*Whoosh---*

At night, the cold wind, wrapped in fine snow, howled on the mountaintop.

Four masked cultivators dressed in white gathered in a large cave, playing dice and drinking.

"Big! Big!! Big!"

"It's open~ Hey, little brother, keep drinking!"

"Are you f*cking scamming me? I'm not playing anymore!"

One of them looked at the points in the dice cup and flipped the table in anger, then stood up, walking toward the cold and windy cave entrance.

The others in the cave ignored him as they put the table back and started shouting again.

*Clack clack---*

The sound of dice colliding in the dice cup continued, and the dealer smashed the dice cup on the wooden table with a "thud".

"Come on! Bet on it! Big or small!"

However, just as he finished speaking, a strange sound came from the entrance of the cave.

*Swish---*

"Uh..."

The remaining three people paused for a moment and looked toward the cave entrance simultaneously. Their younger companion who had just walked out for a breather was no longer in sight.

"Little brother?"

"..."

No one responded.

The only sound left in the cave was the whistling sound of snow outside and the crackling of wood burning in the bonfire.

"Little brother? Did you fall down the mountain?"

The man shouted again, and seeing that his brother still didn't answer, he put down the dice cup and walked out of the cave.

"Little brother?! Brother!! Bro..."

Just as he came out of the cave and looked to the side, he saw a corpse whose neck had been pierced by a sharp weapon, lying quietly at the edge of the cave.

The man's mouth hung open, and his eyes slowly widened.

Although his brain had processed and he knew that an uninvited guest had arrived, his body did not react fast enough.

*Swish---*

A silver light flashed across his neck, and his head instantly turned one hundred and eighty degrees backward.

The last image he saw in his life was a pair of emotionless dark purple eyes and an extremely handsome face, even through a veil.

After slashing his neck with a dagger, Ye Anping pushed him onto his younger brother, and then turned into a white shadow and flashed into the cave.

"Ah?! Go and ring the bell..."

*Swish---*

"Ahhhhhh---!"

*Swish---*

With the two flesh-piercing sounds, the cave fell silent again.

Holding his sword in his hand, Ye Anping looked at the corpses of the two demonic cultivators with a cold glance. He burned them to ashes with fire talismans before raising his head to look at a bronze bell placed in the cave.

He immediately stepped forward and cut off the bell tongue.

"It seems to be around here. It's really well hidden."

He threw the bell tongue to the ground, put his index finger and thumb into his mouth, and whistled twice. Li Longling, who had been waiting in the snow outside, walked in, carrying the Fire Phoenix.

Glancing at the demonic cultivators lying on the ground, she asked, "Anping, we've already killed seventeen demonic cultivators. How many people did Jiang Mojiao recruit?"

"I'm afraid it's all the demonic cultivators within a radius of five hundred miles. They've all been summoned here by him with the Demonic Summoning Order."

Ye Anping sighed helplessly. He almost felt sorry for the Elders of the six demonic sects, to have such a shithead among them.

This time, the six demonic sects sent their disciples to the **Northern Region** with the primary task of creating diversions while looking for the main knot of the *Heavenly Cold Formation*.

In other words, this was a covert mission.

However, Jiang Mojiao, that fool, called all the demonic cultivators within a radius of nearly eight hundred miles with a single "Demonic Summoning Order", as if he was afraid that the **Cold Country** would not catch them all in one fell swoop...

Ye Anping sized up the environment in the cave, then took out a few talismans from his storage bag before turning to face Li Longling. A trace of worry flashed in his eyes.

"Longling, you..."

Li Longling interrupted him immediately. "Don't worry about me. I told you I'm not for decoration. You just go deal with your things."

"Well..."

Ye Anping nodded and took a step forward, placing the talismans in her hand. Then, he turned to look at the Fire Phoenix perched on her shoulder, staring at him.

"Ah Feng, protect your master."

The Fire Phoenix's red eyes widened slightly, and it turned its head, waving its wings condescendingly, as if saying, *"Humph! I don't need you to tell me!"*

Ye Anping reached out and patted its head. Finally, he added a handful of firewood to the bonfire at the side, put on his bamboo hat again, and walked out of the cave.

The wind and snow continued to blow. Under the influence of the cold weather, his breathing turned into a white fog that gathered under his scarf.

Ye Anping turned and glanced back at Li Longling, who had already sat cross-legged in the cave and started to condense her energy. Then, he walked through the snow, leaving a series of footprints that headed toward the forest nearby. His figure was gradually swallowed up by the flying snow.

After a while, a fiery red figure launched from the cave.

*Yiiii---!*

It shot up a thousand feet into the air.

The mountains within a hundred miles reflected in Li Longling's eyes.

...

Ye Anping entered the snowy forest alone, his eyes alert to the surroundings as he used visual techniques to look for the location of that Jiang Mojiao's cave.

