Volume Two: The Mortal Realm Chapter Eighty-Two: Snowy Night

“We’re going to catch him ourselves? Shouldn’t we report to the sect first?”
Greed flickered in Yi Laoliu’s eyes as well, but when his gaze fell upon the mangled corpse of Yi Fifteen in the snow pit, he could not suppress the fear within him.
“Yi Fifteen was at the peak of Spirit Aperture, just like you, and I’m only at the initial Meridian Stage. That imperial body is so formidable—do you really think just the two of us can handle it? Besides, the snow mountains are vast—how would we even find him?”
“We won’t report to the sect, but we can’t rely on just the two of us if we want to be cautious—we’ll need help. The county city isn’t far from here. Second Senior Brother is stationed at the city’s guard bureau. He’s highly skilled, and he could also mobilize a large number of soldiers from the county authorities to help comb the mountains.”
“That way, though our credit will be somewhat diminished, it’ll still be much greater than if we directly report to the mountain gate.”
Yi Eleven considered carefully as he spoke to Yi Laoliu.
“Alright, let’s do that. We’ll head to the county city now.”
Yi Laoliu’s eyes gleamed as he clapped his hands, encouraged by Yi Eleven’s reasoning.
“I’ll just head back to the county seat. You stay here and continue searching the mountains with the young men of Lijiazhuang. If you can find him before Second Senior Brother arrives, you won’t need to share the credit with him.”
Yi Eleven looked at the hesitant expression on Yi Laoliu’s face, a hint of mockery in his tone.
“What’s wrong? Are you scared? The Meridian Stage is a world apart from the Spirit Aperture Stage, and that man should be badly wounded. Do you really want to give up the chance at such a great reward?”
Stirred by Yi Eleven’s mixture of coaxing and provocation, Yi Laoliu’s wavering expression was finally overtaken by greed and pride.
“Scared? What’s to be afraid of! That so-called imperial body is just a mortal now. I’ll take the men and go.”
He slapped his thigh, though his gruff voice still quivered with a trace of fear.
“Good, then I’ll await your good news, Sixth Brother.”
Yi Eleven pressed on, not giving Yi Laoliu any chance to reconsider. He leapt out of the snow pit, offered a parting gesture, his smile tinged with insincerity.
“I’ll head to the county city now.”
With that, he turned and used his spiritual power to swiftly glide away across the snow.
Left behind with Yi Fifteen’s corpse, Yi Laoliu watched Yi Eleven’s fleeing figure, then turned to look at the gloomy, oppressive woods in the fading light of dusk. In his mind’s eye, he seemed to see again the gaping, bloody cavity in Yi Fifteen’s chest. His heart raced uncontrollably, and his legs felt weak.
But then he turned toward the dozen or so burly young men from Lijiazhuang who’d been cowering nearby, afraid to advance.
“What are you standing around for? Useless lot! Keep searching. If you see those three, don’t let any of them get away.”
The young men of Lijiazhuang had seen that demon-like white apparition, terrifying enough to slay even immortals. None of them wanted to enter the woods, but under the natural fear of immortals and the harsh laws of the Immortal Order, they split up and entered the forest in small groups.
...
Meanwhile, Ye Mingke’s situation as he fled through the snowy mountains had become utterly dire.
He staggered onward, leaving deep, blood-stained footprints in the snow. Forcing himself onward, he had long since given up any effort to conceal his tracks.
Having grown up on a warm southern island, he had no conception of the harshness of northern mountains in winter.
His abnormally high body temperature only caused him to lose heat more quickly, and now gravely injured, his spiritual sight and strength gone, his ability to survive in the snow was less than that of a seasoned hunter. Yet even for the most experienced hunter, entering the mountains at night in such snow would be perilous indeed.
Ye Mingke felt his body growing colder and colder; the snowflakes landing on him seemed to burn like fire.
His temperature was still rising, yet he felt his strength draining away, his consciousness slipping into haze.
He had no idea how much farther he could go—he only knew he might collapse at any moment.
And once he fell...

