Three days later, outside the Burial Soul Hall.
"Brother Ling Tian!"
A soft call, like a secluded orchid in an empty valley, drifted in as the hall doors slowly opened.
Su Meier took light lotus steps and walked out of the Burial Soul Hall.
Behind her, nine ethereal fox tails bloomed like moonlight, beautiful and enchanting.
Ling Tian leaned against a ten-thousand-year-old ice pillar, holding his sword, his shoulders covered in three inches of snow, yet a smile, which even he hadn't noticed, played on his lips.
"Brother Ling Tian, this is..."
Su Meier's tail tip swept lightly, keenly detecting the Nascent Soul Qi emanating from Ling Tian.
"Brother Ling Tian has advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm!"
Su Meier's nine fox tails wagged excitedly, as if celebrating for Ling Tian.
Ling Tian flicked the snow from his shoulder with a finger, and the jade dragon sword automatically floated behind him.
His gaze turned to Su Meier, his eyes filled with doting affection.
He slowly raised his hand and gently stroked Su Meier's small head, "These past few days... Meier must have had a hard time."
Ling Tian's voice was low and gentle, like a wisp of warmth in the depths of winter.
Su Meier's suppressed tears could no longer be held back.
She suddenly threw herself into Ling Tian's arms and burst into tears with a "wa" sound.
Her cries were filled with grievance, longing, and the various hardships she had endured during this time.
Ling Tian stood quietly, allowing Su Meier to hold him tightly.
With the fragrant jade in his arms, a faint, delicate scent wafted into his nostrils, causing Ling Tian's heartstrings to tremble slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.
He simply used his strong hands to gently pat Su Meier's back.
Again and again.
As if comforting a frightened child, giving her endless peace of mind.
Su Meier cried as she recounted everything that had happened in the illusion to Ling Tian.
When she spoke of the third life, her earlobes were crimson like blood, and her voice trembled slightly.
She felt as if she was back in the illusion, at the moment Ling Tian lifted her red veil—
The real body warmth mixed with the fresh scent of pine needles assailed her, making her heart pound far more than the fictional touch.
"...In short, with this Young Miss's unremitting efforts! I finally obtained the complete qingqiu imperial seal Legacy! It's just a pity..."
"A pity what?" Ling Tian asked.
"It's just a pity that although I obtained the emperor seal Legacy, this Legacy is more like an ancient book. An ancient book that records the history of Qingqiu, how successive empresses Cultivated, and how they became empresses, rather than a substantial increase in power."
Su Meier clenched her small fists, her tone filled with unwillingness.
"Brother Ling Tian, do you know, I really want to avenge my clansmen right now!"
"Silly girl." Ling Tian dotingly ruffled her head.
"How can there be a way to reach the heavens in one step on the path of Cultivation? Don't worry, their vengeance, I will bear it too!"
"Oh, right! Brother Ling Tian, how did you reach the Nascent Soul Realm in just a few days?" Su Meier asked curiously.
Next, Ling Tian briefly recounted what had happened after Su Meier entered the main hall, trying to omit some of the dangerous scenes.
Su Meier looked at the messy scene around them and the bloodstains still on Ling Tian's face, and she knew that things were definitely not that simple.
Ling Tian hadn't said anything, surely because he was afraid she would worry.
She obediently didn't press for details, only feeling more heartache.
The next day.
"Meier, the snow has stopped."
Ling Tian looked at the morning light filtering through the icy roof, "It's time for us to set off."
"Mm!"
...When the Qi blade split the seventh ice wall, Su Meier huddled, wrapped in her fox tails, squatting in the snow, her nose red from the cold wind.
"Brother Ling Tian, are you sure this is the way to Dongji City?"
She deliberately elongated her final syllable, her voice soft and sweet.
The white mist she exhaled condensed into a small fox shape in the air.
"Meier thinks we're carving a maze in the ice field, hehe."
