When Bai Qingxue stepped out of the cavern, the water curtain of the waterfall closed behind her once more.
The spirit marrow in her palm was currently emitting an eerie blue glow. Its aura, pure to the point of being elemental, slowly climbed along her meridians. It felt as though it were being drawn by something, stubbornly trying to seep into her dantian.
Bai Qingxue looked down at her palm, her brow furrowing slightly.
The aura of the spirit marrow seemed even more active than before, as if urging her to refine it as quickly as possible.
However, Bai Qingxue still felt a trace of unease.
She quickened her pace, rushing along the stream toward a more secluded cliff.
After traveling for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, she found a rocky ledge in the middle of the rift valley.
The ledge was surrounded by stone walls on three sides, with only one side facing the mist-shrouded deep valley, offering excellent concealment.
Bai Qingxue sat cross-legged on the ledge, pressing the spirit marrow against her dantian. She closed her eyes and began to circulate the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》.
The power of the spirit marrow poured into her meridians like a melting glacial river, so pure that it merged with her Mystic Frost spiritual power automatically without needing to be refined.
The ice lotus slowly bloomed within her dantian, each petal absorbing the power of the spirit marrow. The cracks along its edges mended at a pace visible to the naked eye.
The barrier to late-stage Foundation Establishment began to loosen.
Right at that moment, the mist above the ledge suddenly began to churn.
A low roar echoed from above the rift valley. The sound was deep and ancient, like a giant beast that had slept for thousands of years being startled awake from its slumber, carrying an undisguised fury.
Bai Qingxue snapped her eyes open.
She looked up, her pupils contracting slightly.
Atop the rift valley, the phantom of a snow-white giant beast was looming. Its body was as massive as a small mountain, its four paws planted on the edge of the cliff. With every breath it took, the surrounding air condensed into fine ice crystals.
It was the phantom of an Ice Chi.
Bai Qingxue had seen records of this creature before.
The ancient spirit beast, the Ice Chi, possessed strength comparable to the peak Gold Core stage in its adulthood. Even if it was merely a remnant phantom, it was more than enough to give a Foundation Establishment cultivator a grueling time.
But what caught Bai Qingxue's attention even more was the human figure standing behind the Ice Chi phantom.
The figure stood on a protruding rock at the edge of the cliff, holding a dark red talisman in his hand. The talisman was burning, emitting a halo that shared the exact same origin as the aura surrounding the Ice Chi phantom.
It seemed as though the person was using the talisman to control the phantom, guiding it toward Bai Qingxue's position.
It had been lured here.
Someone had deliberately lured this Ice Chi phantom here.
Bai Qingxue had no time to identify who the person was.
The Ice Chi phantom had already made its move.
Its front claws stomped down through the air, each strike leaving deep icy gouges on the stone walls. The stone walls on both sides of the rift valley were covered in frost, and the air temperature plummeted sharply.
Bai Qingxue stored the spirit marrow in her storage bag, stood up, and drew the Frost Moon Chant.
The first three notes of 《Ice Condensation》 sounded like falling shards of ice into a deep pond, condensing three ice screens around her.
The Ice Chi phantom's front claw slammed into the first ice screen, which instantly shattered, sending ice shards flying.
The second ice screen shattered immediately after, and dense cracks spread across the third.
The strength of this phantom was greater than she had anticipated.
Raising the flute, Bai Qingxue blew the fourth and fifth notes. Ice blades rained down, flying straight toward the Ice Chi's face.
However, the Ice Chi phantom's scales were covered in an extremely thick layer of frost. The ice blades only left faint white marks upon impact before being shattered into powder.
Bai Qingxue took a step back, her back pressing against the inner stone wall of the ledge.
She had no way to retreat further.
Right at that moment, a sword light slashed diagonally down from above the rift valley.
The sword light was like a rainbow, slicing precisely into the nape of the Ice Chi phantom's neck—the weakest joint connection of the entire phantom.
The Ice Chi phantom let out a deafening roar. Its body stiffened slightly, and its lunging momentum was abruptly cut short.
Bai Qingxue looked up.
It was Lu Xueqing leaping down from above the rift valley, her frost-white Daoist robe fluttering wildly in the wind, the residual warmth of the previous sword light still lingering on her blade.
She adjusted her stance mid-air and landed half a step in front of Bai Qingxue. Holding her long sword horizontally before her, she faced the Ice Chi phantom as it re-established its stance.
“Junior Sister Bai, how did you lure this thing over?”
“Someone is controlling it with a talisman.”
Lu Xueqing's gaze swept rapidly over the remnants of the burning dark red talisman at the edge of the cliff. She said nothing, only tightening her grip on her sword.
The Ice Chi phantom lunged once more.
But this time, it was even faster. Its front claws bore down on the two of them, carrying the cold air of the entire rift valley, and the layers of ice on the stone walls shattered inch by inch under its sheer pressure.
Lu Xueqing did not retreat.
Stepping to the side, she parried diagonally with her long sword, meeting the Ice Chi's front claw from the side in an attempt to deflect its trajectory.
