"You've just made the mistake every genius makes," Ming Lou said, patting Qi Yu's head.
Qi Yu looked confused. "...What kind of mistake does every genius make? What did I do wrong?"
"Attracting jealousy," Sui You sighed. "It's okay, you'll get used to it."
Qi Yu felt wronged. "My cultivation advanced too quickly, and you're going to blame me for that too? I can't control myself!"
Feng Si Qian immediately turned and glared at her.
Qi Yu felt wronged again and deflated.
Yue Zhi Yin couldn't help but laugh. "Let's keep moving. This weapon forest is quite large, and they say the ice element forest is the hardest to get through in the entire elemental forest.
The cold is so strong that it freezes the circulation of spiritual energy within cultivators, making it difficult to counterattack when danger arises.
Sui You shoved his hands into his sleeves. "This place is really not fit for humans. Can we go somewhere else? Or split up?"
Otherwise, he'd want to revert to his phoenix form and breathe fire for warmth.
Qi Yu huddled into Si Qing's back, feeling warm and having no complaints.
Feng Si Qian had wanted to protest, but after walking for a while, she sneezed several more times and finally relented.
Qi Nian hugged Feng Si Qian. "Even so, it will take at least four to five hours to get out of the ice element forest."
"Unless we go back the way we came, but..."
Qi Nian paused, looking behind them with a helpless expression. "But the snow and wind in the ice element forest are too strong, and the footprints have been cleared. It will take us no less than four to five hours to find our way back."
Feng Si Qian shivered.
Sui You shivered too.
Chi Ming blew warm air onto his small hands with his mouth.
Qi Yan walked at the very front, followed closely by Yu Zhen and Li Yu. Ming Lou was asleep on Qi Yan's back, just like Qi Yu.
Yu Zhen rubbed his hands. "Ah, what bad luck. This elemental forest is so big, why did we have to come to this cursed place?"
Heavy snow fell, obscuring everything. They occasionally stepped on frozen river surfaces, which were slippery.
The more Yu Zhen thought about it, the more annoyed he became. He turned and glared at Feng Si Qian.
Feng Si Qian didn't notice Yu Zhen looking at her. She was still shivering and rubbing her hands for warmth.
Li Yu saw that everyone was suffering from the cold and couldn't help but suggest, "I've observed the path ahead. It's estimated that we won't be able to get out in four to five hours. We'll likely have to stay here tonight."
Yue Zhi Yin's mouth twitched at this. "No way? Stay overnight in the ice and snow forest?"
Ming Lou curled his lips in a complaint. "Won't we freeze into ice sculptures by tomorrow morning?"
"What else can we do? Walking continuously for several hours is unbearable. If you wanted to fly on your swords, your spiritual power would have frozen long ago." Li Yu squatted down and tapped the ice layer. "The best solution now is to build an ice house, hide inside to meditate and recover our spiritual energy. Once everyone is mostly recovered, we can continue."
Yu Zhen nodded, then suddenly drew his sword from his waist and, with a few swift slashes, cut out blocks of ice from the river surface.
He then poured some water and piled the ice blocks in a spot he deemed suitable, deciding to build an ice house.
Li Yu rubbed his hands and went over to help.
Qi Nian drew his own sword and, with several slashes, cut out several ice bricks and piled them on the river surface.
Qi Yu saw this and thought that cutting out bricks one by one was too troublesome. What if the river surface cracked?
She climbed off Si Qing's back, clapped her hands, and summoned her original form, the Yan Zhen Mirror, to replicate the ice bricks into dozens at once.
Qi Nian, Sui You, Chi Ming, and Qi Yan rushed over to move the ice bricks, and the group worked together to stack them into the shape of a house.
Yu Zhen, Li Yu, and Qi Yu flew into the air to build the roof.
With many hands making light work, the ice house was completed in less than three incense sticks' time.
Qi Yu cheered and crawled inside, floating her original form in the air inside the ice house, shivering.
Yue Zhi Yin looked at Qi Yu, who was frozen stiff, and was surprised to see her spiritual energy circulating so freely. "With so much cold, doesn't your spiritual energy circulation become sluggish?"
"No, no, no, it doesn't," Qi Yu stammered, her teeth chattering.
In reality, innate spiritual artifacts that had cultivated a physical body were not afraid of the cold.
Her situation was an exception, as she had only just cultivated a human form and was not yet accustomed to the heightened senses of the human body.
Sui You watched Qi Yu from the side. "Since it's not sluggish, then quickly circulate your spiritual energy. I have a task for you, and only you can complete it now."
As he spoke, he conjured a fireball, bound it with a fire talisman, and casually tossed it to Qi Yu.
Qi Yu yelped from the heat and quickly used her spiritual energy to hold it steady.
After a while, Qi Yu felt like a lampstand, illuminating the entire ice house.
Sui You sat down comfortably and began to circulate his spiritual energy.
Chi Ming climbed onto Qi Yu's mirror and sat beside her, warming himself by the fire.
Qi Yan and Ming Lou closed their eyes in meditation.
Qi Nian and Feng Si Qian sat by the fire with Chi Ming.
