12: Chapter 12 The Sect Leader Emerges from Seclusion, Two Women Protect Him

At the summit of Hanpo Peak, snow falls all year round.

Inside the Ice Crystal Hall, Leng Hanshuang sat upon the throne carved from Ten-thousand-year-old Profound Ice, looking down at the three people below from her high vantage point.

Su Yun stood in the middle, with Lin Rou on his left and Liu Yuqin on his right.

“Kneel.”

Leng Hanshuang's voice was soft, but like ice beads falling to the ground, it was crisp and carried an unquestionable authority.

Lin Rou's brows furrowed slightly, but she still bowed slightly in greeting.

Liu Yuqin's delicate body trembled. Without any hesitation, she fell to her knees with a "thud," her forehead touching the cold ground as she shivered.

As for Su Yun...

He glanced at Lin Rou beside him, then at the kneeling Liu Yuqin.

Just as he was about to go through the motions of kneeling on one knee, a terrifying gravity suddenly pressed down on his shoulders.

Crack!

The ice beneath his feet instantly cracked.

Su Yun groaned, his entire skeleton wailing in pain, but he gritted his teeth and kept his back straight.

Staring intently at the woman on the throne, not only did he not kneel, but a rebellious arc even curled at the corner of his mouth.

Want me to kneel?

Except for in bed, no one in this life can make Su Yun kneel!

“You certainly have a stiff spine.”

A hint of surprise flashed in Leng Hanshuang's eyes, which then turned into a deeper chill. “But I wonder if your life is just as tough.”

She stopped looking at Su Yun and locked her icy gaze onto her beloved Disciple kneeling on the ground, her tone freezing:

“Yuqin, you have disappointed this Seat too much.”

Leng Hanshuang's words made Liu Yuqin tremble violently, her head buried deep against the ground, not daring to lift it in the slightest.

“Since you were young, this Seat has taught you that the Mysterious Maiden Sect's Cultivation Technique leans towards the yin-cold. You must remain as pure as jade until the Nascent Soul Stage; only then can extreme yin give birth to yang and achieve the Great Dao.”

Leng Hanshuang's fingers lightly tapped the armrest of the ice throne, making crisp "tap, tap" sounds. Each sound felt like it was tapping on the hearts of the three people.

“Tell this Seat, when did you lose your primal yin? And by whom was it taken?”

The hall was so quiet that even heartbeats were clearly audible.

Liu Yuqin bit her lip, her face as pale as paper.

What could she say?

Say she was controlled by a Soul-Ensnaring Talisman and ravaged by Su Yun day and night for three days in a cave in the Soul Severing Abyss?

Or say she was eavesdropping outside Lin Rou's Sleeping Quarters last night and then was...

No matter which one she chose, once spoken, she would not escape punishment, and Su Yun would surely die.

Subconsciously, Liu Yuqin turned her head slightly, her gaze flustered and anxious as she glanced at Su Yun behind her.

In that look, there was not only fear of her Revered Master but also a deep concern for Su Yun's safety that she hadn't even noticed herself.

It was this very look that ignited the powder keg.

What kind of person was Leng Hanshuang? An old monster who had lived for hundreds of years; she saw the emotion in that glance clearly.

“So it's you.”

Leng Hanshuang's gaze instantly locked onto Su Yun, an icy light exploding in the depths of her eyes.

“A mere Qi Refining Stage ant dares to disturb my Disciple's Dao Heart!”

Without any warning.

Leng Hanshuang raised a slender index finger and flicked it toward Su Yun through the air.

Chii!

A sharp sonic boom rang out in the air.

A streak of ice-shard Sword Qi, only as thick as a finger but refined to the extreme, instantly sliced through the Void Realm.

Fast!

So fast that Su Yun's retinas didn't even have time to capture an afterimage before a deathly chill stung his brow.

This strike had no flourishes; it was pure Realm suppression.

Never mind the current Su Yun; even a Golden Core Stage Cultivator would die upon contact!

“Do you think you are worthy of touching this Seat's Disciple?”

Leng Hanshuang's voice was cold and heartless, as if she were crushing a bedbug.

Su Yun's pupils constricted, and the blood in his entire body seemed to freeze.

