Chu Li’s heart was already filled with ominous premonitions. Upon hearing Song Chun’s words, the temperature around his body dropped to freezing point. He frowned slightly and looked at Song Chun. “What happened?”
Song Chun trembled slightly under Chu Li’s gaze. After swallowing hard, he carefully spoke—
“News from Huang Yan. The Princess has disappeared.”
Chu Li felt his heart skip a beat. His eyes radiated a deep, profound light. He turned to look at the ancient tree once more, and his heart contracted violently as a suffocating pain washed over him.
He strode forward, quickly exiting the courtyard of the ancient tree.
Behind him, Master Huaiyuan frowned, turning his head to look at the ancient tree. He pressed his palms together and silently recited several lines of prayer.
Not far away, Imperial Consort Rong and Imperial Tutor An had witnessed everything that had occurred in the ancient tree’s courtyard.
Having heard the news of the ancient trees’ withering that morning, Imperial Consort Rong had quickly come to Shuiyun Temple using her void space. But before she could enter the ancient tree’s courtyard, she saw Chu Li walk in.
So she waited at the entrance for a while, not expecting to hear the news of Mu Yunjin’s disappearance.
…
…
“That ancient tree—did you notice anything suspicious?” Imperial Consort Rong turned to look at Imperial Tutor An. Seeing his furrowed brow and the thoughts churning in his eyes, a sense of foreboding gradually rose in her heart.
“Hey, answer me!” Imperial Consort Rong grew impatient and pushed Imperial Tutor An.
Imperial Tutor An was startled and came back to his senses. When his gaze swept toward Imperial Consort Rong, his expression changed. He pointed behind her.
Imperial Consort Rong turned around. Chu Li was standing there with a cold face, staring at her and Imperial Tutor An. His gaze was particularly fierce when looking at Imperial Tutor An, with a coldness in his eyes that seemed capable of tearing them both apart.
“Li’er…” Imperial Consort Rong opened her mouth and called out to Chu Li.
Chu Li did not respond. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he walked around the two of them, heading in the direction of Anxin Hall.
Imperial Consort Rong watched Chu Li’s retreating figure and wanted to follow him, but was held back by Imperial Tutor An beside her. “Don’t flatter yourself. You want to use your void space to take him to Northern Ming Country, but he might not arrive any later than you.”
“What do you mean?” Imperial Consort Rong didn’t understand.
Imperial Tutor An smiled faintly. “Are you going back to Southern Court Country now, or to Northern Ming Country?”
“Northern Ming Country.”
“Then let’s go!”
…
Mu Yunjin hadn’t stayed in the ice cave for long that day before ice began forming at her feet, and her breathing gradually weakened. In the end, it was unclear whether she lost consciousness after her body was covered in ice, or if she had already stopped breathing before then.
Inside the ice cave.
When Qiuye stepped into the ice cave with light, leisurely footsteps, his gaze immediately went to the corner.
There, in the corner, was a figure encased in solid ice.
Perhaps because the ice had formed too thickly, when Qiuye first looked, he could only see the vague outline of a human form and nothing else. Even when he walked up to the ice, he couldn’t see the face of the woman trapped within.
Seeing this, Qiuye’s lips curled upward, and he couldn’t suppress a low laugh.
He placed his hand on the ice and, looking at the motionless person inside, murmured, “They say when the Phoenix Star descends to earth, it will dominate this world, but this old man refuses to believe it.”
“Look now. This old man knew he would never be wrong.”
“Heh, in this world, the only one who can dominate has always been this old man alone. After I’ve fully utilized the entire Qin family, I will overthrow this world and become its true overlord!”
After this soliloquy, Qiuye patted the block of ice beside him. “Phoenix Woman, you can keep watching from the underworld!”
With those words, Qiuye walked out.
The ice cave returned to silence.
After an unknown period, the eyelashes of the woman in the ice, whose heartbeat had long ceased, trembled slightly. After another long while, a golden light appeared, flickering at her chest.
At the same time, the ice that trapped her gradually began to melt…
The golden light at her chest, which had been barely visible at first, gradually became bright and brilliant. In the silver-blue ice cave, the warm golden light suddenly appeared, enveloping and surrounding the entire cavern.
The golden light gradually broke through the cave of the ice cavern, rising into the sky, shining in the daylight…
…
Almost everyone outside noticed the golden light that suddenly appeared above the southern mountain peak at the same time.
Chu Li had just entered the borders of Northern Ming Country when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a golden light shooting up into the sky. A burning intensity flashed across his clear, sharp eyes, and he quickly ran toward the source of the golden light.
Imperial Consort Rong and Imperial Tutor An truly arrived a step later than Chu Li. After steadying herself, Imperial Consort Rong saw Chu Li running toward the direction of the golden light and also hurried after him.
Imperial Tutor An’s lips curved slightly. This moment had finally arrived.
…
When Daoist Feng Xuan and the others saw this suddenly appearing golden light, they too rushed toward it at the same time.
To their surprise, they encountered the Qin family members and the black-robed Feng Lan on the way, who had disappeared for many days.
Almost everyone was rushing toward the ice cave.
…
Chu Li was the first to reach the outside of the cave. Looking at the entire mountain peak shrouded in golden light, with a certain emotion suppressed in his heart, he reached out and clenched his fist, only to find that he was now shaking violently.
Could it be her?
She must be safe and sound, right?
For the first time in his life, Chu Li felt so anxious.
