Zheng Shengmo looked at the petite and frail woman in front of him with a face of suspicion, narrowing his eyes:

"Nephew Ruo, what are you talking about? I don’t understand."

Ruo Mei gestured with her delicate hand, and Lin Qingchou’s body floated up, gliding over the spring water and landing beside her. A piece of clothing then drifted down, covering Lin Qingchou.

Lin Qingchou was still in a state of collapse, her body trembling, muttering incoherently.

Ruo Mei looked coldly at Zheng Shengmo: "Elder Zheng, you just forced yourself on a junior disciple, I witnessed it with my own eyes, do you still want to deny it?"

Zheng Shengmo was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed heartily: "Nephew Ruo, there might be some misunderstanding between us. Come over, and I’ll slowly explain it to you."

"Zheng Shengmo, do you think I came to find you just because of those Zhenyang Sect disciples?"

Ruo Mei’s eyes held ridicule as she spoke calmly:

"The life and death of these people have nothing to do with me. I came to kill you simply because I want to destroy the Three Great Sects, and you happen to be the weakest one."

"You want to annihilate the Three Great Sects?" Zheng Shengmo stared at Ruo Mei: "Who... are you exactly?"

Ruo Mei did not answer, raising her hand to draw an Isolation Array, separating this mountain forest from the outside world.

Zheng Shengmo sneered: "Even if you’ve calculated everything, causing my cultivation to plummet, I am still a Nascent Soul. Can you really kill me?"

Indeed, Spiritual Energy surged around Ruo Mei, rising all the way to the Seventh-Layer of the Golden Core, but could ascend no further.

Zheng Shengmo laughed heartily: "The Seventh-Layer of the Golden Core wants to kill me? Nephew Ruo, are you mad?"

Suddenly, the surrounding air became half scorching and half icy.

Zheng Shengmo’s expression changed!

This aura was too familiar to him, often waking him from nightmares. Suddenly, even Zheng Shengmo’s voice began to tremble:

"You, could it be you are..."

In his horrified gaze, Ruo Mei’s petite figure slowly grew taller, becoming tall and slender, and her long, black hair turned half fiery red, half snow white.

The small oval face transformed into a beautiful egg-shaped face, a countenance that should have been dignified and elegant, but was now menacingly fierce.

The murderous intent in those cold, beautiful eyes was like a glacier thousands of years old, and also like the wrath of a scorching sun.

This appearance, this figure, this cultivation technique of ice and fire was exactly the same as in Zheng Shengmo’s nightmares. He retreated two steps, his face full of shock and disbelief:

"Xia Qinglian?! How is it possible, weren’t you dead?!"

Xia Qinglian took a gentle step forward, stepping on the spring water. The flowing water stopped instantly, half turning into frost, half into steam. This scene was extremely eerie but exceedingly familiar to Zheng Shengmo.

Back during the battle at Celestial Ridge Mountain, he had always stayed in the back, only exchanging a single move with Xia Qinglian, but it almost became his Heart Demon.

If others had not occupied Xia Qinglian, he would have been easily killed by this terrifying witch.

He personally watched Xia Qinglian’s body explode and perish at the time, only then did he avoid sowing a Heart Demon.

Even so, he often recalled the scene of facing her in battle in the dark of night.

The helpless feeling of one’s life being held in someone else’s hands was terrifying!

The world regarded Xia Qinglian, Ye Xiyue, and Su Hongling as the Three Great Immortals of their time, but Zheng Shengmo knew Xia Qinglian’s cultivation had long surpassed Ye Xiyue and Su Hongling.

If not for her timely demise, there would have been endless trouble.

Yet, this person who should have been dead now appeared before him!

As Xia Qinglian gradually approached him step by step, Zheng Shengmo was terrified to the core, continuously retreating.

The opponent clearly had only the Seventh-Layer of the Golden Core cultivation, yet Zheng Shengmo had a strong feeling that if he fought her...

He would immediately die!

Experienced cultivators all knew that cultivation and combat power mustn’t be confused.

And Xia Qinglian, her talent for cultivation was the greatest in five centuries, her skill in killing unrivaled in millennia.

Even if she were at the First-Layer of the Golden Core, Zheng Shengmo dared not fight her.

