Chapter 7: Yun Qiyou

The bird that delivered his meal was a Gulu bird, which already greatly annoyed Ye Xiaochuan. When he opened the food box, he was even more furious and began to curse.

Inside the food box, there was only a dish of pickled vegetables and three hard, cold steamed buns, even more meager than what the miscellaneous servants in the Cangyun Sect ate.

Enraged, he cursed Sun Yao a few more times, grabbed a cold bun, and was about to throw it away. But then he thought, if he threw it away, wouldn't he go hungry? So he put the bun back into the food box, sighed, and resigned himself to his fate.

After he finished eating, it was already very dark. The Gulu bird grabbed the food box and flew towards the front mountain.

After nightfall, the Chiguo Cliff became extremely cold. It was the coldest part of winter, and by the middle of the night, snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

Ye Xiaochuan's cultivation was not high; he was at the fourth level of the Divine Sea realm. The so-called Divine Sea realm means that he had unblocked the Shenmen and Xuanhai acupoints in his body, connecting the main meridians. In the mortal world, this would be equivalent to a martial arts expert who had unblocked the Ren and Du meridians. However, in the cultivation world, this Divine Sea realm did not even qualify as an entry-level cultivator.

What sets cultivators apart from mortals is their ability to fly through the air, control magical treasures, and chase the wind and the sun...

This requires reaching the fifth level, the Air Control realm.

Ye Xiaochuan's cultivation was far from the point where he could be immune to water and fire. He shivered from the cold, hiding in a recess on the cliff, sitting cross-legged and silently reciting the incantations of the *Yin-Yang Kunlun Dao*, mobilizing the meager amount of primordial energy in his body to circulate and alleviate the cold.

Perhaps it was fate playing a trick on Ye Xiaochuan. The snowfall continued without end. For three consecutive days, large, fluffy snowflakes drifted down from the sky, turning the entire Cangyun Mountain Range white.

On the morning of the fourth day, the snow finally stopped.

During these few days, only the Gulu bird came to deliver meals to Ye Xiaochuan twice a day, in the morning and evening. Apart from that, not a single person, not even a ghost, had come to visit.

There is a saying in the folk: "It's not cold when it rains, but it's cold when the snow melts." Today, although the sky was clear, the temperature was much lower than when it was snowing.

Ye Xiaochuan ate the cold buns, his eyes darting around, occasionally stealing glances at the colorful bird perched on a crooked pine tree. He thought about whether he should kill the Gulu bird, use its feathers to make a cloak to keep warm, and roast its meat for a feast to improve his diet.

He was just thinking about it. If he really killed the Gulu bird, wouldn't the Discipline Hall's Elder Yunhe fight him to the death?

By night, he curled up in a corner of the Chiguo Cliff's platform, pitifully humming: "I am a tiny, tiny bird, flying, but not flying high! Searching, searching, searching for a great magical treasure. I won't give it to anyone, I'll keep it all for myself... Achoo!"

He was quite handsome, but his voice was truly unbearable. Describing it as a crow's voice would be an insult to crows; at most, it could be considered a rusty, broken gong.

He seemed unaware of how terrible his singing was, deeply immersed in it.

In the middle of the night, he began to meditate to keep warm, but he vaguely sensed a figure moving on the Moon-Viewing Terrace on the back mountain of the Wheel Peak across the abyss.

He was startled, patted his buttocks, stood up, and rubbed his eyes to look closely. In the snow-covered landscape, on the Moon-Viewing Terrace across the abyss from the Chiguo Cliff, there seemed to be a person.

The Moon-Viewing Terrace was one of the six scenic spots of Cangyun. It was said that during the full moon from midnight to one o'clock, the moonlight would shine on the Jade Wall of the Broken Sword Peak, and the wall would reflect the moonlight onto the Moon-Viewing Terrace, creating a scene of thousands of moonbeams flowing, like a fairyland on earth!

However, the Moon-Viewing Terrace was on the back mountain of the Wheel Peak, and few disciples ever came there.

Seeing a figure on the Moon-Viewing Terrace across the abyss, Ye Xiaochuan immediately felt that the world was still beautiful.

