Chapter 1288: Snow Woman

Zu'an furrowed his brow, recalling the recent situation. "That shouldn't be right," he said. "I've been flying in the direction you pointed this whole time. I couldn't have gone the wrong way."

Yan Xuehen explained, "I think there was something strange about that blizzard just now. Besides being unusually fierce, it also disoriented people. We thought we were heading in this direction, but in fact, we were going in another."

As she spoke, she glanced at the person in the ice sculpture. "I've been here before," she said, "and these ice sculptures definitely weren't here."

"You said he's your martial uncle?" Zu'an observed closely. The attire of the person in the ice sculpture indeed had a distinct White Jade Capital style.

Yan Xuehen nodded. "That's why I said it. My martial uncle disappeared when I was quite young. At the time, Master said he was nearing the end of his life and went to seek his own destiny, never to return. I never expected him to end up perishing here."

Zu'an thought to himself that this was normal. After all, Mount Great Snow had too many legends, and many people hoped to strike it rich, but unfortunately, they rarely succeeded.

"What was your martial uncle's cultivation level?" Zu'an asked after a moment of thought.

Yan Xuehen's expression turned pensive as she recalled, "I didn't spend much time with my martial uncle. I only remember him as a very serious and somewhat stern man. As for his cultivation, he was definitely a Grandmaster at his peak. However, when he left White Jade Capital, his strength had declined due to old age. Even if he couldn't maintain the Grandmaster realm, he was still far stronger than ordinary Masters."

After hearing this, Zu'an's expression grew solemn. "I can't believe such a powerful figure ultimately couldn't escape the fate of being frozen into an ice sculpture."

A hint of worry also flickered across Yan Xuehen's face. "He shouldn't have been frozen by that blizzard we just experienced. Even I can sense something amiss, and Martial Uncle was very knowledgeable; there's no way he wouldn't have noticed."

The two discussed for a while. There were no visible wounds on his body, nor any signs of poisoning, leaving his cause of death entirely unclear.

It couldn't have been freezing to death, could it? A master of his caliber, with such surging vitality, couldn't possibly freeze to death, not even with the domineering blizzards of Mount Great Snow.

"Should we bury him?" Zu'an asked thoughtfully, considering he was her martial uncle.

Yan Xuehen shook her head slightly. "There's no need. White Jade Capital has always revered nature. Now, Martial Uncle has the sky as his quilt and the earth as his mat. It's better than being buried in dark soil."

Zu'an's expression was odd. Could leaving a body exposed in the wilderness be described so elegantly?

If he hadn't known her for so long, he might have thought her heartless, but this was truly the White Jade Capital style. Even Chu Chuyan had a similar disposition, just too cold.

It seemed the "Supreme Emotion-Severing Chapter" was indeed extreme. He needed to find a way to warm them up more, to make them feel more human.

At this moment, Yan Xuehen bowed to the ice sculpture, and Zu'an instinctively followed suit.

To his surprise, Yan Xuehen flushed deeply. "I'm paying respects to my elder. Why are you bowing?"

His action made it seem as if they were performing a wedding ritual. Of course, she wouldn't have thought anything of it if it were someone else, but her relationship with Zu'an was simply too complicated to explain.

Zu'an looked utterly bewildered. "He's your elder, so naturally he's my elder too. What's wrong with bowing?"

"What do you mean 'my elder is your elder'?"

"Aren't you my self-proclaimed master? Shouldn't I pay respects to my master's martial uncle?"

"So now you admit I'm your master?"

"I never admitted it."

The two engaged in a verbal spar. Yan Xuehen was somewhat surprised; she had always preferred quiet, and usually, even when encountering something unpleasant, she would never waste words arguing with people. Yet, with Zu'an, all her habits were broken.

The two continued walking and talking, when suddenly they stopped. They had discovered several more skeletons.

These individuals were dressed in various attires, some even in demon clan outfits, but judging by the lingering auras, the weakest among them were Masters.

Yan Xuehen's expression changed slightly. "Although I don't recognize them, their clothing and lingering auras suggest they were either sect leaders of major factions or patriarchs of top families... This is bad, retreat quickly."

Every single one of these individuals was a top expert of their time, some even matching her own strength at her peak, according to legends. So many masters dying here proved they had chosen the wrong path.

Zu'an felt the same way, but just then, heavy snow began to fall again around them, and the temperature plummeted drastically. Even Yan Xuehen, in her current state, shivered, and Zu'an, with his vigorous vitality, found his teeth chattering.

