Chapter 2#
The newcomer stood amidst the scorching sun and frost. The snow lotus sword mark on his brow flickered faintly due to fluctuations in spiritual power, and his starry eyes were stern.
Everyone lowered their heads, silent as cicadas in winter.
An Wuxue’s expression froze slightly.
He still hadn’t managed to avoid Xie Zhefeng’s return to the mountain.
The person he had just been thinking about having no further connection with in this life was now standing high above him.
He stood dazed below.
Xie Zhefeng slowly walked down the steps.
A thousand years ago, this man had also walked towards his disheveled self with such slow steps.
Past and present intertwined, and the nightmare became clearer.
An Wuxue suddenly snapped back to his senses, abruptly lowering his head and looking away.
The thin veil hanging from his bamboo hat swayed, blurring his vision. He couldn’t see anything clearly, yet he felt the gaze of the man in front of him fixed on his body.
The man said in a deep voice, “Falling Moon Peak does not keep idle people.”
—Idle people.
This term used on him was truly novel.
Yun Zhou ran up and said cautiously, “Immortal Venerable, we… we are from the Cloud Sword Sect… Two months ago, the Sect Leader sent us with Su Xue to Falling Moon Peak. After Su Xue’s portrait was presented to the Immortal… Immortal Venerable, the Immortal Venerable kept us. But after that, the Immortal Venerable left the mountain…”
This paragraph exhausted all the young cultivator’s courage. After finishing, his legs went soft and he staggered.
The cultivators behind him lowered their heads even further, and Xuan Fang also bowed his head and remained silent.
Only An Wuxue looked up.
Xie Zhefeng walked up to him and reached out his hand towards him. Frost spiritual power, wrapped in a light breeze, blew into his sleeves.
—What is this man doing?
Trying to kill him again?
He felt as if he could once again feel the bone-chilling cold of the Han Sword light piercing his heart. His heart trembled, and he took a sudden step back.
The thin veil swayed. Before he could stand firm, the man’s well-defined hand grabbed the edge of the bamboo hat and gave it a gentle tug.
Xie Zhefeng took off his bamboo hat.
The light veil fluttered.
Beside him, Xuan Fang’s gaze paused, and his eyes shifted across his face for a moment, appearing somewhat dazed.
A flash of astonishment appeared on Xie Zhefeng’s face.
The dazzling daylight and the white of the frost and snow both pierced An Wuxue’s eyes. He blinked rapidly several times before the astringent feeling in his eyes receded.
He looked again, but the person in front of him still had that cold face, devoid of joy or sorrow.
Xie Zhefeng asked him, “What’s your name—Su Xue?”
Yun Zhou immediately answered for him, “Yes, it’s Su Xue.”
“…Xue (Snow).” The man repeated the word heavily. “Which ‘Xue’?”
Which ‘Xue’?
Which one could it be?
An Wuxue almost laughed out loud.
This time, there was no need for Yun Zhou to answer. He said in a low voice, “The ‘Xue’ of ‘clear sky after snow’, the ‘Xue’ of ‘wind, flowers, snow, and moon’…”
The ‘Xue’ of An Wuxue.
Xie Zhefeng was silent for a moment.
An Wuxue pinched his palm with his fingertips. The pain cleared his chaotic and empty thoughts. Only then did he say, “Since Falling Moon Peak does not keep idle people—” It would be better to let him leave.
Xie Zhefeng interrupted him, threw the bamboo hat to Yun Zhou, and said to Yun Zhou and Yun Yao, “Take him back.”
An Wuxue: “I…”
In the blink of an eye, Xie Zhefeng was already standing in front of that other group of cultivators at the mountain gate.
Truly a man of his word, leaving no room for argument.
Just like in the past.
Yun Zhou pulled him: “Since the Immortal Venerable said so…”
An Wuxue didn’t move.
He knew Xie Zhefeng’s way of doing things. This man would surely take that group of cultivators away for a thorough investigation in a while; he still had a chance.
At the mountain gate, Xuan Fang looked over at An Wuxue again, his expression somewhat strange.
Xie Zhefeng asked those cultivators in a calm tone, “Is the person who fell into the demonic path your fellow disciple?”
Xuan Fang withdrew his gaze and reported on their behalf before they could: “They came a few days ago, saying that a demonic weapon had infiltrated their sect, causing casualties to half of the sect. Unable to find it, they had no choice but to seal the mountain and send people to seek help.”
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes flickered slightly, but he didn’t speak.
