A Month of Clearing the Taint · The Cold Iron Promise

The Nan Feng stopped after traveling less than three miles south.

Old Huai spoke from inside the tower, "Have you thought this through? The Ice Empress's essence has been eaten away by the Abyss for half a year. Your Purification just now only squeezed out the surface turbidity; the roots are still rotten. If you leave now, she'll have to retreat back into her cocoon within three months."

Nan Feng paused.

Why didn't you say so sooner?

"You didn't ask either." The Old Huai tree's immortal wood branches swayed in the Tower Spirit Space, its tone full of leisurely spectator's interest.

"Besides, that little scorpion girl was so stubborn just now. If you don't stay a few more days and see her get her comeuppance, would you be doing her a disservice?"

Nan Feng cursed and turned to walk back.

The ice wall at the Ice Valley still retains the layer of Immortal Power barrier he laid out, and the warm, cyan-gold light shield separates the cold wind outside into two worlds.

When he stepped into the valley, Ice Empress was squatting beside the crevice, poking at the sealing ring with a scorpion's tail, muttering to himself.

"What is this thing? I can't poke it... Snow Empress, can you poke it for me?"

Snow Empress sat on the ice platform without moving.

"You poked your own tail."

"My tail is numb and sore from the Purification process!"

"Serves you right."

Nan Feng coughed.

Ice Empress retracted its tail, sprang from a crouching position to a standing position, and its bright green scorpion eyes widened.

"Why are you back again!"

"Old Huai said your very roots are still rotten." Nan Feng walked over and squatted down beside the crack, his Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light scanning the area below.

As expected, the sealing ring suppressed the crack, but a layer of dark purple turbid energy veins still clung to the depths of the Ice Empress's origin.

The veins were as fine as hair, like tree roots embedded in the capillaries of her Soul Power circulation.

That Purification treatment just now cleaned the large blood vessels, but it didn't completely clean the capillaries, so it will recur in three months.

Ice Empress's expression changed three times. First, it was "You should have said so earlier," then "What can we do?", and finally it settled on the frustration of "It's going to hurt again."

She opened her mouth, then managed to utter a sentence.

"... Then are you still leaving?"

"I'm not leaving." Nan Feng sat cross-legged on the ice platform. "Clear one layer a day; it should be clean in about a month. Just bear with it."

Ice Empress stopped talking, and slowly moved to sit opposite him, his scorpion tail coiled around his legs, the tip of the tail poking at the ice, making a small dent with each poke.

Snow Empress got up from the ice platform and walked to the stone stove in the corner of the Ice Valley.

She pulled a handful of frozen tea leaves from the ice crevice and started brewing them with the cold spring water of the Far North.

The Nan Feng cleared the capillaries on the first day, and Ice Empress's reaction was even more intense than the previous major Purification.

As the Immortal Power penetrated deeper, she let out a howl of pain; the tail nearly pierced through Nan Feng's arm.

Nan Feng was prepared; with her right hand, she pressed down on the Tower Suppression, pinning her tail to the ice.

"Don't move."

"Pain!"

"Nonsense. You've had these festering sores for six months, how could it not hurt if you cleaned them all in one day?"

Ice Empress glared at him, baring their teeth, for three seconds before suddenly turning their head away and muttering, "Be gentle."

Snow Empress walked over with a cup of freshly brewed tea, placed it next to Nan Feng, and glanced at Ice Empress.

"You were eaten away by the Abyss for half a year, and he cleaned it all out for you in a single day. You should thank him."

"I thank him! I never said I wouldn't thank him!" Ice Empress shouted, then shrank back, muttering, "... I'll kowtow to him once I'm better."

Nan Feng almost choked on the tea.

Snow Empress smiled slightly, then turned and walked back to the stone stove.

The days that followed took on a rhythm unique to the Far North.

Every morning, the Nan Feng cleanses Ice Empress of a layer of turbid air. After the cleansing, Ice Empress lies paralyzed on the ice platform for half an hour to recover, and then he is fully revived and starts rambling on.

Her rambling began with how many kinds of Ice Soul Beast there are in the Far North, and then she talked about how many burrows Icefield Wolf have to dig to give birth.

Then she talked about how she and the Snow Empress fought over an ice bamboo shoot three hundred years ago.

Snow Empress sat nearby drinking tea, occasionally adding, "You took it from me first."

Ice Empress exploded. "Those ice spikes are closer to me!"

Nan Feng listened attentively, clearing his throat occasionally, and chiming in with a comment. For example, when Ice Empress mentioned the Icefield Wolf giving birth, he asked, "Can you roast wolf cubs?"

