Qin Shuying gave him a long, lingering look but said nothing more. Her figure flickered and vanished into the night, as if she had never been there at all.
The next morning, as the sky was just beginning to brighten, Shen Mo shouldered his medicine basket and changed into a robe of coarse, green cotton, waiting at the mountain gate.
Lin Jingzhe arrived right on time. She rode a Qingluan, kicking up a flurry of wind and snow as she landed. She glanced at Shen Mo’s attire, her brow furrowing imperceptibly.
‘Too simple.’
‘As the Peak Master’s Lord, even if he was gathering herbs, he shouldn’t be dressed like a mortal servant.’
‘But when worn by Shen Mo, this outfit had an indescribable, cold, and fragile quality to it — like a winter plum in the snow, making one want to… crumple him.’
Lin Jingzhe was startled by her own thoughts and quickly suppressed them, saying coldly, “Get on.”
Shen Mo said nothing and silently climbed onto the Qingluan’s back. To avoid any suspicion, he sat very far back, almost pressed against the bird’s tail.
“Sit in the front,” Lin Jingzhe commanded. “The wind is strong; if you sit in the back, you’ll be blown off.”
Shen Mo hesitated for a moment before moving forward half a foot.
“Further.”
Shen Mo had no choice but to move forward a bit more, until their robes finally overlapped.
The Qingluan spread its wings and soared, heading straight into the clouds.
The Luoxia Mountains were very far away, taking a full half a day of flight to reach.
The further north they traveled, the heavier the wind and snow became.
When they reached their destination, a vast, white wasteland stretched before them, with only a few withered, black peaks rising up like skeletons drained of their blood.
The wind was harsher than imagined, like knives wrapped in ice shards, making faint, crackling sounds as it scraped against her Protective Spiritual Qi.
Shen Mo’s hands tightened instinctively, gripping her cloak until his knuckles turned white.
Lin Jingzhe noticed.
She didn’t look back, but she slowed her pace.
The Luoxia Mountains were located in the North Realm of the East Continent, stretching for thousands of miles and covered in snow year-round.
As Lin Jingzhe had said, demonic beasts did indeed roam the area.
Only half a day after entering the mountains, she had already slain three Level 1 Snow Wolves.
Blood splattered across the snow, a jarring shade of red that was quickly covered by fresh snowfall.
Shen Mo followed behind her at a distance of 3 steps.
“The Blood-Congealing Grass is just below the cliff ahead.” Lin Jingzhe put away the Qingluan and looked back at Shen Mo after they landed.
Shen Mo’s face was pale from the cold, a layer of white frost had formed on his eyelashes, and his entire body was shivering.
His cultivation was too low; he simply couldn’t withstand the extreme cold of the spiritual energy here.
A strange light flickered in Lin Jingzhe’s eyes.
She had originally thought Shen Mo would complain endlessly or beg her to hold him.
But Shen Mo simply tightened his cotton robe and said hoarsely, “Let’s go.”
The two of them trudged through the deep snow to the base of the cliff.
Sure enough, the Blood-Congealing Grass grew in a stone crevice on the shady side. It was about half a foot tall with thick, fleshy leaves and fine serrations along the edges, emitting a faint scent of blood.
Shen Mo crouched down to confirm.
“This is it.”
“Wait,” Lin Jingzhe said suddenly. Her long sword cleared the scabbard, sweeping away the nearby snow.
Beneath the snow, several threads of ice, as thin as gossamer, were buried.
“Ice Silkworm Silk,” Lin Jingzhe sneered. “There’s an ambush by a demonic beast. It seems this Blood-Congealing Grass was bait.”
As soon as she spoke, a snow-white Snow Centipede suddenly lunged out from the snow. It was 10 feet long, its mouthparts spewing a stream of foul-smelling venom straight toward Shen Mo’s face!
With his meager Spiritual Power, Shen Mo couldn’t dodge it at all.
At that moment, a hand suddenly reached out, grabbed him by the waist, and pulled him violently into a hard embrace.
“Be careful!”
Lin Jingzhe struck with her sword, the Sword Qi surging like a rainbow, instantly slicing the Snow Centipede into two pieces.
The green venom splashed onto the snow, making a sizzling sound.
The crisis was over.
Lin Jingzhe’s fingers gently pushed aside the snow and picked up a small, dark-red plant.