The leader’s hands trembled. He was not at all as persistent as he had been when facing those disciples just now. He said respectfully, “We… our cultivation is poor, and we didn’t realize that someone among those seeking help had fallen into the demonic path. We hope the Immortal Venerable will forgive us and lend a hand…”
Xie Zhefeng’s gaze swept lightly over this group of cultivators, and he finally spoke: “It is the duty of the Falling Moon Peak disciples to expel impurity and seal demons. It is no big deal that you brought the demonic cultivator to the Falling Moon Mountain Gate.”
The leader lightly shook his long robes and let out a long sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Immortal Venerable, for your forgiveness…”
An Wuxue listened from the side and laughed silently—happy too early.
Sure enough, in the next moment, Xie Zhefeng’s voice suddenly deepened: “But you didn’t even notice that your disciple had been demonized for so long. How long has the demonic weapon been in your sect? Did a demonic weapon infiltrate, or did you hide it and fail to report it until it became uncontrollable?”
The leader’s legs went soft, and he fell to his knees with a “thud,” saying tremulously, “An expert in the sect found a long saber demonic weapon in a secret realm. It’s extremely powerful. We were momentarily overcome by greed—”
His voice stopped abruptly.
The sword light flashed past. The leader’s body stiffened and he fell forward.
He had actually lost his breath!
The remaining cultivators hurriedly knelt on the ground.
Xie Zhefeng’s expression remained unchanged, and he didn’t explain. He just turned around and said to the rest of the people, “Close the mountain. You all follow me.”
An Wuxue’s expression froze.
Close the mountain?
How could the mountain be closed?
He still hoped he had misheard, but Xie Zhefeng, Xuan Fang, and the others had all disappeared from before his eyes.
Xie Zhefeng came and went in a hurry. In less than fifteen minutes, it was calm again in front of the mountain gate. Only the silver frost formed when Xie Zhefeng took action just now was still hanging on the crane stone carving.
The mountain protection array descended completely, locking the mountain gate. A few people came and were cleaning up the bodies.
Yun Zhou looked around for a while, then muttered in a low voice, “…Gone? Phew… Su Xue, you were just standing blankly in front of the Immortal Venerable just now, saying nothing. I thought the Immortal Venerable was going to blame us, it scared me to death…”
Yun Yao said, “Since the mountain gate is locked and we have no urgent matters, I’m afraid we won’t be allowed to pass.”
“Su Xue, why aren’t you saying anything? Scared silly?”
An Wuxue suddenly regained his senses.
A stinging pain came from his palm. He spread his palm and saw that the finger marks on it had broken, and a trace of blood was seeping out.
He said helplessly, “It had to be now…”
If not for this demonic weapon matter, he would have already left Falling Moon Peak by now and would never have to see Xie Zhefeng again.
He looked at the mountain gate unwillingly and saw the mountain protection array maintained by spiritual energy faintly visible. The number of disciples guarding the mountain gate had increased more than several times.
Demonic cultivators making trouble, the mountain gate locked, and Xie Zhefeng returning to the mountain.
It was truly a case of the right time, the right place, and the right people—not a single one was on his side.
“Let’s go back.”
The die was cast. It was already impossible to avoid seeing Xie Zhefeng again. There was no point in rushing, so he might as well make further plans.
The spiritual boat returned the way it came.
An Wuxue sat at the end of the boat, staring at the familiar thousands of mountains of Falling Moon beneath the sea of clouds, silent all the way.
After a while, the spiritual boat stopped at the place where he was temporarily staying. Yun Yao said, “I’ll go return the boat. You guys rest first.”
Yun Zhou immediately said, “He’s the one who’s weak and needs rest. I still need to cultivate.”
Yun Yao was helpless: “The residence arranged for Young Master Su by the Immortal Venerable is right next to the Frost Burial Sea. Junior Brother, the Frost Sea is the Immortal Venerable’s grotto-heaven. You’d better be careful with your words and actions.”
An Wuxue only said, “Thank you for today.”
Yun Yao nodded and drove the spiritual boat away.
Yun Zhou let out a breath: “Finally back, that scared me to death just now. Those people said they came to seek help, and the Immortal Venerable had just said it was no big deal, yet he killed the leader in the next moment. Those disciples were taken away; will they also be punished one by one?”
“No,” An Wuxue lowered his eyes and explained, “Coming to seek help because of lack of strength is indeed no big deal. But the leader knew there was a problem with the demonic saber yet hid it and tried to keep it for himself, only seeking help when he could no longer keep the lid on it. This is aiding and abetting, and the crime is punishable by death. The ordinary disciples didn’t know about it and were innocently involved; they only need to explain the beginning and end of the matter.”
Xie Zhefeng had always been like this—decisive in killing and never dragging his feet.
An Wuxue had said similar things countless times when he was the Head of Falling Moon Peak. He didn’t restrain his tone when explaining, and it naturally took on a bit of solemnity.
