Chapter 68

As night fell, all was silent, with only the howling of the cold wind outside the window. Inside, however, it was warm and cozy.

Lin Du glanced at the heated brick bed that the village chief had specially instructed someone to light, paused for a moment, and then found a chair to sit on.

Ni Jinxuan, however, was puzzled. “Aren’t you going to sit on the bed, junior master?”

Leaning lazily against the back of the chair, Lin Du replied, “Mortal fire fears me. If I go up there, you’ll soon be sleeping on a cold bed.”

“We’re not here to rest anyway. You stay there and enjoy the warmth while you can, before you have to rely on spiritual energy to keep warm.”

She had the purest Ice Spiritual Root in the world, born on the day of the first frost. Whenever she used her spiritual power, ordinary fires would be suppressed or even extinguished.

This was also why she and her disciples couldn’t engage in alchemy or weapon forging.

It was only then that Ni Jinxuan remembered. No wonder every time the junior master took charge of cooking, she had to keep adding firewood, but when her master cooked, it was never necessary.

Lin Du crossed her arms, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes in a feigned nap, though her divine sense was focused outside.

At this moment, she finally understood some of the hardship Yan Ye had endured when he first embarked on the path of cultivation. Divine sense wasn’t like eyesight; keeping it stretched out for a long time was indeed tiring. Perhaps this was why Yan Ye disliked going out.

Ni Jinxuan obediently sat cross-legged on the heated bed and entered meditation for cultivation.

Cultivators at the Fengchu realm still required some sleep every day, but by the Qinxin realm, they needed very little. Going a few days without sleep wouldn’t be a problem, allowing for much more cultivation time.

After a long while—long enough for Lin Du to have retracted her divine sense and rested several times—she finally sensed a coldness, different from the winter chill, that was oddly sinister.

That sensation was all too familiar to her. It was the same as the ominous Yin energy that surged skyward the day the ghost gate was flung open.

No disciple of the righteous path would like that kind of energy, much like how those with the “OR6A2” gene find cilantro’s flavor unbearable. Good and evil simply cannot coexist.

Lin Du was still feigning sleep, arms crossed and head leaned back, though her right hand now gripped the Floating Life Fan, spiritual power already gathered in her palm.

The howling wind outside suddenly intensified, slamming hard against the wooden windows. Bang after bang, until the window finally broke.

Before the young girl, who had been sitting cross-legged on the bed, even had time to rise, her whip had already lashed out, cracking loudly through the cold wind that had burst through the window.

Lin Du sighed. After all, she was still young and impatient.

At least wait until the intruder comes in.

She opened her eyes and looked out the window.

Outside, it was pitch black with no sign of any figures. Only the grey-black wind howled fiercely through the wooden window frame, transforming the once ordinary village window into something akin to the ghost gate of the desert sands.

Lin Du stood up in one swift motion, and with a flick of her wrist, her fan snapped open with a sharp swish, releasing a radiant glow that illuminated the night.

There was no physical form, no person in sight.

As Lin Du moved, her mind raced. Today, she had instructed Mo Lin and the others to visit every household, ensuring there were no lingering entities in the village. The formation they set up at the village’s edge was meant to guarantee that nothing could hide nearby.

Aside from the beast-repelling formation, Lin Du had also set up a barrier known as the “Diamond Wall”—a nickname. It blocked evil spirits from entering, but it also prevented anything inside from escaping.

The formation’s main material was black gold, a substance that naturally countered the sinister energy of evil spirits.

The black wind that had rushed through the window began to show strange signs. The icy frost carried by the wind condensed into swirling snow, stopping just a few steps into the house, as if frozen in time.

The copper bell at the end of the long whip rang clearly in the wind, and a strange vacuum seemed to form around it.

For a moment, everything appeared to freeze in place.

But it was only an illusion. The clash of spiritual powers soon caused the invading black wind to swirl, forcefully carrying the righteous snow toward the figure of a lone girl in a pale robe.

In an instant, Lin Du was enveloped by the black mist.

In the next moment, Lin Du retracted her spiritual power, allowing the ominous black fog to carry her away.

The long whip, adorned with a delicately carved copper bell, only managed to brush against Lin Du’s waist before the black shadow whisked her away.

A voice, carrying a hint of smug satisfaction, echoed in Ni Jinxuan’s mind. “In fifteen minutes, go tell your senior brother that I’ve been taken by a monster.”

Lin Du was wrapped in the sinister energy, the wind biting cold as it lashed against her face, seemingly trying to seep into her flesh. The spiritual power in her dantian stirred restlessly, the sense of being drained overwhelming.

She knew this was indeed the method of a demon—first drain her spiritual power, then consume her flesh and blood.

A strange smile appeared on Lin Du’s face. In the midst of the raging whirlwind, she struggled to raise her hand. At some point, her fan had closed again, and as her divine sense poured out, the snowflakes in the black mist began to glow, spiraling into a small vortex of light, colliding with the black wind.

“Trying to possess a soul in front of a formation master? You’ve got to be tired of living.”

The black mist paused suddenly, and the spiritual power surging through her meridians also came to a halt.

Lin Du’s voice, filled with mocking laughter, cut through the tension. “You’re scared now, aren’t you?”

Formation masters might not be great fighters, but their divine sense was always far stronger than those of body or spell cultivators.

What others couldn’t touch—like a wandering soul—a formation master could capture. What others couldn’t harm—like a spirit—an adept formation master, trained in divine sense attacks, could destroy.

Even if a formation master didn’t specialize in divine sense attacks, the constant calculations and setups strengthened their mind far beyond that of the average cultivator.

Lin Du practiced a technique called the “Tianchi Spiritual Refinement Art.” Like the vast ocean, her divine sense grew swiftly, appearing calm but capable of swallowing mountains and devouring the sky when unleashed.

She watched as the black mist began to retreat, and the strange sight of a pale green robe with a round collar came into view.

It was indeed Qi Zhun.

That man, who had curled up on the bed earlier, hunched over from the freezing backlash of the poison. If he had taken Xia Tianwu’s antidote, he might have survived.

Now, Lin Du could see clearly. Qi Zhun was actually very tall—unnaturally so, as if he had been stretched out, his body trembling violently. She could even hear the grinding of his teeth.

But she quickly realized the situation: the backlash from the poison, the venom of the Black Snow Green Snake, was not easy to endure. He hadn’t frozen to death but was nearly half-dead from the cold.

No external warmth could alleviate this kind of poison. Qi Zhun preferred to send out his soul to capture her rather than drag his weakened body along.

Lin Du recalled the poison traces by the window. If it was just a wandering soul, how did it leave behind venom?

Shao Fei was the first to arrive at the scene and reported seeing only a shadow breaking through the window, with the room left in disformation.

Every word had been riddled with contradictions, as if she were trying to hide something, yet at the same time, leading them directly toward Qi Zhun.

A shadow, poison, protecting a fellow disciple.

Lin Du glanced at Qi Zhun with a mixture of pity and amusement. What loyalty among disciples.

She asked him, “Before I make my move, I have two questions: Did you eat that child? And did you steal the tiger demon’s cub?”