Ice Empress glared at him for three seconds, then turned to Snow Empress and shouted, "This guy is more like Soul Beast than I am!"

Snow Empress, holding a cup of tea, said, "You two really do look alike."

Ice Empress froze, then their faces flushed red, and the tip of their scorpion tail poked a series of tiny dents into the ice.

On the fifth day, something went wrong.

Nan Feng reached the third layer deep within the Ice Empress's essence, the turbid energy suddenly surged back, drilling into his meridians along the Immortal Power channel.

Ice Empress was talking about how a jar of frozen fruit wine she had stored up last winter had been stolen by someone.

He suddenly changed his expression halfway through his speech, and the scorpion's tail sprang up.

Stop! Something's jumping on you!

Nan Feng also sensed it. Hidden within the turbid energy channels was a "tentacle" from the Abyssal Outer Domain. The faster he cleared it, the more violently the tentacle snapped back. Right now, it was flowing back into his Immortal Power channels.

The Purification Power of the eighth layer of the tower instantly lit up, but the tentacles were cunning, sticking to the meridian walls and drilling towards the heart.

Ice Empress panicked and, ignoring the pain, unleashed his Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul, his entire body covered in emerald green scorpion armor.

With a flick of her tail, she pierced Nan Feng's shoulder, and the emerald green Far North Origin flowed into her through the tail, freezing the tentacles halfway.

The Snow Empress moved almost simultaneously, unleashing her silvery-white Heavenly Snow Woman Martial Soul.

Extreme cold air poured in from the other side of Nan Feng's shoulder, sandwiching the tentacles between Ice Empress's emerald source on the left and right.

The tentacles were frozen and smoking by the two Far North Origin, Nan Feng took the opportunity to press down on the Tower Suppression, crushing the tentacles into the meridians.

The three of them breathed a sigh of relief, then realized the situation was a bit awkward.

Ice Empress's scorpion tail was stuck in Nan Feng's left shoulder, and Snow Empress's hand was on his right shoulder. The three of them were face to face, less than a foot apart.

Ice Empress's scorpion-like eyes blinked twice, its tail lashed back, and it turned to shout at the ice wall, "I was saving someone! Don't overthink it!"

Snow Empress withdrew her hand, took a step back, and said in a flat voice, "I was also saving people."

But when she went back, she stood by the stone stove for three breaths longer than usual before picking up the tea.

Nan Feng rubbed his shoulders, grimacing, "You two should have told me in advance next time! You almost tore me in two!"

Ice Empress turned and glared at him. "Then don't get hit! A tower master getting his meridians pierced by a tentacle, aren't you ashamed?"

Nan Feng knew he was in the wrong and didn't respond.

Old Huai inside the tower laughed so hard his fairy trees trembled, "These two girls coordinate really well, one on the left and one on the right, it's like they were choreographed."

"Shut up," Nan Feng squeezed out through gritted teeth.

On the tenth day, Snow Empress brewed an extra cup of tea.

Nan Feng thought she was going to drink it herself, but Snow Empress placed the tea beside him and then, unusually, sat down on his other side instead of going to the stone stove.

Ice Empress was gossiping about the three Ferocious Beast of the Far North fighting, and when he got excited, he started gesturing wildly, and his tail swept across Snow Empress's leg.

Without even lifting her eyelids, Snow Empress reached out and pressed down on the tip of Ice Empress's tail, and Ice Empress immediately became obedient.

Nan Feng, holding his tea and watching this scene, suddenly felt that there was something special about the tacit understanding between Ice Empress and Snow Empress.

The fiery passion of Ice Empress and the tranquility of Snow Empress are like a red-hot iron thrown into ice water.

After a sizzling sound, they each maintained their own temperature, but the process looked particularly pleasant to watch.

"Old Huai," he called out in his mind.

"I see it." The Old Huai locust tree's branches hung down from the dome of the Tower Spirit Space, and the old man's face was pressed against the bark as he clicked his tongue.

"The twin flowers of the Far North, one fierce and one gentle, are indispensable. These two girls have depended on each other for hundreds of thousands of years, and their tacit understanding is something they've risked their lives for."

"If you can take them all in, the Far North will be your backyard from now on."

"I didn't ask you that." Nan Feng finished her tea. "I wanted to ask if their combination could be used in battle. The Ice Empress's Far North Origin combined with the Snow Empress's extreme cold power, if we added a Tower Suppression to coordinate things in the middle—"

Old Huai paused for a moment, then laughed, "You kid... alright, I give up. Others judge girls by their looks, you judge them by their tactical coordination."

On the twentieth day, the turbid energy channels deep within Ice Empress's origin were cleared to the last layer.