On the trees in the forest, there were more or less traces of the parasites' gnawing.

Following these traces, he leaped across the branches, heading west. When he had run about half a mile...

*Jingle-ling-ling---*

A bell rang unexpectedly in his mind.

*Jingle-ling-ling---*

Hearing the crisp sound, Ye Anping's eyes widened slightly, and he immediately took out the bell that Si Xuanji gave him from the storage bag, holding it in his palm.

The *Star Returning Bell* was currently flashing with fluorescent lights, just like when he met Ye Waner in the **Central Region**.

The first thing that came to Ye Anping's mind was, Si Xuanji came here?

However, he quickly erased this thought. Si Xuanji and the **Cold Country** Empress had a deep feud, and she would never come here.

"Is it Ye Waner? Impossible."

Ye Anping frowned and shook his head. He had roughly come to a conclusion in his heart, but he was very puzzled. "Why did old lady Si go and hang a bell on Gu Mingxin? When was that? During the time in the ***Imperial*** Sect?"

If Si Xuanji had gone to find Gu Mingxin after they escaped, why hadn't she killed her for them?

And what was the purpose of giving Gu Mingxin the bell?

Did she want him to be aware of Gu Mingxin's location at any time so that he could set a trap in advance?

Or did she want to make it easier to find Gu Mingxin later?

...

This was completely different from the development in the game. Ye Anping couldn't guess Si Xuanji's intentions at this moment, mainly because there were too many possibilities...

In the end, he stopped thinking about it.

In any case, this saved him from slowly looking for Jiang Mojiao's cave and also confirmed that Gu Mingxin and her group had really got together with him.

A prophecy came true.

Ye Anping smiled helplessly and addressed the *Star Returning Bell* in his hand: "Sister Gu... I haven't seen you for three years, did you miss me?"

Just as he said this, Ye Anping's ears perked up, and in an instant, amid the whistling of the wind and snow on the mountaintop, he caught the sound of gears of the divine traveling boat in the southwest direction and looked up.

A flying boat with the flag of the **Cold Country** appeared from behind a distant peak.

The boat was surrounded by countless golden lights of flying swords.

---The girls have arrived.

Ye Anping exhaled slowly, pressed down the bamboo hat on his head slightly, and took down the *Snow Jade Spirit Sword* on his back. Holding the hilt, he followed the direction of the *Star Returning Bell* in his mind and sped ahead.

...

On the deck of the boat, there were more than twenty *Foundation Building*-stage and two early-stage *Core Formation* *Snow Guards* wearing silver armor and standing in formation with spears in their hands.

At the front of the deck, Xu Mulan, Pei Lianxue, Xiao Yunluo, and Feng Yu Die stood around a map.

Xu Mulan, Xiao Yunluo, and the others were discussing the arrangements for later in a low voice, while Feng Yu Die was standing at the side of the ship. She was leaning on the railing, looking at the white mountains in the distance while chewing the roasted chicken prepared by Ye Anping for her.

Xiao Tian sat on her shoulder with her legs crossed. *"Yu Die, why are you so sad?"*

Feng Yu Die pouted as she leaned on the railing and replied. "I feel anxious again. Doctor Zhou from the ***Black Star*** Sect said I was fine before I formed the core, but..."

As she spoke, she slightly pulled open her collar and looked at the spot where Ye Anping had stamped the 'quality inspection seal' on her.

Those ink marks from back then gradually disappeared when she formed her core.

She used to think that it was Ye Anping's *Nine Dragons Heavenly Seal* that caused her panic, but when she went to Ye Anping's place to eat roasted chicken some time ago, she found that perhaps the culprit that caused her panic was Ye Anping himself.

As long as she saw his face, she would not panic.

But once she wasn't around Ye Anping and thought of him, her heart began to flutter.

Moreover, the roasted chicken Ye Anping gave her tasted better than the roasted chicken she bought in the store...

Feng Yu Die looked at the half-eaten roasted chicken in her hand and tilted her head. "Xiao Tian, do you think Young Master Ye drugged these chickens?"

With a dull expression, Xiao Tian spread her hands, sighing. *"Do you want to hear the truth?"*

"What truth?" Feng Yu Die frowned and answered with a look of disgust. "Are you going to say again that I'm in love with Master Ye? I'm not such a fickle person."

*"You answered very quickly~"*

"Go away!"

Feng Yu Die rolled her eyes, then turned back to look at Pei Lianxue, who was seriously discussing the action plan of the Snow Guard with Xu Mulan, and smiled with satisfaction. "Sister Pei is so cool!"

Xiao Tian sighed and ignored her, looking into the distance. However, with just one glance, she vaguely saw four or five figures in white clothes on top of a mountain in front of her.

*"Yu Die!! Over there!!"*

"Eh?!"