“Careful, the leaves have serrated edges and the stem has poisonous thorns. If you touch it directly, your hand will rot.” Shen Mo took a pair of specially made deerskin gloves from his sleeve, put them on, and slowly harvested the herb before placing it into the Storage Bag at her waist.
His movements were fluid and graceful, without a single flaw.
Lin Jingzhe gave a half-smile and jabbed, “The Lord said he only knew how to tend flowers and watch beasts. It seems you were being modest.”
Shen Mo did not respond.
The two of them walked for a while.
Before they knew it, they had ventured deep into the mountain range.
The wind here was much fiercer than on the outer slopes.
It blew against their faces like a knife. All around them was a dense forest that seemed to have no end, with the occasional low growl of an unknown demonic beast echoing, making the place feel particularly eerie.
Another 15 minutes later, the surrounding trees began to thin, and a bone-chilling cold rushed over them.
They had gathered enough Blood-Congealing Grass.
Lin Jingzhe stopped her pace, but she didn’t turn back to leave. Instead, she turned to look at Shen Mo.
There were no signs of human life nearby, only the sound of the wind and the rustling of the woods.
It was a perfect place where screaming for heaven or earth wouldn’t help.
“Master’s Husband,” Lin Jingzhe suddenly spoke, “do you know why I brought you here?”
Shen Mo saw the expression on her face clearly.
It was the look of a cat playing with a mouse.
“Master’s Husband, the scent on your body hasn’t faded yet.”
Lin Jingzhe approached him step by step, the pressure of a Golden Core Cultivator being released almost imperceptibly, like an invisible net enveloping Shen Mo.
“Qin Shuying’s cold fragrance, and… that nauseating scent of having just finished a tryst.”
Shen Mo’s face turned cold. “I didn’t…”
“And then there’s the little junior sister,” Lin Jingzhe said, ignoring his explanation and speaking to herself, her gaze becoming sharp as a knife. “When Chao’er left, I saw the look in her eyes clearly.”
“She wants to sleep with you.”
Shen Mo’s pupils contracted suddenly.
“No… that’s impossible…”
“Impossible?” Lin Jingzhe sneered. “In this world, strength is everything. An ambitious woman like Chao’er will snatch whatever she sets her sights on. Once she becomes powerful, the first thing she’ll do is snatch you away from Master and lock you in her bedchamber to indulge in lust day and night.”
Shen Mo’s heart pounded wildly.
What Lin Jingzhe was saying coincided exactly with the intuition he’d had a moment ago.
“A pity, though…”
Lin Jingzhe suddenly leaned down and bit Shen Mo’s collarbone.
The sharp pain caused Shen Mo to let out a muffled groan.
“She’s too slow.”
Lin Jingzhe lifted her head, a trace of blood staining the corner of her mouth as she smiled like a she-devil.
She pressed in very close.
So close that Shen Mo could smell the faint scent of rust on her.
“Master’s Husband, you truly surprise me.”
Lin Jingzhe reached out, and this time, instead of using her sword hilt, she used her finger to tilt Shen Mo’s chin up.
Her fingers were very cold, just like her sword.
“On the surface, you’re a husband of pure virtue, but behind the scenes, you’ve turned Jiaoyue Peak into a complete mess. Qin Shuying, Chao’er… maybe even more people I don’t know about. Master is kept in the dark, thinking you’re a piece of precious jade. But I think…”
Lin Jingzhe leaned down and whispered in his ear, her tone as light as a lover’s murmur, yet her words were so malicious they were chilling:
“You’re just a ** that anyone can *!”
Shen Mo trembled all over, not out of fear, but out of rage and shame.
He wanted to retort, to push her away, but the pressure of a Golden Core Cultivator made it difficult for him to even lift a finger.
“What do you want to do?” Shen Mo gritted his teeth, his voice squeezed out from between them.
“I don’t want to do anything.”
Lin Jingzhe let go of her hand, took a step back, and crossed her arms, watching him with interest.
“I just want to verify something.”
“Verify what?”
“Verify if you’re really as virtuous and faithful as you pretend to be.”
Lin Jingzhe pointed toward the pitch-black mine entrance.
“It’s very safe here; no one will come. Even if you scream until your throat is raw, no one will hear you.”