff with his bare hands. That was also the reason he didn’t counterattack Luo Huainan when he was attacked by the North-Time Bell. He endured the hit and caught his hands on the cliff wall, falling again into the midst of the whirlpool of the wind and snow.

It was definitely dangerous to do so, and other Cultivation practitioners would die from the fall with no doubt.

Falling down twice and climbing up twice made Jing Jiu feel bored.

He had lived twice, and he had to walked the same Cultivation path twice; it was somewhat dull.

The world-weariness also came from the incident.

Jing Jiu didn’t know why Luo Huainan had attacked him, and he didn’t ask Bai Zao. But based on his own inference, he could guess the basic content of the story.

Humans are selfish and deceitful.

Similar stories were abundant in the world; as long as one lived long enough, they would encounter such an incident sooner or later.

Any event, if repeated too many times, naturally became uninteresting, dull, and even boring.

Therefore, he had been cultivating on Shenmo Peak alone, refusing to receive any outsiders.

After a long while, Jing Jiu finished recuperating, and he opened his eyes.

He employed his Sword Awareness to check on himself, making sure that his Sword Pill was intact and his Dao Tree was the same as before, and the only issue was that his zhenyuan was operating seventy percent slower.

Bai Zao opened her eyes as well, fully awake. The Xuancao Pill had melted into her entire body, making her feel a lot better.

Yet, this could merely ensure temporary safety, and she would be unable to help resist the cold in the long run.

The fluid in the dead snow worm would be used up sooner or later.

The most troublesome issue was that her Golden Pill had two deep cracks which could break up at any moment.

Luo Huainan had done something truly hideous.

Bai Zao remained reticent.

Forming the Golden Pill was the hardest thing for the Cultivation practitioners of the Center Sect, similar to the formation of the Sword Pill for the Green Mountain Sect.

In case the Golden Pill, obtained after a great deal of hardship, had broken apart, it would be extremely difficult to reform it by cultivating.

As the sole daughter of the Center Sect Master, she could be aided by many magic pills and had the opportunity to form the Golden Pill the second time, but it would be impossible for her to possess the Golden Pill of the same state.

In other words, her Cultivation path had almost come to the end.

Even though there wasn’t any wind in the cave, the cold air somehow still passed through the rocks to land on her body.

Since she was born feeble, coupled with the injury, her face looked even paler now after being assaulted by the cold air.

“Sorry to put you in harm’s way because of me.”

Bai Zao said in a weak voice, “But I guess, you should be able to find a way to get out of here since you could bring me here.”

“I’m not sure. The cold air of heaven and earth has become even stronger than before. My zhenyuan isn’t operating properly.”

Jing Jiu added, “My connection with the flying sword could be cut off at any minute.”

Somehow, the iron sword had miraculously returned to him, being held tightly in his bosom.

Jing Jiu noticed that Bai Zao didn’t look so well.

He energized his mind a bit, a flame coming out from the iron sword, illuminating the rocky cave like a torch.

The burning iron sword in his bosom looked amazing.

The flame, though looking warm, was still quite weak in comparison to the cold air invading from the outside. The melted snow on the cave walls had soon turned into solid ice.

Looking at her own pale face reflected on the ice surface, Bai Zao had made a decision.

“I can let you leave. Luo Huainan thought I only had one Ten-thousand Mile Seal, but I have another one.”

Having said this, she took out an object and threw it to Jing Jiu.