Yun Zhou was shaken by what he heard and then said fearfully, “…How do you know?”
He avoided the question and instead asked a doubt he hadn’t had time to deal with in his chaotic thoughts just now: “Is it so easy to see Xie… to see the Immortal Venerable now?”
The matter of the demonic saber’s trouble could only be considered a small matter during the Immortal Calamity a thousand years ago, and it wouldn’t even have reached him and Xie Zhefeng.
“Look at what you’re saying. Do you even know what the Immortal Venerable was like before? Aren’t you from the mortal world?”
He remained calm: “Well… the mortal world also has stories and storytellers. The reputation of the Han Sword Venerable is known throughout the world.”
“Oh. Then it’s normal that you don’t know. The stories in the mortal world must be from many years ago.
“The Immortal Venerable indeed hasn’t appeared often in a thousand years, but no one knows the reason. For a while, some even speculated that something had happened to him. It wasn’t until a hundred or two hundred years ago that the Immortal Venerable began to look for secret realms and magical artifacts related to souls, and only then did he reappear before people.
“As long as it’s related to these things, the Immortal Venerable will take a second look.”
So that was it.
Xie Zhefeng was looking for something, like a needle in a haystack.
There were many strange things in this, and Xie Zhefeng’s actions were not quite the same as in An Wuxue’s impression.
But he didn’t want to think about it anymore.
He only cared about when he could leave.
He lifted his foot, preparing to return to his room.
Just as he turned around, a fluffy thing hit his arms with a “whoosh”.
Submissively, he familiarly grabbed the neck of the little thing that had pounced on him and lifted it up.
It was a small beast with wings on both sides. Its entire body was snow-white, with a bit of black around its eyes. Its four legs were not long, and its face was like that of a tiger, but its size was only enough to be held completely in one’s arms. It didn’t look like a fierce beast at all. At first glance, it looked like a gentle domestic animal raised by a mortal.
Being lifted up by An Wuxue like this, the little beast instead relaxed its four legs and let them hang down. Its wings were retracted, and its round eyes stared straight at An Wuxue. It stuck out its tongue, as if wanting to give An Wuxue’s shoulder an affectionate lick.
An Wuxue was both surprised and delighted—it was it?
The little beast made a sound: “Wuu wuu…”
Yun Zhou said from the side, “Eh, isn’t this a Zang beast?”
Zang beasts are spiritual beasts only found in the cultivation world. They are snow-white all over with wings on both sides, and their voices sound like sobbing. They mostly appear in places with thick miasma and are rarely seen on ordinary days.
Yun Zhou thought it was novel and cute and reached out to touch it, but the little beast turned its head away.
“Hey, why did you actively pounce on Su Xue but won’t let me touch you?”
An Wuxue smiled helplessly.
Because this was his spiritual pet from his previous life.
Zang beasts are naturally related to souls and are extremely sensitive to the scent of souls. It pounced over just now, mostly because it smelled a familiar scent on him.
It was actually still at Falling Moon Peak.
Falling Moon Peak didn’t take its anger out on it because of his mistake?
“Kun Kun!” Someone came flying on a sword, chasing the little Zang beast.
The person flew in front of An Wuxue and Yun Zhou and paused.
An Wuxue also saw clearly who it was.
He didn’t let go, stroking Kun Kun’s neck a few times to comfort it. Only then did he say, neither humbly nor arrogantly, “Peak Master Xuan.”
Xuan Fang didn’t seem to expect to see An Wuxue next to Xie Zhefeng’s grotto-heaven. His face showed astonishment, and he didn’t speak.
He stood with his hands behind his back, staring at An Wuxue’s face. After a long while, the astonishment slowly dissipated. He reached out and snatched Kun Kun from An Wuxue’s arms.
Kun Kun whined: “Wuu wuu…”
Xuan Fang changed how he addressed him: “This—Young Master Su? You truly have good luck. The spiritual energy near the Frost Sea is dense. Many of the sect’s great experts at the Tribulation Stage have no chance to be here, yet Young Master Su, by virtue of the Immortal Venerable’s favor, can actually occupy the nest.”
His words became sharp: “But some things are not for you to touch, so you’d better not touch them recklessly. Kun Kun is the Immortal Venerable’s spiritual pet. Before Young Master Su touches it, you’d better weigh your own worth.”
Did he eat a fire essence?
Hadn’t he just held Kun Kun? Every word was thorny and full of anger.
Perhaps he looked down on Su Xue as a furnace.
If it were a thousand years ago, An Wuxue would have put away his gentle expression and scolded the junior disciple in front of him, saying “you cannot judge a person by their appearance”.
But the Head who used to gently wipe the dirty blood from the young disciple’s palm was already dead. Xuan Fang was, to him, just a stranger he had met once at the mountain gate.
