While Hengsheng and Yunsu were celebrating Yunsu’s newly gained Divine Grade bloodline.
Suddenly, a cracking sound echoed within the chamber. The sound was similar to that of ice breaking.
Before Hengsheng could respond, he felt the atmosphere changing, instantly becoming colder, and then he became paralyzed. But not just him—Yunsu also stopped moving.
Their bodies couldn’t move—completely frozen as if they had been frozen in the moment, in time.
Hengsheng’s eyes locked onto Yunsu’s silly face. He couldn’t turn his neck; even his eyes couldn’t roll. From this angle, he could see into Yunsu’s eyes and could tell that she was in the same situation—frozen in time.
'What happened?' Hengsheng thought while keeping his mind calm, trying to find a clue in this limited perception.
He had faced situations like this before—during the training in the simulations. He knew very well that panic was the straight path to death.
'Meow?' Yunsu said to Hengsheng through their soul connection. She felt confused. Her eyes stared into her human’s stupid face—she wanted to roll them and look away, but couldn’t.
Hengsheng looked past Yunsu, focusing on what lay behind her. Other than Yunsu’s silly face, Hengsheng could see the chamber’s floor in the background behind Yunsu’s head. He noticed that the floor was now covered in a thin layer of ice, reflecting the lamp’s light into his eyes.
From what he saw, there were many unusual things, such as the appearance of the thin layer of ice, which she was sure the Snow Phoenix image that appeared above Yunsu’s head did not cause; it came out of nowhere.
Hengsheng ignores all other unusual things that are happening.
There was one thing much more unusual than the others—the reflection on the layer of ice—because the flame in the lamp was not flickering as it should have been.
Because of this, he knew for sure that not only he and Yunsu were frozen, but time itself was truly frozen—not just hypothetically.
Then he remembered that it wasn’t just him and Yunsu in the chamber—Xia Zhenzue was there as well.
'What about her?' Hengsheng thought. Without letting him wonder for long, the woman's voice rang.
"What an interesting fellow…" The voice echoed with two tones overlapping perfectly—one of them unmistakably belonged to Xia Zhenzue. Another voice belonged to a woman, full of elegance and profundity.
The voice sent a chill down his spine. He knew immediately that this couldn’t be Xia Zhenzue speaking, but that of an unknown expert who might have taken over her body.
Hengsheng thought that they were now encountering big trouble.
Under Hengsheng’s eyes, Zhenzue’s hands reached toward Yunsu, grabbed her, and took her away from Hengsheng’s arms.
'NO!!' Hengsheng’s mind screamed. At first, he thought he was the target—he didn’t expect the unknown expert to be reaching for Yunsu!
Hengsheng could not see Xia Zhenxue’s face from his angle; he could only see her torso and below. He saw a profound, mysterious aura emitting a blue light that enveloped her. With every movement she made, fragments of snow dipped from the blue aura.
“A Mortal Rank Spirit Beast with an innate trait containing a fraction of the Eternal Dao of Infinity and the Eternal Dao of Evolution?” The voice was filled with wonder.
“This little spirit beast’s potential is nearly on par with that of the Demon Ancestors,” the voice complimented while examining Yunsu, rolling her over and looking at her from every possible angle.
Yunsu’s heart bled. She could not move her body on her own, could not fight against the woman’s hand, and felt extremely humiliated as she was being inspected. This was the worst thing she had ever experienced.
One compliment after another followed, whether it was appearance or abilities, but these words didn’t make Hengsheng or Yunsu feel any better—only worse.
Hengsheng was afraid this expert might take Yunsu away from him because, from her tone, this expert seemed to like Yunsu very much—or worse, this expert might have an evil intention behind her sweet words, intending to use some mysterious method to steal Yunsu’s talent and kill her in the process.
Yunsu, on the other hand, already felt dead inside. The sense of privacy and value she had been taught by her human since birth had now been completely violated. She felt depressed and just wanted to sleep, hoping that when she woke up, everything happening now would only be a dream.
“Oh…” the voice exclaimed, as if surprised. The expert in Xia Zhenzue’s shell rolled Yunsu’s body, making their eyes meet.
This angle allowed Yunsu to see the expert’s appearance clearly. What Yunsu saw was Xia Zhenzue but unlike her usual lazy-looking facial expression. Xia Zhenzue’s expression was now elegant, just like her voice.
