OLTFMD | Chapter 14

Chapter 14

◎He did not believe Shen Ji would die so easily.◎

A sky-darkening blaze of red-gold fire crashed to the ground!

The impact drove deep into the earth.

It shook the continuous snow mountains.

Under the thick layers of snow, there was an extremely faint silver gleam reflecting the snow, but it was completely hidden.

Yet this faint silver gleam, blocked by the Snow Realm Seal, had remained unextinguished for a long time, a cold contest doomed to lose, unnoticed by anyone.

In the distance, the endless mountain peaks broke off silently, roaring as they collapsed downward, like mountains collapsing and the earth splitting apart!

But none of the eyes in the air had time to spare even a moment’s attention for the disaster they had created.

The battle with Xie Fu concerned the future fate of the red phoenix lineage, and no one dared relax in the slightest.

Wu Xun stared fixedly at the ground, and the fire-red elder robe changed with its owner’s state of mind, fluttering restlessly without wind.

The countless red phoenixes beneath him also formed hand seals and held their breath, waiting for the blocked, covered area to clear of dust, then hurriedly leaned forward to look.

Amid the stirred snow mist, the vast plain had sunk into a deep crater.

Melted snow water from all around poured back into the valley floor blasted out by man, making clear splashing sounds with echo.

Wu Xun could no longer wait. He immediately flew to the sky above the giant pit, swept his sleeve to disperse the dust mist, and looked down at the water’s surface.

However, the snow water lake was empty.

Wu Xun could not believe it, his eyes nearly splitting.

How was that possible!

With so many red phoenixes joining forces, they still could not leave behind a Xie Fu whose cultivation had been completely lost?!

The fire robe on him burned fiercely in the mist, rising and falling with the violent turmoil in his thoughts.

Behind him, a group of red phoenixes had already passed him and rushed toward the valley floor.

“There’s blood here!” A red phoenix suddenly shouted.

Wu Xun immediately flashed over.

The red phoenix who had spoken had already landed and was rubbing at the blood on the stone surface, bringing it to his nose to sniff.

Someone beside him urgently asked, “How is it!”

The red phoenix’s face was gray as ash. He said softly, “It’s a mortal’s aura.”

A mortal?

Then it had nothing to do with Xie Fu.

The hearts of the crowd also sank into darkness.

After two joint formations set out to kill, everyone had concluded that Xie Fu was doomed.

Yet Xie Fu had twice retreated completely unscathed, which inevitably cast layer upon layer of gloom over their hearts.

Wu Xun looked at these dispirited faces and restrained the anger in his heart. “This person came here risking his life to rescue him, he must have a very close relationship with Xie Fu. Now that he has been ground to ashes here, this trip has not been in vain.”

A mere mortal, no one thought Shen Ji could survive the combined strike just now.

There was only blood on the mountain.

That meant the only thing he could leave behind was this patch of blood.

Wu Xun said, “Xie Fu’s cultivation now has barely one part left out of a hundred. Without a mortal to coordinate from the side, he is already at the end of his rope. Even if he escapes the formation by luck, he won’t get far!”

Hearing his words, the crowd barely roused themselves.

Wu Xun raised a hand and swept it. “Starting today, search the entire Snow Realm. We must find Xie Fu’s trace!”

“We obey your command!”

Having regained the spirit of the many red phoenixes, Wu Xun turned to look beneath his feet, but the expression he no longer concealed on his face grew darker by the moment.

If Xie Fu’s first escape had been an accident, then how should this second narrow escape from death be explained?

He had not hesitated to draw out all his trusted aides when the various clans were probing the phoenix clan, and what he plotted was absolutely not to expend all his effort killing a trivial mortal.

Besides, after Xie Fu disappeared, the phoenix clan had not all attached themselves beneath his seat.

The circumstances of the blood sacrifice that day had already spread through the Three Spirit Realm. If today he failed again and returned empty-handed, those four old immortals from Fengqiwu would definitely make trouble for him.

Also.

Wu Xun’s fire robe flickered behind him.

He looked toward a distant point and let out a long sigh.

Your Highness.

Just where are you...

—

Rolling down the slope into the cave entrance, Shen Ji was lifted by the soft white light beneath him before he slowly came to a stop.