He chuckled, indifferent to Xuan Fang’s expression, and reached out to stroke Kun Kun, who was held in Xuan Fang’s arms.
“Peak Master Xuan is too fierce,” he said, “you’re scaring it.”
Kun Kun received his comfort and finally stopped its aggrieved whimpering.
Xuan Fang was momentarily at a loss for words: “You…”
Yun Zhou said in a low voice from the side, “Peak Master Xuan, it was this Zang beast that pounced into Su Xue’s arms itself…”
An Wuxue didn’t intend to mention this, lest the people of Falling Moon Peak become suspicious.
But Yun Zhou was well-intentioned. Since he had said it, he had said it. Anyway, these people couldn’t possibly perform a soul search just because of this small matter.
To his surprise, Xuan Fang only glanced at him again and didn’t have any doubts about what Yun Zhou said. He just said, “Forget it. The Immortal Venerable only let me look after Kun Kun temporarily while he was out. I still need to take Kun Kun back to the Frost Sea and return it to the Immortal Venerable…”
Holding Kun Kun, Xuan Fang summoned his spiritual sword and was about to leave when he suddenly turned back. With a wave of his sleeve, he threw a bottle of external spiritual medicine to An Wuxue.
“This thing is useless to me. Keeping it is just keeping it. You take it, lest people say Falling Moon Peak mistreats you.”
An Wuxue instinctively caught it and looked up again. Xuan Fang had already flown away on his sword.
Yun Zhou was confused: “What’s this?”
An Wuxue opened it and smelled it.
“Spiritual medicine for external injuries.”
Was it because Xuan Fang had seen the wounds he had pinched into his palm when he was comforting Kun Kun?
“Huh? You’re not injured,” Yun Zhou scratched his head. “Are all experts so temperamental? This Peak Master Xuan is so strange. He said such unpleasant things just now, but he gave you medicine before leaving…”
Who knows.
An Wuxue didn’t use the spiritual medicine. He placed it aside and continued towards his room.
Yun Zhou followed beside him: “…But that Zang beast is actually the Immortal Venerable’s spiritual pet? And it even has such a… well… a name that doesn’t seem like something the Immortal Venerable would give.”
An Wuxue raised an eyebrow at him: “Is this name not good?”
“No, no, it’s just that I didn’t expect the Immortal Venerable to raise it.”
An Wuxue was silent.
He couldn’t answer that. Because he hadn’t expected it either.
When he leaves, he’ll find an opportunity to take Kun Kun with him.
That night.
The area near the Frost Burial Sea was even colder than other places. Cultivators were not as afraid of the cold as mortals. The beds prepared for An Wuxue and the others by the people of Falling Moon Peak were just better than nothing.
An Wuxue was very cold, so he went outside to gather a lot of firewood to burn.
After finally getting a little warmer, he went to sleep.
This sleep was not peaceful at first.
He was once again submerged in those fragmented dreams of his previous life, half-asleep and half-awake, feeling groggy.
In the blurred dream, the snow lotus sword mark on Xie Zhefeng’s brow was tinged with a faint red. The man’s lips were right by his ear, and the warm breath sent out during his breathing brushed against An Wuxue’s ear, making him feel a bit itchy.
He dodged back slightly, but was immediately caught by Xie Zhefeng’s wrist, unable to escape.
“Junior Brother!” he scolded sternly.
The man whispered in his ear: “Senior Brother…”
An unknown amount of time passed.
As if those memories and chaos had been smoothed over by something, he finally had his first good sleep after waking up again.
Behind the thick fog in the distance, the bright moon flowed westward, and the frost color merged with the moonlight.
The night deepened.
At some unknown hour, the room suddenly became cold again.
The chill immediately alerted An Wuxue.
There was someone else in the room!
He flipped over and felt for the spiritual pouch containing some useless talismans and ordinary magical artifacts that Su Xue had by the bed.
The moment he turned his head, a tall figure sitting by the bed caught his eye.
The firewood had gone out, and the moonlight couldn’t penetrate the clouds. There was only a thin layer of silver light. He couldn’t see anything clearly, only the person’s silhouette.
The person sat upright. In the haze, he seemed to be turning his head slightly to look at him—the other person knew he was awake.
An extremely familiar voice drifted into his ears from close at hand, leisurely and steady, yet wrapped in solemn majesty.
“What are you looking for?”
His whole body stiffened. He wanted to retreat, but there was no way back.
He gripped the spiritual pouch he had just found, his fingers tightening slightly and then loosening.
A moment later.
He steadied his breathing and, imitating the tone of those ordinary cultivators he had heard during the day, said in a low voice, “Immortal Venerable.”