Heavy Snow

"Don't be afraid, Senior Brother! I'm here to help you!"

Li Jun shouted, instantly transforming into an "enthusiastic junior brother."

These people had been following Lu Jinxuan all along before, and the Louse Poison on the Fiery Mane Horses had all been planted by them.

He had no good feelings toward this sort of person who treated human lives as beneath notice.

Therefore, when they tried to run, Li Jun acted decisively. In name, he was helping; in reality, he was holding them back so the Fiery Mane Horses could keep bringing down their hooves.

"Ah! Junior Brother! When will this damned horse finally quiet down!"

"Junior Brother, save me! I am in peril!"

Screams rang out one after another at the scene, and Li Jun rushed back and forth everywhere.

Though he looked as if he were working hard to rescue them, in truth, he was secretly making moves. Sometimes, when a Fiery Mane Horse failed to kick its target, he would seize the chance to add a punch of his own.

To make everything appear perfectly reasonable, Li Jun even deliberately got himself injured, making himself look extremely wretched.

This fit his current third level of Qi Refining cultivation perfectly.

After the Fiery Mane Horses gave the five of them a chaotic beating, the commotion in the dense woods was finally noticed by Medicine Peak's disciples.

Very quickly, someone reported what had happened here to Lu Jinxuan. When the latter arrived at the place, his entire face turned green.

He had only asked these people to check on the Fiery Mane Horses' condition. How had they ended up in such a miserable state?

Of the people before him, aside from Li Jun, the others could not even piece together a complete human shape...

"This..."

After learning the specific reason, Lu Jinxuan froze completely.

If he had not sent these people, then judging from today's situation, wouldn't this Li Jun have long since been kicked to death by these frenzied Fiery Mane Horses?

At that thought, Lu Jinxuan felt extremely unpleasant inside.

He was deeply vexed. Why couldn't he have had just a little more patience? Even if he had waited just one more day, his task would have been completed perfectly.

Now, great. The matter had already blown up, and Elder Pan's side would inevitably need an explanation.

As for Li Jun, right now, he truly could not touch him.

After all, Medicine Peak's disciples were all holding in their energy, vowing to compete fiercely in mining the Black Rock Mine.

Li Jun had successfully tamed the Fiery Mane Horses. If he dealt with him at this time, he was afraid it would provoke public anger.

If he forced it, those core disciples of Shen Xiyue's faction would probably not let things go as he wished either.

In the end, Lu Jinxuan had someone take Li Jun away to have his wounds treated.

As for the other four and Li Fugui, with their broken arms and crippled legs, Lu Jinxuan felt annoyed just looking at them.

He sent people to take the four back to Medicine Peak. As for Li Fugui, that fellow who never accomplished enough and only ruined things, he was ultimately thrown straight off a cliff, smashing into a meat patty.

Three days later.

Inside the cave dwelling, Li Jun removed the bandages on his hands. What he had suffered were merely some superficial wounds, nothing to fear at all.

"That Lu Jinxuan really is ruthless."

He had already heard about Li Fugui. As for those four inner sect disciples, it was said they had already been demoted to outer sect disciples.

And the one who had caused all of this was said to be that Senior Brother Jiang who had returned—Fire Hall's chief, Jiang Huaijin.

"Looking at it this way, Lu Jinxuan is Jiang Huaijin's man, and Lu Jinxuan is also connected to Liu Pan'er..."

Li Jun reasoned through the relationships among these people, trying to find the truth behind the matter.

But that Jiang Huaijin had only just returned not long ago. In such a short amount of time, could Liu Pan'er and he really have reached mutual trust?

"Junior Brother Li, how are your injuries?"

A female disciple walked over. Li Jun recognized her. Her name was Cheng Rou, a core disciple of Alchemy Hall, belonging to Shen Xiyue's line.

"Senior Sister Cheng, this disciple's injuries have mostly healed. Many thanks for Senior Sister's concern." Li Jun cupped his fists.

"It's no trouble. Eldest Senior Sister suddenly went into seclusion, and I originally thought that Lu Jinxuan was one of our own. But looking at it now, I'm afraid he has already changed banners." Cheng Rou sighed.

As Medicine Peak's chief disciple and Azure Cloud Sect's eldest senior sister, Shen Xiyue had long since integrated Medicine Peak over the past few years.