Melted snow water flowing in through tiny holes struck his back, and the water droplets that splashed up mixed with the cold sweat on his forehead, sliding past his temples and dripping along his jaw. By his knees, they had already pooled into a small patch of water.

He knelt on one knee, bent an arm to brace against the wall, and the fist against the wall trembled slightly from exertion, its knuckles white.

The System asked softly, “Host, are you all right?”

Shen Ji was closing his eyes to steady himself. “I’m fine.”

His back, which had shielded Xie Fu for barely half a second, had already gone numb from the searing pain. The nerves involved were challenging the limits of the human body, unleashing the most extreme agony inside him.

He turned and saw the same wound on his left arm. The layer of flesh on the outside had almost melted and rotted away, looking somewhat horrifying.

His back must have suffered the same.

Apart from that, the basic protective gear he had received when he first came to this world had died in this unequal clash.

A large area had been burned through, and most of the engraved patterns had been destroyed. It no longer had the ability to repair itself automatically, and had become a scrap of cloth.

Fortunately, the cultivation of the past two months, these ten days of dual cultivation, and the assistance the Snow Realm Seal had given him all had a very good buffering effect on his injuries.

When he redirected spiritual power through his back, the sensory stimulation also dropped greatly.

Shen Ji withdrew his hand and sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing.

After a long while, when the external wounds had slightly healed amid the tight, itchy pain, he changed out of the clothes soaked through with blood and formed a passage, then casually threw it outside the seal.

The System did not understand. “Host, why did you throw it so far away?”

Actually, it was still holding back another question in its heart. “Also, when you were saving the great villain before, why didn’t you stay with him? Then you wouldn’t have been injured.”

He was hurt so badly that even looking at it made it feel sore all over.

Shen Ji said faintly, “Do you think I can still reconcile with Xie Fu?”

With nothing else to do, he sat down again. While forming hand seals to heal his injuries, he used casual conversation to distract himself from focusing on the wounds.

The System said, “At first, no, but when you saved the great villain yesterday, he was very seriously worried about you!”

Yesterday?

Shen Ji checked the panel and found that time had indeed already passed for nearly a day.

The System said again, “Host, you went to save the great villain this time, he must have been very moved, so moved that he even forgot to want to kill you.”

Shen Ji said, “Moved is only for a moment. When he remembers the ten days here, guess what he’ll do?”

Xie Fu was not someone who had never been moved before, and had even been moved enough to take the initiative to heal him.

Those feelings of being moved still returned to the starting point after the sixteen rounds of dual cultivation ended.

He did not think the result this time would be any different.

“...” The System also believed it without doubt. “He definitely won’t be able to swallow this!”

Shen Ji said, “Only the dead are not afraid of being hated, because they will not die a second time. Let Xie Fu be sure that I died in the Snow Realm, and even if he hates me again, sooner or later he’ll let this go.”

The System: “...”

The host’s words came in a whole set, and they sounded so reasonable.

It asked again, “Then what should we do next? Are you going to send the great villain out again?”

The host did not want to stay with the great villain, but there were countless enemies lying in wait outside, and the great villain was so weak now that going out would also be a dead end.

“No.” Shen Ji said, “Let him stay.”

Letting Xie Fu leave had no guaranteed safety, and in the end the one injured would still be him.

In the original plotline, Xie Fu had never left the Snow Realm Seal. This line of thought was the safest, and would not go wrong.

As for what happened after Xie Fu recovered his cultivation.

He believed that the red phoenix spiritual venerable, who kept creating endless trouble for Xie Fu, would definitely be ahead of him on Xie Fu’s blacklist.

As Shen Ji thought this, he used the Snow Realm Seal to search for Xie Fu’s whereabouts.

He had been locked up for a day, and he did not know what Xie Fu’s mood was like now.

Not long after, the image of the cave where Xie Fu was staying entered his mind.

To prevent him from running around, the place Shen Ji had prepared for him was sealed on all four sides. If not for the ice crystals around it providing a source of light, it would be no different from a little black room.

When he looked over, the furious anger that had rarely been fully revealed on Xie Fu’s face at parting was already gone.

