When the flying boat passed through the last layer of clouds, the ridge of Xueji Peak was already clearly spread out below.
The grayish-blue rock walls carved steep silhouettes out of the thick fog. Everything above the mountainside was completely covered in thick snow, gleaming with an eerie blue-white in the extremely faint light of dawn. It looked like a massive block of cold jade meticulously polished by heaven and earth, resting silently atop the sea of clouds.
The summit of Xueji Peak was hidden in the drifting mist, with only the dark branches of a few ancient pines piercing through the snow. They trembled slightly in the wind, as if receiving the pure chill of the sky.
The flying boat landed at the edge of the reception square. Its hull touched the cold bluestone surface with a low, muffled thud, shaking loose several clumps of soft, fresh snow from the branches of nearby ancient pines.
The snow powder rustled down, refracting fine silver glints in the morning light before being swept away by the mountain wind before even hitting the ground.
Just as Bai Qingxue stepped down the gangway, the morning bell at the mountain gate chimed.
The sound of the bell rippled over in waves from the direction of the main peak, passing through the sea of clouds and the pine forest. By the time it reached the reception square, it had become extremely faint and distant.
Bai Qingxue stood still at the edge of the square and looked back at the flying boat behind her.
The disciples of the Xuantian Sect were stepping down the gangway one after another. Some were still whispering to each other about the events on the Canglan Island arena, some were yawning and rubbing their eyes, and others shrunk their shoulders from the biting morning wind.
Those voices and figures fell behind Bai Qingxue, sounding distant and blurry, as if separated by a thin sheet of water.
Bai Qingxue turned around and stepped onto the stone steps leading to Xueji Peak.
Lu Xueqing followed half a step behind her.
The two did not speak much along the way. Only their footsteps rose and fell in turn on the bluestone. Bai Qingxue's steps were light and steady, while Lu Xueqing's were slightly heavier and firmer. The two differently paced sounds echoed back and forth in the valley, mostly absorbed by the pine forests on both sides.
The higher they climbed, the thinner the mountain mist became, and the colder and purer the air grew.
The temples of Xueji Peak gradually revealed their outlines deep within the thin mist. Long icicles hung from the upturned eaves, clinking together in the wind with a fine, ethereal chime.
The sound did not resemble mortal iron; rather, it was as if someone high above were tapping a row of ice wind chimes with a very fine silver rod. The lingering echo reverberated softly in the silent valley, refusing to disperse for a long time.
Bai Qingxue did not return to her own courtyard first.
She paused at the fork in the stone path leading to the main peak's main hall, tilting her head to glance at Lu Xueqing behind her.
“I am going to see the True Lord,” Bai Qingxue said.
Hearing this, Lu Xueqing simply replied, “I will wait for you here.”
With that, Lu Xueqing moved under the ancient pine beside the stone path.
Bai Qingxue glanced at Lu Xueqing, then nodded, turning to walk up the stone path toward the main peak's main hall.
Her frost-white hem brushed across the accumulated snow by the roadside, leaving a few shallow drag marks on the snowy ground.
One of the double doors of the main peak's main hall stood half-open.
When Bai Qingxue reached the door, an extremely faint chill welled up from the crack, several degrees colder than the mountain wind outside.
The interior of the main hall was much deeper than it appeared from the outside.
The domed ceiling was very high, so high that the star patterns carved upon it were barely visible in the darkness. Only a few beams of morning light shone diagonally through the narrow window slits high above, illuminating columns of floating dust in the air.
No lamps were lit nor incense burned in the hall today. All the light came from those window slits and the faint glow of the Ice Spirit jade slips suspended near the ceiling.
The jade slips hovered around the jade platform. There were seven in total, slowly rotating along the same invisible orbit. With each rotation, they refracted a line of cold blue light, casting a moving patch of light onto the ground.
True Lord Shuanghua sat upright on the jade platform deep within the main hall. She wore a plain white Daoist robe, its color so pale it almost merged with the snow of Xueji Peak. There were no extra decorations on the fabric, save for the silver threads embroidered along her shoulders and cuffs, which occasionally glinted with a tiny speck of light in the gloom.
Her eyes were closed, her breathing so shallow it was almost imperceptible, and the spiritual power around her was reined in to the point of near-nothingness.
If not for the seven Ice Spirit jade slips still rotating at a constant speed along their orbit, the figure sitting in the main hall would have resembled a statue sealed in ice and snow.
Bai Qingxue stood still ten paces before the jade platform and bowed.
“Disciple Bai Qingxue greets the True Lord.”
True Lord Shuanghua did not open her eyes, only letting out an extremely soft grunt from her nose.
Bai Qingxue straightened up and reported the events of the Canglan Dao Discourse from beginning to end.
She neither exaggerated nor deliberately held back, simply describing it from her own perspective.
The main hall fell silent for a moment.
