"Senior Yun," Ji Zhaixing's voice was gentle, "this rare treasure is so precious, Zhaixing feels ashamed to accept it."

The Soul Splitting Zhenjun before his eyes maintained an indifferent posture. His silver hair seemed to be formed from frost and snow, his back straight as bamboo, and his entire person was ice-cold; only a pair of profound black pupils held a touch of mortal essence.

Those black eyes reflected Ji Zhaixing's current smiling expression—the youth was actually extremely good-looking, high-spirited, dressed in bright robes and long brocade, like the man of their dreams that young maidens would yearn for.

But Yun Shu's eyes were merely calm and placid.

"It matters not." Yun Shu said, "The twenty-third of next month is the Dao Companion Ceremony. You should cultivate to the Golden Core realm as soon as possible, otherwise, I fear it will lose the sect's face."

Ji Zhaixing seemed not to hear the cold sternness in his words, as if those words were the most heartwarming tenderness, and only gave a slight nod.

Meanwhile, Tang Huaimeng shuttled through the falling snow of the long pavilion. Through the drooping, semi-transparent shark silk curtains that were rolled up by the wind, he could just see the sight of Ji Zhaixing smiling as he stood before his master.

The youth was simply unbelievably well-behaved.

A pair of bright red lips curved slightly upward with gentle warmth; his cold, pale skin made him look even more obedient and quiet. It was just that his ten slender, fair fingers were pinching a vanity box.

The spiritual energy aura of the item contained within, he was all too familiar with.

It was the Golden Core of a Golden Sparrow Beast.

—He possessed such a good-looking appearance, yet he was an embroidered pillow, gold and jade on the outside but rotten on the inside. He only knew how to ask Master for spiritual items, relying on external objects to elevate his cultivation. It truly made proper cultivators look down on him.

Tang Huaimeng thought this way, not noticing at all that his gaze was overly focused.

Eldest Young Master Tang truly detested Ji Zhaixing, right from the very first day Ji Zhaixing entered the Mingling Sword Sect.

...Or rather, from the moment Master brought the youth to appear before their eyes and casually announced that this was his chosen Dao Companion.

Tang Huaimeng had originally thought that Master's Dao Companion should be a Patriarch who matched him, someone with a noble character and profound cultivation. He never expected it to be a dull sword cultivator from the lower realm, a mediocrity who barely reached Foundation Establishment at the age of eighteen, with no other merits besides a pretty face, and entirely lacking the drive to improve.

But that was, after all, the Dao Companion personally chosen by his master. No matter how much resentment Tang Huaimeng harbored, he could only suppress it under Master's faint glance.

It was just that during their occasional interactions, he naturally wouldn't show him a good face.

"Master." As Ancestor Yun Shu's second disciple, Tang Huaimeng not only possessed extremely high talent, but he also came from a prestigious background. Naturally, he didn't need to be polite to Ji Zhaixing. He spoke with pointed intent, "Nanhai Zhenjun has a matter to report, but it concerns the Sword Sect. I'm afraid it wouldn't be appropriate to let an outsider hear it."

Before Yun Shu could speak, the black-haired sword cultivator spoke up very sensibly, a smile still lingering on his lips: "I'll go outside to watch the snow."

Tang Huaimeng subconsciously looked at him. Ji Zhaixing's eyes were lowered, his raven-wing-like eyelashes casting dense shadows. Seeming to have noticed Eldest Young Master Tang's gaze, he slightly tilted his head, nodded in greeting, and stood up to leave.

He maintained a polite and composed demeanor the entire time, exceedingly gentle.

Leaving Tang Huaimeng to inexplicably zone out and think: According to the rumors spreading in the sect, Ji Zhaixing should be a cultivator who curried favor with the powerful more than anyone else. But why didn't he act so obsequious, attentive, obedient, and docile toward him as well?

It seemed that in this Mingling Sword Sect, only Master alone had ever received his smiles.

......

In truth, what Nanhai Zhenjun had spoken of were merely trivial matters. Yet, for some unknown reason, Tang Huaimeng didn't quite want to see Ji Zhaixing sharing the same room as his master, so he deliberately dragged out the time to "monopolize" Master. It wasn't until Yun Shu became somewhat impatient and issued an eviction order to his usually doted-on second disciple that he stopped.

