The Path Toward Heaven

Gu Qing was taken aback for a brief moment, and then he laughed out aloud.

Young Yuan brought his sleeve up to wipe away his tears.

The rest of the disciples of the Green Mountain shouted while laughing, “Greetings, Senior Master!”

The disciples of other sects laughed with them as well.

Ha Ha Ha Ha!

The happy laughter echoed in the snowland, even forcing the cold fog on the other side of the cliff wall to retreat a little.

The disciples of the Center Sect were joyful as well; but they wondered why they didn’t see their Big Sister.

Xiang Wanshu ran to the deep end of the cave, and he cupped his hands to Jing Jiu when he passed by him.

Gu Qing walked into the cave and knelt down and bowed his head to the ground in front of Jing Jiu.

“Rise,” Jing Jiu said.

Gu Qing got up and looked him in the face, feeling a bit astounded after finding Jing Jiu was a lot thinner than before.

If he were a regular Cultivation practitioner, he would have some other problems, both physical and mental, even if he hadn’t frozen to death.

Cultivating and fasting couldn’t solve all problems.

Yet, Gu Qing was fully aware that his master didn’t do any of those.

He was astounded once more when he fixed his eyes on Jing Jiu’s clothing.

This white cloth from Shenmo Peak could resist water and fire, and a regular flying sword couldn’t even cut it. However, his was badly damaged, and tatters could be seen everywhere on the seams.

Was the cold fog really that horrific? How had he survived the six long years?

Gu Qing used his Sword Awareness to check on Jing Jiu, even though he knew it was an offense to do so to his master. He was even more stunned when he discovered something.

Jing Jiu’s Sword Source had been almost completely exhausted, and his body was extremely weak!

Gu Qing approached him and held his hands.

Gu Qing had wanted to ask why his master didn’t use the Thoughtless Sword to cut open the cliff wall when he heard their voices outside; did he think the scene of him lying on the bamboo chair looked cool, and so up with the ear-deafening noises?

By now, he realized that Jing Jiu really didn’t have any energy left to make a slight movement.

“Get the Baicao Pill!” Gu Qing demanded in a hushed voice.

Young Yuan was right behind him. He took out the magic pill upon hearing the request.

Jing Jiu took over the magic pill and swallowed it. As he saw the worried expressions on their faces, feeling somewhat moved, and was about to tell the two that he was fine.

All of a sudden, a scream came out from the inside of the cave.

Gu Qing and Young Yuan turned around, stunned by what they had witnessed.

In the deep end of the cave by the cliff wall, there was a large semi-transparent leather skin, and it looked like a dried snow worm corpse based on the lines on the skin.

If the dried skin was so big, the snow worm would be terribly large when it was alive.

Yet, it wasn’t the dried snow worm skin that made the disciple of the Center Sect scream. He screamed at another object in the corner of the cave.

The object looked like a cocoon, made of countless thin lines; and those thin lines seemed to be golden or jade-like. Nobody could tell what material the cocoon was made of, even if the Spiritual Awareness was used to check it.

Through the thin golden threads, they could vaguely see a figure inside the cocoon sitting cross-legged and seemingly engaged in recuperating and meditating.

That figure couldn’t be anybody else.

She must be the person the disciples of the Center Sect had been looking for, Bai Zao!

It seemed that Bai Zao was working on some kind of special Cultivation method at the moment, so Xiang Wanshu and other disciples of the Center Sect didn’t dare do anything inappropriate, let alone use their magic treasures.. Earlier, one disciple used the gold cutter to test if he could cut a thread.

Unexpectedly, the golden thread didn’t break, but instead the gold cutter showed a crack on it. The surprised scream heard by everyone earlier came from this failed test.

The disciples of the Center Sect looked at Jing Jiu.

He was probably the only one who knew what was going on.

“Nothing to worry about. She’ll get out of it in two days,” said Jing Jiu.

Having heard this, Xiang Wanshu and others were somewhat relieved, and yet still felt uncomfortable. After sending a message back to White Town, they started setting up the formation outside the cave to enforce their defense.

The disciples of the Center Sect explained the current situation to the young Cultivation practitioners of other sects, expressing their gratefulness, but no details were offered.

