Xú Lán flew blind with euphoria, her mind focused solely on crossing the distance that separated her from her Master.
Suddenly, the mark on her soul vibrated.
"Go back and guard the seal. We'll take a little while to arrive."
She halted so abruptly that the air cracked around her. The ice woman's face burned. She covered her cheeks, clenching her teeth in shame. Idiot. Idiot! The treasure had been left behind. She had abandoned it like a hound just to run after her owner. If the red-haired fox knew about this, she would laugh at her incompetence for a century.
With a sharp turn, Xú Lán shot back toward the canyon.
When she landed in silence on the rim, her eyes darkened. A dozen cultivators in purple robes already surrounded the seal, clamoring that the fissure was a blessing and that the canyon now belonged to the Purple Flame Sect.
Xú Lán's killing intent boiled. Instinct screamed to impale every one of them and paint the ice red.
But before she could make any move, the air trembled and an Elder descended from the heavens. The man looked younger than the disciples. When he landed, he hooked her erratic aura from a distance. He narrowed his eyes upon noticing the similarity of the Qi signature.
"Stop right there! Don't touch it! I saw it first!" Xú Lán shouted when she saw him staring at her.
The Elder frowned at that… childish attitude.
"Guarding a treasure makes a man guilty," the Elder warned.
"I'm a woman, you idiot!" she answered, stamping her foot on the ground, indignant.
The vein at the Elder's temple throbbed, exhausting his patience for diplomacy.
"This territory and the treasure beneath it have been claimed by the Purple Flame Sect," the Elder declared, his deep voice amplified by Qi. "Undo your seal and withdraw. If you cooperate, our sect will be virtuous enough to overlook your invasion."
"What irritating insects," Xú Lán murmured to herself. "Don't you know the rule of first come, first served?"
The disciples exchanged lost looks, but the Elder's face darkened in understanding.
"I believe the fellow cultivator is referring to… whoever has the bigger fist makes the rules."
Xú Lán covered her lips with her sleeve. Her shoulders trembled slightly, and a crystalline laugh, loaded with scorn, echoed through the canyon.
She ignored the Elder, floated to the dome, sat in the air with her legs crossed, and rested her chin on her hand.
The Elder's face twisted. With a dry nod, he ordered the attack.
The disciples unleashed various techniques against the seal. Explosions raised curtains of snow and steam, shaking the stones of the canyon. When the dust settled, the Absolute Ice remained mirrored, without a single scratch.
Up above, Xú Lán swung one foot.
"Pathetic. Burn your own vital essence. Who knows, maybe then you'll manage to melt an inch of my seal before the next millennium," the woman shouted.
Veins jumped on the Elder's neck. Brute force would not work, which forced him to growl an order to retreat.
Sweeping his hand over his own spatial ring, dozens of crimson banners flew out and drove themselves into the snow around the seal. The Elder channeled the fire formation against the ice, while Xú Lán continued to laugh above, waiting for her Master's arrival.
------
Back on the terrace, Zhì Yuǎn's smile returned, replacing the relaxed malice with a predatory gleam.
Yù Qíng had barely finished filling the teacup.
"My Heaven, did something happen?" she asked, her voice soft.
"It did," Zhì Yuǎn answered, dark eyes fixed on the horizon beyond the terrace. "Who wants to explore a new world?"
Before the words even settled on the white stone table, a blur leapt.
"Me!"
Yù Méi did not even think twice. The youngest kicked her chair, appeared beside him, and grabbed his arm with both hands. Her eyes shone.
The adventurer's excitement, however, was only the spark. Mò Yán released a low laugh, rising with the grace of a diplomat who had just smelled profit.
"If there's a new world, there will be treasures," Mò Yán commented, smoothing the silk of her own sleeve. "We can't let Second Sister go alone and steal all the fun."
Huáng Bìyù and Bái Wǎn were already on their feet, and even Qīng Yǔ displayed a sharp look of curiosity. Yù Qíng silently set the teapot on the table and rose, serene.
"A morning outing will do all of us good," the First Wife decided.
Zhì Yuǎn gave a deep laugh, approving his women's readiness. He then turned his gaze to Lín Jié. She was still frozen beside her chair, lost in the rhythm of her new family.
"Let's finish breakfast first," he said, gesturing for them to sit again. "After all, my Jié needs to recover her strength before we go exploring."
------
The morning stretched on for another shichen.
The gorge had turned into a hell of steam and freezing winds. The Refining Formation operated at full capacity, the crimson banners vibrating violently.