But the Ice Chi phantom's strength far exceeded her expectations. The moment the long sword clashed with the icy claw, a massive force surged along the blade. Lu Xueqing's wrist shook, the webbing of her thumb split open, and blood began to trickle down the hilt.
Yet Lu Xueqing did not withdraw her sword. Instead, using the rebounding force to spin upward, she carved a second sword light across the neck of the Ice Chi phantom.
This time, she accurately struck the weakness at the nape of its neck. The Ice Chi phantom let out a muffled roar of pain, its body jerking backward.
But at the same time, the Ice Chi phantom's tail swept across.
It was too fast—so fast that Lu Xueqing had no time to pull back her sword to defend.
The frost-covered tail slammed heavily against Lu Xueqing's left shoulder, sending her flying backward. She crashed into the inner stone wall of the ledge with a dull thud.
The shattered ice on the stone wall rustled down, pelting her shoulder and mixing with the blood trickling down.
Lu Xueqing sat slumped against the stone wall. The robe over her left shoulder was torn open, exposing mangled flesh as blood dyed the fabric a dark red.
Bai Qingxue glanced back. Then, her expression darkened.
It felt as though something was surging up from deep within, slowly rising along Bai Qingxue's meridians.
Slumped against the stone wall, Lu Xueqing's left shoulder continued to seep blood. She wanted to say, “I'm fine,” but a metallic, rusty taste welled up in her throat, and she swallowed the blood back down.
“Junior Sister Bai...”
Bai Qingxue did not answer.
She raised the Frost Moon Chant back to her lips.
The moment the first note sounded, the mist in the rift valley began to condense. The water vapor floating in the air, the ice crystals hanging on the stone walls, and the water droplets seeping through the rock crevices that had yet to fall were all frozen at the exact same instant.
With the second note, Bai Qingxue's spiritual power began to surge.
The speed of its rise was far faster than what any mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator should be capable of.
The dark red restriction on her wrist flashed for a brief second before she forcefully suppressed it.
The ice lotus spun frantically within her dantian, converting all of the newly absorbed spirit marrow power into Mystic Frost spiritual power, which poured into the Frost Moon Chant.
The third note.
For the first time, something different appeared in Bai Qingxue's eyes.
Within those light-colored, perpetually calm eyes that usually resembled a sheet of ice, a certain blazing light was currently churning.
It was like a layer of ice that, finally unable to bear an immense pressure, cracked open from within, revealing burning magma deep inside the fine fractures.
It was killing intent.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth notes connected into a seamless line, and the latter half of 《Ice Condensation》 poured forth like a tidal wave.
The Ice Chi phantom's front claw froze mid-air. The ice covering the claw spread from the surface inward, freezing its entire forearm into a massive ice pillar.
Then, the ice pillar split down the middle, shattering into thousands of pieces that rained down.
The phantom let out an unprecedentedly shrill roar and retreated a step.
But Bai Qingxue did not stop.
With the seventh note, an ice blade materialized amidst the flute's melody. It was no longer an ice needle as thin as hair, but a zhang-long blade. Its edge was as thin as a cicada's wing, its borders gleaming with an eerie blue cold light, as if moonlight had been forged into physical form.
The ice blade slashed down toward the neck of the Ice Chi phantom.
The phantom opened its mouth, spewing a breath of extreme cold in an attempt to freeze the ice blade.
Yet the ice blade pierced through the breath without losing any momentum. Like a hot knife through butter, it silently sank into the phantom's neck.
The Ice Chi phantom's movements abruptly froze.
Then, the entire phantom split down the middle from neck to tail, dividing into two halves before shattering into a flurry of ice crystals that slowly drifted down.
At that moment, a very faint gasp came from the edge of the cliff.
Bai Qingxue looked up.
The figure holding the talisman was standing at the edge of the cliff. The talisman had already burned to ash, and dark red cinders drifted from between his fingers.
He had clearly not expected the Ice Chi phantom to be slain so effortlessly, and he froze in place for a moment.
Then, he hastily turned around and quickly vanished over the cliff.
However, Bai Qingxue did not give chase.
Standing in place, her breathing was slightly heavier than usual, and her fingers holding the flute were still trembling faintly.
The lingering notes of 《Ice Condensation》 echoed in the rift valley for several breaths before slowly fading away.
Leaning against the stone wall, Lu Xueqing stared at Bai Qingxue's back. Bai Qingxue stood perfectly straight, her hands holding the Frost Moon Chant still in a playing posture, not yet lowered.
Then, Bai Qingxue turned around.
When their eyes met, Lu Xueqing saw Bai Qingxue's eyes.
Within those light-colored eyes, the blazing intensity that had just surged was slowly settling.
It was like magma meeting seawater; the outermost layer had already cooled into dark rock, but upon closer inspection, one could still see the unextinguished, dark red residual glow deep within the crevices.
Yet that light was sinking down layer by layer, retreating beneath the icy surface and back into the deepest recesses of Bai Qingxue's heart.
