Survival Against Desperate Odds

Kong Jiao's face was grim as he leaped down from the steep mountain path along the cliff.

More than once during the descent, he looked back, but he did not see that eerie blood mist.

The woman had not pursued him.

It should have been cause for joy, yet Kong Jiao's expression darkened instead.

His mind rapidly analyzed the current situation.

"If she did not pursue, that proves her task was to guard that place and stop every cultivator passing through."

"Then every exit around this gorge should be controlled by people like her."

"They intend to wipe out Frostmoon Altar in one fell swoop!"

Clearly, remaining within Frostmoon Altar was even more dangerous than facing that woman head-on.

But Kong Jiao truly had no confidence that he could charge through that blood mist.

Although he still had one more chance to use the Frostfall Fragmentary Scripture, against a woman who was now prepared, he likely would not even achieve the results of the first time.

The Little Vajra Talisman could still be used once. It could withstand the blood mist, but only for a single strike.

Once he was surrounded by the blood mist, Kong Jiao would certainly die.

At the same time, the Qi-Bursting Pill's duration was limited and could not sustain Kong Jiao for much longer.

Though he knew Frostmoon Altar was dangerous, he had no choice but to come down.

Good thing I didn't choose to fight her to the death with Feng An. Otherwise, we'd all have died! Kong Jiao secretly rejoiced that he had not accepted Feng An's proposal.

As he pondered, Kong Jiao had already reached the bottom of the gorge. His feet landed on solid ground as he silently thought, There is still a sliver of hope!

When Zheng Gang died, he had sent out a distress signal. So long as Kong Jiao held out a little longer, he could survive until the sect's reinforcements arrived.

"Who could have imagined this trip to Frostmoon Altar would be so dangerous?"

"In the end, I'm still too weak. Once I obtain this opportunity and return to the sect, I will enter seclusion. I will not emerge until I reach the fifth level of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm."

As he thought, Kong Jiao sensed that the Qi-Bursting Pill's effects within him were nearing their limit, and his spiritual power showed signs of exhaustion.

Thus, he swiftly darted through the bottom of the gorge, finally stopping at a spot where the snow lay thickest.

Bending down, Kong Jiao dug a snow pit just large enough to hold himself with both hands. Before his spiritual power ran dry, he lay down inside and covered himself with snow.

The snow pit was already pitch-black. Feeling the icy chill of snow against his skin, Kong Jiao slowly closed his eyes.

Just as he finished all this,

the Qi-Bursting Pill's effects wore off.

The spiritual power that had just been surging through him ebbed from his body like the tide, leaving his meridians and dantian completely empty.

The familiar pain in his meridians arrived as promised.

This was not Kong Jiao's first time taking a Qi-Bursting Pill.

He had prepared for it long ago.

Thus, he slowly closed his eyes and silently circulated the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, beginning to restore his spiritual power.

At the same time, he used the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture's properties to lower his body temperature to its minimum.

He nearly blended into the snow itself. This was his final means of survival.

The snow of Frostmoon Altar was exceptionally cold—abnormally so.

Feng An had said that even cultivators' spiritual power could not ward off that cold.

Perhaps because Kong Jiao cultivated the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, he could ignore this cold.

And merge perfectly with the snow here.

Whether I survive or not will depend on fate! Kong Jiao lay still in the snow pit. With no other options left, he could only place his hopes on the luck that had recently soared around him.

At that very moment,

Whoosh! The wind and snow that had ceased for several days once again swept through Frostmoon Altar Grand Canyon.

The falling snowflakes covered every faint trace Kong Jiao had left behind in the snow.

Under the double exhaustion of depleted spiritual power and aching meridians, Kong Jiao slowly fell asleep in the lightless snow pit, entering a mysterious and ineffable state.

Every organ in his body remained at its lowest state of activity.

His heart beat only once every dozen or so breaths, and even his blood slowed.

His consciousness drifted between sleep and wakefulness.

It was as though the passage of time in the outside world had nothing to do with him.

In his haze, he seemed to hear screams coming from distant Frostmoon Altar, along with countless surging waves of spiritual power.

The earth trembled from time to time. The buildings of Frostmoon Altar, which had barely maintained their frames through the long years, collapsed one after another amid the ongoing battles.

