As Wen Renhe thought about how his subordinates’ loyalty to him stemmed from his powerful cultivation, and that they were doing all they could, never thinking of pulling him down from his position, he felt Shu Yanyan was such an ambitious woman.

She leaned towards Wen Renhe and whispered in a soft voice, similar to the temptation from the abyss, “Lord, you have gained strength and power, don’t you think about other matters? That Baili Qingmiao is really a pure girl, do you want this subordinate to help you coax her?”

Shu Yanyan didn’t notice that as soon as she finished speaking Yin Hanjiang’s face paled. He stood stiffly by the wall like a puppet without any emotion.

Shu Yanyan knew that she did not have the charm that could seduce her Lord, but that didn’t matter. As long as she saw that Wen Renhe’s heart was willing to be moved and his defense weakend, how could she not take advantage of it?

“Shu Yanyan,” Wen Renhe’s palm pressed on her head, not at all gentle, as if he was planning to crush Shu Yanyan’s skull. “I have always appreciated your ambition and have allowed you to develop. I also don’t mind the fact that you try to put your evil ideas in my head.”

“Lord, Lord is magnanimous.” Shu Yanyan was too scared to even breathe.

Wen Renhe then added with anger evident on his face, “However, don’t do things that are beyond your capability. Use your ambition in the right manner. I am still waiting for the war between the righteous path and the demon path to improve my strength.”

Every time there was a massacre, Wen Renhe’s cultivation improved. Whenever his cultivation progressed it was always in a battle. In his present state, a battle between mortals was of no importance, but a war that affected the whole cultivation world was significant. The time now was just right for a battle and Wen Renhe was simply taking advantage of this to have a breakthrough in his realm.

“Yes, yes.” Shu Yanyan felt a sharp pain on her head. Several droplets of warm blood trickled down her forehead. Her newly devised scheme completely dissipated from her mind. 

When Wen Renhe thought that the lesson was enough, he let go of her head. Yin Hanjiang handed over a handkerchief to him. He wiped the blood from his fingertips and casually threw the handkerchief on the ground.

Shu Yanyan did not dare to wipe herself and with a blood covered face she said to Wen Renhe, “This subordinate will do her best to investigate. The day when the Lord returns from the ice field of Wanli will be the time when the battle will begin!”

“One more thing, let that He Wenchao fall for you as much as possible. I want Baili Qingmiao to give up on this man,” Wen Renhe said.

“Yes!” Shu Yanyan’s hair was loose and she looked like a ghost when she bowed her head.

After waiting for a while she did not hear any sound in front of her, so she looked up and found that the two men had already left. Then for a while she sat there clasping her scared heart.

After treating her wound, from upstairs she saw He Wenchao going towards her house. Shu Yanyan sneered secretly, Ah, men, so impatient! He came running as soon as his junior martial sister left. He couldn’t even bear it for a few days.

However, such a man still gave her a sense of achievement. The Lord and the Left Protector….

Shu Yanyan shook her head, forcing herself to forget the painful experience and concentrated on dealing with He Wenchao.

Wen Renhe took Yin Hanjiang to the entrance of the ice field of Wanli. Seeing that Yin Hanjiang’s face was very pale, he took the initiative to hold his hand. It was really just as cold as an ice corpse. He then said, “Since you can’t stand the cold and considering the fact that your body is already this cold, it would be better that I enter alone.”

Looking at the endless ice field, Yin Hanjiang shook his head and said, “It’s said that there are real immortals living in seclusion scattered here and there in this ice field and that they are extremely dangerous. This subordinate must follow the Lord.”

“I order you to wait here,” Wen Renhe commanded.

“This subordinate will not try deceiving the Lord. When the Lord enters, this subordinate will follow.”

Stubborn like a sword that does not know how to bend and honest enough to move people’s minds.

After hearing that, Wen Renhe stretched out his finger, cut his wrist, and held it in front of Yin Hanjiang, saying, “Although the Path of Slaughter is despised by the righteous path, it is also the way to the yang. The bloodshed and the solemnity of war and the killing Qi that even the fierce ghosts do not dare to approach bursts out when tens of millions of men are fighting, which fills the blood with yang Qi. If you take some of my warm blood, my cultivation will protect you all the way in the thousands of miles of ice.”

“Lord, you are hurt. How can you hurt yourself for your subordinate …” Yan Hanjiang’s ruthless eyes showed a trace of pain.

“The Qi of the sword is cold and bleak, you will not be able to exert the full strength of the unity of the sword in the ice field of Wanli, do you want this Lord to save you? What right do you have to say that you are immoral and incompetent?” Wen Renhe continued, “If you refuse, this Lord will seal your Qi and leave you at the entrance of the ice field of Wanli.”

The blood slowly flowed out from his wrist. Yin Hanjiang closed his eyes in agony but immediately opened them again, clenched his teeth and leaned towards Wen Renhe’s wrist to drink his warm blood.

A stream of warmth surged into his Dantian. Wen Renhe used his Qi to stop the bleeding and squeezed Yin Hanjiang’s fingers. Feeling that they were finally warm, he nodded his head in satisfaction.

