171: cold

The moon was bright and stars were few. The evening wind in the wilderness swirled with gravel, making a sound like the wailing of ghosts.

The towering walls of Liuyun City were already a hundred miles away, yet Lin Chen's group walked extremely slowly, as if they weren't fleeing for their lives but taking a leisurely stroll through the lonely night. His left hand held Yun Xi's slender and supple waist, while his right hand led Little Demoness Dragon, who was bored and picking her teeth with that precious jade hairpin from earlier.

"Brother, those flies behind us have been buzzing for a long time, and Xiao Yao's stomach is hungry again." Little Demoness Dragon curled her lips, her golden pupils flickering with dangerous glints in the darkness.

"No rush. Once the fish enter the pit, you'll have your fill." A cruel arc curled at the corner of Lin Chen's mouth.

Before his voice could fade, the Void Realm suddenly trembled!

"Scumbag, where else do you think you're running!"

With a roar full of killing intent, four streaks of white light landed with a bang in a surrounding Formation, the kicked-up dust instantly sealing off a thousand-meter radius. Tai Xu Xuan stood at the front with a twisted face. Beside him were two old women in gray robes, their auras as steady as mountains. That heavy pressure showed they were genuine Late Stage Earth Immortals.

"Young Lord, is it this ascended little brat who killed our people?" one of the Elders spoke sinisterly, her gaze greedily sweeping over Yun Xi. "This Furnace Physique is quite good; it's perfect for the Young Lord to pluck and supplement."

Tai Xu Xuan grinned savagely, staring intently at Lin Chen. "Kid, weren't you very arrogant at the auction house just now? Now, kneel down and lick this Young Lord's shoes, then hand over this woman and that little dragon cub. This Madam might consider giving you a quick death!"

Lin Chen stopped, his eyes as calm as if he were looking at a group of dead people. He tilted his head slightly and whispered to Yun Xi beside him, "Is it ready?"

By now, Yun Xi had finished repairing her Dao foundation, and her body was brimming with Immortal Qi. Her exquisite face held a cold, murderous air under the moonlight. Her delicate hands quickly formed seals as she replied in a low voice, "Master, the [Lesser Sumeru Void-Sealing Formation] is complete."

"Buzz—!"

Without warning, the silent wilderness let out a muffled roar. An almost transparent dark-gold ripple instantly spread, and the space within a ten-mile radius seemed to be forcibly compressed by some terrifying power.

"What's going on?" Tai Xu Xuan's face changed. He discovered with horror that the Immortal Qi in his body had become as difficult to mobilize as stagnant water, and his once-light body felt as if it were bound by a ten-thousand-ton mountain.

"Thud! Thud!"

The two Earth Immortal Elders, who were just about to take flight and perform magnificent Immortal arts, fell clumsily from mid-air into the mud like two geese with broken wings. They were pinned down by a hundredfold gravity, making it extremely difficult even to lift their heads.

"A Void-Sealing Formation? How could you have such a high-level Formation Plate!" the Elder screamed in terror.

"Dead people don't need to know so much."

Lin Chen stepped forward, his pace steady. Every step he took seemed to stomp on the hearts of those Taixu Sect Cultivators. Under the hundredfold gravity, everyone was struggling just to stand. Only Lin Chen, who had achieved physical sanctity and possessed the Ancestral Dragon Bloodline, found this environment to be his home ground.

He walked up to an Earth Immortal Elder and looked down at her old face, which was twisted with terror.

"Late Stage Earth Immortal? An Immortal Realm powerhouse?"

Lin Chen sneered and suddenly reached out his large hand, directly grabbing the other's head.

"What are you doing! No—!"

"Crack!"

Lin Chen didn't use any Moves, just pure brute force. Amidst the old woman's shrill screams, the muscles on Lin Chen's arms bulged. Like pulling a radish, he forcibly ripped her head along with half of her spine out of her torso! Blood sprayed like a fountain, staining the surrounding gravel a piercing dark red.

"One."

Lin Chen casually tossed aside the head that still had its eyes wide open in death and turned his gaze toward the other person.

By now, Little Demoness Dragon was excited to the extreme. She let out a crisp Dragon roar, her petite body suddenly leaping. Under the hundredfold gravity, she was actually as fast as lightning.

"Mine! That one is mine!"

Little Demoness Dragon's twin tails danced wildly in the wind. Her fair, tender little hands turned into sharp Dragon claws, fiercely tearing at the other Elder's protective shield.

"Rrip—!"

The protective Immortal Artifact that the Earth Immortal Elder was so proud of was bitten to pieces in Little Demoness Dragon's mouth like a crispy cracker. The little girl showed no mercy, her claw piercing through the other's chest and grabbing a still-beating Immortal Heart. She stuffed it into her mouth and began to chew greedily. Her blood-stained, cute appearance was filled with extreme violence.

"Ah! Demon! You're a demon!" Tai Xu Xuan was so scared that his crotch went warm, actually losing control of his bladder under the pressure. He tried desperately to crawl away, only to be stepped on by Lin Chen.

"Young Lord, didn't you want me to kneel just now?"

Lin Chen lowered his head, his eyes devoid of any warmth. He extended a finger, and a glimmer of deep purple light gathered at his fingertip.

"[Ding! System skill [Mahayana Slave Seal] activated!]"

