Lu Qiancha remained calm in this situation.
The magic cube in her palm pulsed with a faint light once more, its shape instantly twisting and stretching, transforming into a Rubygold Javelin with a cold, restrained gleam.
Swoosh—!
A deadly streak of intertwined gold and red light tore through the wind and snow.
Silent and swifter than lightning, it headed straight for the heart of Qiong Gong, who had just barely blocked Shangguan Yunzhu’s sword energy.
An alarm bell rang sharply in Qiong Gong’s heart, the line between life and death razor-thin. His battle instincts flared wildly like a beast’s warning.
He didn’t have time to discern the source of the attack; relying solely on years of brutal combat experience, he swung his heavy broadsword in a fierce arc, the thick blade shielding his chest like a massive door.
Shhh!! Pfft!
The sickening sound of metal tearing and flesh piercing rang out almost simultaneously!
That javelin had pierced through the thick steel broadsword like it was paper. Its terrifying penetrating force remained unabated, continuing to gnaw at Qiong Gong as he scrambled to evade.
“Ugh!” Qiong Gong let out a muffled groan. Though he twisted his body to dodge, his left shoulder blade had already been pierced with a bowl-sized hole!
It was only then that he noticed Lu Qiancha’s presence. His eyes widened in rage as he shouted, “It’s you!”
“Tch,” Lu Qiancha shrugged lightly, her tone dry to the point of cruelty, “If I were you, I’d save my strength and shut up.”
With that, she moved her mind slightly. The javelin embedded in the ice cliff shattered and dispersed into countless tiny light fragments, flowing silently back into the magic cube as if it had never appeared.
“Bastard!! I’ll take your life!!”
Pain and humiliation drove Qiong Gong into a blind fury.
His eyes burned red as he wildly swung his broken broadsword, channeling raging anger and all his spiritual energy into a berserk attack toward Lu Qiancha. He completely ignored the threat of Shangguan Yunzhu standing nearby. Yet, just as he moved—
“Ahhhh—!!!”
A scream far more heart-wrenching than any physical wound tore from the depths of Qiong Gong’s throat.
The agonizing pain seemed to come from his very soul. His burly body convulsed violently as if gripped by invisible hands, curling in on itself.
“Traitor… using poison, truly despicable!”
Qiong Gong’s eyes were bloodshot with rage. His massive form trembled like withered grass in a storm, collapsing onto the snow-covered ground.
Sweat and blood soaked through his clothes in an instant, each breath bringing deeper torment.
“Hmph.”
Lu Qiancha didn’t respond to his words but chuckled softly. Then she produced two bottles of distinctly different medicines, flicking her wrist lightly.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
One bottle black as ink, the other ash-gray, like two precisely controlled shuttles, they flew toward the convulsing Qiong Gong and the barely standing Qingfeng on the battlefield’s edge.
Flash!
By this point, Qiong Gong was utterly spent, his spiritual energy all but exhausted fighting the bone-chilling poison’s torment. He had no strength left to evade.
Bang.
A jade bottle smashed against his chest and shattered instantly.
The thick, black, viscous liquid poured out like a living thing.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle—
The horrific sound of corrosion suddenly echoed. The clothing, skin, and even flesh that touched the liquid rapidly blackened, withered, and carbonized before their eyes.
A biting cold wind swept over the burly figure who moments ago was struggling and shouting. Now, like rotting wood weathered by millennia, he crumbled piece by piece.
Within mere breaths, only a pitch-black skeleton with eerie cracked patterns remained, standing lifeless amid the snow and wind.
From the skeleton grew a strange black rose.
On the other side, a faint slicing sound came from behind. Qingfeng, who had just deflected two flying swords, casually slashed at a porcelain bottle behind him with the Yu Jian Method.
Huh? No—what porcelain…?
An indescribable numbness spread like an invisible web, tightening rapidly from the tips of his limbs, sweeping over his entire body.
He staggered as four flying swords shot by Shangguan Yunzhu pierced through him.
Shangguan Yunzhu frowned in frustration.
She hadn’t intended to kill Qingfeng here, for even if he was despicable and shameless, he was still a disciple of Tianyuan Sect, to be brought back to Shimen to face the masters’ judgment.
But at that moment, Qingfeng suddenly stopped resisting…
Shangguan Yunzhu wasn’t very familiar with this set of Yu Jian Method techniques, or she wouldn’t have been overwhelmed by four low-level black-clad enemies earlier.
Now she had no time to retract her sword. The four flying swords pierced precisely through Qingfeng’s neck, forehead, chest, and abdomen.
The strikes were precise—extinguishing his Three Souls, stabbing his Dan Tian—clean and decisive, leaving no chance of survival.
Shangguan Yunzhu was momentarily stunned. Then she sighed softly, “Even someone as evil as you would have a trace of remorse?”
