C651 Scarlet Dunes
In the city of Afnetalos, Azure Alley stretched ten meters wide, its path running alongside Cloud Lake, which lent the street its name. The Cloud Lake itself was a focal point within Afnetalos, surrounded by palaces and pavilions that housed the wealthy and noble. The Ethereal Void Sect, along with six other lower sects, established their training halls on this prestigious street to recruit disciples.
The Winter's Bite training hall boasted a landscaped courtyard complete with an artificial mountain and a spring, its waters drawn directly from Cloud Lake. At the break of dawn, Zhao Jingzhi, a gaunt man with a goatee, affectionately stroked his beard as he observed the young woman in green, whom he had spirited away from the Obsidian Thunder Sect. With a smile, he offered her some wisdom, "To rise above others, one must endure the greatest hardships. You must withstand this challenge, girl. If you falter, you have only yourself to blame, for it will show you lack the mettle to join Winter's Bite and pursue the Way of Heaven."
A well emanated a bone-chilling cold, its surface covered with a thin layer of ice, as if the well itself were exhaling the frosty air. The timid girl in green was submerged in its icy depths, the cold seeping relentlessly into her veins and arteries. Her long hair, draped over her shoulders, had begun to freeze, and her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
She fondly remembered her time at the Obsidian Thunder Sect, where Xie Bin had taught her spells and gently cultivated her physique. Initially, when Zhao Jingzhi took her to Winter's Bite, she felt a tinge of relief, aware that Winter's Bite was a more prestigious lower sect compared to the third-rate Obsidian Thunder Sect. However, her regret set in once she was cast into the well by Zhao Jingzhi to purify her body with its icy embrace.
Zhao Jingzhi, the man who had taken her, did not hold her in the high regard she had imagined. "Girl, you may practice thunder magic or ice magic," Zhao Jingzhi said coolly, squinting his eyes. "Had you started with our Winter's Bite ice magic instead of that mediocre thunder magic, I might have valued you more. But now..."
Zhao Jingzhi gently shook his head as the young men and women of Winter's Bite began to chatter among themselves. They were discussing how she had first learned the basics of thunder magic from Xie Bin at the Obsidian Thunder Sect, and how the nascent threads of thunder intent she had cultivated in her body were now hindering her progress in ice magic.
The girl was overwhelmed with desolation, wondering why Zhao Jingzhi insisted on taking her back when she was clearly no longer an ideal candidate for ice magic after having started with thunder magic.
Zhao Jingzhi's subsequent remark cleared up her confusion. "You initially came to Winter's Bite, but I wasn't present to recognize your potential. Once you've come to our attention, it's imperative that we bring you back."
His icy words left the girl feeling utterly bewildered. She felt deeply aggrieved, reduced to a mere pawn in a rivalry between Zhao Jingzhi and the Obsidian Thunder Sect, rather than being valued for her potential as a disciple. To her, Winter's Bite had become a sect devoid of compassion.
Despite her discontent, she felt powerless, the chill of the well water seeping into her, leaving her thoughts cold and numb.
Suddenly, a familiar silhouette landed softly in the courtyard, bathed in the morning sun. Zhao Jingzhi's expression turned frosty as he rose to his feet. "Xie Bin, do you really think you're untouchable just because Qi Jinghai sought you out? You were formidable once, but that was a century ago! What makes you and the Obsidian Thunder Sect so bold as to intrude without warning?"
"I learned from the best," Xie Bin retorted, glancing at the girl in the green dress with a reassuring smile. "I'm here to take you back."
"You wouldn't dare!" Zhao Jingzhi bellowed in fury.
With a flick of his wrist, Xie Bin released the Glacial Storm Seal, which spun and hovered midair in the courtyard. A barrage of bright, icy lightning burst forth from the seal.
As Zhao Jingzhi prepared to engage with his Lunar Spirit, a sudden, intense pain pierced his brow. He caught a glimpse of a fine bolt of lightning, sharp as a needle, embedding itself into his skin.
The force that annihilates souls began to permeate his mud pellet acupoint through the faintest spark of electricity.
Zhao Jingzhi's complexion drained of color, and he became rigid, his teeth chattering. "You, you've re-entered the Spirit Walk?"
"What else?"
