Why Not Save When You Can

A small tent was pitched not far away, with a campfire burning outside. The person who had previously called out to warn him was meditating inside the tent, completely unaware of Lin Xiao's sudden appearance nearby.

Lin Xiao thought for a moment and decided not to make a sound to alert this person.

After picking up the array disk from the ground, he quietly left the area.

Activating his Soaring Cloud Technique, he swiftly circled the massive snow mountain for a distance.

Along the way, he checked the remaining spirit stones in the array disk. There were one thousand and fifty-two left, which meant the teleportation out had consumed two hundred and twenty-six stones.

Seeing familiar scenes along the way and confirming once again that this was indeed the place he had been before entering the ice cave, Lin Xiao hesitated for a moment before turning to leave the area.

Seeing him leave, Liao Pantu was quite surprised and spoke up,

"I thought you would go back."

Having finished checking the remaining spirit stones in the array disk, Lin Xiao smiled and said,

"For so many years, so many people have searched for a way out inside, yet they all ended up losing their lives. I don't think my staying inside would make any difference.

I figure that even if there is a way to get the people inside out, it most likely won't be found within that ice cave. So, I plan to look around outside. Maybe I'll discover something."

Hearing this, Liao Pantu agreed,

"Good idea. But what if you still can't find a way to get the people in the ice cave out from the outside?"

Lin Xiao fell silent for a moment before speaking firmly, word by word,

"Then I'll have each of them provide spirit stones, and I'll use the Universe Shifting Array to send them out one by one."

Liao Pantu seemed completely unsurprised by his response and added,

"But if you do that, the news of you possessing an Earth-grade teleportation array will be impossible to hide. A Foundation Establishment cultivator in his teens holding a precious Earth-grade teleportation array... do you think you'll still be able to live peacefully in the Southern Spirit Domain? It is no exaggeration to say that if this news spreads, not to mention Golden Core cultivators, even many Nascent Soul cultivators will come looking for you, believe it or not?"

Lin Xiao nodded decisively,

"I believe it! So, to prevent that from happening, hurry up and pray that I can find a way to get the people out of the ice cave~"

"...I am a person, not a ghost! Pray for what!" Knowing that he meant he absolutely had to save those trapped people, Liao Pantu sighed,

"Just go and look. If you really can't find a way, I'll help you come up with a plan!"

Looking at Lin Xiao, who harbored such a desire to save others, even though his subconscious reaction was to disagree, he actually felt quite envious in his heart.

Having cultivated for so many years, he had certainly killed his fair share of people, but as for saving people... he tried hard to recall and found that he seemed to have only slightly helped a few people back when he first started cultivating.

For cultivators like them, saving someone actually required far more courage than killing someone.

They killed to resist, to seek revenge, or to eliminate future troubles; when it came down to it, it was mainly for their own sake.

There was nothing inherently wrong with that.

But during the days he spent with Lin Xiao, he felt that in terms of courage, he was far inferior to him.

It was clear that over this period, Lin Xiao was gradually realizing the various cruelties of this world.

Yet he still chose to save people.

Even though it was clearly a thankless task.

Thinking of this, Liao Pantu hesitated for a moment before slowly asking,

"Why do you... insist on saving these people? They have nothing to do with you."

Not expecting him to ask this, Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment before answering as a matter of course,

"Because I can. If I can save them, why shouldn't I?

As for the potential troubles I might face after saving them... if there were only one or two unforgivably wicked people inside, I would definitely just pretend to be blind and ignore them. But the truth is, there are many pure-hearted people out gaining experience like Fellow Daoist Hu inside, as well as the author of the last letter meant for a beloved son that Fellow Daoist Hu holds, and many others whom I have never met but who each have their own different lives...

If I had no choice, that would be one thing, but since I have a way, of course I'll save them! As long as I try my best to protect myself and avoid being discovered while doing it, I'll be fine. If I accidentally get discovered, then I'll just deal with whatever comes my way. I can't just give up eating for fear of choking and ignore my original intentions, watching so many people die just because of some unpredictable future."

Saying this, Lin Xiao chuckled and then said confidently,

"Besides, I believe in myself! I'm so amazing that I established my own sect and cultivated to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage in a mere two months, what the hell is there to be afraid of! If anyone comes looking for trouble, I'll just beat them back and that'll be that! If the other party has a higher cultivation level than me, then I'll immediately raise my cultivation! It's just cultivation, right! Hahaha."

Liao Pantu: ...

Listening to the first half, Liao Pantu was actually quite moved by his words, but the moment he heard the latter part, all those feelings of being moved vanished instantly.

So he said coldly,

"I wonder who it was that almost got sprayed to death by a mouthful of poison from a Silver Frost Python Demon back then."

Lin Xiao smiled cheekily,

"Don't I have you to protect and escort me now? I believe that with your careful guidance, I definitely won't have any more problems!"

Hearing him say this, Liao Pantu snorted softly.

After all, back then his approval of the Lingxian Sect and Lin Xiao wasn't high, so naturally he wouldn't expend much effort; giving a slight pointer was already doing what a normal guest elder should do.

Having spent these days together, Lin Xiao also sensed Senior Liao's bias towards them, which was why he spoke to him like this.

As they talked, the two grew further and further away from the snow mountain.

There were only three gray areas shown on the map.

Following the map, Lin Xiao found the other two unexplored gray areas.

He also went inside each of them to take a look around.

Firstly, to confirm whether anyone had entered and if there were any clues for a way out; secondly, to see if there was any Freezing Cold Jade inside that he could dig up...

However, to his disappointment, people had been teleported into both of these gray areas, but just like the ice cave from before, there was nothing inside except for the Freezing Cold Jade.

Unable to find any clues, Lin Xiao could only hurry up and secretly mine all the high-grade Freezing Cold Jade. As for the ordinary ones nearby, he didn't waste any more time digging them up.

Saving people was still the priority.

It wouldn't be too late to come back and dig them up after he found a way to get everyone out.

Thus, over the next two days, Lin Xiao began searching everywhere in the mystic realm for clues.

After Liao Pantu asked Lin Xiao for the map and examined it, he gave him some suggestions regarding the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, pointing out a few suspicious spots.

It was also around this time that the resources in various parts of the Ice Plains Mystic Realm were nearly completely scavenged. Whatever could be harvested or mined had been, leaving almost everywhere in a mess. Lin Xiao would occasionally encounter some cultivators fighting and scrambling for something.

And it was also at this time that the demonic beasts in the Ice Plains Mystic Realm gradually began to emerge.