Is this the killing intent of the Soul Transformation Stage? He couldn't dodge! He couldn't dodge at all!

At this critical moment.

“No!”

“Stop!”

Two feminine shouts rang out simultaneously.

Liu Yuqin, who was kneeling on the ground, somehow found the strength to suddenly pull a jade pendant emitting a warm light from her robes.

That was her protective Lifebound Treasure. She almost crawled and scrambled to throw herself toward Su Yun, attempting to block the strike with her body and Magic Treasure.

But there was a figure even faster than her.

Boom!

Purple-gold spiritual power erupted as Lin Rou's figure moved like lightning, instantly shifting in front of Su Yun.

She didn't have time to manifest a Magic Treasure, so she could only frantically pour her Late Nascent Soul Stage spiritual power into her palms and strike hard at the ice shard.

Bang—!!

A violent spiritual power storm exploded within the hall, with ice shards flying everywhere.

“Pfft!”

Lin Rou's delicate body shook violently, and she slid back several yards, her feet carving two deep furrows into the hard Profound Ice floor.

A trace of bright red blood slowly flowed from the corner of her beautiful mouth, a shocking sight against the pale ice.

But that lethal ice shard had, in the end, been blocked.

The entire place fell into a dead silence.

Leng Hanshuang's finger, which had been tapping the armrest, stopped in mid-air. On her face, which was like a ten-thousand-year-old unmelting iceberg...

A hint of astonishment finally appeared as she looked at the two women standing in front of Su Yun.

One was her Personal Disciple, whom she had high hopes for and treated as her own child.

Currently, she was spreading her arms, shielding that man firmly behind her, trembling all over but refusing to yield a single step.

The other was a high-ranking Inner Sect Elder of the Sect, who actually didn't hesitate to use her Physical Body to withstand her strike.

Crazy.

They've all gone crazy.

“Lin Rou, are you planning to rebel?”

Leng Hanshuang's voice was freezing, and the temperature inside the hall instantly dropped to absolute zero.

Lin Rou casually wiped away the blood from the corner of her mouth and took a deep breath, her full chest heaving violently.

“Sect Master, Lin Chen is an important seedling of my Lin family's current generation!”

Lin Rou looked up, her usual flirtatiousness completely gone, replaced by a hysterical determination.

“If the Sect Master wants to kill him, then step over my corpse first! When that time comes, the Sect Master can see for herself whether the Mysterious Maiden Sect can still sit firmly in the top position of this ten-thousand-mile radius without the support of my Lin family branch!”

A threat!

A blatant threat!

Leng Hanshuang's eyelid twitched slightly. The Lin family was deeply rooted in the Sect and controlled nearly half of the Medicinal Pill resources. If they truly broke ties, it would indeed be troublesome.

Then, her gaze turned to Liu Yuqin: “And what about you? What is your reason? For the sake of an ant, are you going to betray your Revered Master and ancestors?”

Liu Yuqin's body trembled. With a "thud," she knelt again, her forehead slamming heavily against the ice, blood flowing freely.

“Revered Master! The fault lies entirely with this Disciple! It was I... it was I who seduced Junior Brother Lin Chen! It has nothing to do with him! I beg Revered Master for mercy, spare his life!”

Leng Hanshuang was so angry she laughed.

“You seduced him?”

She pointed at Su Yun, that trash who was only at the Qi Refining Stage and was currently hiding behind women.

“You are the dignified Mysterious Maiden Sect Saintess, the future successor to the Sect Master. Would you go and seduce a Qi Refining Stage playboy? Liu Yuqin, are you insulting this Seat's intelligence?”

Is that possible?

Completely impossible!

If it were Lin Rou being protective, it could still be explained by blood ties.

But Liu Yuqin had always been proud and aloof. Other than Lin Aotian, what man in the world had ever caught her eye?

How could she possibly take an interest in this playboy?

Now, for this 'Lin Chen,' she had not only lost her virginity but even gone as far as to defile her own reputation, protecting him even in the face of death.

There is definitely something fishy going on here!

“Speak! What exactly is going on!”

Leng Hanshuang slammed her hand onto the armrest, an even more terrifying pressure building up.

“If you dare to speak another word of falsehood, this Seat will search his soul right now!”