“Oh? Zhang Mingyuan, do you dare to say those words again?”
Zhang Mingyuan was completely dumbfounded.
Why did this woman have to appear right now of all times, not a moment sooner or later...
He stiffly turned around. Facing that ultimate, peerless, ice-cold face capable of freezing time and space itself, Zhang Mingyuan squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying.
“What did I say? Lord Immortal Lord is exceptionally graceful and possesses matchless divine might. I didn't say a single thing!”
“Oh? Is that so?” Su Jinxue's expression remained placid as she cast a brief glance. “Elder Li.”
Hearing his name called, Elder Li shuddered and bowed in fear and trepidation. “Your disciple is here.”
“Repeat what he just said.” Su Jinxue's voice was calm, yet it carried an unquestionable authority.
Elder Li paused, stealing a glance at Zhang Mingyuan's murderous glare, crying out bitterly in his heart.
He was good at standing up to outsiders, but standing up to the very person who gave him the confidence to do so? He couldn't do it...
Steeling himself, Elder Li cleared his throat and actually began to vividly mimic Zhang Mingyuan's casual, arrogant attitude from earlier: “Does this grandmaster need to be 'worthy' of her? She's just lucky to have become an immortal one step ahead of me... Su Jinxue is just an icy chick. I don't get what's so great about her... Even if Su Jinxue were standing right in front of me now, this Sacred Lord would still say the same!”
After repeating it, Elder Li wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
The disciples of the Myriad Snow Palace widened their eyes, wanting to laugh but not daring to, their faces turning red from holding it in.
Su Jinxue listened quietly, then turned her gaze back to Zhang Mingyuan's face. “Zhang Mingyuan, I will give you one chance to explain.”
The coldness radiating from her was no longer just freezing the air; Zhang Mingyuan felt as though his very soul was about to be shattered into ice shards.
Explain? How could he explain?!
Someone tell me how to explain this, damn it!
In the next second, Zhang Mingyuan collapsed onto the ground. Then, like lightning, he scrambled toward Su Jinxue and threw his arms around her thigh.
“Waaah—!”
Snot and tears streaming down his face, Zhang Mingyuan wailed, “Lord Immortal Lord, I was wrong! I only said that to show off in front of them! I'm nothing but a fart! What do I know about having a rock-solid Dao Heart? Your name is my most steadfast Dao Heart! I'll never do it again!”
This scene caused the worldviews of the surrounding Myriad Snow Palace disciples to completely collapse.
This... this was the 'invincible under the heavens' Sacred Lord Zhang from just a moment ago?
The shift in tone was so fast that their brains could hardly keep up...
Su Jinxue stared at the man, the veins on her forehead throbbing.
This act again!
Fuming, she gave Zhang Mingyuan's head a hard flick. “Let go of me this instant!”
“I won't! I won't let go! If I let go, you'll definitely beat me to death! I'm not letting go!”
Zhang Mingyuan clung even tighter, even rubbing his face against her thigh.
The surrounding disciples were no longer just shocked; they were completely petrified.
Was... was this really something they were allowed to watch?
“Let go of me right now!” Seeing more and more disciples gathering and craning their necks to watch the spectacle, a crack finally appeared on Su Jinxue's icy expression. She lowered her voice, a trace of urgency creeping into her tone, “Or else I will strike!”
Taking all of this in, Zhang Mingyuan's eyes darted around. Instead of letting go, he wailed even louder: “Lord Immortal Lord! Last night you still called me your 'sweetheart', so why do you only call me 'Zhang Mingyuan' today?! Waaah... Just beat me to death then! It's not like you're going to take responsibility for me anyway!”
Boom—!
As soon as these words were uttered, an uproar erupted throughout the crowd, as if a bolt of heavenly tribulation lightning had struck everyone right on the head!
S-Sweetheart?
Last night?!
The 'dual cultivation' Senior Sister Bai Yao mentioned... was actually true! And it was even more intense than they had imagined!
Heavens! The overbearing Immortal Lord's forced love! The ship I'm backing is real!
Countless fires of gossip burned furiously. In an instant, the disciples conjured up a million-word web novel plot in their minds, and the way they looked at Su Jinxue and Zhang Mingyuan completely changed.
“Zhang—Ming—yuan!”
Su Jinxue trembled with rage, squeezing out every single syllable through her gritted teeth. “Shut your mouth!”
In her fury, she flicked her jade finger. An extremely cold stream of immortal energy instantly surged into Zhang Mingyuan's body, completely sealing his entire spiritual power!
Without even looking at him, she hoisted the still-clinging Zhang Mingyuan up like a little chick and, in front of everyone, hurled him forcefully toward a distant mountain peak!
“If you do not clean the Spirit Beast Garden spotless within a month, you die!”
With those words, Su Jinxue's figure vanished once more, leaving behind only a bone-chilling command and a crowd that was absolutely buzzing with excitement.
His spiritual power sealed, Zhang Mingyuan traced a perfect parabola through the air and crashed straight into the Spirit Beast Garden, left completely dazed and disoriented from the fall.
He scrambled to his feet, instantly losing his temper.
The Spirit Beast Garden?
That was a massive mountain range spanning a hundred miles!
With his spiritual power sealed, let alone a month, he wouldn't be able to sweep it all even if they gave him a hundred years!
