Li Qingshan didn’t even have the strength to reply anymore. The way forward was pervaded by the wind and the snow, going on seemingly forever without end. He kept on climbing upward, supporting himself with a single-minded thought.
Halfmoon suddenly said in a soft voice against his ear, “Sorry, mistress implicated you.” Her two arms feebly let go of him. She dropped into the abyss of wind and snow with her eyes tightly shut and a peacefulness on her face that even actually containing the trace of a smile.
Li Qingshan subconsciously stretched his right hand and tightly caught her frozen hand.
He couldn’t let go. But he couldn’t advance another step on the ice wall either with his right hand missing. The cold wantonly invaded his body along with the halting of his motions. His blood gradually stopped flowing.
This place was already ten thousand feet above the ground. Even he could only die with a torn body and crushed bones if he were to fall.
He finally let out a crazed hysterical howl inside the blizzard, just like a surrounded beast trapped in a desperate impa.s.se.
Two dots of red lights approached inside the windy snow. A figure was quickly climbing up.
Little An sprang up and carried Halfmoon then put her on Li Qingshan’s back.
There was no need to exchange any word. Li Qingshan’s lips were already frozen in any case. His right hand soared up as he continued his climb upward.
He suddenly saw the end of that seemingly endless ice cliff. It turned out he had been only a few hundred feet away from the clifftop.
A great hand fiercely grabbed the edge of the cliff. Li Qingshan climbed up with all his strength, not a single shred of strength left inside him. He forcibly propped up his body up, his trembling pair of hands gently stroking Halfmoon’s cheeks. They were ice-cold.
There was no beating in her chest.
She was already dead.
Li Qingshan wept bitterly all of a sudden. A beam of rainbow pierced the windy snow. Soaring Dragon Elder emerged on the clifftop, his face pale-white and his clothes broken to shreds. He cast a glance at Halfmoon on the ground and let out an I-thought-as-much expression. How could an ordinary monster general be able to withstand his Meteor Sword.
But he’d still caught up without sparing any price or effort in order to guard again all eventualities. Moreover there was Halfmoon’s little bell, the things stored inside were fully enough to make up for his losses. A monster general’s monster core was also very precious on top of that.
Li Qingshan wanted to fight to the bitter end, but he didn’t even have the strength left to fight to the bitter end. He asked, “Why? What did she do?”
“Because she’s a monster, you’re also the same? This is your sin.” Soaring Dragon Elder lifted the Soaring Dragon Sword, not even looking at Little An blocking the way in front of Li Qingshan as he waved it down.
“I kill you, but not because you’re human.” A man stood in front of Li Qingshan. No one knew when he’d appeared, Soaring Dragon Elder included. It was as if he’d stood there since a long long time ago already, seeming like an expert coming from ancient times to the future, immutable and everlasting.
His stature could only be said to be tall at most, and there wasn’t any fearsome aura coming from him either, but the silhouette of his back was even more imposing than the Ice Sword Cliff under his feet in Li Qingshan’s eyes.
A layer of green-blue enveloped his skin. His clearly bulging st.u.r.dy physique didn’t appear fat in the slightest, but seemed more like the mountain peak undulating on a great mountain gone through the blow of a thousand winds and the batter of ten thousand rains. Every part of it was natural and harmonious, carrying the acc.u.mulation of boundless power.
Then Li Qingshan saw the pair of horns on his head, one of them broken. He couldn’t help but shout, “Elder brother bull!”
Soaring Dragon Elder’s eyes shrank and a warning came from every place inside the depths of his soul. He’d crossed over countless battlefields during his life, experienced countless dangers, but even adding them all together they still couldn’t match the present danger.
He wanted to roar in anger, wanted to wave his sword. Wanted to use every supernatural skill and technique he’d ever learned in his life, take out every ounce of power and all of his trump cards. But he couldn’t even lift a single finger against all expectations. He could only watch that man with eyes wide open and say in an off-key timbre, “Who…who are you?” How did such a terrifying character become the backing of these two little monsters. Heavenly Fate Elder never said anything about it, nothing of the sort had appeared in the divination trigrams either. Impossible, I’m not going to die here.
The green bull didn’t answer his question however, but continued to say instead, “I kill you, because I want to kill!” He stretched out his right hand. Soaring Dragon Elder then vanished from this world.
That’s right, vanished. There hadn’t been any sign, there hadn’t been any powerful technique either, or any dread or monster qi. An elder of the Hidden Sword Palace with a fame shaking the Verdant province, a golden core cultivator, had simply been blotted out like this.
“Brother bull…” Li Qingshan opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. He’d thought before the green bull was probably very strong, but he’d certainly never expected he’d be terrifying to such a degree.
The green bull turned his head back and stretched his hand in front of Li Qingshan, a jade ring quietly lying inside. It was precisely Soaring Dragon Elder’s Sumeru finger ring. “I’ve turned you into such an appearance without your consent, this probably can be regarded as my apology! I left you something inside.”
A golden core cultivator’s lifelong collection of valuables had a value high enough to make the eyes of a great many cultivators redden in envy, even cultivators pure of heart and free of desire. Ordinary people couldn’t even exchange a single thing inside with the whole of their possessions.
“I know you have many questions, but believe me, the answers you find by yourself are far more valuable and extraordinary than what I could give you. Just as I could have given you the power to sweep unopposed through this world, but I didn’t, because the power you are able to find for yourself is also far above what I could give you, a hundred times stronger. Now, the time of parting has come.”
“What?”
“My presence has already been discovered by certain someones in the skies above. Your future roads, you’ll to walk on them on your own. These days have been short but very happy. Remember, don’t lower your head to anyone or anything; you once rode on my back.”
