Rumors

After narrowly escaping death at Frostmoon Altar, Kong Jiao endured a bumpy journey back to the sect.

He then had to face questioning at the Enforcement Hall before delivering the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi to Lingyu Pavilion, leaving him almost no time to rest.

Even though Kong Jiao's cultivation had just improved, he still felt utterly exhausted in body and mind.

By the time he dragged his heavy, uneven steps back to his cave abode, night had already fallen. The surrounding forests and mountains were visible only as faint outlines. After all, the Cangwu Sect was not Frostmoon Altar; it did not have such bright moonlight.

"Phew!" Kong Jiao dropped onto the crude stone bed and lay flat on his back. The comfort of finally setting his body down made him let out a long breath.

Gurgle, gurgle! Hearing once more the lively bubbling of the Spirit Spring in his cave abode, Kong Jiao, who had not returned for over a month, looked dazed, as though a lifetime had passed.

The several brushes with death at Frostmoon Altar, the puppet in that mysterious space whose age even time could not trace, and the opportunity he had gained this time.

After replaying the entire ordeal in his mind, Kong Jiao murmured into the cave, "I nearly didn't make it back."

He had spent the previous two years in the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion. Though his cultivation had grown slowly and his days had been plain and peaceful, it had made him somewhat lax.

The dangers he encountered on this trip served as a warning bell.

He would have to be more cautious in the future. In this perilous world, even the slightest slackness could cost him his life.

At that thought, Kong Jiao forced himself to rouse his spirits and sat back up from the comfortable stone bed.

He then removed the storage pouch he had taken from Jiang Xingtian's corpse and dumped out all the gains from his trip to Frostmoon Altar.

Clatter!

All sorts of miscellaneous items immediately covered the stone bed.

First came the Spirit Crystals. Of the Spirit Crystals taken from Jiang Xingtian, Kong Jiao and the other two had each received a little over a hundred.

Then, after delivering the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi to Lingyu Pavilion, he had received another fifty-six.

Adding the hundred and fifty he had left over from helping the spirit farmers kill pests, he had around three hundred and ten Spirit Crystals in total.

Then came the items he had acquired.

Jiang Xingtian's storage pouch, the Flame Python Coiling Plate Daoist art jade slip, and the Spirit-Returning Liquid for recovering cultivation—these had all been taken from Jiang Xingtian.

There was also the Little Vajra Talisman with one use remaining. Zhou Tingyu had given it to him, and Kong Jiao had nearly forgotten about it.

"This has to be returned!" Kong Jiao deliberately picked out the Little Vajra Talisman and set it aside.

He did not claim to be a good man, but he would not take advantage of others in such matters.

From the Moon Palace's trial space, he had obtained:

The Moon Palace Taiyin Scripture cultivation art.

The Moon-Soul Citybreaker Halberd halberd technique.

A high-grade Wheel-Nourishing Realm artifact, the Bronze Battle Halberd.

And the cultivation formula for the Moon Wheel Seal. That was stored in Kong Jiao's mind. It counted as knowledge, and knowledge was priceless, so it was included as well.

Lastly came the Frostsnow Essence Huangfu Wuqin had mentioned, which Kong Jiao had already absorbed.

Counting his gains one by one on his fingers, Kong Jiao revealed a rare smile.

"Though I nearly lost my life, these gains made it worthwhile."

After taking stock, Kong Jiao stuffed everything back into the storage pouch.

This storage pouch was worth around a hundred Spirit Crystals and held only about five cubic meters of space. It was not large, but it was enough for now.

After finishing all that, Kong Jiao did not rest.

He forcibly pulled himself together, made his way to the surging Spirit Spring, and sat down cross-legged.

"Can't slack off," he muttered, slowly closing his eyes.

He still remembered what Yi-Twelve had told him before he left the space.

His vital essence had not yet fully fused with his spiritual power and needed time to be tempered.

Yi-Twelve seemed to attach great importance to this, forcibly preventing Kong Jiao—whose accumulated strength had already been enough to break through to the fifth level of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm—from making his breakthrough within the space.

Kong Jiao had taken those words deeply to heart and naturally would not neglect them.

As Kong Jiao entered cultivation, the cave fell silent once more.

Accompanied by the gurgling of the small spring.

Kong Jiao's breathing gradually became even.

