Xiang Yu froze in his tracks as he emerged from the spirit vein, coming face to face with Xiuying who had been playing around the spirit vein's entrance. He maintained his outward composure despite the unexpected encounter, quickly assessing that her cultivation was merely at the Foundation Establishment realm—not an immediate threat to the current him.
Seizing the opportunity to test his newly upgraded abilities, he activated his fifth-grade appraisal skill:
[Name: Wang Xiuying]
[Realm: Body: 10th Layer; Spirit: Early Foundation Establishment]
[Species: Human]
[Status: Cursed]
[Info: The only daughter of the Golden Edge Sect's Sect Master]
Xiang Yu noted with mild disappointment that his appraisal function seemed less precise than he'd hoped. It displayed "Early Foundation Establishment" rather than specifying the exact cultivation layer like his system interface did. Furthermore, it categorized her as human, which contradicted what his system had revealed earlier—that she was half-beast with a Qilin bloodline.
Despite these shortcomings, he recognized the function still offered valuable supplementary information, such as her identity as the daughter of a powerful sect leader. This detail immediately triggered his survival instincts—a warning flag to maintain his distance from someone with such connections.
His assessment was interrupted when the young woman suddenly leaned toward him, her face uncomfortably close as she sniffed him.
"You smell strange," she declared without a hint of self-consciousness, continuing to sniff the air around him.
Xiang Yu stepped back instinctively, creating space between them. Who approaches a stranger and comments on their scent? Though he hadn't properly bathed in a while, the spirit spring purified him daily. How could he possibly smell 'strange'?
"What are you doing here?" he asked, deliberately changing the subject.
"Catching butterflies," she replied with a radiant smile, advancing toward him once more. "What about you? How did you appear suddenly from nowhere? Can you teach me?"
Xiang Yu sidestepped her approach again, maintaining a safe distance. "Catching butterflies?" he echoed, studying her more carefully. He thought to himself that she didn't look that young. "Did you catch any?" he inquired, redirecting the conversation again.
Her expression dimmed slightly. "No, if I catch them, they'll die," she answered, her voice carrying a hint of resignation.
This revelation sparked Xiang Yu's curiosity, especially considering her "Cursed" status displayed in his appraisal. In a normal scenario, this would be the perfect moment to inquire further and uncover her tragic backstory. But Xiang Yu had no intention of triggering another "heroine scenario" ; he already had his hands full with Li Yao.
"Why did you come here?" he pressed, ignoring the opening for deeper conversation.
She tilted her head, studying him with interest. "You're strange," she observed, her vocabulary suddenly more sophisticated than her earlier childlike manner. "It's the first time someone has acted so indifferent to me saying such a thing."
"It's not that strange," Xiang Yu replied with nonchalance. "Why don't you keep playing? I'll take my leave." He turned away, determined to avoid further association with yet another potential protagonist.
"Wait, don't leave yet!" she called, hurrying after him. "You still haven't told me how to suddenly appear like you did!"
Rather than answering, Xiang Yu activated his movement technique, vanishing instantly from her sight.
Left alone, Wang Xiuying halted where Xiang Yu had stood just moments before. She touched her chin thoughtfully, her eyes scanning the empty space. "Where did he go? He was here just now..." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
...
The two women continued their heated exchange, their voices growing sharper with each retort. Elder Guo sat beside them, shoulders hunched, resembling a battlefield casualty more than a respected cultivation elder. He had attempted several times to interject, only to be silenced with synchronized commands to "shut up." When he'd tried to quietly slip away, both women had fixed him with glares that rooted him to his seat.
His face brightened suddenly at the sight of an approaching figure. He could finally escape from this verbal tempest that assaulted his ears. "Ah, Xiang—" he began eagerly, only to wince as Elder Huang's fingers delivered a swift pinch to his arm.
Elder Huang cleared her throat and rose to her feet. "Greetings, Grand Elder," she announced with formal reverence, her earlier combative demeanor instantly replaced by respectful decorum.
Understanding dawned on Elder Guo's face as he realized his near-blunder. Addressing the Grand Elder by his personal name in front of outsiders would have been inappropriate. He quickly straightened his posture and added his own greeting. "Ahem, greetings, Grand Elder."
Xiang Yu paused momentarily, surprised by the sudden formality from his master and martial aunt. Noticing the unfamiliar visitor, however, he quickly understood the necessity of maintaining appearances. With the refined grace befitting his position, he gestured casually for them to remain seated, acknowledging their deference with the air of someone accustomed to such treatment.
Meiling rose from her seat as well, executing a formal salute with cupped fists. "Greetings, Senior," she offered respectfully, though her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied the young man before her.
