Parting ways

With not much choice, Chu Yueli followed Meng's instructions as it was 2 against 1...Even her own elder sister's contracted beast sided with her "enemy"!

Little Chan took them to the Snow Region of Extreme Ice very eagerly. With Chu Yueli's directions, they arrived at the place relatively far away from the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace.

"Shall we look for a cave? Also...aren't you feeling cold?" She asked while observing Meng from the corner of her eyes with a curious look. She noticed that despite the light snowstorm, none of the snowflakes ever touched Meng's body despite him not using any profound energy which awoke Yueli's curiosity.

"I am fine with this temperature, no need to worry. Also, I am a bit tired of living inside the cave so let's change it, it will also be a good chance for me to practice." Meng said before with a flash of light, numerous trees appeared on the ground in front of him.

He closed his eyes and manifested his spear intent into a thin golden thread hovering around him.

[Intermediate Crafting (Lv. 9)+]

Meng abruptly and swiftly opened his amber eyes and thread cut precisely the trees and...

Chu Yueli started watching this with a bit of interest before her eyes widened when she saw for what purpose he was using his skills. Within a few hours, an entire small cottage was standing in front of them.

"Feel free to go take a look inside, I still have a few things to do." Meng said to Yueli before he started taking jades out of his inventory, setting them up all around the cottage, after a while a small barrier surrounded the cottage, letting the coldness inside but not the violent wind along with the snowflakes. The reason why Meng decided to let the coldness inside the barrier was due to Yueli as it was better for her to cultivate that way and he himself didn't mind it at all anyway.

Inside of the cottage was much more civil along with a small room with bath inside built with the help of small water formation made from water and fire type Profound Beast Cores. Since Meng started learning more about formations, he also began using them in convenient regular things on the daily basis.

Unfortunately, the bath took most of the space so their beds were only split up by thin wooden plank. If it was before Chu Yueli would rather choose to sleep outside but this time she just looked at it, frowned for a few seconds before she once again resumed inspecting the cottage.

"You are like a little kid, Meng" Chu Yueli said something that caused Meng to stare at her with a shocked and confused look in his eyes.

"You are using those small formations almost everywhere possible." Yueli shook her head when she saw the only separate room, "bath". Although she said this, it wasn't as if she didn't like it but she just found it a bit strange the way he was using those formations.

"..." Meng took it without responding as he knew that he was a bit excited to use them as much as he could but a bath with formation was in his eyes necessary as it could create water out of nothing as long as one poured their profound energy into it.

"Meng, do you think you can tell me something about your master?" Yueli asked, full of curiosity. This question was on her mind for a few months already, after she saw Meng's feats, she truly wondered who could have taught such a monster. She was already expecting him to mention one of the Sacred Grounds.

"My master? ...I rather not talk about this." Meng shook his head with closed eyes, completely refusing to answer her question.

Hearing his question, she just nodded her head with an understanding expression and she would never mention it in front of him ever again unless he would be the one to start talking about it.

'I really hope no one will find out about us being here...' Chu Yueli thought with closed eyes.

Another 3 months passed like this...

A lot of things happened between them which led to the increase of their Dual-Cultivation efficiency to around 30%

Both of them were sitting in a cross-legged position opposite to each other while holding hands. Their eyes were closed and a large amount of profound energy was revolving around them. Suddenly, Yueli's cold energy abruptly spiked up, covering everything around her inside the barrier around the cottage in ice except for Meng who was completely unaffected by this.

'Power of Throne!' Chu Yueli opened her eyes with a disbelieving expression.

"Don't stare at me like you want to eat me" Meng also opened his eyes and said to Yueli who was staring at him.

"...It took us only 1 month for me to advance from the 10th stage of Sky Profound Realm into the 1st stage of the Emperor Profound Realm!" Chu Yueli explained just in case Meng had no idea what just happened, she was so shocked that she has yet to let go of Meng's hands.

Meng understood her astonishment as a lot of people get stuck at half-step emperor for a long time.

---

[Name: Su Meng]

[Cultivation: 10th stage of Earth Profound Realm (Yin-Yang energy) 44 open Profound Entrances]

[Physique: Hell Suppressing Physique (Minor Completion), Void Imperfection Physique (Minor Completion)

[Personal Skills: Cloud Steps(Lv. Max), River Crossing Slash(Lv. 5, Yin), One with the Shadows (Lv. 7), 7 Moves of Ferocious Sun (Lv. 5 - 5 moves, Yang), The Void Shattering Step (Lv. 6), Sacred Garden (Lv. 3)]

[Skill Points: 515]

---

Meng's Void Imperfection Physique finally experienced major breakthrough not so long ago. This time, he completely suppressed Physique Devil of the Void Imperfection Physique solely with his Hell Suppressing Physique. He also tried to fight it with both his Yang and Yin oriented attacks but almost all of them were ineffective. In truth, they were even less effective than they previously were against the Hell Suppressing Physique. Only his rough profound energy and pressure created from it was capable of injuring the Physique Devil so instead of fighting it using his profound energy, he decided to fully suppress it with raw physical strength which turned to be quite successful.

"I understand where your enthusiasm comes from but could you help me with something please?" Meng let go of her and stood up.

"Ah, sure...What is it?" Chu Yueli actually replied with a faint smile. All these months, she has been doing his "errands" with a sour expression but she still did them without complaining.

