You Stop Right There...

Atop Cold Moon Peak, one could hear a pin drop.

It was a deathly silence, where even the chirping of insects seemed frozen in the air.

After taking some time to rush to the Cold Moon Palace, Gu Yang did not take the main entrance.

Following the golden intel, he bypassed the area to reach the southwest corner of the pavilion's grand protective array.

There stood a willow tree. Gu Yang lightly tapped the array node with his fingertips, his spiritual energy surging. Just as the intel had stated, the originally perilous Cloud Smoke Sun-Obscuring Array truly experienced a momentary lag.

Holding his breath, he vaulted over the wall like a nimble civet.

The moment his feet touched the ground, a chilling aura ten times colder than the Sword Cleansing Pool assaulted his face.

This was not the coldness of the weather; it was a bone-piercing baleful chill.

Outside the bedchamber, the maid named Hongxiu was nowhere to be seen.

Gu Yang furrowed his brows, a trace of an ominous premonition rising in his heart.

Zhao Wuji's trap had probably already been sprung.

Hesitating no longer, he quickly stepped forward and pushed open the heavy profound ice doors of the hall.

Creak—

The heavy friction echoed throughout the spacious, empty hall.

No lamps were lit inside; only the moonstones inlaid in the walls emitted a pale, ghostly halo.

A thick layer of white frost covered the floor, emitting a crisp crunch with every step he took.

Who is it...

An extremely weak female voice, yet still carrying a touch of majesty, drifted from behind the cascading layers of bed curtains.

Her voice trembled, sounding like two pieces of icy jade clashing together.

Your disciple, Gu Yang. I have an urgent matter to report to Master.

Gu Yang stopped ten paces away from the curtains, his voice steady and firm.

Get out...

Behind the curtains, Shen Qingyue's voice suddenly rose in pitch, only to plummet instantly due to agony, turning into a suppressed, muffled groan.

Get out!

Gu Yang did not move.

Not only did he not retreat, but he took a step forward, speaking rapidly:

Grand Elder Zhao Wuji has bribed Hongxiu. He plans to break through the array tonight at midnight, taking advantage of Master's cold poison flare-up, to use you as a cauldron for his harvesting arts.

This disciple has come solely to warn you.

As his words fell, the grand hall sank into a deathly silence.

There was no furious outburst or questioning as Gu Yang had anticipated.

There was only an increasingly heavy and erratic breathing seeping through the merman silk curtains, which were as thin as cicada wings.

Hah... Zhao Wuji...

The voice carried a bone-deep hatred, yet it was soft and weak, even mixed with a trace of blush-inducing sweetness.

Something was wrong.

Gu Yang keenly caught a wisp of a peculiar, sweet fragrance in the air.

There was also an aphrodisiac!

Zhao Wuji was leaving absolutely no way out!

Master?

Gu Yang tentatively parted the curtains.

The next second, even with his steady temperament, his pupils could not help but shrink slightly.

On the massive cold jade bed.

His master, Shen Qingyue, who was normally aloof and as unapproachable as a divine maiden, was currently curled up into a ball.

Her white palace dress with gold embroidery was already completely disheveled, exposing large swathes of snow-white skin that resembled creamy jade.

However, upon that skin, bizarre livid veins were now crawling all over. It was the sign of the Nine Yin Cold Poison completely erupting.

She bit her lower lip fiercely, blood sliding down her pale mouth and staining her fragile, slender neck red.

Sweat drenched her temples, and a few strands of black hair clung messily to her cheeks. Her eyes, originally as cold and clear as the moon, were now clouded with a hazy mist, her focus scattered.

Half of it was an extreme chill, making her feel as if she had plummeted into an ice cavern.

The other half was the raging fire of the drug, burning away her reason.

The dual torment of ice and fire was destroying this Golden Core Master's mental defenses inch by inch.

Gu... Yang?

Shen Qingyue tried desperately to see the person in front of her clearly, but her vision was already blurred.

Scram... Scram!