When he stepped into the cave, Chu Li immediately felt waves of cold air continuously dispersing outward. Taking out the jade pendant Mu Yunjin had given him, Chu Li clutched it tightly in his palm, leaving a small gap to illuminate the path as he walked deeper.
By the time Imperial Consort Rong and Imperial Tutor An arrived, Chu Li had already been inside for a long time.
Inside the ice cave.
The ice encasing Mu Yunjin had already melted halfway.
Mu Yunjin, who had been completely unconscious, felt a warmth surging within her body after experiencing the long, cold darkness. With the increasingly intense warmth, her consciousness also seemed to gradually return.
Was she dead?
Mu Yunjin thought with her eyes closed. At this moment, she very much wanted to open her eyes to see where she was, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t open them. She only felt her body alternating between cold and heat.
In her hazy state, she seemed to hear footsteps approaching.
Those footsteps were very hurried, and the sound was getting closer and closer to her.
Who could be coming?
After a long while, the footsteps stopped.
Just as Mu Yunjin was wondering why the footsteps had suddenly disappeared, she suddenly felt a cool breeze coming toward her, accompanied by a familiar scent.
A pair of cold hands rested on her face.
…
When Chu Li saw Mu Yunjin leaning against the ice wall with her eyes tightly closed, he felt his vision darken, and his body felt so weak that he nearly collapsed.
Forcing himself to maintain his last bit of consciousness, Chu Li ran toward Mu Yunjin, seeing her sitting amidst the ice, her face so pale that it lacked any trace of color.
He reached out with trembling hands and touched her cheek.
Her face was so cold that it had no warmth at all. In Chu Li’s deep, dark eyes, for the first time, his emotions seemed to spiral out of control as his eyes grew moist. He reached out and pulled her into his embrace, holding her tightly.
“Yunjin…”
“Yunjin…”
Chu Li murmured her name.
Mu Yunjin heard Chu Li’s voice. She thought she must surely be dead to be experiencing such an illusion, but the familiar and warm embrace made her desperately want to open her eyes to see Chu Li.
“I’m sorry, it’s this prince who has wronged you. This prince should not have left you here to bear all this alone.”
“Yunjin, this prince begs you, please wake up, alright?”
“From now on, this prince will listen to everything you say. Please don’t leave this prince behind, alright?”
Everyone knew that Chu Li was Western Yuan’s most brilliant and distinguished, noble and dignified prince, a man with clear likes and dislikes, and an extremely cold and aloof temperament.
In the eyes of others, he had always presented himself as the most dignified and coldest figure.
But at this moment, who could have imagined that he was crying while holding a woman, helplessly begging her to come back to life?
In her foggy state, Mu Yunjin felt drops of something cold falling on her neck, followed by the sound of Chu Li’s faint inhalation, which caused surprise to flutter across her heart.
Was he crying?
Was he crying for her?
With this thought, Mu Yunjin, who had been struggling to open her eyes to see, suddenly opened them with a “swoosh.” The faint light that came through was so bright that it hurt her eyes a bit.
After waiting for a moment, she slowly opened her eyes again, her gaze drifting upward as she quietly stared at Chu Li’s chin.
Chu Li had held Mu Yunjin for a long time before finally turning his attention to the golden light inside the ice cave. Following the direction the golden light was coming from, he looked down and his entire body stiffened.
Mu Yunjin had been staring at Chu Li for a long time. Now, as their eyes met, she saw the surprise and tremor in Chu Li’s eyes.
She couldn’t help but blink gently at Chu Li. She wanted to speak but found that her throat couldn’t produce any sound, so she could only try hard to form a slight smile.
Chu Li was like a person with his acupoints pressed, motionless as he stared at Mu Yunjin. Glimpsing the faint curve at the corner of her lips, he suddenly felt as if he must be dreaming.
After a long moment, Chu Li came back to his senses. Realizing that Mu Yunjin was truly looking at him with open eyes, he slightly parted his lips, his voice somewhat hoarse. “Yunjin?”
Mu Yunjin thought Chu Li must have gone silly, actually asking such a tentative question. If she wasn’t Mu Yunjin, who else would she be?
But Mu Yunjin was frustrated that she couldn’t speak, so she could only curl her lips and smile foolishly at Chu Li.
Chu Li’s heart leaped with joy. He held her even tighter as he stood up, wanting to take her away from the ice cave. Only then did he discover that her feet were still trapped in ice. His eyes suddenly darkened. He wanted to use his true energy to shatter the ice but feared hurting Mu Yunjin, so he could only start breaking the ice with his bare hands.
The ice was very hard, and Chu Li’s movements were urgent. After a few attempts, his hands were injured by the sharp ice, with red blood dripping along the ice edges. But Chu Li didn’t feel any pain at all. After a few more attempts, he pulled Mu Yunjin’s feet out from the ice.
Chu Li lifted Mu Yunjin in his arms and carried her outward.
After just a few steps, a large group of people rushed into the ice cave. Leading them were Imperial Consort Rong and Imperial Tutor An, followed by Daoist Feng Xuan, Jiang Qingxue, and others who had quickly arrived. At the very end were even members of the Qin family.
The crowd surrounded the entire ice cave.
As soon as Imperial Consort Rong entered, she saw Chu Li holding Mu Yunjin and wanted to step forward to check on Mu Yunjin’s condition. But when her gaze caught the golden light flashing at Mu Yunjin’s chest, her beautiful eyes widened, filled with shock and astonishment.
After a moment, Imperial Consort Rong extended her hand, tremblingly pointing at Mu Yunjin’s chest—
“The, the Divine Mandate…”