“Or… are you just another puppet on someone else’s chessboard, with no control over your own fate?”
She lifted her gaze toward Lu Qiancha not far away.
By now, Lu Qiancha had finished clearing the battlefield—calmly collecting Qiong Gong’s dried skeleton, the Storage Ring that had fallen beside it, and the remaining half of his broken broadsword into her Storage Ring without changing expression.
“Tch,” she weighed the ring in her hand, inwardly sneering, “Qiong Gong, you really are poor.”
A single Consolidation-stage cultivator with just one storage treasure and one sword, and inside the Storage Ring were only scattered Ling Stones and some odds and ends…
As expected, cultivators living in the secular world were mostly broke.
“Senior Brother Qiancha, what are you doing here?”
Only now did Shangguan Yunzhu ask. This place was over seven hundred li from Juezhuang Baolin, completely outside the trial zone.
“I came looking for medicine.”
Lu Qiancha pointed to the green vines hanging from the mountain ridge.
Shangguan Yunzhu nodded and said solemnly, “Senior Brother, your life-saving and enemy-breaking grace today, Yunzhu will never forget! When I return to Shimen, I will spare no effort to repay your great kindness!”
Looking at the sincere, grateful expression in her eyes, Lu Qiancha’s gaze flickered briefly, a strange unease creeping in.
After all, her aid this time was not purely altruistic; she had used Shangguan Yunzhu to help herself seize the Essence-Returning Fruit.
“Howl!”
Just as she was about to speak, a high-pitched, penetrating wolf howl suddenly exploded from the mountaintop above them.
Almost simultaneously, a dozen snow-white figures moved like ghosts from the surrounding ice fissures and shadows of massive rocks, silently surrounding the two startled cultivators.
Pairs of icy blue wolf eyes glinted coldly and bloodthirstily in the wind and snow. The air thickened with intense demonic aura and naked murderous intent.
Shangguan Yunzhu’s pupils constricted sharply. Her relaxed nerves immediately tightened. Scarlet Swordlight surged around her once more.
She pointed her sword and shouted fiercely, “Senior Brother, be careful!”
Lu Qiancha’s unnatural expression had vanished. Her face was grave as she tightly gripped the magic cube in her palm, her sharp eyes sweeping quickly over the suddenly appearing pack of Snow Wolves.
“Too coincidental…” her mind raced. “They didn’t just arrive. They’ve been lurking for a long time, waiting for us to exhaust ourselves in battle or get injured before showing themselves.”
“Truly hostile intentions.”
The wolf pack parted slightly, revealing a single Snow Wolf clearly larger and more muscular than the others.
Its fur was dark gray, like ancient rock walls, and its presence deep and oppressive. It strode steadily and heavily from the pack.
Its silver-gray beast eyes coldly scanned the two cultivators, as if looking at lambs to the slaughter.
“DFL!”
A deafening roar burst forth from its throat. The terrifying shockwave spread like a tangible hammer crashing toward the pair.
This was no mere sound wave but an overwhelming pressure that made the soul shudder.
“!!!” Lu Qiancha’s head thundered with a ringing noise.
This pressure… this familiar yet utterly strange high-rank aura…
“Immortal… a demonic immortal?!”
No sooner had this thought surfaced than a fierce dizziness engulfed her consciousness like a tidal wave.
Bang! Bang!
Two muffled thuds followed.
Lu Qiancha and Shangguan Yunzhu had no strength to resist the terrifying pressure of this demonic immortal. Like puppets without bones, they collapsed softly onto the cold snow, completely unconscious.
At the moment she lost consciousness, the disguise around Lu Qiancha dissipated, revealing her true form—a very young blue-haired girl.
The dark gray giant wolf’s body trembled slightly before instantly transforming into a woman dressed in a gray leather cloak, with a stern face and flowing silver-gray hair.
She looked coldly at the unconscious Shangguan Yunzhu, her gaze as indifferent as if staring at a dead object.
But when her eyes landed on Lu Qiancha’s unmasked face, a strong shock and confusion flickered distinctly in her cold eyes.
“Royal Cub?! Such a pure aura… how could you be here, consorting with human cultivators and stealing our clan’s precious medicine?”
“DFL?”
A slightly smaller Snow Wolf beside her stepped forward a few paces and emitted a low growl tinged with questioning.
The wolf-clan woman withdrew her gaze, regaining her cold demeanor, and decisively ordered, “Drag that human away and lock them in the Ice Prison.”
Her eyes shifted back to the unconscious Lu Qiancha. After a brief pause, she added, “As for this cub… be careful. Bring her to my chamber. Royal bloodline cannot be neglected.”
“Ugh.”
The Snow Wolves lowered their heads in obedience.
Several sturdy Snow Wolves immediately stepped forward, carefully carrying the two unconscious cultivators, either by mouth or back, and swiftly vanished into the vast white ice plains as if melting into the wind and snow.
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