A sudden crack.
Almost completely disoriented, Ye Mingke stepped onto a patch of unstable snow on a slope. The snow beneath him gave way, his weakened body tumbling down with the collapsing drift.
When he came to rest at the bottom of the slope, half his body was buried beneath the heavy snow, only his dazed, half-closed eyes staring upward at the sky, his awareness fading into the cold.
He closed his eyes, exhausted.
The night was bitterly cold; in such wind and snow, a single hour could freeze a man solid.
...
Li Han, carrying the still-terrified Aru on his back, had already fled far away.
After trekking through the snowy mountains for so long, his body was utterly spent, but the weight of fatherly duty drove him on through the dark, icy wilderness, forcing him to suppress his exhaustion and keep running.
“Aru, don’t sleep—the night’s too cold. If you fall asleep, you’ll freeze.”
Li Han breathed heavily, each exhalation forming a cloud of mist in the frigid darkness. He hadn’t heard a sound from Aru in a long time, so he turned his head in concern.
He saw Aru’s small face, still pale as death, her wide eyes vacant, obviously still trapped in the terror of the day’s events.
“Aru, Aru.” Li Han called out anxiously.
At the sound of his voice, Aru’s empty eyes finally stirred and focused on Li Han’s worried face.
“Don’t be afraid, Aru. Daddy will protect you. I won’t let anyone separate us again.”
Seeing the fear lingering in her eyes, Li Han softened his tone and comforted her gently.
Aru’s dazed face suddenly broke, twisting violently. She clung tightly to Li Han, burying her tear-streaked face in his neck, her body trembling.
Her lovely little face contorted with emotion, a stifled sound rumbling in her throat.
Tears streamed down her face as her arms tightened around Li Han’s neck.
Aru didn’t want to be separated from her father. Aru wanted to protect him too.
She hated those cruel, brutish people—she wanted those who hurt her and her father...
Aru raised her pale, twisted face—half fear, half ferocity—over Li Han’s shoulder, staring through the branches of a snow-laden pine at the dark, snow-filled sky.
“Die.”
A hoarse, almost inaudible whisper sounded in the night.
Li Han quickly passed under the pine. A few heartbeats later—
A sharp crack—
A branch above them, burdened by snow, broke off and crashed to the ground, shattering into a pile of rotten fragments.
Li Han didn’t look back, thinking it was just the snow breaking a branch. He pressed on, while Aru, weary, leaned against his shoulder. The madness and contortion faded from her face, leaving her staring vacantly ahead.
The road ahead remained dark and cold.
...
A group of burly young men from Lijiazhuang, wrapped in thick cotton coats yet still shivering in the snowy night, made their way to a freshly collapsed slope.

“The footprints end here.”
One of the men shone his torch around nervously, his voice trembling with fear.
“Could that monster boy be nearby?”
“There’s been a recent avalanche here. Maybe he’s buried under the snow? Let’s go down and check,” said a bearded man.
“Are you sure? If we really run into him, even immortals have been killed. What could we do?”
“Judging by the footprints, he’s probably dying. At first there were barely any tracks, but now there’s a trail of worsening footprints and blood. He couldn’t even hide his trail anymore, and he’s slowing down—he must be gravely wounded.”
The bearded man, clearly bold and shrewd, swung his torch to illuminate the base of the slope.
“Damn it, making us run around the mountains in this blizzard. If we don’t find him, we’ll freeze to death first. Come on, let’s look. If we do find him, the immortals promised us a fortune.”
He led the way down, the others following despite their fear, searching the snow with their torches.
“Over here! Over here!”
A trembling voice broke the silence of the snowy night.
One of the men pointed his torch at a spot in the snow—there lay Ye Mingke’s pale, delicate face.
At once, the group was thrown into noisy agitation.
“Stay back from him!”
“Is he dead?”
“No idea.”
“Maybe he’s dead. What now?”
“Go tell the immortals—but in this snow, how do we even find them?”
“Wait, Li Da, what are you doing?”
A man noticed the bearded fellow crouching beside Ye Mingke, drawing a steel blade.
“This monster crippled my brother’s leg. Who knows if he’s really dead or just unconscious? If he wakes, we can’t stop him. Better cripple his legs now—let’s see how he runs then!”
“He won’t get far. We can drag him to Lijiazhuang at dawn or wait for the immortals to deal with him.”
Li Da’s eyes glinted with spiteful malice as he raised his blade over Ye Mingke’s seemingly frozen form, a savage grin on his face.
The cold flash of steel swept through the snowy darkness—
With a sudden explosion, the snow before him erupted.
A pair of blood-red, ferocious eyes met his at almost point-blank range.
Those terrifying, bestial eyes fixed on him coldly, like a monstrous beast, as if asking:
I am a monster too—so why do you fear the immortals, but not me?