The night was as deep as a stagnant pool, but the forbidden area at the back of the Qingyun Sect was glowing with a cold blue light. Chu Xuan sat cross-legged by the cold spring, with a white porcelain vase on his knees, the mouth of which was not opened, and the cold had already made his eyelashes frost. He lowered his head and sniffed it. The cold fragrance of the ice lotus pill swept through his nostrils like a snowblade, refreshing his mind.
"Hey, Chu," suddenly Su Meier's lazy voice came from the bottle - it was a wisp of divine thought she had instilled in advance, "if you freeze into ice, don't expect me to dig you out. The snow pit in the demon world is much deeper than this broken spring."
Chu Xuan chuckled and tapped the bottle with his fingers: "Don't worry. I have a hard life. The King of Hell thinks I'm noisy."
"It would be best." Another cold voice came from the opposite side of the cold spring. Ling Qingxue sat on the ice rock with her knees hugged, her moon-white dress formed a quiet snow, but her fingertips held a wisp of sword intent, ready to split the unexpected situation. She raised her eyes, her gaze passing through the wisp of cold mist and landing on Chu Xuan's face, "The Ice Lotus Pill is extremely strong. If you can't hold on, call me at once."
"Why do I call you?" Chu Xuan raised his eyebrows, grinning with sharp teeth, "Hold me for warmth?"
Ling Qingxue gave him a faint glance, but her ears turned almost imperceptible red: "Hug you? I can only hold a sword."
"All right, then let me carry the sword later too." Chu Xuan grinned, no more teasing her. Taking a deep breath, pushing open the stopper with his thumb, the pill rolled into the palm - ice-blue, round, with six-petal lotus patterns floating on the surface, like a miniature world of frost and snow. He didn't hesitate any more and swallowed it with his head up.
Click.
With a soft creak, as if the first crack in a winter lake. The icy power burst instantly, freezing along the throat all the way, blood almost congealed into ice chips. Chu Xuan's eyelashes quivered as he exhaled into white mist, which carried the fragrance of lotus.
"Hiss..." He clenched his back teeth, and the sound came out through the gaps, "strong enough."
The sword intent on Ling Qingxue's fingertips suddenly lit up, and a fine circle of ripples was cut on the surface of the cold spring water. She stared fixedly at Chu Xuan - the young man's complexion turned pale in an instant, but with the next breath, a wisp of warm green light rose from his chest, like the first moonlight of a spring night, forcibly enveloping the cold. It was the primordial self-protection of the primordial spirit.
"Primordial spirits can indeed swallow." Ling Qingxue murmured in a low voice, but dared not let go of her palm.
Binghan and Qingguang tugged within Chu Xuan's body, and wherever they passed, the meridians made a faint "crackling" sound like a fully drawn bowstring. Chu Xuan's consciousness sank into his body, and he saw that the twelve main veins were filled with ice-blue spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy condensed into vortices, with a glimmer of light hanging in the center of the vortices - that was the barrier of the sixth layer of qi refining, now being repeatedly struck by the medicinal power of the Ice Lotus Pill.
"Break for me!"
He roared in his heart. The light of his innate spirit body shone brightly, and the vortex instantly accelerated. Boom - the barrier shattered into light chips, and the spiritual energy surged like a tide, plunging thousands of miles.
Seven levels of qi refinement, a natural flow of water.
But the changes did not stop. The remaining power of the Ice Lotus Pill was greedily devoured by the spirit, transformed into pure spirit rain, and sprinkled into every limb. Chu Xuan felt a buzz in his eardrums, and the world suddenly fell silent --
The wind stopped, the snow stopped, and the heartbeat slowed to the extreme.
Immediately after, a wisp of self-awareness thinner than a hair emerged, like a young snake just hatched from its shell, timbly touching the outside world. The ripples of the cold spring, the frost on Ling Qingxue's eyelashes, and the ice ants crawling through the crevices of the stone wall ten feet away - all reflected in my heart.
Consciousness, born.
Chu Xuan opened his eyes, his eyes interlaced with blue and blue, like a frozen lake on fire. He looked at Ling Qingxue with a smile on his lips: "I saw it."
"What did I see? Ling Qingxue leaned forward subconsciously.
"See..." Chu Xuan's voice was hoarse, but he couldn't hide his excitement. "The hand you hide in your sleeve is shaking."
Ling Qingxue was taken aback, and the pale red on her ear tip finally spread to her cheek. She turned her face away and snorted, "It's cold."
Chu Xuan smiled without revealing it, and his consciousness continued to spread, sweeping through the depths of the cold spring. Suddenly, he raised his eyebrows - at the end of his consciousness, the stone wall was mottled, and an ancient rune was faintly visible beneath the ice, like a key forgotten by time, carrying an age-old call.
"That is..." He murmured.
Ling Qingxue sensed something was amiss and darted to his side, looking in the direction of his consciousness. Only a corner of the rune was exposed, its strokes meandering like lotus but not lotus, sharing the same origin as the mark of the covenant on her wrist.
"Dao Qi?" She asked softly.
Chu Xuan nodded, with a burning light in his eyes: "Perhaps, it's an earlier 'Dao contract' than ours."
The cold wind swept, but could not disperse the quietly warming breath between the two. Ling Qingxue lowered her eyes, concealing the fleeting complexity - that rune, she had seen in her ancestors' notes, but never expected it to exist, and never expected it to be perceived by Chu Xuan first.