"Focus on me, focus all of your senses on me, and try not to lose my presence." Meng said with a serious expression which caused Yueli to nod with a similar expression before she locked onto Meng's presence with her own sense and profound energy.

One with the Shadows (Lv. 7) + Advanced Concealment (Lv. 4) + Void Imperfection Physique (Minor Completion)

Meng's body suddenly vanished without any indication neither did his body leave any traits of profound energy. Chu Yueli had to blink a few times before she squinted her eyes and suddenly felt cold down her spine as she discovered that she can't locate him at all.

'What a frightening movement technique...' She thought that what Meng used was just a very frightening movement technique but she never expected that he was actually the entire time in front of her, making circles around her while observing her features and emotions deep within her eyes.

*Pop* "?!" She suddenly felt someone's hands on her waist so she immediately turned around while releasing the cold energy all around her body to freeze everything.

"Hey...that wasn't nice" When she turned around, her expression softened as she saw that it was just Meng who was looking at her with a blank expression together with a small pile of snow on top of his head.

"I-I apologize...but you should have warned me first" She actually apologized since she truly intended to freeze the person who suddenly popped up behind her.

"If I were to warn you, how would I know if it works? I had to do something you wouldn't just let me do on your own to really see if it works as it should. It's my fault, don't apologize, the previous words were just meant as a joke" Meng explained before shaking his head to get rid of the snow on top of his head.

"..." She just kept quiet...in truth, she hated the fact that someone touched her like that without permission but when she saw it was just Meng, she apologized instead...Wasn't he the one responsible? Why did she apologize? She was quite confused by this but she just treated it as she was too grateful to him but she suddenly almost froze him to death.

Now that she thought about it...There wasn't any ice on Meng's clothes or skin, only that pile of snow was on his head. She just realized that Meng completely resisted her cold mist that was meant to freeze his entire body.

"Well, you have what you wanted...1st stage of the Emperor Profound Realm. You caught up to your sister. With that, our debts or whatever are completely written off and we start off anew as strangers, well, we probably can't treat each other as complete strangers anymore, haha." Meng said with a light laugh.

"Yeah...thank you for your help, Meng. I truly appreciate it, in case you need anything from me or Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace, I will do my best to help." Yueli replied with a faint smile.

They talked for a while before deciding to part ways.

"Meng, do you want Little Chan to take you somewhere else? After all, this location is quite deep inside the Snow Region of Extreme Ice, it might take a few days to get outside of here in those massive snowstorms." Yueli asked with what would Meng call for the first time "her warm smile"

*Scree* Little Chan released an enthusiastic cry, indicating that it wants to spend a bit more time with Meng who always treated it well and even fed it all kinds of "delicacies"

"...Wait, Little Chan, did your strength increased?" Yueli suddenly sensed that Little Chan's strength was still of that Sky Profound Beast but it was still a bit higher than before.

*Scree* Little Chan happily nodded its head while looking at Meng who in return just winked at it as if to say "keep it secret"

"That won't be necessary, I want to treat this as training." Meng replied with a grateful smile.

"Training?"

"I won't be using any profound energy to protect myself from those snowstorms, it will be a good way how to push myself in adverse conditions, it will also temper my heart to keep moving forward." Meng explained which caused Yueli to open her eyes wide in horror.

"It will take at least 15 days of walking without the usage of any profound energy! You will freeze to death if you will take too long and your profound energy runs out. The coldness can also disrupt your profound veins and make it difficult for you to use your profound energy to protect yourself, this is simply ridiculous and too dangerous!" Yueli arrived close to him and reprimanded him with a stern expression.

"How can I run out of my profound energy if I won't use it at all, huh?" Meng replied with a teasing smile while tapping with his index finger at his temple.

"This is not funny, Meng." Yueli replied with a serious expression. She definitely didn't want him to freeze to death after he just helped her but there was also another reason that she kept pushing to the side...

"Look...when it comes to tempering one's heart and mind, it is something that only difficult experience can achieve it...You can even say that seeing your close ones die is just another training for your heart and mind. Some will get through it and their heart will become stronger and their mind more decisive. It's extremely hard to train those 2 things and both trainings involve either your life or the lives of the others. Don't worry about me, I don't really intend to die in this region covered in only snow..." Meng said with a slightly sad expression before it changed to a confident smile.

"...Take this" Yueli jumped on Little Chan's back before throwing something at Meng. He caught it and saw that it was a light blue small bead.

"Crush it if you will feel that you are nearing your limits. Farewell, Meng...and thank you for those last 6 months" She said before she urged Little Chan to take off.

"Farewell, thank you too! Have a safe journey back to the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace" Meng waved to her before turning his sight in front of him, just seeing a thick snowstorm out of the barrier he set up.

He was aware that it won't work unless he truly is pushed to the extremes and knowing that you have reassurance won't help in this kind of training either.

*Inhale* *Exhale* Meng took a few deep breaths before he set up a formation on his clothes that completely sealed his profound energy off. Well, he could still use it but only at perhaps Elementary Realm. His Physiques were something he couldn't seal but unless he activates them, they won't help him that much when it comes to snowstorms.

'Hm?' Before he took a step outside of the barrier, he noticed that the Sound Transmitting Jade that he was always keeping near him suddenly glowed in yellow light.

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