With a cold huff, Xie Bin strode over to the well and hauled the girl out.
He seized the girl's arm without sparing a glance at the silent disciples of Winter's Bite.
None dared to stir until he had departed from the Winter's Bite training hall.
A thread of lightning hovered at the acupoint between each person's brows, as though any rash movement would invite a piercing bolt.
A quarter of an hour later, once Xie Bin had vanished, the lightning finally dissipated.
Zhao Jingzhi collapsed onto the lounge chair, gazing at the intensifying sun, and murmured in a daze, "Only with the heaven soul's reunion could he return to the Spirit Walk and wield the Glacial Storm Seal. Rumor has it that Xie Bin was the Obsidian Thunder Sect's most gifted cultivator three hundred years ago, but it was that calamity that cast him down to the Everlands, reducing him to this state."
Muttering to himself, he urgently called out, "Inform the Chief Elder that Xie Bin has resumed his cultivation journey!"
...
In the subterranean city of Afnetalos.
"Yu Yuan has headed to the Scarlet Dunes?"
Chen Liangquan's elegant hand shimmered with divine brilliance as he inscribed intricate patterns onto a deep red beast hide, not bothering to look up as he inquired.
"I've located him and assured him there's no longer a need to skulk in the shadows; he's free to roam," Chen Langzhi said with a slight smile. "The lad enjoys a good bustle, and the Scarlet Dunes are certainly bustling. I mentioned his many friends were there, and that piqued his interest, so off he went."
"Hehe, excellent."
Chen Liangquan paused, twisting the eighth-level archdemon hide to examine the etched array, and nodded in approval. "This hide's engraved array will enable the Chen family's youth to withstand three strikes from a Spirit Walk Stage cultivator."
Chen Langzhi's eyes sparkled with excitement. "You intend to bestow that gift upon one of our young clan members?"
"He's known as Chen Xi, right? Let's give it to him," Chen Liangquan said as he passed the beast hide to Chen Langzhi. "Have someone deliver this to him. It ought to protect him from the treacherous plots of that old scoundrel from the Ethereal Void Sect."
"That sounds good," Chen Langzhi agreed with a swift nod.
"The times are changing. I'm curious whether he joined Zhao Yafu, Liu Ying, and the others in the Scarlet Dunes to vanquish demons, or if he's aligning with the demons there to eliminate the members of the seven lower sects." Chen Liangquan's smile was radiant. "I wonder how he'll decide once he realizes his fate is to oppose the three upper sects, the Devil Palace, and Shadow's Keep."
...
Underneath the relentless sun, the Scarlet Dunes were like a giant sauna.
Cultivators traversing the desert were drenched in sweat, their skin reddened as if they were boiled shrimp.
Liu Ying, wielding the Fallen Star Eyes, chose not to accompany her fellow Starmoon Sect disciples but ventured alone instead.
This artifact often subjected her to torment.
In the tranquility of the Moonfall Sanctuary, she would hear voices that pierced her soul, requiring considerable effort to disregard.
"If Yu Yuan were here," she murmured wistfully.
Liu Ying had long been aware that the Sunlit Order's warriors were locked in a brutal struggle with the Sky Fiend, a situation far more dire than their own in the Scarlet Dunes.
"Ah!"
Out of the blue, through the Fallen Star Eyes, she detected Yu Yuan's arrival in the Scarlet Dunes.
It appeared that Yu Yuan had invoked a mystique, inadvertently alerting her.
Her face lit up with joy, and she quickly summoned the Fallen Star Eyes.
Meanwhile.
Yu Yuan, transported to the Scarlet Dunes by the Chen family in a Golden Carriage, was deeply engrossed in the sword scar imprints on his arm bone, absorbing the esoteric knowledge of the Moon Slayer sword spell with his spiritual sense.
He was certain that the Fallen Star Eyes would respond.
Sure enough, Liu Ying soon approached, piloting the Fallen Star Eyes. Her smile was as bright as the sun. "I've been so worried about you, fearing something might have befallen you in Afnetalos. Seeing you safe and sound is a relief."
Yu Yuan chuckled heartily and, without any reservation, soared down toward the Fallen Star Eyes. "What's the current state of affairs in the Scarlet Dunes?"
"The situation is dire."
