The Icy Pond and the Eerie Tomb

After gulping down several mouthfuls of the icy pond water, Su Mo was hauled out by Young Master Xu, collapsing limply upon the stone slab. A strange sensation, akin to bungee jumping or the sheer relief of surviving a harrowing ordeal, overcame her. In her daze, she gasped for air, yet paradoxically, life felt all the more precious.

As she recovered, her eyes swept over the dim surroundings. It was a vast cavern, its walls bearing marks of artificial excavation. Two towering divine statues stood guard, flanking a massive stone gate. The stone gate was thick and immense, adorned with peculiar ancient script. Originally a double door, one side now tilted precariously, while the other had long since collapsed, lying horizontally across the pond and serving as Su Mo’s makeshift platform for survival.

With a slight lift of her arm, Su Mo felt the spiritual energy within her body settle. Her mind clearing, she immediately launched a surprise attack on Young Master Xu. With a sudden lunge, she tackled him to the ground, her soft hands gripping his lapels fiercely.

Su Mo gritted her teeth.

“Young Master Xu, this isn’t funny!”

He desperately wanted to speak, but Su Mo’s ‘weaponry’ exerted too much pressure. They say black is slimming, but after plunging into the pond, her drenched black robes clung to her, accentuating Su Mo’s voluptuous figure even further. Her bodice, heavy with water, had been pulled wide open by gravity. And in that revelation, a beauty as enchanting as the aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere was unveiled.

“Mmh…” Xu Qingzhu lowered his gaze. The beauty of a chasm lay in its mystery and embrace. He was quite certain he preferred the demure, flat-chested type, like Lu Yanling, not a woman as alluring and seductive as Su Mo. Yet, after days of being with her, holding her, and now, being fiercely pinned beneath her—a rare experience of being the weaker party—he understood. Sometimes, the body and the mind operated independently.

“…” His body trembled, accidentally brushing against her.

She stared at Young Master Xu in disbelief. Looking down, she saw his face remained impassive, yet his gaze shifted away, avoiding her eyes for the first time.

“What is this damn shyness?!” Su Mo scrambled away, rolling once before sitting sideways on the ground, clutching her chest.

Alone, a man and a woman, enveloped in mist, Su Mo finally felt fear. She admitted that ever since waking up unharmed from their shared slumber, she had lowered her guard around Young Master Xu. But now, discovering he wasn’t sexually cold, she felt like someone who had called others ‘fodder’ only to be brutally counter-killed herself. Her mind raced with wild imaginings. She began to suspect Xu Qingzhu was playing hard-to-get, waiting for her to relax her vigilance before, like the Little Imperial Uncle and others, giving Su Mo a harsh lesson in biology and ‘physical activity’.

‘Was I mistaken in thinking I could trick Xu Qingzhu into fighting Xiao Yao?’ Su Mo wanted to escape. But first, she needed to leave this mysterious dwelling.

She changed the subject.

“Young Master Xu, I still don’t know where your friend is.”

His eyes gradually cleared, but Xu Qingzhu didn’t answer, instead falling into deep thought. He wondered if it was Su Mo’s Nine-Tailed bloodline, subtly ensnaring his soul and causing his confusion? Or had he truly suppressed himself for too long, forgetting his own desires during centuries of vengeance, leading to this sudden eruption? He accidentally glimpsed Su Mo, seated sideways, revealing soft, alluring curves. Her fair ankles were carefully tucked beneath her skirts, her fearful, evasive gaze creating an endearing innocence that made it difficult for him to look away. He understood that Xiao Yao pursued Su Mo precisely to force her into submission. He hadn’t understood before; now he did.

Breaking the silence, Xu Qingzhu spoke first.

“Go through that stone gate, and you’ll find them.”

“Mm,” Su Mo murmured, instantly on alert, trying to minimize her presence. Following behind him, she deliberately hunched her shoulders and lagged several steps. Although her body was dripping wet, and she knew Xu Qingzhu possessed the ability to instantly dry clothes, she was afraid that another glance would make her explode. She dared not mention it.

****

Beyond the stone gate, the scene was far more eerie than Su Mo had imagined. The stone walls on both sides were covered in human figures of various appearances, as if they had been pressed together in their dying moments, then doused in scalding wax, becoming a wall of petrified people. As they delved deeper, she occasionally saw severed arms protruding from the human wall, their cross-sections bloody and blurred, as if worms were crawling within them.

