In the middle of the night,
Ren Ye sat cross-legged and cast his calm eyes onto a petite little girl lying adorably on the soft futon, snoring softly in her sleep. He had been trying to coax her to sleep and finally succeeded; using the power of story-telling to convince her to sleep.
'Maybe Wu Qi was right, raising a kid is hard…"
He didn't move and continued to sit, watching the little girl mumble in her sleep, with a frown before coughing inwardly, 'Old Yi!'
Upon hearing his name called, another figure emerged from Ren Ye's physical body and casually sat on the floor, dressed in black and white ancient robes; completely different from his usual casual suit.
"What is the special occasion?" Ren Ye was slightly taken aback.
Old Yi's face was slowly plastered with a peaceful smile, "It is a special occasion to see my disciple advancing, it is appropriate for a master to dress up for this special occasion."
"…"
"You look surprised? Didn't you call for me?"
"I did but I didn't expect you to dress up this way…"
The clothes resembled the outfits from his past life, pushing Ren Ye to have a bit of faith that Old Yi may have come from the same universe as him. But he had dismissed them as cultivation didn't exist in his world and Old Yi was a cultivator.
"I'd say it is best you quickly fill up the tub with ice and sprinkle lots of salt on it, I am not sure how long you would have to stay inside that tub for," Old Yi muttered quietly with an unreadable expression, "The information the system gives out is likely minimum time period for you to get accustomed to being in an ice tub."
"The main and real task is to see how you would fare in there."
Ren Ye nodded his head and gradually got up, to retrieve the bags of ice he had gotten and went inside the bathroom. He turned on the light in the bathroom and casually laid out the ice in the bath.
Old Yi observed him as he poured out the ice and coughed lightly, "Fill it to the brim and turn on the water tab."
Ren Ye finished pouring them in and turned on the tab, making sure the water didn't overfill the tub. Old Yi stood by the side and lifted his arms, indicating to stop the water, and grabbed the bags of salt; pouring all of them inside the tub.
He extended his rough arms and casually mixed them in along with the ice and water inside the tub, he muttered under his breath with satisfaction, "Perfect!"
He turned to Ren Ye with a nod of his head, "You should go inside right now."
Ren Ye didn't rush and gave Old Yi a complex glance, "Any preparation I must make?"
It is always a good idea to make preparation during times of unknown crisis, Ren Ye had asked him so he could prepare himself in case of a mental attack from the ice.
"There may be a test but I cannot determine what it is," Old Yi frowned slightly and spoke with his rough voice, "I can tell you when I was advancing to Corporeal Phase in the past, I was tasked with having to see certain things in my dream."
"I am not sure what yours will be because I have talked with many cultivators and all of them had different reactions…"
"If that is the case, I recall you talking about something relating to," Ren Ye didn't have any expression on his face as he spoke with a fluctuated tone, "Entering the sea of consciousness during a crisis."
"Surely enough, you don't want your disciple to suddenly die from advancing."
Old Yi let out a chuckle, "You won't die and yes, you're right. I can enter your consciousness in cases like losing control of your energy."
"But it is not a very good thing to depend on another for your own growth, isn't it?"
Ren Ye gave him a half-smile, "Indeed, you are right. Although I may have to hand over my daughter for protection if I die…"
Ren Ye finally shut up and glanced toward the tub, he grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and lifted them upwards; showcasing a toned and leaned body. Ren Ye's body was extremely well-built and toned from doing heavy tasks at his workplace.
On his abdomen were six rounded chiseled muscles, coupled with the paleness and leanness of his usual covered body; he looked rather youthful and full of vigor. He tossed the t-shirt aside and took off his trousers, showing off his sturdy legs, and kicked them away to the side.
Ren Ye didn't nudge at Old Yi's expression because he was rather confident in his figure and casually plopped himself into the tub, letting out a shriveled exhale and trembling slightly.
"Cold…"
Old Yi let out a chuckle and casually sat down on the bathroom floor, caressing his beard with a pleasant smile. At this moment, he resembled a wicked martial master who had put his disciple through hell just so he could watch him suffer.
As for Ren Ye, he felt he had been tossed to the North Pole without any clothes on. He bit his lips and took a sharp intake of air inside his lungs.
"Relax…"
"Relax? How can I relax?" Ren Ye let out a grunt and hugged his legs together, trying to keep his body from losing its sense of touch.
"Think of it as a normal bath and discard distracting thoughts…"
Ren Ye grabbed the side of the tub tightly and shivered intensely, "I didn't expect it to be this cold, I had been through many harsh winters but not this cold."
"Haha! That is because I poured in a tiny portion of Ice Entrancing Potion."
Ice Entrancing Potion was an Ice elemental potion, often used to gather ice energy and help the cultivator recover quickly from an energy blackout. It is extremely beneficial for Ice cultivators as they often carried them around.
