IS Chapter 153

The snow fell harder, and things became increasingly strange.

Following the disciples from several sword sects offering a basin of little thunder weasels like they were presenting treasure, Shen Xinge actually brought over a small Qiongqi.

The Qiongqi was a bit sturdier than the thunder weasel pups. But such exotic beasts needed even more to eat, and with the adult Qiongqi killed by him, the little Qiongqi wouldn’t survive on its own.

Ye Zhuo frowned, picked up the little Qiongqi by the tip of its wing, and looked at it a few times. The thing looked like a tiger cub, struggling in his hand with a foolish look in its eyes. The bizarre feeling resurfaced, and Ye Zhuo immediately tossed the thing back into Shen Xinge’s arms.

“Raise it yourself,” he said.

“Alright,” Shen Xinge accepted. The little Qiongqi whined and bit him, but Shen Xinge didn’t change his expression. “Daoist Ye, where are you going next?”

Ye Zhuo: “Didn’t you say there were more demonic beasts coming south?”

Shen Xinge: “I’ll go too!”

In the end, not only did Shen Xinge go, but the Red Dust Immortal Ruler and a group of his disciples went as well.

The Red Dust Immortal Ruler asked the Jack-of-all-trades for a record of demonic beast invasions from the last three hundred years in the northern regions, and they deduced a total of seven lairs with powerful demons guarding them. After investigating, they found anomalies in each lair, with one even approaching a mortal town.

In previous years, when demonic beasts invaded, The Supreme Purity Mountain would gather forces from various sects to patrol the border and drive them back. But judging by Palace Master Ye’s intentions, this time they were going straight into their lairs.

“Kill them all?”

“We are compassionate, only killing those who have committed crimes.”

“What about those who haven’t?”

“Hold them down and force them to swear a Heart Devil’s oath not to harm humans.”

“Can you really hold them down like that?”

“Of course, a Nascent Soul cultivator can hold down a Golden Core cultivator, a Integration Realm cultivator can hold down a Nascent Soul cultivator, and a Tribulation Transcending cultivator can hold down a Integration Realm cultivator, right?”

“Why haven’t we seen everyone doing this in the past?”

“They’re all learning from Second Palace Master Ye.”

“Then what about the Tribulation Transcending cultivators?”

“Second Palace Master Ye will hold them down.”

For a time, the edge of the northern region was even more lively than the secret realm.

With Second Palace Master Ye around, there were basically no casualties. The Supreme Purity Mountain stayed far away, not wanting to get involved. Demonic beast materials and inner cores could be picked up everywhere. Most importantly, they could protect the human world from a great disaster, so the elders of various sects liked to send their disciples there to learn.

The only downside was that the good disciples all started wanting to become Sword Cultivators, and one by one they came to their masters for money, saying they wanted to forge Life-Bound Swords. They had no choice but to pinch their noses and send them to that little kid at the Sword Casting Valley to forge swords. The kid’s skills were indeed lacking, but his advantage was that his prices were low and he didn’t turn anyone away.

–Ye Zhuo felt like he was surrounded by more and more people.

At first, there were only Shen Xinge and the Red Dust Sword Sect, but later, disciples from other sects came out of the secret realm and inexplicably gathered around as well, which he just found noisy.

Under the setting sun and snowy wind, Ye Zhuo sheathed his sword and listened to the last words of a multi-headed snake that had committed many evils.

Of course, it was cursing him.

But as a Sword Cultivator, the enemy’s curse was actually a kind of praise. The multi-headed snake breathed its last, and several disciples went into its lair to rescue the captive food it had been keeping, a full hundred mortals who needed to be settled. There were even disciples from small sects in the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages among them. They came forward to thank the Immortal Ruler, but Ye Zhuo kept his distance.

Ye Zhuo leaned against a snow willow tree, circulating his cultivation technique.

Recently, he had been feeling that his spiritual energy circulation was somewhat intermittent. It wasn’t a big problem now, but if he couldn’t find the cause, it might become an obstacle.

For some reason, his fortune had become very good.

It was fortune, not luck. Ye Zhuo could tell the difference. After staying in the north for two months, he felt like all the great opportunities north of the human world were crashing into his sword.

His gaze calmly turned toward the crowd. In the center of several blue-clothed disciples, Ye Zhuo accurately located Lin Zhu. Lin Zhu had taken his pulse, but he had evaded the subject and hadn’t said anything. But from then on, he had followed very closely. A Tribulation Transcending Medicinal Practitioner, it was all because of that one sword strike.

Sect Master Lin was giving medical treatment to the mortals when he suddenly felt a calm killing intent behind him. He shuddered deeply and didn’t dare to look back. Medicinal Practitioners had it tough.

Abyssal Sea.

Xian Zhu decided to come and see her younger brother again.

They had only exchanged a few words that day, angering the eldest brother so much that he swam a large circle in the sea, and hadn’t returned yet.

As she walked in, Li Yuan was turning to the last page of a scroll of scriptures. On his desk was still placed that drawing of a red lotus pattern, the pattern that had once appeared on Ye Zhuo’s skin. Ye Zhuo was a Celestial Body, and only a long-cultivated Life-Bound Technique would manifest in this way. But he had searched through everything the Abyssal Sea had to offer, and hadn’t found any record similar to this pattern, not even a trace.

Perhaps there was only one explanation: this was an untransmitted supreme secret within his master’s sect.

The passage between the Dragon Realm and the Sumeru Buddhist Realm would still take some time to open.