He was about to call out, hoping the person would come over to chat and perhaps secretly take him out of the Chiguo Cliff, when the figure on the Moon-Viewing Terrace, dozens of feet away, suddenly moved.

Then, a dazzling white light appeared, blocking the moonlight and making it impossible to look directly at it.

Ye Xiaochuan focused his gaze, and his expression immediately changed.

On the Moon-Viewing Terrace, the dazzling white light enveloped a slender figure, revealing a woman as beautiful as the Nine Heavens' Immortal Maiden.

Ye Xiaochuan recognized this woman.

She was Ling Bing, one of the two outstanding figures of Cangyun, known alongside Gu Pan'er, and one of the six immortal maidens of the world, Yun Qiyou!

Yun Qiyou was the indoor disciple of Venerable Still Water, cold as ice, and her Daoist arts were extremely high, even surpassing Gu Pan'er in many ways.

Especially a year ago, at a young age, she reached the seventh level, the Out-of-Body realm, shocking Cangyun. The Sect Master bestowed upon her one of the three divine swords passed down by the ancestors, the Dust-Cutting Divine Sword.

Due to Yun Qiyou's strange and cold personality, and her unpredictable strength, Ye Xiaochuan, who had been rampant in Cangyun for fifteen years, stealing from all the female disciples, even daring to provoke the fierce Gu Pan'er, always avoided Yun Qiyou and never dared to provoke her.

Now, in the middle of the night, in this desolate and cold back mountain, he saw Yun Qiyou, which left him in a state of shock and confusion.

In his confusion, Yun Qiyou's body, enveloped in white light, rose into the air. Hundreds of white sword beams followed her slender figure, soaring against the sky, illuminating the surroundings as bright as daylight.

Ye Xiaochuan looked up and saw Yun Qiyou, dressed in a white rippling dress, hovering above the abyss, already drawing the incomparable Dust-Cutting Divine Sword.

The white light of the divine sword was blinding, enveloping Yun Qiyou. Due to its intensity, her entire right arm holding the sword was indistinguishable, as if it had merged with the white light.

In the next moment, a sword beam slashed through the air, and a sudden gust of wind swept up the snow on the mountains, sending it soaring into the sky and then slowly drifting down like snowflakes.

In the snow, in the bright, dazzling white light, and in the moonlight flowing from the sky, the snow-white-clad, beautiful woman wielded her immortal sword, dancing in the air.

Buzz...

The crisp sound of the sword cutting through the air echoed through the sky, one sword beam, two sword beams, three sword beams...

Amidst the flying snow, as the woman, like an immortal from the Nine Heavens, danced, the sword beams crisscrossed and dazzled the eyes.

As countless sword beams surged, the thick snow on the Broken Sword Peak and the Wheel Peak cliffs rolled down, creating a spectacular scene!

Ye Xiaochuan was stunned, muttering to himself, "No wonder she is one of the six immortal maidens of the world. This Ling Bing, Yun Qiyou, is so powerful! She seems to have grasped the essence of the Eight Divine Sword Techniques! I estimate that among the young generation of Cangyun disciples, only Master Brother Gu Jianchi can face her in a direct confrontation. That fierce Gu Pan'er definitely can't match her!"

Yun Qiyou, dancing in the air, seemed not to notice the young man standing on the platform cliff below her feet.

Her sword movements became faster and more urgent.

Her slender body twisted, danced, and soared in the air!

The sky was filled with sword light, which gradually condensed into a massive, brilliant sword, like a sky-piercing blade, stabbing straight out, accompanied by a faint rumble of thunder as it struck down.

The massive sword stabbed towards the Broken Sword Peak.

A deafening boom echoed, and countless rocks and snow chunks flew in all directions, as if the entire Broken Sword Peak was trembling, like the end of the world.

Ye Xiaochuan hugged his head and hid in a recess of the stone platform, narrowly avoiding disaster. If it had been just snow, it would have been fine, but many large rocks were shaken loose by Yun Qiyou's sword. If he had been hit, with his meager cultivation, his brains would have been smashed out.