He sat cross-legged, eyes closed. The face that made no distinction between joy and anger was colder and more ruthless than usual.

The instant Shen Ji saw him, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked straight at the gaze spying from the void.

Even at this point, his entire presence remained, and the imposing force of the phoenix emperor did not lessen in the slightest.

However, when Shen Ji clearly saw his eyes, he paused slightly.

Those eyes, bright silver like gold, had always carried cold clarity, unstained by dust, bringing with them an extreme sense of distance and pressure like that of an immortal.

It could be said that ever since Shen Ji met Xie Fu, he had never seen his eyes filled with bloodshot veins like they were today.

Xie Fu coldly withdrew his gaze, the hand seals in his hand complex as flying.

Behind him, the condensed silver phoenix phantom cried out like thunder, circling around his body. When his hand seals ended, the silver phoenix spread its wings with solemn force and followed the sweep of his palm, fiercely charging into the top of the cave!

The cave shook violently.

The white light lines of the seal also revealed themselves under his attack, slowly repairing the newly opened crack.

The other cracks that had not yet had time to close crisscrossed under the white light, and there were quite a few of them.

Xie Fu flipped his palm, and the hand seals in his hand changed again.

“Boom——”

A new crack cut across the white light. For a moment, the faint, cold smell of wind and snow drifted in through the crack.

Xie Fu’s gaze darkened, and he seized the opportunity to form seals again.

Shen Ji: “...”

After absorbing ten thousand years of essence, Xie Fu’s realm could be called rapid progress in a single day.

Fortunately, he woke up early. If it were a few minutes later, that little black room would no longer be able to hold this increasingly irritable phoenix.

Before Xie Fu completely broke through this layer of seal, the Snow Realm Seal faithfully carried out the intention conveyed by its master.

It suddenly opened a vertical passage beneath Xie Fu’s feet. As Xie Fu descended a fraction, it thickened a fraction above. This continued until Xie Fu was forced down to the lowest point, and all the entrances to the passages quietly closed one by one.

Xie Fu swept his gaze around, saw the stone cave not far away that was all too familiar, and his hand that was about to form seals stiffened with a tremor.

After a day of rest, the golden mark on his forehead had already been covered by silver patterns.

From now on, there would never again be spiritual power in heaven and earth that could stir the desire hidden in his bloodline instincts.

There was only one person in heaven and earth who could do this.

And this person had risked his life for him, and was now alive or dead, unknown.

The face of Shen Ji, dyed red by the towering fire shadow, was still flashing before his eyes.

The fury that was about to burst forth in his chest was still surging.

Why rush into the formation.

Why not return with him.

Trapped here, unable to leave the formation to find Shen Ji, the weakness and helplessness of the past two months had piled up layer upon layer, and today was the most powerless.

Xie Fu’s expression was severe.

The force in his palm, which had been building for a long time, flew from his hand in the peak of his wrath, and the ground faintly cracked open.

But a heavier boulder pressed on his heart. Wave after wave of tiny, unfamiliar agitation rose up, something he had never once experienced in his life, disturbing his thoughts and making his anger hard to vent, leaving only an inexplicable irritation that displeased him.

Xie Fu pressed his thin lips into a straight line, closed his eyes, and turned around.

In an instant, the narrow stone cave was wrapped in silver light, and in silence it turned to dust, spreading across the entire ground.

—

Through the host’s perspective, the System peeked at every move the great villain made, and it watched with lingering fear.

“Host, you were right after all, the great villain’s being moved really was only for a moment. Look, once he got back here he immediately started venting his anger!”

Shen Ji had already cut off his connection to the Snow Realm Seal.

Having decided to part ways with Xie Fu, there was no need to pay too much attention to Xie Fu’s movements. He isolated the other party at the bottom level of the seal, while he himself walked toward a completely opposite path.

Only one day had passed, and Xie Fu’s cultivation had already recovered to this extent. One month was enough for him to recover completely.

And after absorbing essence, the restrictions Xie Fu suffered inside the seal were weakening. It was obvious that once he recovered, this seal definitely would not be able to trap him, and there would be no need to specially transform a passage for him to leave.

That is to say, Xie Fu did not need help at all right now.

So Shen Ji planned to stay as far from him as possible.