Ling Tian's Sword Qi paused slightly, and the ice shards he had cut off spun in the air, condensing into a palm-sized ice sparrow that landed on Su Meier's shoulder.
"According to the map, after passing through this ice-eroded valley, we should be able to see the outer walls of Dongji City.
The ice sparrow flapped its wings, pecking away the snow particles from Su Meier's temples.
"Someone, however, claimed they needed to conserve their Internal Energy two hours ago..."
"Ow!"
Su Meier suddenly stumbled, looking as if she was about to fall.
Ling Tian flashed to her side, and Su Meier fell right into his arms, which carried the scent of pine needles.
"This ice is very slippery, Meier, walk on the jade dragon sword."
With the fragrant jade in his arms, Ling Tian's ear tips flushed a faint red, but it was quickly hidden by the wind and snow.
Ling Tian formed a hand seal with one hand, and the jade dragon sword floated three inches from Su Meier's feet.
"Come, step onto the Jade Dragon."
Ling Tian turned around, and the Flame Dragon Breath instantly melted ten zhang of solid ice ahead... As dusk fell, the two hid in the newly built ice house.
Su Meier curled up on the ice bed, watching Ling Tian roast ice field venison with Flame Dragon Power.
The flickering firelight cast a warm glow on his stern profile.
"Meier."
Ling Tian suddenly spoke, startling Su Meier, who had been secretly using her fox tail to brush against his clothes.
"Here, for you."
Ling Tian handed her a crystal-clear ice amber, inside which was preserved a blooming snow lotus.
"I picked it from an ice crevice at noon."
Ling Tian continued to turn the venison skewers.
"I saw you rubbing your temples all day today."
Su Meier's hand, clutching the ice amber, tightened.
The snow lotus clearly grew on an ice cliff, and its petals still bore traces of Sword Qi cuts.
She pressed the ice amber to her forehead, the warmth of the fox fire mixed with the fresh scent of the snow lotus, seeping into her spiritual platform.
Then, Su Meier's small face was secretly buried in her tail, her voice barely audible:
"Brother Ling Tian is so thoughtful, Meier fears... she'll become dependent on you."
"Meier, what did you say?"
"N-nothing!"
Su Meier's cheeks instantly flushed crimson.
"Come, dinner's ready."
Ling Tian picked the tenderest venison into her bowl, while he himself picked up a lean bone and gnawed on it.
Su Meier warmed her hands with a steaming cup of snow worm tea, and inadvertently glimpsed their reflections on the ice wall—
In the reflection, her fox tail had, at some point, wrapped around Ling Tian's hem, like a silver thread, tightly linking their figures.
In the middle of the night, the wind howled even more furiously.
Su Meier heard the sound of fabric rubbing beside her.
She squinted, peeking, and saw Ling Tian using Sword Qi to cut a white wolf fur cloak into a forehead protector, carefully storing the scraps in his qiankun bag.
When that touch of warmth gently landed on her forehead, Ling Tian's gentle voice mingled with the wind:
"...So you don't keep complaining about headaches."
In the early morning, the two walked out of the ice house, and the sight before them was astonishing.
The morning light pierced the indigo sky, and billions of ice crystals simultaneously refracted faint golden shattered rays, making the entire ice field resemble a melted glazed lamp.
The ice hills carved by the fierce winds of the previous night shimmered with a pearlescent glow, like the inside of a seashell.
Three snow-plumed sparrows flew across the ice-eroded valley, the scattered snow from their wingtips drawing an arc like a silver river in the air.
"So beautiful!"
Su Meier was in a joyful mood.
"Eastward, let's go!"
Ling Tian said loudly... After traveling eastward for about three hours, the two discovered sounds of fighting faintly coming from a thousand meters ahead.
"Roar!!"
A deafening roar came from the depths of the ice field.
The twelve sled dogs instantly tensed their iron chains, growling low in their throats, making the copper bells on their harnesses jingle.