Yin Hanjiang’s expression was somewhat unnatural as he touched his warm chest, sensing a strange feeling in his heart. It was not right, as the Lord’s sword, he shouldn’t have a mind of his own.

He suppressed the feeling of confusion and became silent in front of Wen Renhe. They had been waiting for ten days, but Baili Qingmiao was late.

It was not surprising to Wen Renhe that the female lead would be late when she was gaining experience alone. It was normal for her to encounter some serious accidents on the way that delayed her trip.

Baili Qingmiao was quite embarrassed to inform them, “I’m sorry, Senior, I came across a village cursed by ghosts on my way. I was delayed for a few days to help them ward off the evil spirits.”

A village cursed by ghosts?

Wen Renhe’s heart sank, thinking that male lead number five, Baili Qingmiao’s young apprentice was going to make an appearance.

This little disciple was born as a stillborn child at the time Baili Qingmiao got rid of the evil spirits. In fact, an evil spirit that had got injured did not disappear, but hid inside the stillborn child, his heart full of hatred toward Baili Qingmiao. Eighteen years later, he met Baili Qingmiao, who was already at Nascent Soul stage. He bowed down to Baili Qingmiao accepting her as his master and waiting for an opportunity to swallow her soul.

Later, Baili Qingmiao’s kindness, innocence, beauty, gentleness and other virtues moved the ghost cultivator. Afterward he was willing to be her apprentice and hated He Wenchao for making his master cry. He secretly tried to assassinate He Wenchao, but got his identity as ghost cultivator exposed. A vicious girl took advantage of the situation to make it look like Baili Qingmiao colluded with evil spirits.

The purpose of his appearance was presumably to give He Wenchao a better reason to abuse the female lead.

Wen Renhe didn’t care about this little detail. Anyway, afterall with his intervention Baili Qingmiao wouldn’t like the male lead, so it didn’t matter.

The three of them entered the ice field of  Wanli. In order to make it easier for Baili Qingmiao to find the snow flame, Wen Renhe gave her a tracking spell and ordered Baili Qingmiao to wander around the endless ice field. He and Yin Hanjiang watched her from a distance.

Baili Qingmiao’s cultivation was still weak. Even with the protection of the flaming feather cloak, she was still purple from cold as she walked through the snow and ice. On the other hand, Yin Hanjiang, who was at the Spirit Combination stage, drank  Wen Renhe’s blood and Wen Renhe still gave him Qi from time to time. His face was ruddy in the past few days, and his body temperature improved a lot, which was in a big contrast with Baili Qingmiao.

Yin Hanjiang observed Baili Qingmiao’s movements and held back several times when he wanted to ask something.

After following this routine for five months, Baili Qingmiao relied on the danger of the ice fields to cultivate her realm to the upper layers of Qi Foundation and was close to breaking through to the Golden Core stage by cultivating her mind, but she had not seen any trace of the snow flame yet.

Even Wen Renhe didn’t expect them to spend such a long time in the ice field of  Wanli. He was puzzled. “It shouldn’t be like this, the snow flame was the destiny of the heroine Baili Qingmiao. How can it not be found?”

As he recalled the plot, he found that the current time line was consistent with the timeline in the book. He Wenchao, who had been drained by Shu Yanyan, was accompanied by Baili Qingmiao, who found him and went to search for the medicine with him.

In the book, Baili Qingmiao didn’t have the protection of the flaming feather cloak, so after three days in the ice field of Wanli her limbs froze. She used all her Qi to protect He Wenchao. She climbed on the ice with him on her back. When she was about to die, there was a flash of fire before her eyes. She grabbed the flame with all her strength and shed tears.

“Must she be on the verge of death to see the snow flame?” Wen Renhe wondered. 

The Devil Venerable was a man of action. He summoned with his mind the flaming cloak on Baili Qingmiao’s body in his hand and the woman who was only at Qi Foundation stage froze and shivered in cold.

Seeing the Devil Venerable do so, Yin Hanjiang opened his mouth again.

Wen Renhe noticed his expression and asked, “What did you want to ask all this time? I command you to speak.”

With Wen Renhe’s order, it was easier for Yin Hanjiang to open his mouth and ask, “Lord, don’t you like this Miss Baili? Then why… “

If you have good feelings for her, why would you let Baili Qingmiao freeze to death? 

“Who told you that I had feelings for her?” Wen Renhe felt this matter was very important. He couldn’t let Yin Hanjiang misunderstand him like it happened in the book. He reached out his hand and pointed at his forehead saying, “This Lord is pushed by the opportunity of heaven. I have been graced with enlightenment by her in her past life. In this life, I have to repay her, that’s why I helped her out.”

“This subordinate understands,” Yin Hanjiang replied and then pointed at Baili Qingmiao for some reason. “But Miss Baili is dying now.”

“It doesn’t matter,” answered Wen Renhe. “There are so many cultivation methods in this world. If you are dead, it is still possible to become a ghost cultivator. Who stipulates that you have to practice the righteous path?”

Yin Hanjiang was silent for a while and then nodded his head. What his Lord said always made sense.

Edited by: Ninja

Proofreader: Taalia

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