The sky gradually darkened. Driven by a formation, an Azure Sea Lamp ignited every few feet along the long corridor. The lamplight was like a bean, illusory and dim, not particularly bright, gently scattering like moonlight. When it fell upon someone's body, it felt like being draped in a bolt of silver satin.

Half of the youth's body was illuminated by the lamplight, his snow-white skin faintly visible as he gazed placidly at the dense snowflakes falling outside the corridor.

Tang Huaimeng, however, was startled.

He hadn't expected Ji Zhaixing to still be waiting outside.

Because Yun Shu possessed an Ice Spiritual Root, the entirety of Chuyun Peak where he resided was shrouded in formations. Snow fell all day, and the chill was bone-piercing; only the interior of the halls and rooms was somewhat better. Although the snowy scenery outside the corridor was elegant, the penetrating cold wind was difficult to endure. It would have been fine if Ji Zhaixing's cultivation was higher, but for a minor cultivator who had just reached Foundation Establishment, he likely wouldn't be able to bear it.

Who knows how long he had been standing there.

Judging from the frost flowers condensed on the hem of his clothes—Tang Huaimeng's expression stiffened slightly, not even realizing how awful he looked at this moment.

He directly stepped forward, yanked the black-haired youth inward, and subconsciously blocked the wind and snow from outside the corridor, asking in a deep voice: "What are you doing standing here?"

The hand Tang Huaimeng grabbed could almost be called emaciated, yet it was extremely soft, easily imprisoned in his grasp. Even through a layer of clothing satin, it caused Tang Huaimeng to zone out slightly.

Ji Zhaixing seemed to have just noticed him and raised his head slightly.

The youth had beautiful eyes. Even if they were as dark and deep as an abyss, they didn't arouse any sense of caution. As if suffering from the cold, his cheeks were incredibly pale, a shade whiter than the snow falling outside the corridor. Yet, his lips were crimson and soft, looking almost as if he had just drunk blood; a single touch of vermilion made him vividly alluring.

Tang Huaimeng didn't know why he was paying attention to a man's appearance either. He only felt flustered for a moment before scolding even more sharply, "Acting like this, it makes it seem as if I deliberately bullied you and left you to freeze outside..." He stopped mid-sentence because he really was the one who had chased Ji Zhaixing out, and he was the one who had deliberately talked at length with Master for a long time.

Ji Zhaixing's attitude wasn't very warm, as if he didn't even have the interest to find out why Tang Huaimeng would think that way. He withdrew his hand from Tang Huaimeng's grip, his expression as usual: "Senior Tang has misunderstood."

"It is almost the Hour of Xu, I am going to pay my respects to Senior Yun."

Tang Huaimeng's expression darkened slightly, and he said bitterly: "If you spent the effort you use to curry favor with Master on cultivation, you wouldn't be so worthless right now." Feeling that wasn't enough, he reached out to forcefully snatch the vanity box containing the demonic beast's Golden Core from Ji Zhaixing's sleeve, but accidentally brushed past the youth's wrist, touching that ice-cold, yet soft and delicate skin.

He immediately staggered back a few steps. Under the dim lamplight and amidst the icy wind and snow, his face instantly flushed with heat.

Tang Huaimeng immediately turned around, no longer looking at Ji Zhaixing, but still leaving behind harsh words: "I advise you to throw that Golden Core away. Relying on these pills and spiritual items to cultivate is merely seeking temporary gratification. I'm afraid that when the time of the lightning tribulation comes, your cultivation will be lacking, and you'll be reduced to ash before surviving even two strikes!"

He was so panicked that he hardly dared to stay any longer, flicking his sleeves and leaving. His back, however, looked dashing and neat. It was only when he heard the youth's plain response, "I won't throw it," that he still stumbled slightly, uncontrollably irritated.

Seeing the man's figure disappear down the corridor, Ji Zhaixing shook the vanity box out of his sleeve. As his thumb caressed the exquisite patterns around the box clasp, a trace of a smile appeared on his face.

In his view, even though Tang Huaimeng loathed him, he still possessed a pure heart. Compared to his master, he was simply as naive and innocent as a child.

Ji Zhaixing was not a youth who, having just reached his adolescence and been brought out of a barren sect, became flustered and struck with terror upon suddenly receiving the pity of a Patriarch.

He was a monster who had already reincarnated countless times and experienced countless absurd ways of dying.

