The water of the Cold Pool was stirred as if by an invisible hand, forming a massive whirlpool.
At the center of the vortex, a faint green light pulsed outward.
“This is — “
Before Lin Jingzhe could finish, the ground beneath their feet shook violently.
A massive tentacle burst from the lake, dripping with viscous, foul-smelling fluid, and swept toward the position where the two were standing!
Lin Jingzhe reacted instantly.
She grabbed Shen Mo by the collar and kicked off the ground, her figure retreating in a flash.
Boom!
The large tree where they had just been standing was snapped in half by the tentacle. Wood chips flew everywhere, and corrosive white smoke billowed from the break.
Shen Mo stared intently at the surface of the lake. “What on earth is at the bottom of the Cold Pool!”
The whirlpool spun faster and faster.
More tentacles emerged from the lake, each as thick as a water bucket and covered in hideous suction cups and barbs.
The green light grew brighter.
Finally, a massive head slowly rose from the center of the vortex.
It was… a human head?
No, it was a monster that resembled one.
It had the blurry outline of a human face, but the features were like a melted wax statue, twisted and piled together.
A black hole sat where the mouth should be, dripping thick liquid. There was no hair on its head, only rings of fleshy folds that made it look like some sort of mollusk.
“A Demonic Beast in the Transformation Stage…” For the first time, Lin Jingzhe’s voice carried a tremor.
“No, this is a cultivator who failed Tribulation Crossing and partially demonized!”
Her pupils contracted sharply.
That twisted face — though it was unrecognizable, the outline and the lingering traces between the brows were strangely familiar.
“That’s — ” Her throat tightened. “The missing Legacy Elder? Wasn’t it said she passed away in Seclusion?!”
The Legacy Elder was a senior of the previous generation on Yunyin Mountain, possessing a cultivation at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.
It was rumored she had gone into Seclusion to attempt reaching the Deity Transformation stage, only to vanish without a trace.
The sect had sent people to search but found only ruins, leading them to believe she had failed the tribulation and suffered Body and Soul Destruction.
To think she wasn’t dead.
Instead, she had turned into this thing.
Shen Mo hurriedly crushed the Ice Soul Jade.
“Roar — !!!”
The monster let out a howl that didn’t sound human. All its tentacles rose at once, lunging toward the two on the shore.
Lin Jingzhe drew her sword.
The sword light was like snow as it struck the first incoming tentacle.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out.
The surface of the tentacle was actually as hard as iron. Lin Jingzhe’s full-strength strike only left a shallow white mark.
The counter-force numbed her palm, and the sword blade buzzed.
“Attacks from the Golden Core Stage can’t hurt it!” Lin Jingzhe’s face paled. “This thing still has at least the Nascent Soul cultivation it had when it was alive!”
She suddenly turned to look at Shen Mo, a momentary struggle flashing in her eyes.
Should she leave this burden behind and escape on her own, or…
Shen Mo was also looking at her.
His eyes were calm.
So calm that he didn’t look like someone about to be abandoned.
“Go,” Shen Mo said. “With your movement techniques, you can escape alone.”
Lin Jingzhe froze.
“If you take me with you, you’ll die for sure.”
Shen Mo’s tone was as casual as if he were discussing the weather. “Go. At least one of us will live.”
After he finished, he even took a step back, voluntarily leaving the range of Lin Jingzhe’s protection.
This step caused a thorn to pierce Lin Jingzhe’s heart again.
She suddenly remembered what her Master had told her while teaching her sword techniques as a child:
“Jingzhe, you must remember that the most terrifying thing in this world isn’t a powerful enemy, but giving up on yourself first.”
“But Master, what if I can’t win?”
“If you can’t win, run. If you can’t run, fight. If you can’t win the fight, die. But the only thing you cannot do — is resign yourself to fate before even trying.”
Lin Jingzhe looked at the man in front of her who had stepped back to wait for death, and she suddenly felt a wave of nausea.
She wasn’t disgusted by him.
She was disgusted by herself.
Just a moment ago, she was thinking about how to tear his self-esteem to shreds, how to use the most vicious methods to prove he was a lowly person.
But now?
In the face of disaster, he didn’t cry, he didn’t beg, and he didn’t try to drag her down with him.
He simply stepped back and told her to go.
What was this?
What the hell was this?!
Lin Jingzhe suddenly exploded in rage.
She grabbed Shen Mo’s wrist and yanked him back to her side.
“Stop acting like a damn saint!”
She gritted her teeth, emphasizing every word:
“If you die, how am I supposed to explain it to Master? Should I tell her that while she was away all these years, I threw her man to a Demonic Beast to be eaten?”
Shen Mo’s eyelashes fluttered.
“But — “
“There are no ‘buts’!”
Lin Jingzhe threw him behind her like a piece of luggage. She gripped her sword with both hands and glared at the approaching tentacles.
“Stay close. If you die, I don’t care.”
Her voice was as cold as the water in the Cold Pool, but the hand holding the sword was as steady as a rock.
Shen Mo looked at her back.
The girl who had just been insulting him with words, mocking him, and wanting to trample him into the mud was now standing in front of him, blocking the Nascent Soul monster with her slender shoulders.
Her Daoist robes fluttered in the wind, revealing her thin waist and slightly delicate back.