The disciples of the Purple Flame Sect were scattered across the snow, pale, panting, and swallowing Qi pills in desperation. Even the Elder, whose initial arrogance had been unshakable, now displayed thin beads of sweat on his forehead. His core throbbed from the continuous effort of maintaining the formation's fire, but the dome of Absolute Ice remained untouched, mocking all the orthodox power poured against it.
Xú Lán had lain on her back atop the dome. She spun an ice dagger between her fingers, laughing to herself, sustaining the seal's energy in an undetectable way.
"If I knew you were this weak, I would have gone to sleep," she provoked, her voice echoing lazily through the steam.
The Elder clenched his teeth. He had already informed the sect that he had taken over the investigation, preventing another Elder from coming to seize the vanguard and his… reward. He was about to order them to burn vital essence to speed the process when, suddenly, the ambient Qi stopped flowing for a moment.
Riiiip.
The grotesque sound of space being torn silenced the howl of the wind and the crackle of the flames. A few hundred zhang up, the fabric of reality cracked and opened like a black curtain.
From the dimensional void, a leather boot stepped onto the air. Zhì Yuǎn emerged floating under the cloudy sky with the posture of someone who had just enjoyed an excellent banquet. Immediately behind him, the seven wives stepped out of the portal, talking in low, relaxed tones.
And materializing in the rear like two sharp blades, the family's two guard hounds emerged: Lóu Jiàn and Jiàn Wúshuang.
The two did not hesitate. They released their Qi ripples simultaneously, sweeping the gorge with a lethal aura.
Atop the dome, Xú Lán stopped spinning the dagger. Her eyes narrowed. She would know those signatures even without divine sense. She clicked her tongue in irritation.
Tch. If Jiàn Wúshuang and Zhào Fēng are already at the Third Stage… she thought bitterly. Then that bitch Feng is already far ahead of me too.
Down below, the impact of the auras was devastating. The Purple Flame disciples, already exhausted, were forced into the snow. The Elder himself, whose cultivation had barely stabilized at the First Stage of Immortal Establishment, felt his knees weaken and the blood drain from his face.
The chill cleared the man's mind. He assessed the scene in a jolt: a young man whose aura did not even exist, surrounded by dazzling women, casually escorted by two Third Stage monsters. The karmic veils that hid their presences and slightly distorted their features only confirmed the Elder's desperate deduction.
An heir, the Elder concluded, swallowing hard. To have protectors of that caliber, he can only be the Young Master of some hidden ancestral clan out for a stroll.
The Elder's pomp evaporated. He hastily adjusted his posture, undid the hand seals maintaining the fire formation, and bowed deeply in the air, forcing a diplomatic smile bathed in cold sweat.
"Greetings, Young Master! Greetings, Fellow Cultivators!" the voice sounded reverent. "It is an honor to cross paths with such a formidable retinue. I apologize for the chaos, but we of the Purple Flame Sect were forced to intervene at this site. We were trying to contain and purify the schemes of this wicked cultivator, who selfishly sealed a blessing of the heavens."
Hearing the accusation, Xú Lán sprang to her feet. Boredom vanished, replaced by a fanatical gleam of anticipation. She opened her mouth to curse the Elder for the audacity of lying to her owner's face, expecting Lóu Jiàn and Wúshuang to descend and tear the head off that First Stage insect.
But the order to attack never came.
Zhì Yuǎn did not even look at the slave. Ignoring the auras of his own guards, the young master sighed, looked at the dome with a cold expression of disappointment, and turned his attention to the Elder.
"You're right," Zhì Yuǎn answered, his deep voice cutting through the gorge. "She made a real mess."
The air around Xú Lán froze—literally.
The ice woman's breath caught. His words echoed in her mind, crushing her core with the weight of a mountain. He's disappointed. I was impulsive again. He's going to discard me.
Under Zhì Yuǎn's unfathomable gaze, the assassin's mind collapsed. The woman who pierced Beast Kings without blinking felt her own Qi retreat. Hot tears formed in Xú Lán's eyes as she hugged her knees in the air, shrinking and trembling.
Down below, the Purple Flame Elder saw exactly what the young man wanted him to see. The beast shrinking in fear and the Young Master acknowledging his sect's presence. A gleam of presumptuous triumph crossed the man's eyes.
"The Young Master demonstrates admirable wisdom," the Elder praised with a wide smile. "It is comforting to see that righteousness still guides the heirs of great clans."