As the ice froze over once more, everything became as smooth as a mirror.
She had returned to the Bai Qingxue of before.
Bai Qingxue walked over to Lu Xueqing and squatted down.
Her movements were very gentle, her knees making almost no sound as they settled onto the gravel.
She then retrieved a medicine bottle and bandages from her storage bag. As she uncorked the bottle, her fingers were so steady that they did not tremble in the slightest—a stark contrast to when she was playing the flute moments ago.
Bai Qingxue's movements were as deft as ever.
She applied the medicinal powder evenly over the wound, neither too heavily nor too lightly, using just the right amount.
Then, she unrolled the bandage, wrapping it under Lu Xueqing's armpit and winding it loop by loop around her shoulder.
Bai Qingxue's fingers were very cold. Every time they brushed against Lu Xueqing's skin, it caused Lu Xueqing to shiver slightly.
Lu Xueqing watched Bai Qingxue as she kept her head down to apply the medicine. At this moment, Bai Qingxue's eyelashes fluttered slightly, resembling a butterfly that had just landed on a branch and folded its wings.
The shadows cast by her eyelashes onto her lower eyelids trembled along with them.
“Junior Sister Bai,” Lu Xueqing called out to her.
Bai Qingxue did not look up.
Her hands continued to wind the bandage, round after round, as if performing a task that required her absolute, undivided attention.
“Wasn't I amazing just now?” Lu Xueqing's voice carried a hint of weakness, yet her tone remained light.
It was her usual manner, as if she were speaking of some trivial matter, asking if the weather was nice today, or chatting with a fellow disciple on any ordinary afternoon.
It was as though the shocking wound on her shoulder did not exist, and as if the Daoist robe stained red with blood belonged to someone else.
Bai Qingxue's fingers paused for a fraction of a second.
Of course, it was an incredibly brief instant—so brief that had Lu Xueqing not been staring at her hands, she wouldn't have noticed at all.
Bai Qingxue did not answer, simply continuing to wrap the bandage.
“Junior Sister Bai.”
Bai Qingxue looked up, meeting Lu Xueqing's eyes.
Within those light-colored eyes, the blazing intensity that had churned earlier had completely settled.
They had returned to being that frozen lake—calm, clear, and unfathomably deep.
But as Lu Xueqing looked at Bai Qingxue, she felt that this layer of ice seemed slightly thinner than before, thin enough that at certain angles, she could glimpse something flowing beneath it, surging and attempting to break through the surface.
Bai Qingxue wrapped the final turn of the bandage and tied a knot.
Her movements were extremely gentle, being exceptionally careful as she worked around the wound, as if afraid of hurting Lu Xueqing.
She then withdrew her hands, placing the medicine bottle and the remaining bandages back into her storage bag. Her actions were unhurried, identical to her usual self.
Only after finishing all of this did Bai Qingxue speak:
“Why didn't you listen to me?”
Bai Qingxue's voice remained very faint.
Yet to Lu Xueqing's ears, it sounded like heavenly music.
However, as if mimicking Bai Qingxue's earlier behavior, Lu Xueqing was unwilling to provide an answer at this moment.
Instead, Lu Xueqing reached out with her uninjured hand, her fingertips lightly brushing the back of Bai Qingxue's hand resting by her knee.
Dried blood still stained Lu Xueqing's fingertips, leaving a faint red mark on the back of Bai Qingxue's hand upon contact.
She curled her fingers slightly, hooking them around Bai Qingxue's fingertips.
Bai Qingxue's hand was still icy cold, though whether from holding the flute for too long or because her body had expended too much energy during the battle was unclear.
Immediately after, Lu Xueqing leaned her forehead against Bai Qingxue's shoulder.
Bai Qingxue's shoulders were slender, and the bone beneath her Daoist robe pressed against Lu Xueqing's forehead. It wasn't soft, yet it brought Lu Xueqing an inexplicable sense of comfort.
Lu Xueqing remained leaned against her, letting what little weight her body had left rest upon her.
Bai Qingxue did not move.
She did not push her away, nor did she embrace her. She simply squatted there, motionless, letting Lu Xueqing lean on her.
Lu Xueqing could feel a small patch of the fabric on Bai Qingxue's shoulder grow damp from her breath. It was warm, completely out of place with the freezing air of the rift valley.
Lu Xueqing closed her eyes.
“Because this is my path.”
Lu Xueqing's voice was muffled, coming from Bai Qingxue's shoulder, as soft as a mutter in a dream.
But Bai Qingxue's body stiffened slightly.
Yet, it was only for an instant.
Afterward, Bai Qingxue said nothing. She simply squatted there in silence, letting Lu Xueqing lean against her.
The mist in the rift valley gathered once more, enveloping the two of them in a vast, endless white.
The distant sound of the rushing stream echoed faintly, like the only beating heart left in this world.
At the same time, the ice crystals on the ledge had not yet fully melted, refracting a faint light through the mist like stars scattered across the ground.
Beneath the sky full of stars.
The two of them leaned close together.
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