Feng Yu Die looked in the direction she pointed, but before she could squint her eyes to see clearly, a bell chime suddenly resounded in the valley below.

*Dong--! Dong--!*

The bell caught the attention of Pei Lianxue and the others who were still talking.

Pei Lianxue narrowed her eyes and looked over the railing of the ship.

"Commander Xu, this is it. Yunluo, Second idiot, and I will go after that *Nascent Soul* demonic cultivator. The rest of the demonic cultivators are yours to deal with."

Xu Mulan nodded slightly and cupped her hands. "Well, have a safe journey, and be careful."

At this moment, a blood-red pillar of light shot into the sky from the depths of the snowy mountain ahead.

Then, a second, a third!

A total of five light beams formed a cover with the snow-capped mountains in front as the center, covering an area of dozens of miles in radius.

At the same time, dozens of purple flying swords rose from the surrounding peaks and encircled them.

Xu Mulan held the spear in her hand, turned around to face the neatly lined *Snow Guards* behind her, and hit the ground with the spear handle. *Thump thump---!*

"All *Snow Guards*, attention! Prepare for the fight!!!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

The voices of the twenty women were like thunder, resounding through the mountains and forests. Summoning their flying swords, they flew out from the deck like fireworks.

In just a moment, the radiance of spiritual power and the light of swords illuminated the **Flying Snow** mountain pass.

Pei Lianxue stepped forward, lifted Feng Yu Die by the collar, and nodded to Xiao Yunluo. Then, she jumped down from the side of the boat, stepping on the flying sword before rushing straight to the mountain in the center of the formation.

...

*Drip-drip-drip-drip--*

Water droplets on the stalactites slowly fell, creating rhythmic light echoes in the empty stone room.

Gu Mingxin, who was lying on the soft bed covered in bandages, suddenly opened her eyes and sat up as if she had sensed something.

But just as she sat up, she felt a sharp pain in her forehead, and she gritted her teeth, letting out a mournful cry. "Uhh..."

Beside the bed, Wu Tianci was scanning a martial arts manual in the dim candlelight, while behind a screen, Lu Meimei was enjoying the pleasure of sex with a young demonic cultivator who had come a few days ago.

Gu Mingxin looked at Lu Meimei in disdain and asked, "Brother Wu, how long have I slept?"

"It has been nine days since we arrived." Wu Tianci put down the scroll in his hand and answered calmly. "In these nine days, Jiang Mojiao's summoning order has attracted seventy-nine *Foundation Building* demonic cultivators. There are also two other *Core Formation* cultivators besides us."

"..."

Hearing this, Gu Mingxin suddenly had the urge to rush out and kill Jiang Mojiao. His action directly exposed all the demonic cultivators who had sneaked into the **Northern Region**.

However, Wu Tianci nodded cheerfully and said, "Sister Gu, now we have someone to take the blame for us. At least, when we return to the **Eastern Region**, we can give the Elders an explanation."

"..."

Originally, the demonic cultivators had been exposed by the wanted notice for the three of them, but now that Jiang Mojiao had caused such a big ruckus, they would be able to shift the blame as long as they insisted that Jiang Mojiao was responsible.

Wu Tianci motioned her to rest assured. "After we help him deal with the *Snow Guards*, we can kill him and take him back to cover our asses."

"Got it."

Just at this moment, there was a loud "boom", and a violent vibration could be felt in the entire stone room.

Wu Tianci looked at the stalactites on the ceiling and sighed. "It seems that the *Snow Guards* have found us... Sister Gu, I'll go help. You should continue to rest."

Gu Mingxin nodded slightly. She had no intention of fighting with the *Snow Guards*, so she simply lay down and waved her hand. "No need to go out of your way."

"I have my measure."

Wu Tianci nodded and stood up, ready to go out and help.

However, at this very moment.

*Jingle-ling-ling---*

A crisp bell rang, startling Gu Mingxin. Her eyes widened instantly, and she quickly took out the bell she had obtained from the strange little girl in the **Central Region**.

"..."

Wu Tianci had just walked to the door of the stone room when he saw that Gu Mingxin's expression was not right. He asked, "Sister Gu?"

***"...Liang Xiaoliu!!!"***

With a sharp roar, Gu Mingxin immediately rolled off the bed. She summoned her blood-colored sword from her storage bag and pushed Wu Tianci out of the way, rushing out.

Confused, Lu Meimei stopped her movements and turned around to look. "What happened to Sister Gu?"

Wu Tianci frowned, and without paying any attention to Lu Meimei, he quickly chased after her. Seeing that the two ran away without saying a word, Lu Meimei slapped the tender brother who had become skinny under her.

"Little cutie, wait for Big Sister to come back~~"

*Boo~~*

She jumped off the young demonic cultivator and chased after them, naked.

"Sister Gu! Brother Wu!! Hey!! Wait for me!!"