Si Qing sealed the door of the ice house with snow and was about to go to Qi Yu to take over the fireball, when he suddenly heard a cry for help from outside.
The people who were meditating and circulating their spiritual energy opened their eyes simultaneously.
The cries for help from outside grew louder, filled with misery.
Si Qing looked at Yu Zhen and Li Yu. "Master, Mistress, should we go and see?"
Feng Si Qian peered out through the ice wall. "Although I don't sense any demonic or fiendish energy, how can there be normal humans in the ice element forest?"
"There are. They are not from the Central Plains, but from the Highland tribes who have lived in the ice mountains for a long time. They usually live in the deep mountains, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, and are rarely seen," Li Yu said as he used his spiritual energy to push away the snow at the entrance and walked out.
Outside the ice house.
A boy, who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old, was struggling to hold up an elderly woman, pleading with the passing spirits, demon cultivators, ghost cultivators, and monsters on the roadside:
"Please, save my mother. My mother doesn't know what unclean thing has possessed her. She's been unconscious for ten days. Please help me..."
Feng Si Qian leaned to the side and said, "This child is so foolish. Whatever possessed his mother must be a demon, ghost, or fiend. He's asking these people for help, and yet he says his mother is possessed by something unclean. Who can help?"
Feng Ming Xi leaned on the other side, agreeing with Feng Si Qian. He added, "Looking at the expression of the boy's mother, the entity possessing her is likely a Life-Devouring Demon, which specializes in absorbing human life force. It's quite a famous monster in the ice element forest."
Yue Zhi Yin looked at Li Yu. "Master, should we intervene?"
Although saving a life is equivalent to building a seven-story pagoda... sometimes, when humans are attacked by monsters, it's just retribution.
The last time Yue Zhi Yin casually saved a villager who was being harassed by a fox spirit, he later found out that the villager had been making money by selling fox pelts.
The fox spirit's entire family had been skinned and killed by this villager. What goes around comes around, so it was destined for the villager to be bewitched by the fox spirit, leading to the ruin of his family.
And after Yue Zhi Yin saved the villager, not long after, the villager's entire family died in a flood.
Those who are meant to die, will die. Everything is predetermined in the Book of Life and Death. Even if others intervene to save them, the outcome cannot be altered.
"Qi Yu, do you think we should save them?" Li Yu didn't answer Yue Zhi Yin, but turned to ask Qi Yu.
Qi Yu nodded.
Li Yu stepped aside, took the fireball, and let Qi Yu go to their rescue.
Yue Zhi Yin looked at Qi Yu, then at Li Yu, and couldn't help but lower his voice. "Master, why did you specifically ask Junior Brother Qi Yu?"
"Because this young man cannot be saved," Li Yu said, watching the direction Qi Yu was heading. "Life-Devouring Demons don't just absorb one person's life force; they absorb two at a time. The current situation can only mean that this young man has tamed a Life-Devouring Demon and deliberately had it possess his mother, staging this act. If anyone intervenes to save them, the Life-Devouring Demon tamed by this young man will attack the helping cultivator."
"At that time, the young man will scavenge the cultivator's possessions, and the Life-Devouring Demon will have human lives to feed on."
Si Qing's expression changed slightly, and he said with some dissatisfaction, "Master, you know everything, so why did you agree to let Qi Yu Senior Brother save them?"
Li Yu looked at Si Qing and smiled. "Do you have so little confidence in your Senior Brother?"
Si Qing blinked, not understanding.
Just as Li Yu was about to say something more, Qi Yu had already reached the young man who was crying for help.
"Brother, Daoist Brother, please help me!" The young man clutched Qi Yu's robe.
Qi Yu looked at the young man and gently squatted down opposite him.
Just as Si Qing, Yue Zhi Yin, Ming Lou, Sui You, Qi Nian, Feng Si Qian, Feng Ming Xi, and the others thought Qi Yu was about to agree to help the young man.
Unexpectedly, Qi Yu spoke in a very gentle voice to the young man, "Where is the Life-Devouring Demon's lair? Since you can cooperate with it, you must know its location. I want the ice spirit cores of these low-level monsters. Can you tell me?"
Yue Zhi Yin was stunned. "With Junior Brother Qi Yu asking in that tone, how could this young man..."
Before he could finish the word "speak," he saw the young man actually bow to Qi Yu and answer in a very dull voice, "Yes, I will take the Daoist to see."
As the young man spoke, the woman in his arms also stood up.
Yue Zhi Yin was completely dumbfounded.
Li Yu glanced at them and then said meaningfully, "Do you know what the Yan Zhen Mirror is also called?"
Si Qing blinked. "What?"
"The Yan Zhen Mirror is also called the Holy Artifact of Interrogation," Li Yu said, looking at Qi Yu in the distance. "Because it can discern the truth in people's words. No lie can escape it."
Of course.
The condition was that Qi Yu was willing to use this ability.
Li Yu didn't say the last part. He retracted the ice house into his storage bag and turned to leave.
Leaving Yue Zhi Yin, Si Qing, and the others to clutch their chests, their hearts tightening.
A single thought flashed through each of their minds:
"So, does Qi Yu (Senior Brother) (Junior Brother) (Brother) know his/her secret?"