Just as Kong Jiao had expected, Frostmoon Altar was indeed subjected to a bloody baptism.

No one knew how much time passed before Frostmoon Altar suddenly fell silent.

Aside from the snow flying across the sky, the entire grand canyon was deathly still.

Kong Jiao's consciousness grew increasingly blurred, until he finally sank into a long darkness.

He had not dreamed in a very long time.

Within that snow pit, he dreamed of a different Frostmoon Altar.

A group of men and women dressed in white palace robes with broad sleeves lived there. The women were graceful and delicate, smiling sweetly as they conversed with their companions.

The men were handsome and erect. Laughing loudly as they called to friends and companions, they rose through the air toward the bright moon in the heavens.

Mist-like spiritual energy filled the entire world. Immortal cranes danced through the sky, while spirit fish leaped from the pond.

Moonlight from the firmament was drawn down by the altar, descending in a straight beam to envelop them, as though it were an immortal realm upon earth.

Elsewhere, on the ground outside near Frostmoon Altar Gorge,

a group wearing Cangwu Sect disciple waist badges encountered a group dressed in red.

The red-clad side seemed to have laid an ambush here long ago, waiting for the arrival of Cangwu Sect's rescue party.

The two forces collided, neither yielding an inch.

The red-clad side clearly held the advantage. Their methods were exceedingly strange, and having calculated while the other side had not, they caught Cangwu Sect's rescue disciples completely off guard.

After a long, bitter battle, both sides suffered casualties, but the Cangwu Sect disciples fared far worse.

Leaving behind several corpses, they decisively retreated.

The dream was extremely brief.

Kong Jiao did not know how long he had slept. He suddenly woke within the snow pit, opening his eyes in the pitch-black snow.

"What a strange dream." Kong Jiao murmured in the snow pit.

Cultivators rarely dreamed. Every dream was guided by one's own spirituality.

It might be a warning, some sort of omen, or even a prophecy.

Yet the feeling this dream gave Kong Jiao belonged to none of those three.

That was why Kong Jiao found it strange.

But his confusion did not last long. The faint stabbing pain in his meridians pulled him back from his countless thoughts into reality.

The Qi-Bursting Pill's side effects had arrived.

Only, Zhou Tingyu was no longer by his side to help ease his pain.

Of course, there was good news as well. After an unknown period of sleep, his spiritual power had returned to its peak once more.

Feeling the snow enveloping him from all directions in the darkness, continuously releasing its chill toward his flesh, Kong Jiao blinked. "How long was I unconscious?"

Time was exceptionally cheap to cultivators; it was not important.

What mattered was the environment. Danger lurked on all sides, and knowing the precise time would help Kong Jiao determine whether the current situation was still dangerous.

When Kong Jiao had been half-asleep and half-awake, he had vaguely sensed movements outside.

His method of burying himself in the snow by relying on the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture's properties had clearly worked.

Han Dong had not discovered him.

Kong Jiao now had two choices.

Since hiding in the snow was effective, he could continue huddling here for a few more days.

He could wait until Han Dong had gone far away and Cangwu Sect's reinforcements arrived before emerging.

Unfortunately, Kong Jiao did not know that Cangwu Sect's rescuing disciples had already withdrawn after suffering an ambush.

At the very least, there would be no reinforcements anytime soon.

If he continued hiding in the snow and waited for rescue, that rescue would likely remain distant and indefinitely delayed. Kong Jiao had not yet reached the fasting realm, so he could not last long without food or water.

"Or I could go out now, see what the situation outside actually is, then act according to circumstances and decide whether to obtain the opportunity or keep hiding in the snow."

The former was undoubtedly safer.

But if he chose the former, Kong Jiao did not know when Cangwu Sect's reinforcements would arrive.

If he simply kept waiting like this, he would be handing his life over to uncertain sect reinforcements.

He might as well go out himself and assess the situation first.

Moreover, ever since he had that dream, an unseen voice had been constantly urging him onward.

It made Kong Jiao restless, leaving him unable to wait quietly in the snow for rescue.

It infinitely magnified his desire for this opportunity.

"I still need to go out and take a look before deciding." In the end, Kong Jiao chose the latter.

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