The Grand Elder appeared remarkably young—barely twenty years old by her estimation. Still, she decided to remain cautious as she couldn't detect the slightest trace of cultivation energy from him.
Xiang Yu acknowledged her greeting with a nod, perfectly embodying the role of a high-ranking elder despite his youth. Without further ceremony, he proceeded directly to the kitchen and began preparing food as if nothing unusual had occurred.
Meiling's eyebrows rose in obvious surprise. She turned to Elder Huang, unable to conceal her bewilderment. "Your Grand Elder prepares food himself?" The question carried undisguised skepticism.
"Hmph! What do you know?" Elder Huang retorted, her voice swelling with unmistakable pride. "The Grand Elder is an expert cook. He sometimes makes spirit food to help increase our strength. His culinary skills are unmatched in the eastern regions."
"Is that so?" Meiling responded, her tone still carrying a note of disbelief.
"Of course," Elder Huang affirmed with absolute conviction.
Meiling's attention remained fixed on the kitchen, where she observed Xiang Yu manifesting a dark flame above his palm. Her composed facade cracked instantly, eyes widening in shock.
"That-that is..." she stammered, her reaction resembling someone who had witnessed a ghost materialize before her eyes.
Elder Huang smirked at the woman's visible distress. "Why are you so surprised?" she asked mockingly. "Well, it's understandable that you're mesmerized by the Grand Elder's cooking skill," she added with smug satisfaction.
"Right..." Meiling responded, gradually regaining her composure.
Elder Huang observed her curiously, wondering why this simple demonstration had provoked such an extreme response. Was she really that impressed?
Meanwhile, Meiling's thoughts raced frantically behind her carefully controlled expression. "I definitely saw it correctly," she confirmed inwardly. "Although this one is completely dark, it's unmistakably the same type of flame. I must return to the sect and report this to the master immediately."
The internal deliberation was interrupted as Xiang Yu emerged from the kitchen, effortlessly balancing five exquisitely prepared dishes in his hands. The moment he entered, an intoxicating aroma saturated with spiritual qi enveloped them, drawing everyone's attention.
Meiling felt her senses overwhelmed by the intense fragrance alone—the food's qi density exceeded anything she had previously encountered. Elder Huang simply smiled with knowing appreciation; no matter how many times she experienced it, the Grand Elder's cooking never failed to astonish her.
After Xiang Yu finished arranging the dishes on the table, he prepared to take his seat. Without warning, the temperature around him plummeted dramatically. The air itself seemed to solidify, imprisoning him in place.
"I finally found you," whispered a soft female voice directly behind him.
Before he could react, Xiang Yu felt a presence against his back, slender arms encircling him from behind in an intimate embrace. In the next moment, a wave of paralyzing cold engulfed him completely. Everything—the air, his clothes, even his skin—crystallized instantly as ice spread outward from the point of contact.
In mere seconds, Xiang Yu stood frozen within a massive block of ice.
...
Li Yao slashed downward with her sword, cleaving through another monster as it leaped toward her. Below her feet lay hundreds of similar creatures, their bodies strewn across the stone floor. She flicked her blade to one side, casting off droplets of viscous blood that clung to the polished steel.
"Why are there so many of them?" she muttered, her brow furrowing in frustration. "Isn't this supposed to be a tomb of a human expert? Why then is it filled with monsters?"
[The tomb wasn't very well hidden, so perhaps some small monsters managed to enter and reproduce,] she explained. [Anyway, this is also nice practice.]
Li Yao's shoulders slumped at the Empress's words. "But won't it take too long? I haven't seen senior brother in thirty hours, fifty-eight minutes, and twenty two seconds" she complained.
The Empress sighed deeply, [Well, it wouldn't take that long if you just quit thinking of him and killed the monsters,] she pointed out with exasperation. [Have fun. I'm going back to rest,] she added, withdrawing to the depths of Li Yao's spiritual sea.
"Hmph, who needs you anyway?" Li Yao pouted, her expression defiant. But her indignation proved premature as a monster lunged at her from behind. She spun around with lightning reflexes, her blade flashing as it bisected the creature mid-leap. "Well, maybe I do need you a little," she admitted reluctantly.
Without the Empress actively using her divine sense to alert her of approaching threats, Li Yao had to rely on her own qi sense. Since she wasn't completely in the Golden Core realm, maintaining her qi sense continuously required considerable effort.
Lost in thought, her expression suddenly hardened, eyes widening with alarm. "Dammit! I let my guard down," she spoke, her heart rate spiking. "Who is it?" she demanded of the empty air.
