Starting at the Nascent Soul stage, a rogue cultivator is incredibly poor.

Three crimson leaves tore through the wind and snow, and scorching waves of air rushed towards Lu Zhou's face.

In the blink of an eye.

Lu Zhou's figure suddenly blurred, and he spun rapidly to the side at an incredible angle.

The first leaf of fire grazed past his ear and exploded in the snow, creating a crater several feet deep. The muscles in his right arm bulged, and he slammed the back of his hand against the second leaf of fire. With a clang, sparks flew, his skin was torn open, and the blood froze before it could even flow out.

The third fiery leaf was already three inches away from the dantian.

A struggle flashed in Lu Zhou's eyes.

A hundred feet away, behind the icicle.

Qingyouzi stood quietly in the wind and snow, his aura blending with the heavens and earth, his clothes remaining perfectly still.

He narrowed his eyes, his divine sense spreading across the battlefield like an invisible spider web, taking in every tremor of spiritual energy and every change in muscle.

"He really did have a trick up his sleeve," he thought with a cold laugh.

That seemingly clumsy dodge was actually terrifyingly precise.

Especially in an environment where extreme cold suppresses qi and blood, it is already difficult for ordinary cultivators to stand firm in the wind and snow, let alone to adapt to such a situation with such exquisite skill.

What bothered him even more was Lu Zhou's unusual condition when he was injured.

It is normal for a wound on the back of the hand to freeze instantly, but the frozen area healed quietly in an instant, as if it had never been damaged.

Qingyouzi lightly tapped the ice pillar with her fingertips, her thoughts racing.

As for the tracking restriction he planted, it had already been quietly sensed and was still on Lu Zhou's shoulder, fluctuating steadily and unaffected.

He was confident that no one could break this restriction unless a Nascent Soul cultivator personally intervened.

In the arena, the third fiery leaf had already touched Lu Zhou's robes.

A sinister smile appeared on the Golden Core cultivator's face, as if he could already see the other party's dantian shattered and him falling to the ground dead.

It was at this moment.

Lu Zhou's pale red light membrane suddenly brightened by three points, and a scorching wave of air erupted from his body, forcefully deflecting the fire leaf by half a foot, grazing past his waist, and carving a scorched furrow in the snow.

"What?!"

The Golden Core cultivator's expression changed drastically.

Lu Zhou used the momentum to retreat rapidly, taking seven steps in the snow, each step sending snowflakes flying, until he finally regained his footing. He was panting heavily, white breath billowing from his mouth and nose, his blood and energy churning violently, clearly indicating that the burst of energy he had just unleashed had greatly depleted his strength.

"I underestimated you. I didn't expect you to be such a powerful body cultivator."

The Golden Core cultivator's eyes were cold and sinister. He formed hand seals, and three fire leaves merged into one in mid-air, transforming into a three-foot-long crimson flame blade.

"But foundation building is still just foundation building!"

He lunged forward, his long sword slashing down at his head!

Before the blade even arrived, the scorching wind from it had already vaporized the snow within a three-zhang radius into white mist. Lu Zhou's pupils contracted; it seemed there was no way to avoid it!

That's enough.

A calm voice came from the wind and snow.

A thin, cyan thread, as fine as a hair, silently pierced through the snow curtain and precisely wrapped around the Crimson Flame Blade.

"laugh--"

Like a hot blade slicing through fat, the long sword snapped in two, scattering into a shower of sparks. The Golden Core cultivator, as if struck by a heavy blow, groaned and staggered back several steps, staring in horror at the source of the sound.

Qingyouzi slowly walked out of the wind and snow.

Before the Golden Core cultivator could react, he felt all his strength suddenly drain away, and he collapsed headfirst into the snow. A blue silk thread had already shattered his heart in his chest.

Qingyouzi raised his hand in a feint, and the storage bag flew into his palm.

He walked up to Lu Zhou and tossed him a jade bottle:

"Take it."

A crimson pill was inside the bottle, warm to the touch. Lu Zhou took it and swallowed it. A warm current spread from his dantian, coursing through his limbs and bones, and the frostbite on his hands healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Thank you so much for saving my life, senior." Lu Zhou bowed, his voice weary.

"It's not easy to hold on until now," Qingyouzi said calmly. "Let's go, this place is not safe to stay any longer."

With a flick of his sleeve, he enveloped Lu Zhou and transformed into a streak of blue light, soaring into the depths of the snowfield. Behind him, the wind and snow raged once more, instantly obliterating all traces of him.

Three days later.

At the edge of the snowfield, a precipice stretched out before us.