Then, in the distance amidst the swirling snow, a faint figure appeared—that of a woman. She wore a simple, plain white dress with no patterns or colors. A silk ribbon loosely cinched her waist, making her figure appear slender enough to be grasped in a single hand, accentuating her graceful and alluring form.

The only pity was that her face was obscured by the swirling snow, making it impossible to see clearly, though her faint outline suggested she was undoubtedly a great beauty.

The woman then raised a hand in their direction, and a voice seemed to echo, "Save me."

Zu'an, however, grabbed Yan Xuehen and turned to run. What kind of joke was this? This was Mount Great Snow, a forbidden land of death since ancient times.

How could a frail woman possibly be lost in these mountains, waiting for rescue?

Although he had a weakness for women, he wasn't foolish.

Yan Xuehen glanced at him with relief. She had originally been worried that this lecherous fellow would feel compelled to protect the beauty upon seeing her graceful figure.

Seeing that her previous trick hadn't worked, the woman in white dropped her pretense. Her aura suddenly surged, transforming into a blizzard tornado that chased after them.

The terrifying oppressive sensation from that instant made Zu'an's scalp tingle. "An Earth Immortal?"

Yan Xuehen's expression was also dazed. Though she also used ice and snow, this opponent's power was considerably stronger than hers at her peak.

A determined look appeared on her face. "You run alone. I'll buy you some time. Otherwise, we'll both die."

At the Earth Immortal level, even a single person couldn't escape, let alone carrying her, a burden.

Instead of letting go, Zu'an swept her into his arms, summoned his Wind-Fire Wheels, and frantically sped off in the opposite direction.

"We can't escape. If you don't let go, we'll truly both die," Yan Xuehen urged anxiously.

"Then we die together!" Zu'an's expression was resolute.

Yan Xuehen parted her lips, but this time, no words came out.

Because she was held in his embrace, looking up at his resolute face, her chaotic heart inexplicably calmed.

Perhaps this was for the best. In the vast expanse of Mount Great Snow, there was no need to consider worldly ethical relations. Dying here with him wasn't entirely unacceptable...

Zu'an, however, had no intention of dying. He desperately urged his Wind-Fire Wheels, but their speed had reached its limit, and the figure in the blizzard was drawing ever closer.

As the distance closed, a layer of frost visibly formed on their clothes, faces, and even their hair.

The Wind-Fire Wheels themselves almost extinguished several times, sustained only by Zu'an desperately fueling them with Phoenix Flames.

Yet, despite his efforts, the ice on the Wind-Fire Wheels grew thicker and thicker. The roaring flames on them were now reduced to mere flickers, threatening to die out at any moment.

They felt as if their blood was about to freeze. The blizzards they had found so agonizing while flying earlier now seemed utterly trivial in comparison.

They finally understood why the top experts they had seen along the way had died violently here without any visible injuries: they had been frozen to death, alive.

Zu'an continuously employed the Sunflower Mirage movement technique, combined with Gale's teleportation, which prevented them from being caught immediately.

It was also fortunate that he had recently drawn Mei Xi, whose skill reduced the cooldown time for summoning Gale.

This allowed him to cast Gale so many times consecutively.

Yet, even with all his efforts, he couldn't stop the figure within the terrifying ice and snow from drawing closer.

"So hot!" Yan Xuehen began tugging at her clothes, as if she wanted to strip them off.

She was too severely injured, and her current strength was utterly insufficient to resist the extreme cold.

When the human body experiences hypothermia after its temperature drops too low, it doesn't feel cold and want to put on clothes. Instead, because the body temperature is lower than the outside temperature, it instinctively feels hot and wants to remove clothes. This is why many people found frozen to death in snowy mountains are discovered naked.

Of course, if Zu'an hadn't run so fast, she would most likely have been frozen into an ice sculpture before even entering that state.

Zu'an, however, had no time to spare worrying about her. Seeing the ice and snow tornado less than ten feet away, he knew they would be completely engulfed in the next second if nothing changed.

Zu'an gritted his teeth, successfully activated the Stardestroyer Rune, instantly increasing his power tenfold. Then, holding the Lifeline Talisman Xie Daoyun had given him when he left the capital, he activated the "Summon Key" skill: "Take us a thousand li away!"

As soon as he spoke, the two instantly vanished.

The blizzard raged for a while but found no trace of its targets. It gradually dispersed, leaving only the woman in white standing there with a hint of confusion.