Li Yuan closed the book.

“Not reading anymore?” Xian Zhu sat down beside him.

Li Yuan said he wanted to cultivate.

“If you like it, then go find that person to cultivate with again,” Xian Zhu said casually. “Could it really be like your brother said, that people don’t want you anymore?”

“He wants to do something. Maybe it’s something only he can do,” Li Yuan said. “But this thing is definitely more dangerous than I thought, even he doesn’t know if he can do it. He doesn’t want me in that thing, and I won’t appear in front of him, so he doesn’t feel like the things in his heart are disturbed by me.”

“?” Xian Zhu sharpened her blade in anger. She used a horse-chopping long saber. If she didn’t like someone, she would chop them with the blade. If she liked someone, she would chop them unconscious with the back of the blade and bring them back. When they woke up, they were very obedient. Where did all these broken things come from?

“Anyway, it’s just that they don’t want you,” Xian Zhu said. “Why not keep pestering him? The human race is flexible and can adapt, so it’s easy to talk to them.”

“He won’t. I just hope he gets his wish and doesn’t compromise for anyone or anything. Eldest sister, everyone is different,” Li Yuan said. “The people in your palace are the same. If you saw them, you would know that they are all different, that they are all living people.”

Xian Zhu left without a word. Stupid dragon cub, who cared about him?

Walking outside, she saw the listless Yao Zhu, and then looked at the empty corridor. She wondered, “Hasn’t elder brother returned yet? Where did he go?”

“Who knows.”

Northern Region, the last demonic beast lair had also been completely cleaned out.

The disciples were all returning to their sects one after another. Ye Zhuo shook them off and went further north, beheading several thousand-year-old demons from the far north. He finally suffered some minor injuries. Before he could adjust his breathing, the people from The Supreme Purity Mountain seized the opportunity and sent several human immortals to attack him.

Sect Master Lin, who had been with him all along, was unfortunately implicated. Medicinal Practitioners couldn’t fight, so he was really a burden. Ye Zhuo carried him while fighting and retreating, finally finding a cave to throw Sect Master Lin into and seal it up. Then, he turned around to test the quality of the human immortals.

He killed three, and the other three scattered to stalemate with him. Ye Zhuo leaned against the cave, weighing whether to kill them first or kill Lin Zhu first.

With the increased consumption of spiritual energy, that intermittent feeling became more obvious. It was hard to describe, but although there was plenty of spiritual energy in his body, there was always a portion that he couldn’t use.

This feeling annoyed Ye Zhuo. Would he not be able to use his spiritual energy after some time? He drew his sword, deciding to kill the eyesores in front of him one by one. After learning things at the Bu Du Temple, he now had experience in killing Daoist Cultivators and Boundary Realm Cultivators.

He raised his hand and swung his sword, and the other party also used their supreme Taoist techniques. In the chaos of heaven and earth, his mind was all in the sword–

–But at a certain moment, he noticed that the opponent’s movements suddenly slowed down.

Heaven and earth closed in, and his divine sense could no longer be released, as if it was isolated and sealed by supreme power.

A celestial artifact?

Ye Zhuo distanced himself from the three human immortals, but these three were also affected, unlike the mastermind. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sect Master Lin standing at the mouth of the cave, making some gestures at him. Ye Zhuo’s fingers tightened around the sword hilt. In a flash of lightning, a grand sword light, like a startled dragon, pierced straight toward his chest.

The red lotus seal instantly condensed and collided head-on with it. After a hard, deafening crash, a sword stopped three inches from Ye Zhuo’s chest, unable to advance any further.

In the brief silence, a cold voice came from behind him: “Micro-Snow Palace, Ye Zhuo?”

It was quite familiar. Ye Zhuo found it amusing.

Ye Zhuo: “What business do you have?”

“I think you understand what you’ve done,” the voice said condescendingly. “Why don’t you guess who I am?”

Extremely boring. Ye Zhuo looked at the sword. The blade was six fingers wide. It was a Dharma sword, not a killing sword. On the thick, white, cloud-like blade, there was a faint purple-blue lightning aura.

Ye Zhuo raised his hand and ran his fingers along the blade, as if appreciating the sword.

Indeed, it was a divine sword.

“The sword is named Heavy Cloud Purple Lightning,” Ye Zhuo said. “You are Jin Ming.”

The Crown Prince of the Golden Dragon Clan, Li Yuan’s eldest brother.

“You really know a lot.” Jin Ming’s anger in his chest intensified, and he sneered.

–Just as he was about to say more to mock him, Ye Zhuo suddenly exerted force with his fingers, forcibly deflecting the Heavy Cloud Purple Lightning Sword by three feet.

In the next instant, the red figure suddenly leaped up, and with a backhand, a sword came slashing like lightning!

Jin Ming hastily defended, but his mind was blank.

Jin Ming didn’t know where this blankness came from.

Was it because of this completely unexpected sword, as fierce as the Nine Underworlds, filled with killing intent?

Or was it because, at close range, he suddenly saw this sharp, gorgeous, intense, and extremely cold beautiful face?

Or was it because… under the edge of that sword, he suddenly heard the sound of his life-saving celestial artifact shattering?

On the snowy slope, the fluttering red sleeves returned to stillness. Ye Zhuo looked down, his eyes ice-cold, the sword’s edge pointing directly at Jin Ming’s throat.

The offense and defense instantly switched positions.

The indifferent voice repeated the question, word by word.

“I asked you, what business do you have?”