"Hey, two little devils," Su Mei 'er's voice suddenly wafted out of the elixir bottle, breaking the silence. "If you look into each other's eyes with deep affection again, the Ice Lotus Pill will explode for the second time. It will really freeze you two into ice sculptures of mandarin ducks." "
Chu Xuan laughed and bowed to the bottle: "Sister Xie Mei 'er, please remind me."
"Don't be sweet-tongued." Su Mei 'er snorted. "The seventh level of qi refinement is just the beginning. Since runes have appeared, don't let them wait too long -- it seems to be waiting for you too."
Chu Xuan raised his eyes and looked towards the dark stone wall, slowly clenching his palm. His consciousness was drawn back, but the runes were like a firestone thrown into the lake of his heart, boiling his blood again.
"Then just wait." He said softly, but as if promising the distant rune, "I'll come back and dig it out."
Beyond the cold spring, the moonlight was crushed by the ice mist, leaving a ground of silvery white. Chu Xuan exhaled the cold air of lotus fragrance, stretched his body, and his bones crackled like a string of ice beads rolling down a jade plate. He turned his head to look at Ling Qingxue and laughed with sharp teeth and a sharp tongue: "Elder Qingxue, am I now the number one master of the outer sect of Qingyun Sect?"
Ling Qingxue, holding the Cold Moon Sword, said in a faint voice, "The outer sect? You can now lift the inner door and strike it."
"TSK, I love to hear that." Chu Xuan snapped his fingers, and his consciousness once again spread out, like a playful green snake, crawling deep into the crevices of the stone wall. The rune sensed the spirit, a glimmer of light flashed, and made a soft "ding" sound - like an ancient wind chime, tapped by the passage of time.
Ling Qingxue's eyes glint: "A response?"
"Yes." Chu Xuan licked his lips, eager to try, "as if calling me -- 'Little friend, come in and play!'"
"... "Be serious." Ling Qingxue struck him on the shoulder with the hilt of her sword, but Chu Xuan grabbed his wrist with the back hand. The young man's palm was burning hot like a freshly baked copper furnace, causing her fingertips to tremble.
"Qingxue," Chu Xuan lowered his voice, with the characteristic clarity and certainty of a young man, "let's go and have a look? In case there is a chance that will enable you to break through the Great Perfection of Spirit transformation, don't take advantage of anyone else."
Ling Qingxue lowered her eyes, her gaze resting on the wrist that was held, and did not withdraw, but gave a soft "mm-hmm." The tips of her ears turned red again.
The two walked side by side towards the stone wall. The closer they got, the brighter the runes became, like a cluster of blue flames burning beneath the ice. Chu Xuan raised his hand, just as his fingertip touched the stone wall, the runes suddenly moved and turned into a thin line, spreading rapidly along the wall --
"Click click click --"
The stone wall split open in the middle, revealing a gap just wide enough for a person to pass sideways, with a cold air that carried an ancient pressure. Deep in the crevice, a soft white glow flickered like a heartbeat.
Chu Xuan tilted his head and said, "Shall I go first?"
Ling Qingxue: "Together."
The young man laughed, and with a stroke of his finger in the void, his consciousness condensed into a pale blue shield hanging in front of them: "Then side by side."
Behind the crevices was a long, narrow ice track, with runes wandering on the walls and cold mist surging beneath the feet. With each step Chu Xuan took, the runes lit up a little, as if the entire passage was welcoming a "late" guest. Ling Qingxue suddenly spoke: "These runes... "Exactly the same as the handwriting on my ancestors' notes."
"That shows we haven't come to the wrong place." Chu Xuan raised his eyebrows. "Maybe there's your ancestors' dowry in it."
Ling Qingxue laughed, but a faint, imperceptible gloom flashed in her eyes: "The dowry of our ancestors, I'm afraid it won't be so easy to get."
Before the words were finished, a light shone brightly at the end of the passage, and an ice platform half a person's height emerged. An object was suspended on it --
Half a piece of jade pendant.
The jade pendant is ice-blue all over, and the crack at the gap is fresh, as if it had just been broken. Chu Xuan swept his consciousness and felt that the interior of the jade pendant was empty and endless, resonating with the way of operation of the "Contract of All Spirits".
"This..." The pupils of the young man shrank slightly. "It is the carrier of the covenant!"
Ling Qingxue raised her hand, and just as her fingertip touched the jade jue, a faint blue light burst out from the crack and went straight into their eyebrows. In an instant, a scene exploded in the sea of consciousness --
On a snowy plain, a man in black and a woman in white stand side by side. The man holds a complete jade pendant in his hand, and the woman's wrist is marked with the mark of the Taoist fellowship. On the opposite side, Taotie bloomed out the sky, and black mist swirled. The man turned his head, and his voice pierced through the ages and landed in Chu Xuan and Ling Qingxue's ears --
"If one day the Jade Jue reunites, it will be the continuation of the Dao contract and the purification of the Taotie."
The scene dissipated, the ice platform cracked inch by inch, and the jade jue "ding" landed in Chu Xuan's palm, chilling but no longer remorseful.
Ling Qingxue was stunned for a long time and said softly, "Ancestor... And once stood side by side with others."
Chu Xuan held the jade pendant tightly and shook it at her: "Now it's our turn."
The young man's eyes and brows were shining brightly, brimming with the vigor and spirit of having just broken through the seventh level of Qi refinement, as well as the unique fearlessness of a young man - as if with this jade in his hand, even if the road ahead was an eternal cold night, he could still carve out a ray of celestial light.
Ling Qingxue looked at him, suddenly curved the corner of her lips, a faint smile, but like the first lotus in the snow: "Well, side by side."
Outside the passage, the cold spring water sparkled slightly, as if it were also quietly creating ripples for the promise of the two little cultivators.