The System asked, “Host, are we going down the mountain to look for the female lead?”

Shen Ji said, “Not yet.”

He was hurt too badly, and the aura from the phoenix fire seed on his back was too strong. Once he left the seal, if the red phoenix spiritual venerable used some method to sense that today’s formation had caused it, even if he had been completely remade, it would be very hard to explain clearly.

He had to use the month Xie Fu spent recovering his cultivation to heal his injuries as quickly as possible, so that when he and the female lead ascended together, the red phoenixes would not take him for an enemy and hunt him down again.

The important thing was not to be suspected by Xie Fu, or everything he had done would be wasted.

“All right...” Although disappointed, the System still did not interfere with the host’s decision.

Shen Ji said nothing more, and directly came to the very edge of the seal to sit down.

This was the farthest straight-line distance from where Xie Fu was. It could leave him the most sufficient time to deal with any accidents.

—

One month passed in a flash, as if someone had pressed a speed-up switch.

How fleeting time is when cultivating, Shen Ji had deeply experienced this during this period.

It had been half a month according to the System’s estimate for the seal recognizing its master. During that time, he had actually been ready to leave at any moment, but it seemed that Xie Fu’s aura had interfered with the Snow Realm Seal’s judgment. A full month had passed, and he was still able to enter and leave freely.

However, perhaps he had underestimated Xie Fu’s endurance.

Aside from the impulsiveness of the first day, when he seemed like a different person, during the rest of the time Xie Fu had remained calmly in meditation.

Shen Ji had occasionally checked his situation while healing, but Xie Fu’s sitting spot had never changed. If not for the fact that he was still breathing, he looked like a cold statue.

By today, Shen Ji had finally dispersed the remaining phoenix fire seed in his body and made the final connection with the seal’s spiritual sense.

Xie Fu’s figure still stood in the same place, motionless.

Only this time, threads of silver spiritual power were condensing around him.

The formed phantom completely enveloped him, taking the shape of a giant egg.

Shen Ji remembered that after their first dual cultivation, Xie Fu had woken up inside a gold giant egg of the same style but different color.

It looked like Xie Fu’s cultivation was about to be restored.

Since that was the case, he could not stay here any longer.

Seeing the host finally stand up, the System was also full of excitement. “Host, are we going down the mountain to look for the female lead this time!”

Shen Ji said, “Mm.”

He moved his muscles and bones a little, then first opened the points shop.

Before, he had been busy healing, and his points had not yet been used.

Now that he was going to leave the Snow Realm Seal, of course he had to make preparations in advance.

Seeing that the mission progress, which had once collapsed to the brink, was about to get back on track, and that the host, who had once been extremely unreliable, was now taking the mission’s main line seriously, the System almost cried with joy, and hurriedly flipped the pages on its own to find the “perfect disguise” it highly recommended.

“Host, hurry up and exchange it. Once you use it, we can get on the road!”

Under its impatient urging, Shen Ji raised his hand and selected it.

The System asked professionally in its excitement, “Successfully exchanged for basic perfect disguise, disguise duration is thirty natural days, use it now?”

Shen Ji: “...”

He was silent.

Because a condition that should never have appeared was appearing in that sentence.

The System was still confused. “Host?”

Shen Ji said calmly, “Thirty natural days?”

“Yes.” The System had no awareness at all, and did not understand why the host was asking this. It also explained, “The duration for basic one-time items is all quite short. Intermediate is different, the duration is 385 natural days, and advanced is even...”

Shen Ji closed his eyes and interrupted its endless speech. “Why didn’t you tell me this item had a time limit before?”

“Huh?” The System finally heard a hint of danger in the host’s tone, and hurriedly defended itself. “These things are all on the detail page. I thought the host had looked at it!”

Shen Ji opened the so-called detail page it mentioned.

Perfect disguise (basic): From the inside out, completely remade

The System recalled the conversation just now and deeply realized its mistake. It swallowed and said with a stiff scalp, “This... there’s more content below...”

Shen Ji scrolled down.

The detail page specifically introduced the effects and usage method of perfect disguise.

He only reached the last paragraph before seeing a line of tiny print like a fly.