The green bull’s shape faded gradually away as he spoke. His voice was like a resounding bell, like the crumbling of mountains and the jolt of thunder, shaking Li Qingshan’s heart and spirit.
“Wait…” Li Qingshan stretched his hand out, but he only caught that ring.
The green bull disappeared from between the heaven and earth as if he’d never existed, as if these years, these days had all been a mere dream. Only his last sentence was left continuously echoing inside Li Qingshan’s heart.
“I’ll wait for you on the nine skies, wait for the day you and me will stand side by side.”
Above the Ice Sword Cliff was a patch of emptiness. There wasn’t any stalk of vegetation, only ice and snow. The low layer of clouds pressed above his head. A great snow fell that didn’t have enough time to shape into beautiful forms. The wind whistled “woo woo,” seeming to weep.
There were times on this dividing line between the Dragon and Verdant provinces when a man would feel he had nothing at all, except for those utterly distant and unattainable dreams, a body with only icy coldness in its bosom, frozen tears, a numbed heart and spirit inside the bitter winter. The loneliness of the entire world rushed into his heart.
There was something lightly touching him. He turned his gaze back and saw Little An. Those two dots of blood flames combusted even inside the limitless snowstorm, trying to impart some warmth onto him, to tell him, you’re not alone by yourself.
Gu Yanying trod out from the windy snow and said in astonishment, “What happened?” She’d also taken out a purple talisman and forcibly broken Soaring Dragon Elder’s “Shackles of Heaven and Earth,” then hurried to the ice cliff. But Soaring Dragon Elder’s aura had entirely vanished at that moment right now, vanished cleanly and thoroughly.
Li Qingshan hugged Halfmoon’s icy-cold body in his arms and didn’t answer. He didn’t even know how to answer.
Gu Yanying even felt a sliver of dread after another. A golden core elder had inexplicably vanished just like this. This was probably going to create an earthquake across the entire Verdant province.
Could it have been the doing of that person from the Dark Shade Sect? Wrong, even if a nascent soul cultivator had the ability to kill a golden core master, they still couldn’t possibly do it so quietly and noiselessly. Even a cricket knew to struggle, not to mention a golden core master.
Could it have something to do with him? Gu Yanying looked at Li Qingshan then shook her head soon after, because Li Qingshan’s was truly too puny. How could he have such a level of cultivation still if he were to have such fearful backing? A monster beast who hadn’t formed a monster core had merely a cultivation around the fourth to fifth level even put among qi refining cultivators.
Her mind was in chaos despite an intelligence far exceeding ordinary people. The things tonight were truly too strange.
“Better give her to me!”
Li Qingshan said, “I promised to take her to the Dragon province.”
Gu Yanying said, “That’s no great place to go, better to let her go back to her mistress’ side!”
Li Qingshan said, “This is her last wish.”
“Last wish? She’s not dead yet though?” The corner of Gu Yanying’s mouth tugged a little.
“What!” Li Qingshan was shocked. He hurriedly probed Halfmoon’s pulse, but it was truly not beating any longer. He looked questioningly at Gu Yanying.
Gu Yanying waved the folding fan in her hand toward the sky. A dragon tornado soared straight to the skyline and pierced a great hole in the thick layer of clouds originally pressing low atop their heads. The silver blue moonlight seemed like a waterfall, or perhaps a searchlight shooting down from the sky.
It shone above the Ice Sword Cliff and fell on Halfmoon’s body. The roaring blizzard surrounded all around them as before, but there was such quietness and serenity in this small area.
Her body glowed with silver blue brilliance, gradually brighter and brighter. Her eyelashes seemed to quiver a little.
Halfmoon opened her eyes bit by bit under Li Qingshan’s dismayed face. “Where is this place?” She blinked her eyes and looked all around. “This here is… the Ice Sword Cliff!”
Li Qingshan sensed the body in his arms gradually recovering its temperature. He said in astonishment, “What’s this about?”
Gu Yanying said, “The trashy innate supernatural skill of nine-lived cat monsters.”
Halfmoon said, “Surnamed Gu, you’re the trashy one!”
Gu Yanying said, “You can simply not resist at all once in a dead state. People will usually open your chest and break your tripe to take out the monster core probably, what is it if not trash? This time it’s all thanks to… this guy.” For a moment she had no idea how to call Li Qingshan. He most likely didn’t want other people to know his human name either after becoming like this!
Halfmoon said, “Big Black, you really carried me up here?”
Big Black? The corner of Gu Yanying’s mouth hooked up!
Li Qingshan stayed silent a moment, then thundered, “b.a.s.t.a.r.d, why didn’t you tell me earlier!” She made him so broken-hearted for so long all for nothing!
Halfmoon said, “Meowhahahaha, didn’t I tell you? I’m not going to die.”
Li Qingshan heaved a heavy sigh. He didn’t want to pay attention to her anymore, but there was a happiness he couldn’t express inside him.
Halfmoon noticed at this time two trails of sparkling and translucent frozen tears on Li Qingshan’s face. The deepest strings of her heart seemed to be moved as she stretched her hands and stroked his cheeks. “Big Black, you cried?”
Li Qingshan said, “Don’t go imagining your love’s reciprocal, it’s nothing but snow water.”
Halfmoon moved close in front of Li Qingshan’s face. “Hee hee, don’t be embarra.s.sed, it’s very normal for pets to shed tears for their meowstress. That’s right, you promised you would call me mistress, hurry up and say it, hurry up and say it!”
“Pet?” Gu Yanying exposed a strange smile. To be taken as pet by a pet, she had no idea if it was good fortune or bad fortune.