But her sudden seclusion, coupled with Jiang Huaijin's sudden return, made everything become tangled in a fog of confusion.

Only when the Fiery Mane Horses went berserk this time did Cheng Rou notice a hint that something was off.

"No need to worry, Senior Sister. I believe Eldest Senior Sister made preparations long ago. We only need to wait quietly."

"I hope so. But Junior Brother, everyone on Medicine Peak now knows that you are very important to Eldest Senior Sister refining the Purple Foundation Pill. Now that Jiang Huaijin has returned, he may not dare act against Eldest Senior Sister directly, but targeting people like you and me would likely be quite easy. Both you and I must be careful!"

"Junior Brother will remember Senior Sister's teachings!"

"Be careful in all things. Also, recently everyone discovered that the ore vein quality in No. 10 Mine is extremely high. These next few days, disciples from every peak will inevitably fight over it. You must be careful. If you run into difficulties, you can come find me," Cheng Rou instructed.

Li Jun cupped his fists with both hands in thanks. Cheng Rou gave him a few more instructions, then left the cave dwelling.

"This senior sister isn't bad. As for that No. 10 Mine, it's probably Yao Yuzhi's smokescreen."

This mining of the Black Rock Mine had been a trap set by Artifact Peak from the very beginning, and now the other side probably felt the time was ripe.

Li Jun pondered, feeling it was necessary to prepare an escape route.

If they wanted to make the three peaks fight over it, then there had to be something good in the No. 10 Mine. He believed that over the next few days, the explosive revelations would probably grow fiercer by the day.

"That Lu Jinxuan won't let this go. In the end, there's a high chance he'll still make me enter the mine to work."

He had already made up his mind. If the No. 10 Mine truly was Artifact Peak's trap, then he would take the chance to run, as far as he possibly could.

Night fell.

Li Jun had a long, drawn-out dream. In the dream, he seemed to have arrived in a world of ice and snow.

Amid the boundless ice plain, he hid inside a small wooden hut, unable to stop his whole body from trembling.

Suddenly, from his dantian, a surge of Baleful Intent shot straight into his mind, and his consciousness instantly cleared.

"Whew! So it was a dream..." Li Jun abruptly sat up and let out a long breath. "Why is it so cold?"

He reached out and rubbed his arms, only then discovering that something had been shaken off him.

He looked down at the ground and only then noticed that there seemed to be a blue spider the size of a fingernail on the floor.

"This is... a Cold Bone Ice Spider?!"

"Not good!"

Li Jun's hair stood on end. His right hand clenched, and the Awakening Sword appeared.

He went through the cave dwelling and inspected the others' beds. Sure enough, on one person's wrist, he found a Cold Bone Ice Spider.

At that moment, it was spitting ice silk, burrowing along the pores into the person's body.

Li Jun swung his sword, directly slicing the spider in two.

"Senior Brother, wake up! Hurry and wake up!"

"Mm? Junior Brother Li Jun? What happened?" The other man slowly woke, his whole body shuddering with a chill.

"Senior Brother! Hurry and wake everyone up! It's the Cold Bone Ice Spiders! We've run into a beast tide!"

"What?! Cold Bone Ice Spiders!"

He abruptly sat up, looking at the Cold Bone Ice Spider on the ground, every hair on his body standing on end.

The Cold Bone Ice Spider was a clan-type demonic beast active deep within the Hundred Thousand Mountains. They often moved in swarms, with one mother spider controlling tens of thousands of child spiders. They were extremely terrifying.

Although these child spiders' strength seemed ordinary, the mother spider controlling them was, even at its weakest, at the level of a fifth-grade demonic beast!

A fifth-grade demonic beast—that was equivalent to a Golden Core cultivator!

"Senior Brother, hurry and cut those spider threads, or everyone will sink completely into their dreams until their life force is exhausted!" Li Jun urged.

"All right!"

The two split up and took action, waking more and more people.

Immediately afterward, they rushed out of the cave dwelling, and the biting cold wind left everyone stunned.

Li Jun looked out at the world outside. Cangwu Mountain, which had still been lush and green before, had now turned into a sheet of snow-white!

It had clearly only just entered autumn, yet Cangwu Mountain was actually being swept by goose-feather snow!