Lin Chen stabbed it fiercely into Tai Xu Xuan's forehead. It was a torture that acted directly on the Divine Soul. Tai Xu Xuan let out a scream that didn't sound human, his body convulsing violently. His pitiful cultivation was casually crippled by Lin Chen, dissipating into circles of blood mist.

"From today on, you are my dog in the Taixu Sect. Understood?"

Tai Xu Xuan's eyes gradually lost their luster, finally becoming as hollow as a puppet's. He knelt on the ground and humbly kissed the tip of Lin Chen's boot. "Yes... Master."

Just as Lin Chen was about to close the net, an extreme chill suddenly descended from the Void Realm.

"Private fighting and destroying the forest, disregarding the Immortal laws. Ascender from the Lower Realm, you have quite the nerve."

A voice as cold as a ten-thousand-year glacier fell from the Nine Heavens. Lin Chen looked up and saw a long-haired woman dressed in mysterious black martial attire, wearing the unique 'God-Catcher Cloak' of the Jiantian Division, standing in mid-air. Her face was extremely cold, and she held a semi-transparent frost longsword. Her Early Stage Heavenly Immortal pressure caused the air to freeze into tiny ice crystals.

Jiantian Division Patrolling Envoy, Cold Without Double.

"Master, it's someone from the Jiantian Division! That's a Heavenly Immortal..." Yun Xi leaned toward Lin Chen with a grave expression, the Immortal Qi in her palm fluctuating uneasily.

Lin Chen merely wiped the blood from his hands, a playful arc appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Government people? They've come at just the right time."

...Half an hour later, inside a secret mountain cave outside Liuyun City.

Layers of Formations sealed the area, cutting off all external probes.

The once high-and-mighty Patrolling Envoy Cold Without Double was now bound in reverse by that dark-gold [immortal binding rope], suspended from a stone pillar on the cave wall in an extremely humiliating posture. Her black martial attire had been mostly shattered by Lin Chen's brute force during the intense battle, revealing an abdomen and long legs that looked as if they were carved from ice and jade, yet possessed an extreme tightness.

Lin Chen stood before her, holding the frost sword that had originally belonged to her.

"Is this all the Patrolling Envoy of the Jiantian Division is capable of?"

Cold Without Double gritted her teeth tightly, her eyes as pure as ice and snow filled with shame, anger, and disbelief. She never imagined that a man who had recently ascended could explode with Physical Body strength that even she, a Heavenly Immortal, couldn't match within a gravity Formation. He had even used a bizarre 'Elysium Illusion' to shake her Dao Heart during her moment of carelessness.

"Rebel... if you have the guts, then kill me!" Cold Without Double's voice trembled because she felt the man using that cold sword tip to slowly lift her remaining bodice. The icy sensation and that domineering masculine aura caused her Dao Heart, which had been sealed for a hundred years, to produce a ripple that made her feel despair.

"Kill you? That would be too wasteful."

Lin Chen leaned down, his nose almost touching Cold Without Double's cold and straight bridge. He reached out and pinched her perfectly lined chin, his tone grim:

"A woman of the government, usually judging others—I wonder how it feels to be the one judged?"

"You... what do you want to do..."

Lin Chen didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly tore away the last shred of her dignity.

In that instant, Cold Without Double's exquisite body, enough to make any Immortal fall, was completely revealed in this damp and dim cave.

She was extremely tall. Due to years of sword cultivation, her Physique had a striking streamlined feel. Her firm and high peaks trembled violently in the air with her rapid breathing, every inch of her skin emitting a faint, ice-blue virginal fragrance.

"Ugh—!"

When Lin Chen's hot and rough hand suddenly covered her habitually cold peaks, this cold-faced Patrolling Envoy let out a sharp wail the likes of which she had never uttered in her life.

The humiliation of having her Domain completely violated by a man, combined with the perverted pleasure triggered by their clashing Physiques, caused her cold eyes to be quickly shrouded in mist.

Lin Chen showed no tenderness. Like a patient hunter, he left indelible marks on every inch of her sensitive areas. He kissed every part of her swan-like neck and bit her earlobe, which had turned pink from shame.

"Patrolling Envoy Cold, your body is much more honest than your mouth."

Lin Chen suddenly carved the brand belonging to him, this "outlaw."

"Ah—! No... it'll break... not there..."

Cold Without Double shook her head frantically, her once ice-cascade-like long hair disheveled against the stone pillar. She finally completely shattered all her dignity.

In that dim cave, the black-clad catcher who represented the order of the Immortal Realm was completely reduced to a weak woman beneath Lin Chen, knowing only how to wail and beg for mercy.

Yun Xi stood guard at the cave entrance. Hearing the Soul-piercing cries coming from within, she looked at the night sky with a complex expression. She knew that from this moment on, the laws of the Immortal Realm had become nothing more than scrap paper before her Master.

"[Congratulations, host! Successfully suppressed and favored Jiantian Division Patrolling Envoy: Cold Without Double!] [Obtained special reward: [Heavenly Secret Forgery] (Can completely erase all of one's Karma in the Immortal Realm)!] [Cold Without Double's Loyalty: Initial Taming (Under the influence of the Slave Seal, dependency instinct has been generated)!]"

Lin Chen looked at the high-and-mighty ice sculpture in his arms, now turned into a pool of spring water, and a cold smile of total control appeared on his lips.

"Taixu Sect, Jiantian Division... it's time for a new way of life in Liuyun City."