Icy Dispute

Deep within a snow-covered mountain range, two whirling white figures were locked in combat. Ice exploded all around the air. Purple light flashed and illuminated the surrounding ice and snow. Wu Qianyu held forth her gleaming purple sword as she faced off against a creature three times her size. Gritting her teeth, she continuously shot light blades towards it, only to be met by flying icicles formed from the snow and ice around them.

"Demon! Release them at once!" Wu Qianyu yelled in frustration. She couldn't get an upper hand no matter what she tried.

The creature was a rare type of demon called an ice fiend. It was a being formed from pure ice and cold elemental energy. After crystallizing for a thousand years within a frozen environment, it would gradually gain sentience. It then continued to cultivate using extremely cold and yin energy as its source of power. This particular ice fiend was already at the peak of Spirit Initiate Realm and a terrifying opponent in its natural environment within the icy mountain.

"Kakaka! Sinful woman! I don't want to fight you!" The ice fiend yelled. "You don't have any virgin yin, go away! Puh!"

The demon dared to spit at her!

"Why you!" Wu Qianyu was enraged and charged it once more.

The ice fiend had captured a party of five female cultivators. Wu Qianyu befriended these young maidens in the past few days as they had helped her exterminate a local tribe of snow yeti. She left them to travel alone but she rushed back when she heard the noises of battle. By the time she got here, they had already been overpowered and captured in ice.

She focused all her energy into her blade for a powerful strike. "Yaahh!!" She yelled as she attacked with all her strength.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The purple light sliced through several icicles without stopping.

"What… Ahhhh!" The blade didn't stop even after it cut through the ice fiend's right arm. "Harlot!"

"These women are mine! They tried to steal from me! They have to pay!" The ice fiend yelled as he slowly regenerated his arm. "And they just happened to cultivate ice arts, and are virgins... Kakaka!"

Wu Qianyu held her side as she gasped for breath, trying to recover from her last attack. She knew the ice fiend wanted to suck out the women's virgin yin for its own cultivation. Doing so would leave them crippled. She tried to think of a way to save them but she was out of ideas. Finally, she had to call for help and she activated Master's message talisman.

"You slut! Calling for help? I'll kill you!" The ice fiend sensed the spiritual talisman being fired off. It became enraged as it went on the offensive for the first time.

---

Chen Wentian shot through the sky at almost his fastest speed, heading towards the direction of Wu Qianyu. The message talisman was created using his spiritual energy and could resonate with it within a hundred thousand miles. She wasn't too far away and he sensed she was still doing alright. The message talisman wasn't the only safeguard or else he didn't deserve to be a master.

After a while, he felt her energy and spirit wane, an indication of being wounded or becoming exhausted. He immediately channeled a secret art within his soul to provide assistance. This was perhaps the first time any of his disciples might get a glimpse into his true power. He laughed to himself and he imagined how they would react if they could know. However, it was too early and he couldn't even save himself if the secret was truly revealed.

He spotted an icy mountain range a few minutes later and quickly descended, catching the wild battle going on below. Wu Qianyu was dodging and blocking flying icicles as best as she could as the ice fiend put up a relentless siege. She was gradually losing ground as wayward shards of ice would rip apart her robe or leave cuts on her skin.

Chen Wentian immediately formed a bubble of his spiritual energy around Wu Qianyu, protecting her form further harm. Incoming icicles instantly vaporized against the wall of immortal flame.

"Kek, already here? Scarlet woman!" The ice fiend immediately retreated and flew back towards the mountain.

"Master!" Wu Qianyu gasped out.

"Got it!" Chen Wentian understood and immediately gave chase.

The ice fiend flew into an ice cave and Chen Wentian followed. In a split second, his blue flame crashed down on the ice fiend. It tried to resist but felt its body and soul quickly evaporating. "Immortal! We have no disputes! I beg you, let me go!"

Chen Wentian frowned. Something in this cave was interfering with his attack but it was still more than enough to destroy a demon at this level. It just took longer and allowed it to be mouthy. "Too bad, you tried to kill my disciple."

"Kek, that whore! In that case... I'll take you all with me!" The ice fiend finally yelled in frustration.

Boom! It ignited all of its spiritual energy as it self-destructed, sending icy yin energy flooding throughout the cave.

Chen Wentian watched as the energy coalesced into five streams before they shot into five ice statues. Wait a second! Chen Wentian realized too late that these were five people trapped by the ice fiend. Not good… He quickly wrapped his flame energy around the five to melt the ice as he could still sense a weak life force from them.

"Master!" Wu Qianyu also rushed into the cave as she saw her friends being thawed.

The women wore identical luminous white robes of a high-class cultivation sect. Each woman was extremely beautiful with a pure white complexion and exquisite features, like faeries that had descended to the mortal world. He hated to say it but they were even a bit more beautiful than his three disciples. It seemed they truly were not from a simple sect.

They were in very bad shape as the icy yin energy from the ice fiend ran rampant within their bodies. He tried to inject his own spiritual force to drive it away but it wasn't very effective.

"Tell me what happened." He asked Wu Qianyu.

"Master, these sisters are my friends. They helped me hunt some snow demons. They then said that they had discovered a supreme treasure deep in the mountains beneficial to their cultivation. We separated but I heard sounds of battle so I came to investigate. They were already trapped and I couldn't save them, so I called master." Wu Qianyu's head was down in shame. "I'm sorry master."

"Hey, hey! You did the right thing. I'm proud of you." Chen Wentian gave her a thumbs up to cheer her up.

The women weren't getting much better even with his spiritual energy so he became curious. He spread his senses to scan the ice cave and found something deeper into the cave that surprised even him, a huge slab of Frozen Netherworld Jade! It was an incredibly valuable and useful treasure for cultivating ice or yin based Dao. The size of the jade also meant it was at the Spirit Lord level.

Such a powerful ice fiend made sense because of this jade. It also explained his energy being suppressed. Frozen Netherworld Jade emitted extremely piercing and corrosive netherworld yin energy. It was a special type of yin energy that couldn't be easily suppressed by normal flames or yang energy. The ice fiend had sucked netherworld yin energy from the day it was born and now that energy was within the five women, destroying them from the inside.

"Why did the ice fiend capture these women?" He asked.

"Master, they cultivate some sort of ice Dao and the demon wanted to feed on them." Wu Qianyu said.

"Ah..." Chen Wentian suddenly thought of a sect. "Can't be them... can it?"

He knelt down next to one maiden and started rummaging in her clothes.

"Eep! Master!"

"I'm trying to save lives, go outside." He shooed her away.

He found something and withdrew what looked like a sect badge, "Shit! It is them... what to do..."

Chen Wentian continued to search her and finally found something similar to his message talisman. He studied it carefully but was disappointed. It was a much weaker version than his. It probably couldn't reach their sect master directly and would have to go through several other channels.

"Whatever, it's worth a shot." He muttered as he activated the emergency talisman.