Twenty-three years of hunting experience made Xuefeng's blood almost freeze at this moment—this was the battle roar of the Ice Field Bear King!
"Net! Everyone retreat behind the ice pillars!"
Xuefeng shouted sternly, blowing a three-short, one-long warning on his bone whistle.
The six remaining hunters uniformly threw out their profound iron ropes.
The specially made barbed hooks gleamed with a faint blue, poisonous light in the sunlight.
However, the giant shadow that should have been trapped by the iron ropes vanished into thin air.
Only the suddenly spreading net-like cracks on the ice surface indicated that danger was imminent.
"It's down there!"
His sister, Xue Lan, shrieked and threw sulfur powder; in the yellow smoke, a giant bear paw suddenly extended out.
Batu, the hunter who bore the brunt, was sent flying ten zhang, crashing into the ice wall, the sound of his spine breaking clearly audible.
Xuefeng watched helplessly as "Whitefang," his sled dog of ten years, was bitten in half by the Bear King.
Hot dog blood splattered onto the ice, rising into a fishy smell white mist.
The Ice Field Bear King stood upright, its body obscuring half the sky, its amber beast eyes reflecting the pale faces of the hunters.
Xuefeng pushed his sister into an ice crevice, then drew his ancestral meteorite iron heavy arrow.
The bowstring vibrated, and a burst of blood exploded from the Bear King's left eye.
But the arrow only penetrated three inches before being firmly clamped by the Bear King's gnarled muscles.
"Its weak point is the white patch under its armpit!"
Xue Lan threw a molotov cocktail from the ice crevice, and the fire oil exploded on the bear's belly.
The other hunters seized the opportunity to throw a second wave of iron ropes, and this time, the poisoned barbs finally pierced its fur.
"Roar!!!"
The Bear King roared in pain, dragging wildly, directly flinging two hunters down the ice cliff.
The remaining iron ropes plowed deep grooves in the ice, and Xuefeng and his companions were lifted by inertia, their feet leaving the ground.
The skin on their palms was raw and bleeding from the iron chains.
Xue Lan had just leaped up, stepping on an ice pick, when she instantly regretted it.
The strong wind generated by the bear's paw directly swept away the short blade in her hand.
The young girl looked up and saw the pulsating, barbed flesh in the giant beast's throat.
The aura of death, mixed with a foul stench, rushed towards her!
At this critical moment, she heard a clear sword cry—
A figure, riding the storm, swept across the sky, and crimson Flame Dragon Sword Qi carved a cross-shaped bloodstain on the bear's eye.
"Duck."
A strange male voice sounded close to her ear.
Xue Lan instinctively curled up, feeling a bone-chilling cold sweep across the back of her neck.
Three Flying Swords, condensed from ice crystals, pierced into the Bear King's right palm, just grazing her spine.
The moment the giant beast cried out in pain, a female figure conjured a cluster of green fox fire in mid-air, guiding it along the iron ropes into the Bear King's torn wound.
Ling Tian spun and landed, the jade dragon sword already weaving a sword net around the Bear King.
He deliberately suppressed his Qi to the Foundation Establishment Realm, and the ice crystal Flying Swords specifically targeted the giant beast's old wounds.
Meanwhile, Su Meier seemingly struggled to maintain the fox fire, but in reality, she was secretly injecting true essence into the bodies of the survivors.
At this moment, Xuefeng seized the opportunity to lead his people in pulling the last few iron ropes, finally tripping the Bear King at the edge of the rift valley.
"Now!"
Xue Lan, with unknown courage, snatched the heavy bow from her brother's hand and fired the last meteorite iron arrow.
The arrow pierced the white patch under the Bear King's armpit just as Ling Tian's Sword Qi simultaneously pierced its skull.
The mountain-like beast body crashed down, exploding into a shimmering blue blood mist on the ice field.
"Finally..."
After confirming the Bear King's death, the hunters finally came to their senses and looked at the two figures, who seemed like exiled immortals.