Basic disguise duration: 30 natural days (please choose the usage period carefully)

The contents on the semi-transparent panel stayed on this page for a long time.

The System: “...”

It was so scared it did not dare make a sound.

What to do.

It had caused trouble again...

But time was passing, and the mission was continuing.

It could only put on a thick face and ask cautiously, “Host, do you still want to use the item?”

Shen Ji raised a hand and pressed his temple.

He should have known what kind of good thing would come out of the System’s mouth.

The effect of perfect disguise had indeed blinded his eyes, making him fall to the point that even the System believed it.

For this thirty-day item, he had completely offended Xie Fu through sixteen rounds of dual cultivation.

If this had happened before those ten days, everything could still be discussed.

But time could not be turned back. One had to know that among those sixteen times he forced Xie Fu, not one was innocent.

The host did not answer.

The System did not dare make a sound again.

After a while, Shen Ji said, “Use it.”

At this point, he could not go back and be brothers with Xie Fu anymore.

This perfect disguise could at least drag things out for thirty days. Once he reached the immortal realm and the main mission opened, there would at least be one or two missions issued. At that time, he would take it one step at a time.

The System perked up. “Confirmed use, please create a character.”

Shen Ji looked at the various data arranged on the panel, and lost patience after only seeing the skin color column. “There isn’t a ready-made one?”

Knowing it was at fault, the System did not dare delay. It hurriedly presented the initial models in the character column one by one.

Shen Ji swept over these faces, all of which were quite outstanding in appearance. “Change to an ordinary model.”

The System said softly, “These few really are handsome faces that have been praised to the skies, but compared with the host they’re already quite ordinary...”

“What are you muttering about?”

“Nothing!” The System came to its senses and said with difficulty, “These are the only initial models. The rest all need manual adjustment.”

Shen Ji frowned.

If he wanted to change his appearance, a common face was the easiest to hide among the crowd.

But manual adjustment was too troublesome. In the end he still randomly chose one from among them.

After the selection was successful, the System’s reminder sounded again.

“Perfect disguise has been successfully used, please name the new character.”

Shen Ji said, “Li Chenyin.”

The original body roamed everywhere in the mortal realm and made a living by capturing demons, basically had no friends, and the demon race that captured him because of his heavenly spiritual cauldron body would not bother to understand the life history of a mortal either. This name would not reveal any flaw.

The System: “...Naming successful.”

What a lazy host.

Even the name had to be picked ready-made, too lazy to even think of one.

Shen Ji condensed a water mirror and got used to this face from side to side. Finally, amid the System’s excited cheers, he left the Snow Realm Seal.

Before leaving the cave entrance, he first looked over the surrounding environment.

There were no red phoenixes guarding the edge of the seal where he was. Straight ahead was a road leading directly down the mountain.

While he was checking the map, the System asked, “Host, now that you’ve changed identity, how are you going to meet up with the female lead?”

Shen Ji said, “Just in case, I’ll wait for her at the immortal-mortal barrier seal.”

His injuries had already healed, and the spirit-dispersing powder had mostly been resolved before under Xie Fu’s care. There was no need to go to Shouluo Village.

The System repeatedly agreed. “That’s right, then it’ll be foolproof!”

Shen Ji summoned his mount while it was speaking.

But the Wind-Chasing Leopard, the moment it leaped out of the cave entrance, suddenly became heavy-footed and nearly stumbled and fell.

Shen Ji timely sent spiritual power into it, and only then did it flap its wings and stomp its feet to steady itself.

The System was also startled by the suddenly shaking view. “What’s wrong with it?”

The spiritual power Shen Ji had infused into the Wind-Chasing Leopard traveled through its meridians, and he did not find anything unusual.

Not injured?

Shen Ji dismounted, about to check whether there were external injuries on its body that spiritual power had missed, but as soon as he took a step forward, a soundless low groan came from under his feet.

He looked toward the sound.

A man with a deathly pale face had blood seeping from the corner of his lips. He was unconscious, lying on the ground in a half-dead state.

The System drew in a sharp breath. “Host, you kicked him to death!”

Shen Ji frowned and crouched down, pressing his hand beneath the man’s neck.

There was still a pulse.