The seven Ice Spirit jade slips continued to rotate slowly. The patches of light moved silently across the ground, sliding past Bai Qingxue's feet and back again.
True Lord Shuanghua still did not open her eyes.
Having finished her report, Bai Qingxue took out the half of the broken hairpin from her storage bag.
The jade fracture glowed with a soft luster in the morning light. The dark pattern on the break appeared even clearer than it had on Canglan Island, as if some sleeping elements within the hairpin had been gently awakened after resonating with that ice lotus.
Holding the hairpin in both hands, Bai Qingxue placed it on the jade desk in front of her. The moment the end of the hairpin touched the dark jade surface, it made an extremely light and crisp clink.
The sound was clean and pure, like an ice bead falling onto a jade plate, sounding exceptionally clear in the dead silence of the main hall.
True Lord Shuanghua finally opened her eyes.
Those eyes were like a deep pool frozen for ten thousand years at the summit of Xueji Peak. Her pupils were a pure ice-blue, devoid of any impurities, reflecting nothing of her surroundings.
True Lord Shuanghua's gaze fell upon the broken hairpin. At that instant, her expression did not change, but a very faint crease appeared between her brows.
Then, True Lord Shuanghua slowly withdrew her gaze from the broken hairpin and looked back at Bai Qingxue's face.
“Once you break through to the Gold Core realm,” True Lord Shuanghua spoke, her voice so ethereal it seemed unearthly.
“It will not be too late to discuss this then.”
Only these two sentences were spoken, with nothing more said.
True Lord Shuanghua closed her eyes once more. The seven Ice Spirit jade slips slowly resumed their rotation, and the patches of light glided silently across the floor again.
The mountain wind that had seeped in from outside had stopped at some point. The main hall sank back into a stagnant, deep silence, like a pool of frozen water with something churning beneath the surface, yet without a single bubble rising up.
Bai Qingxue lowered her gaze and put the broken hairpin back into her storage bag.
Her fingertips lingered on the hairpin for a moment longer before letting go, feeling the cool jade texture slide along the ridges of her finger pad.
Then she took three steps back, bowed, and said in a steady voice:
“This disciple understands.”
Bai Qingxue did not press further, nor did she show the slightest impatience.
Since the True Lord had said so, she must have her reasons.
Some answers required a corresponding breadth of vision and cultivation to bear; otherwise, peering into heavenly secrets would only invite backlash.
As Bai Qingxue straightened up, her gaze lingered for a breath on the empty surface of the jade desk, and then she turned to walk outside.
The moment she stepped out of the main hall, the mountain wind hit her head-on. The wind was stronger than when she arrived, carrying fine snow particles that whipped against her face, landing on her eyelashes and lips, bringing a distinct chill.
Bai Qingxue stood still on the stone steps outside the hall, gazing at the churning sea of clouds below.
The mountain wind was pushing the clouds into layers of grayish-white waves. They washed over the ancient pines on the mountainside and then over the stone paths further away, as if swallowing the entire Xueji Peak inch by inch at an extremely slow pace.
By the stone steps, Lu Xueqing was still waiting under the ancient pine.
She had moved no more than three paces from her original spot, likely changing to a sheltered posture because the wind had been too strong. A thin layer of snow had settled on her shoulders, and a few un-melted white specks clung to the tips of her hair, showing she had been standing there for quite some time.
Seeing Bai Qingxue emerge from the hall doors, Lu Xueqing first swept her eyes up and down to confirm her expression was normal, and only then did she step forward from beside the pine tree.
The moment their eyes met, Bai Qingxue saw the lingering worry in the depths of Lu Xueqing's eyes slowly fade away.
Bai Qingxue did not say much, only conveying the conclusion she had reached in the hall with the briefest of words:
“Let us enter secluded cultivation.”
Lu Xueqing looked at her and nodded. Just like many times before, she uttered only a single word: “Alright.”
The two figures, one in front of the other, walked along the fresh snow-covered stone path toward the depths of Xueji Peak.
The snow beneath their feet had accumulated to about two inches deep. It felt soft yet solid to tread upon, each step leaving a clear footprint.
To reward the two for their contributions in the Canglan Dao Discourse, Liu Ningshuang had already prepared a secluded cultivation cave dwelling for them.
The cave dwelling was not at the summit of Xueji Peak, but rather embedded deep within a shaded rock face on the mountainside.
No direct sunlight reached that place all year round. Only ten-thousand-year-old profound ice blended with the mountain's own spiritual veins, nurturing the most pure and biting cold-attribute spiritual energy in the entire Xuantian Sect.
The stone door of the cave dwelling was a single thick slab of deep-blue stone, its surface carved with runes of a formation array.
Bai Qingxue walked up to the door and paused for a moment.
The mountain wind swept past her from behind, kicking up a few specks of snow dust that blew against the cold stone slab, instantly frozen by the chill seeping from the door's gap.
Bai Qingxue raised her hand and placed her palm steadily against the indentation in the center of the stone slab, which was similar in size to her hand.