She looked noticeably better, and the emerald green on her scorpion carapace had changed from dark to translucent.

The force with which it poked the ice with the tip of its tail increased, leaving a dent the size of a fist with each poke.

She started to have the energy to meddle in other people's business, such as Nan Feng's incorrect posture when drinking tea, his back not being straight when meditating, and not washing his hands before clearing away turbid air.

"You're a tower master, how come you're even rougher than me?" Ice Empress squatted down next to him watching him wash his hands, looking disgusted.

Nan Feng shook the water off his hands. "They're from Blacksmith Village, it's good enough that they can even get them clean."

"Blacksmith Village?" Ice Empress's scorpion-like eyes lit up. "You know how to forge iron?"

"Meeting."

Ice Empress stood up, ran into the innermost part of the Ice Valley, and rummaged through everything. He found a palm-sized, silvery-white ore with icy-blue veins flowing across its surface.

"This is Far North Cold Iron, I've been saving it for 80,000 years. Forge me a dagger, a short one, the kind that can be hidden under the scales on my tail."

Nan Feng took the cold iron and weighed it in his hand. Suddenly, the Old Huai in the Tower Spirit Space spoke up.

"This mine contains a Far North Origin; anything you find will have an inherent Ice Seal property. Keep it; you can forge it with immortal fire later, and you'll get some good stuff."

Nan Feng stored the cold iron into the Tower Spirit Space: "Okay. I'll give it to you in a month."

Ice Empress was satisfied and squatted back down to continue watching him wash his hands.

On the thirtieth day, the last layer of turbid qi was cleared from the meridians.

When Nan Feng finished his needlework, Ice Empress let out a long breath and collapsed onto the ice platform, spreading out like a bright green pancake.

"It's finally over!"

Snow Empress walked over, squatted down to examine Ice Empress's original state, then stood up and glanced at Nan Feng.

Her gaze was calm, but Nan Feng noticed that she had brewed two pots of tea today, one for him and one for Ice Empress.

Next to the stone stove, there was an empty rough pottery bowl, with a piece of ice leaf pressed down at the bottom.

"You've been drinking tea brewed from the frigid springs of the Far North for a month," said the Snow Empress.

Nan Feng nodded. "It tastes pretty good."

After a moment of silence, Snow Empress said, "Whenever you come to the Far North, there will be plenty of tea."

Ice Empress jumped up from the ice platform. "Enough? What do you mean, enough?! You said last time that the ice spring wasn't enough!"

"You're drinking alcohol, not spring water."

"Then I'll too--"

"Shut up."

Ice Empress shut up.

Nan Feng stood up, packed her things, and prepared to leave.

Ice Empress followed him to the valley entrance, the scorpion's tail swaying behind him. When they reached the valley entrance, it suddenly stopped and scratched its ear.

"Um... next time you come to the Far North... bring some outside liquor. The Far North only has icy springs, and the drinks are so bland they're making my mouth water."

Nan Feng didn't even turn her head, just waved her hand and said, "Got it. Next time bring some strong liquor from Huo Wu, the kind that burns your throat."

Ice Empress's eyes lit up. "The strongest kind!"

Snow Empress stood at the entrance of the Ice Valley, her long silver-white hair blowing in the wind. She looked at Nan Feng's back and spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough to carry.

"One month from now. Don't be late."

Nan Feng didn't turn around; the red ribbon on her left wrist fluttered in the wind.

Old Huai was inside the tower, cracking imaginary sunflower seeds and making clicking noises.

"These two girls, one in charge of the drinks and the other in charge of the time, work together even more smoothly than that tentacle from before."

If you keep quiet, no one will think you're mute.

"You're not happy that I praised you for having many beautiful women?"

"Shut up."

The Old Huai's laughter echoed through the Tower Spirit Space.

The wind and snow of the Far North closed in again, and the Immortal Power barrier at the entrance of the Ice Valley disappeared into the ice wall.

Nan Feng walked three miles south when he suddenly remembered something. He took out the piece of cold iron that Ice Empress had given him from the Tower Spirit Space and weighed it in his hand.

Far North Cold Iron, 80,000 years old, possesses the inherent property of being Ice Seal.

He glanced back in the direction of the Ice Valley, a slight smirk playing on his lips.

"Make a dagger, and a longer one too. Snow Empress isn't much of a talker, but she still needs a handy weapon."

Old Huai stopped laughing inside the tower, remained silent for three seconds, and then suddenly cursed, "What's wrong with your brain, kid?"

"Blacksmith's brain." Nan Feng put away the cold iron, then used his footwork to Shrinking the Ground to an Inch and take a hundred steps at a time, heading towards Heaven Dou City.