Zhì Yuǎn did not answer the empty praise. He did not even look at the cultivator. Keeping his eyes locked on the gorge, the "young master" raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
Crack.
The Absolute Ice shattered. It did not melt, nor splinter—it turned into silver dust in an instant, as if the law itself had been revoked by the man's simple will.
The fissure was finally exposed. A gust of Immortal Qi, dense and carrying mixed aromas of millennial herbs, swept the canyon, intoxicating the senses of everyone present.
The Purple Flame disciples gasped. The Elder himself took a step forward, conveniently ignoring the absurd power required to erase that sealing technique so easily. The treasure was there, wide open and defenseless.
Without dropping his relaxed posture, Zhì Yuǎn extended his hand toward the rift. The corner of his lips curved into a courteous smile that did not reach the coldness of his eyes.
"Feel free," he offered, his soft voice echoing through the canyon. "The honor of the vanguard belongs to the Purple Flame Sect."
Greed is a poison capable of blinding even the most cautious cultivators.
The Purple Flame Elder, seeing the opening to the pocket world wide open and the young man's apparent goodwill, lost any trace of prudence. He only saw the glory and the inexhaustible resources that Immortal Qi promised on the other side of that dimensional rift.
"The Purple Flame Sect thanks the Young Master's generosity!" the man declared hastily. With a frantic sweep of his sleeve, he led the charge: "Enter! Secure the area!"
The purple cultivators shot like arrows toward the fissure. Zhì Yuǎn watched it all with his hands crossed behind his back, the faint smile still playing on his lips. Lóu Jiàn and Jiàn Wúshuang remained static in the rear, cold eyes watching the insects run voluntarily toward the slaughter.
The vanguard crossed the threshold of the opening.
But they did not find a paradise. The Immortal Qi inside was not a refined, docile flow. It was a thick, brutal energy, mixed with the crushing pressure of an unstabilized space.
The moment they made contact with the archaic atmosphere, the difference in power among them became irrelevant.
Transcendent Stage cultivators and outstanding Nascent Soul disciples swelled and burst into a mist of blood and bone with the same ease.
The spatial pressure spared nothing. Defensive robes, weapons, and spatial rings imploded together.
The canyon was swallowed by a storm of blood and debris.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The Elder, who had advanced right behind, was caught full by the rebound of the spatial turbulence and the storm of shrapnel. His foundation at the First Stage of Immortal Establishment was what kept his body from turning into a sieve. The impact hurled him violently out of the fissure like a broken kite, tearing his robes. He collided against the canyon wall, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Despite suffering only light injuries, his mind froze for a moment. Sitting in the snow stained red, the Elder looked at the young man floating in the sky.
That "Young Master" had not been yielding territory out of fear. He had merely used them as stones to test the depth of the river.
Ignoring the horrified Elder and the metallic smell that fouled the canyon, Zhì Yuǎn floated slowly to the top of the fissure, stopping before a Xú Lán huddled in the air.
She held her breath, tears still sliding down her pale cheeks. Xú Lán expected fury, punishment, the order to go back to being a forgotten shadow.
Instead, Zhì Yuǎn extended his hand. His hot fingers brushed the silver strands from the assassin's face, and his thumb gently wiped the moisture from her cheek.
"Why are you crying?" his voice came out low, a velvet murmur that contrasted bizarrely with the pieces of flesh and debris scattered below.
Xú Lán sobbed and opened her mouth. But no sound managed to escape her trembling lips.
The lethality in Zhì Yuǎn's eyes melted into tenderness. He stroked the top of her head.
"You did an excellent job," he praised. "You found an opening to an unusual pocket world and even arranged test subjects to check the stability of the space for us. I couldn't have asked for more."
The words were like a spiritual balm to her mind.
Xú Lán's despair evaporated. The panic was swallowed by a euphoria so intense and sick that the Qi around her cracked into ice crystals. She was not discarded. She had been useful. She had done something that that bitch Feng had not!
The ice woman threw herself forward, grabbing Zhì Yuǎn's waist and burying her face in his chest, rubbing against him in a fanatical trance.
"Master…" she whispered, her voice trembling.
Down below, Yù Méi clicked her tongue, impatient. The young woman's eyes shone toward the bloodied fissure.
"Is the path clean now, husband?" the adventurer asked loudly, completely ignoring the paralyzed Elder a few steps from her. "The Qi inside looks wonderful!"
Zhì Yuǎn released a deep laugh, stroking Xú Lán's hair once more before turning his dark eyes toward the interior of the newly discovered world.
"It's perfect," he agreed.