More than that, her eyes glowed a light blue, with the symbol of snowflakes within her pupils, and some blue glowing patterns resembling feather tattoos appeared on her face. Lastly, on her back, there was a shadow of icy wings.
Even though the face was the same as Xia Zhenzue's, Yunsu could tell immediately that they were not the same person.
“So it's because of this thing, huh? The one attached to your essence that lets you copy part of my record? What is this?” the voice murmured in curiosity.
The expert murmuring made Hengsheng scream inside his head.
'This is really bad!' Hengsheng screamed. The situation was worsening—getting worse and worse—Yunsu’s secret was already exposed! Completely naked!
It may now be his turn next, as this expert seemed to notice his system.
However, even in the darkness, there was still some light. Her murmurs offered him clues in this clueless situation, as they let him guess the expert’s strength.
Until now, the only one who seemed able to perceive his system was the Wu God—Lord of All Senses. This expert must be on the same level as him… or even stronger!
Her murmurs not only revealed how strong the expert was but also allowed Hengsheng to figure out who this expert was.
No mistake—she said his system copied part of her existence record, which meant she was the origin of the Divine Grade bloodline that Yunsu had just copied—The Snow Phoenix Progenitor!
The Snow Phoenix Progenitor carefully examined the thing. She found that it was perfectly blended into the spirit beast’s essence—its own essence similar to an artifact made with an unknown energy and law.
In her opinion, this thing was quite amazing, as it allowed low-tier beings like this spirit beast to manipulate the existence record.
Even though this thing appeared to be amazing, for someone in the same cultivation realm as her, it was useless; she did not value it enough for her to study—it was like a toy.
She examined it further, trying to see if she could recreate it, but after discovering that it required an understanding of an unknown law, she gave up on it and ignored it.
Her attention shifted back to the Spirit Beast. She wanted to bring her back to the Demon Sector, intending to groom her there, since she was not willing to let such a genius roam in the lower realm, which would waste her potential.
However, before she could speak to the spirit beast, she detected that the Spirit Beast bore a soul contract.
Her eyes flared red with hatred.
'Humans!'
How dare they enslave such a promising genius of our Demon Clans!?
With her soul bound, her future was shackled—she’d never reach her true potential.
The Snow Phoenix Progenitor made a decision: she would help this Spirit Beast break free!
She finally laid her eyes on the male human she had been ignoring for quite a while. Her gaze passed through him, confirming that this man was the one who had formed a contract with the Spirit Beast.
“The System Maker, Heavenly Craftsman of the Heavenly Court?” Once again, the Snow Phoenix Ancestor exclaimed in surprise.
She did not expect that this mortal-rank cultivator was part of the Heavenly Court—what’s more, he even had an exclusive title from the Heavenly Dao.
Her face darkened with disappointment.
She was not willing to touch him—killing a member of the Heavenly Court would bring her some trouble. But even that paled in comparison to interfering with the Heavenly Dao’s plans. She had witnessed the consequences firsthand, many times.
The Snow Phoenix Progenitor was quite disappointed that she couldn’t kill him as punishment. But in nullifying the soul contract, she didn’t need to kill him in the first place.
To nullify a soul contract, she only needed to use her technique—especially against a contract formed in the lower realm with such crude methods. It was even easier to nullify than one formed with the Immortal Realm's techniques.
The Snow Phoenix Progenitor peeked into the soul contract between the two to see what the evil human had imposed on the genius of the Demon Clan.
“Oh, it seems like I misunderstood…” the Snow Phoenix Progenitor murmured. She saw the content of the contract and finally realized it wasn’t a slave contract, but a companion contract.
The Snow Phoenix Progenitor's gaze shifted between the two of them. She was almost reminded of herself and her own companion. It was rare for her to meet those whose story mirrored hers and her husband’s.
The relationship between a Demon and a Human.
Her thoughts wandered back to the past, to when she had met her husband—when she was just a weak, disabled phoenix who was unable to utilize the phoenix flame.
She placed the Spirit Beast back into the human’s arms and flicked her hand.
A cracking sound echoed, returning the flow of time in this realm to what it was before she had descended.
"…" the Snow Phoenix Progenitor whispered, and with that, her will departed from the lower realm.
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