With a mournful face, he deliberately shouted with all his might toward the direction where Su Jinxue had vanished: “Lord Immortal Lord, I was wrong... You can't treat me like this...”
Hearing this sorrowful cry, the disciples down by the distant mountain gate couldn't help but feel sympathetic.
“Sacred Lord Zhang is so pitiful...”
“Yeah, the Lord Immortal Lord is too heartless.”
“Alas, serving a ruler is like keeping company with a tiger. The ancients did not lie.”
The crowd buzzed with discussion. While they sympathized with him, no one dared to disobey the Immortal Lord's command, so they could only shake their heads and gradually disperse.
The moment everyone's presence faded, the sorrowful look on Zhang Mingyuan's face vanished instantly. He patted the dust off his clothes and fished out a talisman from his robes.
“Heh, you smelly woman, you really think you can trap me?”
He curled his lip. This talisman was the "Myriad Resolution Seal-Breaking Talisman" that he had swindled from his good buddy Lingxuzi last time, specifically designed to break all kinds of seals.
To put it simply, having one's spiritual power sealed meant the meridians were bound by an external force, preventing the spiritual energy from flowing within the dantian.
But with the help of an external force to break the seal, it became incredibly simple.
Hopefully, that smelly woman Su Jinxue didn't make the seal too powerful.
He slapped the talisman onto his dantian and activated the spiritual energy contained within it.
Buzz—
The talisman glowed with light, and a gentle yet overbearing force instantly rushed into his dantian, violently colliding with the extremely cold immortal energy left by Su Jinxue!
After a long while—
Crack!
A barely audible cracking sound echoed from within his body, and the ice-like seal shattered instantly!
Surging spiritual power filled his limbs and bones once more, and the pressure of the Mahayana Stage flashed and vanished in an instant.
Zhang Mingyuan stretched his limbs. Looking at this mist-shrouded Spirit Beast Garden, which was teeming with rare beasts and exotic species, his heart was filled with nothing but disdain.
How could this Sacred Lord personally sweep this broken garden?
He shouted at the top of his lungs, “Whoever is in charge here, get over here and meet this Sacred Lord immediately!”
Very quickly, a middle-aged cultivator dressed in a manager's uniform flew out from the forest and bowed respectfully to Zhang Mingyuan. “This disciple pays respects to Sacred Lord Zhang.”
Zhang Mingyuan waved his hand and asked directly, “How do you usually clean this Spirit Beast Garden?”
The garden director replied with a bitter face: “To answer the Sacred Lord, usually the disciples are split into groups. Every day, they spend several hours using spells to clean up the spirit beasts' waste and shed fur, and then tidy up the spiritual plants they've messed up...”
“Stop.” Zhang Mingyuan cut him off. “Why don't you make the spirit beasts maintain hygiene and clean up after themselves? They're spirit beasts, meaning they've gained intelligence. They aren't actual dumb animals.”
The garden director sighed, looking troubled. “The Sacred Lord might not be aware. Originally, it was arranged that way. But a while ago, the Immortal Lord captured and brought back a Mahayana Stage Nine-Tailed Snow Moon Fox. This Snow Moon Fox is deeply loved by the Immortal Lord, so it runs rampant in the beast garden. Not only does it never tidy up after itself, but it also leads the other spirit beasts to ignore hygiene, making the garden a terrible mess. The disciples' cleaning duties are incredibly miserable.”
A while ago? Nine-Tailed Snow Moon Fox?
A question mark popped up in Zhang Mingyuan's mind. How come he had never heard of this?
Still, Su Jinxue had sent him to the right place. A disobedient pet?
That was too easy to handle. A good beating would fix it!
“Hmph, surely you heard just now that your Immortal Lord sent me to clean this place. Take all of your disciples and get out of here. Until I tell you to enter, none of you are allowed back in!”
“This...” The garden director looked hesitant.
“Don't worry,” Zhang Mingyuan patted his shoulder. “When you return, you will absolutely see a very clean and harmonious Spirit Beast Garden.”
Seeing that the garden director was still hesitating, Zhang Mingyuan couldn't be bothered to waste any more words. He suddenly unleashed his Mahayana Stage aura, instantly suffocating the director with the sheer pressure.
“Hmm? Do this Sacred Lord's words carry no weight? If anything goes wrong, I will take full responsibility.”
Drenched in cold sweat from the pressure, the garden director let out a long sigh.
Oh well, he would just let Sacred Lord Zhang mess around. After all, he shared that kind of relationship with the Immortal Lord anyway. As long as the blame didn't fall on his own head, he didn't care.
With that, the director called all the disciples in the garden and quickly evacuated the Spirit Beast Garden.
Zhang Mingyuan nodded in satisfaction.
His massive divine sense spread out like a tide, instantly covering the entire hundred-mile expanse of the Spirit Beast Garden. He easily locked onto a giant, snow-white fox that was lazily sunbathing on a mountain peak.
Her most beloved spiritual pet?
The corners of his mouth curled slightly, revealing a mischievous smile.
Targeting? I'm targeting none other than your spiritual pet, Su Jinxue!
However, right at that moment, the Nine-Tailed Snow Moon Fox, sensing that it had been locked onto by someone's divine sense, slowly opened its sapphire-like eyes and cast its gaze toward the spot where Zhang Mingyuan stood.
Rate on N.U.
