Xu Mu, Look Quickly

“Wait.”

Xu Mu raised a hand.

Freya finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Xu Mu, don’t listen to her. You’ve saved me twice—why would I lie to you?”

“Xu Mu has saved you twice, and you still don’t like him? What an ungrateful woman. You’re pure evil!”

Freya’s voice was cold.

“Fuck you! Who said I don’t like him?” Zilan Yin cursed.

“So you do like him! That’s why you see Hathaway as a rival and are smearing her reputation.”

“What the hell? No matter whether I like him or not, you’ve got an explanation ready. And you still claim you’re not talking nonsense?”

“Enough!”

Xu Mu interrupted Zilan Yin. He had more important matters to deal with.

“Freya, I can let you go, but first you have to answer a few questions. No lying.”

“Of course.”

“What’s your relationship with Dorothea like? Compared with Hathaway, who are you closer to?”

Xu Mu put the blanket away into his spatial storage, then sat beside the fire and asked casually.

“My relationship with Dorothea is good too. Like Hathaway, she’s one of the twin prodigies of the younger generation in our Holy Light Clan. As for who I’m closer to…”

Freya hesitated slightly. She didn’t understand what Xu Mu was getting at, but all she could do was tell the truth.

“It’s definitely Hathaway.”

“Who came here this time?”

Xu Mu continued questioning her.

“The Five Cabinet Elders, Dorothea, and a man named Ye Chen.”

Freya did not lie. She didn’t dare take the gamble.

If Xu Mu and the others had entered after them, they had probably already discovered who had come.

“I know that Ye Chen. Isn’t he a descendant of Yanhuang? How did he end up joining your Holy Light Clan?”

Xu Mu asked in an indifferent tone, finally getting to the question that interested him most.

“I don’t know either. It was an order from Lord Light Ancestor, who told him to join a branch of the Holy Light Clan for training. He’s to be treated like an ordinary member of the clan, but since the order came personally from Lord Light Ancestor, his status is extraordinary. Even some of the elders treat him with great courtesy.”

Freya answered truthfully.

“Who is the Light Ancestor?”

Xu Mu asked.

Zilan Yin was the first to explain. “The Light Ancestor is the ancestor of the Holy Light Clan. You can think of him as the strongest person in the clan.”

“The strongest? Could he be at the Immortal realm?”

Xu Mu couldn’t help feeling surprised.

“Otherwise, why do you think the four great races stand at the pinnacle? Naturally, all of us have beings who’ve surpassed the ninth tier.”

Freya began employing both persuasion and intimidation.

She wanted Xu Mu to know that Hathaway liked him, while also making him aware that the Holy Light Clan possessed experts beyond the ninth tier.

Hopefully, after learning this, he wouldn’t kill her.

Xu Mu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Ye Chen’s identity really was mysterious. He had actually managed to secure the backing of the strongest person in the Holy Light Clan.

“If that’s the case, then I can only kill you.”

Xu Mu smiled at Freya.

“What? Why?”

Freya’s eyes widened. “I didn’t lie to you! Everything I told you was the truth.”

“It has nothing to do with your answers. Ye Chen and I are enemies—enemies locked in a fight to the death. He’s also an honored guest of your Holy Light Clan. If I let you go and you meet up with Ye Chen later, wouldn’t you become my enemy too?”

“No! Absolutely not. I’ve disliked him for a long time. He’s clearly a descendant of Yanhuang, yet he throws his weight around in front of us. Isn’t it just because the Light Ancestor said a few words on his behalf?”

At this point, Freya suddenly realized that she had said the wrong thing.

“Of course, I’m not saying that you descendants of Yanhuang are inferior. I’m only talking about him. He’s just too damn full of himself.”

Xu Mu shrugged. That was simply Ye Chen’s personality. But after all, he was the protagonist. Under normal circumstances, no one could outdo him when it came to acting cocky.

“Since you won’t attack us, I suppose I can let you go.”

“Thank you.”

Freya exhaled in relief. She had finally managed to keep her life.

“Xu Mu, you’re being too naive. Letting her go is the same as releasing an enemy. She may not attack you while there are no treasures around, but what happens when they appear? Do you really think she won’t try to seize them?”

Zilan Yin grabbed Xu Mu’s arm.

Li Hongdou stood with her arms folded, observing the storm around them. It seemed to have weakened slightly compared with before.

She didn’t care in the slightest whether this member of the Holy Light Clan lived or died. Xu Mu could decide everything.

“Who says I’ll try to seize them? Don’t judge others by your own petty standards.”

Freya spoke coolly. “You’re only holding a grudge because I attacked you earlier, and you want Xu Mu to kill me. Let me tell you, Xu Mu isn’t that stupid. Not only will I not attack him, I’ll even help him when it matters.”

Zilan Yin was about to say something else, but when she saw the look in Xu Mu’s eyes, she knew he had no intention of killing Freya.

“Forget it. There’s no point in saying more. I just hope you won’t regret this later.”

She waved her hand and sat back down beside the fire.

Xu Mu said nothing more. At least from his perspective, having more people around wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

If Freya joined forces with Ye Chen to deal with him, Xu Mu’s ability, Star Shift, could still come in handy.

Moreover, after she learned that he was Xu Mu, the filial piety value that had originally been negative had changed to 1.

Perhaps Hathaway really had said something to her.

Xu Mu sat on the ground with Li Hongdou and Zilan Yin, the three of them gathered around the fire.

When the flames were nearly extinguished, he took out another wooden stool and tossed it onto the fire.

“Xu Mu, I’m still in a lot of pain. Can you remove the ice from my body first?”

Freya still couldn’t move. The cold surrounding them remained, and since she was farther from the fire, the ice covering her body had barely melted. At least it had stopped spreading.

“How am I supposed to save you?”

Xu Mu looked at Freya.

“Wait, come to think of it…”

A wicked smile suddenly appeared on Zilan Yin’s face.

“Xu Mu, I only need to avoid killing her, right?”

“That’s right. I already gave my word.”

Xu Mu couldn’t be bothered to guess what Zilan Yin was planning. In the end, this was a grudge between their two races.

And he was more than happy to watch.

“Good.”

Zilan Yin rubbed her hands together with a grin and stood up from the ground.

She walked over to Freya and began circling her.

“What are you planning to do?”

Freya’s voice grew tense. She knew all too well that Zilan Yin always pretended to be a gentle, good girl in front of men, while her heart was actually pitch-black.

“What else could I be doing? Helping you, of course.”

As she spoke, Zilan Yin grabbed a chunk of ice from Freya’s body and yanked it downward with all her strength.

Crack!

The black robe Freya was wearing was ripped open with ease, revealing the red leather armor underneath.

Zilan Yin continued tearing and pulling. In the blink of an eye, she had ripped away all the frozen chunks of ice covering Freya’s body.

Along with the clothes attached to them, of course.

“Impressive. An elder of the Cabinet really does have armor made of Unbreakable Heavenly Silk beneath her clothes.”

Zilan Yin sighed in admiration.

Xu Mu looked over as well and saw that the underarmor was shaped like a vest, reaching only as far as Freya’s navel.

No wonder the attack hadn’t pierced through it earlier.

“Xu Mu, look!”

Zilan Yin grabbed the Unbreakable Heavenly Silk and pulled hard, dragging it up beneath Freya’s armpits.

“Zilan Yin! You’re courting death!”

Freya let out a low growl.