It wasn't until the previous world that he discovered he could start defying the "plot" instilled in his mind, choose a wildly different path, and thereby obtain a fairly peaceful ending.

This experience made Ji Zhaixing extremely delighted.

He suddenly no longer wanted to die.

Or rather, he wanted to choose a rather comfortable way to die, one entirely under his own control.

This world was also like this. The "plot" clearly told him that he was a sword cultivator rescued by Yun Shu from a small world depleted of spiritual energy. Originally, Yun Shu had intended to take him into the Mingling Sword Sect as a disciple, but unexpectedly discovered that he possessed the Transformation Dao Bone.

The Transformation Dao Bone was not an actual white bone, but rather a type of spiritual root attached to the bones. It could autonomously absorb surrounding spiritual energy, and even if its possessor was an ignorant and incompetent mediocrity, they could easily cultivate to perfection and possess a vast dantian spiritual sea.

It was only because Ji Zhaixing was born in such a barren small world with practically no spiritual energy that the Transformation Dao Bone was rendered useless.

This was actually a good thing, because none of the possessors of the Transformation Dao Bone could actually cultivate to ascension, and they invariably met with bad ends—who could blame them, given that it could be stolen.

Even a cold-hearted and detached Patriarch like Yun Shu was tempted.

However, he didn't want to use it for himself, but for his disciple.

Yun Shu's first disciple took the surname Yun and was called Yun Liu. He was an orphan Yun Shu picked up from outside the sect. At that time, Yun Shu was not yet the Soul Splitting Zhenjun who made people keep quiet out of fear, but merely a Golden Core sword cultivator. Almost all the warmth and softness of his youth was given to this disciple by Yun Shu.

And this disciple, upon whom Yun Shu placed high hopes, had excellent natural talent and comprehension. Before he even learned to walk steadily, he first knew how to wield a sword. His temperament was also good. Even in a great sect with millions of years of inheritance like the Mingling Sword Sect, he was a heaven-chosen genius, practically the next Yun Shu.

But he could never become the next Yun Shu Zhenjun.

Yun Liu was born with a hidden ailment. His dantian was damaged, and before he could gather much true essence, it would dissipate. The pills he consumed the most were Spirit-Replenishing Pills.

He could cultivate like this up to the Golden Core and Nascent Soul realms, but he wouldn't be able to endure the Out-of-Body Realm, Soul Splitting Realm, or even Ascension.

The Transformation Dao Bone could make up for this flaw.

It could be encountered but not sought.

Yet there was no one in this world who would willingly offer up a treasure as important as a spiritual root to act as a stepping stone for someone else.

Therefore, Yun Shu concealed the matter of the Transformation Dao Bone and roughly laid out a plan to seize it.

He would personally extract Ji Zhaixing's Dao Bone, but at the same time, he would also become Dao Companions with him. He would give Ji Zhaixing endless cultivation resources, offer him the protection of a Soul Splitting Patriarch, and even engage in dual cultivation with him to boost his cultivation when Ji Zhaixing hit a bottleneck.

Of course, Ji Zhaixing died before it was time to dual cultivate with Yun Shu.

Perhaps the blow of having his Dao Bone stolen was too great, or perhaps it was those inescapable hidden mockeries clinging to his ears; he began cultivating desperately and consuming pills, quickly advancing to the Nascent Soul realm, and soon reaching the Out-of-Body Realm—and then, with a single strike of heavenly lightning, he turned to ash and vanished.

The "plot" continued.

Using his Dao Bone, Yun Liu similarly advanced at a rapid pace, yet possessed a profound foundation, truly worthy of the title of heaven-chosen genius. Yun Shu silently accompanied his disciple, and dark feelings of affection grew between them.

In the end, the two became Dao Companions, unexpectedly becoming a beautiful tale.

In the "plot," there would always be one or two people who occupied a significant proportion; Yun Shu and Yun Liu were the "protagonists" of this world. However, Ji Zhaixing didn't care; he couldn't even be bothered to take a single glance at what the Yun Liu who used his Dao Bone looked like.

He merely gathered up all the magical artifacts, pills, and spiritual herbs that Yun Shu had given him and shelved them away.

And then, with his own hands, he would sever this ill-fated affinity, cleanly scraping the bone and cutting off his wrist to end it once and for all.