Shen Qingyue's voice trembled. The reprimand that should have contained the oppressive might of a Golden Core cultivator now sounded more like the whimper of an injured young beast.

She gripped the cold jade beneath her fiercely, her knuckles turning white from the force. Her originally perfectly manicured nails even snapped at the edges, scraping against the icy surface with a piercing screech.

She was resisting. Resisting not just Gu Yang, but also her own self that was gradually breaking down.

Watching this scene, the calmness Gu Yang had prepared showed a trace of a crack.

Memories flooded him like a tidal wave.

In the twenty years since he transmigrated, although he was a genius in the Falling Cloud Sect, he was also envied and hated by others.

It was Shen Qingyue who, when he was falsely accused, stood silently in front of him, using her Cold Moon Sword to force back the Law Enforcement Hall's harassment.

It was a month ago, when he failed his Foundation Establishment, was reduced to a cripple, and everyone avoided him like the plague, that this normally icy master did not hesitate to deplete her own cultivation. She forced her way out of seclusion and shoved the two Life-Transformation Pills—which were originally meant for her own breakthrough—into his mouth.

Gu Yang, only by living is there hope.

That was the only sentence she had said to him at the time.

Even now, trapped in a desperate situation with her consciousness blurring, what she cried out was still for him to scram, rather than asking him for help.

Today, even if he had to risk his life, he would save her.

Master, Zhao Wuji should be right outside the door by now. Time is of the essence.

Gu Yang's voice gradually calmed. He reached out his hand, his fingertips not touching her directly, but hovering three inches above her bare ankle.

Across a mere distance of three inches, the fierce and overbearing Desolate Ancient Extreme Yang aura radiating from Gu Yang acted like a raging prairie fire, instantly igniting Shen Qingyue's frozen senses.

Mmh!

Shen Qingyue suddenly threw her slender neck back, letting out an uncontrollable, soft moan.

The moment the sound escaped her lips, she acted as if she had suffered an immense humiliation, biting down hard on her lower lip until she tasted blood.

Shame.

The person in front of her was her disciple.

Yet now, her body was actually trembling in front of her disciple!

Don't come near me... I am your master...

Shen Qingyue held onto her last shred of clarity, trying to mobilize her spiritual energy to blast Gu Yang away.

But the moment she raised her hand, it was limp and devoid of any strength, looking instead like an invitation.

Gu Yang grabbed the wrist that was flailing in mid-air.

It felt freezing cold and smooth to the touch.

I will heal your injuries now.

Master, forgive my offense.

Gu Yang's voice did not waver in the slightest.

If he did not save his master tonight, they might both die.

He somewhat roughly twisted her unruly wrist back, pinning it firmly against the icy cold jade pillow above her head.

The distance between the two instantly closed.

Insolent!

Shen Qingyue struggled desperately, her waist twisting wildly on the bed as she tried to break free from her disciple's suppression.

But under the dual erosion of the cold poison and the aphrodisiac, this seemingly fierce resistance looked more like a seductive dance of feigned resistance.

Gu Yang ignored her reprimand. The newly awakened Desolate Ancient Extreme Yang spiritual energy within his body followed their tightly pressed palms, surging into Shen Qingyue's meridians like a breached dam.

Boom—!

It was the sound of boiling oil pouring over accumulated snow.

Ah...

It was too hot.

That peerlessly overbearing extreme yang heatwave brutally smashed through the congested cold energy within her body. Wherever it passed, the originally frozen meridians instantly thawed.

That refreshing sensation of sweet rain after a long drought spread madly through her marrow.

She instinctively wanted to curl up, but her wrists were locked in Gu Yang's dead-grip, forcing her entire body to remain open.

A monstrous sense of shame almost burned her rationality to ashes.

She was the exalted Golden Core Elder, the untouchable icy goddess of the Falling Cloud Sect.

Yet now, in the hands of her own disciple, she was actually trembling from a surge of spiritual energy.

"Stop... I command you to stop..."