Immediately, the moment her spiritual power flowed through her meridians into her palm, the runes lit up one by one from the edges to the center, circle after circle. Finally, the entire stone door let out a low rumble and slowly slid inward.
A wave of spiritual energy so dense it had almost liquefied surged from the stone chamber. The spiritual energy condensed into a pale blue mist, billowing out from the opening gap of the stone door, flowing several feet along the ground before being dispersed by the mountain wind.
Bai Qingxue stepped inside sideways, her frost-white hem brushing past the threshold without catching a speck of dust.
Lu Xueqing followed close behind. The moment they both entered, the stone door slowly closed behind them, and the glow of the runes faded circle by circle, completely shutting out the cold and noise of the outside world.
The interior of the stone chamber was far more spacious than it appeared from the outside, several times larger than an ordinary cave dwelling.
The domed ceiling of the stone chamber was also extremely high, embedded with dozens of Ice Spirit crystals of various sizes. These crystals were not arranged randomly, but were instead laid out in some ancient and profound star map pattern.
The cold light emitted by the crystals was even and soft, a pale blue close to moonlight essence, enveloping the entire stone chamber in a layer of tranquil halo. There were no shadows, nor any blind spots to speak of.
As for the floor, it was polished from a single piece of green jade, smooth as a mirror and cold to the touch.
The chill seeping from deep underground was now silently climbing up through the soles of their feet, clinging to their ankles, washing over their shins, passing through their clothes, and seeping into their skin thread by thread, allowing them to experience a thorough clarity from the inside out.
In the very center of the stone chamber, there was a jade platform half a foot higher than the floor.
The surface was carved from a single piece of ten-thousand-year warm jade. Having been saturated and nurtured by the spiritual power of countless generations of cultivators in secluded cultivation, it had long since taken on a translucent and warm greenish-white luster.
It was as if a soft light had been lit inside, standing as its own warm and steadfast presence amidst the pale blue glow of the stone chamber.
Bai Qingxue walked up to the jade platform, turned around, and sat down.
With the Frost Moon Chant resting across her knees, Bai Qingxue took out the half of the broken hairpin and placed it in her palm.
This time, she no longer tried to peer into anything from the broken hairpin, nor did she attempt to use her spiritual power to stimulate the resonance of the dark patterns inside it.
She simply held it in her palm, feeling the cool, gentle texture of the jade and the subtle vibrations coming from the body of the Frost Moon Chant.
If her cultivation was not high enough, she would cultivate.
If her Dao Heart was unstable, she would temper it.
True Lord Shuanghua's words still echoed in her ears.
Since answers required a corresponding breadth of vision and cultivation to bear, then she would first cultivate the vision and cultivation sufficient to bear them.
Many things in this world could not be rushed, nor could they be forced.
Lu Xueqing sat down not far from her side, about an arm's length away.
Outside the stone chamber, the wind and snow of Xueji Peak blew tirelessly.
Fresh snow covered the old. The snow on the pine branches grew thick and fell, fell and grew thick again. The icicles on the upturned eaves slowly lengthened and quietly shortened with the rising and setting of the sun. The mountain mist surged up from the bottom of the valley on time every morning, receded at noon, and flooded back up again after nightfall.
On the stone door of the secluded cultivation cave dwelling, those ancient runes remained silent when untouched, only lighting up for an instant when an occasional draft of spiritual power leaked through the door's gap, like some extremely slow breathing.
Time lost its clear scale in the flow of spiritual energy. Bai Qingxue sat on the jade platform, the broken hairpin in her palm pressed against the body of the Frost Moon Chant. The resonance between the two items grew finer and denser with each passing day of spiritual power nurturing.
It was as if two strings that had originally only collided by chance were gradually tuned to the same peg, each vibration carrying the trace of the other's movement.
Bai Qingxue closed her eyes, her pale eyelashes casting fine shadows under the cold light of the Ice Spirit crystals. Her breathing was even and deep, each cycle of inhalation and exhalation pushing the spiritual energy one more round through her meridians, compressing the pool of Ice Spirit power deep within her dantian to be a fraction more solid.
Sitting an arm's length away, Lu Xueqing would occasionally open her eyes to look at Bai Qingxue's profile, confirming her expression was normal before closing her eyes again to regulate her breathing.
She watched as Bai Qingxue's spiritual power became more reserved and pure with each cycle, like a piece of repeatedly hammered iron growing thinner and sharper after quenching.
The snow continued to fall.
Outside the stone chamber, only a single color remained between heaven and earth on Xueji Peak. From the foot of the mountain to the summit, from the ancient pines to the upturned eaves, all was a vast expanse of white, pure without end.
The stone door of the secluded cultivation cave dwelling remained silent, its runes dark like a closed book with its cover covered in fresh snow. The writing inside was slowly being written stroke by stroke, bit by bit, taking on its proper form in the unwatched silence.
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