"Don’t come over here!"

Zheng Shengmo shouted, and from his Storage Bag flew dozens of Magical Artifacts toward Xia Qinglian, illuminating the sky like fireworks.

Zheng Shengmo took the opportunity to dart to the other side of the spring, grabbing Lin Qingchou from the ground and using her as a shield in front of him.

By then, those dozens of Magical Artifacts had been reduced to ashes by flames. Xia Qinglian turned to look at him, and Zheng Shengmo hid behind Lin Qingchou, shouting loudly:

"Xia Qinglian, don’t come any closer, or I’ll kill her!"

Xia Qinglian’s long hair danced, surrounded by Red Flame and Frost. With each step, the air around her twisted and collapsed under the extreme tension of ice and fire.

It was as if she shattered space itself, making one shiver involuntarily.

Her red lips parted slightly, devoid of any human emotion:

"You’re threatening me with a Zhenyang Sect disciple?"

Zheng Shengmo suddenly felt his body half freezing and the other half seemingly burning.

In fear, he screamed: "No, don’t kill me! I don’t want to die!"

Zheng Shengmo’s Spiritual Energy of the Nascent Soul Realm erupted violently. In an instant, the entire mountain forest shook, as if the earth and sky were being upheaved.

Yet, the space around him continued to collapse and twist in the grip of ice and fire, his body still half freezing, half burning.

"No! Xia Qinglian, I didn’t kill your master, it was the Sect Leader, and Wei Shouyuan, Shi Shuhong, and Leng Jing, and Tantai Mingyue! I can help you kill them, please spare my life!"

Zheng Shengmo shrieked in agony, gripping two radiant Immortal Swords, slashing furiously, unleashing powerful Sword Qi!

The surrounding forest was flattened, and the mountain wall collapsed. In moments, the entire small mountain was leveled.

However, the eerie Red Flame and Frost still coiled around his body like a clingy leech, impossible to remove.

Slowly, from the surface being burned and frozen, the flames and frost invaded his body, scorching meridians, freezing Spirit Field.

The twisted and collapsed space around him gradually enveloped Zheng Shengmo.

At this moment, half of Zheng Shengmo’s body was incinerated to ash, the other half frozen into ice.

Half black ash, half pure white.

Grotesque, terrifying, unavoidable.

This was the true Li Fire Profound Ice.

This was the Demon Sect Saintess, Xia Qinglian.

"Witch, witch..."

At the last moment, in the half of Zheng Shengmo’s remaining head, his eyeballs turned with difficulty, looking at the woman not far away.

She was serenely dignified, incomparably beautiful, yet emotionless, controlling life and death.

Indeed, she was the most terrifying person in the world.

I was wrong, I was wrong, I should never have gone to Celestial Ridge Mountain, never provoked this woman!

I should have hidden at Forgetful Peak, rather than go with them to death.

No, the Zhenyang Sect should never have provoked the Cyan Lotus Sect!

All of you will be killed by her!

Ah, ah! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die, don’t want...

Crack.

The half of the body frozen into ice shattered, turning into specks of ice crystals, drifting away with the wind.

Xia Qinglian extended her hand, a few ice crystals falling onto her jade-like palm, her face expressionless, she spoke lightly:

"The first one."

Xia Qinglian walked to Lin Qingchou’s side. Lin Qingchou, out of her mind, hugged herself, her gaze scattered, mumbling:

"I’m not clean anymore, Senior Brother Chun won’t want me, won’t want me."

Xia Qinglian squatted down, reached out with a finger to gently lift her chin:

"Do you know why you ended up like this?"

Lin Qingchou shook her head foolishly, her face confused, Xia Qinglian chuckled lightly;

"Because you are too weak. If you become strong, become an Elder, you will naturally have what you want."

"Become strong? Become an Elder?"

Lin Qingchou’s scattered gaze gradually focused, looking at Xia Qinglian:

"What should I do?"

Xia Qinglian stood up, coldly looking down at her: "As long as you listen to me, I can help you."

Lin Qingchou gazed up at her in a daze. After a long time, she knelt with trembling, resolute voice:

"Saintess above, I will follow your orders to my death!"