Those young Cultivation practitioners understood the situation they were in, and took over the responsibility of patrolling the area outside the cave.

Tong Lu still stood in a place far from the cave, having a more complicated emotion while looking at those who were busy around the cave entrance.

Inside the cave, Gu Qing suddenly noticed that the iron sword was still burning, so he reminded Jing Jiu of it.

Jing Jiu willed his mind to extinguish the flame on the iron sword.

He looked at the iron sword, feeling something was amiss.

He was accustomed to the iron sword on being fire since it had been for six years; and he even felt the iron sword should be like that.

But soon, he realized that the iron sword had no flame itself.

As a gust of wind came in the cave from outside, Jing Jiu realized that not all winds were as cold as the wind he had endured.

Thinking of this, he fell asleep.

Gu Qing and Young Yuan acted as guards by his side with a great deal of care.

It was either because of the effect of the Baicao Pill or the retreat of cold fog, but some blood had returned to his face, looking a lot lively now.

In the wee hours of the night, Jing Jiu woke up and found the surroundings were not as deathly quiet as they were in the past six years, as he could hear many hushed talks.

He checked his own body with the Sword Awareness and determined it was fine. He then he got up from the bamboo chair, heading to the outside of the cave.

Gu Qing and Young Yuan were taking a nap by the bamboo chair since they were extremely tired. As they heard the movement, they got up at once.

“You two stay here. Don’t go anywhere far. I go out to exercise my body,” said Jing Jiu.

Gu Qing wouldn’t let him go out by himself, so he supported Jing Jiu’s arm while walking. Glancing at the disciples of the Center Sect, Gu Qing said in a hushed voice, “Master, your Sword Source has almost run out.”

“It’s always been like this. It’s no problem,” Jing Jiu said.

What he said was true.

That patch of cold fog had slowed down everything on heaven and earth; even the spiritual energy of heaven and earth seemed frozen into a solid object, which was harder for the senses to absorb.

Jing Jiu had calculated precisely that the speed of spiritual energy absorption of heaven and earth in the cliff cave was merely three percent of the normal speed during the time when the cold fog was the thickest.

He had to use the Sword Fire to maintain the temperature in the cave. Doing so would use up a large amount of zhenyuan, so he couldn’t recover zhenyuan as fast as he used it at such a pace. As such, he could only use the amount of zhenyuan he had managed to recover. In other words, in the past six years, his zhenyuan had never been full, and he had been barely operating at a minimum capacity.

His weak body had some connection to do with the cold fog as well, since everything had slowed down. However, it wasn’t life-threatening, all he needed was some exercise, and his body would improve.

Yet Gu Qing didn’t feel it safe for Jing Jiu to walk in the dark of night all by himself.

Jing Jiu had no choice but to let him come along.

Gu Qing gestured Young Yuan with his eyes to guard the cave entrance, and then helped Jing Jiu walk to the outside of the cave.

A few disciples of the Center Sect were operating the formation outside the cave. As they saw Jing Jiu, they got up quickly and bowed to him.

Gu Qing helped Jing Jiu get out of the ditch, after which they arrived in the snowland.

The young Cultivation practitioners in the Cultivation tournament got up in tandem as they saw them.

This was a show of respect toward Jing Jiu.

Regardless of the story told by Luo Huainan, the fact that Jing Jiu could survive six years in such terrifying cold fog was worthy of their respect.

These young Cultivation practitioners were even more stunned at Jing Jiu’s calm bearing after being rescued; it seemed that he hadn’t been affected by the immense hardship in any way. Who wouldn’t admire a person with such an attitude?

What they didn’t know was that Jing Jiu was actually accustomed to the life isolated from the outside world; in fact, he didn’t feel so comfortable with the noises since last night.

They came to a spot in the snowland, where nobody else was nearby. The dark clouds dispersed unexpectedly, and the starlight shone on the ground, making the white ground as bright as a mirror reflecting the sunlight.

Jing Jiu glanced at Gu Qing.

Gu Qing was fully aware that the masters of various sects would arrive soon, and he had to fill his master in on important information so that Jing Jiu wouldn’t misjudge all that happened over the past six years.

He first repeated the story told by Luo Huainan..

“It’s false,” Jing Jiu claimed.