One drop of it could cause an entire room to have its temperature lowered by 20%.
"!!!"
"You should have asked me for my advice before this."
Ren Ye didn't like it when someone makes a decision on his behalf, he felt helpless in his current situation but angry at Old Yi; he cursed him inwardly and leaned his tensed body backward.
Slowly submerging himself into the ice tub and only letting his upper face be visible to Old Yi's eyes, he forcibly closed his eyes and let out a bubble of air onto the surface.
"Relax…"
He ignored Old Yi's word and slowly focused his attention on trying to get his body to be accustomed to the iciness of the tub. In his tense state, he couldn't help but think.
'As an Ice cultivator, it is inevitable for me to face harsh coldness in the far future; The condition may get even worse, colder than this ice tub…By having this chance, I should try my best to withstand the temperature.'
As though he had been enlightened, Ren Ye felt his head had lightened by a significant amount and his body gradually got used to the low temperature. The shivering had stopped all of a sudden and he let out a long exhale.
Every once in a while, Ren Ye slightly shook but quickly recovered.
Beside him, Old Yi sat cross-legged and closed his eyes with his hands making weird symbols and slowly mumbling words that Ren Ye wasn't able to hear clearly.
He had been able to catch a few words from him, those words sound foreign and novel to him.
"Crishcresent Lamosi…"
'What…'
In his drowsy state, he couldn't help but become increasingly confused; he didn't speak so as to not break his current peaceful state. Instead, Ren Ye chose to ignore him and emerged his body completely into the water.
He felt his entire body becoming light and his head numbed, his body began to go extremely pale; causing him to become purple. Despite this, he retained his breathing pace and peaceful state.
As cultivation goes, one should completely abandon worldly desires to find Nirvana.
At this moment, Ren Ye took Old Yi's advice and abandoned his worldly touch; integrating himself into the icy bath as if to become one with it.
His eyelashes began to flutter before calming down completely. He lost sense of feeling as his mind began to enter a languid state; causing him to become sleepy.
Ren Ye didn't fight against sleep and slowly fell into a slumber.
Before he had fallen asleep, he had heard someone call out to him.
-
In a wooden cottage surrounded by large trees and covered vines, the sunlight had shone from above and through the gaps of the poorly-made walls of the ceiling.
On the wooden table, different fresh plants and herbs were scattered on the dirtied surface. In the middle was a medium-sized cauldron, emitting the smell of earth and dirt.
It looked as if the place was an experiment ground for plants.
A slightly frail figure dressed in gray robes stood in front of it, it was none other than the Night Killer.
in his hand held a sharp silver dagger with a black handle as he chopped purple-ish budding flowers into pieces with quick hands.
The man's refined face was covered in sweat as his sword eyebrows furrowed slightly in his focused state. He suddenly covered his face with his elbow and let out a cough after chopping Purplegrass Flowers into thin pieces.
Purplegrass Flower was a common sight to find in the region and had grown invasively, it was also toxic to human noises.
He poured the pieces into the cauldron and grabbed a black refined rock from the side, and started mashing it. Before long, he was met by knocks on his door.
Knock! Knock!
"Come in."
He spoke coldly and continued mashing the plant inside the cauldron.
Creak!
A man with a lean figure emerged from the door and made his way to his side, his face was plastered with a frown and stern eyes. The man had unusual piercing blue eyes, completely different from the natives here.
"Ren Ye, snap out of your delusional state! Are you f*cking serious with me?"
The man let out a stern and cold voice laced with hidden anger, he forcibly grabbed Ren Ye's shoulder and pushed him against the chair. Ren Ye didn't lose his temper as he dropped the rock in his hand.
He didn't speak and crouched himself to retrieve the fallen rock, intending to continue what he was doing. The man didn't allow this to continue and trapped Ren Ye in a helpless position.
"Don't f*cking tell me you forgot what we were supposed to do when we came here!"
The man shouted at him in anger as he glared viciously and strangled Ren Ye with his hands wrapped around his neck. Ren Ye pushed his hands off and maintained his glare with an indifferent gaze.
"Let go."
"Did that witch bewitch you? Are you that mentally-retarded? Have you forgotten what we had gone through in the past?"
The man complained continuously, his blue eyes became frantic and were filled with hatred.
Ren Ye pursed his lips and lowered his head with regret, "I have truly fallen into a trap…"
"I am afraid I cannot go back…"
"What about our parents? Are you going to lower yourself this much for her? For her alone!"
"Don't worry, I don't forget about the past but give me some time to think it through," Ren Ye mumbled silently and turned his back to the man with his head lowered.
"Time? We have been here for seven years!"
Ren Ye pursed his lips and didn't respond, truly accepting he was the reason why their plans and hard-working efforts had failed.
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