When he sent spiritual power into the other party’s dantian, he saw the man’s whole body locked by the Snow Realm’s unique white light, with a thin layer of white frost formed deep in the snow covering his body.

As he breathed, the man’s pale cyan outer robe flowed with rosy light, easily shaking off the thin frost.

This set of clothes must be far more advanced than his basic protective gear.

Shen Ji was thinking this when a cold hand suddenly reached out and gripped the wrist of his hand forming the spell.

The man struggled awake, and a flash of fire passed through his eyes, not quite matching his refined appearance.

Seeing Shen Ji, he forced a grateful smile onto his painful face. “Was it you who saved me?”

The System: “...”

With its dislike for fools, it explained to the host, “The Snow Realm Seal has a bad habit of sucking spiritual essence. This person should be the unlucky one it locked up and sucked.”

Shen Ji swept a glance at the blood at the corner of the man’s lips, then asked, “How do you feel?”

As he finished speaking, he touched the shackles the Snow Realm Seal had left on him from an unseen corner.

The white light dispersed, and the man’s gratitude toward him grew even greater. Even in such a state, he still did not lose his manners. “Many thanks to the immortal lord for saving me. I am in such a sorry state, I cannot rise to offer my respects. I hope the immortal lord will forgive me.”

Shen Ji did not specifically clarify his misunderstanding. He only said, “Can you stand up?”

The man said, “I’ll try.”

As he spoke, he propped himself up with his arm, but before his upper body could rise, he lost strength and fell downward. Shen Ji supported him back with spiritual power.

The System said, “Host, what do we do? This person looks badly drained. Are you going to save him?”

Shen Ji did not want to save him.

The man’s words and behavior were proper and measured, and he wore expensive magic treasures. The moment he opened his mouth it was immortal lord, so he definitely was not some simple character.

Right now, he least wanted any entanglement with people like this.

But to stand by and not save him?

Shen Ji let out a light sigh. “Where are you from? I’ll send you to the seal passage.”

However, the man gave a bitter smile and shook his head. “Right now, these evil consequences were all brewed by my own sins. It’s better not to go back for now.”

Shen Ji looked at him.

Forget it.

Xie Fu still had not come out of seclusion, and the time limit had not yet arrived.

There were still a few days left. Saving a life would count as accumulating virtue.

After all, after coming to this world, his luck really needed some good fortune.

“If you’re willing, you can come with me first.”

At his words, the man looked up at Shen Ji, his expression somewhat surprised, then turned into a gentle smile. “Then I’ll trouble the immortal lord.”

Shen Ji circulated spiritual power to carry him up onto the Wind-Chasing Leopard. “No need to be so polite. I can only take care of you for two or three days. What you need to think about is what to do after that.”

The man smiled and said, “To have two or three days is already very good. How could I ask for more?”

Shen Ji chatted with him off and on, and almost crossed most of the Snow Realm, arriving at a cave near the immortal-mortal seal.

The man regulated his breathing for a long time along the way. When he got down, his steps were still somewhat unsteady, but to avoid disturbing Shen Ji, he specially chose the very corner of the cave to sit cross-legged and meditate.

During the three days of healing, even though he cultivated all day, whenever he heard Shen Ji return, he would still open his eyes and greet him gladly.

Very polite.

Unlike a certain stupid bird, who had spent so long together with him and still never knew how to write the two words polite.

Shen Ji took a bite of the slightly sour and sweet fruit in his hand. Thinking back over the past three months, these recent three days of leisure seemed especially precious.

He gave a slight nod to the man who looked over at him, and was just about to enter the cave when a fragment of stone suddenly fell from above his head without warning and smashed in front of his feet.

Immediately after that.

The ground also trembled lightly.

Shen Ji was thoughtful as he turned to look deep into the Snow Realm Seal.

The man changed the movement of the hand seal he was making to close it, then gracefully stood up and walked to the cave entrance to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

At the distant edge of the sky, a vast anomaly was unfolding.

The silver-gold phantom that saturated the firmament flew calmly between the suddenly brewing dark clouds of lightning and thunder, silver flames trailing along both wings as they touched the ground. In the gradually darkening darkness, it shone brilliantly, like its owner, impossible to ignore.

Xie Fu had come out of seclusion.