When he once again circulated the Moon Palace Taiyin Scripture along its prescribed route—

A terrifying chill slowly spread from within his body.

First, the ground beneath him as he sat cross-legged was covered in white frost.

Then came the Spirit Spring nearest him. Aside from the spring's source, which remained unfrozen due to the constant flow of living water, the rest of the spring rapidly formed dark ice visible to the naked eye.

The frost gradually spread, sealing the entire cave in ice in less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

The temperature here was already comparable to Frostmoon Altar. Dripping water froze into ice.

A long while later, Shangguan Yuzhou stepped into the cave.

Who knew where he had gone to spar with someone? He seemed to have enjoyed himself immensely, his face brimming with satisfaction.

Before he could clearly see the state of the cave, the oncoming cold froze his expression, and he shuddered uncontrollably.

"So cold!" Shangguan Yuzhou said through chattering teeth. Though wind and snow still raged outside, it was actually much warmer there than inside the cave.

When his gaze settled on Kong Jiao, who sat cross-legged beside the Spirit Spring in cultivation, he was not surprised in the slightest.

Instead, he muttered, "The Frostsnow Essence is this overbearing?"

Fortunately, Huangfu Wuqin had previously revealed that Kong Jiao had absorbed the essence of heaven and earth and successfully nurtured his wheel with essence.

Thus, Shangguan Yuzhou found nothing strange about it.

After studying Kong Jiao's current condition for a while, he merely smiled helplessly. "You really never stop worrying people."

As he spoke, Shangguan Yuzhou carried his longsword outside.

He stood at the entrance to the cave, drove his longsword into the ground, and, facing the snow filling the sky, began cultivating in an unusual manner.

He was actually standing guard for Kong Jiao's closed-door cultivation.

Just as Kong Jiao had stood guard for him before he went to Frostmoon Altar.

Fortunately, Shangguan Yuzhou and Kong Jiao were now strong enough to protect the Spirit Spring in the cave, so they did not need to fear the covetous eyes of those with ulterior motives.

Kong Jiao remained in seclusion for an entire month.

During that time, rumors of the Frostmoon Altar calamity finally began spreading through the Cangwu Sect's outer sect.

After all, quite a few Cangwu Sect members had died, including Zheng Gang, who was at the sixth level of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm. There was no way to keep it hidden.

Besides, no matter how tightly the Cangwu Sect sealed the news, information from other sects would inevitably leak in. After all, the Cangwu Sect was not the only one that had lost people.

Of the hundred-plus herb gatherers, almost all had died. In Wudong, that counted as a major incident.

Naturally, Han Dong, the chief culprit behind this bloody storm, became widely known throughout the outer sect.

When the disciples learned that Han Dong had caused the disaster, every one of them felt a chill run down their spine and rejoiced that they had not joined the Frostmoon Altar gathering party.

No one dared go to the Enforcement Hall to accept the Bounty Order for him.

For such a vicious man, fear outweighed hatred.

"Still, I heard that Frostmoon Altar wasn't completely wiped out this time. It seems three people from our Cangwu Sect survived and returned."

"Really? In our entire outer sect, the only people who could probably escape Han Dong unharmed would be those geniuses from the first tier, right?"

"It doesn't seem to be anyone from the first tier."

"Oh! Then who were the three?"

"No idea. Lingyu Pavilion has kept its lips sealed. Lots of people went to ask around, but got nothing."

This topic immediately piqued the Cangwu Sect disciples' interest.

After all, the herb gatherers sent by the Cangwu Sect to Frostmoon Altar were all recorded at Lingyu Pavilion. Anyone interested could easily find out.

But if Lingyu Pavilion strictly locked down the information and cut it off at the source, those outer sect disciples had no way to investigate further.

Thus, speculation over the identities of the three became a topic of conversation among groups of outer sect disciples.

After all, anyone who could escape alive from Han Dong's hands was instinctively regarded by the outer sect disciples as an expert.

Yet almost no one suspected Kong Jiao and his group.

Zhou Tingyu and Feng An had always been obscure, unknown disciples.

As for Kong Jiao, he had only revealed his edge at Frostmoon Altar. Nearly everyone who had witnessed him kill Jiang Xingtian had died.

It gave Kong Jiao the chance to continue lying low.

That was also good news. Before he possessed sufficient strength, keeping a low profile was a form of self-protection.