In an instant, she transformed into her elemental form, crackling with raw elemental power as lightning enveloped her body. "Which vixen dares to touch my senior brother?" she bellowed, her voice thundering through the tomb as she rocketed skyward.
Bolts of lightning cascaded from her radiant form, incinerating every monster within a hundred-meter radius. In mere seconds, the battlefield was cleared, smoking craters marking where her enemies had stood.
"Change of plans. I'm clearing this place in three days max," she declared, her face etched with fierce determination.
Inside her spiritual sea, the Empress observed this sudden shift with genuine surprise. "Someone touched her senior brother?" she wondered, perplexed. "But how did she know?"
The Empress had never taught Li Yao any divination techniques, and even if she had, could Li Yao possibly divine information about someone like Xiang Yu? Unless...
...
As Xiang Yu served the food, Meiling couldn't help but marvel at the carefully arranged dishes before her. The Grand Elder truly was an expert in the culinary arts. Although she had tasted spirit food once before, it was nowhere near this level of quality.
The dishes radiated spiritual energy so dense she could almost see it shimmering above the plates, while the aromas that wafted toward her carried notes of rare herbs expertly balanced with the natural essence of the ingredients.
She eagerly anticipated taking her first bite, her fingers tightening around her chopsticks in anticipation. As these thoughts crossed her mind, she felt the air around them suddenly shift. The temperature plummeted with unnatural speed, frost crystallizing on the table's edge as their breath began to form visible clouds.
There was only one thing she knew that could create such an effect.
Meiling's head snapped up, her eyes widening as she spotted Xiuying flying toward them—or more precisely, directly toward Xiang Yu. Meiling's body tensed, temporarily frozen in indecision. The Winter Curse was flaring up again, but this time with far greater intensity than any previous occurrence. The icy aura radiating from the girl's body created a visible distortion in the air, like heat waves in reverse.
Multiple calculations raced through Meiling's mind. Should she move to intercept Xiuying? Doing so would place her directly in the curse's path, risking severe injury or worse. Yet the girl was heading straight for the Grand Elder—would this be interpreted as a deliberate attack from their faction? If so, the negotiations would collapse instantly, and they might not escape with their lives.
Even with her enhanced Mind level allowing her to process thoughts thousands of times faster than ordinary cultivators, Meiling felt time slipping away. The air around her continued freezing at an alarming rate, her movements growing sluggish as frost formed on her robes. If she hesitated even a moment longer, the encroaching ice would render her completely immobile.
With a split-second decision, Meiling grabbed Elder Huang and Elder Guo by their collars and leaped backward with every ounce of speed her Golden Core cultivation could muster. The movement felt agonizingly slow, as though she were dragging the elders through thick honey rather than air.
In the next heartbeat, the space they had occupied just moments before transformed into a massive, crystalline block of ice. Inside this transparent prison stood Xiang Yu and Xiuying, their expressions perfectly preserved—his face locked in shocked disbelief, hers in childlike joy as she embraced him from behind. The ice block gleamed with unnatural clarity, not a single bubble or imperfection marring its surface.
As the commotion subsided and the swirling frost particles and dust settled, Elder Huang and Elder Guo finally processed what had transpired. Everything had happened with such blinding speed that their senses had barely registered the danger before Meiling had yanked them to safety.
When Elder Huang's gaze fell upon Xiang Yu's imprisoned form, her face contorted with fury. Without uttering a single word, she immediately activated the sect's formation, her fingers forming a sequence of complex commands, ready to unleash the formation's full power at any moment. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, her voice trembling with barely restrained rage.
"Calm down, this is a misunderstanding," Meiling urged, raising her palms in a placating gesture. Sweat beaded on her forehead despite the freezing temperature.
"What misunderstanding?" Elder Huang spat. "You have clearly targeted the Grand Elder. What's there to misunderstand?" Her fingers twitched, hovering mere moments away from triggering the devastating formation.
"Calm down," Elder Guo interjected firmly, placing a restraining hand on Elder Huang's shoulder. "If she wanted to harm him, she wouldn't have saved us," he reasoned. "Why don't you let her explain herself?"
Elder Huang's posture relaxed fractionally, though the formation remained active, ready to attack at any time.
Elder Guo shifted his gaze toward Meiling, his typically amiable expression transforming into something cold and unyielding. The change was so dramatic that Meiling instinctively took a half-step backward.
"I really hope you are not targeting Xiang Yu," he stated. "Otherwise, I won't even consider our past relationship."
Meiling felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the surrounding ice. Though his power had diminished substantially, his words carried weight not through qi pressure but through the absolute certainty that he meant exactly what he said.