The System also shouted nervously, “It’s the great villain!”

Rumbling roars like the collapse of heaven and the splitting of earth rolled over mountains and ridges, still carrying the overwhelming power Xie Fu had released when he broke through the seal.

Shen Ji could still faintly sense the seal’s helplessness as it resisted Xie Fu.

In the image transmitted to his mind, Xie Fu stood on empty air, using the power of one man to contend with the aura left behind by the gods, and he did not fall behind in the slightest.

The formation that had been forcefully broken on the ground was slowly repairing itself, while the white light in the sky that had been evenly matched was gradually fading.

Xie Fu formed a two-finger point toward the formation eye, his movements somehow looking fierce, clearly wanting to settle this as quickly as possible.

Behind him, the surging phoenix shadow condensed with the divine beast pressure that forced all beasts to kneel, transforming into a rolling sea of giant flames as it howled and dove!

The white light resisting it retreated step by step.

Just as the silver flame was about to pour into the formation eye, the outline of the ancient seal flickered faintly on the ground and quietly vanished.

The live connection to the seal was cut off. Before Shen Ji could try again, the pressure he had once felt in Minghuang City suddenly spread across the Snow Realm.

Invisible ripples surged through the entire sky of the Snow Realm, bending the pine forests and collapsing the snowfields.

Beside him, the man who had always been elegant was also pressed by the emperor’s pressure so that both feet sank down, and his expression finally changed.

“It seems fate is like this.”

The man looked at Shen Ji, worry on his face. “I never thought Xie Fu would recover his cultivation so quickly. If the immortal lord and I go together, I’m afraid you’ll be implicated because of me.”

Implicated?

Shen Ji realized something was wrong.

These past three days, the man had been healing, and he had not asked about the other party’s identity yet.

“Leave the Snow Realm first and then talk.” The man sped up slightly. He glanced at the seal passage. “Does the immortal lord have a scroll with him?”

Shen Ji asked back, “A scroll?”

“Then you didn’t bring one.” The man understood, and hurriedly glanced in Xie Fu’s direction. “Because of the urgent situation, I ask that the immortal lord go back to the Three Spirit Realm with me first.”

No matter how urgent it was, he would not go to the Three Spirit Realm.

The refusal was already on Shen Ji’s lips.

But the man’s left hand had already gripped his forearm, and in his right hand fire light flashed. A jade scroll burst with blinding light, instantly wrapping both of them up.

The System shouted in panic, “The seal is about to be broken, host, don’t——”

The next moment.

The figures of the two disappeared at the same time.

—

Deep in the Snow Realm.

The snow mountains, deprived of the protection of ancient power, were exposed without concealment under the phoenix emperor’s divine sense.

Xie Fu’s attention did not linger on any bystanders.

The red phoenixes, frightened out of their wits, seized the chance to escape, and he did not strike.

In the span of a breath, he flashed down.

Seeing the snowy ground before him, his heartbeat suddenly trembled into disorder.

Shen Ji’s aura was buried under this patch of snow.

He slowly raised a hand, and a torn old garment stained blood red in the snow was instantly taken into his palm.

The world seemed to fall into dead silence.

The mortal who had always been best at spouting nonsense and smiling in his mind was still meeting his gaze there, but the reckless figure was silently stained by this layer of blood color.

Xie Fu’s breathing gradually grew rough.

The familiar aura froze into ice, cold enough in his palm to pierce straight into the bone.

This gray-blue tight garment, whose original color could no longer be seen, was shabby everywhere even if it had been completely intact, but it was Shen Ji’s only protective magic treasure.

But now the magic treasure was damaged.

The owner of the magic treasure was left with only a patch of filthy blood.

Xie Fu tightened his fingers and lowered his eyes to look at this hand that was actually trembling slightly.

He pressed the bloodstained old garment against the front of his heart that was aching dully for no reason, and heard the heavy breathing by his ear that did not seem to be his own.

Impossible.

His expression turned even colder, and in his silver eyes storm clouds raged with a frightening violence, hiding an even deeper, every moment more and more devastating tearing panic.

Shen Ji absolutely could not die so easily.

Author’s note:

System: I really was wrong, I’ll dare again next time