Below the cliff was not an abyss, but a boundless metal plain.

The ground was a dark gold color, covered with regular patterns, like an anvil forged by a master craftsman. Even more strangely, countless metal spheres, some as small as a fist and others as large as mountains, floated in the air above the plain, slowly rotating and gleaming with a cold, hard luster.

A metal road, more than ten feet wide, extends down from the cliff edge and into the depths of the plain.

Just as Qingyouzi and Luzhou landed at the edge of the cliff, a whooshing sound arose from the other side.

The two beams of light descended almost simultaneously.

It turned out to be Hong Kaishan and Bai He.

Qingyouzi instantly became alert and retreated with Lu Zhou to a distance of a hundred feet.

The white crane chuckled:

"Fellow Daoist Qingluan, it's only been a short time, why the need for such vigilance?"

Qingyouzi's gaze swept over the two of them. When did Hong Kaishan and Baihe get together?

"So you are Fellow Daoist Baihe."

Before he could say anything more, Hong Kaishan laughed heartily, his previous arrogance completely gone.

"If you ask me, you two rogue cultivators are the real hypocrites, not even revealing your real names to each other."

Neither Qingyouzi nor Baihe responded, as they had not believed each other's names when they first met.

The white crane gave two awkward, dry laughs.

"Very well, a name is just a code. Let's meet again, Fellow Daoist Qingluan, or rather, Fellow Daoist Qingyou. I am Daohe, and we are both rogue cultivators. Perhaps there will be opportunities for cooperation in the future."

"Qingyou greets Fellow Daoist Daohe." Qingyouzi cupped his hands, then turned his gaze to Hong Kaishan. "How did you two end up together? This man was arrogant earlier and clearly sided with the demonic path."

Dao He and Hong Kaishan exchanged a glance, their expressions unreadable, and neither answered directly. Their gazes lingered on Lu Zhou for a moment, as if weighing the pros and cons.

"Fellow Daoist Qingyou."

Daohe then said.

"Why not join us? With Fellow Daoist Jiang's spirit beast assisting us, and with Young Friend Lu Zhou joining us, no matter how many Heavenly Immortal Herbs we take, we can divide them equally. Right now, the Demonic Path doesn't trust each other, and only Seven Fiends and Xie Changyuan remain, so they are not a threat. Perhaps... we can even keep these two here forever."

He spoke logically and clearly, and Qing Youzi was indeed somewhat tempted. Yes, if Xie Changyuan could be killed here, it would eliminate a major threat. Could he really believe it?

But he quickly regained his senses.

He would rather go it alone than join the righteous alliance.

If they truly intended to win them over, why didn't they contact them secretly earlier? Waiting until now to speak up suggests they might be plotting to discard them after they've served their purpose or even betray them.

Judging from their posture, he suspected that the two had secretly joined forces, and he already had a rough guess in his mind.

Hong Kaishan's previous arrogant attitude was mostly an act.

How could someone who has cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage be truly brainless? This person was likely forced to join the demonic path by the righteous path for some other reason, having been given leverage over their weaknesses, and was sent to sow discord within the demonic camp.

Before he could even make a move, he had already offended Xie Changyuan... But no matter what happened, the outcome was probably already in someone else's calculations.

It's laughable that he didn't even realize how shallow his calculations were.

"Hahaha," Qingyouzi suddenly laughed, "So that's how it is. You righteous people, you've really made a good plan."

He shook his head and sighed. The situation was gloomy and impossible to see through in a short time. His survival principle in life was to avoid such complicated situations if possible.

"Unfortunately, I am but a humble cultivator, with no intention of getting involved in such a conflict, and I have no interest in the Heavenly Immortal Flower. As you have suggested, it is best to abandon this idea."

Upon hearing this, Hong Kaishan's eyes turned cold. Dao He, however, showed a hint of regret in his eyes.

"Since you are unwilling, fellow Daoist," Daohe's voice was already cold, "then... farewell."

The two said no more and turned to walk towards the metal avenue.

The moment his feet stepped onto the avenue, his figure vanished into thin air.

Not even a trace of breath remained.

Qingyouzi stood on the edge of the cliff, gazing at the empty metal plain, his eyes calm and deep.

Lu Zhou asked in a low voice, "Senior, what about them...?"

"Never mind," Qingyouzi interrupted. "The situation on this third level is more complex than I thought."

He gazed into the depths of the avenue, his sleeves silently shimmering with countless threads.

"Now that we're here, we'll have to wait a while before we can leave."

"Let's go. The Celestial Herb... I want to see who ends up with it."