“These… are all people?” Su Mo stopped trying to convince herself they were merely elaborate sculptures.

“Indeed, they are all people,” Xu Qingzhu replied calmly.

“Then, your friend?”

“A demonic cultivator, seemingly dead.” Xu Qingzhu started to turn back, but stopped midway, continuing silently on their path. In that fleeting glimpse, Su Mo caught his eye. Noticing his deliberate evasion, and recalling the ‘centuries-old bachelor’ described in Xu Qingzhu’s book, she felt a strange sense of amusement.

‘Am I overreacting? Xu Qingzhu, a madman and a bachelor for centuries—does he really have the guts?’ Su Mo twisted her robes, thinking, ‘What a pushover.’

“We’ve arrived.”

No sooner had he spoken than eerie green flames flickered to life, illuminating the layout of the burial chamber. Graves of various sizes surrounded a lavish ancient tomb at the center. It exuded an unsettling aura, as if drawing upon the destinies of others. And when Su Mo saw the perfectly preserved, beautiful woman within the ancient tomb, she grew even more worried about a reanimated corpse. But… where did Xu Qingzhu get a friend, let alone a female demonic cultivator? The original novel never mentioned her.

‘But it seems all the ink was spilled on Xiao Yao and his… harem, so Xu Qingzhu’s life trajectory wasn’t really focused on.’ She mused, finding the explanation quite reasonable.

“This is…?” Su Mo took a step back, then examined it closely. The more she looked, the more familiar it felt.

“Why does her face look a bit like mine?” Su Mo suspected Xu Qingzhu had dug up her ancestor’s grave.

“A living person, but only a shell of a body.” Xu Qingzhu reached out, delving into the ancient tomb. He retrieved a ring from the female corpse’s finger, accepting it with an impassive expression.

“Isn’t this a vegetative state? No, wait, everything around here is decaying, so how is her body not rotten?” Su Mo muttered. ‘In a sense, it was a high-precision, large-scale collectible figure. Xiao Yao must never discover this; he’d try to get his hands on it!’

“What did you take?” Su Mo looked around, noticing that besides the ring on her finger, the female corpse had no other burial offerings. ‘This wouldn’t do; she had to salvage something.’

“Cultivation pills, but you cannot consume them.” Xu Qingzhu refused her coldly. The ring contained nothing but poisons, potent enough to kill a Golden Core cultivator without effort. His purpose in coming here, besides a spiritual plant about to bloom, was to acquire some poison pills to activate his poison body. He surmised that since he hadn’t yet undergone body refinement, only the weakest poison pill would be needed to fully activate his poison body. Too strong, and he might die; too weak, and it wouldn’t be effective. The first time was often crucial. He needed to meticulously select the poison pill that would lay the foundation for his poison body’s potential.

‘Once I consume the poison pill, my cultivation will soar, allowing me to enter the Foundation Establishment stage and even master a type of poison, capable of unleashing it with a single thought,’ Xu Qingzhu thought with delight. It was worth noting that only upon reaching Foundation Establishment could he master the art of flight, making it easier to descend the precipice.

Waiting no longer, Xu Qingzhu left a message and walked towards another chamber.

“Su Mo, wait here for now. I’ll be over there for a bit.”

“Oh, alright,” Su Mo replied, instantly on alert. The last time he told her to wait, he ended up throwing her off a cliff. What would it be this time? Cautiously observing her surroundings, Su Mo couldn’t contain her impatience after a moment. Being surrounded by coffins, with a seemingly living female corpse beside her, made her very afraid. Tiptoeing, she cautiously made her way towards Xu Qingzhu, muttering to herself.

‘Let me see what you’re up to—’

“Mmh…”

She found Xu Qingzhu sitting cross-legged, his entire body radiating heat and steam. He struggled, endured, but finally, as Su Mo’s gaze landed on him, his defenses broke. Seeing her lithe figure, Xu Qingzhu lunged forward, pinning her down.

“No, no, no! Stop! Young Master Xu, wake up!” Su Mo struggled, her hands seized by one of his and pinned above her head, exposing the dazzling expanse of her ‘snowy peaks’.

But in his hazy consciousness, Xu Qingzhu could only force out with difficulty.

“Help me… release this… Hngh, hngh…”

By the end, his throat produced only primal growls, wild and untamed.

“Rrrrip—!” Fabric tore and fluttered, revealing a broad expanse of pristine whiteness.