A master of both medicine and martial arts, he recruits a beautiful CEO to cultivate immortality tog

The snow-capped mountain is located west of Beiyan and has no name on the map.

The wind was like an ice scalpel, scraping my face painfully.

Ye Heng squinted and looked into the distance.

The ridge of the snow-capped mountain looked like a knife's edge under the gray-white sky, and a cluster of black buildings was half-buried in the snow on the mountainside.

It was exactly the same as the image seen in the array.

"Where is the Red Lantern Array?" he asked.

"Inside the mountain," my senior uncle pointed to the area below the buildings. "The entrance is behind the third row of houses. Your master is at the core of the formation, and Feng Tianyin is protecting the outside. They've held out for three days."

"Three days?" Ye Heng paused. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"What's the use of saying so earlier?" His senior uncle looked at him. "Even if you came, you might not be able to break the formation."

"Then why are you saying it now?"

"Because it's because I, your senior uncle, can't break it." The senior uncle said frankly, "If I could break it, I wouldn't be asking you. I can only let you try."

Ye Heng glanced at him, displeased, and said nothing more.

The three of them walked up the mountain.

The snow was deep; each step reached up to his calves. Ye Heng's injury hadn't healed yet, and after walking for a while, the area between his thumb and forefinger began to throb. He put his hands in his coat pockets, wrapped his wounds with his inner energy, and continued walking.

When he reached the halfway point of the mountain, he smelled a bloody odor.

It's very faint; mixed in with the snow, you can't smell it at all unless you sniff carefully.

"Someone's there," he whispered.

The senior master nodded: "There are at least six guards, all at the peak of the Acquired Realm, with the leader at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage."

"Someone from Xuanming?"

"I don't know," said my senior uncle, "but he's definitely not from the Spirit Group."

Ye Heng's divine sense spread out.

In the snow, six heat sources were distributed around the entrance to the mountainside, forming a semicircle. The closest one was less than thirty feet away, and someone was smoking behind a rock.

"I'll take care of the three on the left," Ye Heng said. "Bei Yuan, the three on the right."

Ye Heng crouched down and reached to the left.

With no cover on the snow, he could only approach step by step, taking advantage of the wind and snow.

When they were about ten feet away from the first guard, the guard suddenly raised his head, as if he had noticed something.

Ye Heng didn't give him time to react.

His figure flashed across the snow, the Heavenly Mark Blade unsheathed, its blade slicing a thin black line through the wind and snow. A bloody gash appeared on the guard's throat; he collapsed without even uttering a sound.

Ye Heng supported his body and gently placed it on the snow.

The second guard heard the commotion and had just turned around when Ye Heng was already behind him, striking him on the back of the neck with the hilt of his knife. The guard groaned and passed out.

The third guard reacted the fastest, raising his hand to fire a signal flare.

Ye Heng's knife was faster than his hand.

The tip of the knife severed the fuse of the signal flare, and the back of the blade struck the guard's temple. The guard rolled his eyes and collapsed into the snow.

On the other side, Ye Beiyuan also took care of three others.

Master stood in front of the middle rock, twirling a copper coin in his hand, looking at the leader's corpse.

"A member of the Zhou family?" Uncle-Master recognized him.

"Zhou Henian is dead, yet your Zhou family still won't give up."

Ye Heng turned and rushed into the entrance to the mountain.

The entrance was a downward-sloping tunnel with red lights hanging on the walls. The dim light made the snow look like it was soaked in blood. The further you went in, the stronger the smell of blood became.

At the end of the tunnel was a huge ice cave.

In the center of the ice cave was a circular stone platform. The platform was covered with dark red runes, and nine chains extended from the edge of the platform, suspending a person.

Ling Hanyue.

She was wearing a thin, plain white dress, her white hair was loose over her shoulders, and her hands were chained above her head.

Blood flowed down her wrist, dripping down the chains into the ice. Something was glowing beneath the ice, flickering like a heartbeat.

"Master!"

Ye Heng rushed over.

Ling Hanyue raised her head.

Her face was almost transparently pale, her lips were chapped, but her eyes were still clear.

Upon seeing Ye Heng, she paused for a moment, then frowned.

"You shouldn't have come."

"You always say that." Ye Heng drew his sword, aiming it at the chain. "Could you say something different next time?"

"No." Ling Hanyue looked at him. "If you come, you'll fall into their trap."

Ye Heng's knife stopped in mid-air.

"What plan?"

"They need you to open the door," Ling Hanyue said. "You possess the Heavenly Mark Blade and the power of Taiyin. The moment you touch the chains, the array's core will recognize you as its master. At that point, they won't need to capture me to open the Cradle."

Ye Heng looked at her, his mind racing.

"What if we don't touch it?"

"If I don't touch it, I can hold on for another three days," Ling Hanyue said. "After three days, once the blood is drained, the array's core will open on its own."

Ye Heng gripped the hilt of the knife tightly.

"Is there no other way?"

"Yes." Ling Hanyue looked at him. "Go. Leave Northern Yan and return to Jinling. The wedding will proceed as planned, don't worry about me."

"impossible."

"Ye Heng—"

"I said it's impossible." Ye Heng interrupted her, his voice not loud but firm. "When I came down the mountain, you told me that the most important thing for cultivators is to avoid having attachments in their hearts. But you also said that if one could truly be without feelings or attachments, then what would be the point of cultivation?"

Ling Hanyue looked at him, and something flickered in her eyes.

"You traitor," she whispered.

"Hmm." Ye Heng smiled. "You taught me."

He turned around and looked at the other side of the ice cave.

Feng Tianyin knelt beneath the ice wall, her fiery red dress soaked in blood, a deep, bone-revealing wound on her left shoulder. She looked up, saw Ye Heng, first letting out a sigh of relief, then glaring at him.

"You brat." Her voice was weak, but she still had that same temper. "You're already here, what are you dawdling for? Hurry up and get your master down."

"Second Master, are you alright?"

"He won't die." Feng Tianyin coughed. "If he had arrived half an hour later, it would be hard to say."

Ye Heng nodded and looked back at the chains.

There were nine chains, each as thick as an arm, covered with densely packed runes. He had just used his divine sense to probe them; the chains were connected to the array's core, and forcibly severing them would indeed trigger the core.

"My senior master said you are the core of the formation," he said. "If I remove the core of the formation from you, will it prevent it from triggering?"

"Yes," Ling Hanyue said, "but two conditions are required. First, your Yin energy must be pure enough to suppress the lingering resentment in the array's core. Second, someone must be outside to protect me until the array's core is completely removed."

Am I pure enough?

"That's enough." Ling Hanyue looked at him, "But you can't hold on. You're injured, and at least 30% of your meridians are broken. If we forcibly remove them, your meridians will break first."

"Then let's break it off."

"Ye Heng—"

"Master," Ye Heng looked at her, "you raised me and taught me skills, not so that I would settle scores when it matters."

Ling Hanyue fell silent.

Feng Tianyin chuckled from the side, "Senior sister, don't try to persuade him. This kid has the same temper as you; you can't change his mind."

Ling Hanyue glared at her, and finally sighed.

"Okay," she said, "but you have to promise me one thing."

"you say."

"If the core of the formation backfires halfway through the peeling process, you must let go immediately." Ling Hanyue looked at him. "Don't sacrifice yourself for my sake."