A late Golden Core Stage versus a Nascent Soul.
A gap of an entire major realm.
It was certain death.
Shen Mo suddenly smiled.
The smile was light and faint, but it was different from the way he had mocked Lin Jingzhe earlier.
This time, there was a hint of warmth in his eyes.
“Lin Jingzhe,” he said softly, “you are kinder than you think.”
“Shut up!”
Lin Jingzhe didn’t look back, but the hand holding her sword trembled slightly.
The monster moved.
It wasn’t just one tentacle, but seven tentacles attacking simultaneously from different angles, sealing off all their paths of retreat.
Lin Jingzhe’s sword danced into a curtain of light.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! —
Dense metallic collisions exploded, and sparks flew everywhere.
Her swordsmanship was extremely fast and ruthless; every strike hit the most vulnerable joints of the tentacles.
But there were too many of them. Her Spiritual Power was being consumed rapidly, and her breathing grew heavy.
One tentacle broke through the sword curtain and pierced toward her heart from behind.
Lin Jingzhe sensed it, but she didn’t have time to defend.
She could even feel the foul wind pressing against her back —
Bang!
A rock struck the tentacle.
The stone shattered into powder.
The tentacle paused for a moment.
In that brief window, Lin Jingzhe turned and struck it back with her sword.
She looked back —
Shen Mo had gathered a pile of stones at some point and was throwing them at the tentacles with all his might. His Spiritual Power was meager; these stones couldn’t even scratch the surface of the tentacles. But one after another, like moths to a flame, he desperately tried to attract the monster’s attention.
“Are you crazy?!” Lin Jingzhe roared.
Shen Mo didn’t respond.
His face had been cut by flying ice shards, and blood flowed down, covering half his face. He looked pathetic.
But his eyes were bright.
That brightness wasn’t a sign of desperate madness, but rather — a sense of relief that he finally didn’t have to endure anymore.
Lin Jingzhe suddenly understood.
This man wasn’t trying to help her.
He was looking for death.
He wanted to die here.
If he died cleanly, he wouldn’t have to face those women who pressured him until he couldn’t breathe.
He wouldn’t have to wait for a wife who hadn’t returned in 7 years. He wouldn’t have to break down alone in the middle of the night.
A wave of inexplicable anger surged in her heart.
This anger was even more intense and burning than before.
“You want to die? It’s not that easy!”
Lin Jingzhe suddenly bit the tip of her tongue, spraying essence blood onto the blade of her sword.
Her sword instantly erupted with a blinding light —
It was the Blood Burning Technique. It used her foundation as a price to erupt with power beyond her realm for a short time.
The sword light expanded by 30 feet, ruthlessly slashing toward the monster’s twisted head.
“Roar — !!!”
The monster seemed to sense the threat. All its tentacles retracted at once, weaving into an airtight barrier in front of it.
The sword light struck the barrier.
A thunderous explosion rang out.
Tentacles were severed, and black blood gushed out, splashing onto the ice by the shore and corroding pits that billowed white smoke.
But the monster didn’t die.
It was injured, which only made it more frenzied.
Its twisted head suddenly turned, and a pair of cloudy eyes slowly opened on its melted face.
It stared at Lin Jingzhe.
It stared at the human who had wounded it.
Then, it opened its mouth —
A green light erupted from its maw, heading straight for Lin Jingzhe’s face!
Lin Jingzhe wanted to dodge, but that last strike had drained most of her Spiritual Power. Her body couldn’t keep up with her mind.
The green light drew closer.
It was so close she could smell the rotting, sweet, and metallic stench.
At that moment —
A figure suddenly lunged over and knocked her aside.
The green light grazed the man’s shoulder, striking the mountain wall behind them and blasting a large hole.
Lin Jingzhe fell to the ground. She looked back —
Shen Mo stood in front of her. The clothes on his left shoulder had been grazed by the light, and the fabric dissolved instantly, revealing charred skin underneath.
His face was as white as paper, and he trembled from the pain, but he gritted his teeth and didn’t make a sound.
“You…”
Lin Jingzhe was stunned.
Shen Mo looked back at her, a strained smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Now we’re even,” he said. “You didn’t leave me behind just now, and now I’ve paid you back with a life.”
Lin Jingzhe opened her mouth to say something, but she found her throat blocked.
She had lived for nearly 100 years, and she had never been saved like this.
She was always the one protecting others; she was always the one standing in front.
She was the First Disciple, a Golden Core Cultivator.
No one had ever thought to protect her.
No one had ever dared to protect her.
But now, a man she had insulted was using his body to shield her.
Her face suddenly felt hot.
This felt even worse than when Shen Mo’s words had pierced her heart earlier.
‘Idiot…’ she murmured.
Shen Mo didn’t hear her clearly. “What?”
“I said you’re an idiot!”
Lin Jingzhe scrambled up and grabbed his arm, dragging him behind her.
“You think you can block an attack from the Nascent Soul stage? Have you lost your damn mind?!”
Shen Mo stumbled as he was pulled, but he was still smiling.
That smile was covered in blood and injuries, yet it carried an unprecedented sense of relief.
“I didn’t want my life anyway,” he said. “Didn’t you notice?”
Lin Jingzhe’s grip tightened suddenly.